In "Viscous Porosity: Witnessing Katrina," Nancy Tuana discussed the ignorance of the American people. Many people were shocked by the conditions that people live in and the destruction that occurred. In the places that were struck by Hurricane Katrina, there is great poverty. However, poverty doesn't just lie in the southeast United States. "In 2009, 43.6 million people (14.3 percent) were in poverty [in the US]." In class discussion while making our own hurricane, we pointed the finger at many different causes and groups of people to blame.
As Tuana simply states, "Poverty leaves its effect in the bodies and the psyches of those it touches... Grow up without educational resources, and cognitive development will be affected." Today, many people need educational resources. An excellent program to help close the education gap is Teach for America. The group helps people all over the nation by sending corps members and college graduates to teach schools in need of help. You do not have to be an education major to help. Currently, the Teach for America program is looking for science and math majors to help. This program and many others are available nationwide. Even after a "shock" like Katrina hits, why is there little motivation a few years after the fact? Why do we concern ourselves so much with other nations when we still need major work with education, poverty, this recession, and many other factors within our nation?
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Also, here's some food for thought. More Americans die of poverty than TERRORISM.
I absolutely loved the article you posted above; More Americans die of poverty than TERRORISM, and I agree with it. As we discussed in class, Hurricane Katrina exposed the American government of what they have been hiding for a long time. The poverty, discrimination, government corruption, and the deliberate ignorance of the American people were exposed to the world. I think power means more to America than anything. If the American government can control the world there is nothing more they want. However, this is being done in the expense of the American people, risking lives, environment, and the future generation. To the rest of the world, the United States is seen as a country with the most power, wealth, education and career opportunities. In the mean time, people in the United States view their country differently. They see discrimination based on gender, race and sexuality; they can see the poverty around them, the destroyed environment, and the corruption among the people they trust to run their country. Going back to the question “Even after a "shock" like Katrina hits, why is there little motivation a few years after the fact?” I think sometimes Americans do not realize there is a problem in front of them until someone suffers. Just like the proverb “prevention is better than cure,” we should take care of the people and the environment to avoid problem in the first place than running around later to solve it. Sometimes we cannot control nature’s occurrence, such as Hurricane Katrina and many other natural disasters around the world, but we can be prepared for the worst.
There is something about America/Americans that I’ve noticed that I don’t understand, and I think this post about Katrina is a good forum in which to discuss this. I’ve noticed that Americans are very reactionary – that is, they don’t act proactively to prevent problems from happening, but rather wait until a disaster happens or a problem occurs and then react to it. I first noticed this when I was taking drivers ed. in high school. My teacher talked about a particular intersection that was unregulated and there had been several accidents there, but the city was not willing to put a traffic light at the intersection until there had been “enough” accidents or “enough” deaths. I was affronted. What is “enough”? Isn’t one death already too much? How can people and policymakers be willing to simply quantify human life in such a way? Hamid001 is right when he/she says “sometimes Americans do not realize there is a problem in front of them until someone suffers.” We can see this in the example of the traffic light that I give, or in the devastation of Katrina. But, my question still remains: why are Americans like this? Unfortunately, I have no answers to this question. It is something that plagues me to this day. But regardless of what the answer is, something still needs to be done, and I think all we can do is to try to overcome ignorance and to work on educating all Americans about the problems of poverty and racism within our own country. All we can do is take action ourselves, like in the program that was discussed by the original poster. Thanks for sharing the link!
The article 'More Americans die of poverty than TERRORISM'brought many interesting numbers to light. The fact that 472 people died (in Los Angeles County) in 2005 from homelessness alone is very disturbing. I would agree that our country needs to put a lot more effort into helping people in poverty. I think part of the reason there's so little being done about homelessness is because of people's attitudes towards the homeless; many people look down on them and believe that they should 'just go out and get a job' when it's not that easy. This view is understandable- I personally have had a few encouters with homeless people that made me suspicious of many of them. Once in Washington DC I was walking past a Mcdonalds and a man was standing outside the door, asking people for money for some breakfast. He had tattered clothes on and appeared to be truly in need, but as I walked away after giving him some money, I looked back and saw him walk across the street into a liquor store. Another time I was walking by a man here in Mpls who was holding up a sign asking for money. I told him all I had on me was my card and asked him if he would be willing to walk down the block to the Wendy's and I would buy him some lunch. He responded quite rudely that he didn't need food. I was pretty pissed that this guy was scheming to get a bunch of bills from people, and then what was he going to do with it if it wasn't eating??! So I have definitely had some interesting encounters, but we all know that some people use homelessness as a deception and we all are still aware that there are real homeless people in our nation. I think that all people are equal people, even if we don't live within the same border as them, so I still think that we need to help other countries WHILE we help our own (but I would agree that the military spending is ridiculous, I mean more like helping with food and medical stuff). Hopefully our silly government will come to its senses soon and reprioritize...