What should the federal government do to help the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita?

Politicians in Louisiana, Mississippi and Washington, D.C., are now debating that question. They are calling for cash grants to hurricane victims, federal aid to school districts impacted by refugees from the storm's devastation, money for rebuilding the Gulf Coast regions that have been destroyed. Such programs will cost many billions of taxpayer dollars; one program is tentatively pegged at $200 billion.

For that amount of money we could put a fair number of the storms' victims on Mars!

Seriously, though, what would be the best way to address this problem? The people of the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast region need help, no doubt about it. But simply turning on the money spigot is an invitation to graft, fraud and the kind of corruption that left New Orleans vulnerable to Katrina in the first place.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are seeking more influence on how federal relief money is spent, demanding money for health, housing, education and direct cash grants to hurricane victims similar to those given to victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., is chairman of the Black Caucus. He was quoted by the Associated Press, "One of the things we're worried about is that our government, perhaps, would just as soon forget about those people and let them fend for themselves."

"Those people" means the poor blacks who've lost their homes and their livelihoods to the storms.

The federal government certainly should provide assistance to the people whose lives have been ravaged. But that assistance should be color-blind and bipartisan. And it should be insulated, as far as possible, against the grafters and shysters who are already lining up to pocket as much of Washington's money as they can get their hands on.

Is it possible to have a federal program that will help those who need help, and do it fairly and efficiently? I think the answer is yes.

Our government dealt with an even bigger problem more than half a century ago, and it did it very successfully. The program was popularly called the GI Bill of Rights.

At the end of World War II, some 15 million men and women left military service and re-entered civilian life. Economists predicted enormous unemployment as this horde of returning veterans entered the job market. They foresaw a return of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

It didn't happen. Instead, the American economy boomed, in large part because of the GI Bill.

The Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944 (to give the law its proper name) provided six benefits for returning veterans: education and training; loan guarantees for a home, business or farm; unemployment pay of $20 a week for up to 52 weeks; assistance in finding a job; top priority for building materials for Veterans' Administration hospitals; and a military review of dishonorable discharges (only veterans honorably discharged were eligible for the other benefits).

More than six million veterans went to college or other schools under the GI Bill. Millions more took job training. Veterans bought homes and started businesses. For most of them it was the first time they'd ever had the opportunity to get a higher education or to own their own home.

The cost of the education program was $14.5 billion. What that money produced was a better-educated work force, explosive growth in the housing industry, and the beginnings of a new economy, based on information rather than manufacturing.

(It also fueled the baby boom generation, who are now nearing retirement age.)

That is the example Washington's lawmakers should keep in mind as they hammer out a program for assisting the hurricane victims. Not handouts, but a hand to help people better themselves. Not cash grants but an opportunity for people to work to better themselves and their place in society.

There are those who will argue that the GIs returning from World War II were far different from the poor families displaced by the hurricanes. They forget that when those GIs went into the armed services they did not have college educations, did not have high-paying civilian jobs, did not own the residences in which they lived.

Give the poor families devastated by the hurricanes a chance to work to better themselves. Like the GIs returning from World War II, give them the chance to show the world what they can accomplish.

South Florida has suffered storm damage, too. Hurricane Wilma slammed the region pretty hard. Plenty of roofing was blown away, storm shutters ripped out, windows smashed. The Stratford condominium in Pelican Bay had a whole wall peeled away by the Category-3 force winds.

A new wind will likely rise over the Stratford: lawyers will soon be arguing over who is liable for the damage.

It's interesting to note that most of the newer buildings, and even those older ones with shutters and windows upgraded to meet the new, tougher building codes, fared well against Wilma. Older buildings that have not been upgraded fared much worse.

Now the sound of the chain saw is heard in the land. And the streets are filled with insurance adjusters taking photographs and making measurements. Will everything be back to normal by the time the snowbirds begin arriving in force? No. It can't be.

The gracious old banyan trees that lined streets such as Crayton Road have been ripped out of the ground, and no one can replace them. It tore at my heart to see those lovely old trees uprooted. Nature has no compassion, of course, but still it is very sad to see those trees sprawled on the ground, dying.

It was beneath a banyan that Siddartha Gautama achieved enlightenment and became Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. I believe that if he saw the wreckage of our banyans, Buddha himself would weep.

Naples resident Ben Bova is the author of more than 100 futuristic books, including "Mercury," the latest novel in his acclaimed Grand Tour series. Dr. Bova's Web site address is www.benbova.net.