Refugee/Evacuee

Of all the craziness of the Katrina disaster, none is more absurd than the big deal over the word “refugee.” It is particularly disappointing to hear it coming from Jesse Jackson. The rationale behind the outrage of using “refugee” to descript displaced people is that “they are American.” The clearly implicit is that refugees are those lesser people from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and South America; Americans, as the superior human, cannot be call such demeaning word that would equal them with the lesser human. A distressed refugee saying so is understandable, but for the leader of the Rainbow Collision to say so is ridiculous. What is good for others should be good for Americans. And they say they do not know why the world finds American annoying.
Are these “evacuees” not looking for refuge in places other than their home town/state? They are and they are therefore refugees. And think about the word “evacuees.” They are people who are evacuated, a passive subject in the speech. They do not look for refuge but are hopelessly controlled by whoever evacuated them. Is that really superior to “refugee”? A refugee is lost but still is an active participant in his/her live and future, but an evacuee is the ward of a system. I would rather be a refugee than an evacuee any day.