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Coalition Calls for A DAY OF PRESENCE for the Gulf on 8/29
Actions in N.O. and Nationwide Planned to Demand "Marshall Plan" to
restore New Orleans and the Gulf Coast
Release by Susan L. Taylor, ESSENCE Editorial Director
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Greetings All-
I am just back from the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans,
which was a grand success, contributed more than $120 million to the
city and raised the hope and spirits of our people throughout the
region. While there, Tommy Dortch and I, our spouses Carole
Dortch and Khephra Burns, Marcia and Michael Eric
Dyson and PR guru Terrie Williams met privately with Mayor
Ray Nagin about the deplorable and shameful conditions that the
people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region are still suffering
under, the obstacles the mayor has faced in trying to marshal resources
for the recovery and the actions we all can and must take on August 29,
the second anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
There must be a national outcry, a day of outrage, a day of protest, and
prayer that the media cannot ignore; a day during which we demand that
our national decision makers redirect our tax dollars away from war and
war profiteering to create a regional Marshall Plan that restores
New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
August 29, 2007: A DAY OF PRESENCE
We Matter. We Care. We Act.
We are all weary, and our lives are overscheduled. But taking a stand
at this crucial moment is something we must do. As Frantz Fanon said,
"Each generation must discover its mission and, having discovered its
mission, either fulfill or betray it." Our generation is at grave risk
of the latter. There's not an issue killing our community that African
Americans have stood solidly together on and remedied since the Civil
Rights Movement. Let's write a new history. Let's stand together on this
and win social and economic justice for the people of the Gulf Coast
region. With the hope and courage garnered from that victory we can then
address the failing schools, the over-incarceration of our young and the
other ills sucking the life out of our community.
This is the call: On August 29, 2007 the tens of thousands who can
travel to New Orleans will gather for the massive demonstration being
planned there. (The exact time and place to follow)
Millions of Black people, our White, Latino, Native and Asian brothers
and sisters all who are committed to social and economic justice are to
call their congressional and state representatives and the White House
to demand the restoration and betterment of New Orleans, Gulf Port,
Biloxi and the entire Gulf Coast region. The telephone number for the
White House switchboard is (202) 456-1414; the U. S. Congressional
switchboard operators at (202) 224-3121 connect callers directly to
their Senators' and Representatives' offices, after asking for a state
of residence and zip code.
America will inundate Washington with a storm surge of phone calls,
emails and faxes, loudly protesting this administration's shameful
disregard for the people elected officials are supposed to protect. We
want the state and national headquarters of both the Republican and
Democratic parties to get a startling and disturbing wake-up call: Black
people will not be taken for granted.
On 8/29 we must be fully present with all of our caring, compassion and
determination. Present on that day we must have our national leaders,
presidential candidates and elected officials, faith communities,
fraternities, sororities, union members and celebrities present in full
force.
Tyler Perry, Kimberly Elise, Regina King, Victoria Rowell, Sheryl Lee
Ralph, Blair Underwood and others are with us in spirit, checking
their schedules and awaiting details. CSI's Hill Harper is taping
and is requesting the day off. Comedian and festival host Jonathan
Slocumb, who kept the 8/29 initiative alive each day and evening
before the tens of thousands of festival goers, cares and will be
present on that day. Tom Joyner will be broadcasting from New
Orleans on 8/29. We need Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover;
we need Oprah, Spike, Halle, Angelina, Brad and Bono, Sean
Penn, Wynton Marsalis, the hip-hop community et al.
And of course, we need a huge turnout from the people of New Orleans and
the Gulf region and as many thousands of displaced evacuees as can
manage to return and have their presence register in Washington, in the
media and the national consciousness.
We want all presidential candidates to take heed of the national
discontent and our resolve to hold them accountable.
Americans are unaware of how gravely people of the Gulf Coast region are
still suffering. Mayor Nagin said, "We are physically, emotionally and
spiritually tired." A flood of media nonsense has washed over the facts
of life for the people of New Orleans: Nearly two years later, 200,000
people are still living in trailers. More than 250,000 evacuated
residents are still scattered throughout the nation. Two year later, 70
public schools in Orleans Parish remain closed. There are no mental
health services, no hospitals to serve the uninsured poor.
And yet, as Barack Obama pointed out the evening he spoke at the
festival, $165 million a day is being spent on the war in Iraq. Other
research puts the number at an average of $259 million each day - an
amount that could pay for a full year in Head Start pre-school programs
for 35,000 three- and four-year-olds. For less than the amount spent in
one month in Iraq, all of New Orleans could have been completely
rebuilt.
Marian Wright Edelman noted that the Day of Presence is
taking place at an opportune moment, just before Congress reconvenes to
make its final decision, along with the President, on whether or not to
fund the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and help the
dispersed children of Katrina get the mental health support and health
coverage they desperately need.
Regional co-conveners include Mayor Nagin; Councilwoman Cynthia
Willard-Lewis, who represents the Ninth Ward; committed activist
lawyers Tracie Washington, president and CEO of The Louisiana
Justice Institute, and Judith Browne, co-director of the
Advancement Project; and the Rev. Norwood Thompson, Jr.,
president of the New Orleans chapter of SCLC. The Louisiana Justice
Institute is the lead organization and is forming a broad coalition of
regional and community-based groups to plan the day's program and work
on the regional turnout.
Marian Wright Edelman will help to organize our faith communities, and
Marcia Dyson is working on a framework to sustain the movement beyond
8/29.
Who will step up as national co-conveners, along with Melanie
Campbell, executive director and CEO of the National Coalition on
Black Civic Participation, ESSENCE Cares and those leaders who joined me
in meeting with the mayor? Please contact Melanie Campbell at melaniec@ncbcp.org.
On August 28 The Louisiana Justice Institute, Mississippi Economic
Policy Center, Gulf Coast Young Leaders Network and a coalition of
regional organizations, with support from Oxfam, Rutgers University and
other institutions, are also convening a policy forum: Recovery and
Renewal for Gulf Coast Working Families. For more information about the
policy forum and the time and place of the 8/29: A Day of Presence
rally, log on to the Institute's Web site,
www.louisianajusticeinstitute.org, after July 17.
We need all hands on deck. Our job "all of us" is to mobilize the
masses to act. Together we have the compassion, the will and
spiritual resources to help our sisters and brothers in the Gulf region
to reclaim and better their lives. They matter and deserve to be treated
with the dignity and respect due every human being, none more than
tax-paying African Americans, whose ancestors helped build and make the
nation the wealthiest on earth.
Please give this email, and the related ones that will follow, the
widest possible distribution. Let's organize our community to stand up
and stand together as we haven't done in decades. With the needs of our
people - not our egos leading the way, we will win. No forces arrayed
against us can withstand our unity and love.
OneLove,
Susan
Susan L. Taylor
ESSENCE
© July 2007
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