Dallas columnist: Grateful or not, these people need our help.

[crispini]

I've seen that email that the columnist references -- the one that talks about the "ungrateful evacuees" -- posted here on DU several times in the last few days, with people asking for it to be debunked. This column was in my paper today and I think it is the best possible debunking of that email, so I'm posting it.

Jacquielynn Floyd:
Grateful or not, these people need our help

08:36 AM CDT on Saturday, September 17, 2005

There's a particularly unpleasant essay being passed around on the Internet, a purported eyewitness account of disgraceful behavior by hurricane evacuees.

The unnamed writer claims to have volunteered to help out at the Houston convention center where New Orleans evacuees were being sheltered last week.

In heated terms, he describes most of the people he served as boorish ingrates who found fault with the food, the accommodations and the services offered.

(snip)

It makes me wonder whether some people are missing the point of donating money or volunteering their time – and I say this in the full knowledge that we in the media are as guilty as anybody else of dwelling on ersatz Hallmark moments of selfless generosity and tearful gratitude.

more...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/all/stories/DN-floyd_17met.ART.North.Edition2.23089c52.html

It's good, well worth the read.

[asjr]

1. I received that E-mail from a fundie friend. It is

purportedly written by a medical doctor who is "donating" his time to help. I do not know if it is the one referred to but it is, by my estimate, racist, hateful and shows this person to be one who should go crawl in a hole and cover himself up. I was terribly offended by it and told the mailer so.