This is from an email list I'm on. Jordan Flaherty sends these out from time to time. <br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Fighting for New Orleans<br><br>by Jordan Flaherty<br><br>A month later, many of those dislocated and displaced from New Orleans are still trying to reunite with <br>family members, still trying to find out information about their homes and belongings, still grieving <br>over their losses. Parents are still trying to find a school district for their kids, and local schools are <br>over full and some are not welcoming. One Louisiana school suspended all New Orleans students <br>as punishment for the actions of one child. <br><br>For many who are still in the shelter system, abuse and revictimization is rampant. There have been <br>widespread reports of racism and discrimination in Red Cross shelters, especially in Lafayette, Lake <br>Charles and Baton Rouge. According to Jodie Escobedo, a doctor from California who was <br>volunteering in the Baton Rouge shelters, “Local officials, including politicians, select Red Cross <br>personnel and an especially well placed but small segment of the Louisiana medical community, <br>have managed to get themselves into positions of power where their prejudices result in the hoarding <br>of supplies, vilification of the needy and substandard treatment of volunteers and refugees alike.”<br><br>Escobedo paints a devastating portrait. “I witnessed Red Cross staff treated abusively by shelter <br>administration who also expressed contempt for the sheltered population. Dental abscesses <br>abounded and when several cases of small individual cases of Scope were donated, Red Cross staff <br>was told not to distribute it because ‘they will drink it and get drunk.’ At the River Center the Red <br>Cross hoarded hygiene supplies and basic necessities on a giant loading dock while kids could not <br>go to school because they had no pants or shoes, babies drank from dirty baby bottles, people slept <br>on the floor and donated clothes sat inaccessible. I tried for 4 days to get access to the Red Cross <br>storehouse of hand sanitizer which was unfortunately off site.”<br><br>According to another volunteer in Baton Rouge, “The River Center had a special bathroom that was <br>set up for elderly and handicapped residents. Those with special needs. The FEMA guys came in <br>and made it a private bathroom for FEMA staff.”<br><br>Not only have many New Orleanians been mistreated in the shelter system, their voices are not <br>heard. The same people of New Orleans residents who the national media portrayed as murders <br>and animals are still silenced. Even in the progressive media, white voices like mine have been over <br>represented instead of Black voices, and Black female voices are doubly missing. Beyond race, there <br>are also other issues of privilege. As one community organizer expressed to me the other day, <br>“there’s a difference between New Orleans residents and New Orleans natives. The voices I’ve <br>heard speaking for us have been people who moved to New Orleans Many of them are currently <br>staying with family or friends from somewhere else. They’re in a different situation. I’m from New <br>Orleans. I don’t have anywhere else.”<br><br>They way the media covered the first few days still stings. This headline from today’s New Orleans <br>Times-Picayune says it all: “Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated - Widely reported attacks false or <br>unsubstantiated.” The article goes on to state, “Four weeks after the storm, few of the widely reported <br>atrocities have been backed with evidence. The piles of bodies never materialized, and soldiers, <br>police officers and rescue personnel on the front lines say that although anarchy reigned at times and <br>people suffered unimaginable indignities, most of the worst crimes reported at the time never <br>happened.” The one national guard soldier who was shot turned out to have shot himself. Between <br>the Convention Center and Superdome, there were ten bodies found. Despite the reports of mass <br>killings, only one of the deaths appears to be a homicide. However, it was these rumors that were <br>used to demonize the people of New Orleans, and since most of the media has offered no correction, <br>the representation still stands.<br><br>Meanwhile, the bulldozer of the Disaster Industrial Complex continues to rush towards our city. For <br>executives at Halliburton, there was no pause for grieving. For the white elites of New Orleans, the <br>same unelected power structure that parades in all white Mardi Gras Krewes and lives in wealthy <br>uptown mansions, there was no fear and insecurity. For all of those who are poised to gain from this <br>horrible chain of events, there has been nothing but a rush to profit. The real criminals run free.<br><br>New Orleans’ progressive infrastructure is as weak and underfunded as the levees around the lower <br>9th ward. The grassroots organizations who are coming together to fight for the future of New <br>Orleans are struggling to define their work and mission, while the diaspora of our city becomes ever <br>more displaced.<br><br>There are so many difficulties that organizers face right now, from the stress and trauma of lost lives <br>and livelihoods, to communications and housing issues. The cel phone network in Baton Rouge is <br>so overloaded right now, its almost impossible to call from one local cel phone to another. <br>Apartments are scarce, and some landlords are asking for six months rent in advance. New Orleans-<br>based groups have no access to their office and files. It seems that every day I talk to another friend <br>who has lost everything, or is trying to clean mold off of a few remaining possessions they’ve <br>recovered. I still don’t know if all of my friends are alive, including one of my best friends and her <br>family.<br><br>Still, the fight continues. The People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Commission (PHRF), <br>currently based in Jackson, Mississippi, is working to set up offices in other cities with evacuee <br>populations. They have also formed committees and a structure for folks from New Orleans and for <br>supporters from around the US to join, and they are convening a strategy retreat for this weekend, in <br>South Carolina. “We’re buckling down for the long term,” organizer Curtis Muhammad told me. “This <br>is a five year, a ten year struggle.”<br><br>PHRF has achieved an early prominence through its powerful and galvanizing first statement, issued <br>just days after the world watched in horror as a city drowned under mismanagement and neglect. <br>Since then, representatives from the group have been highlighted on independent media, and have <br>met with Hugo Chavez and spoke at last weekend’s March on Washington.<br><br>However, there are other efforts as well, with various levels of cooperation and communication. In <br>Baton Rouge, at least two other coalitions focused on reconstruction have come together. One of the <br>groups was initiated by the NAACP and the Service Employees International Union, and is planning <br>demonstrations, as well as media and political campaigns. Their first two meetings featured a <br>diversity of organizations and individuals, from shelter residents to folks from ACLU, ACORN, <br>Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. They are still grappling <br>with everything from the group’s name and mission, to their demands. <br><br>Another group, the Rebuilding Louisiana Coalition, was initiated by progressive political <br>campaigners from New Orleans, and appears to be focused more on political pressure. The <br>conveners, Cheron Brylski and Russell Henderson, have worked with a wide array of progressive <br>politicians from Louisiana.<br><br>Still, most New Orleans residents do not know about these groups, and those of us who are in touch <br>have been following their progress with hope and apprehension. As one shelter resident whispered <br>to me during a recent coalition meeting, “I’m just worried that they’ve won already. The Krewe’s have <br>won, and we’ll never see our city again.”<br><br>====================================================<br> Jordan Flaherty is a union organizer and an editor of Left Turn Magazine. This is his seventh article <br>from New Orleans. To see the other articles, go to
www.leftturn.org. You can contact Jordan at <br>NewOrleans@leftturn.org.<br>=====================================<br>Based on conversations with organizers on the ground, Left Turn Magazine has compiled a list of <br>grassroots New Orleans organizations focused on relief, recovery, social justice and cultural <br>preservation that need your support. The list is online at
www.leftturn.org. Please spread the word. <br>The fight isn’t over.<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>
by Dreams End » Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:03 pm