I call them sniveling, leaching, cry babies

[we interrupt this program to bring you the following very biased and bitter rant]

This morning on the local news they repeated a piece on the Katrina evacuees who were having their electricity shut off. You see, FEMA was only paying for electricity for a year and that year is up. The relocated resident is now responsible for paying the deposit to the electric company and transferring responsibility of payment to themselves.

So the news shows us heart-breaking interviews with put upon Katrina victims. What a travesty this is. Why won't the government help them? Why are they being so cruel? My fish in my tank won't live if the filters don't work!

You have a f***ing fish tank?!

Well, all I have to say to that is boo f****ing hoo! It has been a year. You can't find a job to pay for your deposit and bill in a year? Why do you have a fish tank? Shouldn't you be saving your pennies to pay for the electricity deposit?

You might say, but their homes are gone, their lives up turned, have mercy. I say, where was the mercy of the government when my life was washed away in 2001? Why didn't I get to live on the government's dime for a year?

My home was destroyed by Tropical Storm Allison. But since I am a single, male, renter, there was nothing anyone wanted to do for me. Homeowners got money. Families got money. Guys like me got crap.

I got what FEMA called two months rent for my area. It wasn't even close, and even if it was, I was supposed to be back on my feet in two months, not twelve. These people have been on assistance for a f***ing year.

The State gave me $1000 to replace the $6000 in damages I had. Yeah, that really covered it.

Insurance gave me nothing because renter's insurance didn't cover it. Floods are only covered by flood insurance. That was a hard lesson learned.

I spent most of June sleeping on a neighbor's couch. My FEMA rent money went to off set rent for a friend that let me apartment/pet sit for her while she was in LA for July and August. FEMA didn't even cover one month. Ouisie's Mom is a saint! I was back on the couch in September until I acquired a garage apartment to carry me through December, when my home was finally ready to move back in.

Keep in mind, this whole time, 6 months, while I was basically living out of my suitcase, I kept my job. I worked hard, but living out of your suitcase, a couch here, a hotel there, and an apartment there, is not cheap. Recovery wasn't cheap either.

And there is nothing you can tell me that will convince me that you could not get a job in 12 months. What that tells me is either A) you didn't want a job and felt you deserved to live off of my tax money or B) you could have gotten a job, but you were picky about it.

Guess what people, it is desperate times. If the job you get is flipping burgers, then flip the damn burgers. My meager debt load that was incurring while in graduate school (did I mention I was working AND keeping up with an MFA program those 6 months?) doubled after Allison. I may have to quit my job soon, the job I love that is in my field, in order to get a higher paying job I hate so I can get out of this debt. I don't see any FEMA people helping me take care of that.

I am sorry, but if a deadline was looming, you should have been saving for the deposit months ago. You should have found the crappy job that would keep your bills paid and THEN you should have gotten a fish tank. After all, flipping burgers is a mindless job, giving you plenty of time to think how you can get the job you want.

[biased, bitter rant over. we now return you to your regularly scheduled program]