Oh say, did you see Kanye?

Kanye West apparently exerted some last minute editorial control Friday during his appearance on NBC's telethon for New Orleans disaster relief. I somehow managed to catch the performance twice over the weekend and though I can't say much for his coherence, I certainly think he has a point. Of course, the blogoshpere has never suffered from a shortage of outrage, so I'm not going to add my voice to the growing howl, at least not specifically.

I do agree that (FEMA director) Michael Brown appears to have failed dramatically and that both he and those who approved his appointment should be held accountable for that failure -- but Andrew appears to have that base very well covered. The outrage that I'm interested in came from a group of Philadelphians this weekend.

On Friday, Philadelphia mayor John Street offered to shelter up to 5,000 refugees from New Orleans and immediately city and volunteer groups began retrofitting some abandoned schools and hospitals to the task. A small (and largely ignored) group of protesters appeared outside of one of those sites Monday to demand, "that the city take care of its own poor before bringing in outsiders." As disturbing as it may be to protest aid, the truth is that I think these people have something important to say.

As of the 2000 census, 22.9% of Philadelphians lived below the poverty level. This is not drastically different from the 27.9% in New Orleans or the 21.2% in New York City. The point is that the amount of poverty in New Orleans is not unique.

In any disaster that covers a broad geographic area, the poor will be the most vulnerable. In New Orleans people are dying not because of a hurricane, or because of flooding, or poor relief management. They are dying because their poverty exposed them to these secondary causes in ways that wealthier citizens were protected from.

So lets help the survivors, but maybe we should listen to those folks in Philadelphia and take care of our own as well, and make sure there are more survivors next time.