[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 116 (Thursday, September 15, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1876]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            AN EXCELLENT OP-ED ARTICLE ON HURRICANE KATRINA

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                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 15, 2005

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to your attention an 
excellent op-ed article that appeared last week in the New York Times 
by David Brooks titled, ``Katrina's Silver Lining.'' The op-ed article 
points out that the devastation which occurred earlier this month along 
the Gulf region now presents us with the challenge to address the roots 
of poverty in the United States.
  Poverty was the underlying cause of the tragedy that occurred in 
Louisiana a couple of weeks ago. Many of the people who were unable to 
evacuate did not have the economic means to flee the hurricane that 
destroyed their city and countless lives. An individuals financial 
circumstance should not get in the way of life and death decisions. 
Low-income families should not be forced to risk their safety and well-
being simply because they do not have the financial means to protect 
themselves.
  Addressing the tragedy that occurred in New Orleans will take more 
than rebuilding the city's infrastructure. In order to ensure that the 
human suffering that has occurred never happens again, we need to 
address the high rates of poverty that exist in this Nation.
  Every American should have the right to live a better life. We must 
ensure that everyone has the ability to adequately care for their 
families. Moreover, we need to ensure that every American has access to 
educational opportunities which lead to greater outcomes. And we must 
ensure that no one is forced to make a life and death decision based on 
their financial circumstance.
  Early estimates suggest that thousands of Americans may have perished 
as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the events that occurred after the 
storm, while many others were injured. The families that were forced to 
remain in Louisiana during the storm have finally been evacuated and 
now faced with the difficult task of rebuilding theirs lives. Sadly, 
many of them are also desperately searching for missing loved ones.
  In the wake of this disaster, let us move forward with an aggressive 
agenda to eradicate poverty in the United States. Let us rise to the 
challenge that Hurricane Katrina presented to us by removing the 
hurdles that force too many families to live in poverty. We can do 
this. The survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and the millions of other 
Americans who are living in poverty, deserve nothing less.

                [From the New York Times, Sept. 8, 2005]

                        Katrina's Silver Lining

                           (By David Brooks)

       As a colleague of mine says, every crisis is an 
     opportunity. And sure enough, Hurricane Katrina has given us 
     an amazing chance to do something serious about urban 
     poverty.
       That's because Katrina was a natural disaster that 
     interrupted a social disaster. It separated tens of thousands 
     of poor people from the run-down, isolated neighborhoods in 
     which they were trapped. It disrupted the patterns that have 
     led one generation to follow another into poverty.
       It has created as close to a blank slate as we get in human 
     affairs, and given us a chance to rebuild a city that wasn't 
     working. We need to be realistic about how much we can 
     actually change human behavior, but it would be a double 
     tragedy if we didn't take advantage of these unique 
     circumstances to do something that could serve as a spur to 
     antipoverty programs nationwide.
       The first rule of the rebuilding effort should be: Nothing 
     Like Before. Most of the ambitious and organized people 
     abandoned the inner-city areas of New Orleans long ago, 
     leaving neighborhoods where roughly three-quarters of the 
     people were poor.
       In those cultural zones, many people dropped out of high 
     school, so it seemed normal to drop out of high school. Many 
     teenage girls had babies, so it seemed normal to become a 
     teenage mother. It was hard for men to get stable jobs, so it 
     was not abnormal for them to commit crimes and hop from one 
     relationship to another. Many people lacked marketable social 
     skills, so it was hard for young people to learn these skills 
     from parents, neighbors and peers.
       If we just put up new buildings and allow the same people 
     to move back into their old neighborhoods, then urban New 
     Orleans will become just as rundown and dysfunctional as 
     before.
       That's why the second rule of rebuilding should be: 
     Culturally Integrate. Culturally Integrate. Culturally 
     Integrate. The only chance we have to break the cycle of 
     poverty is to integrate people who lack middle-class skills 
     into neighborhoods with people who possess these skills and 
     who insist on certain standards of behavior.
       The most famous example of cultural integration is the 
     Gautreaux program, in which poor families from Chicago were 
     given the chance to move into suburban middle-class areas. 
     The adults in these families did only slightly better than 
     the adults left behind, but the children in the relocated 
     families did much better.
       These kids suddenly found themselves surrounded by peers 
     who expected to graduate from high school and go to college. 
     After the shock of adapting to the more demanding suburban 
     schools, they were more likely to go to college, too.
       The Clinton administration built on Gautreaux by creating 
     the Moving to Opportunity program, dispersing poor families 
     to middle-class neighborhoods in five other metropolitan 
     areas. This time the results weren't as striking, but were 
     still generally positive. The relocated parents weren't more 
     likely to have jobs or increase their earnings (being close 
     to job opportunities is not enough--you need the skills 
     and habits to get the jobs and do the work), but their 
     children did better, especially the girls.
       The lesson is that you can't expect miracles, but if you 
     break up zones of concentrated poverty, you can see progress 
     over time.
       In the post-Katrina world, that means we ought to give 
     people who don't want to move back to New Orleans the means 
     to disperse into middle-class areas nationwide. (That's the 
     kind of thing Houston is beginning to do right now.)
       There may be local resistance to the new arrivals--in Baton 
     Rouge there were three-hour lines at gun shops as locals 
     armed themselves against the hurricane victims moving to 
     their area--but if there has ever been a moment when people 
     may open their hearts, this is it.
       For New Orleans, the key will be luring middle-class 
     families into the rebuilt city, making it so attractive to 
     them that they will move in, even knowing that their blocks 
     will include a certain number of poor people.
       As people move in, the rebuilding effort could provide jobs 
     for those able to work. Churches, the police, charter schools 
     and social welfare agencies could be mobilized to weave the 
     social networks vital to resurgent communities. The feds 
     could increase earned-income tax credits so people who are 
     working can rise out of poverty. Tax laws should encourage 
     business development.
       We can't win a grandiose war on poverty. But after the 
     tragedy comes the opportunity. This is the post-Katrina 
     moment. Let's not blow it.

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