# Katrina family trashes free house in MD **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 3, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875 "2005-12-03T05:23:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/1 "2005-12-03T05:23:32Z")
Were these folks raised by wolves? No. Wolves have better social structure. [MD sucks](http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/carroll/bal-md.ca.house02dec02,0,1836406.story?coll=bal-newsaol-headlines) was their parting statement, spray painted on the siding. No thanks for anything. Grrr. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/2 "2005-12-03T05:58:08Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > MD sucks was their parting statement, spray painted on the siding. No thanks for anything. Er, not precisely correct, apparently. > [@Rona Marech and Mary Gail Hare](#): > > ]Keith and Sandra Brown said two of their sons, who have found jobs and remained in Westminster, were planning to clean the house once the remaining family had moved out. > > Elijah Brown, 19, helped with the cleaning Monday. Josh Brown, 22, who admitted spray painting the words on the house, has promised to remove the graffiti. It’s unclear whether the two brothers, who are living with other volunteers, are going to stay in town. > > “I am more grateful than anyone will ever know. People we hardly knew gave us so many things. I have thank-you cards ready. … I really thought Maryland was beautiful, and I felt truly blessed,” Sandra Brown said in a phone interview yesterday. But she said some church members continued to act like the house was their own and “treated my husband and me like children.” The article then quotes a spokesperson for the organization that helped arrange the houosing, as saying that some of the local people treated the Browns as their personal pet project, even entering the home without knocking. Granted, no excuse for trashing the place, but rather insensitive toward people who have been through an extremely stressful experience and have a right to a bit of privacy. No question, trashing the house was out of order, likewise the graffitti. But at the very least, the family involved appears to have realized that they were out of line in their behavior and are trying to put it right. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/3 "2005-12-03T06:01:30Z")
If church people barged into my home when I was asleep and told me it was time to get up, and did it under the guise of “helping the less fortunate”, I’d spray paint something alot worse before I left. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/4 "2005-12-03T06:55:52Z")
Personally, i don’t think there’s any excuse for trashing a house, or writing grafitti on it. That said, it’s clear that there’s a lot more to this story than one would think from reading the OP, the author of which apparently only bothered to read half the article. What up, **danceswithcats**? Was the 850 word story a bit too long for you? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/5 "2005-12-03T07:53:58Z")
Under no circumstances should the Browns have trashed the house in Maryland and left. There should never have been any graffiti to be covered up later. Although some benefactors may have been overly zealous in their concern for the Browns, something makes me think that the house still had doors that would lock from the inside. On the other hand, I don’t know how I would be acting if everything that was familiar to me was gone overnight: home, friends, job, school, community, church, city, traditions, place. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/6 "2005-12-03T08:57:23Z")
God, people are totally awesome. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/7 "2005-12-03T11:28:39Z")
Really, 19 is way too old to be acting out like that. The kid should apologize to the congregation and make sure he gets the house looking at least as nice as it was when they got there. OTOH, I’m surprised there aren’t more stories like this, especially with organizations like this one. As the article noted, the people are being asked to think about their hosts’ feelings when they have lost everything and are still trying to figure what. if anything, will be salvaged from their previous life. That’s not a feeling that will be conducive to suffering fools gladly when they stop by first thing in the morning to say “wakey wakey!” Really the whole misunderstanding could have been avoided had dad been given a baseball bat, and used it on the first idiot who came barging into their home because they wanted to feel even more virtuous than they were feeling already. I’m not blaming the congregation members, though. They would have to have been an exceptional group for this not to happen. They felt like they owned the people they were helping in some sense, and their beneficiaries didn’t disabuse them of that notion until they were past doing so politely. ---
**Author:** ![ImaginalDisc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a88e57/32.png) [@ImaginalDisc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ImaginalDisc)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/8 "2005-12-03T14:56:01Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Although some benefactors may have been overly zealous in their concern for the Browns, something makes me think that the house still had doors that would lock from the inside. A) There are lots of places in rural America where people don’t make a habit of locking their doors. B) The Chruch people probably have a key. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/9 "2005-12-03T16:34:26Z")
IMO 1: The Katrina “guests” were low class trailer trash who behaved about the way you would expect and trashed the house interior. I am 100% sure this would have been done without or without church people bothering them. 2: The church people were idiots if they actually came onto the property to tell the trailer trash people it was time to get up and look for a job. That’s pressing too many hot buttons for people who are in stranded circumstances, and that’s what I think yielded the grafitti. Synopsis - guests are standed trailer trash & highly defensive, and some of the church people are well meaning, pushy idiots. Things went down about like you’d expect. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/10 "2005-12-03T17:35:15Z")
> [@astro](#): > > IMO > > 1: The Katrina “guests” were low class trailer trash who behaved about the way you would expect and trashed the house interior. I am 100% sure this would have been done without or without church people bothering them. > > 2: The church people were idiots if they actually came onto the property to tell the trailer trash people it was time to get up and look for a job. That’s pressing too many hot buttons for people who are in stranded circumstances, and that’s what I think yielded the grafitti. > > Synopsis - guests are standed trailer trash & highly defensive, and some of the church people are well meaning, pushy idiots. Things went down about like you’d expect. You assume a heck of a lot. Mind backing up your assertions? Adam ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/11 "2005-12-03T21:07:20Z")
> [@astro](#): > > IMO > > 1: The Katrina “guests” were low class trailer trash who behaved about the way you would expect and trashed the house interior. I am 100% sure this would have been done without or without church people bothering them. > > 2: The church people were idiots if they actually came onto the property to tell the trailer trash people it was time to get up and look for a job. That’s pressing too many hot buttons for people who are in stranded circumstances, and that’s what I think yielded the grafitti. > > Synopsis - guests are standed trailer trash & highly defensive, and some of the church people are well meaning, pushy idiots. Things went down about like you’d expect. Amen. You can’t put a bunch of displaced N.O. swamp rats into a nice, free home and expect them to not poop in the foyer. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/12 "2005-12-03T21:13:05Z")
> [@VCO3](#): > > Amen. You can’t put a bunch of displaced N.O. swamp rats into a nice, free home and expect them to not poop in the foyer. I see what you mean. Well-bred folk like you wait until they’re in the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/13 "2005-12-03T21:37:16Z")
Wow. I’ve only seen this and the “lactose intolerant? have some half-and-half!” thread, but is **VCO3** always this much of an asshole? ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/14 "2005-12-03T21:52:14Z")
> [@VCO3](#): > > Amen. You can’t put a bunch of displaced N.O. swamp rats into a nice, free home and expect them to not poop in the foyer. They responded to rudeness and condescension with a childishly inapproriate destructive response. In other words, behaving exactly like you when you’re at work. If you were less hypocritical you’d be praising them. And Tracy Lord? Yes, as far as I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/15 "2005-12-03T21:57:22Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > Wow. I’ve only seen this and the “lactose intolerant? have some half-and-half!” thread, but is **VCO3** always this much of an asshole? That would be one of the reasons few of us took his OP in that thread as, as he claims, joking. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/16 "2005-12-03T21:59:17Z")
> [@astro](#): > > IMO > > 1: The Katrina “guests” were low class trailer trash who behaved about the way you would expect and trashed the house interior. I am 100% sure this would have been done without or without church people bothering them. You’re 100% certain about the characters of people you know only from a couple of paragraphs in a news article? Amazing. Also arrogent and unfounded. And I’m not really comfortable with the idea you seem to have that somehow some people are just trash. By nature? Built into their DNA? An ugly idea. (And I help manage a trailer park for 5 years so I do know from trailer trash, ok?) ---
**Author:** ![liberty3701](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@liberty3701](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty3701)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/17 "2005-12-03T22:14:11Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > is **VCO3** always this much of an asshole? Yes, and … yes. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/18 "2005-12-04T01:04:13Z")
At least, I think this is a picture of the couple in question… ::: shrug ::: [They](http://www.marylandweather.com/news/weather/site/hurricane/bal-2brownphoto1011,1,5074206.photo) look like just regular people to me. Perhaps they don’t run with the Porsche and Chianti set, but otherwise how does one tell if they are representative of “trailer trash”? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/19 "2005-12-04T01:22:10Z")
Charity is hard, giving and getting both. Maybe some articulate Doper can explain why. I can’t. I just know that I’d hate to accept private charity, and I’d hate it even more if there were strings attached. Not that taking care of a home is a “string”. The Browns should have been given the home with instructions to call someone if they had questions or needed anything, and then they should have been left alone. I don’t think it’s an “ugly side of humanity” like the article said. It’s an illustration of the fact that we don’t know how to properly give or receive. ---
**Author:** ![Updike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@Updike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Updike)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/20 "2005-12-04T01:33:08Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > The Browns should have been given the home with instructions to call someone if they had questions or needed anything, and then they should have been left alone. What kind of questions did they have? “Should I spraypaint the side of the house?” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875.md?page=2)