shereads
Sloganless
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2003
- Posts
- 19,242
In carson's thread about fostering/adopting pets from the disaster area, scheherazade_79 wrote:
http://neworleans.craigslist.org/vol/
Shameful Confession (Caution: this part could cause a set-back in your restored faith in humanity): Hundreds of people at Craigs List have offered to board refugees in their homes. I admire that. I'd like to be that generous. But what if I get an unpleasant refugee? What if my refugee hogs the TV remote, drinks orange juice directly from the bottle, replaces the toilet paper roll facing the wrong way, and won't go away? Or even - God forbid - smells funny?
Yes, I know it sucks. I volunteer for projects with no long-term commitment, but I'd never open up my home to strangers for the same reason I never volunteered for the Big Sisters program. I might not like the kid, and what kind of mentor sends one back?
Craig's List doesn't have a screening service for those of us who can't commit unless we know our refugees will be fun, like the cast of "Friends." But it does have a lot of ideas for ways to help, whether or not you want to be deeply involved.
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A note about the violence and looting in New Orleans: the NBC cameraman who broke the convention center story last week said the violence was no more than you'd expect in any large city where there was suddenly no presence of law enforcement. He noted that TV crews were wandering downtown New Orleans all week with gear worth thousands of dollars, carrying their own supplies of water, food, batteries, etc. His crew had been yelled at by desperate people but never threatened.
I hated seeing all of the "looters" lumped in together, as if taking desperately needed supplies from an abandoned store were the same as stealing a TV set. If you've spent even a few days in a city without electricity, you've probably felt a bit of panic when you realized that were no stores, no gas pumps, no ATM machines, no way for the city to filter the water that comes through your kitchen tap, and no way to know when those things might be available again. It's hard enough to accept that when there are no bodies floating by, and when help is promised every day and postponed every day. I'm surprised that most people behaved as well as they did.
Here's a break from the despair and ugliness. A friend of mine who is a regular visitor to Craig's List told me what a great resource the site had become for people looking for ways to make a difference. If you want to help disaster victims in a more personal way than with a Red Cross donation - or if your faith in humanity could use a jump-start - take a look at this page. These are just today's listings.
http://neworleans.craigslist.org/vol/
Shameful Confession (Caution: this part could cause a set-back in your restored faith in humanity): Hundreds of people at Craigs List have offered to board refugees in their homes. I admire that. I'd like to be that generous. But what if I get an unpleasant refugee? What if my refugee hogs the TV remote, drinks orange juice directly from the bottle, replaces the toilet paper roll facing the wrong way, and won't go away? Or even - God forbid - smells funny?
Yes, I know it sucks. I volunteer for projects with no long-term commitment, but I'd never open up my home to strangers for the same reason I never volunteered for the Big Sisters program. I might not like the kid, and what kind of mentor sends one back?
Craig's List doesn't have a screening service for those of us who can't commit unless we know our refugees will be fun, like the cast of "Friends." But it does have a lot of ideas for ways to help, whether or not you want to be deeply involved.
----------------
A note about the violence and looting in New Orleans: the NBC cameraman who broke the convention center story last week said the violence was no more than you'd expect in any large city where there was suddenly no presence of law enforcement. He noted that TV crews were wandering downtown New Orleans all week with gear worth thousands of dollars, carrying their own supplies of water, food, batteries, etc. His crew had been yelled at by desperate people but never threatened.
I hated seeing all of the "looters" lumped in together, as if taking desperately needed supplies from an abandoned store were the same as stealing a TV set. If you've spent even a few days in a city without electricity, you've probably felt a bit of panic when you realized that were no stores, no gas pumps, no ATM machines, no way for the city to filter the water that comes through your kitchen tap, and no way to know when those things might be available again. It's hard enough to accept that when there are no bodies floating by, and when help is promised every day and postponed every day. I'm surprised that most people behaved as well as they did.
