Let's all feel sorry for the Evacuees from NOLA

Yesterday's edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constipation featured a story entitled "Fear of Eviction: Evacuees worry aid will run out."

The story featured one Rolanda Cain, her one-year-old baby and her "boyfriend." Rolanda has been living in a motel on Fulton Industrial Blvd. in Atlanta since she left New Orleans. The article says that the federal government has been paying the hotel bill. Not so. It's the taxpayers who have been footing the bill for Rolanda and her boyfriend. The federal government merely seizes the money and passes it on.

Rolanda is worried about being evicted from the motel. She says "We have a place to stay. We have food. The only worry is how long it will last."

Say what? Rolanda's "only worry" is how long the handouts are going to last? Maybe it's just me, but if I were in her place I might be worried about, say, getting a job! Rolanda says that this is all very frustrating. "With no answers, you don't know which way to go." Well, Rolanda is quite the little self-starter, isn't she?

Apparently she's sitting around waiting for "answers," instead of spending time on the phone or hitting the streets looking for some work. I wonder if she's even gone so far as to ask the manager of the hotel where she's living at taxpayer expense if he might hire her as a housekeeper?? And her boyfriend?? Is he out there looking for a job while Rolanda stays at home with the kid? The article says nothing. For all we know he may also be just sitting around waiting for "answers."

Well .. the answers don't seem to be coming, and Rolanda says that she's fed up with the FEMA program. Oh my! Rolanda's fed up! Someone alert the media! Oh, wait. Someone did, . . . and the AJC is really pouring it on thick here.

The article does point out that Rolanda has spent hours in the motel's computer room searching for other housing. Other housing paid for by taxpayers. Question: If Rolanda is so hot with the computer, why isn't she spending some time looking for jobs! Don't tell me there isn't a Waffle House or fast-food restaurant somewhere on Fulton Industrial Blvd. that Rolanda could walk to to earn a few bucks. Her hard-working boyfriend could look after the child.

Oh, . . . and about that child. The article doesn't seem to mention where Rolanda's baby-daddy is. He's probably out there searching for Rolanda so he can catch his child support payments up.

At the end of the article the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had a list of "What's available for evacuees."

The list contained the federal disaster assistance programs that were available to evacuees. Among them were cash grants, free hotel stays, expedited housing assistance, low-interest loans, grants for medical care and other goodies. Nowhere in the list did you see any mention of jobs programs or training.

God Bless,
Dan'L