An opinion piece by Thomas L. Friedman in today's Houston Chronicle aptly focuses on Bush's administration of our country. "These are people so much better at inflicting pain than feeling it, so much better at taking things apart than putting them together, so much better at defending "intelligent design" as a theology than practicing it as a policy."
Leadership is needed on these issues:
The national government, at the Federal Communications, should compel cellular telephon companies not to suspend services in the 504 area code. Thousands of our evacuees cannot use their cell phones and they need them badly.
Celllar telephone companies should be encouraged and even reimbursed to extend the phone service for those evacuees who are not able to pay their monthly August/September bill.
Spanish language volunteers should be mobilized to help in the Missippi and Alabama where hundreds of Latinas and Latinos are stranded. Because there are no Spanish language radio stations in those areas and news about services and options do not reach the ones who need them, Spanish language radio networks should cooperate with local radio stations to broadcast 15 or 30 minutes daily in Spanish with crucial information about options. This could be done immediatlely.
I'm spending the afternoon at the tech center of the Astrodome again. The good news for today is that hundreds of apartment owners/managers are registering to provide rent-free housing for 6-8 months. They will be reimbursed later by Houston and FEMA. This is fantastic good news and I am assuming that the housing organizers will setup online application options. Congratulations to Houston for organizing this housing plan.
If you can provide any housing, please register at: Houston Chronicle: Emergency Housing Forum or MoveOn.Org housing board
Adán
