Anger rises among Mississippi's poor after Katrina

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Paul Simao
1 hour, 2 minutes ago



BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) - For about a decade this gambling town on Mississippi's Gulf Coast has been the place to be in the state if you were poor, down on your luck and looking for work.

That changed on Monday when Hurricane Katrina came ashore, leveling hundreds if not thousands of houses, stores and commercial buildings and killing scores of residents.

The legalization of gambling in Biloxi created an economic boom in the early 1990s and the city developed a reputation as a place where a person could get a decent-paying job in the casino or hospitality business.

But not everyone prospered. In the devastated streets and atop the rubble piles where their homes stood before Katrina blew through, a bitter refrain is increasingly heard. Poor and low-income residents complain that they have borne the brunt of the hurricane's wrath.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050901/ts_nm/bt_weather_katrina_poverty_dc

[Erika]

1. The New Orleans poor also didn't have the $ to evacuate

so they tried to ride it out. There are many accounts of the poor and working poor trying to borrow money to evacuate. When they couldn't, they stayed.

[Child_Of_Isis]

16. Those who stayed in NO

stayed because they wanted to. I read it right here at DU.

[Tinoire]

19. The insensitivity of under-the-radar freeps is just amazing isn't it? n/t

[Gman]

2. Revolutions almost always start with the poor

who have nothing else to lose. That's what we're seeing the beginnings of in MS, AL and LA. The middle class comes along later if the revolution succeeds often as an afterthouoght and with an attitude of "we were with you all along".

[FloridaPat]

3. The American Revolution started with the upper & middle class.

The Russian Revolution started with the middle class and soldiers.

[Gman]

6. The American revolution was largely about taxes

among other things. The upper and middle classes aare concerned with the portion of their taxes paid. The poor have nothing and therefore nothing to lose. Of course, revolutions among the poor are often easily put down. They are shot by the military governments like dogs.

[tom_paine]

9. And Imperial Amerika, as it is now, would gleefully shoot like dogs

any poor people who wish to rebel.

We are one mean country now. A Nation of Torturers, if you will.

[havocmom]

12. tom, me lad! So happy to see you dropped by

LOL Must've picked up my signal. You shall soon have mail

[tom_paine]

13. Kool. Yeah, I been around lately.

Much to the detriment of my blood pressure and sense of well-being.

Sometimes I wish I could just be a Dronehead like so many others. Sometimes I wish I didn't care. I would certainly be happier and might even have a few more hairs on my head than I normally would (to think it would be a FULL head of hair, well that's just too much uphill battle against genetics).

But no, I have always cared, and I had no idea how deeply I loved the idea and ideals of Free America...until the Busheviks threatened it with destruction.

[malaise]

17. The rest of America and the world

are watching how these poor black and white people have been treated. Bush will not escape the wrath of these people and given the domino effect of gas prices on all other costs, euphemistically I suspect it will certainly be the winter of discontent.

[pop goes the weasel]

8. not so

the port cities had become overcrowded with displaced war refugees (from the French and Indian War). They were already desperate when the taxes began to be levied. It was they who began impromptu rioting. Lucky for them, their interests partly coincided with the home-grown middle class's interests. Thus you had people like lawyer James Otis making a point of establishing common cause with those who earned a living "by the sweat of our brows." The poor already felt put upon, and had rebelled many times against landowners and gentry in a disorganized fashion. The middle class and economically vulnerable gentry provided the organization that led to a successful revolution.

[NorthernSpy]

11. where do you get "upper and middle class"...

... out of Crispus Attucks et al?

[aquart]

14. That isn't true.

Revolutions usually start with people who have felt an increase of rights, and see no good reason not to have more.

[AnnieBW]

4. Hey, They Voted for *

Mississippi went for * by how many percentage points? Where's that Red/blue county map?

[mitchtv]

5. you are so right, BUT

it is many great people who are being hurt, too Many, many, dems; NO is a blue spot in a red state and beloved by many of us.The only place in the slave states I would visit. Now ,maybe they will notice that Bush cut funding for flood control and engineering projects to pay for IRAQ. Too bad the NG is away to war, with their equipment. That $6B missing in Iraq, would come in handy about now .

[QC]

7. You know how all those storm victims voted?

Too bad the Psychic Friends Network shut down years ago--you could have been a sensation there!

[Ravenseye]

20. I wonder what the voting turnout was like with the people complaining

I'm just saying...voting turnout is a serious problem among the poor in the south. I doubt many of them voted at all.

[NorthernSpy]

10. maybe next time, they won't leave the poor behind to drown

Lifelong law-abider though I am, I still can't quite stomach these people who had no qualms whatsoever about simply abandoning the poor and desperate to their Day of Destruction -- and who are now all outraged that some of those they left behind have failed to show an adequate amount of respect for the sanctity of Property.

:eyes:

[ninkasi]

15. Amen to that!

My husband and I watched t.v. today, and were stunned at the level of misery apparent in the ones who are waiting to be rescued. Some waited all day on a bridge, unsure of where to go for help. Little children, old people, all of them, no water, brutal sun, the humidity, the stench of the polluted water, they all waited. Nobody could tell them where to go for help, or when it would arrive.

The well-to-do, the ones who were able to leave, and who are now worrying about their homes being looted, should put themselves into the poor people's shoes for awhile, and see if their veneer of civilization remains intact when they are becoming dehydrated, and suffering from the same misery. I do not condone stealing.

However, I find myself better able to find some measure of compassion for the victims of this disaster when they steal, many times for food, than I do, for example, for the real thieves like Ken Lay. Which is the greater crime, stealing food and water or stealing billions and ruining people's lives? As I said, stealing is wrong. So is a country which leaves it's own citizens to suffer, while the supposed leader eats cake.

[LeftHander]

18. Sea front casio barges destroyed homes...

They blew in and wrecked homes that may not have been wrecked.

I hate gambling.

It ruined SOuth Dakota.

[UrbScotty]

21. No wonder - our "compassionate" president ignores Christ's teachings

"Inasmuch as you did it to the least of my people, so also you did it to me." -Matthew 25:40