Gutsy Good Samaritan Urges FEMA To 'Make Themselves Useful'
By
Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
August 2, 2006
NEW ORLEANS,
LOUISIANA--Sometimes, as Gary Cooper or John Wayne said in an old-time Western
movie, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."
That's exactly what Henry "Junior" Rodriguez did.
Hopefully what he did won't land him in jail.
When Rodriguez, the President of St. Bernard Parish, learned Monday that
Mary Badinger and her husband still had not received a FEMA trailer and were
forced to live in the garage of their hurricane-damaged home, he decided it was
time to act.
"I looked at Mrs. Mary, and said Mrs. Mary, you will have a trailer
today," he told WWL-TV.
Then he went out and found a trailer that was not being used, and simply
towed it to the home of Badinger, who is blind.
"The little girl from FEMA, she looks at me and she says you know it is
illegal, you can't do that," Rodriguez said.
"I said you don't seem to understand, legal has nothing to do with this.
This is a blind lady with a dog and her husband's been living in a garage. I
said I don't give a damn about the law right now."
Upon learning that FEMA officials are investigating his Good Samaritan
actions, Rodriguez replied: "Tell them to investigate what ever in the hell
they want. I welcome them, but if they don't have anything else to do, tell
them to come help me haul trailers, and make themselves useful."
Related:
"St. Bernard Parish President takes action to get a
trailer for a blind woman" (WWL-TV)
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl080106jbjunior.61572f6.html
"People
With Disabilities Among Hardest Hit By Hurricanes Katrina & Rita"
(Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/katrina.htm
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Reproduced here under special arrangement
with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service.
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