# Katrina person one year later-have I missed the spoof, or is this guy for real?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [June 6, 2006, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580 "2006-06-06T05:10:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 7
### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/121 "2006-06-07T22:23:32Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> You know what, screw it. I’m putting more effort into defending this piece than it deserves. I don’t think the author is going for any racial stereotypes, but he IS trying to shock people by making Johnson look as lazy as possible, which is reflected in the word choices you’re complaining about. He could have written a piece that was harder to attack if he’d sourced things better, and, more importantly, if he’d offered any kind of balance. Even if everything he says is true, he handles it poorly.
This is my sentiment actually, word for word. As I said earlier, the stereotypes are pretty mild.
But I gotta wonder why a fifty year old man chooses to live unemployed and broke in a hotel room watching TV everyday and not even try and contribute to society, get his old life back or go back home to his roots, property and family in NOLA. I gotta wonder what agency his caseworker is employed by. I wonder why he turned down a free ticket home back in February, which doesn’t make sense to me _at all_, unless (this is just a guess) he was still waiting on his $9,000 in housing aid to come through first, or underwent some specific trauma or loss. But hey, these kinds of facts would balance the story and get in the way of a good fuming. We’d all like a happy ending and for these folks to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Being “lazy” is too simplistic.
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2006, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/122 "2006-06-08T06:14:50Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> You know what, screw it. I’m putting more effort into defending this piece than it deserves.
Better late than never. The fight against ignorance notches up another success.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2006, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/123 "2006-06-08T06:17:08Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#):
>
> Better late than never.
Exactly. That post made me later for work, but it was worth it. (Really, sometimes just stepping away from the keyboard makes all the difference.)
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2006, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/124 "2006-06-08T06:28:05Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Really, sometimes just stepping away from the keyboard makes all the difference.
That’s where popping by for just 30-40 mins a day has its advantages. Disadvantage: you can’t read everything. (I nearly wrote “anything” - I must stop taking those truth pills.)
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2006, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/125 "2006-06-08T06:28:43Z")
Not reading anything here does seem to work for some people.
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### Author:  [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2006, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/126 "2006-06-08T07:02:17Z")
> [@Weirddave](#):
>
> . . . Just what are these drawbacks? I’ve always wondered about all of these people who so viehamently assert that human life has inherent value. Why? I just don’t get it. Personally, I think that human life does have value, but it’s based upon what individual humans _do_. .[stuff deleted] . To put it back context of the OP, if this guy were to die tomorrow, what would the loss be? The gain would be society no longer having to support this deadbeat. What’s the downside?
Like individual humans, the inherent value of societies is also based on what those societies _do_. The man’s death might have little or no negative effect on society. Creating a social standard that ignores the realities that cause his death is a negative effect, in my opinion. Why should I be a contributing member of this cooperative effort that creates society, if society demonstrates to me that it cares only what I produce, and not at all for me as an individual?
The downside is the jungle. Darwin I can have without taxes, service to social good, or limiting myself by legal systems. If you want to have one, your society must prove its worth.
Tris
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### Author:  [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2006, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/127 "2006-06-08T07:04:21Z")
> [@davenportavenger](#):
>
> Also, **Tris** , you might want to let up on stereotyping the mentally ill too.
I don’t think I did.
Tris
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### Author:  [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2006, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/128 "2006-06-09T07:18:35Z")
> [@The Long Road](#):
>
> I read the article and was going to throw in a few comments from a New Orleans point of view till I read where this thread is going. Yikes!
Like **roger thornhill** , I would really like to hear those comments.
I don’t have anything to add on the subject of implied racism or sensational reporting. But just speaking as someone who has friends who are still not back in New Orleans because of Katrina, I have at least one thing to add about the actual topic of New Orleans people getting their lives back:
> [@Askia](#):
>
> I wonder why he turned down a free ticket home back in February, which doesn’t make sense to me _at all_, unless (this is just a guess) he was still waiting on his $9,000 in housing aid to come through first, or underwent some specific trauma or loss.
It can be pretty damn hard to find housing in New Orleans nowadays. Everyone seems to be assuming that you can just take your ticket home and find yourself a new place to live, but if you were an apartment-dweller and you don’t have much money (and that means a real income, not FEMA money), it’s not going to be that easy. Even if you could find a place to live, if your neighbors and your neighborhood are gone, it’s still be pretty daunting to just go back and try to start again from nothing. The social and economic structure of the city took a huge hit and things are still pretty chaotic.
Aside from the difficulty of finding affordable housing, the levees are certainly no stronger right now than they were last summer. I know at least one person who really, really wants to move back, but she’s planning to stay away until hurricane season is over. A lot of us who aren’t in or from the area hit by Katrina seem to be forgetting this, but just because time has passed and Halliburton and their associates are raking in the government cash doesn’t mean that everything’s back to normal. Things are still very, very fucked up, not only in New Orleans but in a wide swath of the Gulf region. This is not fixed yet, not by a long shot.
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