Post-Katrina housing: the equivalent of giving Native Americans blankets saturated with smallpox

[kpete]

Post-Katrina housing: the equivalent of giving Native Americans blankets saturated with smallpox
by: blksista
Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 17:00:00 PM PDT

This is the equivalent: those FEMA trailers laden with formaldehyde, in which thousands must live. Thousands trying to renew their lives, looking for opportunity and a turn in their shattered fortunes that would allow them to move out of these temporary, unstable shelters for good. It always seems, however, that they are waiting, for Godot:

And one of the witnesses--a white mother--said that she didn't believe that FEMA really meant to send her and her family a formaldehyde-suffused trailer. Well, who the hell did they really mean to send it to? In the past, something like this would be sent to people like the Negroes and the Indians, while the white people got the good, chemically-treated stuff. Get a clue, lady: we're ALL the Negroes and Indians (and by extension, the Chinese and the Mexicans) now. Especially if you are from Mississippi--Trent Lott's Mississippi--this is your government--the government that you voted in--in action.

It is just not your fault that you're alive, sister. Anyone who would insist on sending these slow death traps to Iraq or selling them even to Native Americans in this day and age as appropriate living or working space for American citizens of any color or culture are trying to kill and maim you and your family. The use of formaldehyde-laden temporary housing to sicken, kill and drive people away is much like how smallpox was used as a weapon of deadly biological warfare during the French and Indian War (1754-1757) in this country.

In effect, they want to make Katrina go away by making YOU go away.
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=4349E010CF4F0131EF1CE7B4E616A2C0?diaryId=17963

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. This is so sick

Those bastards.

[BlooInBloo]

2. And America cares equally little about it.

[I Have A Dream]

3. K&R. n/t

[porphyrian]

4. Do people not have enough horror in their lives? - n/t

[Anita Garcia]

5. Louisianian kicking you to the greatest page

If only I could kick some others to do more!
Thanks for posting this.
If you're not sick yet, you should be.
What this Administration has allowed and is continuing to allow to happen to the survivors of Katrina and Rita is sick, sick, sick.
Still no housing .
Still no insurance relief .
Still no insurance coverage .

[Catherine Vincent]

6. My family and I drove to Louisiana last weekend for a family reunion.

A couple of times we saw Fema trailers next to Interstate 10. One group of them were near Jennings, Louisiana. I forget where the other one was. I guess that is the only place for some of the people to live. Too poor to live or travel anywhere else.

[rudy23]

10. Many of these trailers are sitting in front of middle & upper class homes while they rebuild

They're living in them, while they try and get their house clean, safe, and rebuilt.

If Repukes and other Americans knew how many middle class folks just like themselves were living in these trailers, being treated this way by their own government, their heads would explode.

[MadMaddie]

7. This is a perfect comparison....it is right on.

The fact that the government stopped investigations because they didn't want to be held accountable is criminal..

[KT2000]

8. The sad truth is

that people injured by chemicals are shit out of luck no matter what. The courts have been manipulated so much that most cases never even see the light of day.
Toads from the Manhattan Institute were instrumental in getting "science standards" that are so controlled that the serious injuries are never even validated much less compensated.
Industries have been taking judges on junkets for years - deriding the injured as "malingerers" or "psycho cases."
Some of these people will have their lives ruined and the way they will get through the rest of is is on Social Security Disability - after three appeals (Years). It is called cost shifting.

Why should government and industry spend money to protect the health of people? It is cheaper to kill them off - and that is exactly what they are doing.

[snappyturtle]

9. It's all part of the plan....have you ever noticed we (U.S.) never

seem to go out of our way to help poor people worldwide?....Famines,earthquakes,flooding....there are those survivors to deal with! I know we help....but not like we should....if we don't take care of our own you know we don't do THAT much worldwide. The one exemption was the tsunami...but then most of the victims were dead. I know that sounds cold but I think it's true. (I am not talking private citizen aid groups or individuals or to some extent non-profit groups....they do a lot.)Depopulation is a goal of those in power. However, we do sell arms. Flame away if you wish.

[KamaAina]

11. "They now admit that they're trying to kill us, and have been for a while."

http://ashleymorris.typepad.com/ashley_morris_the_blog/2007/07/reparations-dam.html

Henry Waxman: Another FEMA official wrote, the office of general counsel has advised ‘We do not do testing, because it would imply FEMA’s ownership of this issue.’ Early in the process, due to the perseverance of a pregnant mother with a four month old child, FEMA did test one occupied trailer. The results showed that their trailer had formaldehyde levels 75 times higher than the maximum workplace exposure levels recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The mother evacuated the trailer. FEMA then stopped testing other trailers."

More Waxman: "The levels that they were seeing were too high for human health. Now there may be other problems, but you don’t think even at this date that the formaldehyde levels were too high and might have endangered public health? Is that your testimony?"

:grr: :banghead: :nuke:

[sendero]

12. No it's not..

... and your over the top rhetoric just cheapens every REAL affront this administration is responsible for.

Every new manufactured home has this problem including the one I bought a few years back. You air the damn thing out from time to time and it is not that big of a deal.

My god, comparing this to smallpox, GET A FUCKING GRIP.

[Anita Garcia]

13. You are not here are you?

Yes, it is more than just the trailers that make us sick.
But, please, why attack someone for pointing out another problem post-Katrina/Rita?
I'm happy that you were able to buy a manufactured home.
I hope it was not in response to a major disaster in your life.

Most of us here had no electricity for at least 3 months.
Some of us here still have no safe water to drink.

While we were trying to deal and get a grip, the power elite were making deals to supply us with trailers with lots of problems, only one of which had to do with making us sick.

And, let's not forget the Not-in-my-back-yard ordinances that were passed to keep us from living in those trailers that you say just needed to be aired out.

For most, the last thing people were thinking about when putting their family into these sickening trailers was to log onto DU to ask what to do about "the smell" or search the internet at libraries with electricty to determine what to do about "the smell".

We are trying to hold "them" accountable.
Your support is what is needed, not attacks for pointing out just one problem with the power elite's failed response to Katrina/Rita.