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WDSU Think Tank
Tell us the best way your area can make a comeback
Last Published: 3/10/2010 4:28:30 PM
Make It Happen
Posted by:
WDSU-TV on
September 21, 2006 at
1:02PM EST
Anchor Norman Robinson blogs and broadcasts LIVE from Houston September 18 - 22.
During the
past four days in Houston, we at 6 on Your Side LIVE have experienced a wide
range of emotions: the heartbreak of the down and out who are trying to hold
on, the almost comical whimsy of those feigning hardship in an
attempt avoid accountability, and the pride felt in meeting those who are
determined to make a difference despite seemingly insurmountable challenges. It
is the latter that inspired me to write this particular blog.
We have met
many city, state, and federal leaders here in Houston. We have also managed to meet with
many social outreach organizations, and ordinary volunteers from Houston and New Orleans who
are on the ground in the Bayou
City trying to make a
difference. What inspired me is the dogged determination exhibited among each
group, individually and collectively, to try and resolve one of the
greatest human conundrums in the history of the country: what to do about
housing and training the largest forced displacement of Americans since
the Civil War?
Toward that
end these various state, federal, charity, and volunteer agencies have
formed an alliance to come up with a strategy to help people help
themselves. In the words of one city leader, "We are going to
provide the opportunity for the evacuees, who need it, to improve their
lives through job training and temporary housing assistance. But it's up to
them to make it happen;" in other words: no hand-outs, just a hand up.
A poll,
conducted for the city of Houston,
found that 60% of evacuees intend to remain here. So city leaders have decided
to become proactive, and are now challenging the people who were evacuees, to
become permanent neighbors. The city’s message: you are welcome here, but
theses are the rules: we’ll help you get on your feet, but we expect you to get
a job and become a productive citizen. It’s up to you to make it happen.
Houston Police
Chief Harold Hurrt told me Texas
is serious about law and order. And judging by its strategy to compel evacuees
to get training to help themselves "make it happen," Texas is also serious
about a work ethic.
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