Hungry Blues

Go read Kaspit's Ten days after hurricane Katrina: interim critique for a thorough yet concise critique of I) Preparation, II) Response, and III) Political smoke and mirrors and for many valuable links for further reading. Take special note of Kaspit's grasp of the environmental issues that follow the Katrina disaster. It is unfathomable that the EPA is being kept out of NOLA cleanup management. (Did you know that??)

Go read.

mongabay.com

September 8, 2005

Below are estimates of the number of hurricane victims housed in various states and cities.

In Texas, about 250,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees are sheltered in cities including Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Killeen, Beaumont, and Tyler. 139,000 hurricane refugees were in 137 shelters in Texas, and another 100,000 were estimated to be in hotels and motels, said Robert Black, spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry.

In San Antonio, the former Kelly Air Force Base began accepting people on buses that were turned away from the Astrodome. Up to 7,000 people could be accommodated in an air-conditioned office building and warehouse.

In Houston, the Astrodome has 17,500 evacuees, Reliant Center has 3,800, Reliant Arena houses 2,300 residents and the George R. Brown Convention Center holds 1,300 people.

In Alabama, Jeff Emerson, a spokesman for governor Bob Riley, said an estimated 25,000 displaced people were in the state Tuesday with more expected in days to come. Alba Rivera, an American Red Cross spokeswoman, said her group was housing 5,380 evacuees in 49 Alabama shelters. Brian James, spokesman for the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel, said 10,000 of the state's 59,000 motel rooms were occupied by emergency workers and evacuees.

In California, Governor Schwarzenegger said the state would accommodate at least 1,000 evacuees. San Diego will take 600; San Francisco, 300; and San Jose, 100, he said. Los Angeles County plans to accommodate 2,000 evacuees.

In New York, Long Island will host up to 300 evacuees.

In Arkansas about 60,000 are scattered at shelters across the state, although another 10,000 to 30,000 expected.

About 1,530 people were staying in hurricane shelters across Tennessee as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the governor's office said. Around 15,000 evacuees total are now in Tennessee.

In Georgia, the American Red Cross has reported assisting 14,000 affected families in the state of which 1,500 storm victims are staying in 17 Red Cross shelters across the state. Georgia health officials say they're preparing for as many as 25,000 more survivors from Hurricane Katrina to come to the Atlanta metropolitan area.

South Carolina is prepared to take in as many as 18,000 people.

North Carolina is ready to take about 1,900 evacuees. More than 1,100 are already in the state.

(Whole thing.)

Please distribute.

Sept. 7

Dear folks with loved ones who were OPP or the youth detention centers in the New Orleans area,

I joined members of Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) these past few days walking through shelters in Louisiana and Texas trying to help families connect up with their children who had been locked up in detention centers and/or loved ones who had been in OPP.

Some info we gathered that may be helpful:

Adults in OPP or Gretna

Latest info is that all OPP prisoners who are still in state custody are currently being held at either Angola (225) 655-4411 or Hunts (225) 642-3306. Folks looking for their people should call those numbers and ask to speak to their loved ones directly. You will probably be told that’s not possible. If officials won’t connect you directly, demand that the prison official pass on a message, and then call back later in the day to confirm that the message has been passed on. There is word also that people who were being held at OPP on less than $1000 bond either will or could (depending on who you talk to) be released if a family calls and is able to provide some kind of address. Other family members have been told that records are not available yet, but once the computer system (?) is up, they intend on holding hearings in “a couple of weeks” to process releases.

We have not been able to find out how many of the 6000+ OPP prisoners are accounted for. The NYTimes today reports that Sheriff Gusman claims the prisoners have all been moved outside the city. As of this morning, however, it seems the OPP computer system was still down, so it is hard to fathom how the Sheriff could credibly make such a claim. We have heard disturbing accounts of the evacuation of OPP. If you have any first or second person accounts, please send/forward here to my email lkung[at]schr[dot]org and/or xochit[at]mediajumpstart[dot]org.

It seems Gretna in Jefferson Parish was evacuated as well, but we have no information on when or how it was evacuated. We found one individual at Angola, so if your person was at Gretna, you should probably call Angola or Hunts (see above).

We also know now that at least some of the people who were arrested during the general evacuation are now being held at Gretna (504) 374-7700 in Jefferson Parish. The media reports earlier in the week reported people arrested were being held in the Greyhound station. We don’t know whether this is still the case, and haven’t been able to get a phone number for families to call.

Youth in detention

All youths held in Bridge City Center for Youth (BCCY) are accounted for and are now held at Jetson Correctional Center. Call Jetson at (225) 778-9000 and ask for John Anderson, Michael Gaines, Ricky Wright, or Linda London. Family members should demand that their child be brought to the phone immediately and be allowed to talk to their family.

Youths held at the Youth Study Center, Plaquemine Detention Center, St. Bernard Center, Terrebonne Detention Center, and Riverde Detention Center have been routed to placements in other parts of the state. Family members should call Perla at (225) 287-7988 or (225) 328-3607 (cell) or Stacey at (225) 287-7955 to find out where their child is located. Ask Perla for a phone number, call, and demand that they be permitted to speak to their child immediately on the phone.

FFLIC has not confirmed that all youths have been accounted for.

We do not yet know where people age 16 or under who were arrested during the general evacuation are being held.

Please help

Families scattered around 9 states are desperately trying to find out where their kids and other family members are being locked up, where everyone is, what’s going on. If you have any additional info, please email to me or Xochitl.

We also need help getting out the information we do have to folks who need the info. If your city has a shelter, small or large, you can help by going in to post an informational flyer that at least gives people phone numbers to call. If you are able to do so, please email me for a copy of the most updated flyer.

Lisa Kung

Southern Center for Human Rights

http://schr.org/

83 Poplar Street

Atlanta, GA 30303

(404) 688-1202 ext. 225

(404) 688-9440 (fax)

lkung[at]schr[dot]org

The Sparkplug Foundation has assembled a list of organizations who are

• Organizing at the grassroots level in New Orleans, Biloxi, Houston and other affected areas
• Providing immediate disaster relief to poor people and people of color
• Directed by, or accountable to, poor people and people of color
• Fostering the democratic inclusion of poor people and people of color in the rebuilding process

While the Red Cross is providing vital aid, there is no accountability to the people worst affected by Katrina. Please consider making donations to one or more of the organizations on Sparkplug's list. There is a lot at stake for the future of New Orleans in how aid is disbursed and in who gets to have decision making power in relief and rebuilding efforts.

An email received by Operation Flashlight:

MILITARY RECRUITMENT - 9/7 JOB FAIR IN THE ASTRODOME

NO SCAVENGING THE GULF COAST CRISIS TO BOOST THE DEPLETED RANKS OF THE MILITARY!

Stop the military from preying upon the vulnerable! Come educate youth dislocated from their lives and communities – facing homelessness, joblessness and often hopelessness – about the false promises of recruiters!

Doling out food to the hungry crowds overflowing Houston’s Astrodome, the National Guard has engaged in ad hoc recruiting in recent days. Tomorrow, September 7, 2005, the U.S. military is conducting a Job Fair in the Astrodome in a blatant effort to exploit the despair of masses of Americans evacuated from the Gulf Coast. Once signed up, even if purportedly to reconstruct their region, they could easily find themselves deployed to Iraq, left with medical coverage for only two for only combat-related injury and the expectations for training eviscerated. And if they sign up on the promise of temporary relief, they could find themselves bound for extended tours of duty. Download info from the formidable Counter-Recruitment resources on the United for Peace and Justice site. www.unitedforpeace.org. Come and speak truth to empower! Call for a real jobs program which employs people to reconstruct the entire Gulf Coast region for the benefit of those in need, not to pander to corporate greed!

Point people in Houston: Bill Crosier, Progressive Actino Alliance 713-641-1941 paa@crozierbiomed.com

Renee Fletz, News Director KPFT 713-526-4000

Omowale Luthuli, Office of the Commissioner, Precinct One 713-678-7385

Beloup Parker, S.H.A.P.E. Community Center 713-521-0629

Shana, New Orleans Network/League of Pissed Off Voters shana@indyvoter.org

This amazing article is via Bitch PhD.

We also suspect the media will have been inundated with "hero" images of the National Guard, the troops and the police struggling to help the "victims" of the Hurricane. What you will not see, but what we witnessed,were the real heroes and sheroes of the hurricane relief effort: the working class of New Orleans. The maintenance workers who used a fork lift to carry the sick and disabled. The engineers, who rigged, nurtured and kept the generators running. The electricians who improvised thick extension cords stretching over blocks to share the little electricity we had in order to free cars stuck on rooftop parking lots. Nurses who took over for mechanical ventilators and spent many hours on end manually forcing air into the lungs of unconscious patients to keep them alive. Doormen who rescued folks stuck in elevators. Refinery workers who broke into boat yards, "stealing" boats to rescue their neighbors clinging to their roofs in flood waters. Mechanics who helped hot-wire any car that could be found to ferry people out of the City. And the food service workers who scoured the commercial kitchens improvising communal meals for hundreds of those stranded.

Most of these workers had lost their homes, and had not heard from members of their families, yet they stayed and provided the only infrastructure for the 20% of New Orleans that was not under water. . . .

As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans. . . .

This was a process we saw repeatedly in the aftermath of Katrina. When individuals had to fight to find food or water, it meant looking out for yourself only. You had to do whatever it took to find water for your kids or food for your parents. When these basic needs were met, people began to look out for each other, working together and constructing a community.

If the relief organizations had saturated the City with food and water in the first 2 or 3 days, the desperation, the frustration and the ugliness would not have set in.

Flush with the necessities, we offered food and water to passing families and individuals. Many decided to stay and join us. Our encampment grew to 80 or 90 people.

From a woman with a battery powered radio we learned that the media was talking about us. Up in full view on the freeway, every relief and news organizations saw us on their way into the City. Officials were being asked what they were going to do about all those families living up on the freeway? The officials responded they were going to take care of us. Some of us got a sinking feeling. "Taking care of us" had an ominous tone to it.

Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the fucking freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water.

Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced off the freeway. All the law enforcement agencies appeared threatened when we congregated or congealed into groups of 20 or more. In every congregation of "victims" they saw "mob" or "riot". We felt safety in numbers. Our "we must stay together" was impossible because the agencies would force us into small atomized groups.

(Read the whole thing!)

UN hits back at US in report saying parts of America are as poor as Third World

By Paul Vallely

The Independent

Published: 08 September 2005

Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World, according to a shocking United Nations report on global inequality.

Claims that the New Orleans floods have laid bare a growing racial and economic divide in the US have, until now, been rejected by the American political establishment as emotional rhetoric. But yesterday's UN report provides statistical proof that for many - well beyond those affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - the great American Dream is an ongoing nightmare.

The document constitutes a stinging attack on US policies at home and abroad in a fightback against moves by Washington to undermine next week's UN 60th anniversary conference which will be the biggest gathering of world leaders in history.

The annual Human Development Report normally concerns itself with the Third World, but the 2005 edition scrutinises inequalities in health provision inside the US as part of a survey of how inequality worldwide is retarding the eradication of poverty.

It reveals that the infant mortality rate has been rising in the US for the past five years - and is now the same as Malaysia. America's black children are twice as likely as whites to die before their first birthday.



The report is bound to incense the Bush administration as it provides ammunition for critics who have claimed that the fiasco following Hurricane Katrina shows that Washington does not care about poor black Americans. But the 370-page document is critical of American policies towards poverty abroad as well as at home. And, in unusually outspoken language, it accuses the US of having "an overdeveloped military strategy and an under-developed strategy for human security".

"There is an urgent need to develop a collective security framework that goes beyond military responses to terrorism," it continues. " Poverty and social breakdown are core components of the global security threat." . . .

Child mortality is on the rise in the United States

For half a century the US has seen a sustained decline in the number of children who die before their fifth birthday. But since 2000 this trend has been reversed. . . .

The infant mortality rate in the US is now the same as in Malaysia

High levels of spending on personal health care reflect America's cutting-edge medical technology and treatment. But the paradox at the heart of the US health system is that, because of inequalities in health financing, countries that spend substantially less than the US have, on average, a healthier population. A baby boy from one of the top 5 per cent richest families in America will live 25 per cent longer than a boy born in the bottom 5 per cent and the infant mortality rate in the US is the same as Malaysia, which has a quarter of America's income.

Blacks in Washington DC have a higher infant death rate than people in the Indian state of Kerala

The health of US citizens is influenced by differences in insurance, income, language and education. Black mothers are twice as likely as white mothers to give birth to a low birthweight baby. And their children are more likely to become ill.

Throughout the US black children are twice as likely to die before their first birthday.

Hispanic Americans are more than twice as likely as white Americans to have no health cover

The US is the only wealthy country with no universal health insurance system. Its mix of employer-based private insurance and public coverage does not reach all Americans. More than one in six people of working age lack insurance. One in three families living below the poverty line are uninsured. Just 13 per cent of white Americans are uninsured, compared with 21 per cent of blacks and 34 per cent of Hispanic Americans. Being born into an uninsured household increases the probability of death before the age of one by about 50 per cent.

More than a third of the uninsured say that they went without medical care last year because of cost. . . .

Child poverty rates in the United States are now more than 20 per cent

Child poverty is a particularly sensitive indicator for income poverty in rich countries. It is defined as living in a family with an income below 50 per cent of the national average.

The US - with Mexico - has the dubious distinction of seeing its child poverty rates increase to more than 20 per cent. In the UK - which at the end of the 1990s had one of the highest child poverty rates in Europe - the rise in child poverty, by contrast, has been reversed through increases in tax credits and benefits.

(Whole thing.)

Courtesy of Michael S.

Via Marsha Joyner.

By John Lewis

Newsweek

Opinion: A civil-rights leader mourns an African-American population left behind.

Sept. 12, 2005 issue - I was headed to New Orleans as a Freedom Rider in May of 1961. It would've been my first visit, but we were arrested in Jackson, Miss., and never made it. In happier times, though, I have been able to visit New Orleans over the years. It's one of my favorite cities, one of the great Southern cities. The people are friendly, warm, helpful. In the old part of the city, there's so much history when you walk down Canal Street or Royal. One of my favorite places is a shop on Royal, where they have lots of art posters by African-American artists. After Katrina, there's a loss of the music, the restaurants and the character in addition to the unbelievable loss of lives. Maybe we will never know the number of people who have been lost.

It's very painful for me to watch and read about what is happening. I have a sense of righteous indignation. I think all Americans should rise up and speak out. It's not like 9/11 that just happened. We saw this in the making. The media told us for days this storm was coming, and for years people have been telling us we need to do something to prepare. It took us so many days to make the full force of the government available afterward.

In 1957, during the crisis in Little Rock, President Dwight Eisenhower—maybe he was reluctant, maybe he had some reservations, but he put the full force of the government behind the decision to desegregate Central High. During the Freedom Rides, President John Kennedy didn't hesitate to federalize the National Guard and put the whole city of Montgomery under martial law. It's baffling to me that we didn't have the ability or the will to do something much earlier. We still haven't had the passionate statement that should be made by officials in this administration.

It's so glaring that the great majority of people crying out for help are poor, they're black. There's a whole segment of society that's being left behind. When you tell people to evacuate, these people didn't have any way to leave. They didn't have any cars, any SUVs.

It's so strange that when we have something like this happening, the president gets two ex-presidents—his father and Bill Clinton—to raise money. What they propose to do is good, and I appreciate all the work the private sector and the faith-based community are doing. But when we get ready to go to war, we don't go around soliciting resources with a bucket or an offering plate. We have the courage to come before Congress and debate the issue, authorize money. That's what we need to do here. By next year we'll have spent $400 billion to $500 billion in Afghanistan and Iraq. That money could be used to help rebuild the lives of people. If we fail to act as a nation, I don't think history will be kind to us.

We've got to do more than the $10 billion that Congress appropriated. We need a massive Marshall-type plan to rebuild New Orleans. But in rebuilding we should see this as an opportunity to rebuild urban America. New Orleans could be a model. There must be a commitment of billions and billions of dollars—maybe $50 billion to $100 billion. I think even in other urban centers, there are people who are just barely existing. We sing the song "Hope is on the way," but it's taking a long time before hope arrives. It becomes very discouraging where you see people dying—children, the elderly, the sick—the lack of food and water. I've cried a lot of tears the past few days as I watched television—to see somebody lying dead outside the convention center. I went to Somalia in 1992 and I saw little babies dying before my eyes. This reminded me of Somalia. But this is America. We're not a Third World country. This is an embarrassment. It's a shame. It's a national disgrace.

Lewis is the U.S. congressman from the Fifth District of Georgia.

This is VERY serious. It's not just bans on photos of the corpses. There are now at least two separate reports from reporters on the ground in NOLA that credentialed members of the press are being shut out of parts of the city and more broadly prevented from taking photographs.

One report comes from Bob Brigham of Operation Flashlight (via Pam's House Blend):

September 7th, 2005

We are in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans. At the National Guard checkpoint, they are under orders to turn away all media. All of the reporters are turning they’re TV trucks around.

Things are so bad, Bush is now censoring all reporting from NOLA. The First Amendment sank with the city.

The other is from MSNBC's Brian Williams (via TPM):

Sept. 7, 2005 | 4:30 p.m. EDT

An interesting dynamic is taking shape in this city, not altogether positive: after days of rampant lawlessness (making for what I think most would agree was an impossible job for the New Orleans Police Department during those first few crucial days of rising water, pitch-black nights and looting of stores) the city has now reached a near-saturation level of military and law enforcement. In the areas we visited, the red berets of the 82nd Airborne are visible on just about every block. National Guard soldiers are ubiquitous. At one fire scene, I counted law enforcement personnel (who I presume were on hand to guarantee the safety of the firefighters) from four separate jurisdictions, as far away as Connecticut and Illinois. And tempers are getting hot. While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States.

At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history.

There is something very strange about Williams' understated analysis, as if he doesn't quite hear the seriousness of his own report.

The increased militarization of NOLA as the press loses access is extremely alarming. Who are those guns intended for? Who is left in the city? The last of the of the children, the poor, the elderly and the sick—all of them overwhelmingly Black. People still trapped and starving.

God help us.

----- Original Message -----

From: <congressman@jessejacksonjr.org

To: <announcements@jessejacksonjr.org

Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 9:06 AM

Subject: Katrina and Bush expose failure of States' Rights

KATRINA AND BUSH EXPOSE FAILURE OF STATES' RIGHTS

Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., said today, "President Bush said he was going to launch a full investigation into what happened with regard to the failed rescue and relief efforts after Katrina hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He wants to know what was done right and what was done wrong so we will be better prepared in the future in case of a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction or another major natural disaster. He said it was important to understand the relationship between the federal, state and local governments when it comes to a major catastrophe.

"I couldn't agree more, but the problem is President Bush already has an ideological commitment to state-centered federalism and against a point of view that would help to build a more perfect Union. President Bush already thinks he knows what the relationship is between the federal, state and local governments. He has a philosophical commitment to states' rights. It's why Ronald Reagan said the federal government was the problem, not a solution. It's why the Republican Party has been leading a crusade on behalf of an evolution of devolution of the federal government. It's why conservatives have been attacking the federal courts and so-called `activist judges.' It's what candidate George W. Bush meant when he said that his two favorite Supreme Court Justices were Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. It's why he's nominated Judge John Roberts, first to the Supreme Court and now to become the Chief Justice. All of these efforts are designed to weaken the role of the federal government in any attempt to build a more perfect Union for all Americans.

"The American myth of prosperity for all of our citizens has been unraveled and revealed for all Americans and the world to see. The federal government is being exposed and embarrassed before the whole world. The Bush question - of the role of the federal and state governments - should have been settled during the American Civil War. But it's at the center of our current discussions about education and health care - i.e., how do we provide a public education and health care of equal high quality for every American?

"The truth is that Hurricane Katrina exposed the neglected realities of poverty and race in this nation. The catastrophe trapped the poor as a class and African Americans as a caste - both of which reflect past failures of the federal government and inadequacies within the states, what one might call institutional disasters - in a debate over the role of the federal government and the states in the Gulf region of our country. The poverty that we see is not a natural disaster but a man-made disaster, the result of the failure of the federal government to take the necessary and appropriate action to end poverty in the richest nation on earth. Yet the President's adherence to state-centered federalism, which weakens the Union and the federal government's ability to address such issues, will only perpetuate the central problem of how to build a more perfect Union into the future," Jackson concluded.

Matthew Nolan, resident of NOLA, blogger on Humid City:

Dear family, friends, U.S. Citizens, all of humanity:

I am safe. I am alive. My heart is broken. Thank you for your concern.

This hour, bodies are floating in my neighborhood. This hour, people are taking their last breath in home attics. There is no presence of government and relief in New Orleans after 6 days from the warning of Hurricane Katrina and 4 days from total death and destruction. I am sick with grief and anger at the lack of preparation and response by our government.

Last year I was left behind during Hurricane Ivan because I had no car, no money, no way out. Now, 100,000 people too poor to evacuate are dead or facing death. We live as minority families stuck in poverty and living on food stamps in the housing projects or as the starving artist like myself living out my dreams in the culturally unique city I love. These are my neighbors. We enjoy the Big Easy by riding our bikes, hopping on buses, and riding the streetcar. None of us have an automobile. No provisions were made to evacuate us via land transport or air. From President Bush, FEMA, to our local officials: They all knew we would die if directly hit by a hurricane. They left us all to die.

I refuse as a citizen and a social worker to cry my tears as a private expression only. There is no more time left. The pleas from the living in New Orleans cannot be heard. Communication is cut off. We can only see their desperate faces through the eye of a camera. They are dying. I petition every citizen to exercise our democratic rights now. Today I spoke with officials at the White House, Department of Defense, Senate Majority Leader, Speaker of the House, and The President’s Press Office. I deflected the chatter of "relief is on its way, we appropriated funds today, the help is coming, FEMA this FEMA that." I told them NOW, NOW, NOW. You must tell them the same. This is not a disaster to observe. We must gather our private emotions of grief and channel them into action. We must come together. Who would speak for you if you were stuck dying in New Orleans?

Demand immediate response from our government officials by contacting them via phone and email within an hour of receiving this email, peacefully protest, call your newspaper, express your feelings in a letter to your congressman and the office of our President, and vote-out those who were responsible for preventing, preparing, and reacting to this disaster. A fundraising telethon is a "feel good" distraction from the starving, drowning, and rotting bodies in New Orleans. Place your initial efforts in the here and now.

You will find all the contact information you need at the web sites below. This is public information. We are the people. Our government represents us and wants to hear what we have to say. It is your right. It is your freedom. Call and email them all, NOW.

Click on or type in the web sites below:

http://whitehouse.gov/contact

http://www.senate.gov

http://www.house.gov

Forward this email, print it off to distribute, post it, discuss it, organize to help.

Thank you for thinking of me. Lets now turn our thoughts to others.

From United For A Fair Economy:

We urge you to take urgent action to stop the U.S. Senate from voting on

estate tax repeal in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

A devastating hurricane clobbers the Gulf coast. The war in Iraq claims

almost 1,900 American lives with no end in sight in both casualties and

cost. And red ink flows through both short and long term federal deficit

projections.

Yet in the coming days, Senate leaders plan to vote on permanently

abolishing the estate tax, America¹s only levy on concentrations of

inherited wealth.

They want to end the estate tax despite the fact that a new national poll

shows that 59% of Americans from all political parties and incomes favor

estate tax reform, while only 29% favor repeal -- a 2-1 ratio.

Please contact your Senator TODAY. You can reach your Senator by calling

toll free at 1-800-708-9781 or the U.S. Senate Switchboard at

1-202-224-3121, or find their direct phone at:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

The message is: In the face of Hurricane Katrina, it is shocking and

inappropriate that Congress would vote for a trillion dollar tax cut for

millionaires and billionaires. Vote NO on ESTATE TAX REPEAL. OPPOSE

FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE COMPROMISES that will GUT the law.

THANKS,

Chuck Collins, Senior Fellow, ccollins@faireconomy.org

Lee Farris, Senior Organizer on Estate Tax Policy, x133,

lfarris@faireconomy.org

United for a Fair Economy

29 Winter St.

Boston, MA 02108

617-423-2148

More info: http://www.faireconomy.org/estatetax/

by Marsha Joyner

With silent lips she cries. "Give me your tired, your poor,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

This is etched in stone on the Statue of Liberty—as Lady Liberty looks out to the Atlantic Ocean, her back turned to the rest of us.

The huddled masses: the poor of all sizes, shapes and colors,

The people whose skin color is red, yellow, brown or black, whose eyes are slanted, whose religious Sabbath is celebrated on Friday or Saturday, the disabled,

Those whose sexual preferences are not "normal"(?), are we the wretched refuse,

The brown skinned people who struggle across a hostile border to realize an unkept promise— yearning to breathe free—

Mahatma Gandhi said, "passive violence fuels the fire of physical violence; and if we want to put out the fire of physical violence, logically we have to cut off the fuel supply." What is passive violence? According to Gandhi and his grandson Arun, passive violence is what we do to criticize and disrespect other people’s lives, their heritage, their history and their values. I will have to add ignoring or acting as if the huddled masses do not exist.

As the TV cameras give us a look into the faces of displaced people, children without parents, old folks without homes, the sick and dying left behind. We must ask the question, are they the wretched refuse? Are they tomorrow’s terrorists?

What happens to them two weeks from now when the cameras stop rolling, when the public moves on to the next headline? Is that what the huddled masses will look like?

For those of us who have glanced at the other side, can we say, “send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me”?

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People, who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.”

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop it now. I don’t have the answer, but I do know that collectively we can.