Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

There are thousands of former residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Are they refugees or evacuees?

At first glance, what does it matter? After all, what’s most important in the here and now is to help them. Help them find separated family members. Help them obtain basic necessities. Help them cope with losing everything and having to start over. Regardless of your age, it’s a tricky thing.

At the same time, semantics does matter.

The word ‘refugees’ suggests that the people displaced by Hurricane Katrina are from some foreign country, that they are on the move from their homeland to a new land. They are not, in the pure sense, citizens. The word ‘evacuees’ suggest that local Americans have been displaced and were evacuated for security and other purposes. They retain the status of American citizens. The latter is better in the long run.

So pretend your home is flooded; there is no potable water, no electricity, no relief in store. Which would you rather be? Someone who has to prove he is here legally and who owns the home he or she is leaving or someone who has to prove only that he or she owns the home in question?

In the land of red tape, the less one has to prove the better.