In Labor Day address, Keillor reflects on Katrina’s devastation

Writer and radio host Garrison Keillor is best known for humorous monologues during his nationally broadcast show, “A Prairie Home Companion.” But at the St. Paul Labor Day picnic Monday, his remarks about the response to Hurricane Katrina were both somber and incisive.

“This is an amazing week in America when poor people actually got on television,” Keiller said as he opened his remarks. “That just doesn’t happen.”

Noting that the images of thousands waiting for rescue, for a drink of water, were a shock to people across the country, he said, “You wouldn’t treat your dog the way those people were treated in New Orleans. It gives you pause to think that this happened in America.”

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Keillor’s appearance marked the second year in a row that he has addressed the Labor Day crowd. The author of the best seller Homegrown Democrat made few bones about who he blames most for the lack of response to the disaster ? President Bush. However, he lambasted both parties for policies that set the stage for the deaths and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people along the Gulf Coast, especially in New Orleans.

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“We saw that welfare reform hasn’t quite worked in America,” he said, referring to the 30 percent poverty rate among New Orleans residents ? many of whom were unable to leave before the storm hit. Democrats, under President Bill Clinton, pushed through the changes in welfare.

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“We’ve seen that flood control is a political issue,” Keillor said. “Louisiana didn’t get flood control because it’s not that important politically to the Republican Party.” Florida and Texas ? states with more electoral votes in a presidential election ? received the flood control monies instead, he said.

“When you’ve signed onto a Republican agenda of lower taxes and less government, you’re not going to get flood control,” he added.

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Keillor said people must demand that their government reflect the values that once defined the United States.

“The strength, the security, the prosperity of any community, any society, any nation, depends on how people are doing at the bottom and in the middle,” he said. The labor movement, through its struggles for the eight-hour day and for dignity on the job, demonstrates those values, he said.

“This is the basic cornerstone of the Democratic Party and we lose sight of it at our peril,” Keillor concluded.

For more information
Listen to Keillor’s entire speech at this link on the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly’s website, www.stpaulunions.org

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