Did I miss the celebrity benefit concerts for the Gulf coast areas?

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by westres1

No Perry has been against taking Federal money for years. Remember Government can not create jobs!
Is'nt that the backbone of all Republican mantra this year all the while... what about the Texas Enterprise Fund? The fund Perry created to create Texas "jobs" but is really a fund to pad his cronies with tax payer dollars. Which many of them make millions off and then go bankrupt creating zero jobs and making his cronies rich! OPEN your eyes TEXAS! Perrry is the biggest crook this State has ever seen.

The center of power in the state house rests with the rural areas particularly with West Texas and the Panhandle. After all the rural roads in that part of the state come before Houston freeways and arterial roads. This state is still run as if it is still rural like how the Republican majority in the U.S. House schedule their workdays for each week.

[Chicken_of_Bristol]

As someone already mentioned, there were numerous Katrina relief efforts and fundraisers.

But, to the point about why this storm in particular, Sandy was a really bad storm and it hit in the most heavy populated and most important city in the United States, if not the world. New York and the metro area of New York is enormous and (despite the growth on the Sun Belt in the US over the past several decades), is still the cultural and economic center of the US. If a disaster hits London, it is more of a big deal than if a disaster hits Manchester (nothings against Manchester, of course).

Finally, to the larger suggested point of Texans pulling a Rodney Dangerfield ("No Respect"); Texas and Texans are not necessarily at the top of the popularity scale of many people in the rest of the country right now. I think it is combination of several factors including (i) the braggadocio and sometimes arrogant swagger that is portrayed by many people in Texas; (ii) compound factor (i) with the abysmal quality of life rankings that this state receives each year and the suggestion that this state could care less about the poor and struggling people that live within its borders; (iii) the extreme politics on evidence here and the fact that the rest of the country seems to be shifting farther and farther away from such feelings and (iv) despite that national shift, the very wealthy people in this state who are often very, very right wing and are seen by many people in this country as having a undue influence.

Another thing I would point out in terms of disasters such as hurricanes in particular is that some people (rightly or wrongly), place some of the blame for such events on climate change and the pollution generated by the oil and gas industry around the world. Given that Texas, and Houston in particular, is the center of the national oil and gas industry and the fact that many of these companies have been fighting efforts to mitigate the pollution from their operations, I would suspect that some people feel that Houston is getting its "just deserts."

Again, this is simply speculation and I am not necessarily advocating such a viewpoint but the oil and gas companies certainly haven't done themselves any favors with their actions over the past 20 years or so. Their sometimes shockingly arrogant dismissal of the concerns of many regular people in this country sometimes reminds me of the reaction of southerners to outside concerns about segregation during the Civil Rights era. I mean, the actions and words of the former CEO of Exxon Mobil were simply amazing given the amount of pollution and waste that company has generated over the years. I think if you looked up "Arrogant, Rich Texan SOB" in the dictionary you would probably see this picture:

[bloodwings19]

We just have stronger will than others and we are willing to help each other. You know that guy that got pushed in the Subway, I'm willing to bet if that happened in Houston, each one of us would pull him out. I've witnessed an overturn car on Saturday where almost every Houstonian came out of their car to check on the occupants, or pushing the car back to 4 wheels. New Yorkers live in a big fish eat small fish personality. Of course NY is the main draw for the concert, but a lot of money is spread out to other states. Katrina, it was said that Kuwait donated 500 million dollars and freaking China donated only 5 million. I find it odd that most of the musicians at the Sandy Benefit are rockers.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

As long as we have Perry as governor, the rest of the country will not take us seriously.

Understatement of the year

[westhou]

Originally Posted by bloodwings19

We just have stronger will than others and we are willing to help each other. You know that guy that got pushed in the Subway, I'm willing to bet if that happened in Houston, each one of us would pull him out. I've witnessed an overturn car on Saturday where almost every Houstonian came out of their car to check on the occupants, or pushing the car back to 4 wheels. New Yorkers live in a big fish eat small fish personality. Of course NY is the main draw for the concert, but a lot of money is spread out to other states. Katrina, it was said that Kuwait donated 500 million dollars and freaking China donated only 5 million. I find it odd that most of the musicians at the Sandy Benefit are rockers.

The people in Houston are no different than the people in New York City or any other city or town in the world. There are good people and there are bad people everywhere. Just go to the Harris County Jail and you'll see just how many people there are in Houston that will steal from you and assault you without giving it a second thought. You'll also find people here in Houston at various non profit charitable organizations with big hearts that would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. Same can be said about the people in New York City and around the world.

Someone from outside of Houston reading what you wrote may not see us as very kind people if we go on the internet generalizing all New Yorkers the way you just did. They may just think of us as judgmental.