Remember
Katrina
By Voting For Peace
By Rev. Yearwood
30 August, 2006
Countercurrents.org
On Thursday, June 17, 2004, the
Hip Hop Summit Action Network of which I was the National Political
and Grassroots Director, held the New Orleans Hip Hop Summit. The idea
of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network was simple - it was time for young
people to control their destiny by getting out the vote because the
policies that were enacted by those in office have a tremendous impact
on their lives. The theme for that year was "Vote or Die."
We had no idea that the mandate "Vote or Die" represented
a literal truth.
Nine days before the New
Orleans Hip Hop Summit was held Walter Maestri, Emergency Management
Chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, made this statement in the New
Orleans Times-Picayune about the fact that there was no money in the
budget to complete the levees:
"It appears that the
money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security
and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally
is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything
we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."
(June 8, 2004)
President George W. Bush
would be reelected on November 2, 2004. Hurricane Katrina would hit
the Gulf Coast and destroy New Orleans on August 29, 2005.
March 1, 2006, a video released
by the Associated Press definitively revealed that the President lied
to the people about his knowledge of the danger to the residents of
New Orleans. With advance warning about the imminent risk of massive
flooding and inadequate preparation for the disaster, the President
failed to act to protect the citizens of the Gulf Coast region, and
then lied about what he knew to salvage his credibility.
While we could not stop Hurricane
Katrina from hitting the Gulf Coast, if people had voted with an idea
of peace and not war, we could have stopped Hurricane George from hitting
our shores.
The next days will mark the
first anniversary of one of the most devastating natural - and manmade
- calamities in the nation's history. For a few days, at least, the
pain and tragedy of Katrina will be revisited by the nation's media
- families clinging to rooftops pleading for help, bodies floating on
water, thousands in stifling heat herded without food, water, and sanitation
into the Superdome and Convention Center while government officials
claimed to know nothing about the growing disaster.
Over the past year, promises
of government funds to rebuild homes and repair shattered lives have
largely disappeared in a maze of red tape. The cronyism, corruption
and ineptitude that marked the early days of the flood linger as thousands
of temporary mobile homes sat unoccupied for months while many homeless
flood victims were being removed from emergency housing. Contractors
and builders connected to the Bush administration grabbed land and enriched
themselves while homeowners were far away and powerless to challenge
such fateful actions.
The tragedy that unfolded
one year ago in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast was inseparably
connected to the historic legacies of racism and class discrimination
compounded by the Iraq war and the corporate-government assault on the
living standards of working people. Because of deployment to Iraq, nearly
a half of Gulf Region National Guard troops were not available to assist
the victims of Katrina. With expenditures for Iraq approaching a half-trillion
dollars and with billions more allocated to spurious "home security",
agencies responsible for the real security of populations trapped by
Katrina were both under-funded and saddled by inept Bush cronies.
In a very real sense, Katrina's
victims were also casualties of the Iraq war. The Katrina anniversary
should mark growing demands to end that war, and to come home and attend
to urgent unmet domestic needs. In this election year, those outraged
by Katrina should stand up and be counted. One way to be counted is
to sign the VotersForPeace Pledge promising to withhold your vote from
pro-war candidates.
The only way to get positive
movement in Washington is for there to be unified citizen outcry. It
is on us to hold the politicians in D.C. accountable. It is time for
decent folks who care about the people of the Gulf Coast to come together
and become Voters for Peace. Voting for peace is not just about ending
war abroad, it is also about ending the assault on the working poor
and people of color in our country.
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. is CEO of the Hip
Hop Caucus & Institute in Washington, D.C., the National
Director for the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign, and Co-Director of Cities
for Progress. The Hip Hop Caucus is a national and international coalition
established to promote social and political equality. Cities for Progress
is a unique, multi-city network uniting diverse communities of grassroots
activists with progressive, locally elected officials to advance campaigns
for racial justice, a humane and equitable economy, and an end to the
war in Iraq.
Voters for Peace can be reached
at www.VotersForPeace.US.