Please forward this post to everyone you can. Thanks, Lance Phillips The American Red Cross The Salvation Amry Americorp The Department of Health and Human Services Contact The White House Contact your Representative Contact your Senator Laura Mullen, Baton Rouge The extent of the catastrophe--and the lack of aid, the slowness & smallness of the response—is unimaginable. Friends have been bicycling medical supplies form the local drugstores to the refugee shelters! New Orleans is a war zone in a disaster area...and Bush is anxious to save money for Iraq. At every contact you have w/ people please try to make them understand the extent of the betrayal--and ask them to donate to the Red Cross, please. This is bad beyond belief.... Please write to your representatives, call the White House, push for recognition and relief. Hope this brings Bush down--but people are dying everyday here & change is a distant hope. Start now making sure that you & everyone you know expresses their dismay and disbelief--and say that this will be remembered for a long, long time! Please Forward 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 setup 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, it’s important to look at New Orleans itself. For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed an 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 supremacy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid beauty. From jazz, blues and hip-hop, to second lines, 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 governments that have abdicated their responsibility 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 separate 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 dropout 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 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 media portrayal 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 that’s just what the media did over and over again. Sheriffs 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, and 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 masslayoffs, 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, it’s 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 flood lines, 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). The American Red Cross The Salvation Army Americorp The Department of Health and Human Services Contact The White House Contact your Representative Contact you Senator MONETARY DONATIONS Monetary donations can be sent to these outlets, which we have confirmed are REALLY delivering services to folks in need... BlackAmericaWeb.com Relief Fund PO Box 803209 Dallas, TX 75240 OR you can make an online donation by going to www.blackamericaweb.com/relief (This fund has been set up by nationally syndicated radio personality TOM JOYNER) NAACP Disaster Relief Efforts The NAACP is setting up command centers in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama as part of its disaster relief efforts. NAACP units across the nation have begun collecting resources that will be placed on trucks and sent directly into the disaster areas. Also, the NAACP has established a disaster relief fund to accept monetary donations to aid in the relief effort. Checks can be sent to the NAACP payable to: NAACP Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund 4805 Mt. Hope Drive Baltimore, MD 21215 Donations can also be made online at www.naacp.org/disaster/contribute.php FYI: the NAACP, founded in 1909, is America's oldest civil rights organization www.teamrescueone.com Set up by native New Orleans rapper Master P and his wife Sonya Miller. WHERE TO MAIL NON-PERISHABLE ITEMS You can mail or ship non-perishable items to these following locations, which we have confirmed are REALLY delivering services to folks in need: Center for LIFE Outreach Center 121 Saint Landry Street Lafayette, LA 70506 atten.: Minister Pamela Robinson 337-504-5374 ******************************* Mohammad Mosque 65 2600 Plank Road Baton Rouge, LA 70805 atten.: Minister Andrew Muhammad 225-923-1400 225-357-3079 ******************************* Lewis Temple CME Church 272 Medgar Evers Street Grambling, LA 71245 atten.: Rev. Dr. Ricky Helton 318-247-3793 ******************************* St. Luke Community United Methodist Church c/o Hurricane Katrina Victims 5710 East R.L. Thornton Freeway Dallas, TX 75223 atten.: Pastor Tom Waitschies 214-821-2970 ******************************* S.H.A.P.E. Community Center 3815 Live Oak Houston, Texas 77004 atten.: Deloyd Parker 713-521-0641 ALTERNATIVE MEDIA OUTLETS Alternative media outlets where you can get a more accurate and balanced presentation of the New Orleans catastrophe. www.diversityinc.com www.alternet.org www.blackelectorate.com www.npr.org www.daveyd.com www.slate.com www.bet.com www.allhiphop.com www.democracynow.org www.blackamericaweb.com PLEASE VISIT all these websites. 5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP IMMEDIATELY 1. Duplicate what we are doing elsewhere in New York City, in your city or town, on your college campus, at your church, synagogue, mosque, or other religious institution, via your fraternity or sorority, or via your local civic or social organization. 2. Cut and paste the information in this eblast about: - Items needed by survivors of the New Orleans catastrophe - Monetary donations - Where you can ship non perishable items - Alternative media outlets - Five things you can do to help immediately ...and share this information as a ONE SHEET with folks near and far, via email, or as a hand out at your event, religious institution, and with your civic or social organization. 3. Voice your opinion to local and national media, and to elected officials, via letter, email, op ed article, or phone call, regarding the coverage of the New Orleans catastrophe, as well as to the federal government's on going handling of the situation. 4. Ask the hotel you frequent, such as the Marriott or Holiday Inn, to give your hotel points to an individual or family in need of a stay for a night, a few nights, or longer, depending on how many points you have. Be sure to get confirmation that your points have been applied in that way. Encourage others to do the same. Also inquire if your airline frequent flyer mileage can be used for hotel stays as well. Finally, either offer to pay for hotel rooms, or encourage others to do so, including your place of employment or worship or your organization. 5. Dare to care about other human beings, no matter their race, gender, class, sexual orientation, religion, geography, culture, clothing, hairstyle, or accent or language. Like September 11th, the New Orleans catastrophe is a harsh reminder that all life is precious, as is each day we have on this earth. AND REMEMBER that our attention and response to the New Orleans catastrophe needs to happen in three stages...DISASTER, RECOVERY, and REBUILDING. We need you for all three stages. Media inquiries for "BENEFIT for New Orleans" are directed to: April R. Silver AKILA WORKSONGS 718.756.8501 pr.media@akilaworksongs.com