Re: Barbara Bush: It's Good Enough for the Poor
Are the poor homeless people now living in the Astrodome where the lights never go off better off than they were living in the Superdome or NO Convention Center where the lights never went on? Are they better off getting cots, a place to sleep, food, water, clothes, etc. supplied by Houstonians or were they be better off starving and being raped by gangs in lawless NO?
Many of these poor people will never return to NO. That is a fact. That they can find and build a new life in Houston is more to the good. In all likelihood, the poverty stricken lives they will ultimately lead in Houston and other places of refuge will be better than the poverty stricken lives they led in NO. Some will even escape poverty because of better opportunities they have available outside of NOs.
During the height of the Reagan Recession, Ronnie counseled unemployed and poor people to vote with their feet. In other words, leave pockets of high unemployment and declining opportunities and move to where opportunities were greater. As one of the poor at the time, I thought this was callous and indifferent when I first heard it. But, I loaded my beat up old junker with all the belongings I had in the world and took the first opportunity I could to leave the festering hellhole I lived in. And you know what???? Ronnie was right. I voted with my feet and am ever so grateful that I did.
I won't go so far as to call the unfortunates from NO "lucky." But, for many of them, this terrible disaster has provided them the means to leave NO and the opportunity to make better lives for themselves. My guess is that many of them will look back on these events in ten years and say that God truly does work in mysterious ways. And for all of them, they will always be able to look back and remember how much of themselves other Americans gave to them in their times of most need. Never mind the President. Never mind the mayor. I'm talking about other average Americans who don't know these people from a man in the moon who are giving them money, clothes, time, homes, assistance et al.
So maybe Barbara Bush isn't very eloquent. Why should she be different from any other Bush in this regard? But anybody who knows Barbara Bush beyond hearing a soundbite or two, knows her to be a kind and gracious lady. There is probably a good bit of truth in what she meant even if she couldn't express it very well.