A.M. in the Morning!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Vitamin Relief Brings Needed Nutrition to School District Resurrecting After Katrina

OJAI, Calif., Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- This summer Vitamin Relief USA (www.vitaminrelief.org) and Tishcon Corp. (www.tishcon.com) joined Bay St. Louis-Waveland School District of Mississippi to launch a free vitamin distribution program designed to help reverse health problems in the area''s developing children. In a school district completely crushed by Hurricane Katrina, many of the families with children attending Bay-Waveland schools are unable to provide such basic necessities as a hot nutritious meal or food for sack lunches. Families are also exposed to harmful bacteria and mold created by the massive flooding from the hurricane as well as the area''s high temperatures.

School nurses report that children are suffering from allergies, asthma, respiratory problems as well as stress related illnesses such as headaches and gastritis. The health and well-being of the children have been a concern for parents and teachers alike, but thanks to projects such as Vitamin Relief USA, that concern is being met with action. Vitamin Relief is now providing the Bay St. Louis-Waveland School Districts with on-going supplies of high quality children''s chewable multi-vitamins for all its students.

Bay St. Louis-Waveland school district officials were able to open schools again last year, though all classes are now held in metal trailers. Many of the families who attend the schools are still busy rebuilding their lives as well as their bodies. 60-70% of the families still find themselves living in FEMA trailers. It is of the utmost importance that the children living in these conditions receive nutritional support to help strengthen their immune systems so their bodies can fight off harmful mold, bacteria and viruses in their environment and handle the stress of their difficult lives. As many of these trailers and living conditions are not equipped for hot food preparation, home cooked meals for most of these children are non-existent. For many children, malnourishment is a serious problem.

"Vitamin Relief USA is spearheading this free vitamin program to provide these children with the nutritional support they need. The fallout from malnutrition is not only evident in the daily life of a malnourished child, it also negatively impacts their entire family. Malnourished children feel sick, anxious, tired, and unmotivated. These parents are already dealing with so much. Helping improve their children''s health relieves some of the parents'' stress so they can focus on the daunting tasks before them," says Vitamin Relief USA''s Executive Director Michael Morton.

Recent reports have surfaced in the press saying that many of the FEMA trailers are contaminated with toxicity levels far higher then healthy bodies can handle, let alone malnourished systems, as is the case for many of the trailer''s inhabitants. The toxic element reportedly found in the trailers is Formaldehyde, a common wood preservative used in the trailers'' building materials. According to reports, Formaldehyde gas is emitting from the walls of some of the FEMA trailers and families are unknowingly inhaling the toxic fumes. Currently the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention are conducting a study on this issue at the request of FEMA. However, The US Environmental Protection Agency reports that exposure to low levels of Formaldehyde can cause a number of health problems including eye and throat irritation, fatigue, and nausea, but higher levels, such as the ones found in the trailers, can lead to difficulty breathing, attacks in people with asthma, and has caused cancer in animals and may cause cancer in humans.(1) For people with decreased immune systems due to already unhealthy conditions, this exposure to toxins can be even more harmful. It is of extreme importance that these people are given the proper nutritional support to keep as healthy as possible while the research by the CDC is conducted.

By supporting the schools through an on-going supply of daily multi-vitamins, school administrators are able to ensure that their students are receiving the recommended daily amounts of essential vitamins and minerals to help the children''s already taxed bodies during this difficult time. At all participating schools, school health administrators distribute freshly manufactured, high-quality multi-vitamin/minerals to the parents of attending students. Educational information packets are distributed along with the vitamins so that family members will understand the importance of nutrition in helping to support their children''s health.

"Our vitamin programs have a track record of helping malnourished children become healthier and gain emotional balance, immune support, mental alertness and concentration, better grades, school attendance, and even self confidence. These daily multivitamins are extremely helpful for these children, particularly if the reports of Formaldehyde gas in the FEMA trailers are true," comments Morton.

Thanks to the generous donation of multi-vitamins from Tishcon Corporation, Vitamin Relief USA was able to jump-start this initiative to improve the health and well-being of children and their families throughout Bay St. Louis. "Tishcon Corp. has shown their great generosity for those in need for many years now. We are very grateful to them," says Morton. Tishcon Corp donated 3 million vitamins for Vitamin Relief USA''s Katrina Relief Program soon after Hurricane Katrina landed two years ago. Since 2000, Tishcon Corp has contributed over 44 million vitamins for Vitamin Relief USA''s children and adult programs across the country.

"Vitamin Relief invites everyone to join with us to help with this serious situation in our nation''s own backyard. To grow stronger as a nation, we must first take care of our own. We can make a tremendous contribution in these families'' health, their future and the future of our nation," says Morton.

Vitamin Relief USA has received the highest rating, two years in a row, from Charity Navigator, the renowned charity watchdog organization. Independent audits show that 93% of donated funds go directly to Vitamin Relief USA programs. Vitamin Relief USA currently provides daily multi-vitamins to more than 26,000 needy children at more than 300 sites in 33 states across the United States. Vitamin Relief USA has expanded under the umbrella of Nourish America, to not only provide multi-vitamins but also natural, functional and organic food products and health education to those in need in America.

Nourish America is a dba of Vitamin Relief USA, a tax-exempt, non-profit organization committed to improving the health status of children, seniors and adults at risk for malnutrition through vitamin supplementation, health education, and donations of nutritional foods. To support Nourish America -- Vitamin Relief USA, or for further information, please call 866-487-1484 or visit the website at www.vitaminrelief.org.

Tishcon Corp., founded in 1976, is a leading manufacturer and marketer of vitamins, related dietary and herbal supplements and private label non-prescription (OTC) pharmaceuticals. Some major products are Q-Gel? Forte, Q-Gel? Ultra,Q-Gel? Mega and the recently introduced Hydrosoluble Chew Q? 30mg and 100mg chewable tablets and Liquid Q?.

A full service manufacturer, Tishcon Corp. also specializes in technologies aimed at enhancing the bioavailability of nutraceuticals. Revolutionary technological developments include Bio Solv? -- hydro soluble softgels, which enable quick and optimum absorption of vitamins, minerals and herbal extracts.

Tishcon Corp. is registered with the U.S. FDA, NY State Board of Pharmacy, and is GMP Certified by the NNFA and NSF. Additionally, Tishcon has received Certification from the USP under their Dietary Supplement Verification Program (DSVP) for 7 of their Q-Gel products.

For further information, visit www.Tishcon.com; call 1-800 848-8442 or write to: Arun@Tishcon.com.

For media inquiries contact Karla Newendorp, of Christie Communications, at (805) 962-1347, or by email at knewendorp@christiecomm.com.

(1) US Environmental Protection Agency, August 22, 2007,

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/formalde.html
Source: Vitamin Relief USA

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Allstate Cancels Policies in Brooklyn, NY, Blames Katrina

by Ana Maria

In an attempt to boost its ever growing and obscene amount of profits, Allstate is dropping like flies its Brooklyn customers who’ve faithfully paid their homeowner’s insurance premiums.

Are you kidding me?! Brooklyn as in . . . New York?!

Damian Young got the news last fall by mail: Allstate was dropping him, and he’d have to find another insurance company to get coverage for his brownstone. “[The letter] alluded to Hurricane Katrina and said they’re unable to carry the risk of living in coastal areas,” says the actor. “I live in Park Slope. I was like, What? This doesn’t make sense!” [Emphasis added.]
The Storm Before the Storm
New York Magazine

Park Slope is in Brooklyn, New York. Dropping insurance coverage in Brooklyn because Katrina hit the Gulf Coast is only about dollars and cents. The only sense this makes to me is nonsense.

What is this? Are Allstate and other insurance companies beginning to admit that they are deliberately choosing not to do business with the Americans who live along our nation’s beautiful coastlines?

Remember that the National Oceanographic and Atmosphere Administration states

“Populations and built environments in coastal watersheds are growing rapidly, with 55 percent of the U.S. population already living within 50 miles of the coast.” [Emphasis added.]
“The Coastal Community Development Partnership”
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Wow. That’s a lot of financial vulnerability that 55% of us are going to experience as private insurance companies opt out of the insurance business. 55%. That includes an awful lot of American families, businesses, places of worship, schools, hospitals, police stations, fire stations, and doctors’ offices . . . groceries, bakeries, dry cleaners, book stores, coffee shops, restaurants, hair salons, appliance stores, cable companies, office supply stores, casinos, banks, gas stations, and so on and so forth that will have to scramble to find alternative insurance policies for their financial security.

For those who have a hang up about the 55% of us living along the nation’s coastal areas, here’s something to think about. SignalSuzie at DailyKos posted the following in response to the piece I wrote yesterday titled More "signs" of the times and which I had uploaded to my diary at DK.

I am a former Gulf Coaster who was living on the Gulf Coast of Florida for decades--because of military assignments. That's another reason for SHAME on the part of the Bush administration's rejection of insurance reform because they don't want to 'subsidize beach lifestyles!' What farce, what an insult. The number of military bases along the coasts in our country is huge--think about that. They put those bases along the coasts from Seattle south; from Texas to Florida; from Virginia to Miami. People move there when the military sends them to the bases. They raise families there and they retire there to remain close to a military community they've dedicated their lives to. So, they too suffer losses when hurricanes or other natural disasters strike. I had friends who lost EVERYTHING when Hurricane Andrew struck Homestead AFB in South Florida (MIAMI) in 1992. They had just had a baby, and of course everything in the baby's room was literally exploded along with their entire home.

Anyway, I still have family on the Gulf Coast, though I have now moved to the mountains to escape hurricanes. I'm glad to see that you're keeping the news going about how depraved the Bush administration is with regard to the suffering of good Americans. If there is a hell--they will be eternally damned to it for what they've done. [Emphasis hers.]

Isn’t that something? I hadn’t really thought about the situation that way. And, I was born and raised 30 minutes from Keesler Air Force Base. Traveling about three hours round trip every day, my father worked as an electrician at Avondale Shipyards, one of the largest employers in Louisiana, on the West Bank of New Orleans. Avondale builds military ships and is currently owned by Northrop Gunman.

Signal Suzie’s comment brought much to mind. Of course, if military personnel are stationed somewhere for any length of time, that is where they would buy homes. Community springs up around bases all the time. With military personnel—just like other employees of major employers in an area, additional services and businesses spring up so that the place is livable. Businesses spring up to provide the needed goods and services. You know, grocery stores and the like. This is so obvious to be ridiculously embarrassing that we haven’t thought of it ourselves.

Shipyards that build military ships are usually located near water. So when blowhards start opening their mouths about not wanting to pay for “beach town” lifestyles, test their patriotism. Talk with them about the military families that are based in coastal communities, that build their lives and raise their families there, then retire where they have lived and worked for years. Ask these blowhards how they intend to tell these patriots that after laying their lives on the line, that we’re going to tell them that our nation is going to also subject them to financial vulnerability as well.

The point of any insurance is to gain some semblance of financial security. The point of the blowhards is to pretend that their financial security is the only one that matters. When insurance companies spout similar propaganda it seems it is mostly to protect their executives’ massive bonuses and gargantuan salaries. Allowing either to have their way leaves the rest of us financially vulnerable, and that is unacceptable.

As we look at the practical aspects of our individual and business financial security, one important thing to keep in mind is that regardless of where we live in this naturally beautiful piece of the planet that we call the United States of America, we all live in a place that has us buying some form of insurance: theft, auto, fire, wind, water, health, life, disability, worker’s compensation, business loss, etc.

When it comes to our own financial security as well as that of our families and our businesses, we must have options that the insurance industry decided in the 1960s to no longer provide. Specifically, one policy for both wind and water.

That is the point of the Congressman Gene Taylor’s proposed multiple peril insurance policy embodied in H.R. 3121. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), Committee Chair Barney Frank (D-MA) and Subcommittee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) unanimously support H.R. 3121 because they support protecting the financial security of our families, communities, and businesses.

To bring this policy proposal into reality, let’s continue to contact by phone and email—and encourage our friends, neighbors, and relatives to d the same—our congressional representatives. When we buy insurance, we expect to purchase some semblance of financial security.

With Taylor's multiple peril insurance policy (H.R. 3121), our financial security will be in better hands.

© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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Cochran to go to bat for young volunteers

By MARIA RECIO
SUN HERALD WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON --
One of the most popular voluntary programs that came to public attention in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the National Civilian Community Corps, is facing a budget crunch.

The House has passed an appropriation for fiscal year 2008 that would dramatically cut back funding for NCCC from $26 million this year to the president's proposed budget level of $11 million. But in the Senate Appropriations Committee, the program has a booster - Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., the panel's powerful ranking Republican.

"It's a volunteer program that has meant so much to the people of Mississippi," said Cochran in an interview.

Cochran has pushed for an increase to $31 million, which the appropriations panel has approved and which now awaits Senate action. The Senate bill would open two new training campuses for volunteers - one in Vicksburg at a recently closed Episcopal boarding school and one in Vinton, Iowa. As part of a belt tightening this year, NCCC closed two of its five campuses, in Washington and Charleston, S.C. Its three remaining campuses are in Sacramento, Denver and Perry Point, Md.

NCCC, which is under the AmeriCorps umbrella, is a 10-month program for 18- to 24-year-olds who do short-term projects for six to eight weeks in areas of need. The approximately 1,200 volunteers a year receive a small stipend - making the program a target of fiscal conservatives who think it is not government's role to pay for charity.

But after Katrina the NCCC volunteers, who typically work in teams of 10, have been a welcome sight on the Coast.

"You can't go anywhere on the Gulf (Coast) to any civic meeting that when you mention the NCCC, you don't get a standing ovation," said Marsha Meeks Kelly, executive director of the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Services. "They have really rocked the Coast."

The young members, as they are called, have played a major role in reconstruction projects. "We actually can't live without our NCCC," said Jeannie Antonetti, volunteer manager at the Habitat for Humanity-Mississippi Gulf Coast. "They're a great asset to our organization."

The NCCC has made a commitment to the Gulf region - Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Florida - to have 60 percent of members rotate through the area.

And that makes the prospect of a Vicksburg campus especially appealing.

"That would mean another opportunity to expand and train more members," said Jen Prall, assistant project director, NCCC-Gulf Coast. "To have that facility would certainly be a positive thing."

The site of the proposed campus is the former All Saints' Episcopal School, a boarding school on 40 acres in Vicksburg. Cochran said local proponents talked to him about using the site for the NCCC program. "It sounded like a good idea to me," said Cochran. "We're trying to be helpful.

"We hope we can be successful in negotiations with the House," he said. "I'm hopeful that we can get a generous appropriation for this activity."

Originally published here by the Sun Herald on September 13, 2007.

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Feud Brews Over Katrina Housing Funds

By SHELIA BYRD

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A state agency wants to divert $600 million from a Hurricane Katrina housing program to a port restoration project, outraging advocacy groups who say the proposal shortchanges thousands of people still homeless on the Gulf Coast.

The Mississippi Development Authority has proposed taking the money from the $2.25 billion remaining in Gov. Haley Barbour's Homeowners Assistance Grant Program, which is funded by federal block grants. Part of that program is dedicated to low-income and working poor homeowners.

"It's just unfair," Reilly Morse of the Mississippi Center for Justice said Wednesday. "We've been told affordable housing was supposed to be a priority. Don't rob the displaced to build a port."

Agency officials said there would be enough money in the housing fund to cover about 30,000 homeowners applying for grants to restore or rebuild property destroyed by the storm.

The development authority chose to tap the Homeowner Assistance Grant Program because it had excess funding, Donna Sanford, director of MDA's disaster recovery division, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

The proposal is open to public comment until Sept. 24, and organizations including Oxfam America and the Mississippi NAACP have said they will oppose it. The proposal needs approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The $600 million would be used to restore public infrastructure and publicly owned facilities at the State Port at Gulfport that were destroyed during the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane. It would also improve the operating capacity at the port, Barbour said in a news release.

Barbour said the restoration is "crucial to the economy of our state and essential to the revitalization of the Gulf Coast region."

The port generates about 3,000 maritime jobs and is the third busiest container port in the Gulf of Mexico, said Don Allee, executive director of the Mississippi State Port Authority.

Thousands of families still live in FEMA trailers and affordable rental property is scarce. Roberta Avila of the Interfaith Disaster Task Force said many coast residents haven't recovered because they don't qualify for the governor's housing program.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Originally published here on September 13, 2007.

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Allstate Will Not Refuse to Renew New York Policies

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Allstate Corp. (ALL.N: Quote, Profile , Research), avoiding a showdown with New York Insurance Commissioner Eric Dinallo, on Wednesday agreed it would renew homeowners' insurance for customers who do not take other Allstate policies.

In August, Dinallo had issued a citation to Allstate, the largest publicly traded home insurer in the United States, for failing to comply with his directive ordering insurers to continue policies to homeowners regardless of whether they bought automobile and life insurance from the company.

Allstate was due for a hearing on Sept. 19, but has now agreed to comply, Dinallo said.

Allstate spokeswoman Krista Conte said her company believes it was obeyeing New York state law but "respects the Insurance Department's authority."

The insurance department had charged Allstate with discrimination, saying it dropped thousands of homeowners since January 2006 simply for not taking other insurance products.

The Northbrook, Illinois-based property insurer is trying to reduce its coverage in storm-exposed areas such as Long Island as a result of the $5 billion of losses it took in 2005 when hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma hit the U.S. coast.

In other insurance department news, Dinallo said he was forming an Elder Protection unit that would support seniors dealing with insurance such as Medicare Advantage, long term care insurance and community care residential centers.

Dinallo said he was seeing a "growing number of complaints," including unfair and deceptive sales practices.

(Reporting by Ed Leefeldt)

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.
Originally published here on September 12, 2007, by Reuters UK.

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Volunteers still making an impact on the Gulf Coast -- --

September 12, 2007

While New Orleans received most of the attention following Hurricane Katrina, small communities like Pearlington, Mississippi were also devastated by the storm. Two years later, relief agencies, including some with close ties to western Virginia, are still working quietly to help those communities recover.

When we last visited the Gulf Coast in November of 2005, volunteers from congregations at Smith Mountain Lake were helping to renovate the First Southern Baptist Church in Pearlington. Although that work is complete, volunteers are still making an impact. They are rebuilding homes and helping residents rebuild their lives.

A local contractor actually moved his family to Hancock County. Two years ago, Gene Butterfield was building homes at Smith Mountain Lake. Today, he is working a different waterfront with his group, Walls of Hope.

"It's still overwhelming to me. With the amount of loss that was here, and the amount of need that is still required to put, to get them back in their homes," says Butterfield.

After two years in a FEMA trailer, Ettie Lee is getting back into a home. The new home was built, financed, and furnished by members of western Virginia churches. "I appreciate everybody who had something to do with it," says Lee.

Walls of Hope and its volunteers have built 60 homes. By using wall panels trucked in from Iowa, and as much volunteer labor as possible, Walls of Hope can build a new home in a week.

Butterfield says Radford Baptist, Hales Ford Baptist, West Salem Baptist and other churches in Virginia have been a lifeline.

All content © Copyright 2004 - 2007 WorldNow and WDBJ7. All Rights Reserved.

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Judge refuses to bar lawyer from State Farm cases

Associated Press - September 12, 2007 8:44 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A federal judge today refused to bar an attorney from representing dozens of Mississippi homeowners who are suing Bloomington- (Illinois) based State Farm for denying their claims after Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter chided State Farm for waiting more than a year to ask for attorney Richard Scruggs to be disqualified because of alleged ethical violations.

Senter, who expressed no opinion on the merits of the alleged ethics violations, said he is "at a loss to understand why State Farm has waited so long" to raise the issue.

State Farm accuses Scruggs of improperly using internal company records he obtained from two women who helped the insurer adjust Katrina claims on Mississippi's Gulf Coast.

Scruggs contends the documents support his allegation that State Farm manipulated engineering reports to fraudulently deny policyholder claims.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Associated Press story published on September 12, 2007, here.

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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Storm Before the Storm (Brooklyn, NY)

Insurers are declaring Brooklyn a high-risk hurricane zone—and canceling policies.
By S.Jhoanna Robledo
New York Magazine
September 12, 2007
Photo original here.

Damian Young got the news last fall by mail: Allstate was dropping him, and he’d have to find another insurance company to get coverage for his brownstone. “[The letter] alluded to Hurricane Katrina and said they’re unable to carry the risk of living in coastal areas,” says the actor. “I live in Park Slope. I was like, What? This doesn’t make sense!”

Nearly a year later, his neighbors are getting Dear John letters, too, from Allstate and other firms, some pointing to the chances of “similarly destructive storms” in the area. In fact, it’s happening all over Brooklyn, and “I see two or three nonrenewals each week,” from Bayside to the Hamptons, says Ruchman and Associates insurance broker Jonathan Banach. In some cases, homeowners are being re-upped, but at triple the fees.

New York is certainly not immune to hurricanes. Ours is a coastal island city, and even if you’re a half-mile inland and can’t see the water, that’s a small distinction to a swirling storm a thousand miles wide. (The house pictured, in Ditmas Park, is about three miles from the bay, and its owners were just cut loose by Allstate.) According to the Climate Institute, a nonprofit environmental group, the city is “quite vulnerable” to hurricanes and nor’easters, thanks in part to “the area’s nearly 1,500 miles of coastline, and that four out of five boroughs are islands.”

But some owners contend that rejections aren’t based on real risk. (One Gowanus Lounge blogger writes, “I live on Metropolitan and Manhattan in Williamsburg at the top of the hill and we were canceled too. We’re not even in the flood zone!”) “There’s no differentiation [in terms of] distance to water,” Banach says of the cases he’s seeing. In brief, the law allows insurers to drop 4 percent of their policyholders when they see elevated risk, and they’re doing just that. Allstate, for its part, issued a statement about what it calls our “catastrophe-prone area,” saying it is forced “to explore options to manage our exposure in order to better protect our customers.”

For now, some other firms are taking on rejects—Young found an underwriter through his insurance broker, and the state also offers some coverage—but usually at higher rates. There’s no question, though, that the recent spate of cancellations is causing agita. “Used to be if you’ve had no losses, you got renewed,” says Banach. “They don’t care now.”

From the September 17, 2007 issue of New York

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Brooklyn Homeowner's Insurance Woes

Real Estate Round-Up:
September 12, 2007
by Sarah Ryley (sarah@brooklyneagle.net), published online 09-12-2007

The wave of home insurance cancellations in Brooklyn is hitting further from the coastline. New York Magazine reports on residents living in Park Slope, Ditmas Park (three miles from the coastline), and on a hilltop in Williamsburg who have all been dropped by their home insurance providers within the last year. Letters are alluding to Hurricane Katrina and the risk of a similar storm here.

Back in February, the Brooklyn Eagle reported that global warming and the imminent risk of flooding in the region, within the next five or 10 years, was the keynote topic of an insurance convention held at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge. Industry insiders said the $55 billion payout after Katrina had opened their eyes to what a storm could cost when it hits an even denser urban area like Brooklyn, with far higher property values, and that many companies are preparing for the storm by dropping policies or raising rates. At that time, Allstate and six other insurance companies had already started shedding customers in the region.

Several analysts told the Eagle that the conundrum is going to prove especially difficult for buyers looking at all the new waterfront condos and co-ops going up in Brooklyn, many of whom are first-time home owners and less apt to think about home insurance costs until it’s too late.

Original posted here.

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More "signs" of the times

by Ana Maria

Today, a tad over two years since Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast and the insurance industry began to ravage the financial security of American families and businesses, certain handmade signs remain as evidence that reveal the reality on the ground. The hurricane ravaged homes regardless of economic position, political party, religious affiliation, marital status, ethnic or racial background, etc. and so forth.

Joe De Benvenutti and his family have lived on Beach Boulevard in Bay St. Louis, Miss., for 23 years. He thought his flood insurance and his State Farm hurricane policy would cover his losses in case of a hurricane, but State Farm is refusing to pay his claim after Katrina. STAFF PHOTO / WILL ROTHSCHILD
Photo originally published here by the Herald Tribune.

Just last week, I saw Joe De and Betty Benvenutti. Joe De's sign is still there in their front yard. His 186 year old home was destroyed by Katrina's winds and some water. Like his truly good neighbors, the Taylors (that is, Congressman Gene Taylor and his wife, Margaret), Joe De and Betty Benvenutti had to hire a lawyer to FINALLY get a settlement. They are anticipating getting the check any week now.

That two years have gone by and people along the Gulf Coast remain rightfully furious about how the insurance companies have abandoned their "good neighbors" is a testament to the extent of the resentment . . . and the continual abandonment from a White House that refuses to so much as use the bully pulpit to push the insurance companies into doing what is right AND to push hard for, deliberately join hands in an overt manner with Congressman Gene Taylor and U.S. Senator Trent Lott to pass insurance reform so that no other American EVER, EVER go through this financial security crisis again.

In today's postings are a number of articles that echo this sentiment and provide proof positive of its validity.

Mississippi resident still recovering from Hurricane Katrina

FEMA refuses to pay Miss. county almost $12 M for Katrina work

Hancock receives advice on aid

What was said in 1992 is as true today of this Bush Administration as it was to the prior one.

. . . our government has lost touch with our values . . . I was raised to believe the American Dream was built on rewarding hard work.But we have seen the folks of Washington turn the American ethic on its head.

For too long, those who play by the rules and keep the faith have gotten the shaft, and those who cut corners and cut deals have been rewarded.

Presidential Nominee Bill Clinton
Acceptance Speech
Democratic National Convention, 1992

Well, the apparent universal truth is that if we don't like how others are treating us, it is up to us to do something about it, especially when are requests for change fall on deaf ears.

If you live outside of Congressman Gene Taylor's South Mississippi's district, please, contact your own congressional representative to express your desire to see the insurance industry fixed legislatively through the Multiple Peril Insurance policy Taylor proposed. It's part of H.R. 3121. Let your representative know that you ARE a good neighbor, that you HAVE to be in good hands should some kind of disaster befall you and your family. Tell your congressional representative that waiting for two years for insurance companies to do right is way too long for any American to be required to endure, and most assuredly you and your own family would be unable to endure it quietly or politely.

Changing our own behavior be it inside a personal or a political relationship always alters the dynamics. Always. ;)

© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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