My Concern about Katrina Aid

I'm probably going to catch some flack for this, but I have mixed emotions about Katrina aid.

I have faced some difficult issues in my life - some of them self-inflicted, others not. But it's become clear to me in the last six months that I get nowhere if I wait for someone else to address them. I have made a conscious decision to take ownership of a few key things; if I succeed or fail, it's no longer going to be due to inaction on my part.

The United States has had difficult decisions to make in the past on aid to foreign countries. Our country has been far and away the most generous nation in history, and has seldom failed to take action when it was needed. However, problems in the governments and leadership of some countries make it impossible for us to contribute needed aid. We simply know it's either going to be used to line the pockets of corrupt leaders or misused because of the failure of those officials to make hard decisions.

Like most folks, I wasn't proud of our country last year in the immediate days after Katrina hit New Orleans. And I've been saddened by the lack of the action during the past year by President Bush, especially after his speech from New Orleans where he promised to rebuild a better Gulf Coast than what existed before the disaster.

But I think I'm most disgusted by New Orleans decision recently to re-elect the poor leadership in their city, leadership that could do nothing but blame others last year in the aftermath of the hurricane.

Last year, nobody at any level of authority - federal, state, county, local - could escape legitimate criticism. And the finger-pointing and buck-passing was irritating and childish. But when you have the opportunity to say, "Let's take things into our own hands and make life better," and you don't, well, I'm just wondering if I can really feel empathy for you anymore.

One of the reasons Habitat for Humanity has been such a success is because the new homeowner is required to invest sweat equity in the building and finishing of the home. The homes are not handouts, to be taken now and to use as shelter while its occupants wait for their next.

I am not asking the residents of New Orleans to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but I have certainly grown tired of the pictures and the voices of both the city's residents and its leadership that have shown themselves unwilling to even put the boots on.

The only thing that makes me willing to commit my money and efforts to post-Katrina New Orleans is my belief that the people who have gone back are showing that they are willing to get in and do the dirty work. I can work alongside someone like that. Others, well, I don't know. Like I said, I have mixed emotions. It's like when a homeless person comes up and asks for a handout - do I give him a couple of dollars, knowing that he's more likely to buy booze than bread? In the past, I have (grudgingly) given and left the results up to God. And I've seen myself in the shoes of the beggar and know that even buying booze might bring him closer to his bottom, the only place where he will finally be forced to look up.

I don't know - it's just not an easy decision.