Eracism, an organization founded in New Orleans in 1993, is dedicated to the proposition that relations and understanding between the races can be improved through regular conscious dialogue.
Since its founding, the group has held over 1,000 facilitated discussion meetings on racial issues and continues to hold public meetings twice a week. The group has been an inspriration to cities around the nation.
Click here to learn more about Eracism.
This is a flashback to 2005.
It was hard to believe then - and it’s still hard to believe now - that several thousand people were sent to the Convention Center before the storm and then left there after the levee failures for days without food, water, medical attention, security or support of any kind.
Yet it did happen.
It took NBC news cameraman and hurricane reporter Tony Zumbado to discover the situation and bring it to light. Amazingly, no one in government seemed aware - or concerned - about the situation.
Note well: Zumbardo who was on the scene said the people there, though in dire need, were orderly and peaceful. Who created the myth that they were dangerous?
Little known fact: During this entire time, there was two full battalions of National Guard troops (350 armed soldiers) locked in the Convention Center with their own adequate supplies of food and water. They did nothing to assist.
The story of the National Guard troops who were in the Convention Center follows…
What destroyed New Orleans? Most people will say it was Hurricane Katrina.
And most people would be wrong.
It was the levee failures.
How is it that this simple fact has been obscured for so long?
One way was that uniformed eye witnesses were ordered not to report the levee failures. This video gives the details:
This was the first real New Orleans brass band I ever saw: The Treme Brass Band.
Steve O’Keefe took me to Vaughn’s one steamy June night and this native New Yorker and diehard jazz fan realized in a flash what he’d been missing all this life.
If you were lucky enough to actually live in New Orleans, you could join a Second Line parade practically every Sunday during the fall and winter.
Here’s the one you’re missing this weekend…
It’s a popular video on YouTube and it should be. Made by then ten year old Kalypso Homan of New Orleans. I haven’t seen many adults do better. It’s as intelligent as it is charming.
What kind of madman would say New Orleans in not worth saving?
More from Kalypso. This is a video she made on the one year anniversary of the levee failures… (more…)
From An AP report:
(Ex-FEMA Director Michael) Brown told a group of graduate students Friday that some in the White House had suggested the federal government should take charge in Louisiana because Blanco was a Democrat, while leaving Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, in control in his state. (more…)
New Orleans was not devastated evenly. Some neighborhoods were barely touched. Others were almost completely destroyed.
Here’s a video report on the rebuilding of one of the neighborhoods that is not discussed very often in the national news: Lakeview.
This community of approximately 10,000 people was wiped out when collapsing levees allowed the waters of Lake Pontchartrain to crash through the neighborhood.
The Drive: Lakeview Trailer
This next clip is an excerpt of a longer film called “The Drive” which documents the damage caused by the levee failures in various parts of the city. This clip features the Lakeview district.
This video was produced by NOVAC, the New Orleans Video Access Center
A new webcomic by Josh Neufeld, Jeff Newelt and Miles VanMeter.
Check it out: AD: New Orleans After the Deluge
New Orleans is still having problems restoring its traffic signal system.
Like so many of the infrastructure problems caused by the flooding, this one has proven to be persistent.
Here’s an explantion of what the city is up against (taken from a recent City Council meeting on public access.)
Join us and every time we have a new article or video about New Orleans, we'll let you know.
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