Katrina related moral question.

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Okay, so my temp agency contact gives me a call today (I did as recommended and laid a guilt trip on her yesterday) to talk about a possible assignment. The hours are a bit strange, 10pm to 6am, but that sounds alright - I haven't done graveyard too much before, but I tend toward nightowlish. The location would be great, too. The Austin Convention Center, which is easy walking distance from the house. At this point I start to get a little apprehensive, because I know that the CC is being used to house survivors (NOT REFUGEES!) of the Katrina flooding. Apparently, my duties would be to just be a 'presence' in one of the six rooms where people are being sheltered. I wouldn't be security - no weapon, no badge - just there to answer questions and make people feel safer. I probe for some further info about this. Would there be security? Yes, the APD will be there. How many people are going to be staying in this room? She doesn't know. What would I be able to do if they need something? She doesn't know. She keeps using the word 'presence' to describe what I'm doing.

Eventually, (and I'm reading between the lines here, so I could be totally mistaken) it sounds like I'm keeping these people from leaving. I'm enforcing curfews. I'm being asked to be a fucking guard at what amounts to a concentration camp.

I turned down the job. I need the money. Maybe if I was there, I'd be taking the place of some other guy who wouldn't be so nice about the whole thing (although my niceness has been known to disappear without much warning, so...) Maybe I could use this as an opportunity to sketch and document these folks, and get some art out of it, and help cheer up kids who have lost everything by showing someone is interested in them for reasons that have nothing to do with the fact that they've suffered this terrible loss. Shit, maybe I could write about the experience and pitch it to the High Hat (an online zine I've contributed to before.) But nothing was able to get me past the idea that I would be there in a repressive capacity, not to help. That's something that I just don't want to do.

So what do you guys think of this?

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 9 September 2005 22:45 (twenty years ago)

its possible they'd want you there to calm people down, help with trauma, etc. but in that case they'd want someone with actual therapeutic expertise - I don't understand what another body in the room is going to accomplish, specifically.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 9 September 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

You could always take the job and quit if your suspicions are confirmed.

― Bombed Out and Depleted / Kate (papa november), Friday, 9 September 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

what are the odds that someone is going to be "supervising" you? if you're on your own, you definitely have a shot at being subversive.

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 9 September 2005 22:54 (twenty years ago)

Mo - that's just the thing. I think my main qualification here is being 6'2" and 200 lbs.

Kate - If I do that the temp agency never offersr another position again. You are branded 'unreliable' and I've got other irons in the fire with these guys that I don't want to jeopardize.

As far as supervision, I think there will be a cop in the room. I'm not sure, though.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 9 September 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

oops - six-two and 250 lbs. (I'm sorry to admit)

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 9 September 2005 22:57 (twenty years ago)

Who says you have to enforce shit anyhow? It's a temp job so you who cares! You can be one of the good guys. I think if i were in your situation i might jump at the chance - just to see these people's situation 1st hand.

xxxxpost

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 9 September 2005 22:58 (twenty years ago)

Unless they were planning on giving you below minimum wage. Fuck that.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 9 September 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

We didn't even get to the question of compensation. My apprehensions got the better of me before that.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 9 September 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

what kind of subversion does renegade have in mind?

― sexyDancer, Friday, 9 September 2005 23:04 (twenty years ago)

good subversion. the kind austin alluded to above.

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 9 September 2005 23:05 (twenty years ago)

I think the concentration camp connotations sound overblown. They probably just need bodies to keep an eye/ear on things and to take questions from survivors to the appropriate people (although you wonder why the survivors can't just do that themselves). I would take the job as it would probably help things (despite the odd hours). You can always quit immediately if it actually seemed sketchy or if you were being used as an enforcer (and you could make that clear to the agency beforehand).

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 9 September 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

What is being decent subverting?

― sexyDancer, Friday, 9 September 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

What is being decent subverting?

it's subverting the idea that he's there to do no more than be a "watchdog" and enforce curfews.

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 9 September 2005 23:10 (twenty years ago)

But that idea is largely his own as he admits.

― sexyDancer, Friday, 9 September 2005 23:16 (twenty years ago)

Yes, I'm absolutely going on no more than sketchy impressions. And a native tendency to assume the worst.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 9 September 2005 23:27 (twenty years ago)

You could just explain to the people housed in the CC that part of your job is to try to persuade people to stay in for the night, but that you're not going to bodily stop them from leaving if they really want to go. I'm sure the temp agency would forgive you for not tackling people.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Friday, 9 September 2005 23:36 (twenty years ago)

I'm not even sure why I asked - I've already turned them down. I guess maybe if I change my mind they might still take me up on it. But it seems sort of moot at this point. It just occurred to me that I don't know who contacted the temp agency looking for people - FEMA? The city? Haliburton? The trilateral commission? PNAC? Heritage Foundation?

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 9 September 2005 23:40 (twenty years ago)

Hey, you went with your gut feelings. I don't see anything wrong with that. As you explained, there are other possibilites through this agency, for which you are still available.

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 9 September 2005 23:42 (twenty years ago)

You would just be following orders...

― M. V. (M.V.), Saturday, 10 September 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

This doesn't sound like a concentration camp anymore than your usual night-shelter curfew situation. AFAIK, it's a procedure designed to protect those staying inside as much as anything.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Saturday, 10 September 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

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