From activist-extraordinaire, Lisa Fithian...
December 24, 2005
Dear Friends and Allies,
Seasons greetings to you to all. I hope this email finds you with loved
ones and some quiet peaceful time. As many of you know I have been working the last two months in New Orleans with a group called the Common Ground Collective. We are an all volunteer, grassroots, activist organization that is still providing direct relief and support to residents and returning evacuees. I am writing to ask for your support and let you know about a report back I will be doing in Austin next week. ( see details below)
It is quite amazing being in New Orleans. The utter destruction – miles and
miles of it, is impossible to convey. The infrastructure in a major US
city collapsed. What is being rebuilt favors middle to upper class predominately white communities. The reconstruction plans do not adequately address the levees and whole communities are being discouraged from returning. Housing is hard to find, schools, health care facilities and most stores are still closed. Huge areas are still without power and mounds of debris still covers the streets. Hot water can be hard to find. Phone and mail service is non-existent in some places. It is becoming all to clear that the government and corporate America are planning a land grab preventing many historically Black communities from coming back together again.
New Orleans has similarities to a war zone (military in the streets, Halliburton contracts, ruin and rubble) - and the policies that led us into war in Iraq are at work in New Orleans as well. Each day there is more reason to drive this Administration out and rebuild something new. That is what we are doing in New Orleans
Common Ground has become a light of hope amidst the destruction and greed We talk about Solidarity Not Charity. We are taking a holistic approach– from providing basic food and water to cleaning supplies and tools, a free medical clinic (the first to open after the hurricane) roof tarping, home gutting, clean up and repair, legal and anti-eviction housing support, a media center which hosts Radio Uprising along with free internet and phone.
We have cleaned up, repaired and are now using 2 daycare and one community center.--these will be returned to their owners ready to go. We have done soil and water sampling, initiated a small bioremediation project, cleaned up three community gardens and planted one. We are now in the process of setting up a childcare cooperative and home school program.
We started with $50 and 5 volunteers and have grown to a core group of about 40 “organizers” and hundreds of volunteers. Over thanksgiving week we had 300 volunteers in and have on average 200 volunteers a week now through the end of January.
As I drove back to Austin, literally emerging from a disaster zone, I found the holiday season and nice clean functioning neighborhoods surreal. Life for most continuing as usual, with few having any clue about what is still really going on – or not going on in New Orleans.
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