Corporate American Flag - by Shi-Zhe Yung
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Oh no! Not the "F" word!
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power."
- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (American Economic Review, Vol. 32, No. 2, Part 2, Supplement, Papers Relating to the Temporary National Economic Committee (Jun., 1942) , pp. 119-128
- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (American Economic Review, Vol. 32, No. 2, Part 2, Supplement, Papers Relating to the Temporary National Economic Committee (Jun., 1942) , pp. 119-128
Monday, April 03, 2006
Dear Editor:
In recent weeks, I’ve heard and read quite a bit about the many Houstonians who are fed up and tired of all the Katrina refugees being here, six months after the storm. Last night in a movie ticket line, I heard a man say he was tired of hearing all the sob stories from “those Katrina people” at his job at a local bank. He expressed the wish that they would “move on” from our town and quit complaining about how bad things are for them.
Tonight, I watched The Grapes of Wrath, a classic film about a poor rural Oklahoma family uprooted by weather-related ruin, turned into refugees in the 1930’s. These “Okies” hear rumors of opportunity in California and head westward, with little or no money and the idea that if they get into trouble, they will have to rely on the goodness of their fellow man for assistance. Although they do find a few good people along the way, they also experience man’s inhumanity to his fellow man: they are harassed by authorities, taken advantage of by ranchers and growers, and herded like cattle through town after town, state after state by people who just want the Okies to keep moving on.
Like the 1930’s Dust Bowl that uprooted so many Americans, the hurricane season of 2005 turned thousands of Americans from Louisiana out onto the road, forcing them to leave behind their destroyed cities and towns and try to start new lives.
America in 2006 is a lot different than the one of 1936, but one thing remains constant: this is still the United States of America and we are all one people. We need to look out for each other and lend a helping hand, even when we are weary of helping or think that we can’t give anything else.
Think how different your own life and this city would be if Hurricane Rita had not changed course last September, if Rita had instead slammed directly into Houston. Thousands of dead bodies, just on our freeways alone, whole families drowned in their cars, imprisoned in the very real million-car traffic jam that occurred. Imagine our devastated downtown area, with several billions in damage to the infrastructure and buildings. There would be a mass exodus of corporations and jobs to Dallas, Austin or San Antonio, leaving local unemployment at record levels for years to come. Our neighborhoods and families would be torn apart as the Houston refugees were forced to “move on” in search of new lives and better prospects. Houston definitely dodged a bullet last summer, a bullet from the same gun that unfortunately hit our neighbors in New Orleans.
It will be several years before the refugees from Katrina regain their balance from the worst natural disaster to ever strike our country. Some may never succeed. During this difficult transition, we need to remember as a nation that we are never as strong as when we remain indivisible. We must be willing to lend a helping hand to those who need it, long after the victims' faces have disappeared from our television screens. Those victims are now the people we meet on the streets and in the schools, stores and banks of our very fortunate city. They are now our neighbors.
Sure, let's hold these folks to the same moral, legal and ethical standards as any Houstonians should be held to, but let's also try to remember just how lucky we all are today, and how things might have been if the wind hadn't blown Hurricane Rita away from us, to ravage other parts of Texas.
In recent weeks, I’ve heard and read quite a bit about the many Houstonians who are fed up and tired of all the Katrina refugees being here, six months after the storm. Last night in a movie ticket line, I heard a man say he was tired of hearing all the sob stories from “those Katrina people” at his job at a local bank. He expressed the wish that they would “move on” from our town and quit complaining about how bad things are for them.
Tonight, I watched The Grapes of Wrath, a classic film about a poor rural Oklahoma family uprooted by weather-related ruin, turned into refugees in the 1930’s. These “Okies” hear rumors of opportunity in California and head westward, with little or no money and the idea that if they get into trouble, they will have to rely on the goodness of their fellow man for assistance. Although they do find a few good people along the way, they also experience man’s inhumanity to his fellow man: they are harassed by authorities, taken advantage of by ranchers and growers, and herded like cattle through town after town, state after state by people who just want the Okies to keep moving on.
Like the 1930’s Dust Bowl that uprooted so many Americans, the hurricane season of 2005 turned thousands of Americans from Louisiana out onto the road, forcing them to leave behind their destroyed cities and towns and try to start new lives.
America in 2006 is a lot different than the one of 1936, but one thing remains constant: this is still the United States of America and we are all one people. We need to look out for each other and lend a helping hand, even when we are weary of helping or think that we can’t give anything else.
Think how different your own life and this city would be if Hurricane Rita had not changed course last September, if Rita had instead slammed directly into Houston. Thousands of dead bodies, just on our freeways alone, whole families drowned in their cars, imprisoned in the very real million-car traffic jam that occurred. Imagine our devastated downtown area, with several billions in damage to the infrastructure and buildings. There would be a mass exodus of corporations and jobs to Dallas, Austin or San Antonio, leaving local unemployment at record levels for years to come. Our neighborhoods and families would be torn apart as the Houston refugees were forced to “move on” in search of new lives and better prospects. Houston definitely dodged a bullet last summer, a bullet from the same gun that unfortunately hit our neighbors in New Orleans.
It will be several years before the refugees from Katrina regain their balance from the worst natural disaster to ever strike our country. Some may never succeed. During this difficult transition, we need to remember as a nation that we are never as strong as when we remain indivisible. We must be willing to lend a helping hand to those who need it, long after the victims' faces have disappeared from our television screens. Those victims are now the people we meet on the streets and in the schools, stores and banks of our very fortunate city. They are now our neighbors.
Sure, let's hold these folks to the same moral, legal and ethical standards as any Houstonians should be held to, but let's also try to remember just how lucky we all are today, and how things might have been if the wind hadn't blown Hurricane Rita away from us, to ravage other parts of Texas.
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