Am I an asshole? Tell me true. I was talking to someone reading the local newspaper yesterday about 500 hundred Katrina survivors getting transferred to Portland. They will be set up in free housing, outfitted by Nike and other companies, supplied with computers with internet and televisions with cable. Also job training and placement will be provided for them. That, in itself, sounds like a good way for the government and organizations to care for it's people. However, as someone who has been struggling to just survive financially and not even found permanent employment, I see that the survivors are being set up in better living situtations than myself and many others who would never qualify for aid. This town has recently gone through a really bad period of job availability. There is no giving the already existing homeless people of this town that same kind of attention. I understand that what the survivors have gone through is more traumatic than I could ever imagine, and what they may have lost, such as loved ones, can never be replaced. Am I an asshole for thinking that my own scratchings at survival are now in competition with 500+ job seekers? Possibly there will be no noticeable change in job availability.

you aren't an asshole. i empathize with your jobless plight, and moneyless existance. but it's my personal belief that even if we have nothing, we can still give. ie: i have no money, but i've given blood twice since katrina. even woozy, i give what i can. you may have nothing, but you still need to give. "It" (god, buddha, The Source, etc) has decided that you should should give up a stake in finding a job. that has been your contribution. and if that evacuee who gets the job you were hoping for could express it to you, he/she would. i, for one, appreciate it. = ) thanks! and you will be in their place day (in dire need) and someone who has nothing will give to you.

Thanks a lovely response, Mohawk Sorry if my original post sounded like I was implying that Young and Jaded was/is an asshole. I certainly didnt mean that :)

I hadn't thought about it that way Thanks, Mo. You are a voice of reason. I've been wishing I did have funds to send to aid groups, but I don't, so I guess that trading a bit of stability is equivalent. I should probably check into local blood drives, too.

the survivors should not have it any better

no compensation for the screwed, eh? it's not like former slaves and japanese-americans who were thrown in internment camps during WWII got anything for it. oh, wait...

Nice to see you here, Barbara! Are you going to dump the President's dad and come out?

I don't know about your ass rating, but I do know that people are chipping in. Tomorrow I have x truck loads of items to transport to Red Cross. Donated this time by our Slavic congregation. They have donated literally tons of stuff, compared to American congregation's x/x ton of stuff. There is a message in this. I don't know what it is.

that once shit happens to you, you never forget what it feels like. i think in the US we understand certain things very well, but others will always remain foreign and impossible to relate to: lack of food, water, shelter. the basic stuff. because here we can take all of them for granted, i don't think most americans can truly imagine that they might find themselves in a situation where they could starve or die of thirst. because there's always "someone" who takes care of all this stuff, right? (and i think that's a great feeling to have, btw.) only sometimes shit happens and nobody does anything to help, because everybody thinks that "someone" else will take care of it. my x cents.

yes, +x to you. Our Russian friends have been tru much also. Hard for our sheltered selves to relate.

right. however, i don't think there's anything wrong with that. i don't think everyone should suffer just so they can understand someone else's pain. as great as it is when people help each other, it shouldn't be the responsibility of regular folks in this country to send food and water to nola. there are government agencies, to which we all send money every month, that failed miserably and inexplicably.

I think that some people relate more than others to the realness of tragedy. To some it is the displacement you feel from a hospital visit when you should have been at work. The feeling of time in a different continuim, while you attend the birth or death of a fellow human. Then going back into mainsteam society. Society, as we know it has stopped in our Gulf coast states. Now to integrate.

Def. not an asshole for feeling like that. There is always someone who is less fortunate than us, but that doesn’t make the current situation any better. I wish you the best of luck in finding a job. Overall, I think its complex, I’ve always been frustrated that the US doesn’t take care of its own homeless and underclass, yet we are so quick to aid those struggling abroad. Mostly that goes back to what someone mentioned on here, that the US has an alternate agenda when giving aid. The same appears true in this instance, if Nike and other companies are setting up such facilities for Katrina survivors then I believe here too there is an alternative reasoning, for one, just think of the publicity. I’m not implying that victims of Katrina don’t deserve this help, just stating there is still a hidden agenda with most corporations.

actually, you do sound like a jerk. just being the honest voice of dissent.

now that i have had my shower, i will elaborate. i will set aside the fact that you sound like all those white folks who yell about "welfare queens and cadillacs!" for the sake of making my main point. these people have just endured the worst natural disaster & displacement - simultaneously - in, quite possibly, the history of this country. if they can get access, they need cable and internet to FIND THEIR FUCKING BABIES. To see if their FAMILIES have been fucking found, dead or alive. if the tables were turned ... and you found yourself in new orleans, biloxi? you would be jumping around in your nike sweatsuit, glad to be in clean clothes, not thinking for a fucking second about the below poverty level people that live there. and if you've never been down south, those people earned the term 'southern hospitality' and they'd probably be cooking you food, giving you clothes. so yes, you sound like a self-pitying asshole. i hope you never have to live through the utter hell that tens of thousands of these people just lived through, because i do not think you are strong enough to endure it. you asked. and i would love to see a link to the newspaper who wrote that article.

I appreciate the honesty, A_C. And, no, there's no sarcasm in that.

YES you are an asshole First I have to say get up off your ass every newspaper is filled with job opportunities...and free education opts!!! Second, these x human being that were going to arrive here (not shipped, that would be historiy racist) are not. Although we offered the assistants this state is probably way to racist to welcome such an effected group of people. Also not it was not just black and white x,x Hispanics were left in this life or death situations, plus many Asians, Middle Eastern, Elders, babies, the sick, and many others were left to survive or die. So yes you are an ass to think because x people may have arrived in Portland to get themselves together. Please Keep in mind Portland is on a major fault line (and for your illiterate assholes that means we could have a big ass earthquake) and if this happens we would need to rely on our country, our neighbors, and our human compassion… …. So those with out it shut the F up! You are the reason our world is filthy, and selfish. Good luck when the quake hits, or the mountain irrupts….

Please post elsewhere You just responded to the wrong person who asked if they were an asshole, sodiepop only quoted what YandJ said. Finding a job isn’t as easy as you might believe. Just because she hasn’t found a stable job, doesn’t mean she isn’t trying. Granted I don’t know her circumstances, it is still a bad assumption on your part. Also, where in the hell are you getting your statistics from? Did you seriously just say “x,x Hispanics were left…”, there aren’t even x,x Hispanics in the whole state of Louisiana. Plus, illiteracy has NOTHING to do with knowing where a fault line is located and earthquakes. And it is spelled “Erupts” as in explode and spew, not irrupt meaning to break into the middle of a conversation. Your opinion is your opinion, but next time how about thinking for x secounds before you post and display your lack of intelligence.

you forgot that they also said 'assistants' instead of 'assistance'. pot and kettle and all, but it's always amusing to see an illiterate person people illiterate.

in spite of all of that, which i magiy was able to ignore (y'all should try that sometime), she made a damn good point about compassion. and i am pretty sure (?) that sodiepop knows that wasn't about her, so why split hairs. hell she might've meant x,x ... folks are emotional right now.

pretty much if they are being "transferred" to portland this means that they were denied access to food, water, and any basic needs foror so days, shot at, and possibly raped. these are the same people that had miscarraiges while waiting in line for a bus and tended to it the best way that they could so that they wouldn't lose their place in line. they are seperated from their friends, family, and everything they know. they have absolutly nothing. and also, they don't want to be in portland. they are there because they have no other option. you are dealing with portland's shitty economy by choice. however, you really shouldn't worry about them. it's likely that no more than x-x will show up. that's what philly got and people have actually heard of philly. however, you should worry about the massive influx of new orleans hipster in portland. it seems that everyone i know is in the process of or has moved to portland. they're coming freshly, well as much as having excellent hair will allow, bathed from their parent's house with whatever they left new orleans with, food stamps, and xk and first and last month's rent from fema. and they're in a hurry to find a job and a place to live before the pity runs out. and fyi, the general concensus is that it, the pity, will run out in about a month. if you're gonna hate on someone, hate on them. they're total asshats anyway. but don't hate on anyone who's being transferred there. they've been through more than anyone can be expected to deal with already. and they'd be more than happy to take you in and feed you dinner if you so much as smiled at them. because rumor is that y'all don't do that. you know, smile at people and speak to them even though you don't know them. and it may seem like these people are being given the upper hand, but if they are, it's for the first time in their lives. if you're lucky you might learn something about culture. and if you're really lucky you might learn something about cooking and how it's supposed to be d but more than likely y'all won't get more than a handful of "transfers" so i really really wouldn't worry about it.

actually, i've found people in portland to be pretty generous and friendly towards other whites. however, i think it's a pretty racist town in general and it's hard to connect with blacks that are from here. also, i've met far more people from the south here than i did in s.f. there's a huge austin lesbian contingent.

I hold no hate and I'm in no way trying to dehumanize anyone by ing them "transfers", which incidentally, I don't believe I did. My resentment is reserved for the way this country has been run and how it deals with it's people. My understanding of anything is based on the things I've experienced in life, and is only broadened by going through new experiences, myself, or meeting people who have. I know that there is only so much I understand already and I try to take everyone on an individual basis. Anyone who causes me to be a better person is always welcome into my life, and I try to respect everyone, regardless.

Many people had similar feelings... about the assistance given to people with HIV/AIDS. They wondered why those people were "more deserving" than people with breast cancer or heart disease or whatever. Oddly enough, it seems that few PWAs would hesitate formoment to give up those benefits if they could be cured. I realize the situations are not exactly equivalent, but... The fact that some people are getting what everyone should be getting (but isn't) doesn't make it wrong for them to get it. It just points up how wrong it is that everyone isn't getting it.

unfortunately, many needy are being overlooked because of hurricane katrina. lots of money was spent here in portland and no evacuees are coming through FEMA. i wish i had an appropriate simile at hand, but i'm a bit hungover. let's just say it's like people are giving a lot of charity to absentee hurricane victims and lots of poor are going without. yes, that's what it's like.

Here's a thought... Why not allow those who are homeless here in Portland the beds, food, etc. set aside for hurricane victims that don't show up? If as was said earlier not a lot are expected put the old school to local use?

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