Obama visited New Orleans today (Thursday) and it wasn’t all smooth sailing for him. It was the first time he has visited the Gulf Coast since he took office nine months ago. He spoke at the University of New Orleans and was welcomed with a rowdy crowd. He had to fire back at critics who told him he had done little since he has been in the office. He quickly shot back “I am just getting started!”
Obama is in the heat lately for a lot of things and I am sure he knew that he was going to an area that had been hurt by Katrina so badly. There are still roughly 1,500 people in Louisiana living in temporary housing. When I read that number I could not believe that. My boyfriend Micah was living in Baton Rouge when hurricane Katrina hit, it actually hit New Orleans on his birthday August 29th. He told me that it was absolute chaos around the state. He actually drove over to New Orleans to do what he could to help a few days later and what normally takes about 60 minutes to drive took them 5 hours. Now that we are back in Baton Rouge he can’t believe all the people here and the different ethnic groups that are around here. When Katrina first hit they said at the high point there were 90,000 that were living in temporary housing, and a lot of them came to Baton Rouge.
A lot of victims are wondering where their relief is and so who better to blame it on than the president. Obama reminded the people who attended his speech today to think back to what he said about change in his campaign speech. He reminded them that he said “Change is hard…and big change is harder. I wasn’t kidding about it being hard.” However, there have been some good things that have happened for New Orleans since Obama came into office. There have been 76 disputed projects resolved in Louisiana and more than $1.4 billion in aid sent to Louisiana and $160 million to the residents of Mississippi affected by hurricane Katrina and Rita that hit only a month after Katrina. The emergency agency also said that $1 billion from the stimulus program has been targeted for New Orleans. After reading all these good things and the ginormous amounts of money that was sent to these people I am wondering what they possibly could be yelling about. I know that since I wasn’t down here during this horrific time I look at things a bit differently I am sure then they do.
I guess the residents of New Orleans thought that they deserved more than a “drive-through daiquiri” a little pun by Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana because a little thing that his HUGE in Louisiana is drive through daiquiri shops. He was referring to the fact that Obama was only in New Orleans for 4 hours today before he flew off to San Francisco, California for a fundraising event.
That sure sounds like a lot of aid being sent there way. I also remember bus load after bus load of individuals from my hometown area alone headed down to help out. I as well was not personally involved in the situation, but I do not think that the President is the person to attack. I am thinking that for some reason the funds were not spread equally or something a long those lines, so they should be going after their governor and other local representatives, and even possibly the directors of the aid organizations. On the whole the President only being there for four hours, I personally would rather that the President be focusing on the issues that are currently facing our country.
ReplyDeleteI was living in Florida at the time of the hurricane and I can remember countless organizations that sent aid to the region. Not only did they send supplies but also monetary donations to local agencies in the area. My nephew was there and saw the devastation that took place and helped in rescuing residents from their homes.
ReplyDeleteThe storm that hit this area is the reason that now all cities have prepared and practiced disaster plans. These plans range from terrorists to extreme weather disasters that could affect that particular city. New Orleans was so unprepared for the storm or any disaster that the hurricane whipped out the city.