{"id":107,"date":"2005-10-02T01:07:44","date_gmt":"2005-10-02T07:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2005\/10\/02\/havent-they-been-through-enough\/"},"modified":"2006-02-17T01:10:01","modified_gmt":"2006-02-17T07:10:01","slug":"havent-they-been-through-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/10\/havent-they-been-through-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Haven’t they been through enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock<\/font><\/h6>\n

Monday, Oct. 2, 2005:<\/font><\/b><\/font> Refugee, evacuee, ban, persecute.<\/font><\/p>\n

Who could object — well, I couldn’t — when Oprah Winfrey in the second week after Hurricane Katrina pronounced from New Orleans that people who made it through the devastation “survivors”? It’s uplifting, optimistic, triumphant and, well, true.<\/font><\/p>\n

But essentially all of those folks also are refugees. And in the first two weeks after Katrina, civil rights leaders called “refugee” inaccurate at the least and racist at worst. That’s understandable, though I disagree.<\/font><\/p>\n

But in the weeks since (it’s been a month since that storm (and two weeks since Rita slapped the Gulf Coast up a bit more)) amateur spinners have stepped to the plate.<\/font><\/p>\n

Let’s not go to the dictionary as our defense. Instead casually recall this common word, refugee. If you have to leave your home, hometown, homeland and be gone for a long period, you’re a refugee. Period. It’s not hard. True, the word is often used in connection with “persecution” (though, interestingly, never when some evangelical Christians write or say on TV that their United States, or just its legal system, is persecuting them). Still you’re a refugee when you’re forced from home.<\/font><\/p>\n

If that leaving entails being rescued from your home, you’ve just been evacuated, brother, making you an evacuee, sister.<\/font><\/p>\n

That’s it.<\/font><\/p>\n

A letter to the editor my paper ran Sept. 29 states, “The people of New Orleans are not refugees and should not be referred to as such. Refugee: One who flees; especially a person who flees to a foreign country or a power to escape danger or persecution. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6”<\/font><\/p>\n

So where’ s the disagreement? There’ve been several letters a week like this. There’s another one that day, reading in part, “If you or your staff would look up the work “refugee,” you would find that this word does not fit these Americans.” He does not define it, but instead notes that the national media has stopped using the word and thus so should the Democrat-Gazette. I think the newspaper is embarrassing him by being accurate. And this, when the word is not pejorative but merely descriptive.<\/font><\/p>\n

We have a problem with education when there’s an evident need to go back and teach adults how to read the dictionary. To wit, main definition then secondary definitions, separated with punctuation. Even in this lady’s breathless reading, the key word for this circumstance of natural disaster is “danger.”<\/font><\/p>\n

What’s the meaning of the word “whitewash” ? Now there’s a descriptive that is iced with malice. Is it always slopped on with such a broad, dripping brush, Mr. Twain? -30-<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Monday, Oct. 2, 2005: Refugee, evacuee, ban, persecute. Who could object — well, I couldn’t — when Oprah Winfrey in the second week after Hurricane Katrina pronounced from New Orleans that people who made it through the devastation “survivors”? It’s uplifting, optimistic, triumphant and, well, true. But essentially all of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":112,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/09\/gulf-of-misunderstanding\/","url_meta":{"origin":107,"position":0},"title":"Gulf of misunderstanding","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Friday, September 2, 2005: Gulf War III. This one is American, too, but it's being fought on a different Gulf. Thoughts about Hurricane Katrina. In my morning paper today is a color insert ad, Heartland Honda of Springdale: four glossy pages on gas-powered portable generators.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":433,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/the-storm\/","url_meta":{"origin":107,"position":1},"title":"The Storm","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"NEW ORLEANS -- All morning, we visitors have been referring to Hurricane Katrina, occasionally to the other big one, Hurricane Rita, in the course of the all-day speeches and panel discussions. Instead of two days of workshops, this year's National Society of Newspaper Columnists conference loaded up the teachin' today\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Storm, New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"The Storm, New Orleans","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/new-orleans-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":398,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/unkle-katrina\/","url_meta":{"origin":107,"position":2},"title":"Unkle Katrina","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY -- In the Mall of the Ozarks where the Toasts of the Town shop, where the vivacious news anchors and the handsome sports anchors check out the best duds to wear on the air, the meteorologists also lurk. They grab the nice clothes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5200,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/08\/revisiting-postal-katrina-mae-west\/","url_meta":{"origin":107,"position":3},"title":"Revisiting ‘Postal,’ Katrina, Mae West","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Shy of a Load Let's not go postal, it's not a trend, according to the Poynter Institute on Aug. 26-27 in \"Before Today, 8 Journalists Have Been Murdered While on Assignment, at Work or for Their Work in the U.S. Since 1992.\" Writer Kristen Hare states: \"The on-air shooting deaths\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Shy of a Load"","block_context":{"text":"Shy of a Load","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/items\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"0512 brick logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Solebrick-logo-2-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5564,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2017\/02\/canopy-cassoulet\/","url_meta":{"origin":107,"position":4},"title":"Canopy Cassoulet","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As a volunteer with the refugee resettlement group\u00a0Canopy Northwest Arkansas, I made a family's first meal in their new home. The mom and dad, ages 30 and 28, have been living\u00a0in camps since fleeing Democratic Republic of \u00a0Congo in 2003. Their son just turned 6. Who knows what they've been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Logo of Canopy Northwest Arkansas, a refugee resettlement service","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/CanopyNWA-logo-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":111,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/09\/books-in-mud\/","url_meta":{"origin":107,"position":5},"title":"Books in mud","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Dragging books through the mud Friday, Sept. 16, 2005: I have not written a Brick for more than week because the two subjects I wanted to hit seemed overdone. What could I write about Katrina? Nothing particularly valuable, though I will return to it. Also,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}