"Thank God for Hurricane Katrina"
Jan. 31st, 2009 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theoldwolfSent this to a friend today, but thought it was worth posting here.
A reporter for a national news agency was reporting on the effects of Hurricane Katrina, and chose to interview some of those who had been made homeless by the storm and were living in a shelter. His first interviewee was a young African-American single mother, and he asked her how the storm had affected her. She responded that the storm had, for all intents and purposes, ruined her. She had lost her job, her children could not attend school and were running around with a gang, and she had no idea where she was going to go or what she was going to do.
The reporter's second interview brought him up short. When he interviewed another young mother, of similar circumstances, also African-American and also raising children on her own, she put her arms in the air and said, "Thank God for Hurricane Katrina!" It was one of those moments where you weren't quite sure what you had heard, and the reporter responded in the same way. "Excuse me? Did you say what I thought you just did?" The woman again put her hands in the air and said, "Thank God for Hurricane Katrina." When asked to elaborate, the woman was more than happy to comply.
"One of the blessings of this storm was that it did not discriminate. It wiped out white and black, rich and poor alike. In the days after the storm, here in the shelter, I noticed in the back of the room, every day, a group of businessmen were meeting. I was curious, and after a few days I worked up the courage to go ask them what they were doing." They responded, "We're entrepreneurs. We've also been affected by the storm, and we're masterminding together, to see how we can create benefit from the current situation. I told them, "I'm not very educated, but I'm willing to learn. Let me join you. You don't have to pay me. I'll get your coffee, do your copying, do anything you want, if you just let me sit and listen. So they did. I made coffee, did secretarial work, ran errands, and did what needed doing, and after a few months, they let me start joining in their conversations. When that happened, they found out that I had something they didn't - an understanding of what life is like on the ground in the poor quarters.
Today, those gentlemen are closing on their first home as a mastermind group. And guess who's going to live in it? That's right. Me. I've never owned a home in my life. So my boys are going to go to a fine school. And those men gave me a job that pays me more in a month than I used to earn in a year at my minimum wage job. So I say again, "Thank God for Hurricane Katrina!"
Two women. Same circumstances. Same shelter. Same storm. One came from "victim", the other from "responsible." The outcome was all in their attitude.
"Thank God for Hurricane Katrina!"
A reporter for a national news agency was reporting on the effects of Hurricane Katrina, and chose to interview some of those who had been made homeless by the storm and were living in a shelter. His first interviewee was a young African-American single mother, and he asked her how the storm had affected her. She responded that the storm had, for all intents and purposes, ruined her. She had lost her job, her children could not attend school and were running around with a gang, and she had no idea where she was going to go or what she was going to do.
The reporter's second interview brought him up short. When he interviewed another young mother, of similar circumstances, also African-American and also raising children on her own, she put her arms in the air and said, "Thank God for Hurricane Katrina!" It was one of those moments where you weren't quite sure what you had heard, and the reporter responded in the same way. "Excuse me? Did you say what I thought you just did?" The woman again put her hands in the air and said, "Thank God for Hurricane Katrina." When asked to elaborate, the woman was more than happy to comply.
"One of the blessings of this storm was that it did not discriminate. It wiped out white and black, rich and poor alike. In the days after the storm, here in the shelter, I noticed in the back of the room, every day, a group of businessmen were meeting. I was curious, and after a few days I worked up the courage to go ask them what they were doing." They responded, "We're entrepreneurs. We've also been affected by the storm, and we're masterminding together, to see how we can create benefit from the current situation. I told them, "I'm not very educated, but I'm willing to learn. Let me join you. You don't have to pay me. I'll get your coffee, do your copying, do anything you want, if you just let me sit and listen. So they did. I made coffee, did secretarial work, ran errands, and did what needed doing, and after a few months, they let me start joining in their conversations. When that happened, they found out that I had something they didn't - an understanding of what life is like on the ground in the poor quarters.
Today, those gentlemen are closing on their first home as a mastermind group. And guess who's going to live in it? That's right. Me. I've never owned a home in my life. So my boys are going to go to a fine school. And those men gave me a job that pays me more in a month than I used to earn in a year at my minimum wage job. So I say again, "Thank God for Hurricane Katrina!"
Two women. Same circumstances. Same shelter. Same storm. One came from "victim", the other from "responsible." The outcome was all in their attitude.
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-01 06:50 am (UTC)But yes, if you don't ask you don't get. Success is an achievement, not a gift.
"God's not here man, you'll have to fix it yourself."
no subject
Date: 2009-02-01 06:24 pm (UTC)A man got into a moor and started sinking. A fire department got the alarm and drove there to rescue him. He declined their help, saying he had attended mass every Sunday, payed the church taxes so God would save him. The firefighters shrugged and drove away.
In the evening, on their way to training, they passed the moor again. The man had already sunk into it to his stomach. Again, they offered to help him. He declined again, keeping his same litany: I attended mass every Sunday, payed the church taxes, God will help me. So they drove away again.
After their training, they saw him again. He was in the mud up to his chin. Again, they asked him if they should help and again, he declined with "I attended mass every Sunday, payed the church taxes, God will help me."
So, he finally died. When he got to the pearly gates, he asked Saint Peter why God hadn't helped him.
"He hasn't helped you? He sent the fire department to you three times!"
no subject
Date: 2009-02-01 08:46 pm (UTC)