Response to Hurricane Katrina
Yes, we need a jobs program, and it should be a collaborative effort. But they need to be good jobs, at least at prevailing wage (which doesn't mean union wage or even decent wage, just the average, which in the Katrina area is about $9.50), something Bush just eliminated for the rebuilding. Bush has scolded us about "playing the blame game," but demanding accountability is the only way to make sure we deal with the root causes of the problems so they won't happen again. People who've been abandoned shouldn't be seen as a "cost burden" or as having "broken lives" -- this shifts the focus of responsibility. The truth is, many of the evacuees have worked at lousy, low-paying jobs with no flexibility for family care. The administration's policies have contributed to the increase in poverty each year of the last 4 years. No-bid contracts to Halliburton and Bechtel are no accident, but emblemmatic of the way corporations influence and benefit from this administration. We must strongly protest inaction by a president who insists on every moment of a five-week vacation to have "balance" in his life but wants to gut the FMLA so those with life-threatening asthma can be fired for being unable to work. I don't see how we can talk about the aftermath of Katrina without talking about all this.
