The story of the Saints is a classic rags-to-riches tale. The team had never been to the championship game. They had 2 playoff wins in 42 years. They were so bad that their fans wore paper bags over their head for years and unaffectionately called the team “The Aints.”
A New Orleans "Aints" fan
New Orleans has also had a hell of a ride, going from “Las Vegas of the South” to the flash point of modern government incompetence, racism, and social injustice after Hurricane Katrina. The city and its football team were ripe for a comeback.
Our Progressive movement is too. Why? We took back Congress in 2006. We took back the White House in 2008. We passed health care reform We’re working on that. We need a comeback because we’re disoriented.
It’s like we just woke up. Our eyes are open, but our vision is blurred. We know our slippers are near the bed, but we have to feel around with our toes to find them.
We reorient ourselves by becoming clear in our purpose. Let’s take a page from the Saints and make that happen. Progressive organizers, activists, and politicians can learn a lot from these World Champions about how to win this year and beyond. Here are 3 key lessons.
1) First off, why is there not more coverage of the relief efforts of people impacted by the earthquakes in China and Myanmar? In case you hadn’t read, nearly 70,000 people died in this earthquake and millions more are now homeless. To help put it in context, imagine instantly losing 7 people in your life without being able to say goodbye and multiply that grief by 100,000. I guess coverage of the earthquake is worth far less than what the DNC RBC planned to do with the Michigan and Florida delegates. Read the rest of this entry »
Nearly 70 percent of those surveyed were employed before the storm, with half of respondents holding full-time jobs. And 60 percent of evacuees polled were looking for jobs at the time of the survey.
"…lazy and reliant on government aid…" That's the same thing ignorant people think about poor Black folks in general, isn't it? I guess I should start believing in coincidences.
While the Road Home is expected to deliver more than 90,000 grants to Louisiana homeowners by the end of the year and our programs to restore more than 30,000 rental units are in full swing, the bottom line is that not all of these units will be available before March, and we are still experiencing a severe housing shortage at every level.
When you have “severe housing shortages,” bad things happen: people get sick, crime increases, kids are left homeless and hungry. I thought Republicans were the party with the moral high ground; this sure doesn’t help promote families.
A note from Dr. Calvin Mackie from the day before the Jena 6 rally.
One Love. One II.
–
Brothers and Sisters,
When you get to Jena please tell all those Black people that when they leave Jena, come to New Orleans in support of the injustice towards the New Orleans 200,000! Tell them that Charles Rangel (D) from NY still hasn’t visited New Orleans and that over 200,000 citizens, mostly Black, are still displaced to over 5500 cities in America. Where is our justice? Where is the outcry over a government who damaged and destroyed generations of Black fiscal, cultural and historical wealth via political and engineering neglect?
Okay, I have just awakened and realized that i dreamed that people, especially Black people, gave a damn about the greatest catastrophe in the history of the country. I guess racism and levees don’t mix, or we just can’t put it together. I guess we don’t see that civil rights is tied to equal protection, protection in the judicial system as well as in infrastructure. I’m awake now and I apologize for thinking and questioning, because I know a Black man is not suppose to do that.
I used to have a quote that I used in my signature that said, “Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.” Fortunately, the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast have a historian through the International Tribunal on Hurricane Katrina and Rita.
The tribunal was formed to hear testimony by experts and survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. After 30 hours of testimony, the preliminary findings are unfortunately not surprising.
Jill Soffiyah Elijah, the Deputy Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School and Chief Judge for the International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, announced the Tribunal’s preliminary findings “It is our view that the U.S. government has committed crimes against humanity particularly in relation to its failure to maintain functional levees that should have protected the City of New Orleans from flooding; … it was the reckless disregard and, in some instances, negligence of the U.S. government, the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans that created the devastation we continue to see today.” Read the rest of this entry »
Today’s announcement gives new hope to many of our citizens that have been longing to return, and we look forward to the coming days and weeks as they begin to access these much needed funds and begin making their way back home.
Anyone who's been there wouldn't find this surprising. The places that are the focus of redevelopment areas are the ones that either Black folks never resided in in the first place or that poorer Black folks have been priced out of residing in now. Oh, the wonderful world of gentrification.
Louisiana and the city of New Orleans are participating and rebounding in the most complex reconstruction effort in American history. As you know, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wreaked unprecedented havoc upon South Louisiana in the fall of 2005, creating the first and third most expensive natural disasters in United States history. Presently, schools are reopening. Homes are being rebuilt. Life as we knew it is gradually returning. But this was an unprecedented catastrophe. Pushing the recovery forward will take an extraordinary effort and a commitment to do what it takes for the people of this state, especially the residents of New Orleans.
I read somewhere that only people with options ask, what do we do? People who don’t have a choice know what needs to be done and don’t hesitate to do that and more. The time has passed to stop thinking, stop accussing, and start doing.
This is interesting to me. Have we come a long way now? Are people less racist? Or was the tragedy of Katrina enough to get people to look past their race and find commonality on a human-to-human level?
One more interesting thing: does anyone know what this means?
Caucasians who say they do not identify with their ethnic group
There was an article in Blackelectorate today entitled, “Whole Life Times: Eco Apartheid.” In it, author Van Jones goes through the history of the environmental movement in America across three major stages, conservation, regulation, and investment. For each stage, Jones points out the very homogeneous (almost exclusively White) make up of the environmental movement and the clear benefits of broadening that tent. Read the rest of this entry »
I think that the Democratic response was a decent speech. I think Jim Webb is setting himself up to be somebody’s Vice Presidential candidate next year, but who knows. I do believe that the speech lacked two key things:
1. Katrina Response
I will kick this horse until my foot falls off. This was a tremendous opportunity to talk about what needs to be done and what will be done. This was a great opportunity to differentiate the Democrats and the Republicans on this issue. This was a prime opportunity to help out poor people who are on the bottom end of the “two americas” rhetoric. Sadly, this did not happen. This hurts the Democrats ability to be able to say that they care about poor people [and Black people for that matter].
2. The Post-100 Hours Democratic Agenda
Democrats could have used this as a stage to lay out to everyone what their next steps will be to follow up their successful execution of their “100 Hours” plan. What are the priorities now? Will they turn towards foreign policy thru diplomacy? Impeachment? Health care? This would have been a chance to keep the attention on actions.
First, a slight omission: Bush did not give Katrina one sentence; Webb gave it gave it one phrase. I guess that is better than nothing, but it still sucks.
It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President’s message, nor would it be useful. Let me simply say that we in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious about improving education and health care for all Americans, and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans.
This was a good opening statement, and I agree with all of it it except for the last phrase, which doesn’t make any sense. To say that the Democrats hope “that this administration is serious about…addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans” is not needed because it is clear that this is not a priority. It would have made more sense to phrase this part as a challenge followed by a Democratic plan for the Gulf Coast.
The fact that Webb said “it would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President’s message, nor would it be useful” is good because it says “we don’t want to argue, we want to act.” I pray that that is more than just rhetoric.
When one looks at the health of our economy, it’s almost as if we are living in two different countries…In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy – that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base. Not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today.
This was the strongest part of the speech. It focused on the need to remember that the Middle Class is critical to the success of our nation for both economic and emotional reasons. The economic reasons are relatively obvious in terms of the amount of money that these people can spend. The emotional reasons should be relatively obvious too because this gives those who are poorer something to aspire to. Unfortunately, as Webb points out, there are people in this country who want to eradicate the Middle Class by engaging in class warfare, using the weapons of high education and health care/insurance costs to push those who are currently middle class down to a lower level of economic vitality.
With respect to foreign policy, this country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years…they owed us – sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it.
Though obvious to some, this statement cannot be repeated enough: we made the wrong choice when deciding to invade Iraq, and we are continuing to make the wrong choice by staying there. The voters made this clear in November, and the government must pay attention. The Congress must do everything within its constitutional mandate to protect us from a heavy-handed, non-thinking executive. This was not happening when everyone was a Republican. Perhaps that will change now that a different party is running the House and Senate.
The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction…an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq’s cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.
Note the words “immediate” and “short order.” These can be translated to mean “Get out, and get out now! No ’surge.’ No ’staying until we achieve [the yet-to-be-defined-state-of] victory.” This is what voters told their government in November that they wanted. The government needs to respond to the will of the people.
Here is my real-time analysis of G. W. Bush’s 2007 State of the Union address. This is a shortcut for anyone that did not watch the speech on TV or listen to it.
This actually started well. Hearing this reminds me of how historic it is for Rep. Nancy Pelosi to be the Speaker of the House, the most powerful woman ever in the United States Congress. I wonder if Mr. Bush was sincere in his words to her during his opening remarks.
Decisions are hard, and courage is needed…The will to face difficult challenges…Congress has changed, but not our responsibilities…
These guarded statements are said to try and disarm his opposition within the Democratically-controlled Congress. What these statements basically mean is, “I will give lip service to working together, but expect nothing different out of me and my administration.”
3 Economic Reforms that deserve to be priorities…Balance the Federal Budget…We can do so without raising taxes…What we need is spending discipline in Washington…Earmarks…Entitlements…Commitments of Conscience…Fix Medicare and Medicaid, and save Social Security…
The stuff on “earmarks” is a joke because those will not go away any time soon since Republicans and Democrats use them all the time.
Conservatives use the term “entitlements” to deceive people. They need to do this so that they can make you feel bad about the government doing things for you. They play up this farce so that people feel bad taking things from the government that they select & elect. Funny how there was no mention of corporate entitlements in the form of war profiteering or the Bankruptcy Bill a.k.a. the worst piece of legislation since the Patriot Act (which a certain person voted for, and that really bothers me).
The future of opportunity requires that all of our citizens have affordable and available health care…For all other Americans, private health insurance provides the best option…Standard Health Insurance Tax Deduction…Changing the tax code is a vital and necessary step to making health care available to all Americans
I don’t even know why this man fronts like he wants all Americans to have health insurance. If so, he would at least put a dent in the 40+ million people who don’t. He and his friends still think it is a bad idea to realize Universal Health Care through what’s called a Single-payer system. Basically, single-payer means that only one party negotiates for the price of health insurance and services: the government. Every citizen would then have their health costs covered through what they pay in taxes. This would result in higher taxes for the citizens, but those increased costs probably would not add up to the amount that people overpay for health services every day, month, and year. The idea of trying to get everyone to go private is as ridiculous as the privatize social security plan that he had a while back (and still has). This is also consistent with the way that the “war” in Iraq has been privatized. These pro-business, anti-citizen types always think private is the answer so that they can take money away from public institutions and services.
Extending hope and opportunity in this country requires an immigration policy that is worthy of America
I won’t say much on this. I think that Bush’s guest worker idea sounds a whole lot like new school indentured servitude. For those that don’t know, this was the precursor to slavery in this country. I do not think that the parallel is coincidental.
Reduce gasoline usage by 20% in the next 10 years…
How??? His mandatory fuel standard statement was weak at best, especially in the midst of his administration and its energy policy.
Global climate change…
He can’t say global warming because that does not exist. So rather than being a flip-flopper (we know how much he hates those), he has decided to use a different term: global climate change. This is his backwards way of admitting that there is a problem. I guess a small first step is better than no step at all. Is the next step for him to watch this?
To win the war on terror, we must take the fight to the enemy…
This was the opening statement to his surprisingly long section on Iraq, Iran, and foreign policy. There was too much B.S. here to sift through. Take a look at some of our analysis to get an idea of the truth. Suffice it to say that this strategy is questionable at best.
Darfur…Fight AIDS on the continent of Africa…Dikembe Mutumbo…
He really mentioned Darfur? That’s a surprise. Too bad he didn’t refer to it as a genocide. Again, I guess a small step is better than no step at all.
It is sad, but the “fighting AIDS in Africa” phrase is being rendered absolutely meaningless. It gets paid so much lip service that people forget that there are actually humans living on the continent of Africa who exist for reasons other than making someone feel good being a philanthropist.
THIS BASTARD DID NOT MAKE ONE MENTION OF THE GREATEST DOMESTIC CRISIS TO EVER OCCUR ON AMERICAN SOIL: HURRICANE KATRINA!!!!
I guess Kanye was right. I never liked G. W. Bush, but I for damn sure cannot stand him now. He talked all this noise about helping people, and about helping Iraqis, and about helping Africans. Why no talk about helping “AMERICANS?”
This is disgusting. I dare someone to defend his purposeful exclusion of Hurricane Katrina in a speech on domestic policy.
Any presidential hopeful that does not call out and talk about how terrible this is will not get my vote in 2008. Period.
1. Introduce and pass comprehensive Katrina legislation that includes a victim’s compensation fund akin to that awarded the 911 families
2. Introduce and pass legislation to fix and expand the Unemployment Insurance (UI) system
3. Equalize education funding in the states by introducing and passing legislation authorizing a federal education incentive fund that induces states to eradicate unequal school financing schemes
4. Improve the quality and effectiveness of primary and secondary schools by introducing and passing legislation that encourages comprehensive school reform in the states
5. Authorize and appropriate resource support for African Union peacekeeping forces in the Darfur region of Sudan
6. Combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in African American communities by introducing and passing comprehensive HIV/AIDS legislation
7. Spur economic development by passing legislation implementing federally funded business training programs in high schools, community colleges, HBCU’s and other minority-serving education institutions
8. Introduce and pass legislation to guarantee universal access to health insurance
9. Introduce and pass federal legislation standardizing state voting requirements and mandating paper verification voting systems
10. Respect the traditional seniority system in the House of Representatives that would allow ranking African American committee members to ascend to their rightful place as chairs of powerful House committees
The most interesting points on this list in my mind are numbers 3 & 9.
#3 is interesting because if we do real work to equalize funding, then maybe we can actually have a real merit-based process for evaluating school performance instead of the sham that is No Child Left Behind. Having school funding being tied almost solely to property taxes leads to a vicious cycle in the presence of urban sprawl, brain drain, and other migration phenomena. Perhaps we can come up with a better system that works in spite of these sorts of things.
#9 is important because voting is important. Because voting is so important, anything that can be done to protect the system for counting votes is equally as important. If people were completely confident in said system, I wouldn’t have to beg so hard.
This is a story about a reporter in New Orleans and his bout with clinical depression following last year’s Gulf Coast Hurricanes.
Beyond the challenges of rebuilding people’s lives, homes, city infrastructure, government, and business, how are we addressing the mental health challenges brought about by these storms? Is this yet another piece of the recovery that has been overlooked?
The [lack of a] response or recovery effort from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is often framed in terms of race. However, mental health effects everyone of all races. Also, there are mental health challenges that befall volunteers and first-responders as well.
I think that these mental health challenges are more important to address than issues of rebuilding businesses and governments. Why is it then that the focus of the [alleged] recovery effort is on business and government?
This morning marks the 5th year since the infamous 11 September 2001. Less than two weeks ago, we marked the 1st year since the Hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf Coast of the United States. These twin tragedies will live in our hearts and mines for generations to come because of the before-then-unfathomable loss of life, before-then-unfathomable governmental reactions, the unrelenting support, sympathy, and empathy of the citizenry, and the uncanny resiliency of the individuals who experienced these events first hand.
While reverencing and respecting these happenings, I ask the following questions: is this all that I need to remember? Aren’t there other tragic things that have occurred in this world that should have altered my thinking and world-view for the rest of my life? My answer here is an emphatic YES.
Minorities and the once Native Majority in this hemisphere have dealt with devastation, terror, and genocide since its invasion. During these times, people have shown the same resiliency as my fellow american citizens showed 5 years ago today. Why do we not take the time to look back upon these people and the events of their lives? Why do they not get the phrase “Day of Infamy” attached to their tragedies? Wasn’t the day the Caribbean Islands were invaded a “Day of Infamy,” marking the beginning of a genocide over 600 years and still continuing to this day? Wasn’t the day the areas surrounding Plymouth Rock were invaded a “Day of Infamy,” marking the beginning of a genocide that has lasted nearly 400 years and still continuing to this day? Wasn’t every single instance of a Black person in this country being lynched a “Day of Infamy,” a chilling symbol of the hatred that has burned in closet of this country that still rears its ugly head from time-to-time today?
Obviously, there are countless other examples, making it impossible to list them here. My call is for us to do two four things today:
1. Pay homage & respect to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy, their families, and the people who risked & gave their lives on that day and the years that have followed. Remember where you were. Remember what you were doing. Remember what you did to help out. Share these things here with us.
2. Pay homage & respect to the victims of Hurricanes Katrina & Rita, their families, and the people who risked & gave their lives during those days in 2004 and the time since then. Remember where you were. Remember what you were doing. Remember what you did to help out. Share these things here with us.
3. Do some homework. Investigate other things that have happened in this world during your lifetime? After studying, you may find more things than these twin tragedies that will alter your perspective. Share these things here with us.
4. Pay attention to this world we live in. Look at more than what’s in front of your own two eyes. There are more people in this world, more placed in this world, and more things in this world that we are connected to, that effect us, and that we need to have in mind when approaching this world every time we awake from our slumbers. We owe it to ourselves and to the victims of all tragedies to remember what happened to them, and act in ways that prevent tragedy in the future.
What’s up fam, as most of you may know, I was born and raised in Detroit and I am very proud to let this be known. But this weekend, I experienced my city in a way that was truly breathtaking. As a result, I was inspired to write a poem that speaks to my feelings towards “The D,” but it can be applied to people every where struggling for hope where there is so much despair. Enjoy.
So I dillied, dallied, I ran through the alley
Throughout my hometown
Some call it Motown
Known for crime, soul music, and bad boys
Diddy don’t run the city
We create visions because we can’t afford toys
Looking at the stats, most folks will say,
“Detroit throw in the rag,”
But when our time comes
They will say, “Is that the city formerly known as…?”
And we will say, “We always knew, where were you?”
Our time is now and you might now even know it
This job is for grown folk
Not defined by age but tested by the heart
Our Katrina was long and drawn out
Lost jobs, poor schools, It’s almost like a perpetual hope drought
Drowning in our wallows
We adapted and grew gills
Like deep sea fish, we don’t need the sun
We need the Son
Because when it all goes down, we look to the hills
When the system lets us down we go underground for support
But with no subways, we ride each other’s dreams
Knowing that in the end if we are to succeed,
We have to rise above the pettiness
And below the surfaces
Asking God for His help to change our present and future circumstances
Here at The SuperSpade, we seek to provide tools for effective action. These tools include, data, information, knowledge, wisdom, opinions, connections, and perspectives. All of these things and more are part of what drives us to do anything. What is it that keeps us from doing something when we have everything we need to have and know everything we need to know? This has definitely happened to me more times than I’d like to admit. I’d be surprised if no one else has experienced this.
I argue that three major things stop us:
1. We can’t make a difference
A lack of confidence in ourselves or our cause often stifles our response to anything. For example, people may not have donations of food/water/clothes/money to Gulf Coast Hurricane survivors because you wondered, “what is my small contribution really gonna do?” Another example is people not voting because to them, their one vote will not make a difference. The problem with this thinking is that it makes the often improper assumption that you exist in a bubble, that you are the only person that does or thinks anything, that you are the single force for change in the situation. In short, it’s a selfish perspective.
It is true that lots of things, lots of movements, are dreamed up by a single person. Or are they? Looking a bit more critically, that is actually untrue pretty much all the time. Let’s look at some examples:
- Was Steve Biko the only person that felt strongly about Black consciousness? NO.
- Was the young Coleman Young the only person that felt that racial discrimination in the UAW as wrong? NO.
- Were you the only person that thought the disastrous response to the Gulf Coast Hurricanes was appalling, nearing criminal negligence? No.
In all of these cases, I’ve called out individual people that had their own personal opinion(s). What these people realized, and what we all must realize, is that yes, an individual acting as an individual will in many cases have only limited effect. But when individuals come together they can effect significant changes. How do they come together? By acknowledging that there are other people in this world, and opening themselves to the possibility that others can help them achieve their goals. To extend an idea [my new favorite movie] V for Vendetta, with enough people behind a symbol or an idea, that idea can transform into powerful action(s). Coming back home, it takes a certain level of humility and unselfishness to understand that we need to use each other as resources to achieve our common objectives. The way that our common objectives become collective objectives is through open communication. We need think critically for ourselves and to pay attention to one another.
2. If we fail then it’s all over
We tend to place more finality in perceived failure than we do in perceived success. Why is that? I don’t know, but I do know the following:
- Both, in reality, are building blocks for the future.
- Both, in reality, require critical re-evaluation of what was done/not done.
- Both, in reality, are equally important to success in the future.
Even though I know the above, I still struggle with them. How can I/you get past these struggles? By interacting with one another and supporting and encouraging each other when we feel discouraged.
The truth is we need to reform our default pessimistic attitude that says that a) we’re going to fail inevitably, and b) when we fail then we must cease. Even if a) is true, b) never, ever is. You can always change. You can always adapt. You can always succeed. [This sounds like a Weekly Dream, but] The only reason we ultimately fail at these sorts of actions is because we make a decision to. Instead, let’s reform our attitude to say that if we experience a setback, we instead use it as an opportunity to put together our collective hearts and minds to achieve success, however we define it.
3. We’re scared
I know I’ve been beating the hell out of this lately, but that is because I feel so strongly about it. I’ll be brief here and simply stay that if we work with each other to increase our personal and collective confidence in ourselves, the collective, and the things we are committed to, we can overcome this crippling fear.
Please add to this list. Let us know what has kept you from doing things, and how you overcome these obstacles. In the near future, I’ll write on the different types of actions, but I first wanted to deal with what’s blocking us from moving forward.
Thank you for reading and supporting this series. I pray that this series does justice to the tragedies by allowing us to think about the hurricanes, think about ourselves, and think about our future.
Now that everyone has read & began to put into practice the Pay Attention Program, let’s move forward towards how to position one’s self to most effectively assume the vital and critical position they hold in the success of the collective. Key to understanding your position and your purpose in our future is paying attention to yourself and your surroundings. Once you are doing/have done that, what’s next? The next piece is using the data, information, knowledge and wisdom gained from this observation to decide how and where you fit into the larger picture.
Perhaps the first responsible thing to do here is to define what the ‘larger picture’ is. Without knowing this, how will you know where you fit? This series is written in honor of the Gulf Coast hurricane survivors, but the ‘larger picture’ encompasses more than natural disaster response. In my view, which I know is not the only one, the ‘larger picture’ actually a fairly simple one. It’s an image whose defining characteristic is the absence of fear. It’s an image where we all understand what is promised to us in II Timothy 1:6-7: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” The overcoming of fear is a fundamental aspect of freedom, of liberation, of equality. Once we are no longer afraid of ourselves and our own potential, our neighbors and our inherent differences, our leadership and their intentions, we can truly work together. A message I got from people in New Orleans that didn’t leave before/during the storm was that they were afraid. There is nuance here though because they were not talking about the [relatively obvious] fear of the storm, but they were more afraid not knowing what to do or being able to live somewhere else. To me, that is a fear of the future, a fear of one’s own wherewithal and ability to thrive anywhere, a fear of the unknown. Freedom from these fears, and fear however it presents itself is what true freedom is.
Now that we know what my picture looks like, let’s deal with how I/you/we can contribute to making that vision a reality. There are two parts, as the title suggests: determining your purpose and planning your position.
Your purpose can only be determined after you start paying attention and analyzing what you observe. This analysis can be completely personal (you thinking about things on your own), or it can be analyzed by talking with people you know/love/trust about such things. I’d argue that the latter is preferred because it errs on the side of using a community approach as opposed to an individual one. We often find that we gain deeper understanding of the things we see around us and in ourselves when we share them with others. Since we [should] want to understand our purpose as deeply as possible, I encourage us to have these conversations.
What do these conversation sound like? How are they structured? Try this. The next time you see/hear/read/experience something that upsets you, instead of internalizing it, call a friend or family member and talk about. Many of you probably already do this, but I’d like you to take a different approach. Instead of doing this simply to get the “stress off your chest,” make the goal of that conversation understanding what specifically about this thing or event bothers you? What about it is contradictory to who you are? What you want? The direction you want things to go? Answering these questions can help paint a more clear picture as to not only what you care about, but, more importantly, why you care about those things. Sometimes it’s easier to define things in terms of their opposites, so why not attempt to do this with finding our purpose? After a few of these conversation, you can begin to get a general idea about what your passion(s) and purpose(s) may be.
Now that we are beginning to formulate our purpose, we need to begin to hold ourselves accountable to our purpose. We need to look at what we think and do and don’t do and measure it against our purpose. Are we in line with it? Are our priorities in the proper order for us to do what we want to do? We can do this by remembering our purposes and burning them into our memories. However, the easiest way to hold one’s self accountable to something is to write it down. For whatever reason, many people (including me at one point) are hesitant to do this, another fear we should seek to eliminate. The question is why? Why are we scared to hold ourselves to a standard that we set and control? It’s not something imposed on you by someone else. We especially have little to fear in because if we don’t get it right the first, second, fifth, or hundredth time, we can alter it! This does not mean that you should change purposes like socks; give what you think your purpose is a fair shot.
Now, since we understand what the end goal is, and we understand what our purpose is, we can now address how we position ourselves in order to be successful in fulfilling our purpose and contributing to the ultimate goal. The idea is simple: if I understand where I want to go and why I want to go there, I can more easily see how I can get there. Your position is just as important as your purpose. We need to ensure we’re not putting round pegs in square holes. A good idea at the wrong time yields the same outcome as a bad idea. Similarly, an improperly timed action can yield the same or worse results than inaction. Likewise, a purpose without position is ineffective. We can make sure we do this by realizing that we do not exist in vacuums, that there are many interested people and parties in the things we think, say, and do. We can make sure we do this by talking with people we love/trust/understand about how we can position ourselves to be most effective, the community approach. Questions to ask here can be along the lines of:
How can my talents allow me to best apply my purpose?
How can my gifts help the march towards the goal(s) move forward?
How can my skills be best utilized by myself and/or others to most benefit the myself and the collective?
Using myself as an example: if I’m a nerd, which I am, and one of my purposes is to be a communicator of ideas and a facilitator of discussions, start a website that attempts to do those things and more. That was my attempt at positioning myself to fulfill my purpose and contribute to the goal eliminating ignorance and fear.
Give it a try. The best way to remember and commemorate hurricane survivors is to commit ourselves to taking care of one another. Pay attention. Decide what’s important. Position yourself to contribute.
The way I see it, the main reason that people don’t act on things is because they are not paying attention to them. Think about it: the reason I don’t volunteer to mentor young people is because I ignore the need; the reason my woman is frustrated with me is because I am ignoring or not paying attention to her; the reason I don’t vote is because “I don’t pay attention to politics.”
The common thread here is ignorance. People hear or read the word ignorance and react to it like it’s a dirty word or an insult. What it is is a state of mind that presents an opportunity to share and to learn. The issue is not ignorance in and of itself, it is the apathy that is often coupled with it: not wanting or caring to know. It follows then that if we don’t want or care to know, we won’t pay attention.
We should seek to defeat apathy & ignorance at all costs, wherever we see it manifest itself. How can we do this? How can we become more collectively aware? It starts for most people as a reactionary choice, a reaction to something that someone said or did/did not do. In the cases of Katrina and Rita, the [lack of a] response to people’s needs from the government could inspire some to start caring, to start paying attention, to want to take such matters (e.g. responding to a disaster) into their own hands.
There is nothing wrong with this, it’s actually a good thing. However, this cannot be the only way we can be driven to pay attention. To paraphrase an earlier SuperSpade piece, “Successful collective action is not created from hatred, anger, or being “fed up,” or reacting, It is created out of love for and knowledge of self…” What that means is we need to pay attention before something goes down in order for our attitudes and actions to be sustainable. To use closer-to-home example, many of us (myself included) have a pretty reactionary approach to our own health: we don’t watch our diet until we get sick or gain weight, we don’t stretch before exercising until we pull a muscle, etc. In the same way that this has dangerous consequences in our personal health, the reaction-only approach to collective action also has dangerous consequences, the worst being the fact that we can forget what we were reacting to in the first place. Continuing with my analogy, most dieters end up gaining back the weight they [temporarily] lost because after they hit their ‘goal,’ they stop dieting or eating healthily. After a year, many people have literally forgotten about the travesty that ensued following the Gulf Coast hurricanes. The ignorance and apathy that we thought had been eliminated was simply on vacation.
Going forward, how do we avoid this from happening with regard to the hurricanes, or anything else? We can start be doing some homework. Instead of simply looking at what happened, look at how and why what happened happened. This will be effective on two levels. For those who insist in only acting in reaction to something, the more you investigate, the more likely you are to find things that lead you to want to act. On a second, more substantive level, the level of ignorance is lessened to the point of non-existence in the presence of exposure and knowledge. We can start by asking each other questions. You’d be surprised how much you can learn about a situation or a person by asking, “What do you think about X?” If you notice someone is passionate about something, ask them why they care so much. Even the lazy and apathetic talk. We can use this talk for educational purposes instead of using it kill brain cells. Let’s talk about what’s going on in our lives and in this world. Ask people what they are doing, what they are reading (The SuperSpade I hope!), what they are involved in. You may be surprised. Seeing and talking with other people caring about things that you care about is a great way to help you get over the hump and get involved (for my friends that “don’t pay attention to politics” from above, understand that politics is simply action-based conversation, and who hates that?). It can help you identify things that you are passionate about if you are unsure or unclear. Let’s talk with one another. Let’s listen to one another. Let’s share with one another. Let’s educate one another. Let’s uplift one another. Let’s pay attention to one another. That’s how it starts.
Awareness is critical to action. To be active, we must be aware. To be aware, care about our collective experience. To care, we must pay attention.
Everyone should be well aware that today, tonight, marks the 1 year commemoration of one of the greatest, most catastrophic, most revealing natural disasters in the history of the state of Louisiana, the history of the United States, the history of the Planet Earth. It was great in size because the amount of people, land, and property both directly and indirectly effected. It was catastrophic because of the damage done to people’s lives, minds, and possessions. It was revealing because it caused people to revisit some of the harsh realities that exist in neighborhoods across this nation’s cities, cities across this nation’s states, and states that are nation’s members. This event has a name that will forever be burned into our memories: Hurricane Katrina.
Throughout the last few weeks, many people have been pondering this tragedy. The SuperSpade has looked at this from many different angles since its occurrence last August. As people reflect on everything that happened before 29 August 2006 and everything that has happened since, I’d like to ask people to use this as a motivation to become more active participants in our communities so that in times of need, we can rely on one another, help one another, and be present for one another.
We’ll be dealing with these in detail for the rest of the week. I encourage your participation in this discussion and in how we can effect positive change on our future.
One issue that has notoriously been underreported is the Senate debate over repeal of the estate tax. While many of us don’t expect to inherit anything in terms of economic wealth, this bill will have a major impact on our lives. Here’s why.
Before the Bush 2001 tax-cuts, the tax rates on estates ranged from 37% on the low end and 55% on the high end. However, the 2001 tax-cut has two components that essentially cancel the estate tax. For starters, before 2001, estate taxes would not be assessed unless a person’s estate exceeded $1 million dollars. The tax-cut however, does not require estate taxes to be filed unless the estate exceeds the amounts as shown below,
2005: First $1,500,000 in assets
2006-2008: First $2,000,000 in assets
2009: First $3,500,000 in assets
Beyond that, the tax-cuts also decrease the tax rates over time by the following rates,
So you should see that not only more assets are exempt from taxation, but the few who do actually pay this tax are paying less of it. And in 2010, the estate taxes falls to 0% but there is a sunset provision that resets the estate tax provisions to pre-2001 levels. This is why Bush and his Republican colleagues in the Senate are currently trying to make permanent the repeal of the estate tax. It’s funny how this estate tax debate has been clouded by the gay marriage amendment and the death of Zarqawi.
“The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that this would reduce revenues by $290 billion through 2015, including $72 billion in 2015 alone. But this estimate essentially captures only the cost of four additional years of estate tax repeal; the revenues losses associated with 10 more years of repeal — for the period 2012 through 2021 — are much higher, about $745 billion. And when the associated $225 billion in higher interest payments on the debt are taken into account, the total cost of repealing the estate tax for a decade would be nearly $1 trillion.”
I suspect that many of the people who read this blog are under 35, but I could be wrong. In any event, if we were to fast forward nine years, many of you will be married, raising children, and probably taking care of your parents. Now let’s assume that the first figure of tax revenues being reduced by $290 billion through 2015 is true. The current national debt is upwards of $8.2 trillion dollars. It is so bad that Congress had to write legislation to raise the federal debt limit to $9 trillion dollars so we can keep living above our means. Now it’s hard for me to imagine that amount of money so percentages sometimes work better. “From 1975 to 2005, debt, as a percentage of GDP was once at 34.7%, now exceeds 60%.”
This is astonishing because foreign countries, China in particular, are financing our national debt, thereby furthering the allusion that everything is ok. And if you thought the price of gas was high, just wait until foreign countries decide to take on less of our debt.
This says nothing of the amount we are paying for our activities in Iraq. Last I checked the war has cost us $320 billion dollars and the Senate is about to authorize more funding. But whatever happened to the pre-war claims that Iraq’s oil revenues would finance most of the war? Jim Hoagland of the Washington points out,
“Iraq’s oil production limps along below prewar levels. Sabotage and neglect hamper production. Corruption that is aided and abetted by neighboring Arab countries drains revenue. Forced to import $6 billion worth of refined petroleum products this year for the domestic market, the Baghdad government will spend the same amount to sustain its security forces in 2006, according to U.S. estimates.”
Speaking of war, I doubt if neo-conservatives know how to fight the war on terrorism with anything but military force so I doubt it Iraq is the last front. (read more money)
And then, there is the issue of healthcare. Once the baby boomers start to get older, they are going to put a huge financial strain on our healthcare system. This in turn will cause politicians to devote even more resources to healthcare so they can satisfy this demographic. What’s worse is that we can’t adequately handle the load we have now, so when a significant portion of the population needs access to healthcare and prescription drugs, it will be tantamount to an entire city, flushing their toilets at the same time. We have to plan ahead and the repealing or shrinking the estate tax will not help the situation.
Lastly, there is the environment because unfortunately, the earth is not getting any cooler and as a result, we will likely see more storms similar to or stronger than Hurricane Katrina. This no doubt will put further strains on the national budget.
So what I am I saying?
Between the national debt, the war on terror, healthcare, and stronger storms due to global warming, repealing the estate tax is one of the dumbest things Congress could be doing right now. Moreover, Republicans are generally regarded as more frugal than Democrats but this Congress takes the cake, the chicken, and the kool-aid! And whenever Bush is pressed on the budget, he excuses everything on the war on terror. So why does he push his annual tax cuts and why is he aiming to kill the estate tax? If the war on terror is such a burden, then why does the government need less money? Especially when we know that when the government has less revenues, education budgets get tighter, and there is an overall decrease of government investment in services and infrastructure. When Bush started the war on terror, he knew good and well that it would be finished during his Presidency. And like the war on terror, future administrations will have to deal with this tax cut until eventually, American’s will be forced to pay the bill. And when that time comes, there will be calls to sacrifice (in the form of higher taxes) to help keep the American Dream alive. I believe this will happen in our lifetime so do know that the decisions of today will affect you tomorrow.
But even after all of that, I still support the estate tax because there is already an industry of tax lawyers and accountants that do nothing but find ways for the rich to pay fewer taxes. Moreover, only less than 2% of the population pays this tax. My take is that if you are in the top 2% wealth bracket, you can sacrifice a little bit. Of course, I can’t tell people what to do with their money but passing on a huge inheritance to children is foolhardy because generally, the money will make these kids spoiled and less inclined to work. I think Warren Buffet said it best;
“Warren Buffet didn’t disinherit his children because he disapproved of their career choices or their character…His desire was to “force them to carve out their own place in the world.” He was determined to leave them “enough money so they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.”
So stay informed and be aware of how repealing the estate tax will affect you and your future,
I have been pondering the current ramifications of the immigration debate and I have come up with more questions than answers. And unfortunately, I am no where as near well-versed on this issue as I would like to be. But I would like to take some time to at least steer us in the right direction.
Language
For starters, (this applies to any issue) we have to pay strict attention to the way in which language is used to frame a debate. When commentators use the words, “alien” and “illegal,” the ensuing argument already assumes its own conclusion. And to call someone an “illegal” is just plain ignorant. I heard a guy on NPR ask, “Why don’t we call Martha Stewart an illegal CEO after she was indicted?” Similarly, if you ever had to go to court to contest a speeding ticket, the bailiff or judge doesn’t label you as an illegal driver. So why are so many of us so comfortable with using this term with respect to Latinos? If we are going to have an intelligent debate, we need to create language that is clear and respectful to both sides.
Distraction
You know what is killing me about all of these Black commentators talking about how Latinos are taking away jobs is baffling. I say that because like most Black folk (perhaps with the exception of those living in the Southwest) never seriously thought or wrote about immigration policy. But now, poll numbers show that Blacks and the rest of the country consider immigration policy to be an important national issue. Did you ever once consider that maybe this immigration debate is a convenient distraction for Bush and the Republicans to not talk about the ongoing civil war in Iraq? Not to mention that while Iran is upping the ante, our national government is obsessing over immigration. So for all the Black writers who recently discovered the importance of immigration reform, go back to what you were writing before instead of taking your talking/writing points from the mainstream press establishment.
Patriotism
Another thing that perplexes me is Black commentator’s assertion that we can’t let “illegal immigrants” sneak into our country. I don’t need to get into the nuances of why Black people may not have the warmest affection for America, but I condemn anyone that will use racism/discrimination to solidify their patriotic ideals. Because when Katrina survivors STILL can’t depend on FEMA to help them and when our country ignores the plight of those in Darfur, Black patriotism for America is hard to find.
West Indian Immigrants
And I haven’t heard anyone talk about the vast numbers of West Indians (I am speaking generally, of course) that are patiently awaiting their green card. So my gripe with Bush’s proposed guest worker program is that I wonder how much easier it would be for Mexicans and other Latinos to participate in this program than it would be for West Indians. Again, a historic note would be fitting because if you really think that people would be trying to keep Elian Gonzalez here if he was a Jamaican, then you are seriously mistaken. My hope is that immigration reform should be just as easy to take advantage of as Mexicans or West Indians, or any one else who wants to come to this country. More importantly, letting people work illegally without any intentions of granting them citizenship is just wrong. And for all the people talking about how illegal immigration closes job opportunities for Blacks is narrow-minded at best. We see the same flawed logic used in affirmative action when people imagine two applicants where one White applicant directly competes against a Black applicant who has lower credentials. The fact is that college admissions, like the economy, is dynamic and the market place (with healthy assistance from the government interference) and therefore, cannot be simplified to one Black and one Latino competing for one job. The fact is that if American corporations were more concerned about producing better products and services than cutting costs, there would be enough jobs for everybody.
Black and Brown Unity
Hopefully, this immigration debate will serve as the bridge between Blacks and Latinos because if you keep it real, it hasn’t really been robust. More importantly, Black people are not the judges of whether a “civil rights movement” is justified. I appreciate our unique history in this country but in the same way not “every” Black person was involved during the Civil Rights Movement, not every Black person have to take sides on the immigration debate. That is to say that not every quest for civil rights requires the involvement of Black people. I think Latinos have showed themselves to be quite capable or organizing themselves around this issue. As such, Blacks people’s presence or lack thereof, is not the deciding factor in determining Black/Latino relations. We have to define our own destiny.
I was expecting to see a lot of things and talk with a lot of people during my time in New Orleans. Much to my surprise, when I was finished checking into my hotel, I got on the elevator with a gentleman who had on a blue windbreaker that said “FEMA” (Federal Emergency Management Agency) on the back. At the time, I was on the phone with my mother, however I was able to get the man’s name. On Sunday, I had lunch at my hotel with him. Here is how our conversation went.
The man, who was 51, was originally from Marrero, LA, which is on the West Bank not far from Gretna, LA (across the bridge). He fled the storm to a town just north of Nashville, where his brother lived. He and his brother returned to his home in Marrero, LA in mid-October only to find a pile of debris that was formerly his house. It was at this point that his brother encouraged him to seek out the help of FEMA to rebuild, since he had no insurance. They had already heard the stories of people not getting their money or any other kind of help, but they gave it a shot anyway.
He called the office of Congressman William Jefferson to get a number by which he could contact FEMA. He then told them his situation, and that he’d do anything to be able to move back to Marrero and get his house back (he did own the home). He knew “God was on the phone with him” when the person on the other end said that he could likely be helped if he was willing to work for FEMA. He happily said he would, and BAM! He was now a FEMA inspector. The fact that he had no experience here did not deter him or FEMA from hiring him (he was a chef by trade, but the restaurant he worked in was destroyed by the storm).
I asked what he did as an inspector, and he said he basically went to damaged/destroyed houses and make judgement calls on whether they were “recoverable” or not. I asked how they measured “recoverability,” and he said that they looked at “the damage of the other houses on the block, the structural damage to the building, how likely that area would be to flood again, stuff like that.” He also told me that they had “an engineer” accompany him when he went to look at the different sites. “We fill out a sheet for every house and then turn it in at the office.” “What was the ‘recoverability’ of your house?” I inquired. “Well, my house is gone, but I can afford to rebuild it.” I asked then if they took into consideration the “owner’s ability to afford rebuilding” when inspecting homes, and he said he didn’t know. “They know who owns the house back at the office, but I don’t know that when me and the engineer look at the house. I sure hope not.” He’s not the only one.
I then asked that he rate FEMA’s recovery and relief efforts on a scale of 1 to 10. “I’d give them like a 6. I mean, they are helping me out, and some other people too, but there is a lot more that can be done.” I asked him how they were helping him out, and he said that after he worked for a year, they’d give him money to rebuild his house, and that they are paying him to be an inspector. He didn’t tell me how much he made, but disturbingly, he said that the thing about giving him money for rebuilding his home was NOT given to him in writing. I’m no lawyer, but I advised him to consider getting that promise put on paper. He said he’d look into it. “I’m cool now. The money the give me is enough for me to eat, and me and my brother and my sister pay for my hotel room here [in this hotel]. I’m alive, so I got no complaints. I do wish my dog could be here [in the hotel] with me though. He’s with my sister in Nashville.” I told him I though FEMA, the Governor, and the Mayor all failed the people of the city, and that I’d give FEMA maybe a 3. He said he didn’t think it was that bad. “None of them could have stopped the hurricane.”
The last thing I asked him was if he felt the New Orleans area was better prepared now for a storm this hurricane season. He said, “Hell naw. They ain’t rebuilt a levy yet that I know of. I plan on leaving again if they say a storm is coming. I’ll rebuild my house if no storm comes before my year is up.” I told him that we’d be praying together that no storms ravaged the area like this ever again.
Here are some pictures of buildings that are damaged in the downtown area and have yet to be fixed. The most recognizable of these will be the Louisiana Superdome.
This boat was across the street (Poydras) from the Superdome. Can you read what’s painted on its side? That sums up a lot of residents’ feelings towards the storm.
The hole in the roof of the Louisiana Superdome.
This is the best shot I could get of the construction going on inside of the Superdome. Security wouldn’t let me in. I thought I was a nice guy, but maybe I’m not that nice.
This is in the Superdome parking garage. I wonder why people who wanted to couldn’t get out?
Large puddles of standing water remain on the interior of the upper levels of the Superdome parking garage. The lowest level still has about 3 inches of standing water, but the pictures were too dark.
This traffic light is at the corner of Poydras and S. Claiborne, on the site of the Superdome.
The New Orleans Centre is a shopping complex connected to the Superdome by a pedestrian bridge. It sustained heavy damage and looks abandoned. This is its main entrance.
I was actually able to get inside the New Orleans Centre. What I saw brought me to tears. This is a little girl’s outfit.
A boy’s bike at the New Orleans Centre.
The Hyatt downtown. The lighter colored windows are the broken ones.
The remains of the building downtown that the 5 men I talked to lived in.
This was right across the street from my hotel. This used to be an auto mechanic shop.
This is a pic of Canal Street, one of the main strips of downtown, especially during Mardi Gras and other Festivals. This pic shows how some things have recovered while others have not. Notice that the building on the right is back in business while the one on the left (and connected to it!) is abandoned and not yet fixed.
This was a store during Essence Festival 2005.
Some businesses have pledged to return.
All of the pictures I took of damage can be seen on my Flickr site.
As I said earlier, I want to talk here about some of the personal accounts that people gave me during Saturday’s action.
First off, I was a bit surprised by how much people were willing to share with me. I think it was relatively clear that I was not from New Orleans, Louisiana, or the South. However, if it wasn’t everybody knew the moment I started talking. I was also taller than everybody (but that’s not too strange). I guess I kind of stick out. Nevertheless, people were very open and candid about their experiences with this stranger from Detroit by way of Seattle.
When I first got to the site of the rally, which was across the street from the Convention Center, I saw a family of 5 (mom, dad, 1 girl, 2 boys, all under 10) walking from the back of the lot. They were coming from a section that had charter buses, and so I asked them where they were from. The mother said that took a bus in from Houston, them and about 200 of their closest friends. As we walked up to the site of the rally, The little girl (6) told me that their hotel room in Houston was not as big as their apartment in New Orleans. The father agreed, and then we talked about how they got to Houston. He told me that they lived in the 7th ward. They didn’t leave the city because they did not have enough space in their car to fit all of the kids and his mother, who he refused to leave without. So the family went to his mother’s house to wait out the storm. She only lived a couple of blocks away, so they all walked over there. The rain and winds hit, they all survived, but he said that the flood waters were to high to leave. So they basically were trapped on the second floor of the house. He said he took his gun, a 12-gage, for what he called “just in case” security. He never fired any shots, but he did use the butt of the gun to break thru a second floor window, thru which he cried for help and attracted the attention of a Coast Guard helicopter. The copter came down and got all 6 of them out of the house safely. From there, they were taken eventually to Baton Rouge, where they were bussed to Houston. They have been in a hotel room there since September 10. They had the infamous FEMA Debit Card. The mother told me she was appalled at the ways in which the monies were being spent by people. She said that they stories about using the debit cards to so things like buy pornography were true. She said “I guess people do crazy things when they are helpless and hopeless.”
I only had brief conversations with people during the speeches, but I did have an extensive one with a woman who was selling books at the rally. She was selling socialist publications such as The Militant, and lots of books & writings on socialist theory by Malcolm X and Che Guevara among others. This woman, who was white, was from Gretna, LA, the city whose police force blocked people from crossing the bridge that we marched on later that day. Her home there had substantial damage she said: most of her windows were broken despite her storm shutters, a little more than half of her roof was blown off, a large tree in her front yard snapped and broke, falling about 2 feet in front of her front door. No one was hurt, but she did say her close friend who lived in the city was unaccounted for. I asked why she was there at the Rally/March, and her reason was that she saw the government’s response to Katrina as evidence of the need for a U.S. socialist movement. She admitted that it would likely never happen, and that if she had the money, she’d move away from the country. Interestingly enough, she told me that she did not feel this way until after the storm. She said that she disagreed that the biggest problem people had in the storm was that they were Black. To here, the biggest problem was “being broke.”
I spent most of the March itself conversing with a man who told me that he had 6 houses (I think he said he had one in the 9th ward), all of which were damaged by the storm. They were in various places in the city. He told me also that he worked at a ship yard that was washed out also. His point was that he lost a lot. He said he was never down though. His quote: “I got all of it legally. It was all insured. I got it before, I can get it again.” This was a sentiment of a lot of folks that participated in this action. They figured that if the got stuff legitimately, they could get it back legitimately. He told me that he had rebuilt 4 of his houses already, one he is living in, and the other three have tenants in them. He said that he had been active in the community for a long time, and that he could not miss this Rally & March. He was a union organizer at his job, so he told me that he has seen white folks try to stifle poor people coming together for a long time. Him and I spent the rest of the time talking about his son, who was 23 like me, and 55 credits from graduating college.
I met a woman at the end of the bridge who was there with her two daughters. She said her husband was killed in the storm, dying from dehydration at the Superdome.. The two girls, 4 and 7, she feared would have faint memories of their dad, especially the 4 year old. She talked about how she thought it was criminal to tell people to go there to die. I asked her if she had been able to leave the city before the storm. Her response was “How? I don’t have a car, I’ve never left the city. So, no.” She faulted the mayor for not knowing what to do and where to send people. This march and the right to vote in satellite polling places was important to her because she wanted as many people as possible to vote against Ray Nagin. She was worried about the amount of school her daughters missed, but she said that they were straight now. They eventually got bussed to Mississippi where they are living now. They rode a charter bus back for this Rally/March.
The last account I’ll share is that of a young man (19) who was there with the New Orleans NAACP. He was a freshman at Xavier. He was not from New Orleans and decided not to leave during the storm. His quote: “I couldn’t go home and watch people die on TV. I felt like I was needed here.” He told me how his dorm got flooded out, and how he and some people on his a hallway jumped from their 2nd-story windows down and waded thru waters to the Superdome. There, they volunteered their services as security people. He said “People do stupid things when they are scared. I just wanted to make sure those stupid things didn’t involve hurting other people.” He also said that while there was violence in the Superdome, he thinks that, in hindsight, the news account blew it way out of proportion. Most of the fights were over people trying to take more than a ration of water, as an example. He also made a run to a Cingular store that he said “wasn’t too far” to call his family in North Carolina to tell them that he was still alive every other day. He is not in school now. Instead, he lives with a member of the NAACP and has been working at the airport and volunteering his time helping people find housing and work.
There were others, these four are just a piece. I may be able to post more accounts later on. This was inspirational to me, and it is important to me to hear our people’s experience first hand. People of African descent have always treasured oral histories. It was powerful to hear, and it is important for me to transcribe much of this so that it can survive well into the future and inspire others to act.
I watched the Million Man March on television in October of 1995. I attended the Millions More Movement in October of 2005. I have helped organize similar actions both in Detroit and in Seattle. I have attended numerous meetings and gatherings to plan other mobilizations. I say all of this to say that this was the most inspirational action I have ever personally witnessed and/or participated in. It wasn’t because of the great speakers; there were many. It wasn’t because of the great food; there was plenty. It was because of the people I met and interacted with, the sharing or their Katrina experiences with me, and their pride and resilliance and focus on improving the current situation and building a better future.
First let me describe the event and what happened. The rally began at about 8 AM. I did not know what time it began, and was quite dismayed to wake up a 9 and turn on CNN only to hear them saying “…Bill Cosby is just finishing up here in New Orleans…” Oh well. I got there at about 945. The speakers at the rally included Rev. Jackson, Al Sharpton, Bill Cosby, Michael Eric Dyson (I arrived just before his address), Marc Morial, [current] Mayor Ray Nagin, and Bruce Gordon, among others. The rally before the march was MC’d by Judge Greg Mathis, and it was concluded by a suprisingly decent performance by John Legend.
We then aligned ourselves to march across the Mississippi River Bridge to Gretna, LA. Why? Because it was on this bridge that hundreds of Hurricane survivors were met with police resistance in the days immediately following Katrina as they tried to cross searching for higher and safer ground. The goal was to have the thousands that gathered today to march across this bridge, symbolically saying “You stopped us then, yet we survived. You cannot stop us now.” Stop us from what? is the next logical question. The answer is voting, or more precisely, having a fair election. New Orleans is scheduled to hold a mayoral election on April 22, 2006. Many oppose this, arguing that due to wide dispersal, those in New Orleans now do not accurately reflect New Orlean’s true residents (Translation: since so many Black folks have been displaced, the fear is that there will be a mayor elected who will not listen to or care about the interests of New Orleans’ Black residents). “Stopping us” above refers to disenfranchising voters. Signs were held by marchers that read “Iraq has fairer elections.” This pointing out the fact that during Iraq’s elections last year, Iraqi citizens were able to vote from satellite locations in the United States. The activists want the election to be postponed so that satellite locations can be set up in places where evacuees now reside. The U.S. Department of Justice has OK’d the election to move forward with its April 22 date in spite of these requests. A goal of the march was to symbolize the residents’ opposition to this.
After we marched the approx. 2.5 miles from the Convention Center across the bridge to Oakbrook Mall, we reassembled and heard remarks from the organizers and local leaders. Here they (William Jefferson, Diana Bajoie, and other members of the Louisiana Legislativ Black Caucuss) summarized the next steps that they are taking legislatively and told people specific things that they could do to help. The largest step they would take would be issuance of a demand for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to exercise her executive authority and issue an executive order that would authorize satellite polling locations and postpone the election until they are set up. The idea is that if the federal government won’t stop it, maybe the state government will. As for what the people can do, we were advised to contact our representatives and urge them to lean on Blanco to issue the order, while in the meantime informing those we know who left New Orleans of how to register for and receive an absentee ballot. Those who wanted to be were then transported back across the bridge to the Convention Center. It all was done around 4 PM.
What is described in and of itself is the makings of an effective substantive and symbolic action. What is happening here is the re-emergence of the poll taxes of the Jim Crow South of the 20th century. Telling people that they have to (well had to, considering that the deadline for registration was March 22 (click here and go to the middle of the page)) come to New Orleans to register to vote (if they are not registered or 1st time voters) and then return to vote on April 22 is a sinister way of saying, “You can vote if an only if you can afford 2 trips. If not, oh well, sucks to be you.”
Since this is turning out to be much longer than anticipated (some people said my stuff is too long!!!), I will put my chronicles of different conversations I had in a separate post. Pictures from the rally are forthcoming, along with hopefully some scanned versions of some of the handouts I received.
I am in New Orleans this weekend celebrating the life a family member and the father of my closest mentor.
While I am here, I will chronicle my time in NO with pictures and commentary on the happenings in the city and the status of the recovery, first hand, from NO residents. I encourage you to respond and react to what I see and hear.
One Love. One II.
–
Garlin Gilchrist II
http://www.TheSuperSpade.com
It’s the big, fat elephant in the room whenever a Black person is accused of anything. It’s the silent reality that everyone knows but few articulate whenever a Black person goes to court. It is the subtle assumption when dealing with inequality in America. It is the ever-present Race Card.
The question at hand is, when is it appropriate to justify a situation or an action by the race(s) of the person(s) involved therein? Let’s look at a few examples and try think about it.
Anybody who took a CAAS class at Michigan or has read anything written by a member of the Black intelligentsia knows that race is a social construct, meaning that it is not “real” or “tangible.” The problem is that this “intangible” thing has been and continues to be used against people of the wrong [unreal] race.
The issue though is that race, whether you believe it is real or not, does not exist in a vacuum. It coexists in the complex matrix of circumstance often referred to as reality. In this thing called reality, many things pull many people in many different directions, not the least of these being their racial identification. Also, ones racial appearance and/or identification (which may not necessarily be the same) can and often does effect the perspectives they possess, the choices they make, the actions they take, the circumstances they exist in.
Prime examples are the Gulf Coast Hurricanes of 2005. This site is firmly at odds with the top-to-bottom governmental response [or lack thereof] to the disasters that was Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While I have my own belief that race was the ultimate determining factor and motivation behind the apathy displayed towards the hurricane victims and survivors, I must also realize that other factors played roles. Poverty had a lot to do with the response as well. I do not know of an example where poor white people were in the same position as poor black people and then devastated by such an event. Only if such a case existed would I be able to test the validity of my theory. Regardless, the sad reality is that poverty and race in America are in many cases interdependent. This is just one example of the way that reality partners the real with the unreal, the tangible with the intangible.
So my question then is why do we not more often play the [insert your "real" card here] card. Why do we not focus on the implications of poverty when we talk about racial profiling? Does “poverty profiling” not occur? Does classism not exist in this country? Is it off-base to think that maybe this approach deserves serious consideration? Martin Luther King Jr. began articulating this with his Poor People’s Campaign, which he initiated shortly before he was made a martyr. I do not doubt that this realization was a key factor in his assassination.
Example that could go either way
- Driving While Black
This warrants further explanation before everyone gets pissed at me. The simple example is this: Consider two cases. In case A, I am pulled over for going 5 over in my suburban neighborhood of Farmington at 10 PM on Tuesday night. In case B, I am pulled over for going 25 over in my suburban neighborhood of Farmington at 10 PM on Tuesday night. In case A, I have been found guilty of Driving while Black. In case B, I have been found guilty of Reckless Driving [While Black?]. You decide.
Now of course, the levees were a major issue way before Katrina, but when will the media/public start taking Bush to task for all his lies? Initially, Bush said, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” We now know that was a lie, not that I expected anything different. But my problem is that Bush is too comfortable in his ignorance.
But rather than rant on Bush, I think the blogs will come to rival newspapers as a main source of historical analysis. With that said, sometimes, it is better to report the facts (that are verifiable) rather than waste time writing a snazzy opinion piece about the facts.
The New York Times has a story today describing a plan that would open all New Orleans for rebuilding. Given some of sentiments expressed by certain federal officials, like Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL), this is good news, and it is not surprising that such a plan would have to be devised by New Orleans residents themselves. There are of course obvious reasons why this is a good thing, but there are some more subtle positive outcomes as well.
The obvious positives are that every part of the city will be given [close to] a equal opportunity to be redeveloped. On the face, that means that all areas, black and white, lower, middle, and upper class can and will be open and available. The article does state that “the areas that fail to attract a critical mass of residents in 12 months will probably not survive as residential neighborhoods.” What does this mean? It means that people have to act quickly to ensure the survival of their neighborhoods. That means multiple people from an area pooling their resources and going in together, as opposed to individual investment.
More interestingly, this presents an opportunity for people to take ownership of their futures. They owned their past, in terms of their particular pieces of land, their homes, their possessions. Many of these things were damaged/destroyed by the Hurricane, and there were attempts by disinterested parties to prevent people from reclaiming any/all of their lives in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The drafters of this plan are creating an opportunity for sections of the region to not be forgotten. The people of southern Louisiana deserve to rebuild the area as they see fit, not as out-of-town investors see fit. Outside investors would make different choices than local people would, since they value different things. Prime examples are why the French Quarter is bustling, but people are prevented from returning to homes in New Orleans East, the 9th Ward, and various public housing projects.
Further, this opens the door for Black sections of the city to remain Black. That is important because there is a concerted effort to dilute both the culture and population of the city of New Orleans. This initiative gives Black people the chance to reclaim what was already theirs. Ownership is important. This is a unique opportunity for ownership, Black ownership, to be proliferated in the area to an even greater degree than before.
I am a supporter of the existence of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). The Dean of the CBC is Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) of Detroit, who is a family friend, and who I support in general. I also support this group exercising its ability to create a nonprofit financial arm to handle funds (they can do so because the CBC is non-partisan).
The CBC Foundation has vehemently denied the claims that they are not dispensing the money they took in as donations. On Dec. 9, according to their website, they gave away $299,000 of the dollars. The story above, however, quotes CBC Foundation spokeswoman Patti Rice saying that no money would be given away until December or January 2006.
There are two problems here, well three. The first is that the CBC Foundation needs to get its story straight. An organization so closely scrutinized by so many needs to have a better grasp on their communications. The second is, what where they waiting on/for? Were they simply being responsible, or were the funds not earmarked for relief? We’ll address that later. Finally, why am I just now seeing/hearing about this?
Problem number 1 has an obvious solution (get rid of the person who said they gave money or said they sat on it, whichever lied), so no more is needed on that one.
Problem number 2 is an interesting debate that many went through in the days after Katrina. I’ll use myself as an example. I wanted to give time/technology/money/something to help hurricane survivors as soon as I saw what was happening. It has been shown that irresponsible to have donated the lion’s share of that money the Red Cross, since people may or may not have gotten it. Is the same true for money given to the CBC Foundation?!?!?!?! Ultimately myself, along with other brother from HEADS at the University of Michigan decided to give our money to the BlackAmericaWeb.com Family Fund, and were happy with them. Coming back to the CBC Foundation, we have to wonder what took them so long. After all, I would hope that they had more information than me on different organizations available, what they do, how they do it, etc. than I do, since that’s part of their job. So their research to identify quality organizations to contribute to should be much shorter than mine. Why then, did they take so long? Since people gave them money, they became another layer in the endless bureaucracy that they were so angry about in September!!!! I like unecessary process just as little as the next independent thinker, but oh the irony when my disdain for one process leads me to act in a way that produces the same results.
The third issue may be the most suprising, depending on your perspective. If you watch Fox News, you will know that they tell you that they are a beacon of fair and balanced life in the liberal wasteland that is the American media. Stories like this may contribute to their case, since this story has gotten little/no coverage. Check the date, the story is from 22 December, 3 days before Christmas, over 2 weeks ago. Did the liberal media cover this up so not to slow down any anti-Bush momentum it had built up as a result of the hurricane response [or lack therof]? These sorts of questions have to be asked, because propaganda does work both ways. It’s like cronyism: you’re only pissed off about it when you’re not a crony or the one appointing the cronies, but that’s another post on another day. Even more interesting, why didn’t some of our Black watchdog organizations catch this? Where was the CBC Monitor, whose sole existence is to make sure the CBC is on its job. It always amazes me who sees things and who doesn’t. Never be fooled into beieving (or not believing) something strictly off of the messenger alone.
Let’s get to the first excerpt where Phillips explains,
“Americans are many things. We are compassionate, industrious and brave. Americans are kind; we are good, we are also winners! Democratic political hopes in 2006 may hinge on their ability to convince Americans that Democratic leaders believe in American virtue.”
I’m sorry, but when did being good become synonymous with winning? In other words, if you win a game because you cheated that doesn’t make you good. And likewise, if you are good, you may not always win (enslavement of Black people anyone?). And the logic that I think that has probably done more harm to the world is that things are “either or”. SO what does it mean to say that Americans are winners? This must mean that there are losers right? Why are the losers never named! Why do we know every detail about every American life lost, but it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago (during the busy holidays I might add) that when Bush was asked about the number of dead Iraqis he stated, “30,000 more or less.” Imagine if he would have used “more or less” while describing American lives lost in this war. And Phillips has the nerve to write that “We are compassionate.’ Because like most people and societies, America is filled to the brim with contradictions and to not highlight these contradictions is to be a liar. Lying aside, Phillips goes on to say,
“Americans may disagree on the wisdom of this war and the manner in which it is being waged. But the idea of losing is hateful to us. The only thing more hateful is the idea of leadership that is uninterested in winning and thinks us incapable or undeserving of victory.”
The first fallacy of this quote is that losing is hateful to Americans. But when you look at your own life, you can not reject the fact that the most important life lessons you learned was when you failed and learned how to pick yourself up. When a baby is learning how to walk, you don’t pick them up every time they fall down. So if that logic makes sense, then why is losing so hateful to Americans? Its because Americans don’t want to confront our own contradictions. Policy makers are experts at pointing out the faults in other countries but when we can’t get our act like together, like we did in Hurricane Katrina, we reject the aid of Cuba because we need to act like we have it under control. And more importantly, can anyone define what victory means in Iraq? Forget the witty comments and all of that. Just someone define that for me because if the terrorists wait to attack until the coalition leaves, then do we have to go back to get the job done?
War is not a game and people are dying for reasons that change from month to month and sometimes week to week. And for any troops reading this blog, you are in my prayers and I hope you can get home as soon as possible.
NPR has an interesting piece on avoiding donor fatigue. Perhaps donor fatigue is a phenomenon that occurs when people who give are overwhelmed with the number of outlets they can give to. Maybe this is why people had a tendency to donate trash to Katrina victims? Who knows. But this is a real issue to deal with and I appreciate NPR covering this. During this holiday season, a time when many people do service activities, take some of these things into consideration.
As if people in New Orleans haven’t been given enough to deal with, residents now are also faced with eviction. Why are these people victimized? Part of it has to do with weak tenant protection laws in N.O. I never understood how important tentants rights were until I was in college and saw the battles fought by the Ann Arbor Tenants Union to protect people against predatory practices of landlords.
A major problem with regards to housing in N.O. is that many public housing communities have either not been reopened or are largely inaccessable to their current/former residents. That is an issue in and of itself. Are they closed because they are unsafe? Are they closed because new people have been moved in already at 2X/3X the rent? The former is alright. The latter is unacceptable. People could be protected against the unacceptable by organizing. Unionization is a way for the “weak” to gain strength in numbers. If you are “weak” in terms of dollars, you become strong by uniting. What is more valuable to a property owner/manager? 1 person with $1 million, 10 people with $100,000, or 500 people with $20,000? If money is all that talks, this doesn’t matter to them. However, the 500 people are stronger because of the network that they create. They present an opportunity for a property owner/manager to expand far beyond the reach of the network of a single person. This power can be leveraged in negotiations for fair treatment.
My advice to New Orlean’s urban planners is to encourage, even require tenant unionization on the city-wide level, or at least demand each public development to have one. It is in the interest of the citizens to do so. And the job of the government on any level is to act in the best interests of their constituents.
The hawks get upset when we demand immediate removal of US occupying forces from Iraq. They say that “cutting & running” only adds to the resolve of the “enemy.” I wonder how they feel if the “enemy” is internal?
The head of the Red Cross quit today. Note that that is 1 Red Cross resigner/domestic disaster in the 21st century (September 11 being the first). At this rate…
Could you define these two as “cutters & runners?” I think so. Let’s do a bit of comparitive analysis. The Iraq war is a failure. The response to Hurricane Katrina is a failure. The rebuilding of Iraq is a failure. The rebuilding of New Orleans is a failure. The accountability for the Iraq war is zero. The accountability for the Katrina response is zero. We did not do things in Iraq to prevent war. We did not do things in New Orleans to prevent levee damage and therefore flooding. I could go on and on and on.
Therefore, I say that Madame Marsha J. Evans is “cutting & running.” She took her $651,957 and bounced. Why doesn’t G.W. accuse her of trying to “re-write history?” Why doesn’t he say she is terrible for leaving a job “unfinished?” Why doesn’t she “stay the course” and achieve victory? Didn’t she learn that in the Navy? Oh wait, we can’t talk bad about her because the individuals that were victims of her negligence were refu-, I mean nigg-, I mean Americans?!?!?! These things happened on American soil. I guess we are far-sighted.
This is more than a double standard. It’s a Dubya Standard. And we all know what those are worth.
This morning I volunteered at the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle (ULMS), cleaning, organizing, and folding clothing donations that had been received. They are intended to be consumed by the over 4000 Katrina survivors now located in Washington state. This experience was a positive one. All of the volunteers were on time, on task, and efficient at completing the goals set for us. I was, however, reminded of two things that bother me about how some serve, or disserve, others.
The first thing has to do with what people gave. Before we started, the young lady who was our coordinator said “if you wouldn’t wear it, we will dispose of it. We we’re giving dignified items, not throwsways.” That seemed obvious enough, but not to all of the donors I guess. Why in the world would you donate used underwear? It at least could be clean, but even that was too much to ask of some. I use this example to represent many people’s approach to service and giving in general. Why do we only give “table scraps?” Is that what we would want? Some say beggars can’t be choosers. I say beggars CAN have dignity. Why do we not give of our best? Why do we only volunteer “throw away” time? Why are those blessed financially so reluctant to give? Anyone who has ever been to a Black Baptist church knows that the pastor has to almost beg for offerings. What’s ironic is the same folks who are so turned off by this may be the same ones who end up spending money on things they don’t ne!
ed. MAYBE those resources could better serve someone who needs them as opposed to your own selfish indulgences?
The second issue is the lack of male participation. It’s pretty disgusting that I was the only male volunteering this day. I have seen this phenomenon since I became active as a youth. In church, there were always more girls participating in the activities. In school, there were always more girls on the honor roll. In college, there were always more girls running organizations and being active in the community? Why is this? Are women more unselfish than men? More caring? Maybe. That is not the problem. The problem is that for whatever reason, men are not compelled to do these things. So you end up with what I saw at the Urban League: me and 14 girls. You explain that ratio to many men, and they’ll say, “what are you complaining about?” maybe I am strange because I notice a void where others see easy access to women. I’ll be that. We must understand that it takes men AND women to help men AND women. Prime example of what more men could have contributed to this specific projec!
t: lifting. It may be a gross generalization to say that men can lift more than women, but it was certainly true on this day. So all of that work went to me. Let’s just say that some extra hands would have been nice.
These things are not said out of contempt. They are observations of a servant who wishes to improve service. To solve problem 1, organizations should stop the policy of accepting anything and be clear on what they will and will not accept upfront. As for problem 2, that can be solved one man at a time. Male volunteers should adopt the buddy system: never volunteer alone. If everyone did that, we would see exponential growth in participation. This is my approach from now on.
So November 11, 2005 (Veteran’s Day) Bush gave a speech to fire back at critics of the war. But before I get into the analysis, let’s point out two things, 1) Bush billed his speech for Friday, which in the media represents the day where all the news items are swept under the rug. If Bush really wanted to make a statement, he would have given his speech on Monday to set the agenda but the timing is representative of how weak this President is in the polls. Secondly, he focused his criticism on Democrats when many people of all political stripes found themselves in opposition to the war before it began. By limiting the scope of the debate, Bush tried to avoid the deep well of discontent over the rationale for this war and its management.
Now that we got that out the way, I cannot believe Bush had the audacity to accuse anyone of trying to re-write history. To be clear, I will be the last person to try and defend many of the spineless Democrats for their complicity in this atrocious war. But Bush is trying to re-write history because conservative historians will look back during this time and say that “the poor President and Congress were victims of bad intelligence, shame on the CIA.” Just think back to the spin put on the failure of government services to help Hurricane Katrina victims. It is tantamount to saying that since everybody messed up, nobody messed up. I give Bush credit for knowing how to frame the debate to his advantage. However, Bush has proven to be a liar and he can do nothing to save his legacy.
And please my being remiss to not point out that Bush has re-written history numerous times with respect to this war. So twenty years from now when someone younger asks you why we invaded Iraq what will you say? To help you out, I included a link that breaks out the 21 reasons why we went to war. From regime change, the Iraqi connection to 9/11, and those WMD, I wonder what Bush does to sleep at night as he finds new ways to rewrite history.
About The SuperSpade
The SuperSpade: Black Thought at the Highest Level, is a forum that presents critical, intellectual perspectives on the current issues, seeking to elevate the level of Black political thought. The goal of this space is to provide actionable commentary on social, political, and personal issues affecting the daily ... Continue reading »
