The following piece was produced by the Huffington Post's OffTheBus.
John Edwards marched to Da Truth brass band this weekend at the Save New Orleans - Stop Global Warming second line, and I marched in for a gonzo interview. With the brass band behind us, audio wasn't an option so I kept it brief and asked why other candidates are not coming back to New Orleans as often as he does.
"Because the nation's attention has moved on," Edwards answered flatly.
Between asking voters to make personal sacrifices to save the environment, leading a poverty tour and making New Orleans' recovery a platform point, you get the feeling that Edwards can be that guy at a party, as are most evacuees if you get us started.
The national consciousness that moved on from the Minnesota bridge collapse is already veering away from the California wildfires, and America seems to have the collective rebuilding attention span of a fruit fly. Street signs are still handwritten throughout parts of the city, if they're there at all. This weekend, Paul Chan presented Waiting For Godot in the 9th Ward because he says the area looks like the play's barren setting and the play seems a metaphor for New Orleans' condition.
I talked with Edwards about his Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village work this weekend, and he said it was fun working on the home, which wasn't his first Habitat build. As we rounded the corner toward the Superdome, New Orleans musicians playing behind us, any further answer would have been "What?" so I marched on.
Step It Up ended its second line by forming a human chain spelling out No New Coal at the Superdome as a helicopter flew over. I was the tip of the W so the human chain wouldn't be gappy. Post-march, there were rumors a bus would pick us up at the Superdome, but we walked back to the parking lot instead, climbing through overgrown lots under the interstate to the building where Edwards kicked off the march.
In his speech, Edwards suggested that those polluting the environment should be required to fix the problems that they create. Local congressional representatives declined an invitation to the rally. Presenting big oil with a bill for restored wetlands, long suggested by environmentalist and Mr. Bill creator Walter Williams, turns legislators into wallflowers on the Gulf Coast.
Polling at third, Edwards seems to have Ron Paul candor potential on the other side of the aisle as he takes on more powers that be than you usually get in one campaign stop. If you like brass, stay tuned for second line footage at the end of the speech.
Step it Up! was hosted by the Gulf Restoration Network, fresh off a congressional text message campaign at Voodoo Music Experience; Global Green whose 9th Ward eco-friendly build is underway; Alliance for Affordable Energy; the Louisiana Bucket Brigade; the Peace Corps; Sierra Club; Sustainable Churches for South Louisiana; Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, and St. Bernard Citizens for Environmental Quality.
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'm for smarter use of our tax dollars but in favor of universal health care. I don't ascribe to Ron Paul's return to the gold standard. Money's value is all about how one perceives its value. Our dollar is in the toilet because our national and personal debt is through the roof.
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Even a partial gold standard would fix the problem you suggest. You have to take away the ability of the government and the banks to make money at will.
I was in NO a few weeks ago and it really is a tale of two cities. The downtown/French Quarter is cleaned up though a lot quieter than it used to be.
But what's really happening in the rest of the city is a clear-cut attempt by the moneyed old-guard interests to engineer a city that is less racially diverse (read: more white), less worker-friendly (read: more use of undocumented workers) and a model for many social-engineering schemes the right-wing has dreamed up over the last decade, especially charter schools and union-busting.
It's heartbreaking, and is a testing ground for what will happen in the next big city that is wiped out by disaster.
John Edwards is right, the nation has moved on. In vetoing the WRDA bill, the President walked away from his promise to "do what it takes" to restore this region in the wake of Katrina.
Despite that, we're closer than we've ever been to authorizing significant projects to really start restoring Louisiana's coastal wetlands (re: natural hurricane storm surge speed bumps) I can almost smell the mud! All we've got to do now is overcome a presidential veto. Of course, that's something that's only been done 106 times in the history of our nation. Gulp.
So we need you. Bloggers - write about this issue, EVERYBODY Please, put a call in to your Senators right now! Ask them to override the WRDA veto. Capitol switchboard: (202)-224-3121
The bottom line is this: If the nation wants to defend New Orleans and Coastal Louisiana's role as a critical home to the nation's shipping ports, commercial fishing, energy industry, and cultural mecca, we need this bill. Please call your Senators right now and ask them to vote to override President Bush's veto.
On the matter of handwritten street signs: The efforts of some residents of New Orleans to make the most of having to make do with homemade signs is being undermined by a man known as the "Grey Ghost," who covers graffiti with unseemly grey splotches. The problem is that the Grey Ghost has taken it upon himself to paint over a number of handmade street signs posted by artists in their own neighborhoods. At a time when New Orleanians are told that rebuilding neighborhoods is the first step to bringing the city back, one man is stifling those efforts of his own accord.
Read more at http://nolarising.blogspot.com/2007/08/grey-ghost-throws-down-glove.html and antigravitymagazine.com .
Even with this push, it is not encouraging to any of us that the Republican mostly ignore the question of global warming and the Democratic hopefuls want to compromise away the chance to do something right with cap-and-trade policies that are not working in the EU or Canada, but we seem to want to jump on that broken bandwagon.
If we owe the people of New Orleans one thing, it would be to make sure that these things do not happen to anyone else, ever again.
I wonder if the Green Party will give someone who will tell us the truths we don't want to hear. Nader? McKinney? Mesplay? Ball?
We need Edwards, Paul, Kuchnich to continue speaking the truth to power. I just seems that we never vote for them.
It is amazing after two years, the city still looks like a 3rd world country in many areas. Many who rented have moved on, and those who own still can't move back into their house because they can't afford to re-build (insurance is a fickle little thing, ain't it?). FEMA trailers and trailer parks are very common. Whole neighborhoods still remain a ghost town, with the spray painted dates on boarded up houses indicating the date they were searched weeks after the storm. All the attention towards rebuilding this beautiful town and our American people seem to have been pumped out along with the flooded water.
Thanks for the report, though I have to say that John Edwards is right, America has 'moved on.' A Louisiana native by birth, and having been a gulf-coaster for decades, and having spent many happy years in New Orleans, I'm profoundly sad for the people there. I think many thousands will never be able to restore their lives there, and big-money will profit from their loss. It's so profoundly sad; whole families torn apart, communities gone forever. Many grateful prayers and blessings for John Edwards and best wishes for him and his own family as he and they struggle to highlight what ordinary Americans suffer every day at the hands of a government which scorns and has contempt for them--even as they wage their own personal struggles with cancer. And, as always, my thoughts and prayers are with the people in New Orleans, a city and a people I dearly love.
""Polling at third, Edwards seems to have Ron Paul candor potential on the other side of the aisle as he takes on more powers that be than you usually get in one campaign stop.""
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Hehehe everyone has to follow the leader and thats RON PAUL! SCREW POLLS! I used to work of them and they are CROOKED!
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Posted November 6, 2007 | 09:38 AM (EST)