September 22, 2005
Milk of human kindness
LIKE all good folk in Louisiana, the people of Estherwood were horrified by what they saw on their televisions as hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents were rendered homeless by Hurricane Katrina.
… But when the true test came and the government came knocking for Estherwood’s help, the milk of human kindness turned sour.
At a meeting yesterday, local officials rejected proposals that idle land beside their airstrip be turned into a government-funded sanctuary for 600 evacuee families.
“We are not interested in any of that kind of activity in our parish,” said Cecilia Broussard, chair of the Acadian Parish Police Jury, the board that oversees local affairs.
The move has prompted allegations of racism against Estherwood, a blue-collar farming community with just one police officer.
Of its 600 residents, 94 per cent are white. The evacuees are 90 per cent black.
Jury member John Humble said people were against the idea because the venue might itself be prone to flooding and local infrastructure could not support the influx. The parish should reject the idea “so the people of my district can sleep at night”, he said.
On their clean white sheets.
Posted by Stephen at 11:03 AM in Humanity | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
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