As you probably guessed, the semester started in earnest last week. New job, new people to meet, lots of working and distractions. No time for blogs, so I am behind on all of you.
The Red Cross guy was on just now saying they wanted 40,000 people to be trained as Red Cross volunteers, to work in 3 week shifts in shelters, unloading trucks, and so on, into the indefinite future, until this crisis is over. Which could be a long time, considering that training as a volunteer takes some time.
It made me wonder if their work would not be helped by the presence of more National Guard soldiers, perhaps some of those that are in Iraq. It also made me wonder if Bush should not subsidize the Red Cross volunteers, who have to leave their jobs in order to help out. Now, most RC volunteers are happy to do just that. But think of it this way, lots of folks can’t afford three weeks off of work, or more. This would mean good-minded folks who are not as well off could put their hands, hearts and minds to work. And if the National Guard were sending more people, we’d pay for that anyway.
It also reminds me of the Americorps and VISTA volunteers who do such great work year-round, outside of crisis-times. I know they’re volunteers, but they should be better subsidized. If they were, we’d see more people taking a year out to volunteer. Twenty-one-year-olds in this country tend to graduate college owing 20K-30K in student loans. It’s hard not to go straight to work right away. They get some pittance of forgiveness on their loans. And then those placed in cities, where they’re needed most, are barely given enough to live on.
Perhaps people would say my priorities are screwed up: this is volunteering, for goodness’ sake! But the government wants people to pick up the slack for social, environmental, educational and health services that in civilized countries would be paid for by the government. (Let’s face it, I am a commie pinko socialist.)
Rant over: it’s a birthday, Chez Sicilians, so we’re going out to dine soon in a classy southern Brooklyn establishment. (I have my bourgeois moments.)
5 comments ↓
Happy birthday…if it’s yours being celebrated, that is…otherwise, happy birthday to some other lucky person!
I’m hearing stories that one of the reasons the govt. was so slow in heading down there is because they wanted the private charities to get their first and spend their money before the FEMA funds kicked in. Also, apparently Jeb Bush used up all of the FEMA funds for last year’s cleanup of Florida.
Something to chew on, eh?
Hi Nancy– sorry I was confusing. Not my birthday, but two others in the family, so there was a party on, Brooklyn style. Thanks on their behalf!
Brian–that sounds so completely Bush-y to me. Bush wants charities to deal with a lot of social issues, doesn’t he–and he wants religous groups to get gov’t funding so they can deal with our social ills… as long as they do not do anything he disagrees with (like, um, teaching anything besides abstinence in sex ed, for example…)
It’s a complex issue. Our village is largely sustained by volunteer workers through government assisted programs like ‘work for the dole’. With Louisiana you would have to be in for the long haul, and a lot of specialised skills involved. Meanwhile I see that Halliburton has got the cream of the rebuilding contracts, while Bush lowers the minimum wage (from which Halliburton would no doubt be the main beneficiary) and privatised paramilitary personnel brought back from Iraq to work in Louisiana are complaining that they are only getting US$350 a day when they were getting US$1000 a day in Iraq.
Nice, huh Wrick?
What seems to be happening here, Wrick, is if Bush can get charities to do something, so he does not have to fund it, he is happy.
But we do need some kind of infrastructure now.
As Garrison Keillor said in Salon (I’m paraphrasing shamelessly) “Lower taxes and little government means you better live on a high bluff and have lots of money.”
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