Anderson@Large

Lest We Forget: A Day of Public Policy

On Tuesday, there will be a public policy forum with residents of the Gulf Coast and state, local and federal policymakers to discuss recovery and renewal efforts (and here), including housing, education and health care.  The participants will include:

• Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, chair, House Homeland Security Committee
• Rep. Maxine Waters, chair, Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, House Financial Services Committee
• Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, chair, Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection, House Homeland Security Committee

The forum, which is free and open to the public, will be held from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., in the Loveless Memorial Chapel at Dillard University.

For more info, contact the Louisiana Justice Institute or call 504/304-7947.

Lest We Forget: A Day of Presence

On the eve of the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, 250,000 survivors remain displaced throughout the Katrina Diaspora, 60,000 families are stuck in hazardous FEMA trailers and rebuilding money is running out.

To bring attention to the unfinished business in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, Susan Taylor, editorial director of Essence magazine, has called for "A Day of Presence," a massive demonstration in New Orleans on Wednesday, Aug. 29, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., to say, "Enough is enough!"

Taylor said:

It's the shame of the nation that the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast have been abandoned and are suffering without the most basic necessary supports while our tax dollars are directed toward war.

Tracie Washington, president and CEO of the Louisiana Justice Institute, added:

We urgently need as many people as possible to stand united on August 29. If you can drive or fly, get on the bus or sponsor a bus, we need you to join us in letting our leaders know that we want immediate action in the Gulf Coast region.

If you can't get here for the march and rally, you still can make a difference. Contact your Members of Congress and demand justice and fairness for the survivors of the worst man-made disaster in U.S. history (and here).

And then ask 10 friends and family members to stand up for those who have suffered so much pain and disruption in their lives.

The toll-free number for the Capitol switchboard is 888/226-0627. To send an email to your congressman, click here. Your senators can be contacted here.

For more info, visit A Day of Presence or call 504/304-7947.

Lest We Forget: A Day of Service

And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.
-- President George W. Bush, Sept. 15, 2005 

President Bush's promise to "do what it takes" remains largely unfulfilled for tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina survivors (and here).

Fortunately, more than 1.1 million volunteers -- ordinary Americans -- stood in the breach and provided over 3.5 million service hours to aid Katrina victims, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service. Their volunteer service was worth $263 million to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Donald E. Powell, Federal Coordinator of Gulf Coast Rebuilding, said:

The outpouring of compassion by more than one million Americans has been a vital part of the Katrina recovery effort and is a sign of the fundamental goodness and generosity of the American people. As the rebuilding effort continues, volunteers will remain a critical source of hope and help in the Gulf, and I encourage more Americans to get involved, because the government cannot bring these communities back alone.

Actually, the government alone can bring the communities back but the fact is, folks are suffering. So a coalition of groups, spearheaded by Melanie Campbell and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, will bring hundreds of volunteers for a day of community service in New Orleans.

On Tuesday, Aug. 28, volunteers from across the country will engage in variety of activities, including:

• remove contaminated top soil from damaged communities
• paint and pressure wash buildings
• repair the playground in a local public school
• help restore a historic African American church
• visit the sick and elderly

If you can't be present in New Orleans, don't sweat it. Your assistance is needed in communities throughout the Katrina Diaspora. Melanie said:

If you can't make it to help rebuild a Gulf Coast community, volunteer where you are. There are "lower ninth wards" across the country. "A Day of Service" is to highlight community service and self empowerment.

You can also donate supplies, including face masks, trash bags, gloves, sod and soil, garden tools, hand sanitizer and water.

To donate supplies or volunteer, contact Rosaria Beasley here or call the Urban League of Greater New Orleans at 504/620-2332.

Right to Return

The Atlantic hurricane season gets underway in just a few hours. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts an “above normal” season.

If just one of the predicted 13 to 17 named storms matches the fury of Katrina, a fresh group of hurricane survivors will join the 49,000 Katrina families still living in hazardous FEMA trailers.

While Katrina fatigue has set in, tens of thousands of evacuees remain locked out of their homes in New Orleans. So Tavis Smiley and filmmaker Jonathan Demme have joined forces to present “Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower 9th Ward.”  The mini-documentaries are portraits of survival and determination.

"Right to Return" chronicles displaced New Orleanians as they reclaim their homes and participate in the rebuilding of their communities.

An Academy-award winning director, Demme felt compelled to tell the rest of the story of Katrina survivors:

Once the water subsided and the imagery wasn’t fresh anymore, we stopped knowing what’s going on down here.

The hurricane, the floods got our attention. The big question is, “Then what happened?”

The five-part series began on Monday. To check your local listing, click here.

Katrina Survivors Twisting in the Wind

While President Bush promises to “help in any way we can” Kansans displaced by a tornado, Hurricane Katrina survivors are still twisting in the wind.

In September 2005, Bush promised:

The people who call it home need to have reassurance that their lives will be safer in the years to come. Protecting a city that sits lower than the water around it is not easy, but it can, and has been done. City and parish officials in New Orleans, and state officials in Louisiana will have a large part in the engineering decisions to come. And the Army Corps of Engineers will work at their side to make the flood protection system stronger than it has ever been (emphasis added).

With hurricane season less than a month away, the levees still may not hold water (and here).

And when it rains, it pours. The Road Home program, which was supposed to help displaced New Orleanians “get back into their home,” may run out of money.

If that happens, Katrina survivors once again will be left high and dry – and stuck in FEMA trailers.

State of Denial

On Saturday, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. led a march in New Orleans’ 9th Ward to demand the right of displaced residents to go home.  Jackson said:

I see the Saints are back, the basketball team is back, the white-top tablecloths are back and Mardi Gras is back. But 250,000 people are not.

Jackson should lead a march on Foggy Bottom. Documents uncovered by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington show the State Department turned its back on Katrina survivors.

The Washington Post reports that only a fraction of nearly $1 billion in foreign aid for Katrina victims was accepted:

As the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina were receding, presidential confidante Karen Hughes sent a cable from her State Department office to U.S. ambassadors worldwide.

Titled “Echo-Chamber Message” -- a public relations term for talking points designed to be repeated again and again -- the Sept. 7, 2005, directive was unmistakable: Assure the scores of countries that had pledged or donated aid at the height of the disaster that their largesse had provided Americans “practical help and moral support” and “highlight the concrete benefits hurricane victims are receiving.”

Many of the U.S. diplomats who received the message, however, were beginning to witness a more embarrassing reality. They knew the U.S. government was turning down many allies’ offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina’s victims.

Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, like her patron George Bush, “doesn’t care about black people.”  So it's not surprising Rice's State Department feigned concern and spurned offers of assistance.

It bears remembering Rice had to be shamed back to DC after she was caught shopping for expensive shoes on Fifth Avenue while Katrina survivors were left stranded on rooftops.

To read the CREW documents, click here.

Having Our Say

Somewhere, Don Imus is in mourning.

MSNBC's and CBS Radio's decision to fire Imus was made after advertisers pulled their sponsorships lest they get caught in the crossfire.  While a broad cross-section of Americans condemned Imus' racist "comedy," the controversy is a reminder that race matters.

Before the I-mess captured the attention of bloggers, the Internet was buzzing with chatter about the racial divide in the blogosphere. Frankly, I was surprised black bloggers cared whether so-called “A-list” bloggers linked to them.

With the exception of the ones I met at the Blogging, Journalism & Credibility Conference sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, I don’t link to anyone on the A-list. The reason: our communities of readers have different cultural imperatives, interests and priorities.

Sure, incoming links will boost ad revenues. But if I were doing it for the money, I would have stopped blogging 500 posts ago (this is post #556).

Like their counterparts in the mainstream media, A-list bloggers have a vested interest in maintaining white male privilege.

This reality was brought into stark relief when liberal commentator Tom Oliphant pledged "Solidarity Forever" in a phone interview with Imus.  Oliphant went on to say:

[T]hose of us who, through an accident, were scheduled [to appear after the sh stuff hit the fan], who know better, have a moral obligation to stand up and say to you, "Solidarity forever, pal."

Let me be clear: I ain't mad at white male bloggers.  But I neither seek nor need their stamp of approval. The blogosphere is open to anyone who has a story to tell or information to share.

Indeed, that’s one of the findings of the first scholarly research examining black bloggers and the blogosphere (full disclosure: I was interviewed for the study).

Brown University researcher Antoinette Pole found we don’t give a fig about A-list bloggers:

While black bloggers face challenges such as not being linked by more popular bloggers or not receiving as much traffic as other bloggers, they perceive the blogosphere as inclusive.

Findings from this research suggest the blogosphere can be an avenue for greater political participation on the part of blacks and other minorities, given the relatively low threshold to entry and what appear to be low levels of discrimination.

Way back in the day, slaves in Texas didn’t know they had been freed until more than two years after President Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

While we celebrate Juneteenth, the principal role of black political bloggers is to ensure that information of importance to our community is distributed without delay.

A copy of Dr. Pole's paper is available here.