The official blog of the Libertarian Party
October 28, 2005
Religious Groups Have Stepped Up Katrina Relief Efforts
While the various levels of government faltered in their response to Hurricane Katrina, various churches and synagogues stepped up to fill the gap in helping Gulf Coast residents.
Two months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, religious groups pledged that feeding, clothing, and sheltering survivors of the storm will continue as long as necessary, according to the Washington Times.
Joe Conway, spokesman for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, stated his group has provided "more than $11 million worth of in-kind labor since the hurricanes." Southern Baptists have cooked over 9.3 million hot meals for hurricane victims. According to Conway, his members did the majority of the cooking for the Salvation Army. Jeffrey Jellets, a disaster services coordinator for the Salvation Army, said, "The Southern Baptists cook the meals. We load them into containers and put them on mobile feeding units and go into New Orleans and other hard-hit areas and distribute them."
Additionally, Catholic Charities raised a record $63 million for hurricane disaster relief efforts. As with many other religious groups that have participated in hurricane relief, Catholic Charities have provided much-needed temporary housing. They run the Adopt-a-Family program that help refugees find housing and pays the rent and utility costs for the first six months.
Mormons from states such as Georgia, Arkansas, Florida, and Alabama, have formed "Chainsaw Brigades" that cut and clear debris from fallen trees in affected areas. Karla Brandau, a spokeswoman for the Mormons' North American Southeast Area public affairs office stated the service is open to any member of the community. She further added, "They remove fallen trees from the roofs of houses and they also remove trees that are blocking driveways and roads."
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour praised the actions of the churches in his state and their involvement in the relief efforts. He commented, "Churches really filled a huge service by providing the essentials to evacuees, such as food, water, shelters, and showers. The state of Mississippi, as well as its citizens, appreciates the kindness and generosity of the churches that helped out during the Katrina disaster."
Posted by at October 28, 2005 10:31 AM
Reader Comments:
I find organized religion creepy - but nt nearly so much as overbearing government. It's great to see private funds being used for charity on a large scale.
Since there been almost no comment on this topic; I'm going to hijack this thread. :D
Look at what Apple is doing in relation to their new Power Macs: offering free online video seminars. This is EXACTLY what the LNC needs to start planning on doing for the on line training programs and other content such as FEC primers and other things that LP candidates need to know about. We need on demand video distribution and streaming capabilities. We need to be able to simulcast our Presidential Candidate live over the net in 2008 answering the debate questions in real time.
Link: http://seminars.apple.com/seminarsonline/pmg5/apple/index.html?s=20
I know some of this is in the minds of other folks but this is the direction we need to go in, not worrying about artwork for 3 fold brochures. Forget the brochures. They suck. This does not suck. Think big, LNC.
Yes, but many do.
And just about all of them read my blog.
Knowing that you get a good dose of me every day just warms my heart, D.
Is'nt your reply as off topic as my post?
I try to read as many libertarian blogs as possible... even the ones I find insane...
:-)
On the topic however; it's good to see that where government fails, there is the private sector to help out.
A couple members of our Hamilton County LP here in Tennessee loaded up a truck of materials and headed down to the gulf coast twice... their efforts were effective... the governments bogged down attempts at help were a huge failure.
Me too, Trevor. I read a dozen or so every couple of days. There's nothing like the entertainment value of self-important rantings.
There's only one, however, that is written by someone who has been absolutely ineffective in his own LP activities, yet he still deludes himself in thinking he has the expertise to tell others that what they are doing is all wrong, stupid, repugnant, etc.
Even insanity will have its day; and if conventiongoers choose his form of insanity next year, well, so be it. No one is married to this organization; if it's appropriated by fraud and delusion, there's nothing preventing the formation of a new organization.
There's a 35 year history behind the conclusion I came to, and the facts cant be ignored.
No more than 1.03% ever voted for the LP Presidential Candidate in our history.
We have never gotten a federal officeholder elected.
We have only managed to get a few scattered state office holders elected in that entire time.
We brag about having 600 office holders, but most of them are appointed positions in small towns or counties where they are lucky anyone takes the job. Actually, I've got my resume and references out for some of those same type positions right now, so I shouldnt be too rough on them. :)
You might have a case if you actually had a record of success to point to. Show it to me. SHow me exactly where this party has had a serious effect on the loss of liberty since 1980.
I notice that you never answered my question a while back - have you ever been a LP candidate? I assume from your silence you have not been. Ever been attacked for your party's platform in front of hundreds of voters and forced to try to defend the former "Childrens Rights Plank" to them? It's not fun. You might expect to not succeed when you have a total political suicide document as a party platform to defend.
Likewise, if the majority of the LP conventioneers decide they like the LP the way it is now, there's nothing to stop a new party from forming.
The insanity is all on your side D. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the classical joke about it, yet the funny thing is, if we actually got past the level of discussions we tend to have we would probably agree on >75% of libertarian issues.
But you wont have any of that. Me and Walt are going to try to look past our differences and see where we can work together, why dont you and I try to do the same? Stop attacking every word I write on here and stop pretending that by doing so you are involved in some great battle to save the LP, and I'll quit responding in kind.
This is a limited time offer and operators are standing by.
Timothy west wrote:Since there been almost no comment on this topic; I'm going to hijack this thread. :D
Walter D. writes:Hijackers could at least send their off-topic opinions to people who could actually consider their suggestions:
Now I write:
Well maybe the LP should open a blog that allows people to express there opinions and concerns in areas that interest everyone as a way of excellerting freedom of speech. These blogs are subject specific and is hampering discussions on many off topic issues so why not have a seperate blog that allows open, non specific subjects to be discussed. Let the readers talk about what ever it is they want to talk about and still have your on topic blogs as well? Let freedom reign.
I also write: Way to go churches, you just answered an age old question and its a good one. (Can man survive without the help of huge, overbearing, oppressive govenment......THE ANSWER IS YES. YES WE CAN. Its a miracle folks. The churches helped out and the people survived without the government dictating their every move. Isn't it amazing, we can actually get by with a WHOLE LOT LESS GOVERNMENT.
Send the politicians their pink slips. We can actually live each day without them setting our alarm clocks, cooking our breakfast and driving us to work and sitting there waiting for us to get off work so that they can drive us and our paychecks to bank afterwords.
Ray wrote: Way to go churches.
Thats right, it just goes to show that people working together is so much better than having government take care of all of your needs because they can't and they never will.
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I find organized religion creepy - but nt nearly so much as overbearing government. It's great to see private funds being used for charity on a large scale.
Posted by: Nigel Watt at October 28, 2005 03:02 PM