From yesterday’s headlines on Democracy Now!:
FEMA Gives $3 Million to Restore Jefferson Davis’ Home
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has agreed to pay about three million dollars to help repair the former home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Davis led the Confederacy in the South during the Civil War. Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed the 150-year-old home in Biloxi Mississippi.New Orleans Public Housing Residents Fight For Homes
In New Orleans, low-income residents are still fighting to prevent their homes from being demolished. On Saturday some residents of the Central City public housing complex defied government orders and moved back into their old apartments. The city is planning to demolish four large public housing developments even though tens of thousands of low-income New Orleans residents remain displaced.
So. While tens of thousands of low-income residents of New Orleans, most of whom are Black, remain homeless, and while the vast majority of New Orleans homeowners haven’t seen a dime of that vast amount of money supposedly dedicated to helping them rebuild, FEMA is setting aside a whole huge chunk of change to rebuild the house of the man who served as president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
While structurally viable public housing is being demolished (to make way for what, and for whom, we must ask), and while the low-income Ninth Ward still looks much like it did directly after the storm (though I hear the tourist-friendly French Quarter is looking quite well these days), and while thousands upon thousands of people remain scattered and displaced, FEMA is making sure that a monument to man who was at the fore of one of the darkest times in american history is fully restored.
I’m willing to bet that the Jefferson Davis home will see their $3 million in rebuilding funds far before most of the residents of New Orleans see even a fraction of that in federal funds.
Shall we gather, then, that the former home of a long-dead white man who lead the Confederacy in fighting for the continued enslavement of Black people is perhaps more important to FEMA and the rest of this government than the current homes of thousands of the living descendants of those who he wished to keep enslaved?
* FYI: This post’s title is in reference to Bush’s heartwarming demonstration of concern for one of the few hurricane victims about whom he actually gave a damn – Senator Trent Lott: “Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.”
It took me five minutes to pick up my chin after it dropped reading that headline. Are they serious!? You say everything I would want to in response, so I will just add: amen. And this is so seriously fucked up.
You hit the nail on the head and I for one am not surpised.
Let it also be noted this is the same FEMA that is going after college students from Dilliard a HBCU in New Orleans, because they do not consider losing their dorm rooms or apartments “true” housing since they are claimed as dependants on their parents income tax. So FEMA wants the money these students were given and used to find housing while attending school on other college campuses back. Dilliard’s campus was ruined by the storm but unlike UNO or the state schools they don’t have the finances to embark on major rebuilding plans.FEMA is trying to put it’s hands in empty pockets while the ones it filled to capacity
keep getting fatter.
I’m so pissed off I have no idea where to start. You mean to telll me that 18 months after the worst natural disaster in US history, people who deserve the money won’t get it, but we will give money to restore the home of the man who embodied all that was wrong in our country? What kind of bull is that?
i’m a woman of many many words and this time there is nothing to say that doesn’t involve a lot of cussing and rage.