Sagepaper

I have attended school in more districts and private schools combined than I can keep up with; I was formally homeschooled for a time, too. One thing I learned is that not all school districts are alike. I had to take placement testing wherever I went. The schools varied by up to two grades. Of course, from a given school district's perspective, not all students are alike. They have to give placement tests to find out if you are behind, ahead, or where you are "supposed" to be.

I anticipate there will be problems caused by sending New Orleans students all over the country. I hope that school requirements will help drive a diaspora instead of a massive "Refugee" Camp. That will give the children of New Orleans a more stable and wholesome environment, and a better education. You could consider the diaspora to be the "Mother of All Busing Programs." There will be trouble, though.

According to a CNN article, http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/package.jsp?name=fte/smartstates/smartstates, Louisiana ranks 46th in the nation. I don't know how that breaks down within the state. At the Astrodome, they are evolving a sad but convenient coping mechanism. Lots of unemployed New Orleans teachers, lots of displaced New Orleans school kids, let's match them up. It would be better to break them up. Let the N.O. teachers catch-up with their peers while the kids do the same.

People know about educational statistics. The only non-educators who care about the numbers have their children doing well, either in public or private school. Those on the bottom don't know what that means. They are going to find out what it means. There will be anger that their children are called stupid. When that is handled, and they are assured their children are not stupid, then they will be angry that their children have not been taught properly.

Adding to the anguish of enlightenment for the parents, there will be rapid cultural stereotyping. Fortunately, I have yet to see a New Orleans joke, but I assure you they are coming. Who wants to be at the bottom of the barrel and the butt of jokes? This is one point where I actually agree with the political correctness Nazi's. If they can stop prejudice and stereotyping of the displaced from New Orleans BEFORE it starts, it would be a Godsend.

Okay, I got this one wrong. The demise of this program comes as a relief to me, but only partially. FEMA will use other means of getting the people their money.

I've got friends in low places. You can't give someone who's eyes light-up at the sight of a twenty-dollar bill $2,000. It sounds noble and dignified and empowering to give them each their allotment and let them choose their own destiny. It is, in fact, a great unkindness. First, people will take advantage of them; sometimes legally, sometimes not. Of those who are defrauded, few will know what to do about it. Of those methods of fraud resulting in class-action lawsuits, most will probably recover funds. That would be several years from now, and we are in a hurry to help.

Problems in judgment are why we have regulations on WIC and Food Stamps. It should be possible to create five or six budget-templates, have a volunteer sit with them for an average of seven minutes, and have them leave with a plan to go with the cash. We should keep it in mind for next-time. This fiasco is already complex enough.

Aside from my concerns that funds would be used in a suboptimal way, I am upset by the overall concept. I thought they would be given debit cards that could be used at "point-of-service," at the time you check out. It never occurred to me that they would have a straight cash conversion on these, where they could take the cards to ATM's.

We already know New Orleans had some unsavory characters, shooting senselessly. Some activity was identified as gang activity. This flood gave a lot of addicts a chance to come clean, or rather, little choice in the matter. We saw that gangs took over the Conference Center. I don't think they ended-up in the Astrodome.

How would you like to get a $2,000 debit card to begin rebuilding your family, then be escorted to an ATM Machine with a pistol in your back? Fancy-talking financial types aren't the only way to be sadly parted from your money. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reimburse all the losses, and there will be plenty.

We tax-payers will pour money into real-estate and loan scams, price-gouging, poor financial decisions (Yeah, you can afford that TV now, but in six-months your children's clothes won't fit.), and to top it all off, we will be buying illicit drugs for the citizens and guns for the gangs. The real tragedy is, after we shell out all that money so the poor can learn the hard way, they won't be able to apply their lessons. We won't give them another $2,000 per family.

Aaargh!!! I have so much pent-up ranting! There are numerous, "I told you so's," that I haven't been able to tell you so. My computer is subject to the "three strikes and you're out" warranty. 16 different warranty issues can go wrong, and they will simply keep fixing the thing. If one problem occurs three times, however, they scrap the machine. They then give you something comparable, or cash. In my case, it will probably be better to take the cash, add one or two hundred, and program it to have my breakfast waiting. Until then, my husband has to put-up with me running between the TV and his chair. I can't get news, and I can't rant. He's not doing either one. He just sits there making a living, smugly certain that is more important.

I am basically barking mad about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I know I am not alone in that. I would be appalled by the way New Orleans has dealt with this if it had happened five years ago. But it didn't. It happened after 9/11/2001. The survivors, and many of the dead, from all locations involved on 9/11 faced their sudden, no warning ordeal in a way which reflects the best parts of human character.

New York's Emergency workers knew they had chosen dangerous careers. It wasn't the last, dismal opportunity for a job. They went through rigorous testing to be accepted for rigorous training. They went through rigorous training, and then continued training. Most of them probably had a number of unsung counts of heroism before that terrible day.

When it came right down to it, act or flinch, they acted.

I cannot accept with a tranquil mind the fact that there are an unaccounted for 600+ New Orleans Police Officers. Of the thousand who have been counted, many are known to have left their posts to search for family, or to evacuate their families. At least they bothered to mention where they were going.

There are many known deserters. In Baton Rouge, officers stopped two men in a stolen NOPD squad car. They ran checks on the two men, and confirmed that they were actually New Orleans Policemen who had ditched their uniforms and badges.

Another officer said he left, and dropped his badge in the flood water on his way out of town. "To Serve and Protect." If the deserters care nothing for the people of their city, why was there not at least the fraternal bond among police officers? Two of New Orleans's FINEST committed suicide. They were not merely eulogized after their deaths; there was a paper trail of two extraordinary careers.

Civilian and military law are not the same. I do not know the finer points of martial law for civilians. Civilian emergency workers end up in an odd gray zone. I imagine it would be illegal to take serious action against the NOPD deserters. I'd like to see a law, though, that allows police officers to be shot for desertion during a state of emergency.

In the grand scheme of things, the cowards of NOPD caused as much harm as deserters in time of war. They diminished the number of able-bodied active duty; they endangered the lives of the comrades they left behind; they left the people they served more vulnerable; and they damaged morale greatly. Where else has a hurricane caused high-level police officials to take their own lives?

I wrote an extremely politically incorrect post. My husband's opinion is that it was thoughtful, and correct. Nonetheless, it is actually beyond political correctness and into the realm of the socially taboo.

My husband rightly worried about the reputation of my Blog. More importantly, he worried about my own reputation. The subject matter evokes passionate divisiveness about racial issues. I am not a racist, did not make racist remarks, and condemned racism in my post.

There are too many people of good will who might not be able to read past the shock-value to understand the message. While not racist, my post did include another thing which people might have a hard time swallowing. I believe there are circumstances in the lawless chaos left by Katrina in which lethal force should be used to restore order.

I am not ordinarily a proponent of two wrongs making a right. Also, I despise police brutality. Nonetheless, I think more lives would be saved than lost some criminals not guilty of capital offenses were killed as an example. I think any targets like that should be given clear and ample opportunity to stop their criminal activity before being shot.

As you can see, even this nicer post is pretty ugly. The situation in New Orleans is pretty ugly. The lawless have wounded and killed police officers, emergency medical personnel, and each other. Additionally, they have fired on rescue helicopters flying in to aid them. In my other post, before these more recent news developments, I said that looting should not be a capital offense. I also said, however, that the anything goes, all bets are off, there are no rules, was a mentality that was deadly dangerous. Sadly, I have been proven right.

I was going to include the original post as a comment here, hoping it would not be misconstrued. After reviewing this post, my husband still thinks I should not include the original text at all. I agree there could be unnecessary problems, but I also believe in my first amendment right to be obnoxious and detestable. The original text will be available by email request only.