Author: duranta

This is a true victory for our democracy, as the government has decided it will not fight the law suit filed by CNN to allow access to coverage of body searches.

And, as testament to the sensitivity of FEMA and those engaged in recovery in New Orleans as to public perception of their operation, even General Honore is trying to explain what he really meant by the initial media ban in the first place.

CNN News Group President Jim Walton crowed for their victory, “We are pleased by the decision. The free flow of information is vital for a free society.”

Would that you would apply the same standards to coverage of the war in Iraq, Jim, and allow  our democracy to view the full extent of our capability for destruction.

Sleeping now without the aid of Tylenol pm, my dreams are coming back to me.

Last night I dreamt that all of the people who died and/or were rescued from the Superdome and Convention Center were rounding up their cars and circling around me and where I live. They were all coming to me, and I wanted them to.

The rage and anger has not left me, not by a long shot, although now it has quieted to a low, long simmer, as in sauteeing the vegetables for a gumbo.

Low fire, sautee those onions to a fine transparency.

I am demanding, and will continue to demand accountability from our local and state, particularly our state, officials for not getting the help in to save lives.

There is plenty of focus on our national leaders and I thank everyone for that. My focus at this time is on state leaders who sat on their thumbs and watched our citizens die in New Orleans.
Let Them Eat Prayer

Has anyone seen Governor Kathleen Blanco lately? I haven’t, certainly not on the national news, except when there is a photo op with the visiting Bush and Cheney.

On Monday when the levees broke, I heard her lead a prayer on TV. As the desperation at the superdome and convention center grew, prayers went unanswered and people died. We don’t know how many yet, but I have heard numbers such as 40 bodies piled in the Superdome.

Now there are views of mutilated bodies in the convention center.

If three college students could make it to the convention center to rescue people, why couldn’t the state of Louisiana send food and water?

Where was Blanco when this unfolded? Where was Mitch Landrieu, Lt. Gov.? Where was Mary Landrieu, besides being seen dressed down by Anderson Cooper in the midst of the horror?

The population of Baton Rouge has doubled with this disaster, and I have seen for myself the homeless living at gas stations on the outskirts of the city.
There aren’t enough shelters in Baton Rouge.

Where is Blanco?

The Red Cross is giving out emergency vouchers to Texas evacuees, but none yet here in Baton Rouge.

Where is Blanco?

National leaders are being aggressively challenged by citizens and the media in wake of this debacle, but we have our hands full here in dealing with local and state politicians who long ago sold out the poor of this state.

You’ve all heard Baker’s comments on the low-income housing in New Orleans. We’ve got our work cut out for us in the form of needing to unseat entrenched well-off, old families in Louisiana and New Orleans who could give a rat’s ass for the poor here.

I demand that Blanco and Mary Landrieu explain their actions and inactions during the superdome and convention center disaster.

I demand that Blanco, Landrieu and Nagin explain their actions and inactions in insuring adequate evacuation plans for the citizens of our state.

People died, thousands, and they have some explaining to do.

Wish us luck. I’ll keep you informed.  

Update [2005-9-9 12:16:32 by duranta]:The Baton Rouge Advocate is reporting Red Cross vouchers will finally be available after this weekend here in Baton Rouge.Update [2005-9-9 12:16:32 by duranta]:

This dkos diary links to a reuter’s aritcle that is reporting that pictures or video of the dead will not be allowed. This censorship is being staged by FEMA.

The news media is already censoring pictures and video of the dead to a certain extent. Although the media has allowed America to finally view the death and destruction from failed policies and criminally negligent decisions, the self-censorship continues, in my view. I have heard reporters talking about floating bodies, but I have seen only one bloating body in the water. Has anyone else seen any bodies in the water?

There are quite possibly hundreds of bodies visible in the water, but we have had virtually no media documentation of this.

Apparently, the news media is taking matters in their own hands to spare Americans from the horrow of bloated bodies. We have also been spared from the horrors of American and Iraqi dead in Iraq, and of, for the most part, pictures of the caskets of American dead.

I had dinner with a couple from a small town near New Orleans the other night, and they and their teenage daughter expressed the view that pictures and video of the dead would be disrespectful somehow.

This echoes a largely complacent public that has given this administration a pass in regards to its censorship of war coverage and pictures.

Pictures of bloated bodies floating in New Orleans fetid waters might be the last straw for those clinging to their support for this administration.

Pictures of the dead would be further document the criminal negligence of FEMA, and this administration.

As I said before, I pray this now City of the Dead does not become the City of the Disappearing Dead.

I was encouraged by an interview with a Dr. Louis Catalfa on CNN yesterday, not sure I spelled his name correctly, who said each body would be preserved for later identification. He said this in response to a question by a reporter as to the possibility of mass graves.

This doctor said each body would be treated with respect and dignity. I’m not sure of his relationship to the decision making in this regard, but any bit of good news on this issue is encouraging.

I’m going to link to this diary at Dailykos. Just when you think your measurable level of outrage has already peaked, beware. This is one woman’s story at the Convention Center in New Orleans:

Denise said she thought she was in hell. they were
there for 2 days, with no water, no food. no shelter. Denise, her mother (63 years old), her niece (21 years old), and 2-year-old grandniece. when they arrived, there were already thousands of people there. they were told that buses were coming. police drove by, windows rolled up, thumbs up signs. national guard trucks rolled by, completely empty, soldiers with guns cocked and aimed at them. nobody stopped to drop off water. a helicopter dropped a load of water, but all the bottles exploded on impact due to the height of
the helicopter.

the first day (Wednesday) 4 people died next to her. the second day (Thursday) 6 people died next to her. Denise told me the people around her all thought they had been sent there to die. again, nobody stopped. the only buses that came were full; they dropped off more and more people, but nobody was being picked up and taken away. they found out that those being dropped off had been rescued from rooftops and attics; they got off the buses delirious from lack of water and food. completely dehydrated. the crowd tried to keep them all in one area; Denise said the new arrivals had mostly lost their minds. they had gone crazy.

inside the convention center, the place was one huge bathroom. in order to shit, you had to stand in other people’s shit. the floors were black and slick with shit. most people stayed outside because the smell was so bad. but outside wasn’t much better: between the heat, the humidity, the lack of water, the old and very young dying from dehydration… and there was no place to lay down, not even room on the sidewalk. they slept outside Wednesday night, under an overpass.

Denise said yes, there were young men with guns there. but they organized the crowd. they went to Canal Street and “looted,” and brought back food and water for the old people and the babies, because nobody had eaten in days. when the police rolled down windows and yelled out “the buses are coming,” the young men with guns organized the crowd in order: old people in front, women and children next, men in the back. just so that when the buses came, there would be priorities of who got out first.

Denise said the fights she saw between the young men with guns were fist fights. she saw them put their guns down and fight rather than shoot up the crowd. but she said that there were a handful of people shot in the convention center; their bodies were left inside, along with other dead babies and old people.

Denise said the people thought there were being sent there to die. lots of people being dropped off, nobody being picked up. cops passing by, speeding off. national guard rolling by with guns aimed at them. and yes, a few men shot at the police, because at a certain point all the people thought the cops were coming to hurt them, to kill them all. she saw a young man who had stolen a car speed past, cops in pursuit; he crashed the car, got out and ran, and the cops shot him in the back. in front of the whole crowd. she saw many groups of people decide that they were going to walk across the bridge to the west bank, and those same groups would return, saying that they were met at the top of the bridge by armed police ordering them to turn around, that they weren’t allowed to leave.

I’m going to provide ya’ll with as many eye-witness reports as possible that come my way, and let others do the talking while I get my life in order here.  The desperation in the city continues. Buildings are being secured before the people have what they need to survive. The people feel abandoned. “Pre-meditated murder” is what one resident called it.

I’m no lawyer, but willfully ignoring the warnings, and then leaving the people to die, is a form of pre-meditated murder.

From the mouths of the people of New Orleans:

September 6, 2005

On Saturday September 3, award-winning filmmaker Gloria La Riva, internationally-acclaimed photographer Bill Hackwell and A.N.S.W.E.R. Youth & Student Coordinator Caneisha Mills, a senior at Howard University, arrived in New Orleans.

The following is an eyewitness report of the crisis in the area written on Sunday, September 4.

Algiers

While 80 percent of New Orleans was submerged in water, Algiers is one of the few districts that have been spared the worst of the flooding as it sits higher than most of the city.  An historic district established in 1719, Algiers is on the west bank of the Mississippi river, across from the French Quarter. Probably 15% of the residents still remain behind, most of them determined to stay in their homes. The majority of homes are still intact, although many have suffered damage. While their houses survived, the peoples’ chance of survival seemed very bleak since there was no electricity or disbursement of food, water or other supplies.

We arrived in the Algiers district of New Orleans after getting through seven checkpoints. We quickly learned that the current media reports that relief and aid have finally arrived to New Orleans are as false as all earlier reports that also had as their origin government sources. The people in the Algiers area have received nothing or next to nothing since the Hurricane struck. Left without any way to escape, people are now struggling to survive in the aftermath.  Now they are being told they have to abandon their homes, even though they want to stay. They are not being given what they need to stay and survive, and are being told they must leave.

Imagine being in a city, poor, without any money and all of a sudden you are told to leave and you don’t even have a bicycle, stated Malik Rahim, a community activist in the Algiers section of New Orleans. 90% of the people don’t even have cars.

One woman told us it was not possible for her to evacuate. She said, “I can’t leave. I don’t have a car and I have nine children.” She and her husband are getting by with the help of several men in the community who are joining resources to provide for their neighbors.

The government claims that people can get water, but residents have to travel at least 17 miles to the nearest water and ice distribution center. Only one case of water is available per family. Countless people have no way to drive.

While the government is touting the deployment of personnel to the area, there is a huge military and police presence but none of it to provide services. All of them, north and south of the river, are stationed in front of private buildings and abandoned stores, protecting private property.

The goods that the government personnel are bringing in are for their own forces. They are not distributing provisions to people who desperately need them.

[New Orleans 2]

Not one of them has delivered water to Algiers or gone to the houses to see if sick or elderly people need help. There is no door-to-door survey to see who was injured.

The overwhelming majority of people who have stayed in Algiers are Black but some are white. One man in his late 50s in Algiers pointed across the street to a 10-acre grassy lot. It looks like a beautiful park. He said, “I had my daughter call FEMA. I told them I want to donate this land to the people in need. They could set up 100 tractor trailers with aid, they could set up tents. No one has ever called me back.” He is clearly angry.

Although some of the residents do express fear of burglaries into houses, acts of heroism, sacrifice and solidarity are evident everywhere.
Steve, a white man in his 40s, knocks on Malik’s front door. He tells us, “Malik has kept this neighborhood together.” We don’t know what we’d do without his help. He has come in because he needs to use the phone. Malik’s street is the only one with phones still working.

Malik and three of his friends have been delivering food, water and ice to those in need three times a day, searching everywhere for goods.

There is a strong suspicion among the residents that the government has another agenda in the deliberately forced removal of people from Algiers, even though this particular neighborhood is not under water and is intact.

[New Orleans 6]  
Algiers is full of quaint, historic French-style houses, with a high real estate value, and the residents know that the government and real estate forces would like to lay their hands on their neighborhood to push forward gentrification which is already evident.

Downtown New Orleans

Although entry is prohibited into downtown New Orleans north and east of the Mississippi, we were able to get in on Sunday.

The Superdome is still surrounded by water and all types of military helicopters, army trucks, etc are coming in and out of the area; however, most of the people who survived have already left. On US-90, the only road out of New Orleans, convoys of National Guard troops are pouring into the city, too late for many. According to an emergency issue of The Times-Picayune, 16,000 National Guard troops now occupy the city.

[New Orleans 5]  

Thousands of troops are in New Orleans but water is premium and still not available. One African American couple we met looking for water told us, “We have four kids. When they told us to leave before the hurricane we couldn’t. We have no car and no money.”

Undoubtedly it is similar in the other states that got the direct hit of Katrina, Mississippi and Alabama. On the radio we hear reports of completely demolished towns. What differentiates the rest of the Gulf coast from New Orleans is that the many thousands of deaths in New Orleans were absolutely preventable and occurred after the hurricane.
On everyone’s lips is the cutting in federal funds to strengthen the levees of Lake Pontchartrain. Two reporters from New York tell us they just came from the New Orleans airport emergency hospital that was set up. We made our way to the airport.

New Orleans International Airport

The New Orleans International Airport was converted into an emergency hospital center. Thousands of people were evacuated there to get supplies and food, and for transportation that would take them out of the city. Many people arrived with only one or two bags, their entire lives reduced to a few belongings.

Some people did not want to leave their homes, but say they were forced to do so. For example, one white woman and her husband were forced to evacuate. She said, “The military told us that we had one minute to evacuate. We said that we weren’t ready and he said they can’t force us to leave but if we don’t leave anybody left would be arrested but it was the end of the month. The two of us have been living for a couple of months on $600 a month and rent is $550. At the end of the month, we only had $20 and 1/8 of a tank of gas. There was no way we could leave.”

When it became apparent that nobody was coming back to pick them up, the couple walked five miles to the airport to see if they could get help.

Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, doctors, nurses and community organizations came from as far as San Diego, California and Kentucky to provide support during the crisis. None of them were dispersed into the community. When we arrived at the airport on Sunday, September 4, there were approximately 20 medical people for every one patient while people in regions such as Algiers and the 9th ward were left to fend for themselves.

The majority of people in New Orleans blame the local and national government for the catastrophe. One young Black man said, “The government abandoned us  [it’s] pre-meditated murder.”

Another said, “Why would you [the government] protect a building instead of rescuing people that have been without food or water for three or four days? It seems like that was the plan.  We couldn’t starve them out, the hurricane didn’t kill them, it seems planned.”

Baton Rouge

As we drive to Baton Rouge tonight to visit evacuated people, we hear on local radio that possibly 10,000 people have died in the flooded areas of New Orleans. Tonight in one announcement, we hear the names of some of the missing people still being searched for, a 90-year-old woman named Lisa, a man 102 years old, two women 82 and 85 years old. The elderly, the most vulnerable, left to their own devices.

Bodies are lying everywhere, and hidden in attics and apartments. The announcer describes how one body, rotting after days in the sun, was surrounded by a wall fashioned from fallen bricks by survivors, and given a provisional burial to give her some dignity. Written on the sheet covering her is, Here lies Vera, God Help Us.

At a Red Cross shelter outside of Baton Rouge, we meet Emmanuel, who can’t find his wife and three sons after the floods. His story is shocking but not unusual. His home is near the 17th Street Canal, where the Pontchartrain levee broke through.

I stayed behind to rescue my neighbors while I sent my wife and kids to dry land, he says. It is difficult for him to relate what happened. He had a small boat so he went from house to house picking up neighbors. While doing so, he encountered many bodies in the water.

[New Orleans 3]
My best friend’s body was floating by in the water. One mother whose baby drowned tied her baby to a fence so she could bury him after she returned. Because troops kept driving by him and others without helping them, he had to walk 30 miles north until he was picked up.

The people of New Orleans did not have to die; their lives did not have to be destroyed. This conduct of the government is a crime of the highest magnitude. There is not a single adjective that is adequate.

Negligence, incompetence, callous disregard while all are true, none are sufficient.
Those who manage a system that always and everywhere puts the needs of business and private property ahead of the people, that always find money to fund wars that benefit the rich of this country rather than meeting people’s needs should be held responsible and accountable. The real problem however, is not with the managers of the system, but with the system itself. They call it the free market. It is the economic and social system of plutocracy, the system of modern capitalism, of, by, and for the rich that in words declares itself to be of, by and for the people. The reality, however, can now been seen in the streets of New Orleans.

My recent diary expressed the view I hold that the bullying bullhorn and gun-held evacuation going on in the city right now is designed to clear the city in order to “hide” the dead.

My instincts tell me there will be mass burials, with bodies being transported possibly outside of the city to be disposed of.

THe numbers of dead will be deliberately reduced.

The excuse of disease will be used for these mass burials.

Whole families have probably drowned, and, families are now spread so far apart that they will be ineffective in searching for their loved ones left behind.

When there is no one to speak up for the dead, the dead disappear.

Mayor Nagin is predicting a 5 to 10,000 body count. I believe he is underestimating the numbers of people that chose not to leave. In any event, a 4000 body count, for example, would have people saying that it “could have been much worse”.

With New Orleans residents scattered everywhere now with few resources, it will be difficult for them to lobby for their loved ones left behind.

Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, said on Meet the Press today that FEMA deliberately cut their emergency phone lines. I found this blog site with some info on the “jamming” of communications. I can’t verify any of this of course, but we must document this so that it can be investigated later.  

Hearing one of our political leaders state that FEMA cut their emergency phone lines could be a turning point in exposing the agency for what it is: a bureaucracy mostly concerned with its own survival, and the survival of the powers that be that created it.

Given FEMA’s gross negligence and ineptitude, there is a very good reason to stop the flow of information.

And then, what better way to stop the flow of information than to empty the city of its last remaining residents, the “citizen observers” of this tragedy.

I know people holed up in their homes, some in the French Quarter which is high and dry, willing to stay to help in the cleanup and care of people and animals left behind. I know of people wanting to return as soon as possible to help also.

There are many reasons for hiding the numbers of dead: the more dead, the worse this administration looks, not that they need anymore deadly window dressing, what with the blood of thousands of Iraqis and Americans on their hands.

THink about it. Have we gotten any sort of count of Iraqi dead from this group of sanctioned killers?

The more dead, the more compensation to pay the families of the dead. The more dead, the more explaining of failed policies.

New Orleans is now the City of the Dead. I pray that she won’t become the City of the Disappearing Dead.
Update [2005-9-5 9:15:57 by duranta]: From contact with those still in the French Quarter, apparently the forced evacuations are heavily concentrated, at least for now, in the poor sections of the city. That is where most of the bodies are, and where there may be some still waiting to be rescued who are too weak to call for help.

This “rescue” operation has largely been a case of neighbors helping neighbors. There will be more deaths now if everyone is forced out.

BTW, I tried to update this diary last night at 2:00 am and was unable to access this site for 45 minutes. I finally gave up and went to bed. I had no trouble accessing any other site.

From that email on the evacuation targeting the poor:

Today has been insane and emotional, but I am happy to report that the
evacuation is not as drastic as it first appeared to be and we are much more
positive about our chances of getting into New Orleans.

After I sent out this morning’s update, I received a call from a friend letting
me know that he had just spoken to another friend, Mike, who is in the French
Quarter – and that no such thing was happening in the French Quarter. So the
good news is that these evacuations are not taking place throughout the city of
New Orleans. The bad news is that, yet again, it appears that the poorest,
mostly African-American neighborhoods are being targeted for this ‘special
treatment.’

I confirmed reports about the French Quarter myself when I spoke to Mike this
evening. The quarter is pretty quiet, and a group of 4 men there are cooking for
people at an evacuated hotel. Mike says they work in teams of two – two men stay
and cook while the other two run back to Missouri for more supplies. He says
this is the first relief in the form of food they have had – from a grassroots
operation, of course.

Update [2005-9-5 16:49:53 by duranta]:From WWLTV.com:

10:12: A.M. – Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard: I’m not surprised at what the feds say, they’re covering their butts. They’re keeping the body counts down because they don’t want to horrify the nation. It’s worse than Iraq, worse than 9-11. They just don’t want to know how many were murdered by bureaucracy.

10:10 A.M. – Broussard: I know what the body count is so far, but I won’t horrify the nation.

Andrea from getyouracton.com sent me this piece of breaking news. This mandatory evacuation of the city will also accomplish the elimination of citizen observers as the bodies are “counted”, or destroyed.

BREAKING NEWS ALERT:

The entire city of New Orleans is under evacuation orders. I just spoke to my
friend Daniel in the Bywater (9th ward). He reports that unmarked police
vehicles (cadillacs) are driving through the neighborhood with SWAT team police
armed with ‘big black machine guns’ telling people through bullhorns they are
under orders to evacuate and must leave the city now. People in that
neighborhood are being told to go to the big pool on the corner of Lesseps and
St. Claude (this is one block from my house) to be airlifted out, tho people are
allowed to leave by their own means if they can. He reports helicopters all over
the place of all kinds – everything from large Army helicopters with guns to Red
Cross helicopters – they are swooping down low in the neighborhood and ‘buzzing’
houses – he said one just flew low enough over him to blow shingles off the
roof. He is starting to see National Guardsmen marching through the streets with
guns to make sure people obey evacuation orders. He wanted to get into a
neighbor’s house to save their dog that is locked up in there, but was told by a
National Guardsman that unless he has keys to the house, if he tries to break
the door in he will be shot on the spot.

He also reported that Dr. Bob, Bywater artist, was beaten by NOPD who thought he
was a looter – they beat him up severely and took his weapons.

We are being forced out of our city, with no word as to if and when we will be
allowed to return. We’ve been wondering what they would do after enough people
were forced to die of starvation. Population reduction has been accomplished.

Here are the updates I was working on before this latest call from Daniel:

Yesterday I finally spoke with my best friend Daniel who stayed in New Orleans
as he finally was able to make a call on his cell phone. He was calling from the
upstairs of the house he lives in, sitting on the porch with an AK-47 in his
lap. More details on that call to follow.

He just left me a message about 5 minutes ago telling me that there are cops
driving around the neighborhood with bullhorns telling everyone that there is a
mandatory evacuation and EVERYONE must go. There are helicopters all over the
skies. He is not sure if they are just trying to scare people into leaving, or
if they are serious, but he has found a ride and they are leaving the city.

We do not yet know how this will affect our plans to return to the city. We will
be monitoring the situation as we drive towards New Orleans today and will
assess our plans when we arrive in Baton Rouge, our first stop before heading
into the city. If we are not able to gain access to the city – which we will
still try to do – we will be assisting with relief efforts in Baton Rouge and
Covington, where there are hundreds of thousands of refugees from New Orleans in
desperate need of assistance.

Some important information:

Thanks to everyone for your generous donations of money and supplies. We wish we
had the time to thank each and every one of you individually, but please know
that we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts, as do the people of New
Orleans. Our government has failed us – or worse – but the people are stepping
up. Please keep spreading the word and encouraging others to send donations –
our relief efforts will be going on for weeks, if not months, and we will keep
getting supplies and getting them to the places needed the most.

You can always donate online via Paypal at http://www.getyouracton.com.

Some people have asked for a physical address to send money to, so here are two
places you can do this. Our good friend Ward Reilly, who will act as our Baton
Rouge liason and staging ground, can cash checks for us (we will not have access
to bank machines in New Orleans to cash checks!). The best and easiest thing to
do is send a check or money order made out to Ward Reilly and note on the check
that it is for Get Your Act On.

Please send to:

Ward Reilly
645 Kimbo Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Checks and money orders can also be sent to my sister in Philadelphia – they can
cash checks for us and paypal us the money. So you can also send donations to:

Rachel Garland
824 South Fifth Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147

We apologize for not having an official Get Your Act On! bank account set up,
but, well, we weren’t exactly able to plan ahead for this. If possible, we will
have one sometime next week, but for now, please send snail mail donations to
either of the places listed above or online via paypal at our site.

100% of all donations go directly and immediately to relief efforts where they
are needed most.

People that are on their way to Louisiana to help or want to come down – right
now we do not advise people to try to enter the city of New Orleans until we
know better what the situation is, especially with the breaking news about the
forced evacuations. However, there are hundreds and thousands of refugees in the
areas around New Orleans, and there is a desperate need for help there.

We need to make it very clear that if you want to go to Louisiana to help, you
must be prepared for hard and exhausting work. If you are not up to this, you
will merely add to the already overwhelming problems. There is plenty of work to
be done in other places – helping raise money – put on a fund raiser, hold a
vigil or rally in solidarity, spread the word about what is really going on in
New Orleans – all these efforts are just as important and crucial to what needs
to be done as physically going down to help.

If you are ready and willing to help, here are some places you can go to help:

In Baton Rouge:

Volunteers are asked to go to the LSU P-MAC Assembly Center on the LSU Campus.
Very important: they WILL NOT be able to put you up, so it is a good idea to
come in a vehicle you can sleep in, or bring a tent and sleeping bag.

In Covington:

People and supplies are needed in Covington at the Pine View Middle School, 28th
Street. Please contact Albert Marino at loveisinyourmind@yahoo.com for more
details – I have heard that some kind of official permission may now be needed
to get into Covington.

In Donaldsonville:

The ‘Dream Center’ Shelter is in desperate need of volunteers. To help them,
please contact the Dream Center in Los Angeles at
www.dreamcenter.org or in louisiana call (it’s mostly busy- but keep trying)
225-474-6688.

We will continue to post more locations that need volunteers as we get the
information.

NOW FOR SOME UPDATES:

As I mentioned above, my friend Daniel Finnigan who also lives in the Bywater
neighborhood, 9th Ward, of New Orleans was finally able to call me yesterday. He
and a group of friends have been holed up in the top floor of the building he
lives in, guarding the property with guns. As of yesterday, the people he was
with had all left – he has his dog and our two cats (we were roommates for many
years) and refuses to leave without them – and he has described himself as the
now being the New Orleans SPCA so I have a feeling he has adopted a number of
abandoned and lost animals in the area. When I asked him what he wanted us to
bring him, he asked nothing for himself, but requested cat and dog food. That’s
my Daniel 😉 You’ll never meet a bigger animal lover.

Daniel says that in 6 days they have not seen or received any help. In 6 days
they saw one policeman – flying through the neighborhood in a police car at 40
miles an hour. He reported that for the first two days after the storm, Wildlife
and Fisheries were rescuing people from the flooded out lower 9th ward, blocks
from my house and his house by boat – and just dropping the people off on the
dry side of the levy, with no food or water or anywhere to go. He said that
after two days the boats just stopped coming. He had no idea why until I
explained the situation with the National Guard to him, and that the rescue
boats were told to stand down and stop rescuing people. The people locked down
in the city have no idea that supplies are sitting just outside the city and
being turned away. The only reason they have food is they managed to gather what
they could from friends’ apartments, etc., but again, no one has come to help
them or bring them food. Other than the people left stranded in the
neighborhood, it has been completely abandoned by all official entities.

Here is a bit of heart breaking news. There is only one radio station people can
receive in the city. Daniel said that people trapped in their attics in the
lower 9th ward have been calling the station saying where they are and asking
that some one come get them. But there is no one to come. Those that are not
already dead are dying. Daniel estimates that there are easily some 40-50,000
people dead in their homes in the lower 9th ward. I can not imagine listening to
this on the radio, knowing that these peoples pleas are falling on deaf ears.
They have simply been left to die.

Daniel affirmed reports of people marching through the streets with guns, taking
what they can out of sheer desperation, though he says that situation has
largely calmed down. This is why he is sitting on his porch with an AK-47 – he
ways if someone asks him for water he will give them water, but if they point a
gun at him he will have to shoot them. He does not blame people for these
actions – again, they are desperate and abandoned. Now, as with others we have
had contact with in New Orleans, the people are afraid to leave their homes
because of the National Guard, who have permission to shoot anyone on the spot.

There are many more small details Daniel relayed, but I do not have time for
them all now. Just to say that he confirms reports we have received about
supplies and relief not getting through. Apparently some assistance is starting
to get into the city, but not to the poor neighborhoods.

OK, I have to go now – we need to get on the road towards New Orleans. We will
be stopping in Baton Rouge where we will be meeting up with Daniel (they have
found a car to get out of the city) and we will then assess the situation and
take things from there. It looks more and more like we will not be able to enter
the city without the extreme likelihood of being killed in the process. So we
will regroup in Baton Rouge and start relief efforts with the refugees already
there and the rest of the people being airlifted out of New Orleans. If we deem
it at all possible, we will still try to enter the city of New Orleans, but we
will not put ourselves in the position of being killed as then we can be of no
help to anyone.

All these people will need places to go. Please start finding housing,
campsites, etc. in your communities and forward any information to us.

Oh, I also received word that Bill Quigley from Voices in the Wilderness was
last known to be trapped in Memorial hospital in New Orleans. I assume that
those folks will now be airlifted out as well. If anyone hears from Bill, please
let us know asap.

SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON.

WHY DID OUR GOVERNMENT DELIBERATELY STARVE THE POOR PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS?

WHY ARE THEY FORCING US OUT OF OUR CITY AND DO THEY PLAN ON ‘GIVING IT BACK’?

QUESTIONS NEED TO BE ASKED AND ANSWERS GIVEN. WILL THE REFUGEES BE GIVEN ANY
FOOD AND WATER NOW? WHAT ARE THEIR PLANS FOR THE PEOPLE THAT MANAGED TO STAY
ALIVE.

NEW ORLEANS HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. BEWARE, THIS
MAY COME TO A NEIGHBORHOOD NEAR YOU.

A few more points I’d make to like in the name of the C3 organization in New
Orleans:

– no involvement by Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown and Root
or any other contractor for which elected representatives
have a financial interest, such as dirty Dirk Cheney

– full restoration of affordable housing for all residents
of New Orleans as of midnight, August 29, 2005

– complete hearings on all aspects of this disaster,
including sabotage of plans for Category 5 levees,
repair of existing levees, total budgeting for all needed
drainage projects for City being constructed by the
Corps of Engineers

– cease removal of low income residents from any Section 8,
or public housing unit, a full accounting of all residents
displaced from St. Thomas Housing Project and all other
projects

– full investigation of public subsidies for real estate developers
including Press Kabacoff and Canazzaro and how those subsidies
cut into funds not provided for needed social services for the poor,
infirm, elderly, and disadvantaged

– full investigation of the role of the city’s preservationists in the
seizure of properties, arsons, murder, and other crimes

– demand that from the point that the state of emergency
ends in the city, government will be conducted in such
a way that it is transparent and accountable.  Hearings on
proposals for how that could be accomplished will be held
and the best ideas passed into law by the City Council…and
if they don’t pass them, those ideas will be the issues for
the coming elections….NO, those elections will NOT be
cancelled…this disaster HAS to on the agenda for change.

Peace out – we must hit the road now and go see what is happening to our city
and do our best to help save our people. Please keep sending donations and
supplies, everyone has been so generous, but it is still but a drop in the
bucket. We will post more info when we arrive in Baton Rouge.

With sorrow and a broken heart –

Andrea Garland

Please spread this around to any and all media, and someone please post this on Dailykos. This is true stories of life and death, some from the hood, going on in New Orleans even as we speak.  This is the truth minus the bullshit of false judgement.

Please help me to get this story out and cleaned up a bit in terms of grammar.  We need to get the truth out and these people helped.

Jeff Rau, a family and now personal friend to whom I will forever be linked, and I were volunteering with a boat and pulling people out of the water on Wednesday.  I have a first-hand experience of what we encountered.  In my opinion, everything that is going on in the media is a complete bastardization of what is really happening. The result is that good people are dying and losing family members. I have my own set of opinions about welfare and people working to improve thier own lot instead of looking for handouts, but what is occurring now is well beyond those borders. These people need help and need to get out. We can sort out all of the social and political issues later, but human beings with any sense of compassion would agree that the travesty that is going on here in New Orleans needs to end and people’s lives need to be saved and families need to be put back together.  Now.

I will tell you that I would probably disagree with most of the people that still need to be saved on political, social, and cultural values. However, it must be noted that these people love thier friends and families like I do, desire to live like I do, and care for their respective communities (I was even amazed at the site of seemingly young and poor black people caring for sickly and seemingly well-to-do white people and tourists still needing evacuation from New Orleans’ downtown area) the same way I care for mine.

Eight people in particular who stood out during our rescue and whose stories deserve to be told:

1.) We were in motor boats all day ferrying people back and forth approximately a mile and a half each way (from Carrolton down Airline Hwy to the Causeway overpass). Early in the day, we witnessed a black man in a boat with no motor paddling with a piece of lumber. He rescued people in the boat and paddled them to safety (a mile and a half). He then, amidst all of the boats with motors, turned around and paddled back out across the mile and a half stretch to do his part in getting more people out. He refused to give up or occupy any of the motored boat resources because he did not want to slow us down in our efforts. I saw him at about 5:00 p.m., paddling away from the rescue point back out into the neighborhoods with about a half mile until he got to the neighborhood, just two hours before nightfall. I am sure that his trip took at least an hour and a half each trip, and he was going back to get more people knowing that he’d run out of daylight. He did all of this with a two-by-four.

2.) One of the groups that we rescued were 50 people standing on the bridge that crosses over Airline Hwy just before getting to Carrolton Ave going toward downtown. Most of these people had been there, with no food, water, or anyplace to go since Monday morning (we got to them Wed afternoon) and surrounded by 10 feet of water all around them. There was one guy who had been there since the beginning, organizing people and helping more people to get to the bridge safely as more water rose on Wednesday morning. He did not leave the bridge until everyone got off safely, even deferring to people who had gotten to the bridge Wed a.m. and, although inconvenienced by loss of power and weather damage, did have the luxury of some food and some water as late as Tuesday evening. This guy waited on the bridge until dusk, and was one of the last boats out that night. He could have easily not made it out that night and been stranded on the bridge alone.

3.) The third story may be the most compelling. I will not mince words. This was in a really rough neighborhood and we came across five seemingly unsavory characters. One had scars from what seemed to be gunshot wounds. We found these guys at a two-story recreational complex, one of the only two-story buildings in the neighborhood. They broke into the center and tried to rustle as many people as possible from the neighborhood into the center. These guys stayed outside in the center all day, getting everyone out of the rec center onto boats. We approached them at approximately 6:30 p.m., obviously one of the last trips of the day, and they sent us further into the neighborhood to get more people out of homes and off rooftops instead of getting on themselves. This at the risk of their not getting out and having to stay in the water for an undetermined (you have to understand the uncertainly that all of the people in these accounts faced without having any info on the rescue efforts, how far or deep the flooding was, or where to go if they want to swim or walk out) amount of time. These five guys were on the last boat out of the neighborhood at sundown. They were incredibly grateful, mentioned numerous times ‘God is going to bless y’all for this’. When we got them to the dock, they offered us an Allen Iverson jersey off of one of their backs as a gesture of gratitude, which was literally probably the most valuable possession among them all. Obviously, we declined, but I remain tremendously impacted by this gesture.

I don’t know what to do with all of this, but I think we need to get this story out. Some of what is being portrayed among the media is happening and is terrible, but it is among a very small group of people, not the majority. They make it seem like New Orleans has somehow taken the atmosphere of the mobs in Mogadishu portrayed in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down,” which is making volunteers (including us) more hesitant and rescue attempts more difficult. As a result, people are dying. My family has been volunteering at the shelters here in Houma and can count on one hand the number of people among thousands who have not said “Thank You.” or “God Bless You.” Their lives shattered and families torn apart, gracious just to have us serve them beans and rice.

If anything, these eight people’s stories deserve to be told, so that people across the world will know what they really did in the midst of this devastation. So that it will not be assumed that they were looting hospitals, they were shooting at helicopters. It must be known that they, like many other people that we encountered, sacrificed themselves during all of this to help other people in more dire straits than their own.

It is also important to know that this account is coming from someone who is politically conservative, believes in capitalism and free enterprise, and is traditionally against many of the opinions and stances of activists like Michael Moore and other liberals on most of the hot-topic political issues of the day. Believe me, I am not the political activist. This transcends politics. This is about humanity and helping mankind. We need to get these people out. Save their lives. We can sort out all of the political and social issues later. People need to know the truth of what is going on at the ground level so that they know that New Orleans and the people stranded there are, despite being panicked and desperate, gracious people and they deserve the chance to live. They need all of our help, as well.

This is an accurate account of things. Jeffery Rau would probably tell the same exact stories.

Regards,
Robert LeBlanc

and all those millions that are being donated? Shelters in Louisiana, everywhere, are in dire need of help. I’ll pass on this panicked email, and…info on an equipment pickup in Austin tomorrow for New Orleans. Know it’s late…

PLEASE VOLUNTEER- we need your help

    Message: Please Volunteer to help in any way you can. I’m sure shelters
everywhere are experiencing the same difficulties that we are at the shelter
I’ve helped to set up here in Donaldsonville– We’ve got all the bedding and
clothes we need for the next week or two- WE NEED VOLUNTEERS- to organize
supplies and distribute them, to hold babies, to carry boxes, to serve food, to
prepare food, to find restaurants to donate meals, to clean and bandage cuts
that people got wading through polluted water, to play with the kids, to listen
to people, to help them find information on their missing relatives and mourn or
rejoice with them when they learn, to help people get where they need to go
elsewhere in the country.

    PLEASE HELP. I’ve spent the last days working from 6pm to well past sunrise
doing ALL of the above myself and TONS MORE. I could not allow myself to leave
until 10 am this morning because I had no one to leave in charge of the supply
closet- the life’s blood of the shelter– until then, and even then I had to
wrestle her away from a different task and train her, through my fogged up
contact lenses and hoarse voice, to do a rather complicated job. As I headed for
the car with my cardboard box of supplies I’d put together for myself- I brought
very little with me when I left New Orleans- I was still trying to find a doctor
for a woman who was having a bad asthma attack, and shoes for barefoot people. I
barely managed to hold my tears till I got to the car because I’d finally
reached my breaking point. I’d had 6 hours of sleep in 4 days. I broke down and
sobbed. PLEASE PLEASE VOLUNTEER. I just got 3 hours and I’ll try to get some
more after I right this, before I go in again to pass the night doing everything
I can.

    THE TIME IS OVER FOR GOOD INTENTIONS. WE NEED YOU. PLEASE VOLUNTEER. PLEASE!

    I can’t keep doing 16 hours of hard work every night and there is no end in
sight. I personally need your help. I need to have hope that more people are
going to step up and commit themselves to helping directly. — and it is so
satisfying. If you are sitting in front of the t.v. feeling powerless to do
anything– VOLUNTEER. You can see results immediately and make the world a better
place person by person. Even if you think you have nothing to give- GET
INVOLVED.

    Please forward this to anyone and everyone. I have found that refugees
themselves make the best volunteers.

    Anne Ewen
    New Orleans Resident currently in Donaldsonville Louisiana at “The Dream
Center” shelter.

    please contact the dream center in los angeles at
    www.dreamcenter.org

    or in louisiana call (it’s mostly busy- but keep trying) 225-474-6688

…and…

Attention Austin!

Get Your Act On will be pulling into Austin by 2pm tomorrow (Saturday, September
3) to collect supplies and donations to bring to New Orleans. A wonderful lady
by the name of Mary Ann has offered us her space to use as a drop-off and
meeting location. The address is:

1633 Waterston Avenue
Austin, TX
(in the Clarksville area downtown)

We will be staying over in Austin that night, so feel free to come by any time
after 2pm to drop off supplies, monetary donations, or just to chat. Media is
most welcome!

Here is a list of supplies that would be helpful to the people in New Orleans –
I’m sure there are plenty of things we have not thought of, so don’t feel
obliged to stick to what is on the list!

SUPPLY LIST:

Generators
Chain Saws (gas powered)
All kinds of tools (hammers, saws, screwdrivers… you get the idea)
Tarps
Tents
Canopies
Propane Cookstoves
Propane
Solar Showers
Heavy Duty Trash Bags
Lanterns
Flash Lights
Bleach
Water Filtration Devices (non-electric)
Water Purification Tablets
Medical Supplies – bandages, medicines, any and all first aid items, over the
counter medications
Vitamins
Toiletries (shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes)
Clothing
Shoes
Infant Formula
Diapers
Toilet Paper
Paper Towels
Chemical Toilets
Towels
Sheets and other Linens
Sleeping Bags
Toys for kids
Pet food
Non Perishable Food Items
Water
Nails, Screws….
Plastic Sheeting
Duct Tape
Rope
Folding Tables
Water Jugs
Gas Jugs
Axes
Coolers
Storage Bins
Stanley Wonder Bar Pry Bar 55-525
(http://www.epinions.com/Stanley_Wonder_Bar_Pry_Bar_55_525_Shop_Tools)
Ames Post Hole Digging/Tamper Bar
(http://www.epinions.com/hmgd-Lawn_and_Garden-Hand_Tools-All-Ames_Post_Hole_Digging_Tamper_Bar)
Sawzall

Basically, think of what you would need to survive in a hot, humid city full of
toxic waste and disease with no electricity or running water. Please feel free
to email me with more suggestions and I will add them to the list.

Also, we are looking for a trailer to attach to the van that can be donated or
purchased – it MUST be an enclosed trailer for safety reasons.

We have a couple of requests for equipment that would be helpful for us as far
as keeping in touch and coordinating efforts, but we do not want to spend
donation money on these items – but if anyone happens to have these things
‘lying around’ and is willing to donate them, we could use: A laptop (preferably
a Mac – I have my eMac with me, but it is going to be almost impossible to use
it once we get to New Orleans and while we are on the road). A Blackberry might
even be more handy, though I am not sure what the service costs, but this or
some kind of satellite connection may be the only way we would be able to
reliably communicate from New Orleans as cell phones do not work there right now
and there are very few phone lines. We have a couple of walkie talkies, but
could use more. However, first priority are the relief supplies!

Please spread the word to all your friends in and around Austin and remind all
reporters and media that they are most welcome!

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow –

Peace and love,

Andrea

My sister is safe. Just wanted ya’ll to know ’cause you’ve been so good to all of us, to our city and its people. She and her boyfriend swam to a boat, and are now in a hospital in Donaldsonville. I don’t know how in the hell they managed to get there when so many others are stranded. BTW, my sister has the blondest hair that is natural. I’m throwing our race in as food for thought.
This man says it better than my tired ass can say it right now. Excuse the typos:

Notes From Inside New Orleans
by Jordan Flaherty
Friday, September 2, 2005

I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago.  I traveled from the apartment I was
staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp.  If anyone  wants to
examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the  victims of
hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee  camps.  In the
refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway, thousands of people
(at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted  in mud and trash behind metal
barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily armed soldiers standing guard
over them.  When a bus would come  through, it would stop at a random spot,
state police would open a gap in one of  the barricades, and people would rush
for the bus, with no information  given about where the bus was going. Once
inside (we were told) evacuees  would be told where the bus was taking them –
Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas,  Dallas, or other locations.  I was told that if
you boarded a bus bound for  Arkansas (for example), even people with family and
a place to stay in Baton  Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it
passed through  Baton Rouge.   You had no choice but to go to the shelter in
Arkansas.  If you  had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up,
they could not come  within 17 miles of the camp.

I traveled throughout the camp and spoke to Red Cross workers,  Salvation Army
workers, National Guard, and state police, and although they  were friendly, no
one could give me any details on when buses would  arrive, how many, where they
would go to, or any other information.  I spoke to  the several teams of
journalists nearby, and asked if any of them had  been able to get any
information from any federal or state officials on any of  these questions, and
all of them, from Australian tv to local Fox  affiliates complained of an
unorganized, non-communicative, mess.  One  cameraman told me as someone
who’s been here in this camp for two days, the only information I can give
you is this: get out by nightfall.  You don’t  want to be here at
night.”  There was also no visible attempt by any of those running the camp
to set up any sort of transparent and consistent system, for instance a line to
get on buses, a way to register contact information or find family members,
special needs services for children and infirm, phone services, treatment  for
possible disease exposure, nor even a single trash can.  To understand this
tragedy, its important to look at New Orleans itself.  For those who have not
lived in New Orleans, you have missed a  incredible, glorious, vital, city.  A
place with a culture and energy unlike  anywhere else in the world.  A 70%
African-American city where resistance to white supremecy has supported a
generous, subversive and unique culture of  vivid beauty.  From jazz, blues and
hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras  Indians, Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and
red beans and rice on Monday  nights, New Orleans is a place of art and music
and dance and sexuality and liberation unlike anywhere else in the world.  It is
a city of kindness and hospitality, where walking down the  block can take two
hours because you stop and talk to someone on every porch,  and where a
community pulls together when someone is in need.  It is a  city of extended
families and social networks filling the gaps left by city,  state and federal
goverments that have abdicated their responsibilty for  the public welfare.  It
is a city where someone you walk past on the  street not only asks how you are,
they wait for an answer.

It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear.  The  city of New
Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300  murders
this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly  black,
neighborhoods.  Police have been quoted as saying that they don’t  need to
search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after a shooting, the
attacker is shot in revenge.  There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and
distrust between  much of Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department.  In
recent months, officers have been accused of everything from drug running to
corruption to theft.  In seperate incidents, two New Orleans police officers
were recently charged with rape (while in uniform), and there have been several
high profile police killings of unarmed youth, including the murder of  Jenard
Thomas, which has inspired ongoing weekly protests for several  months.  

The city has a 40% illiteracy rate, and over 50% of black ninth  graders will
not graduate in four years.  Louisiana spends on average $4,724 per
child’’s education and ranks 48th in the country for lowest teacher
salaries.  The equivalent of more than two classrooms of young people drop out
of  Louisiana schools every day and about 50,000 students are absent from school
on any given day.  Far too many young black men from New Orleans end up enslaved
in Angola Prison, a former slave plantation where inmates still do  manual farm
labor, and over 90% of inmates eventually die in the prison.  It is  a city
where industry has left, and most remaining jobs are are low-paying, transient,
insecure jobs in the service economy.  

Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics.  This  disaster is
one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and incompetence. Hurricane
Katrina was the inevitable spark igniting the gasoline of  cruelty and
corruption.  From the neighborhoods left most at risk, to the  treatment of the
refugees to the the media portayal of the victims, this  disaster is shaped by
race.  Louisiana politics is famously corrupt, but with the tragedies of  this
week our political leaders have defined a new level of incompetence.  As
hurricane Katrina approached, our Governor urged us to “Pray the  hurricane
down” to a level two.  Trapped in a building two days after the  hurricane,
we tuned our battery-operated radio into local radio and tv  stations, hoping
for vital news, and were told that our governor had called for a day  of prayer.
As rumors and panic began to rule, there was no source of  solid dependable
information.  Tuesday night, politicians and reporters  said the water level
would rise another 12 feet – instead it stabilized.   Rumors spread like
wildfire, and the politicians and media only made it worse.  While the rich
escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no  way to get there were left
behind.  

Adding salt to the wound, the local and national media have spent the last week
demonizing those left  behind.  As someone that loves New Orleans and the people
in it, this is the  part of this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me
deeply.  No sane person should classify someone who takes food from
indefinitely closed stores in a desperate, starving city as a
“looter,” but thats  just what the media did over and over again.
Sherrifs and politicians  talked of having troops protect stores instead of
perform rescue operations.  Images of New Orleans’ hurricane-ravaged
population were transformed  into black, out-of-control, criminals.  As if
taking a stereo from a  store that will clearly be insured against loss is a
greater crime than the governmental neglect and incompetence that did billions
of dollars  of damage and destroyed a city.  This media focus is a tactic, just
as the  eighties focus on welfare queens” and “super-predators”
obscured the simultaneous and much larger crimes of the Savings and Loan scams
and mass  layoffs, the hyper-exploited people of New Orleans are being used as a
scapegoat  to cover up much larger crimes.

City, state and national politicians are the real criminals here.   Since at
least the mid-1800s, its been widely known the danger faced by  flooding to New
Orleans.  The flood of 1927, which, like this week’s events, was more about
politics and racism than any kind of natural disaster,  illustrated exactly the
danger faced.  Yet government officials have  consistently refused to spend the
money to protect this poor, overwhelmingly  black, city.  

While FEMA and others warned of the urgent impending danger to New Orleans and
put forward proposals for funding to reinforce and protect the  city, the Bush
administration, in every year since 2001, has cut or refused to  fund New
Orleans flood control, and ignored scientists warnings of  increased hurricanes
as a result of global warming.  And, as the dangers rose  with the floodlines,
the lack of coordinated response dramatized vividly the  callous disregard of
our elected leaders.  The aftermath from the 1927 flood helped shape the
elections of both  a US President and a Governor, and ushered in the southern
populist  politics of Huey Long.  In the coming months, billions of dollars will
likely flood into New Orleans.  This money can either be spent to usher in a New
Deal”  for the city, with public investment, creation of stable union jobs,
new  schools, cultural programs and housing restoration, or the city can be
“rebuilt and revitalized” to a shell of its former self, with newer
hotels, more casinos, and with chain stores and theme parks replacing the former
neighborhoods, cultural centers and corner jazz clubs.  Long before Katrina, New
Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty,  racism, disinvestment,
de-industrialization and corruption.  Simply the  damage from this pre-Katrina
hurricane will take billions to repair.  Now that the money is flowing in, and
the world’s eyes are focused  on Katrina, its vital that progressive-minded
people take this  opportunity to fight for a rebuilding with justice.  New
Orleans is a special  place, and we need to fight for its
rebirth.

Jordan Flaherty is an editor of Left Turn Magazine (www.leftturn.org)