The AC Phoenix
January 2006
Page 27
Real Relief For Katrina Survivors And Others
In Need Means Justice, Not Charity
By: Corlita Mahr
For millions of us iiving in America, this year’s holiday season does not bring much in the way of cheer. The
heightened consumerism and commerciaiized sentimentaiity linked with home and hearth only bring into
sharp focus the painfui contrast of living poor and displaced in the USA.
Thanks to deeper cuts in social programs, what little safety net left after Reaganomics has been torn to
shreds. Millions of men, women and children continue to fail through the ever-widening cracks. Some of us
are veterans and disabled—aging men from wars decades ago and young, mostly poor, working-class men
of color more recently disabled by combat in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of us are displaced by the tragic
management of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Many more of us cannot point to any specific tragedy. It may
have started when the schools were de-funded and ill-equipped to prepare us for jobs, or when the jobs
moved offshore, or when a family member got sick and we did not have enough insurance to cover mount
ing bills. However we got here, we are all on the rooftops now watching the floodwaters of poverty and neg
lect, consume our lives.
As a survivor of Katrina displaced from New Orleans, I am acutely aware that what little attention there is
on issues of poverty is focused on hurricane survivors. People who have been waiting for housing and other
services for years are now pitted against newcomers displaced by the hurricane. Under the current rules,
there’s just not enough to go around—unless you are already rich. If your million-dollar home slides down the
Malibu Hills for the fifth time in 10 years or you live in a predominantly White community in the Gulf, then you
get a completely different set of government rules.
This has to change.
Hurricane survivors are organizing with others abandoned by the government to fight together—not each
other—^for new policies and services to address poverty and dislocation. As survivors, we want justice, not
charity. We need inclusion for the hundreds of thousands of African Americans and others from marginalized
communities that have been shut out of the rebuilding process, a real safety net that puts an end to Gulf area
evictions, mortgage support and a victims’ compensation fund.
Yet, our vision is much larger than that because we know that, in order to gain justice for survivors, we need
justice for all of us.
Hurricane Katrina exposed how the erosion of public infrastructure—hospitals, schools, public safety and
social services—can endanger lives. Trends in Congress and at the state level will only make things worse,
unless we come together and make them turn things around.
On Dec. 10, survivors and others of goodwill took our issues to the streets in a march on New Orleans.
The march was one of many efforts to demand fairness in the rebuilding process and new policies to expand
the public safety net and expand opportunities for all of us washed away by public abandonment and
neglect. Of course, this fight did not start with Katrina nor will it end with this march. This effort is part of
centuries of struggle to rebuild an America that honors its promise of “freedom and justice for all.”
If you could not join us in New Orleans, there is still much you can do to help. Find out how you can
support local organizing efforts on the Web at www.katrinaaction.org. Call your elected representatives and
demand that they do all they can to stop the funding cuts and to be a part of a just rebuilding effort. Better
still, drop by their offices while they are in town for the holiday recess and have tho conversation in person
with them or their staff.
Toy giveaways, free turkeys and warm clothing are nice, even necessary—but they cannot address the real
challenges inherent in bad policies and unequal infrastructure. Saint Augustine once wrote, “Charity is no
substitute for justice withheld.”
This holiday season, commit to be a part of efforts to address justice withheld from tens of thousands of
Katrina survivors and many others left stranded by poverty, war and dislocation. Turn your outrage to action
and join the millions of us who say to the government, to the companies profiting from our loss, to those who
would rather look away, “Never again.”
(Corlita Mahr is a displaced resident of New Orleans. She is the coordinator for People’s Hurricane
Relief Fund communications.)
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