The Wilmington Journal - Article - more national
The Wilmington Journal - Article - more national: "WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Bishop T. D. Jakes, who emerged to the forefront alongside President Bush in the tragic aftermath of hurricane Katrina, says his time with the president was not just a photo opt, but moments to speak up for Black people and apply pressure for fairness in the reconstruction.
“We’re all let down because we as Americans, not just African-Americans, but we as Americans, were raised to believe that our country would come through for us. And they didn’t. And not only does that make me angry. It makes me sick,” Jakes said in an interview with the NNPA News Service. “It makes me sick because I have five children and I pay taxes and a lot of taxes. I want to know that in a crisis when my back’s up against the wall, that we can get help to New Orleans as quick as we got help to Kosovo or Afghanistan. And I’m disappointed that that didn’t happen.”
Jakes was shown on national television, touring hurricane relief cites with Bush. He also was the keynote speaker at Bush’s National Day of Prayer Sept. 16.
Jakes, a best-selling author and televangelist who pastors more than 30,000 people at the Potter’s House in Dallas, says he was candid with the Bush, whom he had a pre-existing relationship dating back to Bush’s days as governor of Texas.
“I felt that it was incumbent upon me to be that person who went in and said to him, ‘You know, these are the issues that are going on in our community.
What can you do to devise a plan to fix this?’” Jakes recounts. “’At this point, you can’t change what has happened. But what are you going to do going forward to make this better for poor people and people of color?’”
Jakes says he knew that when he stepped into the picture with Bush at a time when many citizens were enraged by the slow response to mostly Black people left without food or water for days.
“To say that it was all about race oversimplifies the issue. I the issue. I think race played a part even before Katrina hit,” Jakes says. “The fact that they were living underprivileged lives with 30- something percent of the population in New Orleans living below the poverty line, the fact that you’ve got a city that’s disproportionately African-American and that we have not done anything historically to raise the economic level of these people so that they could have a car to get in and drive away is reprehensible.”
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“We’re all let down because we as Americans, not just African-Americans, but we as Americans, were raised to believe that our country would come through for us. And they didn’t. And not only does that make me angry. It makes me sick,” Jakes said in an interview with the NNPA News Service. “It makes me sick because I have five children and I pay taxes and a lot of taxes. I want to know that in a crisis when my back’s up against the wall, that we can get help to New Orleans as quick as we got help to Kosovo or Afghanistan. And I’m disappointed that that didn’t happen.”
Jakes was shown on national television, touring hurricane relief cites with Bush. He also was the keynote speaker at Bush’s National Day of Prayer Sept. 16.
Jakes, a best-selling author and televangelist who pastors more than 30,000 people at the Potter’s House in Dallas, says he was candid with the Bush, whom he had a pre-existing relationship dating back to Bush’s days as governor of Texas.
“I felt that it was incumbent upon me to be that person who went in and said to him, ‘You know, these are the issues that are going on in our community.
What can you do to devise a plan to fix this?’” Jakes recounts. “’At this point, you can’t change what has happened. But what are you going to do going forward to make this better for poor people and people of color?’”
Jakes says he knew that when he stepped into the picture with Bush at a time when many citizens were enraged by the slow response to mostly Black people left without food or water for days.
“To say that it was all about race oversimplifies the issue. I the issue. I think race played a part even before Katrina hit,” Jakes says. “The fact that they were living underprivileged lives with 30- something percent of the population in New Orleans living below the poverty line, the fact that you’ve got a city that’s disproportionately African-American and that we have not done anything historically to raise the economic level of these people so that they could have a car to get in and drive away is reprehensible.”
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