Lingering Impressions

TREAD ON THE POOR

If you tread on dirt enough, It turns to dust!
I should know, I am as old as dirt.  I’m old enough to remember when a dollar would buy 5 geallon of gas at 20 cents a gallon or even less.  The time was in the late 50’s and 
In the 1950’s, the minimum wage was a dollar an hour.  At that time, one could buy 4, sometime even 5 gallons of gas for a dollar.  Today, with the minimum wage at $7.25 per hour, a hour of work will only buy a little over 2 gallons of gas.  Today an hour of labor will buy half as much gasoline as what an hour of labor would buy 60 years ago.
Today we would have to make $10.04 to have the purchasing power of minimum wages in 1968.
Think what would happen if all workers making minimum wages were to have a raise of $2.79 to make their wage equal to their purchasing power of 1968.  Think what an additional 111 dollars per week would do for the minimum wage earners.  
These workers, 80% of which are over 20, are struggling to put food on the table, to clothe them selves, to care for their children, to pay for heat and other utilities, to even house them selves.  It they received extra money, it would be spent, each week.
Don’t forget that there are a lot of workers making more than the minimum wage, but below the 10 dollars. They’re making 8, 9 dollars an hour.  They would receive the increase to bring them up to this minimum wage standard.
There are about a million minimum wage earners at 7.25 a hour, over the age of 20.  That would be some 400 million dollars of additional spending power each month.
The 10 year period between Sept, 1997 and July, 2007 was the longest period with no increase in the minimum wage.  During those 10 years, we went from one of the most prosperous times of the 20th century to the depths of the GREAT RECESSION. 
The minimum wage was started by the Roosevelt administration in 1938, during the GREAT DEPRESSION, as a way to pull us out of that depression.  Unemployment at that time was 19%., almost the same as our real unemployment today.
President Roosevelt said of a minimum wage and I quote,
“It would alleviate the hardship of inadequate wage, …stimulate the economy and job creation by increasing consumer purchasing power. …would promote economic development…”.  He went on to say, ”millions of workers receive pay so low that they have little buying power.  Aside from the undoubted fact that they thereby suffer great human hardship, they are unable to buy adequate food and shelter, to maintain health or to buy their share of manufactured goods.”   I can still remember in years past when the minimum wage was to be increased, how business predicted they would have to lay off workers and/or go broke.  On the contrary, history shows that there has been an increase in economic activity when we increase the minimum wage.  During periods when the federal government did not raise the minimum wage, but some states did, those states had greater economic activity and better small business success.
Consumer speeding is 70% of the  economy.  I have read that every dollar spent goes through the hands of 7 people.  Compare that with the super rich who invest in off shore and overseas investments that don’t even pay taxes to our government.
I would think that successful businesses and corporations would want the poor to made more money.  The less a person makes means the more chance he will qualify for food stamps, subsidizes health care, subsidized housing, education that is not paid for from local taxes, subsidized school lunches and on and on!  Not only do the poor require more help from the government, but they pay less and in many cases no taxes.   And most important, there is no money left to buy luxury items even as mundane as shoes, etc.  
If Congress were to raise the minimum wage tomorrow with the raise to be implemented with the first full pay period, immediately we would see a tremendous amount of money injected into our economy.  

Factories that now are running at half speed could immediately begin running at higher capacities to replace the extra goods bought just in the first week.  Jobs would be created almost immediately to sell, supply and service the new demands.  Less money for government services would be needed to support the poor. 
Sales taxes would be collected, some additional 20 million per week, and some of the poor would have income tax liability for the first time in their life.
The increase in minimum wages could be passed quickly by the Congress.  Congressmen would not have to worry about cutting or applying for extra programs for their states to insure their own re-election.   All Congress members would see a benefit immediately, equally, across the board to the voting citizens.
As Roosevelt said, “The increase of national purchasing power [is] an underlying necessity of the day”.


There would be no cost, only benefits to the government!!
Don’t forget that millions make more than the minimum wage, but are still under the $10.00 amount of wages which would give them the purchasing power of 1986.

 
The minimum wage story is not the only part of our society that has seen a reduction in real wages.  I have doubts the US would have even have had a minimum wage with out the efforts of Unions early in the 1900’s.  Efforts by abused workers through out much of the 1900’s resulted in Unions which bargained for vacations, 40 hour work week, holiday pay, vacation time as well as increased wages.
When Union workers achieved better wages, those who were not union felt the benefits of the union strikes and bargaining positions. In order for non-union employers to attract help, they had to give a wage that approached the Union wage.  Other wise, they would continually lose workers to Union companies.  This helped keep wages at a higher level.
In 1986, the number of workers that were union was about 21 percent of the total work force.  Since that time, the percentage has dropped to about 7 percent.  Of those still union, many of them are in the public service area.  During this time, we have seen the real income, the purchasing power of our wage drop.
One of the reasons that union membership has dropped is because of the number of manufacturing jobs that have moved overseas.   Manufacturing jobs were a large percent of the private sector union membership.  
In the last couple of years, a major effort has been started to reduce the number of public sector jobs that are union.  There are currently 23 states that have heads of government attempting to limit or discourage union membership.  Rules have been enacted limiting how dues are collected as well as requiring continuing re-certification procedures.  Out right bans have been attempted.  
The result is that not only has the minimum wage not kept up with inflation, the wages of the middle class has also slipped.  
Again, certain political views believe that unions are harmful to a free economy.  If you look at the charts that show competitiveness among nations, of the top 50, most have a high % of union membership.  In fact, most have a larger % than the US.  Of the top 5, Sweden and Denmark have 80% union membership.  Yet they share the top 5 on the chart with the US.  In fact, the top 50 average 29% union membership. 
If you look at our own nation, we have 3 automobile companies that are union and leaders in the world with General Motors having the most sales of any car company.  UPS trucking, one of the largest and most successful trucking companies in the world is a union company.  INC, a magazine for small business, some years back featured an article noting the advantages of union help.
With the decline in unions and related wages, with the decline of minimum wages, our nation has seen a huge increase in poverty levels as well as a huge decrease in the number of middle income wage earners.  This has resulted in a large number of our nation with less money to spend.  
Some years back, I read that for every dollar spent, that dollar would pass through the hands of 7 people.  I don’t know the source or the accuracy of the statement, but let us look at what does happen when a dollar is spent.  
For example, if I buy a bag of potato chips, how many people does that purchase affect.  The grocery receives a profit from the sale, the clerk that rang up the purchase receives a small amount of wage as well as the stocker, floor sweeper, dock hand and supervisors of the store.  
We can’t forget that a trucker brought the bag to the store, that some one loaded the truck, that some one manufactured the truck as sell as serviced, sold and all the other costs associated with transportation.  Before the potato chips arrived at the warehouse, some one planted, fertilized, harvested and shipped the potato to a processing plant.
There the potato was  unloaded, washed, peeled, cooked and inserted into a bag.  Then the potato chips were shipped to the grocery store central shipping point.  
We can’t forget that their were those who sold the product, developed and manufactured the bag, furnished insurance, built buildings and equipment and yes, even furnished financing for every aspect of the operation.
If I don’t have a dollar, then I don’t contribute to any of the above operations.

Let us summarize what we have covered.  Minimum wage has not kept up with inflation and those who receive minimum wage have almost 30 % less buying power than in 1986.  By transferring manufacturing companies to other countries, many of our union jobs have disappeared.  This leadership for wages from union activities has been drawn down by the multitude of non union jobs.  In addition, a concentrated effort has and is being made to eliminate even more union contracts.  23 state governments are attempting to eliminate or limit the power of public contracts.  In addition, many companies now use part time help allowing them to not furnish benefits including vacations, sick leave, and insurance. What jobs that are available many times pay less than the job that was lost during the Great Recession. Because of a loss of tax income, efforts are being made to reduce help for those who have loss of income and benefits.
But things are getting better… right??
In the last quarter of 2011, the end of last year, our nation experienced a 3% growth rate.  This amounted to some additional 13 trillion income.
Did you get any.  On the contrary, look at what has happened to the bottom 90%.
Since 2000, our average income, when adjusted for inflation, has dropped $4,843.In the last three years, health insurance provided by employers has  dropped from 4 ½ %.In the same period, retirement plans paid for by private sector employers has dropped 3%.Home prices are down a third from 2006 and still dropping.  From a year ago, they have dropped 6.2%.Many completely lost their homes and to survive, had to turn in their IRA’s and other retirement plans.
Most of the bottom 90% of the public holds their wealth in what I have just mentioned, home ownership and private retirement plans.
So, where did this 3% growth go, where did this 13 trillion dollars go?  Most of this increase showed up as profits for large corporations and gains in stock prices.  Most of this increase went to the top 10%.  Most went to the top 1 %.  More than a third of this increase in wealth of our nation went to the 15,600 super rich households in the top one tenth of one percent!!!!  Only 3% went to the bottom 90%, the other 97% of our growth in the last 3 years has went to the top 90%.  We can say that the top 10% of the people in the US own the US.While this is happeningDuring ‘05 to ‘09White families got  poorer by 16%Black families got poorer by 53%Hispanic families got poorer by 65%In addition, the average White person has 15 times the wealth of the Latino and Black. 
Walmart heirs, (6) have greater wealth than the bottom 30% combined!  Since these figures, the wealth has grown another 20% to 97 billion.
While the bottom 90 % are losing the race, in the last 30 years, the top 10% has seen their wealth grow by 275%
Most amazing of all, the top 0.1% -- that's one-tenth of one percent -- had more combined pre-tax income than the poorest 120 million people (Johnston, 2006).
HOW DID THE RICH GET SO RICH? How do they stay so rich?
They make the rules.  Lobbyists from corporations (mostly owned by the very rich) and individuals not only argue their cases, but many times write the rules and regulations they want for their favorite congressperson.
They lobby against taxes and especially inheritance taxes.  They set up financial rules that even the congress doesn’t understand. I’m sure you are familiar with compex mortgage derivatives.  The do CDS credit swaps.  They have pushed for lax regulation, cheap Fed money, use compromised raging agencies, use  of complex mortgage derivates, pushed for the end of Glass-Steagall Act so they would have less oversight and the banks worked with insufficient capital.
The banks and financial institutions lied to investors, took unnecessary risks with money and then bought insurance to cover bad loans which they knew about.  In the end, they almost brought down not only our nation, but European countries as well.  Then after the bailout, of the people in the government who worked on the bailout, 8 went to work for the banks they saved taking knowledge and influence with them.  
Then the very CEO’s that broke all the rules and cost millions their homes and retirements, paid their selves huge amounts. For example, the CFO of GOLD MAN SACKS received $71 million,  JP Morgan CFO received $8 million, Citi Group received 19 million.  Instead of jail time for literal stealing the lives of millions, they were paid well.  
Then we look at the speculators who deal with oil futures and it is estimated that they contribute to 30% of the cost of oil.  Who pays that?  We do every time we fill with gas.
We could go on and on about the super rich talking about all the things we will never know about like off shore accounts and Swiss bank accounts..
The rich are not only getting richer in the US, but this is a world wide event with a larger amount of the money controlled by fewer and fewer people.  There are conspiracy theories about groups of men who are responsible for this happening.  I don’t know if it is a conspiracy, but it is happening..
Citizens of the world are rebelling.  Look at the Middle East where dictators have ruled for centuries.  Egypt and Libya have both overthrown leaders and it continues.  
I have always wondered why we have not had an uprising before.  The Black man has been treated in ways that I find repulsive and almost beyond my belief.  We had riots in LA 20 years ago and I still remember KC shut down at night because of unrest.  That was years ago.Then I read about our public housing program and I begin to understand.  We just took 19 billion from our public housing program to build additional prisons.  The US with 4 % of the world’s population has 25 % of the worlds prison population.  Think about who would be the most likely to uprise against the super rich.  It would be unemployed young males.  And we have a lot of them in our inter-cities. So we put them in jail for little reason, keep them there and then release them tainted for life.  Any misstep and back in jail they go. 
Give everyone else enough to barely get by and jail the rest.  
To understand the situation, we need to become familiar with an old term.  The term ‘robber barons’ was used in the late 1800’s and at various other times.  The title originated around 1000 AD when German lords charged ships to pass certain points on the Rhine river.  Because no service was provided to the ships, the money collected was considered robbery.  We used the same term in the late 1800’s for men who became billionaires from investments in railroads, steel, lumber and other industries.  This term was used again for those involved in the Great Depression.  Investors were using borrowed money to invest in the stock market.  Many were becoming super rich and they earned the ’robber baron’ title because they added no value to anything.  When the market crashed, so did the ’robber barons’ and the banks along with them. This has a familiar ring.

If we look back some 200 million years ago, the earth was going through a cooling stage.  As the climate cooled, snow that fell at the poles, did not melt.  As the centuries went by, more and more of the moisture on the earth ended up frozen at the poles. So much of the water became trapped at the poles, that the mid section of the earth became very dry with seldom a rain.
If, at that time, I had been standing at this location in Kansas City, I would have been able to look at a glacier which stretched down from the North Pole to here.  I would have had to look up because that glacier was a mile high.  We still live with the results of this glacier because when it began to melt, the Missouri river was formed.
The soil bculcame so dry that dust swirled around the world making drifts along the edges of the glacier.  Gradually the dust accumulated on the glacier, the heat of the sun melted the ice and the water formed the Mo River.
We have been treated like dirt and as the tread on us, we become smaller and smaller.  Just remember that a glacier was destroyed because of dust and all of us together can make a difference.  


If congress would raise the minimum wage, 400 million dollars a month would be inserted into our economy.  If rules were made that prevented money from influencing our Congress, influence from the rich would be restricted.  If our prison population were trained for jobs, then helped when they were released, crime and unrest could be halted.  If the rich paid their share of taxes, relief could be felt by the masses.

There would be little cost, only benefits to the government!!
To do nothing is the same as approving.
Support the ‘Occupy’ groups.  Education your church. Write your congress person. Speak up!  Forward a copy of this speech to your Facebook.www.lingeringimpressions.net 

Living Wages

A LIVING WAGE
Over a hundred years ago, Teddy Roosevelt, made the comment, “We stand for a living wage.”
He went on to list what he felt was necessary to be considered a living wage.  His list included;

Enough to secure the elements of a normal standard of living

A standard high enough to make morality possible

To provide for education and recreation

To care for immature members of the family

To maintain the family during periods of sickness

To permit to reasonable saving for old age
He went on to say; “if someone going to work a 40 hours a week”“They should be able to,

…PUT THEIR KIDS THROUGH SCHOOL

…HAVE AND KEEP A HOME

…TAKE A VACATION

…COVER 100% OF THEIR MEDICAL EXPENSES

…RETIRE WITH GRACE AND DIGNITY”

“That is the American Dream…”

 
Some 30 years later, Franklin Roosevelt, pushing for the minimum wage legislation during the “Great Depression” made the comment;

“No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.  By living wages I meant more than a subsistence level-- I mean wages of a decent living.”







Teddy Roosevelt was a republican.  Franklin D Roosevelt was a democrat.  As we went through our next two presidents, Truman and Eisenhower, one was a republican, the other a democrat.  By the end of the 50’s, minimum wage had its greatest purchasing power.
I can remember the minimum wage in 1960 as $1.00 dollar an hour and that one dollar would buy 5 gallon of gas, sometime more when a gas war was occurring.  In the next 40 years, we went through both democratic and republican presidents and congresses and by the end of the century, saw a standard of living the world envied.
Then, starting a new century, we saw our economy plunge into the ‘Great Recession’.  Almost all economists will blame this recession on gambles and poor decisions by the large financial and banking industries. And surely they bear much of the blame.
I know that banking regulations allowed this to happen, but there was another factor occurring at this same time.  During the first 10 years of this century, at the same time our economy was failing, our minimum wage had not been raised.  For the first time, our minimum wage had not been raised for 10 years.
The result was that the minimum wage in 1960 that would buy 5 gallon of gas, at the present time, the minimum wage of $7.25 would only buy 2 gallon of gas.  The purchasing power of our minimum wage had dropped.
On purpose, I have tried to show that regardless of the political party in power, the minimum wage has dropped in its ability to purchase.  For an example, our minimum wage at the present time compared with what the wage was during President Reagan will only buy two thirds as much.  Our minimum wage would have to be $10.00 an hour to purchase the same amount as when Reagan was president.

When at one time we thought of minimum wage as a wage for teens, today 90% of those receiving minimum wage are 20 or older.  In addition, a growing percent of educated workers between 40 and 65 are receiving minimum wage.  At a time when more people are depending on the minimum wage for their living, the purchasing power has dropped below a ’living wage’.
If our minimum wage were to increase to the amount with a purchasing power comparable to what workers had during the Reagan administration, our full time workers would have an additional 100 dollars of income per week.  This would amount to more than $450 per month. Think what this would have done in the last 10 years when home owners were losing their homes.  An additional 450 dollars would have made house payments more affordable and in families with two working people, that would amount to 900 dollars, enough to make many house payments.  I don’t know if this would have been enough to have prevented our recession, but the people on the low end of the wage scale would have had a lot more income to fall back upon.
Let us look at what would happen if at this present time we were to correct this imbalance of wages.  There are a million people over 20 working for minimum wages.  If we were to raise the minimum wage to 10 dollars an hour, each week would see an additional 100 million dollars added to our wages.  What do you think our poorer people are going to do with that money, save it, invest it?  That additional money would be used to buy food, shoes, transportation, pay back utility bills….  It would be spent!
In addition, there are a large number of wage earners 8 or 9 dollars an hour who would receive a wage increase, but let continue to look at the results of just the numbers above.








I remember reading years ago that for every dollar spent, that dollar would pass through the hands of 7 people before it stopped.  I don’t know if this is true, but I do know it moves through other hands.  Think about a person receiving an extra one hundred dollars.  Let us imagine that they go to the grocery store and stock up on food.  Let us imagine they buy a head of cabbage.  Look at the jobs created.
A clerk checks her out, a stocker put the product on the shelf, a truck driver delivered from the warehouse, a loader loaded the truck and before that a person unloaded the truck that brought the cabbage from the field.  There some one harvested a crop that was planted by someone; fertilizer was added, bought and so on.  But at each stage, each person who handled that cabbage, they receive money that they spent somewhere and the process repeated itself across the nation.
Now take the 100 million per week and think how many heads of cabbage and everything else that will be involved that will require more help.
Look at additional advantages.  States and local governments will receive huge amounts of sales taxes.  People will be able to get off food stamps and other welfare aids.  Some of the people receiving a ‘living wage’ will pay income taxes, some for the first time in their lives.  Additional jobs will be created reducing unemployment rolls.  Businesses will generate more sales and since many of these lower wage earners live in poorer neighborhoods, local small businesses will profit.  








I can remember when minimum wages were raised before.  Always there was talk of increased costs, layoffs and other factors.  The facts show otherwise.  There has always been an up tick in our economy.  There is no advertising that will work as well as people having extra money in their pocket!!!  Just look at the above example and you can see why.  In fact, some states will raise their minimum wage above the national level.  Some are even considering that right now.  Why would they do that if they didn’t think there was an advantage?
Our congress could raise the minimum wage today.  They could require the law to be implemented immediately with the next paycheck although it would be more practical to phase the increase in over a few months.
Our congress has been gridlocked because of differences of policy concerning debt control and income tax revisions.  This change in law bypasses their differences.  No taxes would be involved, congress would not have to spend any money, and history has shown that a ‘living wage’ is effective.
More importantly, there is a moral obligation to provide for the poor and downtrodden.  As Franklin Roosevelt said, “no business…paying less than living wages…has any right to continue in this country”.  Teddy Roosevelt emphasized that the American Dream is the ability to receive a living wage.
I think back to the time when black men and women marched and faced beatings and even death for the rights accorded the white citizen.  Today, we see a growing percentage of our middle class citizenship sliding a growing class of poverty.  What good is it to be free if we can’t afford the basic necessities of life?  What good is it to have a job if it won‘t cover our basic needs?




Revolutions are occurring around the world.  We can change this aspect of America life.  At www.LingeringImpressions.net is a copy of this talk plus a longer version.  Go there and send a copy to every one on your e-mail list and ask them to send it on.  Use Facebook and Twitter, You tube and other social mediums to send this across the nation.  Think of the chain letters of old.
E-mail every congressperson, both federal and state a copy.  Send a copy to your newspaper, your religious publications, and any other organizations with whom you are connected.  Last but not least, send a copy to our President and also to those running for president or any other office.
In our history, we have fought wars, marched in the heat, faced police and other hard methods for change.  Today, we have the Internet and we can fight for ourselves, others and our nation sitting at home.
Martin Luther Kings said”

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.  He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”  

e-mail  gary@lingeringimpressions.net

 

Sing-A-long

Sing-a-long

I have known my Amish friend for over 2 years now.  There is seldom a work day that doesn’t start with us meeting in front of his house to decide who needs who’s help and talk farmer talk, you know, weather, crops, livestock, all the important things of life.

Some time ago, my brother asked me if I had ever heard my friend and his family sing.  It seems that he had pulled up as they were milking their herd of cows and he heard them singing, harmonizing in German.  He informed me that it was beautiful.  When the Amish in my area have church, they conduct the service in German.

My friend and I are on a trip hauling produce to a market.  I asked my friend if the songs they sang were any that I might know.  He informed me that they were in German and he didn’t know.

As we talked, he asked me if I could sing and I informed him that sometimes I had sang for handicapped and rest home residents. 

We continued to talk and I asked him if he might know ‘Amazing Grace’ , a  common song of the churches I have attended.  He asked if I knew the words.  I explained that sometimes I couldn’t remember common songs I had sang for a hundred times without my Karoake screen in front of me.  As I tried to remember, I began to sing and in a few words, he was singing along with me!

Picture this if you can.

A 67 year old man with long hair tied up with a band like an Indian sitting in a van with an Amish man, beard, black hat and attire, singing together! ! !

Then, tell me that the world can’t live together, no matter their background.

Older Poetic Writings-God-Intimacy-Writing

In the past, I have penned different thoughts in poetic form and am listing some of my works below.

Concept of God

If
Above my tomb,
Were Writ
A Godly Man

And
Jew or Gentile
Were to View
As Godly

As
Godly Influences
Or the Spirit
Of Good

As
Children of God
Or Children
Of the Earth

I
Strive to make
Humanity
A better Race

With    
Contacts with others
In my
Daily Life

When
Life has run
Its last
Course

May
Some other person
Be able
To say

That
Life is kinder
Because of
My deeds

And
May our concept
We share
Of God

Be
One of good
That I may
Be a part

    Pete Williams

On Writing

Fame, Glory
  An after thought

Driven, Compelled
  To write

For Reasons
  Unknown

Expressions
  Of the Soul
    Pete Williams

Intimacy

Limbs entwined
  Melting
Togetherness of body
  Desperate to fulfil
Satisfaction instilled
  Spirits, Souls
Melded as One

Afterglow of touch
  Holding
Never to let go
  Content
Yet Desire
  To experience
Again and Again   

    Pete Williams

Thoreau

"We make ourselves rich by making our wants few." -Henry David Thoreau

Chaos after Katrina

Chapter 3

Chaos

No one is in charge.  There was a person in the office we had.  I think he lasted 2 days.  No one had any experience for anything of this scale.

The paid staff was sending food into the arena through catering services, so no one was hungry.  Some of the volunteers had divided the floor into areas and each one had a section.  Blankets arrived and more cots as people just kept coming. Many  of these people needed wheel chairs and as we only had a half dozen, as soon as we took some one to a bed, the wheel chair had to be returned to the entry door.  We had a triage area with volunteer doctors.  As many were ill from their experiences and most had lost any medicine they needed, the line was long.

We had one lady who stood at one entrance and just answered questions.  After a few days, we had two ladies arrive from Canada, Red Cross volunteers, and for the first time we felt we had some supervision.  I approached them once with some information that I thought head quarters needed for a problem.  They informed me that paid staff didn’t talk to volunteers and I will relate a story concerning that later.

Information booths begin sitting up on the upper levels of the stadium. These were mostly government agencies and there was always a line.  The US Post Office had set up a post office on the outside.  Many of these people were on social security or welfare and even pensions.  They had no way to receive their checks until the post office was set up.  But you couldn’t get mail without identification and most of the people there had fled the rising waters without anything.

Out side the stadium it looked like there had been an attempted prison break.  City and state police had set up command centers and literally hundreds of officers were present.  Every entrance had a guard.  As I had reason to be outside on occasion, I kept asking if any one knew a method for getting identification for the survivors so they could receive mail.  Eventually an officer suggested a solution and this was the information I mentioned earlier to the Red Cross ladies. 

I would walk across the floor for some reason and before I could  get across, I would be stopped for information.  Then I would try to find some answers, but before I would get very far, someone would catch me. 

Sometime on the first day or maybe the second, a man caught me and wanted to know if I was in charge.  I said no to which he replied that the others he had talked to said I was the one to get answers from.  So, I asked what he needed.  He went on to explain that he had a large laundry service in Houston and that if I would allow, he would bring in racks of towels.  Then if I would arrange every morning for all the dirty towels to be picked up along with the clothing that had been discarded, he would arrange a pickup, leave clean clothes and towels.  He had already arranged for shared duties with other laundry services.

I lost this man’s name in the process of the events that continued to happen.  But he deserves a medal. 

Every day, the people went to a section where we had donated clothing, picked up some new clothes, went and showered and discarded their dirty laundry.  Every day the laundry disappeared and clean clothes and towels reappeared.  I never saw this man again.  But we had several thousand people clean.

We finally moved some of the people over to the convention center next door.  One day, I had someone tap me on the shoulder.  He was from over at the convention center.  He asked me,

“How do you get your clothes clean and how do you get towels?”

So I explained to him the service being provided and gave him the number of the man who had the laundry service.

The city of Houston provided volunteers to help us.  After a few days, I would have 3 or 4 people following me, running errands to help extend the work we were doing.  They would help me gather the dirty laundry, pick up sign age material at stores and many other things to numerous to mention.  We eventually had to restrict the number of volunteers.

One day as I walked across the floor on some errand, a lady stopped me.  She was in her early 40s and was there with her father.  She had taken him to the triage, left him, and when she came back, he was gone.  So I went to the triage to see if I could find him.  What I found out was that as a person entered the triage, a volunteer would write on a piece of paper, scrap paper, his problem.  Then he was taken in turn to the doctor for examination.  This was fairly efficient as the doctor could make a decision without a lot of questions.  If conditions warranted, he would be sent to one of the many hospitals in Houston.  They then dropped the slip of scrap paper into a waste basket and went to the next patient. 

No record was kept of name or where the patient was sent.  I think he finally returned, I can’t remember, we had so many fires to put out.

About the third or forth day, a young lady stopped me.  She had her son with her and someway she had discovered that another child of hers and her husband had been put on a different bus and were sent to another town.  Later, I had a another couple stop me, there teenage son had been sent some where else.  They wanted to be reunited with him.

Solutions were being sought to bring people together.  Many of the victims wanted to know about friends and family.  On about the 3rd or 4th day, an effort was made to go from bed to bed trying to get names to put in a data base so that stranded people could find one another.  A good friend of mine who was a volunteer was working with another volunteer to put together this data base on the Internet.  They almost had it completed when word came down from paid staff to cancel their efforts.

In the meantime, another unnamed angel had set up shop on one of our top floors.  He worked for the telephone company and had brought in a bank of phones for people to use.  Even more important, he had started a list.  If someone had a place to go, he would try to get them there.  He would verify that they definitely had the permission to stay with friends or relatives and then would try to arrange transportation.

He was very successful in getting places for the victims to go.  Transportation was another matter.  He had approached me on the subject.  One day when I was going over to the convention center to discuss with them if they had any transportation for their people.  As I went in to the building, some man stopped me and asked what I was doing.  I explained.  He replied;

“You need to talk to ____”

He took me to the office of the man I had met only once.  The man who had talked to us on that first night which right now seemed a long time ago.  His first comment was to the other man;

“Why did you bring him in here?”

Paid staff doesn’t talk to volunteers.  How I remember that statement.

He went on to talk to me and when I told him that I was looking for transportation for victims, he replied;

“Why didn’t you come to me in the first place?”

He opened up his note book and gave me the telephone number of several bus lines.  I called them and found out that yes, they would give free rides anywhere “in Houston“.  Most of the people we were dealing with wanted to go to somewhere else. 

A few days later, I am crossing the floor on an errand of some kind when I was stopped by a woman who held out her hand and introduced herself.  I gave her my name and then asked her who she was. 

Embarrassment!!

She was the CEO of the Red Cross although I shouldn’t be to embarrassed as they have a constant turnover in that position. 

Anyway she asked me if there was anything I needed and I started to walk away, then remembered.  I told her that I had had a couple hundred people who had a place to go and live, but couldn’t get transportation for them.  I don’t remember exactly how many, but seems that at one time we had close to 500 and considering we had probably 20,000 people in the stadium, that would not be out of line. 

She turned to her assistant and said “Get on this“. 

He immediately called a lady at head quarters, gave her my number and she was to return the call.  She did shortly thereafter for a full description of the problem.  About a week later she did a follow up call.  We at that time had one bus load ready to go to a town fairly close and a bus donate with a driver and needed $60.00 for fuel.

With everyone living side by side, children, different races, helpless, homeless, you would think that there would be fights.  Only once did I see any angry and that was from a couple.  It only lasted a couple of minutes.

Our food came in from catering services and usually was served on an upper level of one of the concourses.  We had one catering service that brought in boxed meals instead of a buffet with a serving line.  I never thought anything about it until one day while on a mission to do some odds and ends I happened to look over toward a group of people.  Under their cots and stacked against the wall were a number of unopened boxes.

It dawned on me that the meat in these boxes would spoil very quickly in the 80 degree heat that we had.  I could only think that these were poor people who did not throw out anything.  Extra boxes of food to them was to be stockpiled.  After all they were homeless.  They were at our mercy and who knew when this would change and they would be without anything.

I had one of my volunteers go around and collect the extra boxes and then had a conversation with the man responsibile for the food and we made efforts to only let one box per person.  From then on we kept a close watch on the food.  Never was there any shortage and no need for the people to fear.

I don’t know what happened as I spent a couple days in the motel with a cold.  When I was well, I was sent to Corpus Christi to help with their shelter.  They had a hundred people and all their volunteers for Red Cross had just been signed on with out any training or experience.

Before the Storm

CHAPTER II

BEFORE THE STORM

I got a call that volunteers would be pre-positioned at Houston, Texas for a major hurricane coming into the area of New Orleans.  We arrived at Houston and waited for the hurricane to hit and see where we would be sent.  The second night we were asked to attend a meeting at the Astro Dome. 

There were about 30 of us there and a paid Red Cross staff member addressed our group.

He told us that we needed to split into two groups and one group would work a shift from 6 pm at night until 6 am in the morning.  The other group would spend the 12 hour shift working during the day.  He explained to us that we would be sitting up cots that night and that we should expect a large number of people to be coming in sometime that night.  He went on to give us this advice:

“You are Red Cross people and you know what to do!”

At the time, we were unaware of the magnitude of the storm that had hit New Orleans and were not aware that we had people coming who had spent time in the Super Dome and on the freeways outside of the city.

My group would work days, so we went back to our hotel and gathered some rest.

When I arrived at the Astro Dome ( a completely enclosed football stadium) the next morning, I saw that the entire football field had cots lined up in rows.  Each cot touched the next cot and a second row was placed at the foot of the first row.  Then an aisle was left and then a double row again ran parallel across the field.  Part of the cots were already filled, the rest were filling up as a constant stream of buses brought in more displaced people from New Orleans.  Eventually, we would have close to 30,000 people in the stadium before the fire dept came in and told us we had to move some out to another location,

If you have ever been in a major football stadium, you know that there are ramps leading to different levels for people to enter and exit.  These ramps are wide and as the field filled, we placed cots on both sides of these ramps and eventually when we had no more room and people were still coming in, the homeless people would start sleeping in the seats.  That is when the fire dept came in and we had to move a large group across the street to a large conventions center.

Try to picture these people who literally had only the clothes on their backs.  They didn’t have blankets.  Most didn’t even have their purse or billfold or any kind of identification.  Women with small children seemed to be in the majority.  Completely at our mercy for food, water, shelter and any other needs they would have.

None of the Red Cross volunteers had ever experienced any thing of this type or magnitude.  And our instructions were:

“You are Red Cross people and you know what to do!”

TWO YEARS LATER

Chapter II

Two Years ago

This is another one of those incidents that happened to me bringing up events from the past such as the one I just posted called "Over Five Years Ago".  I suppose it is out of sequence for my series of articles, but thought it was interesting and appropriate.

Many times I think that we do not realize the impact we make on others, especially children. 

Some two years ago, while I was vacationing during the winter on the gulf coast, I began carrying my laptop into a restaurant that I frequented on a regular basis.  I would play on-line chess as I waited on my food.  Before long, I had friends, cooks, wait people, people I didn’t even know sitting across from me playing on a small chess board. 

One couple who worked there, he as a cook, she as a waitress, asked me to come to their house and play chess with them.  On the afternoon that I arrived, their eight year old son watched us play. 

I am not the greatest player, but can hold my own and usually win more than I lose.  After a few games, the son expressed an interest in learning to play.  I taught him the moves and played a couple of games.  He actually won one when I let him get into my king row-not on purpose. 

For a little background, I also went once a week to a used book store where chess was played in the evening.  One night I was asked if I would like to play a young lady.  Of course, I sat down and shortly thereafter found my self in check mate.  They then told me that she was the Texas state champion for her age group which just happens to be eight. 

Things happen and I didn’t get to go south in the winter for a couple of years and even then for only a week.  I ran into the parents of the young man who I had taught to play chess.  They informed me that he still talked about me and wanted to play me again.  They also informed me that he could beat both of them most of the time and had taught his younger brother (now 8) to play chess.

We met in a park on a picnic table and this now 10 year old young man gave me a run for the money.

It makes no difference who won.  I just know that I made an impression on a young man in a way I could not have dreamed of if I had tried. 

As you read this series of articles on raising children, “A Joy to My Heart”,  one thing that you will hear me come back to time and time again is that we must pay attention to our children.  We need to give them the respect that we would to any adult and we just might, just might be surprised at the results.

Behind the Scenes

Katrina
 Chapter I

 We have heard the stories, seen the people sitting on roof tops, felt for those who lost their homes; but never, never have we met one of these people in person. A hurricane of tremendous force upsetting our nation as few other events have before or since. At the time, I was a volunteer for the American Red Cross. I had already served on a couple of minor hurricanes when Katrina hit New Orleans. Before the year was over, I had spent 2 and ½ months along the gulf coast. I had seen waste and in-efficiency of resources. I had seen destruction on a scale of a major war. I had seen sorrow and hope. Time and time again, I was ready to quit the American Red Cross from frustrations over how obstacles were addressed. In the end, I came to realize that no one else could do what was done except the Red Cross. I just want to share some experiences that you will never have a chance to know about unless you were there. And to start, I need to relate the first small hurricane that I worked. I don’t remember the name of that hurricane. When a hurricane is approaching a coast, the Red Cross send volunteers in advance, housing them inland out of harms way; but available to rapidly arrive on the scene after the storm. In this case, I think we were only about a 6 hour drive away. Some of us were in cars. Others were in a truck that reminds one of an ambulance. These small trucks were used to haul food and feed people along the road in front or their homes or to locate at a location for people to come and get free food. At a central location, semi-trucks had already been brought in supplies of food. These were stationed at food warehouses across the country always ready to respond. Also at this location, a semi-trailer with a portable kitchen was parked. On many occasions this was supplied by the Southern Baptist denomination of churches. A number of men from those churches arrived with the truck and it was very oblivious that they had experience cooking hundreds of meals. We would arrive in early morning and make runs around the affected neighborhoods at noon and again in the evening serving several hundred meals from each truck. This was a routine exercise and although there were always new volunteers, almost always there was some who had already worked a disaster.

We were required to take certain classes and meet certain standards and most of us had taken even more hours of training. Still, we are dealing with volunteers and sometimes, the situation could become humorous. I remember my first day when my responsible was to make sure the trucks were loaded and unloaded. We had about 7 or 8 trucks and I look up to see 3 of these trucks driven by “men” all trying to back in to one spot to be loaded-all at the same time. It they had been young males, I would have understood, but most of these guys were retired. The next loading time, I sat up barrels so that they had to come in single file and then I would direct them, one at a time into a parking space. We then were able to have three trucks loading at one time. I relate this incident because there is a person side to the Red Cross and hence, lots of screw ups.

That first night, when we had completed our tour of duty after around 12 hours, we then had to drive over an hour to our hotel. Since there were lots of other people helping and even residents of the area without livable homes, motel rooms were scare. On our second night, our group of some 20 headed again for the same hotel as we thought we still had reservations. When we arrived, we found that our rooms had been given to some one else. It seemed that a golf tournament had been scheduled months ago and the area where we were staying was outside the area impacted by the hurricane. The person responsible for our lodging had failed to notify us of any changes and had not made other arrangements for sleeping. You will see shortly how this affected us at another hurricane.

 So, we tried to contact the person responsible for our rooms. She was stationed over a hundred miles away and we found out later that she went off duty at 5 pm. It is now almost 9 pm, motels are booked, and we are in a small town that only has small towns for miles around. After a number of calls, we finally found rooms in this little town for the ladies. That left 4 males and we just took out driving until we found a small town that had rooms available. We finished our job of feeding within a week and drove back to our staging area to prepare to leave to go back home.

We didn’t get to go. Another hurricane was approaching the tip of Texas and so several hundred people were flown to San Antonio Texas to be ready to go where we would be needed. For some reason, they decided to send four of us on down to the Brownsville area. We drove down and when we went to the local head quarters, we were told to go immediately to a motel room. It seems that the hurricane had veered north and was going to hit the Brownsville area. We were given the name and address of a motel to go to. Now, remember, less than a week ago we found ourselves without a room. With a hurricane bearing down on us, we already were having wind and rain, I did not want to be looking for a room if someone else had mine. So, I gently asked, “Could I have your telephone number in case we have problems?” She gave it to us and away we went. About half way there my cell phone rang and I was informed that some National Guard members had came into town and our rooms were no longer available. !!! But she went on to explain that she had found us other rooms and away we went. The hurricane was a small hurricane and I watched out the window for a day as rain and wind kept everyone buttoned up at home. I am now an experienced Red Cross volunteer and ready for what ever will come my way. Little did I know it would be Katrina! ! !

OVER 5 YEARS AGO

VIII

The next story will be out of sequence for the time-line of my experiences.  It happened today and I thought that maybe a tale of the impact that we can have and how experiences can impact us at the same time would be appropriate at this time.

The agency I worked for put me in charge of a home for 8 people.  I only worked there for some 2 or 3 months as I was ready to retire.

I have now been retired, sort of, for 5 years and am living some 50 miles from the home above.  I am grocery shopping for Christmas dinner to share with my children and grandchildren.  As I go down the isle of the supermarket, I notice a man pushing a grocery cart.  He is short, slender, bent over and with head down slowly making his way down the isle.  I pass him  I stop.  I know that man!

I wander back down the isle for another look.  Yes, it is him.  I tap him on the shoulder and say:

“Don’t I know you?”

He looked at me for a minute and then, and then, after some 5 years, he threw his arms around me and gave me a hug.

I guess you would only have to hear him talk to tell that he has limited use of his intelligence.  Some of his appearances would give him away, buy he really didn’t look a lot different then many other me I have known.  I remember him as always wanting to be part of the group.  On a nice summer day, when some of us went out on the back deck for a break, he would always be there.  Usually he would sit close to me.  As the conversation of those handicapped mentally may differ from the normal conversation, still we found things to talk about.  Maybe it would be who would do dishes that night or had someone taken his turn washing clothing or who would go with me to grocery shop.  Although my little friend would have little to contribute, he still would have his say on occasion. 

I do remember that he always wanted a hug both when I arrived or left.  I also remember that he was usually involved with getting our autism affected young man to the dinner table.  I can still see him, in my minds eye,  holding that you man’s hand leading him to the dinner table.  He would sit by him many times.

After five years, he still remembers me and rushes to me for a hug.  As he holds me and I hold him, I talk with his mother and father.  It seems that he was at the agency where I worked for some 15 years and then they had had some problems.  He now resides with his parents as they try to find an opening in the small town that has a place for him. 

We talk about some of options in a rural community as my little friend holds on to me and I hold on to him.  Then we go our separate ways.  As I sit and relate this incident, I can still feel his arms around my waist.  I still remember that I didn’t want to let go of him. I told him as I left and it was true;

“I have thought of you many times.”

I will think of him many more times!!