Another South

Much of the national media coverage of Hurricane Katrina has focused on New Orleans. The Crescent City indeed suffered terribly at Katrina's hands, but the storm also destroyed large portions of Mississippi's Gulf Coast. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to Mississippi's struggles.

Fortunately, journalist Peter Boyer cast a spotlight on Mississippi's Gulf Coast in the September 26, 2005, issue of The New Yorker. A Mississippi native, Boyer returned home immediately following Katrina to survey the damage. In the process, he authored a thoughtful article that intertwines personal memories, regional history, the heated political fight over casino gambling and current events in a way designed to increase understanding of a place that seldom captures national attention.

Boyer's main insight is that the Mississippi Gulf Coast, unlike New Orleans, was never a prisoner of history and instead "was forever reinventing itself, with an eye on the next big deal and, more important, a capacity for finding opportunity in misfortune." Although popular prejudices often portray Mississippi as somehow different from the rest of America, Boyer argues that the region actually has a very American understanding of opportunity and the art of the deal. That attitude will allow the region to rebuild free of the constraints of history, Boyer notes, although whatever is built will be radically different from what existed before Katrina came ashore.

Pay later

Last week Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee called a Dec. 13 special election to issue higher education bonds and reauthorize highway bonds.

The bond issue will produce $150 million for state colleges and universities to use however they like, and another $100 million will pay off existing highway debt so the state can spend more in that area.

Huckabee emphasized that this was a painless process, because it involves "no new taxes" and "it's taking money we're already spending." He expects no opposition to the plan.

It is not a bad thing to spend more on higher education and better highways, which are two of the biggest priorities in Arkansas. But let's be honest. The debt will have to be paid off from the state's general revenue fund, so as the years pass, the money dedicated to the debt won't be able to be spent on other needs. And as interest rates rise, a future governor won't be able to issue more bonds to cover the difference, as Huckabee is doing now. In effect, Huckabee is putting the tab on a credit card and letting someone else figure out how to pay for it.

Like most Southern states, Arkansas has a regressive tax system that makes it difficult to raise taxes, except for the sales tax. But if we are ever going to convey the need for a better tax structure, the argument will have to built around the need to finance uncontroversial needs like higher education and highways. Instead of making that point, Huckabee opted for the easy (and less honest) option.

And if he is so confident the bonds will pass, why schedule an election during the holiday season, when turnout is sure to be as low as possible?

Health Care Crisis in the Bluegrass

In a multi-part series currently running in The Courier-Journal the critical state of health care in Kentucky is explored. Kentucky is poor and rural and that doesn’t lead to a healthy citizenry. Bad health habits, lack of health insurance, and a shortage of health care providers converge to help Kentucky to be one of the sickest states in the union.

Obviously Kentucky is not alone – many of her Southern neighbors keep her company on the bottom of the health care charts. And, unfortunately, things are only getting worse. The number of people with health insurance is decreasing, changes in law make it harder to file bankruptcy (medical costs are a leading reason for filing, see Krugman and Health Affairs), and the gap between the haves and have-nots is only growing wider.

Rural poverty and health care issues are often left out of the political debate, it's nice to see them being addressed.

Also, check out Nick Anderson's cartoon.

Cons vs. mods

Ten Commandments judge (well, former judge) Roy Moore will announce his political plans Monday in Gadsden, Ala. Most expect Moore to run for governor in 2006, likely setting up a nasty Repoublican primary fight with incumbent governor Bob Riley, who will announce his plans on Oct. 8.

The infighting among Moore backers and more mainstream Alabama Republicans has already begun. It's no secret that Moore and his supporters feel betrayed by Riley and other GOP officeholders in Alabama. Once the then-Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Moore defied a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument, Riley, then-Attorney General William Pryor and others began to put some distance between Moore and themselves.

Riley's unsuccessful attempt in 2003 to reform Alabama's grossly unfair tax code has many on the right in his party upset. At the time, Washington anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist said he wanted Riley to become "the poster child for Republicans who go bad. I want every conservative Republican elected official in the United States to watch Bob Riley lose and learn from it."

Much like the moderate-conservative GOP divide described by Thomas Frank in "What's the Matter With Kansas," it looks like Alabama Republicans are preparing for an ideological fight pitting "mods" vs. "cons."

Get to know the South

Columnist Elliott Brack recently highlighted some Southern literature that might help non-Southerners understand the region better. Here is part of the list, which includes some great books you might not have read. From his GwinnettForum Web site:

The classic: The Mind of the South by W.J.Cash.

The Year the Lights Came on in Georgia---Terry Kay. One of the best storytellers of today.

Run with the Horseman, by Ferrol Sams. A physician near Fayetterville, he tells stories with glee. Still living but now near age 80.

The Nashville Sound, by Paul Hemphill. Tales of country music by another of the good southern writers. Has new book coming out soon about Hank Williams. Lives in Atlanta. This book has been out of print, but just reissued.

The Heart of a Distant Forest, by Philip Lee Williams of Athens is a unique story. It's well worth a read, and is one of my favorites. A new paperback edition is out.

Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, by Janisse Ray. First book, with glimpses into lives of un-typical southern family, counterpointed with story of ecology of yellow pine and how this tree is nearing extinction.

Raney, by Clyde Edgerton.. Gifted southern writer has many good books.

Other titles include: Praying for Sheetrock by Melissa Faye Greene; Sleeping at the Starlight Motel, by Bailey White; Secret Formula, by Frederick "Rick" Allen; An Hour Before Daylight, by Jimmy Carter; and A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, by Harry Crews.

My favorite current author speaks in long sentences, and you have to "get with" the syntax to understand T.R. Pearson. Try A Short History of a Small Place for what I find is side-splitting humor at times, always in the Southern vernacular.

Gingrich: A master at communication

If you don't think conservative guru and defrocked House Speaker Newt Gingrich is running for president, check out this story this week from Jacksonville, where Gingrich spoke to the faithful.

While Gingrich talks a good game about change, he wants conservative change, not progressive change. What's interesting is how he talks about change because the way he talks (remember he was the guy who marketed videos to thousands of committed followers that helped them "Talk like Newt") is how progressives need to connect with audiences.

In typical fashion, Gingrich gets you to agree with a little of his value system to butter you up so you'll agree with more. It's as if he uses brainwashing tools:

"I want every potential candidate, Democrat or Republican, to start with the agreement that Katrina was unacceptable, that government failed," Gingrich, 62, said. "So if that's true, what are we going to do about it?"

While few would disagree with that, they should be a little more cautious about his total change goals:

Fixing national security, competing with China and India, dealing with an aging population and improving math and science education are chief goals, Gingrich said. A fifth fight is to "defeat judges who drive God out of public life" -- tapping a popular conservative vein.

"So I'm willing to say yes, I'm willing to make atheists uncomfortable. Because otherwise, my question to them is, 'So where do your rights come from? Do you just think that we're randomly gathered protoplasm that's smarter than a rhinoceros'?'"

Better flood zone planning

A public policy colleague, Michael Deegan, is developing a system-dynamics model of flood planning. The National Science Foundation is funding his research, the point of which is to provide tools for policy makers to better assess the risk of severe flooding.

By charting government decision making over a 30-year period, Michael has determined that predictable series of errors that government agencies tend to make. When feasible, he plans to refine his model with information from dozens of policy makers in Louisiana.

His paper, "Extreme Event Policy Design: A Conceptual Model to Analyze Policies and the Policy Process for Natural Hazards," is available on the SUNY-Albany Web site.

Hopefully Michael's research will ultimately lead to more effective planning for areas prone to flooding.

Nathan Wilson

In the news: Five Questions

So far this week, two news organizations have reprinted part of the August and September Five Questions interviews we did with two former Southern governors.

Yesterday, the Gwinnett Daily Post was one of several Georgia newspapers to reprint a comment by Gov. Roy Barnes on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

Barnes: Fire everybody
“We should use Katrina as a learning lesson that we will never be this unprepared again. We should insist that co-operative efforts of federal, state and local governments be established with a direct liaison between individual governors and a close representative of the president as an integral part of the plan. Finally, I found as governor, you have to have accountability for performance at the highest levels, otherwise you would have no accountability at all. Whoever is responsible for this failure, whether it be the director of FEMA or the secretary of Homeland Security, needs to be fired.” — Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes in an interview with the Center for a Better South foundation in Charleston, S.C. (Note: FEMA director Michael Brown has resigned since Barnes gave his interview.)

And Tuesday, the Fredericksburg, Va., Free Lance-Star printed an editorial on Southern lands, that included an observation by former Mississippi Gov. William Winter:

Land is, axiomatically, sacred to Southerners. ... But it isn't lasting much in these parts and many other parts of the South, where development is a Second Reconstruction, upending settled life and creating The New and Different! Ironically, the governing institutions of our state--its lawmakers, its courts--aid and defend this onslaught of speculation and despoilment, this essentially Yankee world view, often because they fail to distinguish land, "the only thing that lasts," from mere real estate conveyed for commercial gain. ...

Another former governor, Mississippi's William Winter, interviewed by the Center for a Better South, paints the challenge: "Already in our fastest-growing areas we are seeing the problems which reckless development can cause. Clogged highways, foul and unhealthy air, overtaxed [i.e., overburdened] utility systems, and the consumption of some of our prime open spaces and productive farm land by urban sprawl threaten the quality of life for many people. We must work to preserve the livability of our region."

A New Generation of Black Conservatives

"The results of the 2004 elections and the political environment that surrounds that election," writes Conaway Haskins, editor of the Virginia political blog South of the James, "could point to the lowering of the wall that has separated blacks and Republicans."

In a thoughtful essay, Haskins points to recent developments -- President Bush's improved electoral showing among black voters in 2004, the increasing prominence of black Republicans in key government positions and the emergence of thoughtful black conservatives like Lt. Gov. Michael Steele of Maryland -- as evidence of an "emerging class of black Republicans, a group that may provide a legitimate alternative to the Democratic Party and the black left, allowing the GOP to compete for black votes on some level."

Younger black conservatives, argues Haskins, differ from older ones like Alan Keys and Armstrong Williams in that they combine "an abiding faith in Republican principles and a comfortable sense of black cultural identity." This ability allows politicians like Maryland's Steele's to resonate as "concerned 'next door neighbors' and friends versus partisan attack dogs."

Haskins' essay appears this week as part of a series of reflections on the Low Country & Chesapeake Society, a group of concerned black citizens disappointed in the responsiveness of the major political parties to the concerns of black Americans and interested in creating an alternative political center for Black America. Other articles in the series discuss the perceived failures of the black left and the opportunity emerging leaders like U.S. Sen. Barack Obama have to transform the discussion of race and politics.

Taking a lesson

Many urban planners regard the rebuilding of New Orleans as an opportunity, rather than a burden. The city had fundamental problems that were almost impossible to overcome because of political and economic pressures. But the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina presents what amounts to a blank slate upon which new ideas can be drawn.

In fact, the experimentation there also could offer important lessons for Southern cities that suffer from many of the same ailments that plagued New Orleans. The inequities of race, income and education will finally be addressed as Louisiana’s largest city is reconstituted, and we would be foolish not to play close attention. If some of the strategies work there, why wouldn’t we try to apply them elsewhere?

As in New Orleans, the poverty rate in many Southern cities is higher than the national average, and the poverty is disproportionately concentrated in the black population. This results in neighborhoods — and as a direct consequence, public schools — segregated by both class and race.

Now that New Orleans has a chance to start from scratch, what are city planners proposing?

A first priority is the construction of mixed-income housing, because it is a proven and practical way to alleviate the demographic division of a city. An article this week in USA Today about ideas for rebuilding New Orleans cited a Clinton-era initiative, called HOPE VI, as a model.

“Large public housing projects, from high-rises in Chicago to low-rise compounds in Louisville, were torn down,” the story noted. “In their place came communities for families of varying incomes, built with a combination of private capital and government subsidies. Families on welfare could live next door to middle-class families in neighborhoods close to schools and services.”

The article goes on to mention other ideas, like requiring developers to offer portions of their new projects at below-market rates, giving poor people housing vouchers so they can afford to live in better parts of the city, and giving tax credits to developers who build homes for lower- and middle-class families.

These are the kinds of ideas that could just as easily be implemented in other Southern cities, where the government already spends a considerable amount of money on subsidized housing. Why not ensure that public money is being directed toward advancing a public good (such as lifting citizens out of poverty), instead of compounding existing problems? Confining poor people to poor neighborhoods is a reliable way to make sure they stay poor. Taxpayer dollars should be used to reduce the burdens on society, not perpetuate them.

One city’s tragedy illuminated a shared disgrace, and it would be a waste not to act forthrightly by that light.

Protecting a landmark highway

"It means our National Voting Rights Trail will not be desecrated by a nasty garbage dump," says Barbara Evans, executive director of the consumer group Alabama Watch.

"It's a victory for the people, a victory for the environment," says the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

"It shows you can take on a giant like Waste Management, and in the end, justice will prevail," says Susan Copeland, an attorney from Montgomery, Ala.

And what exactly is "it"? A decision by Waste Management Inc. to not pursue constructing a landfill along the highway between Selma and Montgomery, a place made famous by a 1965 Civil Rights march. The Lowndes Citizens United for Action led the charge to keep the landfill from being built.

Who says you can't fight City Hall and win?

Lotteries help higher ed, but don't complete the puzzle

An article in the Knoxville News-Sentinel notes stagnant enrollment in Tennessee's public colleges and universities just one year after the Tennessee Lottery and HOPE Scholarship program was instituted.

Education lotteries do help higher education, but followup is vital to ensure that students get the opportunities they need.

UT Knoxville has seen a dramatic rise in applications since the lottery scholarships debuted, but its overall numbers aren't increasing that much. It has turned away students the last two years.

Robert A. Levy, UT's vice president for academic affairs, said enrollment rose significantly at the University of Georgia when that state started its lottery scholarship program a few years ago.

"But that effect is suppressed here because this campus is desperately trying to control its enrollment," Levy said. "I mean, the Knoxville campus either has to control its enrollment or it has to find a lot of money to build new facilities and hire new faculty."

More than increasing applications, we need to improve infrastructure where it is needed, and focus on retention of new students.

While getting people in the door of a college is a vital first step, the benefits of higher education on the populace aren't realized until people graduate with diplomas in hand.

Bush, Fletcher, and Iraq All Lose Ground in the Bluegrass

Polls conducted this month by The Courier-Journal show that Kentuckians are losing confidence in President George Bush as well as Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher. In addition, although a majority of those surveyed still support the military operation in Iraq, the number is dwindling.

While Bush easily carried Kentucky in the election, 48 percent of those polled now dissapprove of the job the President is doing. Interestingly, 67 percent said the country was "seriously off on the wrong track."

Undoubtedly, the hiring scandel known as JOBTROT, has helped pull the rug out from under Governor Fletcher's approval ratings. Only 38% of the Kentuckians polled approve of the job their governor is doing.

As for Iraq, while a majority of Kentuckians still support for the U.S. military presence in Iraq (52 percent), that is down from 61 percent in February and a high of 74 percent in September 2003.

Check out the polls on The Courier-Journal's Web site: Bush, Fletcher, and Iraq.

John Lewis: Eloquent warning

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., had a lot to say Thursday about the nomination of Judge John Roberts to be chief justice. It's worth reading in full, but here is a key comment that people who were too young to be involved in the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s need to remember (emphasis added) :

"I fear that if Judge Roberts is confirmed to be chief justice of the United States, the Supreme Court would no longer hear the people's cries for justice. I feel that the leadership of the court would promote politics over the protection of individual rights and liberties. If the federal courts had abandoned us in the civil rights movement, in the name of judicial restraint, we might still be struggling with the burden of legal segregation in America today. "

The era of small government is over?

From the Center for a Better South's John Simpkins:

If there is ever one welcome casualty of Hurricane Katrina, it would be the death of the Grover Norquist notion that government should be small enough to “drown it in a bathtub.”

In his address to the nation (Thursday night), President Bush indicated that he might, finally, understand that. Recognizing the problem is but one step on the road to recovery, as he is most undoubtedly aware. Next is understanding that the effort to commit substantial government resources to rebuild New Orleans is only a part of the broader effort needed to welcome all of poor America, particularly the poor South table of plenty enjoyed by the few.

Then comes the realization that, instead of guaranteeing everyone a $300 tax refund, what people really need is government that works. That is, government that takes that money and devotes it to critical projects, projects that once were thought to be big-government extravagances, like fortifying the levees in New Orleans, then increasing security at the port of New Orleans, then doing the same thing for Jacksonville, Mobile, Wilmington, Miami, Charleston and Savannah.

Let us all hope that the end of stingy, short-sighted governments is nigh. Bring back our long-lost country of big ideas.

Blueprint for Tax Reform

North Carolina's legislators struggled to pass a balanced budget for the current fiscal year because the state remains trapped in a "trilemma." Because the state's revenue system no longer generates enough resources to fund basic services, legislators must struggle each year to addresses three seemingly incompatible goals -- crafting a balanced budget for the current year, addressing long-term structural reforms and encouraging economic growth.

This analysis comes from a recent report on North Carolina's revenue system conducted for the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation by CFED, a national policy organization with a Southern office in Durham, N.C. While this report is focused on North Carolina, it contains valuable lessons for every Southern state grappling with chronic fiscal problems.

CFED argues that comprehensive tax reform based on the principles of stability, fairness and competitiveness is the only path out of the trilemma. To that end, the report details 12 recommendations that, if adopted, would promote the growth of "a fairly balanced, broad-based revenue base that can be used to provide high quality infrastructure, skilled workforce, and attractive communities." The result: better functioning government and a more economically competitive state. As the report's author observes:

"Stable and attractive conditions for business development and profitability depend to a significant extent on adequate but not excessive, efficiently administered, and equitable tax policies just as a sound business climate depends on the quality of public services.

"This is also why development-enhancing tax reform is inseparable from the 'reinvent government' agenda. We must always try to get more bang for the fiscal buck by investing scarce tax resources in the highest priority and highest yielding public investments and making government service delivery more efficient, effective, customer-friendly, and accountable. Efforts to create a high-quality revenue system and good government go hand-in-hand."

9/15: Five Questions with Gov. Roy Barnes

The Center for a Better South's FIVE QUESTIONS series continues with an in-depth interview with former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes.

In this wide-ranging interview, Barnes talks about the reponse to Hurricane Katrina, education, jobs, consumer protection and more. A highlight:

"Education and economics are both messages of hope. We often discuss what it is that makes the United States different than all of the great civilizations that have gone before us. It is not our Constitution, it is not the Declaration of Independence or any act of Congress. ... What is different about us is that we have not rationed education to a few of the well-to-do. We have said that education is universally available to every child regardless of color, income or where that child is born. Armed with the tools of education a child can climb the social ladder that comes with economic security and increasing affluence. This phenomenon of education and economic growth is the hope which has made us a great and different nation.

"Today that hope is imperiled by those who wish to abandon the public school system and who don't push for reform in our educational institutions because their children are attending a private privileged system. If we lose the bond of education and economic growth we lose the essence of being an American. We can't let that happen and it is progressives who must lead the charge."

• Read the whole interview

The shackles of tax policy

The Alabama Tax & Budget Handbook, a publication of the Arise Citizens' Policy Project and Voices for Alabama's Children, is a must-read for its crystal clear picture of how tax policies can cripple a Southern state. You can read what others are saying about it here here and here.
Some of the report's lowlights (using fiscal year 2004) from the report:

Two of every five dollars in the Alabama budget comes from the feds. In most states, the figure is one out of every five dollars.

Because Alabama contributes so little in federal matching-funds programs, the state leaves "more than $100 million on the table in Washington every year."

For the state's income tax, the top rate (5 percent) kicks in at $3,000 for married couples. That annual salary was a tidy sum in 1935 when the income tax was set. Unfortunately, it's remained untouched since.

Alabama is one of seven states that fully taxes groceries. The others are Arkansas, Hawaii, Mississippi, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia. (We think we sense a regional pattern.)

Alabama taxes farm and timber property at $1.25 per acre, far below the Southeast average of $5.50 per acre.

The state's timberland accounts for "more than 70 percent of Alabama's land area but brings in less than 2 percent of state property tax revenues."

Read the whole report online here. And while you do, remember that Alabama's current Constitution, written in 1901, operates just as its writers intended. Those wealthy landowners and industrialists wanted a government where little or nothing got done. They funneled decision-making away from communities and into the statehouse. They realized that a government starved of funds accomplished two things. 1. It kept them from paying their fair share. 2. It kept the masses powerless to do anything about it.
The handbook's authors sum up, "[R]eal reform requires more than new policies and regulations or even a new constitution. It requires leaders willing to raise public expectations for state government." Well said.

Lakoff cuts through bull on Katrina

Progressive linguist George Lakoff cuts through all of the bull and fingerpointing on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina by focusing on the cause: a matter of values and principles of those in charge of the country. Here's what he wrote recently in Alternet in a story printed yesterday:

The moral of Katrina is mostly being missed. It is not just a failure of execution (William Kristol), or that bad things just happen (Laura Bush). It was not just indifference by the President, or a lack of accountability, or a failure of federal-state communication, or corrupt appointments in FEMA, or the cutting of budgets for fixing levees, or the inexcusable absence of the National Guard off in Iraq. It was all of these and more, but they are the effects, not the cause.

The cause was political through and through -- a matter of values and principles. The progressive-liberal values are America's values, and we need to go back to them. The heart of progressive-liberal values is simple: empathy (caring about and for people) and responsibility (acting responsibly on that empathy). These values translate into a simple principle: Use the common wealth for the common good to better all our lives. In short, promoting the common good is the central role of government.

The right-wing conservatives now in power have the opposite values and principles. Their main value is Rely on individual discipline and initiative. The central principle: Government has no useful role. The only common good is the sum of individual goods. It's the difference between We're all in this together and You're on your own, buddy. It's the difference between Every citizen is entitled to protection and You're only entitled to what you can afford. It's the difference between connection and separation. It is this difference in moral and political philosophy that lies behind the tragedy of Katrina.

Progressives have a real chance to attract supporters following this tragedy. But they'd better get down to business.

High costs of drugs

In Kentucky and throughout the south, pharmaceutical prices force many to choose between medicines and food. The situation for many elderly is at a crisis point.

Then comes along a study, such as this one in the Journal of the American Medical Association, where medical students were found to receive at least one gift or attend at least one activity sponsored by a pharmaceutical company every week! Many medical residents consider these gifts inappropriate but accept them anyhow. And in case you didn't figure it out, the study points out that this frequent interaction between medical students and pharmaceutical representatives increases the likelihood that physicians will prescribe the sponsor's products, regardless of price differences.

Nathan Wilson

Sober Reflections

Though the full scope of the devastation visited upon the Gulf Coast still is not known, politicians on both sides of the political spectrum already have reverted to form. Rather than being humbled by nature's awesome power and the scale of human suffering on display in the Deep South, elected leaders are using the tragedy to justify pre-existing policy goals. Unless this approach changes, America will fail to learn and grow stronger from Hurricane Katrina.

Both Republicans and Democrats are perverting the tragedy to score political points. A story in yesterday's Washington Post, for instance, reported that Congress' GOP leadership is determined to push through a package of tax cuts and entitlement spending reductions while simultaneously calling for more spending on disaster relief. Similarly, many Democrats are using Hurricane Katrina for no other purpose but to bash President Bush and his administration.

Instead of trying to gain political leverage, thoughtful people across the nation and South should realize that Katrina and her aftermath can teach vital lessons about the nature of American society, if only we are open to learning those lessons.

A particularly thoughtful reflection on Katrina recently was authored by Rob Schofield of the NC Justice Center in Raleigh. Schofield outlines ten lessons that progressives can learn from the storm -- lessons pertaining to disaster preparedness, tax fairness, infrastructure investments and the relationship between the public and private sectors. Yet the most important insight resulting from Katrina is that "we're all in this together." Schofield concludes:

"Only through a renewed commitment to collective long-term solutions can we build a sustainable society. In the days following the Gulf Coast catastrophe, it is essential that Americans rediscover this fact if we are to do more than simply clean up the mess."

Katrina, race and the South

Among the many issues brought into stark relief by the impact of Hurricane Katrina is the persistent racial divide in the American South.

The national media patted itself on the back for noticing that most of those who suffered in the wake of Katrina were African-Americans. That's because race and class overlap in this country, especially in urban areas, and being poor was a major disadvantage in the evacuation procedures and subsequent relief efforts.

But the Southern culture of racial segregation can be observed in other ways as well. Some communities are resistant to accepting African-American refugees. Take this example, from a New York Times article:

Before the evacuation, blacks made up about half the population of Baton Rouge and almost 70 percent of New Orleans, and in conversations in which race is often explicit or just below the surface, voices on the street, in shops, and especially in the anonymous hothouse of talk radio were raising a new question: just how compassionate can this community, almost certainly home to more evacuees than any other, afford to be?

[. . .]

Like many people in and near Baton Rouge, Mrs. Smallwood, her 1,700-square-foot house now sheltering 14 people, is trying to balance the need for compassion with the vertigo of a changed city. And so while she wishes all the evacuees well, she said she feared an influx of people from the housing projects of New Orleans, places, she has heard, where people walk around in T-shirts that read, "Kill the cops."

Such feelings will surely lead to pressure to continue segregational practices in determining where permanent refugees will settle and in which schools their children ultimately enroll.

Still another racial dynamic will be observed in the region's political calculus, as a solidly Democratic voting bloc of African-Americans is dispersed, reducing their collective power and the strength of the party.

Southern hospitality

Of all things, we were reminded of the movie "Patton" last week. Late in the film, an American general is surrounded by Germans who tell him to just stop fighting and surrender. Gen. Anthony MacAuliffe’s one word reply was, "Nuts!" Upon hearing of this this, Patton’s response, "I think a man that eloquent deserves to be rescued, don't you?"
We felt the same way while watching one New Orleans evacuee on TV late last week. The man had just arrived in Houston with his family only to be told there was no more room in the Astrodome. The cable news interviewer pushed and prodded the man to see how this was sitting with him. He first said that he was just glad to be somewhere else besides the Superdome. When asked what he would do next, the man responded, "I guess get a newspaper and find a job."
Yes. A man that eloquent deserves to be rescued and supported. As do thousands like him.
The help is starting in communities across the country. Here in Anniston, Ala., former military base housing will be used to house Katrina evacuees, perhaps as many as 1,000. To get that done a massive cleanup around facilities at Fort McClellan has started. A first step was to clean up the grounds around the residences. Local leaders sent out the call: Come out to the fort on Labor Day equipped with yard tools and a ready-to-work attitude. Officials estimate 2,000 people, including your humble blogger who has a pair of matching blisters on his thumbs, showed up to rake, cut, shovel, mow and haul.
"Folks, I cannot believe what you have done here in the past couple of days," Gov. Bob Riley, R-Ala., said after touring the facility on Monday afternoon. "If there has ever been a Labor Day of Love, today is it."
This is Southern hospitality at its finest. The same applies to hundreds of other examples across the region.

Make government the solution

Predictably, the blowback against a week of government blunders in assisting New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast hit by Katrina has started. Abstract notions about small government become more concrete (and hideous) when we see how slowly and sloppily government came to the aid of our Southern brothers and sisters.
The response of the right’s slime machine has already started. The administration is blaming local and state government officials. (It’s a fair criticism up to a point, but neglects that the feds are supposed to take control when such an overwhelming act of nature comes ashore. Why they didn’t will be discussed for years to come.)
The administration’s allies in talk radio and in the blogosphere are piling on. Today, I received an e-mail blaming the slow/non-response following the hurricane on “the welfare state.”
The e-mailer has a point, but only by accident. Our e-mailer, using thinly-veiled racist language, is thinking of the poor and mostly black folks in New Orleans who had no way to escape the storm. Well, that’s just callous and flat wrong.
However, the welfare state that rewards the richest 1 percent with generous tax cuts while letting the nation’s infrastructure crumble is another matter. That welfare state is on the way out as the bill for rebuilding the property and lives of those damaged by Katrina comes due. Said differently, the Senate is supposed to take up repeal of the estate tax this week. How many of those who died along the Gulf Coast will leave a fortune worthy of taxing? How much more valuable would that money be if it were spent making emergency responders more robust? How much more valuable will it be for those starting over again?
Politicians like George W. Bush and pundits like David Brooks love to pump up the South’s (and other red state's) general dislike and distrust of government. The South is used as cover for dismantling government and lining the pockets of big-money benefactors at the same time. This may soon come to an end around these parts. We’ve witnessed how small government, starved of funds and competent planning, fails to serve the Americans in trouble.

Varied Southern reactions to immigration

Stateline.org recently concluded a 3-part series on illegal immigration in the United States with a piece on the various actions being taken by states to deal with their own specific problems. Immigration is always a hotbed issue, and the reactions have been expectedly varied:

...[T]here is limited political rancor over illegal immigrants in Bush’s home state of Texas, where Republicans control both the Statehouse and the governor's mansion. Texas has longstanding family and economic relationships with Mexican immigrants. Even with an estimated 1.4 million illegal residents, the second-highest number after California, the Lone Star State is "not exactly a hotbed of anti-immigrant sentiment," said Rivlin, of the National Immigration Forum.

[...]

But in North Carolina, where Democrats control the governor’s mansion and the Legislature, a few lawmakers received threatening e-mails after they introduced legislation to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. North Carolina has seen explosive growth in its foreign-born population in the past 15 years. It now has an estimated 300,000 illegal residents, more than all but seven other states.

As immigrant populations (especially Hispanic) continue to rise in the South, progressives in the region may want to consider new ways to integrate illegal immigrants into the community where they can become full citizens intent and eager to reap the rewards that America offers.

Towery: South ignored by nation

Conservative Georgia columnist Matt Towery argues in a syndicated newspaper column published today in Charleston and other papers across the South that the region has been ignored by the rest of America. His evidence: the shoddy response to Hurricane Katrina that devastated the South "with the equivalent of a nuclear bomb."

His rant is a little self-serving and paranoid, for the greater South spawned the presidency of George W. Bush and the Congress recently has been run by real Southerners (Sen. Trent Lott, Sen. Bill Frist) and some transplants (former House Speaker Newt Gingrich).

The response to Katrina seems more to be a lack of leadership and preparation by many. But Towery makes a few good points in the column, which can be viewed on TownHall.com:

"These effete national executives just can't get a handle on the South, be it our politics -- especially in predicting our elections -- or our economic significance. They are always a day late and a dollar short.

"They think we're racists, when in fact the greatest peaceful mixing of races in the nation -- and maybe the world -- occurs in the South every day. Substantial African-American and Hispanic communities are an integral part of our economy and communities.

"They assume we are dumb and poorly educated. That ignores the massive improvements that have been made since the Civil War ended. That's when a dual set of second-class citizens was created overnight -- destitute whites, including many in the former planter class, and uneducated former slaves.

"Trace a line from Houston through Atlanta, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Miami, and yes, what was once New Orleans, and you will see the clear outline of who controls Congress and the White House.

We are the growth of America and its future.

Winter: Cash to Red Cross still best way to help

Folks along the Gulf states continue to suffer from the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina.

Our friend William Winter, the former governor of Mississippi, reports that the best thing anyone can do in the short term is to make contributions to the American Red Cross.

"In the longer term, it is going to take a massive support effort to rebuild not only the economic and physical infrastructure on the Coast and in New Orleans but the civil society of that area as well....In New Orleans, there will be nothing to go back to for weeks and possibly months."

Another friend, Will Robinson of Washington, D.C., says another way to help in the New Iberia/Acadiana area where his wife's people are from is to give to the local United Way:

"Like many of you, Lynn and I have already given to the Red Cross, but the United Way is leading the struggle in Acadiana to make sure people can eat tonight. The United Way is working through local nonprofit organizations, including churches, to mobilize assistance in the most effective manner possible. They've guaranteed that 100% of the fund will support evacuee services. They have an on-line donation form set up.

http://www.unitedwayofacadiana.com

(If you experience any difficulties with the form please keep trying. You may get a notice that the form is not available - it is up and working. The Internet and phones have been spotty throughout Louisiana. It took me a couple of tries to get it to work.)

"The situation in Louisiana and Mississippi may get worse before it gets better, but this is something we can do right now to help feed and clothe people."

South Still Lags the Nation

Data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau show that the South continues to have the highest poverty rate of any region in the country. In 2004, 14.1 percent of the people in the census South -- some 443,000 individuals -- had incomes below the federal poverty level. At the same time, the Census Bureau found that the South's poverty rate was unchanged between 2003 and 2004.

In terms of individual states, Arkansas was the only state from the Old Confederacy to experience a statistically significant change in its poverty rate. Arkansas' poverty rate dropped from 18.8 percent ot 16.4 percent. Poverty rates in the eleven Confederate states ranged from a high of 17.3 percent in Mississippi to a low of 9.7 percent in Virginia.

The new census data revealed a similar pattern for median household income. Median household income in the census South totaled $40,773 in 2004 -- the lowest of any U.S. region. Median household incomes held steady in every former Confederate state but Georgia, where it declined by 4.7 percent. Mississippi's median household income of $34,269 was the region's lowest, while Virginia's median income of $53,847 was the South's highest.