Email from a friend
A friend in Memphis, TN, has mass-emailed several friends the following:
We have an influx of about 10,000 refugees so far into our city. Our mayor is working to open a large facility (perhaps the Pyramid, or the FedEx Forum) to house them. In the meantime, they are being cared for in various centers throughout the city. More are coming in. As of this writing today, September 2, another 2,000 are expected in. Areas have been opened to feed them, and donations are pouring in from Memphis citizens offering clothes, canned food, diapers, and more. Many are opening up their homes and taking these people in. The gas problems have hit us here and just yesterday, the cost of gas has risen to $3.49 to $3.99 per gallon, and several stations are taped off as they have run out of gas. Folks are lined up, waiting their turn to fill up. Bought a locking gas cap, as I expect some of our city's finest entrepreneurs will start a black market on gas. But even with all of this, it is nothing compared to what our poor citizens are suffering below us in the tri-states.
You may a misconception about those who didn't leave New Orleans. There was only a very, very tiny percentage that stayed by choice. Living out of this area as you do, you are accustomed to, at the very least, blue collar workers, and cannot understand the poverty that permeates the south. Illiterate people, no education, living from hand to mouth or off of the welfare system. Many have no education nor the intelligence to figure out what to do. They can't read or write, or only know just enough to get by. It is a way of life. These folks had no where to go, and no money to get there if they had some place to go. They and their families have lived where they are for generations; there is no family outside of the area to take them in. Those that worked - and thousands did - lived from paycheck to paycheck because in a family of 10 or more, maybe only one or two actually brought in any money to support them. Once their means of income was gone, there was nothing left. They foundered. They did not ignore their possibilities; they never had any to begin with. But it would take living out here, seeing it first hand, and understanding the system under which these people live, to fully comprehend the problems, issues, and reasons for what has happened to them.
How can we help. For many of us, there is nothing physically we can do. But donations, either in the form of money to your favorite charity, or hard goods that are being collected in your local town can be done. It is the small things that add up to big things. No effort is ever too small.
This is a terrible tragedy. One that has spawned anger, frustration, hurt, anarchists and death. There has been a lack of immediate support and help by our government, a problem which they are now trying to overcome. For many, it will be too late. For others, let us hope it is just in time. But in spite of the problems, they are not insurmountable. We are a nation of people who have risen to the task at hand throughout our history. We have prevailed in the past, and we will prevail here, too.
With warmest regards from Memphis, Tennessee.
CRFoulkes
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