Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie

5 Years After Katrina: 100,000 Have Yet To Return; Relief Efforts Continue

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, 100,000 New Orleanians have yet to return

On the fifth anniversary of Katrina, survivors and advocates praise work of humanitarian agencies

Reprinted from Church World Service

NEW YORK and NEW ORLEANS -- Five years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, survivors and those working on their behalf say work is far from finished in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. But they are emphatic that what progress has been made is in great part due to the support, funding and labor of the U.S. faith community and of humanitarian agencies like Church World Service. 

"If it weren't for the volunteers and agencies who assisted me, I don't know where I would be," said Gloria Mouton, 62, a retired government employee, whose home in New Orleans East was among those repaired by volunteers from across the U.S. during the 2009 CWS Neighborhood New Orleans ecumenical project.

While saying that the city "is nowhere where it should be five years later," with many areas still dotted by empty or overgrown lots, Mouton praised the efforts that allowed her to return to her home after two years of living in Georgia with family as she waited to return to New Orleans. "This is home, where I want to be," she said, adding that the work of volunteers "came out real nice."
 
In restoring Mouton’s and other homes, CWS worked in partnership with the local New Orleans long-term recovery organization the Crescent Alliance Recovery Effort, and with volunteer teams coordinated by 10 of CWS U.S. member denominations providing the labor.  "I never realized there were that many people such big hearts," she said.

Another survivor, Christopher Weaver, 48, a self-employed cook, agreed, and praised the efforts that allowed him to return to his home in New Orleans East.

"There are people who showed me a new way of life," he said of the work of volunteers and CWS-supported agencies that repaired his residence. "It was powerful to see these things happening."

"The faith community was remarkable. Absolutely remarkable in every way they could be," said Ellenor Simmons, who helps oversee long-term recovery projects for the United Way of the Greater New Orleans Area.
 
From individual churches who opened their doors to shelter survivors to faith-based humanitarian agencies and regional long-term recovery organizations, the faith response saved lives, say those who have worked tirelessly in the five years since Katrina and Rita hit the region.

"Absolutely," said Jessica Vermilyea, the Louisiana-based state director for Lutheran Disaster Response and Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response. "It saved families. If it hadn't have been for that response, I don't know what would have happened."
 
Church World Service’s multi-tiered response has continued over the long haul. Initial emergency relief included shipments of CWS Blankets, Hygiene and School Kits; organizing for long-term recovery work; and focusing on spiritual and emotional care.
 
Thousands of people received CWS kits in the days following the disaster. Later, thanks to a collaborative effort between CWS and Habitat for Humanity International, nearly 700 families were able to return to their repaired or rebuilt homes – an accomplishment that won Church World Service and HFHI the Award for Excellence in Long-Term Recovery Partnership from the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster.
 
Since the 2005 disaster, Church World service has administered three major international grants, helped schools and youth programs in Louisiana and Mississippi recover, and helped establish and train dozens of long-term recovery groups in readiness for the next disaster. 
 
Not all the hurricane recovery work is done. There are still people in the region living in temporary housing. While there is still a sense of remarkable rebuilding overall, life is not what it was. "There is a 'new normal,'" Simmons said.
 
Still, enough are back in homes for Simmons' United Way colleague, Benita Corley, to praise the combined efforts of local, regional and national organizations.
 
"We could not have done it without y'all," she said. "Church World Service was a real blessing for us. The clients didn't know who gave us the money to do our work, but we do."
 
Bonnie Vollmering, CWS associate director for domestic response, returned the compliment. 
 
"Five years later, long-term recovery groups continue to assist people with unmet needs," she said. "If it was not for the collaboration of those local, regional and national long-term recovery organizations, many individuals would not be living in safe, sanitary and secure housing. It’s been our pleasure to work with local partners in helping people return to their homes.”
 
Other highlights of the CWS response:

• CWS partnered with Terrebone Readiness Assistance Coalition to help build five of the first-ever Louisiana Lift Houses, a sustainable housing solution for living on coastal land. Built for economy, ecology and to withstand hurricane-force winds, the Lift Houses handily survived the real-world test of Hurricane Gustav in 2008.
• The agency supported more than 30 new community recovery organizations to manage cases and coordinate volunteer and skilled labor for home rebuilding.
• CWS sponsored Interfaith Trauma Response Trainings workshops to assist clergy and other caregivers who responded to the disaster.

How to help

Contributions to support the life-saving work of Church World Service may be made online or by phone (800.297.1516), or may be sent to your denomination or to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515, Attention: Pakistan floods. 

NCC presents an NBC special on August 29;
'Coming home' five years after Katrina struck

"Churches remain faithful to Gulf Coast rebuilding"

Reprinted from the National Council of Churches

New Orleans, August 29, 2007 – "If it had not been for the Church, we would be in even worse shape than we are now."

So said the Rev. Patrick Keen, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in New Orleans. He was addressing 50 volunteers from 14 Christian churches taking part in Ecumenical Work Week (Aug. 19-25) sponsored by the National Council of Churches (NCC) USA’s Special Commission for the Just Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. Bethlehem Lutheran hosted volunteers for the week and provided dinner during the week.

"The people of God from all around the country have come to help," Pastor Keen said.

The work week was held last week in New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss. In addition to the six houses the workers helped to repair and rebuild, the week was intended to point out the ongoing need for volunteers and the work done by church volunteers and organizations in the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina two years ago today.

In a survey conducted by the Special Commission of the NCC's 35 member communions it was estimated those churches sent more than 120,000 volunteers. They donated 3.6 million hours in helping victims put their lives back together. Those churches sent an estimated $250 million in financial aid to local churches and relief agencies. The survey was compiled by Tronn Moller, the Special Commission’s Gulf Coast consultant.

"The Road Home has been a bureaucratic nightmare," said Bishop Thomas Hoyt, co-chair of the Special Commission and past president of the NCC.

He said the money sent by government agencies has not been shared equitably among the victims nor has it been managed properly. The Rev. Michael Livingston, current NCC president, co-chairs the Special Commission with Bishop Hoyt.

"The task ahead is still a mammoth one," said Bishop Hoyt. "We need people to stay with us." More volunteers are needed to help people struggling all along the Gulf Coast, Hoyt said.

"We didn't come here to get noticed," said the Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, NCC's associate general secretary for justice and advocacy. "We came here to give notice that we will be here until the work is done."

In Biloxi, the volunteers worked to repair two homes, including the home of Myrtle Davis. She was born in the house 81 years ago as was her brother who will be 85 next month.

During a lunch break the workers heard from representatives of two dozen different organizations. The message from each was please keep sending volunteers. They warned of a pending housing crisis if the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) begins to evict residents of FEMA-supplied trailers. The temporary housing was designed for only 18 months to 2 years.

At a Tuesday night prayer service the Rev. Dr. Bob Hill, pastor of Community Christian Church in Kansas City, Mo., preached following a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. In describing his emotions he said he felt angry but did not share that out loud until he realized, "anger is always an appropriate response when our values have been violated."

Bishop J.D. Wiley of Life Center Cathedral in New Orleans and the Rev. C. Dan Krutz, executive director of the Louisiana Interchurch Conference in Baton Rouge, La., also preached at nightly prayer services.

While much of the media attention leading up to today's anniversary has focused on the Lower Ninth Ward, volunteers also saw other neighborhoods where little seems to have been done in two years. Gentilly, Lakeview and New Orleans East, were also areas the workers saw that are still struggling to rebuild and virtually uninhabited.

In addition to the work of the 50 volunteers, visiting clergy spent two days on a listening tour about the environmental impact of the post-Katrina flooding of this city and what still needs to be done in the area. The tour was coordinated by Cassandra Carmichael, NCC's director of eco-justice programs.

In February of this year the Special Commission issued a report card on the status of recovery efforts. After more than a half a dozen post-Katrina trips to the Gulf Coast region and extensive on-the-ground analysis, the NCC's Special Commission on the Just Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast gave low marks across the board to local, state and federal governments. The report card reviewed response and rebuilding efforts in the city of New Orleans, the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and the federal government in areas such as transportation, healthcare, housing, schools, insurance, and environmental justice.

The NCC's Special Commission was formed in September 2005 in response to the spiraling neglect present in the Gulf Region after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Commissioners representing NCC member communions convened for the first time in Louisiana in November 2005, a few months after the storms ravaged the Gulf Coast, to analyze on-the-ground progress post-Katrina. The Special Commission has since toured the Mississippi coast, met with religious leaders and community activists and government officials in New Orleans and Mississippi, including Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. In addition, the Special Commission has met with members of Congress and officials at FEMA about efforts to rebuild.

The ecumenical work week was organized for the Special Commission by Moller and the Rev. Leslie Tune, NCC's associate director for justice and advocacy. Work projects were coordinated through the United Church of Christ disaster relief, Episcopal Disaster Relief and Disciples of Christ Disaster Relief in New Orleans. In Mississippi the work was coordinated with Episcopal Disaster Relief.

"It was not a sacrifice for us to be there. It was an immense honor and privilege to be the hands and feet of God and to help people rebuild," said the Rev. Tune. "It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life that people allowed us in their homes and trusted us to help them get things back in order."

The volunteers and clergy came from NCC and other denominations: African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, American Baptist Churches USA, Armenian Orthodox, Christian Methodist Episcopal, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church, International Council of Community Churches, Presbyterian Church USA, Progressive National Baptist Convention, Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ; as well as members of Roman Catholic and Full Gospel Baptist churches plus FaithfulAmerica.org.

Help Is Still Needed

Here in Oregon we're getting ready for a "powerful windstorm" which has the potential to make life a little messy in parts of the Northwest.  Flooding and downed power lines are expected. 

The hurricane force winds expected for the coast and high inland gusts remind me once again of all the unfinished business on the Gulf Coast post-Katrina and all the work to be done still in Southeast Asia post-tsunami.

Help is still needed in these regions.  Consider making a gift this Christmas season to Church World Service, the relief agency of America's mainline and orthodox churches.  Across the globe - from Louisiana to Chennai - Church World Service is rebuilding communities in partnership with those most impacted by disaster.  They need your gifts and your prayers.      

"We ended our conversation when she hung up the phone crying"

This morning a young woman called the church office asking for financial assistance.  The call wasn't all that unusual.  People reach out to churches all the time when they're in crisis.  Some churches have limited resources to hand out but smaller churches like mine have fewer resources.

We knew where to direct this young woman.  There are agencies that our church supports financially and with volunteers, and there are other community resources. It turned out the young woman I was talking to was a 10th grader trying to help her family find shelter.  Sadly, none of the agencies we referred her to could help.  There isn't enough funding to help everyone.  We ended our conversation when she hung up the phone crying.  I don't know where she spent the night.

The new poverty census figures came out yesterday and the numbers held steady.  Every year since President Bush took office poverty rates have increased and in the year since he promised to combat poverty in the aftermath of Katrina the best he can say is that life is not worse.  He did nothing to help anyone lift themselves out of poverty and he continues to advance an economic program that cuts from programs that could have benefited that teen-ager who asked me for help today.  Instead of help for those in poverty the president gives tax breaks to the richest of the rich in America while millions search for food and shelter.  Children walk the streets in America so that the president can reward his taskmasters with even more wealth. 

It surprises me that the president and I worship the same God and even claim the name Christian.  How could he read the Bible and walk out of worship services to campaign for economic policies that benefit the wealthiest at the expense of the least of these?  Does the president simply listen to the worlds of scripture but then dismiss them as being irrelevant to his world?  Many people do this and words from James 1:22-26 (NRSV) offer a corrective lesson the president (and the rest of us) should hear:

But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act--they will be blessed in their doing.

If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

How many orphans, widows in their distress, homeless, sick and lonely did we turn away today in America?  In a world of plenty that is a great sin against God.  God will forgive us our sins but calls on us always to be "doers of world."  Pray that the Holy Spirit softens the president's heart - and ours - so that we might do more.  No 10th grader should be trying to find shelter for her family. 

Read the comments on this post from Street Prophets   

One Year Later: Poor Still Suffer Under Bush

The president – widely regarded by Republicans and Democrats alike to have failed the people of the Gulf Coast during Hurricane Katrina– has been touring the area as part of the one-year anniversary. George W. Bush and his allies want you to think they did something right last year and have done more to help since. As the Center for American Progress notes, the reality is quite different:

1,833 lives lost. 270,000 homes destroyed. $55 billion in insured damage. Up to $1.4 billion in American tax dollars wasted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Today, the costs of Hurricane Katrina are still staggering. But even more staggering has been the slow pace of recovery on the Gulf Coast. No one was happy with the federal government's initial response to the hurricane. Eighty percent of the American public think the federal government's response could have been "much better," and in September President Bush stated, "This government will learn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina." But on the eve of Katrina's one year anniversary, it is clear that the nation is still waiting for the help Bush promised. Yesterday, as part of the White House's "public relations blitz," Bush trumpeted in his weekly radio address that the federal government has "committed $110 billion to the recovery effort." But those billions of dollars have yet "to translate into billions in building." Perhaps most disappointingly, Bush has forgotten about his promise to the nation to confront poverty "with bold action." As Newsweek's Jonathan Alter writes, "The mood in Washington continues to be one of not-so-benign neglect of the problems of the poor." Lessons haven't been learned and time has run out for excuses. (The Progress Report has compiled a comprehensive timeline of the past year's events and American Progress has developed a list of actions America needs to ensure preparedness and recovery capacity for natural disasters.)

Poverty has increased every year that this president has been in office. So has hunger. What happened during Katrina could happen again in any American city.

Statement of the National Council of Churches USA’s Special Commission on a Just Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast – August 29, 2006

Reprinted from the National Council of Churches USA

One year later the struggle to rebuild and reconcile after Hurricane Katrina, Rita and Wilma’s indiscriminate destruction is still a tangible reality in the daily lives of people who experienced firsthand the devastation of the storms. 

As we mark the one-year anniversary Hurricane Katrina, we do so with a mix of profound joy and equally profound sadness. We are deeply grateful the hurricane forecast for more damaging storms has not come true. We continue to pray to God that there will not be another devastating storm this hurricane season. It is hard to imagine how those who are continuing to struggle for justice and to rebuild their lives, homes and communities would be able to bear another storm when the vestiges of the last ones are still a haunting presence on the streets of New Orleans as well as along the entire Gulf Coast in communities such as Pass Christian, Biloxi, Gulfport, Bay St. Louis, and Waveland. 

We recognize the key role churches have played in response to the suffering and pain. The faith community has served as first responders and ongoing community rebuilders.  We are also thankful for the many long hours of hard work and sacrifice of those in our congregations as well as in synagogues, mosques and community organizations, who have stepped in to help in the efforts to rebuild. There have been countless hours of work donated by mission trips or work visits by our 35 member communions. We have sent financial help. We have provided food and shelter. We have prayed with and for the people.

We have advocated for justice for the people of the Gulf Coast region especially those who traditionally have had no voice in the halls of government. We have witnessed for the needs of too many human beings, all created in the image of God, who seem to have been overlooked as plans to rebuild have been developed. We have taken steps to cleanup mold and to make sure that efforts to rebuild are environmentally-friendly so that a rebuilt Gulf Coast is a sustainable one.

Indeed, the people of the Gulf Coast region have been steadfast and unmovable in their determination to rebuild their homes, lives and communities in spite of the fact that they have not had much help from government agencies and very little assistance from the insurance companies whose policies were supposed to protect them.

While we can celebrate the many stories of overcoming incredible obstacles and persevering through the devastation, we are profoundly grieved by the work that still needs to be done. The continuing tragedy is the incredibly slow response by the federal, state and local governments to send the assistance that was promised to the people of the Gulf Coast in the days following the hurricanes.

Many said that they would not forget and yet many have been forgotten. 

Our Christian faith teaches us that the Lord requires us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). And, Jesus teaches us that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us (Matthew 7:12). Which of us would want our lives to lay in ruin while those who are supposed to help are busy fighting over politics, power and property that does not belong to them? 

The time for restoration and reconciliation in the Gulf Coast region is long overdue. As we remember the devastation, let us remember the faces and the images that played across our television and computer screens beginning on Aug. 29, 2005, and the days that followed.  Let us remember the sorrow, the anger and the other strong emotions that we felt upon hearing about the New Orleans Convention Center and people stranded on rooftops, bridges and bypasses. And, as we remember let us rededicate ourselves to advocating for justice in the Gulf Coast region.  Let us say, “Never again” this time and finally mean it.  Let us commit to working toward a rebuilt and restored Gulf Coast region for all people—regardless of their race, ethnicity, economic status or political affiliation.  The citizens of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas deserve no less.

Let us be unwavering and resolved in our pledge to make sure that this time next year, the Gulf Coast will be much better off than it is now—one year later.

President Abandons Americans To Poverty Less Then A Year After Katrina

The LORD rises to argue his case;
he stands to judge the peoples.

The LORD enters into judgement
with the elders and princes of his people:

It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

What do you mean by crushing my people,
by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord GOD of hosts.

- Isaiah 3: 13-15 (NRSV)

"The number of Americans living in poverty has risen each year Bush has been president, increasing to 37 million in 2004 from 31.6 million in 2000," reported The Washington Post this morning.  The president took notice of poverty for the first time of his tenure in the White House as poor people drowned and went hungry in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.   

Poverty forced its way to the top of President Bush's agenda in the confusing days after Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast and flooded New Orleans. Confronted with one of the most pressing political crises of his presidency, Bush, who in the past had faced withering criticism for speaking little about the poor, said the nation has a solemn duty to help them.

"All of us saw on television, there's . . . some deep, persistent poverty in this region," he said in a prime-time speech from New Orleans's Jackson Square, 17 days after the Aug. 29 hurricane. "That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action."

"Bush has talked little about the issue since the immediate crisis passed" and his policies before and after seem to be designed to intentionally harm those Jesus called the "least of these" in favor of economic policies that benefit the wealthiest of Americans.  This year the president opposed an increase in the minimum wage and has proposed cuts in homeless programs, children's programs and programs to feed elderly people.   

Dillard University: A New Orleans Resurrection Story

Dillard University, the United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church related school destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, held commencement exercises yesterday back on their own campus. 

The Times-Picayune reports:

Standing on land that drowned under 6 feet of floodwater last August, 354 members of Dillard University's Class of 2006 returned to the Gentilly campus Saturday to receive their diplomas in the first ceremony there since Hurricane Katrina plowed through. 

They had fled the campus two days before Katrina struck, and they spent the fall semester on 200 campuses around the country before returning in January to temporary headquarters in the New Orleans Hilton. In recognition of their diaspora, the graduates marched down the Rosa Freeman Keller Avenue of the Oaks with pennant-like banners bearing the names of the schools where they had found temporary academic homes. The school names and colors differed, but each had this in common: the words "Thank You."

"They were very welcoming, but I'm glad to be back. I feel great," said a beaming Victoria Johnson, whose banner showed she had landed at Harold Washington College in Chicago.

As the graduates marched toward Kearny Hall on a muggy morning to the strains of the triumphal march from "Aida," they were surrounded by hordes of camera-clicking relatives and friends. Among them was Idalene Williams, who was waiting to spot her daughter, Jenna Marie Williams.

"I'm going to cry," she said. "I'm very excited. I'm blessed that all three of my children have graduated from college, especially Jenna, considering the temporary setback from Hurricane Katrina."

The Williams family lives in Omaha, Neb., and Jenna enrolled at the University of Nebraska campus there last fall.

"She was determined to come back to Dillard," her mother said. "This is so special because of the disruption that happened, yet almost all of the seniors came back because they were focused on getting their degrees -- not just from any university, but from Dillard University."

Bill Cosby was the commencement speaker.  "It's not the first time devastation ever hit, according to the Bible, according to history. Some of it is made by nature, and a great deal of it is made by human beings," Cosby said according to Reuters.  "Look at this event as you sit to leave as an important, prophetic event," he said. "This is God's garden, and you are in charge of it."

Everyone who watched the events of last summer knows of the heroism of those who fled New Orleans.  The students who graduated this weekend did so under enormous circumstances.  We can learn much from their perseverance. 

Let us continue to pray for the Gulf Region and do our part to both support the recovery and to be responsible stewards of God's earth.      

Related Link:  UCC Related-Dillard University Evacuates

Related Post:  Update On Dillard University

Related Post:  "Dillard University Announces Plans to Commence Classes as Early as January 2006"

National Council of Churches "to keep justice at forefront of Gulf Coast rebuilding"

Statement from the National Council of Churches:

New Orleans, Louisiana—May 25, 2006—With hurricane season a week away, a special commission of the National Council of Churches (NCC) promises to “speak truth to power” throughout the long and arduous rebuilding effort of this city and the entire Gulf Coast region.  Eight months ago hurricane damage and destruction “took off the mask” of poverty, race, class and gender in the United States.  The NCC’s Special Commission for the Just Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast [http://www.ncccusa.org/news/060523specialcommission.html] will be supporting local ecumenical and community groups “to advocate for justice in the distribution of resources and services for those impacted by the hurricanes, especially the poor.”

A report was presented this week to the NCC’s Governing Board by the Rev. Melvin G. Talbert, retired bishop in the United Methodist Church and chair of the Special Commission.

“We will speak with the moral authority of our member churches,” Bishop Talbert told the Governing Board.  “There are times when we will take the initiative to open the doors that need to be opened,” he said.  We will, says the report, “hold fast to our vision of restored communities of love and justice.”

As part of that vision the NCC has partnered with six denominations, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and the Every Church a Peace church movement to sponsor Churches Supporting Churches.  This program will help rebuild 36 destroyed or damaged churches in 12 predominantly African American neighborhoods of New Orleans.  CSC’s goal is to “restart, reopen, repair or rebuild the churches in order for them to be agents for community development and to recreate their community,” said Dr. C. T. Vivian, CSC chair and longtime activist in the civil rights movement.  Congregations across the country will be offered the opportunity to help get these churches up and running again.  A year-long training program in community development will equip pastors and lay leaders for their expanded work as community developers.

“CSC, concerned about the total hurricane devastation,” says Dr. Vivian, “sees this New Orleans project as a model for similar working in all areas of the Gulf Coast.”

As this city and the region are rebuilt, there is great concern that poor and low income citizens will be ignored or given little consideration as plans are put forward.  Churches have already begun planning affordable housing initiatives as well as community services such as daycare centers.  Displaced residents cannot return until schools, hospitals, child care and mental health services are open and operating.  Several church organizations can help get such services up and running.  The Special Commission will speak up and speak out when it will help local groups or congregations in doing the work on the ground.

Several board members yesterday toured the Lower 9th Ward and other neighborhoods hit hardest by the flooding.  Among them, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Epting, a bishop in the Episcopal Church, said little has been done to clean up and remove debris.  “The scale is simply enormous!”  Bishop Epting says the NCC’s interest is in the “systemic realities” of rebuilding the region.

“How can we make sure that people are justly compensated for their loss?,” writes Bishop Epting in a sermon prepared for tonight.  “How can we assure that those who wish to return home can do so safely and with security?  How can we stand against those landlords who are now charging 1,100 dollars a month in rent for shoddy apartments which used to go for 300 – because housing is so scarce?”

The Special Commission will employ a local coordinator to direct its work.  The staff presence in the region is seen as critical in keeping the voice of the church at the table in the civic dialogue about remaking a city and region that gives voice to the voiceless.  The commission will come back to the region in August for its next meeting one week prior to the first anniversary of Katrina.

In his report, Bishop Talbert said it is the “right of all displaced residents to return to a community that offers security, tranquility and stability of opportunity.”

The NCC’s Governing Board chose to meet in New Orleans to bring the witness of the church here as well as learn more about the role of the church in the rebuilding efforts.   A prayer vigil [http://www.ncccusa.org/news/060523nccmarchtomorial.html] and half-mile silent march was held Monday evening from Canal Street to the Ernest W. Morial Convention Center.  Hurricane victims had sought security and safety at the center.  Many found only humiliation.  Others spent their last moments on this earth at this site.

The NCC gathering was led in a prayer litany calling on God to hear the cries of the people, cries for justice and cries for an equitable rebuilding of this city.  Bishop Talbert told the vigil, “We come now as the church of Jesus Christ responding to this crisis.”

The Rev. John McCullough, executive director of Church World Service, NCC’s partner relief agency, said the gathering was “symbolic of God’s church” in this place witnessing for justice, speaking up for those who are waiting to return and those who lost their lives in this community.  “God is using the arms and hands and legs” of all of us in the work the church is doing to help rebuild this community and all those still ravaged all along the Gulf Coast, McCullough said.

The general secretary of the NCC, the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, called on the gathering to repeat, “We are the leaders we have been waiting for.”

The church leaders sang hymns as they walked back down Convention Center Blvd. to the hotel where they met.  “Amazing Grace” and “This Little Light of Mine” were heard amidst the sounds of rush hour traffic racing by the open-for-business casino, brew pub, and some of the other riverfront hotels that have managed to reopen.

“There’s no question that New Orleans will be rebuilt,” said Bishop Talbert, “the question is for whom will this city be rebuilt?”

The NCC is the ecumenical voice of 35 of America’s Protestant, Orthodox, Episcopal, historic black and peace churches with nearly 45 million members in 100,000 congregations.

US Churches Again Denounce Iraq War

News out of the World Council of Churches Assembly meeting this week in Porto Alegre from Ecumenical News International:

A group of religious leaders from the United States has issued a public letter criticizing the war in Iraq and acknowledging their churches' inability to stop it.

"We confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to deter our leaders from this path of preemptive war," the Feb. 18 letter to the assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) states. It notes that that it came from the WCC's US Conference, a grouping of 34 US member churches of the Geneva-based council. There were no individual signatures on the letter.

"There is division within our churches," the Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, a member of the Orthodox Church in America and moderator of the US Conference, told journalists in Porto Alegre attending the WCC's ninth assembly. "We cannot speak authoritatively for any church, but we are responsible leaders elected by our churches and we feel compelled to speak."

Kishkovsky said that "around the world the US Christian voices that are heard support President Bush and the war. We want the world to know that there's a serious moral struggle going on and in reality a majority of Americans does not support this war."

The Rev. Sharon Watkins, general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), said the letter was not intended to undermine US troops in Iraq. "They are our sons and daughters and the sons and daughters of our neighbors," she explained. "We honor their courage and sense of duty.

"But here in Porto Alegre," she continued, "we meet the parents of other sons and daughters and neighbors whose lives have been torn apart by this war * and we have to tell them that we're profoundly sorry."

The letter, in the form of a "confession," also criticizes US government policy saying it contributes to environmental degradation and growing poverty around the world.

"An emerging theme as we visit our partners around the world is the growing sense that we're being seen as a dangerous nation," said the Rev. John Thomas, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ. He said this is "not just due to the violence of the war but the unchecked destruction of the environment and our wealth in the face of the earth's poverty."

Watkins added: "We benefit every day from the policies our government undertakes. As beneficiaries we have to confess."

Click here to read the letter.

Volunteers bring hope: New Orleans UCC Congregations Try To Recover

Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress continue to be amazed at the profound incompetence shown by the Bush Administration during Hurricane Katrina.  It is now clear - from e-mails obtained from the White House and from testimony given before Congress - that the president and his aides outright lied when they told the American public they had no idea flooding was occurring in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit.  Over 1,000 people died in the area.  How many more could have been saved had the White House acted?  Why did so many get left behind?

New Orleans is still trying to recover.  It will take years.  Part of the recovery efforts includes work to reestablish churches in the area that were destroyed or damaged.

This week the Disaster New Network, in an article by Heather Moyers, reports on efforts to restore all the United Church of Christ congregations in area:

Volunteers are now streaming in to help the United Church of Christ (UCC) congregations in the New Orleans area slowly recovering from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. The denomination has eight churches in the area and all received different types of damage, said one leader.

"Some had water damage, some had wind and water damage," said the Rev. Alan Coe, minister for disaster recovery in the UCC's South Central Conference. "Half the churches had roof damage, one had significant water damage and one had six feet of standing water in it for two weeks."

And so volunteers are pitching in to help rip out drywall and clean up the churches as well as the homes of the affected parishioners. Good Shepherd United Church of Christ is still making repairs to its building, but now has two portable buildings outside housing volunteers in town to assist in the recovery. Arndt said the housing was made available in October and the volunteers have been a godsend to the church and community. "Volunteers ripped out our drywall and put new boards in, and then painted it," he said. They also put in a shower for future volunteers and gutted flooded homes in nearby neighborhoods.

Good Shepherd had roof and water damage from Katrina. The congregation has been meeting in the fellowship hall since the hurricane; the sanctuary lost all its contents due to the water. "We lost all of our pews, our office equipment, kitchen supplies, computers - you list it, we lost it," said Coe. While the congregation awaits word from the insurance company on repairs and repairs costs, volunteers help with damaged homes.

Coe said three area churches are housing volunteers during the recovery. "Volunteers have been cleaning out houses - the majority of which have not been touched since the hurricane," he explained, adding that they connect the volunteers with families before just showing up. "We try to make sure the homeowners are in town to ask them where valuables might be - like bills and such. We want to try to find that stuff."

He agreed with Arndt about the hope the volunteers bring to a community still grieving its losses. Many families see their homes and don't even know where to start in the mess, Coe said, and the volunteers give them an initial step by helping sort and find belongings while tearing out walls and ceilings. "To have a group of 20 people show up and say 'we want to help,' it's a huge thing."

For the churches devastated by Katrina, Coe said that the aim is to get UCC conferences from around the country to adopt a particular church. Arndt's church has been adopted by the Massachusetts Conference - a move that has helped more than just Good Shepherd UCC. "The conference officials found out that nearby school kids had nothing for Christmas, so they organized Christmas parties for them and sent in presents," said Arndt.

That kind of generosity is flowing in from churches around the country. A church from Iowa sent supplies to get Good Shepherd's preschool back on its feet. Another sent a computer for the church's secretary. Arndt also praised the UCC's "Hope Shall Bloom" fund for helping get the local congregations moving again by supporting staff members and recovery supplies.

The trying times have also brought the New Orleans churches closer together. Two congregations' buildings suffered complete devastation and are now paired up with others. Good Shepherd is sharing its space with Beecher Memorial, a church that saw six to eight feet of water in the Ninth Ward. St. Matthew's United Church of Christ is now sharing space with another church as well.

But while the generosity flows and good happens, the emotions are still raw. The congregations and community are stressed, said Coe. "People are pretty anxious throughout the city. After the holidays, the anxiety increased. People have a difficult time doing anything."

Arndt agreed. "People are really on edge, the little things get to them," he explained. "One national disaster responder told us that we're probably in the anger phase of the grief process - or that maybe we hadn't even begun that process yet. To me it's like losing a family member. The first year after loss is a novelty. The second year you realize that it's for the rest of your life. It's like that now. We're frustrated. I think the greatest sadness in our hearts is that it's never going to be the same - that's really what people are dealing with."

Arndt and Coe worry about how many families will not return, with Arndt estimating that Good Shepherd has lost at least 20% of its membership to other cities. Both say they are working their hardest to bring hope to the remaining families. Arndt said he speaks regularly about God offering everyone strength and possibilities. Coe said he continues recruiting volunteers. Anything they can offer the families, they'll do.

"We're just trying to get everyone back to a sense of being normal again," said Arndt.

Documents Show White House Incompetence During Katrina

The world watched in horror at the incompetence of the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina. How could the White House not know survivors needed help? Why wasn’t the Department of Homeland Security prepared for such a disaster?

The president told the American people not to point the finger at him.

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

That was the president’s lame excuse for inaction in the days following the Hurricane as he praised his friend and FEMA director for doing “a heck of a job.” But people did know what damage the storm might do. Those people included the White House. The Washington Post reports:

In the 48 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, the White House received detailed warnings about the storm's likely impact, including eerily prescient predictions of breached levees, massive flooding, and major losses of life and property, documents show.

A 41-page assessment by the Department of Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC), was delivered by e-mail to the White House's "situation room," the nerve center where crises are handled, at 1:47 a.m. on Aug. 29, the day the storm hit, according to an e-mail cover sheet accompanying the document.

The NISAC paper warned that a storm of Katrina's size would "likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching" and specifically noted the potential for levee failures along Lake Pontchartrain. It predicted economic losses in the tens of billions of dollars, including damage to public utilities and industry that would take years to fully repair. Initial response and rescue operations would be hampered by disruption of telecommunications networks and the loss of power to fire, police and emergency workers, it said.

In a second document, also obtained by The Washington Post, a computer slide presentation by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, prepared for a 9 a.m. meeting on Aug. 27, two days before Katrina made landfall, compared Katrina's likely impact to that of "Hurricane Pam," a fictional Category 3 storm used in a series of FEMA disaster-preparedness exercises simulating the effects of a major hurricane striking New Orleans. But Katrina, the report warned, could be worse.

In the meantime, the White House is being accused tonight of hindering the congressional investigation into what went so wrong during Katrina. Reuters reports:

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the top Democrat on the Senate panel investigating the government's botched response to Hurricane Katrina, on Tuesday accused administration officials of failing to cooperate and trying to run out the clock on the congressional probe.

"The problems begin at the White House, where there has been a near total lack of cooperation that has made it impossible, in my opinion, for us to do the thorough investigation we have a responsibility to do," Lieberman said in a hearing held by the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

The Connecticut Democrat said the administration has delivered few of the documents requested by the committee and hindered it's ability to obtain information from agencies involved in preparing and responding to the hurricane.

"There's been no assertion of executive privilege; just a refusal to answer," Lieberman said.

"My staff believes that (the Department of Homeland Security) has engaged in a conscious strategy of slow walking our investigation in the hope that we would run out of time to follow the investigation's natural progression to where it leads."

No Democrat in Congress has gone out of his way more that Joe Lieberman to support this president – on issue after issue. You cannot accuse him with playing politics with this case.

But you can make the statement that this president’s dishonesty and incompetence makes him the most ineffective and biggest failure to occupy the White House in more than a generation.

Can you think of any other sitting president who has lost an American city since the British burned Washington?

Church World Service still needs donations to help those on the Gulf Coast.

Related Post:  America Left The "Least Of These" Behind In The Wake Of Katrina

Ray Nagin’s Bad Theology

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has nominated himself for the bad theologian of the year award.

Yesterday in speech he said that God had sent Hurricane Katrina to punish America.

No, God didn’t.

Pastor Dan has a good post over at Street Prophets correcting the mayor.

Thankfully, Mayor Nagin apologized for the remarks today.

This Sunday: CBS special shows 'After the Storm' work of Church World Service

From the National Council of Churches USA:

Natural disasters of a magnitude not seen in decades came in 2005. . .a deadly tsunami in Asia, an earthquake in Pakistan, hurricanes in the southern U.S.  Faith groups are often the first to respond, and they have their hands full this fall.  After the Storm, a 30-minute special scheduled for this Sunday, December 11, produced by CBS in collaboration with National Council of Churches and its interfaith partners, tracks the relief work of Church World Service, Catholic Charities, a mosque and an Episcopal church in the wake of the storms that ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf coast. Check local listings.

US Church Leaders Call "Proposed $50 Billion Cuts To U.S. Social Programs Inconceivable"

National Council of Churches USA
475 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10115

October 19, 2005

Dear Member of Congress:

As leaders of America’s major faith communities, we write to you at a moment of great moral urgency for our nation when hundreds of thousands of our most vulnerable citizens are at risk. We urge you to put aside partisan politics and pass a federal budget that reflects the moral priorities of the wide majority of Americans. We urge you to work for, not against, the common good of all of America’s citizens and not just a privileged few.

This is a grave time in our nation. We are in the midst of a tremendous social and economic crisis, thrust vividly into public view by the recent natural disasters along the Gulf Coast. The times demand profound changes if the quality of life is to improve for millions of families. The United States budget is a reflection of who we are and what our priorities are as a nation. It is inconceivable—in the wake of the devastating impact of the recent natural disasters—that Congress would propose $50 billion in cuts for child care benefits, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Head Start, student loans, and other vital services for people in need. In the aftermath of these disasters, such catastrophic cuts can only deepen the pain and suffering and dramatically increase the number of people living in poverty in this nation.

We watched as members of Congress vowed to help rebuild the Gulf Coast. We heard our representatives promise to make helping those affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita a national priority. Yet despite those pledges, members of Congress now stand ready to cut $50 billion in essential programs that help those in need, while maintaining excessive tax cuts that help only the wealthy. The hurricanes were a natural disaster. But this proposed budget reconciliation would be a moral disaster of monumental proportion—and it is one that can be avoided.

The role of government is to protect its people and work for the common good. This is not the time for the budget reconciliation process to create greater hardships for those who are already experiencing great suffering.

To do so is not only unjust; it is a sin. It violates all the fundamental Christian principles of loving thy neighbor, caring for the poor, and showing mercy. As religious leaders, this violation is unacceptable to us.

How is it that we show mercy for oil millionaires and not hurricane survivors? We urge you to change this destructive course of action for the sake of our nation and for generations to come.

The outrage  expressed by Americans across the country to the images of injustice following Hurricane Katrina—and the subsequent outpouring of generosity from these same citizens—is a message from the grassroots that our government’s priorities and budget must reflect American values by helping those most in need at their time of need.  Please call a halt to budget reconciliation negotiations that are detrimental and direct your attention to healing rather than harming our society.

Respectfully submitted,

Signed (as of October 19, 2005)

Bishop Thomas Hoyt, Jr.
National Council of Churches USA

Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar
National Council of Churches USA

The Rev. Dr. Stan Hastey
Alliance of Baptists

His Grace Bishop Vicken Aykazian
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Friend Retha McCutchen
Friends United Meeting

Friend Thomas H. Jeavons
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

His Grace Bishop Dimitrios
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Rev. Michael E. Livingston
International Council of Community Churches

His Grace Metropolitan Zachariah Nicholovos
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

The Rev. David L. Wickmann
Moravian Church in America

Rev. William Shaw
National Baptist Convention USA

Dr. Melvin Wade
National Missionary Baptist Convention of America

The Most Reverend Robert M. Nemkovich
Polish National Catholic Church of America

The Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

The Rev. Dr. Major L. Jemison
Progressive National Baptist Convention

Rev. Tyrone Pitts
Progressive National Baptist Convention

Ms. Christine Laintner
Swedenborgian Church

The Rev. John H. Thomas
United Church of Christ

Mr. James Winkler
General Board of Church and Society
United Methodist Church

Related Link: National Council of Churches Press Release

"The Art of Caring for Souls"

Wise words from former senator Gary Hart:

Belief in the ineffectiveness of government, as we have seen in recent weeks, is self-fulfilling. For some, it is also deadly. It is a cause for wonder that those most critical of government are among those most eager to secure its power. Not believing in government, however, a conservative either does not know or care to know how to make it effective.

Response to hurricane Katrina is not proof of government’s failure; it is proof of George W. Bush’s failure to govern effectively.

The failure to govern well is a natural and a predictable result of disbelief in government. It is a brief step from disbelief in government to disbelief in governance. With many Democrats in tow, conservatives have demonized government: “Government is not the answer; government is the problem,” was Ronald Reagan’s inaugural pronouncement. How does one, not believing in government, respond when given its reins? In the case of the incumbent and previous conservative presidents the response is to not take it too seriously. Work out a couple of hours a day. Take a nap. Watch television in the evenings. Resist foreign travel and engagement in the great events of the times. Delegate authority, in many cases to incompetent people, because it really doesn’t matter much. Most of all avoid responsibility and, at all costs, accept accountability only reluctantly.

The most obvious problem with this theory of management, if you wish to call it that, is that people die. On January 31, 2001, the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century, the most comprehensive review of national security in more than half a century which I co-chaired with Warren Rudman, warned of terrorist attacks and urged President Bush to create a Department of Homeland Security. Eight months later, 9.11 occurred. He was warned. He neglected to act. Another nine months went by before he reluctantly acceded to our recommendation. A year and a half was lost. He was never called to account.

Four years later hurricane Katrina revealed how slip-shod, mismanaged, uncoordinated, lackadaisical that agency still was. The president took little or no interest. He could not be bothered. This was “government” and he does not believe in government. When in public office, I heard chanted like a mantra, Why can’t we run government like a business? Perhaps only George W. Bush can imagine running a giant corporation like he tries to run the government of the world’s greatest super-power. It would soon be on the verge of bankruptcy, its customers would have fled, its management would be in chaos, and any board of directors worth its salt would have fired him. Does he really want to be held to serious business standards? As Edmund Burke had it, “a great empire and little minds go ill together.”

The columnist David Brooks recently asked how “a comprehensive governmental failure is going to restore America’s faith in big government.” It shouldn’t. But it should now cause Americans to wake up to the difference between ineffective and effective government and the consequence of electing a “leader” who not only doesn’t believe in government, he doesn’t believe in governance. To judge the effectiveness of government by the performance of the most incompetent president in modern times is a shabby refuge for discredited conservatism.

Click here for more.

When Did Southern Baptist Become The Official Religion Of The American Red Cross?

People for the American Way reports:

Aid brought to a Red Cross shelter by PFAW board member Rev. Timothy McDonald's church was rejected. Why? Unlike the conservative Southern Baptist Convention, McDonald's First Iconium Baptist Church didn't have exclusive rights granted through the Red Cross to serve food.

Exclusive rights to serve food?  In a disaster? 

Click here for the full story.

Read comments on this post from Street Prophets

"Conferences adopt hurricane-devastated congregations; at least six more churches still waiting"

Written by J. Bennett Guess

Wednesday, 05 October 2005

Four UCC Conferences are assisting with hurricane recovery by “adopting” affected congregations in the New Orleans area, but at least six more churches still await such a partnering relationship. “Many of you have suggested that you would like to ‘partner with’ or ‘adopt’ a church,” says the Rev. Bill Royster, South Central’s Interim Conference Minister. “[While] three of the New Orleans churches have already been adopted, six other churches in New Orleans, all affected by Katrina, and possibly one church in Lake Charles, visited by Rita, would welcome being partnered with.” Central UCC in New Orleans has been adopted by the UCC’s Connecticut and Central Atlantic Conferences. Beecher Memorial UCC in New Orleans has been paired with the Penn Central Conference, and Little Farms UCC has been coupled with the Pacific Northwest Conference. Churches in New Orleans still needing a close relationship with supportive congregations or Conferences include Good Shepherd UCC, Bethel UCC, First-Trinity UCC, St. Matthew UCC, Salem UCC, St. Paul UCC and possibly Woodbury UCC in Lake Charles, La., Royster said. Royster said each church will require varying degrees of repair or renovation, as well as help with ongoing church expenses. Adoption, explains Royster, includes praying for the congregation; helping to fund the church’s normal operating budget, including its mission budget, for at least one-full year (with additional months possible, as needed); providing funds, as needed, for repairing the homes of the pastor and members; securing volunteers willing to come to the site and actively assist with repairs; and assisting with and funding the replacement of furnishing, equipment and supplies as needed “One or more Conferences or several congregations could join together in an adoption,” says Royster, who is also hoping that an entity will be found to help the South Central Conference be able to hire a full-time Coordinator for Disaster Recovery, a position that – with benefits, housing, travel and expenses – could cost the Conference about $90,000 per year. Assistance is also needed at UCC-related Back Bay Mission, where six or seven buildings will need to be razed and reconstructed. UCC-related Dillard University – which lost three building to fire and even more to flooding – is also in need of significant attention. “I am sure that adoption for them is possible,” Royster says. Also, the Amistad Research Center, located at Tulane University, “will need funds for its recovery,” Royster says. If interested in developing a partnership or “adoptive” relationship, email the Rev. Bill Royster at [email protected] or phone 512/459-7607. -- Contribute to the UCC's Hope Shall Bloom hurricane recovery initiative here.

“Dillard University Announces Plans to Commence Classes as Early as January 2006”

Here is some good news from New Orleans.

Dillard University, the highly regarded historic black university with ties to the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church, plans to re-open as early as this January. Dillard’s campus was heavily damaged during the floods brought about by Hurricane Katrina and a subsequent fire.

New Orleans, Louisiana – Dillard University officials today announced that plans are underway to commence classes as early as January 2006 at a site in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dillard University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tulane University to provide temporary facilities for Dillard “back home” while the Dillard campus undergoes extensive repairs in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In making the decision to relocate in New Orleans, President Marvalene Hughes, Ph.D., said: “The board of trustees, in consultation with various stakeholders, sought a solution that would reconnect the Dillard community physically, emotionally and spiritually, as well as enable the important work of teaching and learning to commence without further interruption.

Click here to read the full press release.

One of the buses evacuating Dillard students also caught fire. No one was injured but many students lost all their possessions.

Dillard is an exceptional institution. This community has endured much. If you are looking for a place to make donations this school should be on your short list.

The school’s chaplain, The Rev. Gail Bowman, also has an important message this week that speaks to all those who wonder what God’s role is during such disasters:

There was something about the re-evacuation that got to me. Friends who were struggling to settle themselves in new places were suddenly on the road again, this time accompanied by those who had taken them in, all of them seeking a second shelter. This was a new kind of “awful.”

You may have survived Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath without asking Why, O God? But when Hurricane Rita followed so quickly after Katrina, many of us were not able to avoid posing the question of why all of this is happening. Self-appointed experts on the subject of God’s motives have enthusiastically told me that Katrina was God’s punishment for New Orleans’ sins. However, this answer is a little too simplistic for me. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” [Romans 3:23]. If God undertook to punish sin in earthly time and in any kind of comprehensive way, “who shall stand?” [Psalm 130:3] Besides, in Katrina’s aftermath, many who suffered and died were poor people, and the Bible indicates God is especially partial to and tender toward the poor.

Events like the hurricanes, and the December 26, 2004 tsunami for that matter, raise the question of God’s participation in so-called “acts of God.” Like many believing people, I am able to accept that God allows natural disasters but I will not accept that God initiates natural disasters, especially as a punishment. Disasters are one of the ways we tell the difference between heaven and earth (this is, most decidedly, earth) but the whole story is not told in the disaster and what seems to have been lost. There is also story, God’s story, in what is gained and learned in strife. But even in these two pieces the story is incomplete, because there is yet more story that lives within unknown God-touched areas in each of us, and in the mysterious places between heaven and earth where God works in seclusion and with brilliance.

‘God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are God’s ways our ways,’ [Isaiah 55:8]. The elegance of this truth is that when it comes to human beings and what God is saying to us and teaching us, there are no limitations, and there is always more. This is not a good time to put what we think God is saying into words; this is a time to listen.

Let us keep Dillard University and her students, faculty and staff in our prayers.

Churches: America Needs Independent Commission To Investigate Katrina Failures

Former Bush FEMA director Michael D. Brown (and still FEMA employee) told a Congressional committee yesterday that anyone and everyone whose name isn’t Michael D. Brown was the one at fault for the federal government’s incompetence in responding to Hurricane Katrina. His biggest problem at the helm of FEMA during a national disaster:

"I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down, get over their differences and work together. I just couldn't pull it off."

The Center for American Progress reports the facts:

In testimony yesterday before a special congressional panel investigating the response to Hurricane Katrina, former FEMA director Michael Brown made a "fiery appearance" that attempted to shift blame away from the federal government. There were few facts to back up Brown's testimony, so consequently, he engaged in revisionist history. Overall, Brown's testimony illustrated he was an incompetent administrator who never should have been hired in the first place.

BROWN REPEATEDLY CONTRADICTS HIMSELF: Brown made a number of statements in his testimony yesterday that conflicted with previous statements he had given. For instance, Brown said that FEMA was stretched beyond its capabilities because, "over the past few years, [the agency] has lost a lot of manpower." But in September 2004, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Brown whether his agency was prepared to deal with hurricanes hitting Florida. Brown said, "We absolutely are. We have all the manpower and resources we need. President Bush has been a very great supporter of FEMA." Also, Brown defiantly stated, "FEMA doesn't evacuate communities." But in the midst of the hurricane aftermath, Brown said on CNN that FEMA was conducting "rescue missions" and would "continue to evacuate all of the hospitals." Furthermore, Brown said FEMA suffered "emaciation" because anti-terror operations had become a priority for the administration. But on CNN (8/16/04), Brown said, FEMA had "proven [in Florida] that we're up to the task" of responding to both terrorism and natural disasters.

BROWN'S BIG LIE: Under questioning by Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN), Brown suggested that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) had failed to issue an emergency assistance declaration for Orleans Parish, which includes New Orleans. Buyer asked, "Since you went through the exercise in Pam, was that not shocking to you that the governor would have excluded New Orleans from the declaration?" Brown said, "Yes," and that FEMA had questioned Blanco's decision. But Blanco's emergency declaration on August 27 was for all "affected areas" in "southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area."

All evidence points to a massive failure on the part of the Bush Administration in dealing with the crisis. The Republican Congress – in turmoil because of criminal indictments against Tom DeLay and investigations against Bill Frist – cannot be trusted to investigate the Bush Administration. America needs an independent 9/11-style commission to determine what went so wrong.

Church leaders, who have been on the front lines in responding to Katrina, are asking the president to support an independent investigation. The National Council of Churches USA reports:

New York, September 27, 2005 -- Keenly aware of the spiraling effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on millions of Americans, the National Council of Churches USA Governing Board formed an NCC commission to work for the "just rebuilding of community" on the Gulf Coast.

The board, meeting in New York September 26-27, also passed unanimously a resolution to call on the U.S. government to create an independent commission similar to the 9/11 Commission to investigate deficiencies in the response of rescue and relief workers following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and in other devastated areas of the Gulf.

NCC President Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr., Christian Methodist Episcopal bishop of Louisiana and Mississippi, said he would appoint Church World Service representatives and others with special expertise to the NCC commission on Katrina and he asked NCC member communions represented at the meeting to recommend persons who could serve. Church World Service is the humanitarian and relief agency of the communions that are members of the NCC.

The Rev. John H. Thomas, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, who proposed the formation of the commission, noted that millions of hurricane victims "were left behind, not by the rapture but by the rupture of the social contract."

Hoyt said he was also mindful of the hidden human tragedy of Katrina, including the alarming number of suicides of rescue workers and "people who lost everything." The board received for a second reading a resolution on "Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Support," which will be passed on to the NCC General Assembly for approval. The General Assembly meets November 8-10, 2005, in Hunt Valley, Md.

The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, released a statement today also calling for an independent commission:

I know the depth and breadth of the devastation Hurricane Katrina brought in her wake. While serving as president of The Interfaith Alliance, I also serve as the pastor of a Baptist congregation in Monroe, LA. Since Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, along with members of my congregation, I have worked on securing housing, medical care, food, and basic necessities for the 5,000 to 7,500 displaced people in our city.

The disparity between the response of the faith community to that of the government was inconceivable. When the government was nowhere to be found, houses of worship were there. We weren't there to pick up the pieces. We were there because the work we do is a part of the fabric of our being, our identity, and our "calling." It's ironic because I thought this was the same type of motivation for government relief efforts.

Because of all that we witnessed, The Interfaith Alliance joins with Representatives Charlie Melancon (D-Louisiana) and Gene Taylor (D-Mississippi) in urging you to create an independent, non-partisan commission to investigate the failures endured during and post-Katrina. Hard questions need to be asked and honest answers need to be given. The countless victims of the hurricane deserve nothing less from the same people who seem to have let them down. I believe it is an act of morality and religion to keep the government honest and responsible. Therefore, I also urge you and those on the commission to heed the lessons learned so that we do not find ourselves in this position again.

I would also be remiss in my responsibilities as president of The Interfaith Alliance, whose membership is comprised of over 150,000 people from 75 different faith traditions and no tradition, to express concern over the potential manipulation of this American tragedy to garner support for and advance your long-proposed Faith-Based Initiative.

Frankly, we do not need a Faith-Based Office in the White House or anywhere else in the United States Government. We have millions of faith-based offices across this nation from which incredibly good work is being done. And we--members of the church that I serve as pastor and people who value the independence of religion in the nation--do not want federal money to do our ministries. If the government will do its part in this relief effort, the religious community will do its part. But the government needs to take care of its business and not attempt to work through the religious community.

Send the president a message and tell him to support an independent commission.

Related Post: America Left The "Least Of These" Behind In The Wake Of Katrina

Mainline Church Leaders: After hurricanes, rebuilding schools should not be 'politicized'

One of my great concerns – after working for 17 years on issues of homelessness and affordable housing before entering seminary – is access to public education for children experiencing homelessness. Many communities have until recently refused to admit homeless children and even started segregated schools for their sure. Recent federal law – passed over the president’s objections but with bi-partisan support – have outlawed segregated schools for homeless children and required local school districts to provide access and resources for kids and their families living on the streets.

Sadly, the Bush Administration and Republican leaders in the House and Senate have used the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to try and give schools waivers which would exempt them from following federal law in this area. The result: school districts would once again be allowed to set-up segregated schools for homeless kids and for all those made homeless by Katrina and Rita. Separate is not equal.  Senate leaders have backed off the idea but House leaders and the White House have not.

Visit the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth to learn more.

Religious leaders from the United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Presbyterian Church USA wrote a letter this past week to Congress and the president urging them not to “politicize” the rebuilding of our public school system in the Gulf Coast. Check out the letter and pass it along to your friendss and send your thoughts to your Congressional delegation.

Related Post: Oregon Schools Open Doors To Katrina Evacuees

Distracted by differences over gay marriage, hurricane disaster is reminding some about importance of connectionalism

Written by J. Bennett Guess, Reprinted from United Church News

Saturday, 24 September 2005

The Rev. Bill Royster finds himself thinking a lot about a church in southeast Texas – now likely submerged in water – that was considering leaving the UCC because of General Synod’s vote in July to support same-gender marriage equality.

“I realized that they and the building were most likely the first group, area, or building to be covered by storm surge waters, and I thought, ‘Oh goodness, that is so sad,’” said Royster, the UCC’s South Central Conference Interim Minister. “I called, I offered our help and care, and I urged the secretary to print the brochure [from the UCC’s Insurance Board] telling folks how best to prepare themselves and their property for a storm. She was busy packing to leave, and she said, ‘I’ll download and print it. Thank you.’”

Royster said it reminded him of how important it is for the church to remain connected, to understand that our unity matters.

“How wonderful to be the church and to know that others join us in care and concern,” Royster said. “When I think of our Conference, I know how vital is our connection and covenant with each other.”

Royster said that, just as after Hurricane Katrina, the most recent hurricane is teaching us that “stories of pain and frustration, of survival and struggle, of hope and compassion abound."

“Many of our sisters and brothers in the UCC joined countless other people of every faith in providing 24/7 care for people who lost everything,” Royster said. “It was an experience of awesome proportions, as told by those who should have been so weary, but were instead were energized by their ‘well-doing.’”

The response from the wider church has been remarkable, even overwhelming, Royster said. “The response from people, churches, Conferences all across the United Church of Christ has been superb, beyond expectation,” he says. “Our National Disaster Response Team, as well as our president [John H. Thomas] and other national staff have been with us – not just in spirit, but in person as well.”

While he knows recovery will be a long-term process, Royster sees a commitment among UCC people to offer their assistance.

“People of the UCC everywhere are chomping at the bit to do all that they can to help. Funds are being collected, work parties are being organized and e-mails and phone calls offering support in every form are almost more than we can respond to in a reasonable time,” Royster said. “Thank you for being the church of Jesus Christ!”

--Contribute online to Hurricane Katrina Relief
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Related Story:  Prayer requested for UCC churches, members of Southeast Texas

All Over Again?

No Way Out: Many Poor Stuck in Houston

New Tax Breaks For Millionaires Set To Occur In January As Bush Economic Policies Drive Up Poverty And Deficits

Even before Hurricane Katrina the Bush economic policies had driven up poverty rates in America and turned an inherited national budget surplus into the nation’s largest budget deficits. The president’s war in Iraq, one made under false pretenses, and tax cuts for the richest Americans have been the heart of the economic problem we face. Now the nation is set to cut taxes millionaires – again – despite the fiscal crisis we all face.

The non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports:

Even before Hurricane Katrina, large deficits were projected far into the future, with the nation’s debt burden ultimately swelling to unsustainable levels. The relief and recovery from Hurricane Katrina is estimated to cost $100 billion to $200 billion, adding to the nation’s mounting debt. Debate has now begun about whether in the face of these costs and the grim long-term fiscal outlook, some belt-tightening and “shared sacrifice” are in order.

The budget reconciliation bills that Congress is slated to consider this fall will not help. Taken together, the two bills will increase deficits by more than $35 billion over five years. Under these bills, $35 billion in cuts in programs such as Medicaid and food stamps will be used not to reduce the deficit, but to offset a portion of the $70 billion that the reconciliation tax-cut bill will cost.

On September 16, President Bush said further budget cuts will be needed. The Administration presumably intends these cuts to come primarily in domestic programs. One obvious step, however, is being overlooked: Two tax cuts enacted in 2001 that are not yet in effect — and will only start taking effect on January 1 — could be reconsidered as a way of helping to defray some of the costs of Katrina relief and recovery. These two tax cuts will benefit only high-income households (primarily millionaires), will do little for the economy beyond further increasing the deficit, and were not even requested by President Bush in the first place. (They were added by Congress.)

The highly respected Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center reports that households with incomes of more than $1 million a year — the richest 0.2 percent of the U.S. population — already are receiving tax cuts averaging $103,000 this year, before these two new tax cuts take effect. The Tax Policy Center finds that the two tax-cut measures in question will give these “millionaires” nearly another $20,000 a year in tax cuts, when the measures are phased in fully.

This raises the question of whether the nation should proceed with these tax cuts at a time when many Katrina survivors remain in difficult straits, when huge sums are being discussed for Katrina relief and recovery, and when cuts in domestic programs — including programs for the poor — are slated for Congressional consideration this fall as part of the reconciliation bills.

Click here to read more.

Eliminating these tax cuts for millionaires will not fix our entire economic picture – only a complete reversal of the president’s failed economic policies will do that – but this would be an important start.

Related Post:  Would Jesus Pass Tax Cuts For The Rich And Leave The Least Of These Behind?

"Ideology Over People"

There is growing concern among religious leaders, public policy makers, and anti-poverty advocates that the Bush Administration has chosen a path in the Gulf Coast region that puts ideological allegiance to right-wing political goals ahead of relief. These concerns are mostly embodied in controversial social programs advanced by the administration (not to mention tax policies). It seems clear that this administration – which has witnessed poverty and hunger climb under their watch – is on a path to failure that will result in further harm to our nation. The Center for American Progress is tracking this disaster in the making:

KATRINA
Ideology Over People

The Bush administration turned Iraq into an ideological playground for right-wing economic policies. The results were disastrous. Now, as the people of the Gulf Coast face their own critical reconstruction needs, the White House plans more of the same. The Wall Street Journal reports the administration and its allies are plotting to use "relief measures for the hurricane-ravaged Gulf coast to achieve a broad range of conservative economic and social policies, both in the storm zone and beyond." Rep. Rahm Emanuel summed it up nicely: "They're going back to the playbook on issues like tort reform, school vouchers and freeing business from environmental rules to achieve ideological objectives they haven't been able to get in the normal legislative process." The victims of Hurricane Katrina deserve better.

“SEPARATE BUT EQUAL” EDUCATION: The Wall Street Journal reports that Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will ask Congress to waive a federal law that bans educational segregation for homeless children. The Bush administration is arguing, along with states like Utah and Texas, that providing schooling for evacuees – who, in this case, are likened to homeless children – will be disruptive to public school systems, so they want to have sound legal backing for creating separate educational facilities for the 372,000 schoolchildren displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The State of Mississippi is opposed to waiving the Act because it argues the law helps evacuees enroll in schools without red tape.

LOWER WAGES FOR HURRICANE RECOVERY CONSTRUCTION WORKERS: On Sept. 8, 2005, President Bush suspended application of the Davis-Bacon Act, a federal law governing workers’ pay on federal contracts in the Hurricane Katrina-damaged areas. According to the Washington Post, the Act “sets a minimum pay scale for workers on federal contracts by requiring contractors to pay the prevailing or average pay in the region. Suspension of the act will allow contractors to pay lower wages.” Congressman George Miller (D-CA) said, “In effect, President Bush is saying that people should be paid less than $9 an hour to rebuild their communities.”

LOWER WAGES FOR HURRICANE RECOVERY SERVICE WORKERS: The Washington Post reports, “the White House was working yesterday to suspend wage supports for service workers in the hurricane zone as it did for construction workers on federal contracts last week.” The article notes that anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist “is among those lobbying the White House to suspend wage supports for service workers in the hurricane zone.”

LIMITING ELIGIBILITY FOR HEALTH CARE: Medicaid, “the federal-state health program for the poor[,] has emerged as the main way to provide medical coverage for many evacuees.” But the Journal reports that the “White House appears cool to any expansion” of Medicaid for Katrina survivors, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was “not convinced” it was needed. “To me, each day that passes without us knowing … exactly what the Medicaid relief package is going to include is adversely affecting not only our state … but other states who are getting our evacuees,” said J. Ruth Kennedy, deputy director of Louisiana’s Medicaid program, which provided health care to one-quarter of the state’s population before the hurricane.

THE GHETTOIZATION OF KATRINA VICTIMS: There are hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina and need housing. The victims of Hurricane Katrina could be given housing vouchers so they could rent apartments and integrate with the rest of society. But Section 8 housing vouchers, a program that was started by Richard Nixon, doesn't fit in with the Bush administration's ideological agenda. Instead, the Bush administration is planning to build giant trailer parks. The Washington Post reports, "Mobile-home manufacturers, responding to pleas from FEMA, are adding shifts for workers to supply tens of thousands of travel trailers and mobile homes." The administration is also "considering converting many of the nation's retired steel shipping containers into temporary mini-housing units."

THERE IS A BETTER WAY: The reconstruction and recovery of the Gulf Coast should be guided by commonsense policies that benefit people, not just political movements. American Progress has some ideas: 1) Guarantee adequate health care to all of Katrina’s victims by expanding the Disaster Relief Medicaid program; 2)Integrate the Gulf’s poor—residentially, economically, and otherwise by expanding Section 8 housing and improving mass transit; 3) Maximize employment of Katrina victims in reconstruction projects and provide training; and 4) Stop disaster profiteering through independent oversight and vigorous enforcement of laws against price gouging by oil companies, gas stations, and financial institutions.

"Contaminants A Growing Concern"

Reposted from Disaster News Network - written by Heather Moyer

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (September 20, 2005) —
The threat of a huge negative environmental fallout in the South after Hurricane Katrina is very high, say some environmental groups.

To Derek Malek-Wiley, an environmental justice organizer with the Sierra Club in Louisiana, the health risks from the contaminated water, soil and air are not being taken seriously enough.

"The (Environmental Protection Agency) monitoring is inadequate," said Malek-Wiley, who is also a resident of New Orleans. "The concern is that this is not the first time we've seen something like this happen - this is like Sept. 11."

Residents and workers in New York City are still dealing with health issues due to the toxins in the air after Sept. 11. Community groups are still arguing with the EPA over proper clean-up methods for buildings that the community organizers say were never cleaned properly in the first place.

"Four years down the road - are we going have an outbreak of disease traced back to this?" said Malek-Wiley, continuing the comparison to post-Sept. 11 issues. "There are a whole range of public health issues that are not being adequately addressed. It's tough because there's a desire to get back home and get back to business, but it's so strong that environmental and health concerns are being put to the side."

The picture being painted by the EPA is one of a contaminated region. More than 19,400 "orphan" containers of household hazardous waste have been collected. Some 44 oil spills have been found by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Officials from the EPA say they are doing all they can. The EPA and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality are monitoring air, water and soil contamination around New Orleans. Last week the EPA collected air samples around New Orleans to test for pollutants like benzene, toluene and xylene. According to an EPA news release about the sampling, "These screening data were evaluated against the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) air short-term health standards in order to provide an initial assessment of air quality. The screening results indicated that chemical concentrations in most areas are below ATSDR health standards of concern."

The EPA sampling also found higher levels of those chemicals in the air near the oil spill at the Murphy Oil facility in Chalmette, and the release states that "These initial results represent the beginning of extensive sampling efforts and do not represent all air conditions throughout the area. As this is a dynamic situation, general conclusions should not be made regarding air safety based on results from this snapshot of data."

That statement in itself angers Malek-Wiley, who says it points to the exact problem. "The contamination is hard to quantify. The EPA talks about its sampling program, but when you take a sample it's just from that time and place. What we need is a movie of what's going on throughout New Orleans."

He is also concerned that there is no sampling plan talking about how the contamination hazards are modified by being trapped in sediment. Another news release from the EPA discusses 18 sediment samples taken last week in New Orleans:

"Preliminary results indicate that some sediment may be contaminated with bacteria and fuel oils and human health risks therefore exist from contact with sediment deposited from receding flood waters. E. coli was deteced in sediment samples but no standards exist for determining human health risks from E. coli in soil or sediment. The presence of E. coli, however, does imply the presence of fecal bacteria and exposure to sediment should therefore be limited if possible."

The same release states that some semi-volatile organic compounds such as diesel and fuel oil "were detected at elevated levels and may persist in the environment," and then lists numerous possible health effects from coming in contact with or breathing in such compounds - such as peeling skin and increased blood pressure. Long-term effects from breathing in fuel vapor include kidney damage and lowering the blood's ability to clot.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced on Sept. 15 that it "would be coordinating technical support for federal responder and federal contractor safety and health during cleanup and recovery operations along the Gulf Coast of the United States."

Yet under the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) recently activated Worker Safety and Health Support Annex of the National Response Plan, that leaves state and local governments responsible for their own workers during the cleanup. According to a U.S. Department of Labor document on the Worker Safety and Health Support Annex:

"Private-sector and Federal employers are responsible for the safety and health of their own employees. State and local governments are responsible for worker health and safety pursuant to State and local statutes, and in some cases...Worker Protection. This responsibility includes allocating sufficient resources for safety and health programs, training staff, purchasing protective clothing and equipment as needed, and correcting unsafe or unsanitary conditions."

An OSHA spokesperson said local and state governments can apply to OSHA and FEMA for money to support the cleanup if it is necessary. Yet people like Malek-Wiley remain worried about a unified response from all agencies involved. Will the emergency workers and the public be properly protected?

"The scale of the environmental health catastrophe just keeps growing," he said. "I think there are a lot more questions than answers as far as what people's risks are going to be and how this will impact folks. Should there be a warning for pregnant women in the city? People and health officials don't know. The guys down there working to clean it all up - what kind of training do they have and what is their protective gear? Are they just wearing jeans and waders? There are all sorts of occupational exposures we need to worry about. There are so many unknowns that I think we need to be better safe than sorry."

As far as moving back into the affected areas across the Gulf Coast, another issue residents must face is drinking water. The EPA and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals are assessing and monitoring the drinking water systems. According to the EPA, more than 490 drinking water systems are now operational and 26 drinking water systems are operating with boil water advisories.

For those with wells, the potential contamination may be a daunting foe. In Mississippi, the state department of environmental quality is urging all residents in flooded regions to have their wells tested for contamination.

The National Ground Water Association (NGWA) is issuing well disinfecting guides to local governments and the public. Cliff Treyens, the director of public awarness for the NGWA, said residents need to be vigilant and remove all contaminated water from their wells.

"When flooded water gets into the well, the well then becomes a pathway for that contaminated water to get into the aquifer," he said. "It's like a sponge, and then it's there."

That is why it is so important for residents to pump water from their wells until the water is clear, Treyens said. He added that almost all methods of killing the bacteria within wells also include chlorinating the entire well system of one's residence.

Treyens said he's not as worried about contaminated soil affecting groundwater. "The ground actually filters the water. So by the time the water reaches an aquifer, if it's sufficiently deep, the ground has filtered out and broken down a lot of the bacterial elements and even chemical contaminants if it's deep enough."

Many NGWA members are signing up via a national professional services volunteer registry to go into the hurricane affected regions and assist the public and local governments, added Treyens. "We'll also be looking at other potential responses for our organization."

Posted September 20, 2005 4:10 PM

National Council Of Churches President: Bush's Actions Must Match Words

Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr., President of the National Council of Churches USA and Christian Methodist Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana and Mississippi, has issued the following response to President Bush's address to the nation:

It is commendable for President Bush to apologize for the mistakes made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We welcome his pledge to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We celebrate his promise to address the injustices that were so profoundly exposed by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding of New Orleans.

Both his apology and his promises will help us move forward as a nation. Yet, as his sisters and brothers in faith, we feel it is our duty to remind the President that an apology and promises will only go so far. Now, as a nation, we must acknowledge that this crisis has only exposed what lies just beneath the surface of prosperity and progress in this country. In America, we have a past that haunts us on every level of our existence. We now see all too clearly that a person's race and class can often determine whether or not you are left behind in the Super Dome or escorted to safety.

As we look beyond the President's welcome candor, we must now look to our government and to the private sector for a long-term change in behavior that recognizes and corrects the glaring inequities of American society in housing, jobs and wages, health care and education -- the list is long and growing. Disaster relief and rescue must go beyond the flooded streets of New Orleans and reach into the desperate lives of the millions in poverty across our land -- a disproportionate number of whom are African American.

Today, we stand on the threshold of what is a great opportunity. It is an opportunity to become the America that we have always dreamed of being. It is an opportunity to become the America that Martin Luther King, Jr. so vividly portrayed in his "I Have A Dream" speech more than 40 years ago. It is an opportunity to stop making empty promises, to practice what we preach, to walk what we talk. It is way beyond overdue that America treats all its citizens as full participants in the economic and educational and cultural mainstream. We may have come to America on different ships, but we're all in the same boat now.

In our rush to repair the levees and restore the neighborhoods of the Gulf Coast, let us not continue the injustices -- and yes, the sins of omission and commission -- of the past. Let us not continue to allow children to be left behind by under-funded school systems and inadequate healthcare. Let us not continue to allow poor people to live in neighborhoods that are environmental hazards. Let us not continue to allow honest, hardworking people to work for less than livable wages.

The Book of Nehemiah (2:18) records that the people of Israel, seeing that Jerusalem was destroyed, said, "Let us rise up and build. Then they set their hands to this good work." As the Bishop of the Fourth Episcopal District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church presiding over Mississippi and Louisiana and as the President of the National Council of Churches USA, I say to you: Let us rise up and build! How we respond as a nation to this crisis can be the beginning of a new era of progress, prosperity and promise for a new America that will be true to its spiritual and ethical values and worthy of its leadership among the nations.

The National Council of Churches is composed of 35 member churches in the USA representing a wide spectrum of Orthodox, mainline, Episcopalian, historic African American and peace churches. The membership of these churches includes 45 million Americans.

Can’t Ignore Poverty and Class in Slow Katrina Response–or in Meaningful Recovery, Says Church World Service Head

Article from Church World Service:

NEW YORK – As the country continues to question to what degree race and class were reflected in slow federal response to Katrina’s desperate and dying victims in New Orleans, the Executive Director of humanitarian agency Church World Service claims race and poverty both were factors, decries blaming of the victims, and says poverty and class must be considered in "meaningful long-range recovery."

Appearing on MSNBC's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann on Sunday (Sept 11), humanitarian agency Church World Service Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough stated, "No doubt race is an important factor in the Gulf Coast . . . but class is also a critical factor.

"As we looked at Katrina," McCullough said, "we were concerned about people of color," but McCullough said the debate now should be focused "more broadly on poverty and class."

McCullough, an African American, said New Orleanian survivors were "people victimized by the authorities" who had failed to "use the resources at their disposal."

He said the way governmental responses have unfolded "give us an opportunity to see whether the government acts as a safety net," which McCullough said should be the case but didn’t happen quickly enough with Katrina.

McCullough said, however, that the disaster has "reopened to discussion the issues of race and poverty in a positive way. This should help us as Americans to look at the responsibility of one for the other," he said, and "our expectations of government."

Today, McCullough says, "It's absolutely necessary that we as a nation pay attention to the issues of class, of poverty, in how we now turn to the long-term recovery of the Gulf Coast region and Katrina’s survivors.

"The way we assist Katrina’s most vulnerable survivors in rebuilding their lives over the long haul will be a litmus test--and can be a model--of how we must proceed as a nation in closing the gaping divide in this country.

"The world is watching us," he said. McCullough visited Louisiana days after Katrina struck and after the flooding of New Orleans, performing early assessment for CWS's response and to rescue members of his own family who had been in New Orleans.

McCullough says CWS is focusing on long-term recovery for the Gulf Coast and now bringing the agency’s experience in international refugee resettlement to bear to assist those hurricane evacuees who want to or have resettled elsewhere, "to help make sure that these doubly traumatized citizens are not forgotten as a class."

CWS is the only agency responding to the Katrina disaster that has both an international and domestic emergency response unit and a refugee and resettlement unit.

Global CWS's expanded efforts for this unprecedented U.S. disaster include responding to meet immediate needs, organizing for long-term recovery at multiple faith community levels, and addressing assistance to relocated individuals across the country.

The agency’s particular focus is on long-term recovery assistance for vulnerable populations.

CWS Responders in Gulf Coast Coordinating Long-term Recovery Planning

Church World Service disaster responders are now in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas to support and help formulate long-term responses and assist in establishing new community-based long-term recovery organizations that will in turn provide local, hands-on support to survivors with unmet needs.

In Louisiana, as part of a five-person disaster response team, CWS’s Lura Cayton is coordinating a coalition of state ecumenical bodies and inviting smaller denominations to participate jointly in long-term recovery programs.

In Houston, Church World Service disaster responder Heriberto Martinez reports that CWS is collaborating with Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston in its Neighbors 2 Neighbors program to help newly arriving evacuees who will resettle in the Houston area.

Of the thousands of evacuees still in Houston’s Astrodome many are ill, elderly, or mentally ill--and many have been off medications since the hurricane and flooding of New Orleans.

Martinez is visiting volunteers and evacuees staying at the Astrodome to assist in responding to immediate needs and assess future needs.

He says a collaboration of responding interfaith groups conducted a training seminar in Houston with more than 75 ministers and lay leaders from various denominations, to help prepare them for working with people who will be living in temporary shelters in the area.

In the devastated Mississippi Gulf Coast area, Church World Service disaster responder Lesli Remaly reports that "a vibrant group has been set up," following meetings with area faith and state leaders to develop long-term recovery planning. CWS's Davis and Cheri Baer are focusing initially on the Meridian and Jackson areas. Agency responder Art Jackson is based in Columbus. Additional CWS responders are expected to be deployed.

CWS Associate Director for Emergency Response Linda Reed Brown says, "We expect to form as many as 25 new long-term recovery groups nationwide as a result of Katrina.

"We have strong established recovery groups in Florida who are assisting those in the Panhandle impacted by Katrina. And," she says, "some of our established recovery group network who are already working with Katrina survivors are also still assisting those in need from last year’s hurricane season."

With expertise in training care providers domestically and internationally to work with trauma victims, Church World Service is also focusing on supporting trauma care for Katrina's survivors. Brown says CWS will conduct its Interfaith Trauma Response Trainings for Katrina caregivers and will also

offer trauma care through its Spiritual and Emotional Care Response cadre of volunteer professional counselors. Both programs were developed after the September 11 disaster.

CWS domestic responders with high expertise in disaster emotional and spiritual care will also support development of a national strategy to provide appropriate trauma and psycho-social care in shelters and relocation communities, and for grueling public operations such as morgue and death notification.

Agency Raises Fundraising Campaign to $9.5 million, Anticipating Long-term Needs

Last week, CWS expanded its national Katrina fundraising goal to $9.5 million, with a view particularly toward long-term recovery for survivors who remain in the Gulf Region and for those who resettle.

To date, Church World Service has provided more than $300,000 in material assistance to affected areas, including 18,100 CWS Blankets; 14,335 "Gift of the Heart" Health Kits; 500 CWS "Gift of the Heart" Children’s Kits; and 1,000 "Gift of the Heart" School Kits. Shipments have arrived in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. A shipment of UNICEF school and recreation materials is now being distributed in Meridian, Mississippi.

Contributions to support these efforts may be sent to:

Church World Service
Hurricane Katrina Response -- #6280
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515

Or call 800 297 1516, ext. 222. Or give online at www.churchworldservice.org.

Religious Leaders To Congress: Don't Cut Poverty Programs

September 13, 2005

Dear Members of Congress:

As leaders of our respective denominations, we have long sought an end to the injustices inherent in poverty. We have never seen these injustices born out so vividly in our own country as in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The devastation wrought by Katrina has exposed the anguished faces of the poor in the wealthiest nation on the planet. These faces, precious in the eyes of God, cause us to remember that racial disparities and poverty exist in almost every community in our nation. They also compel us to set before Congress once again our concerns for the FY '06 federal budget and its impact on people living in poverty. With renewed urgency, we call on Congress to stop the FY '06 federal budget reconciliation process immediately.

We believe our federal budget is a concrete expression of our shared moral values and priorities. Congress rightly and quickly responded in appropriating needed funds to ensure an adequate initial response to Hurricane Katrina. Our denominations have mobilized and are responding in prayer and financial support and direct service to those in need. Yet, just as disaster struck the Gulf Coast, the U.S. Census Bureau reported in very particular detail that poverty in the United States is growing. The annual report, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004 showed that 37.0 million people lived in poverty in 2004, an increase of more than one million people since 2003.

In April, during consideration of the budget resolution we wrote to Congress that, "As we view the FY '06 Federal Budget through our lens of faith this budget, on balance, continues to ask our nation's working poor to pay the cost of a prosperity in which they may never share." It is clear that programs such as Medicaid and the Food Stamp Program that were slated for cuts by Congress will in fact have greater burdens placed on them as a result of Hurricane Katrina. These programs are not simply entitlements or "government hand-outs," they represent the deep and abiding commitment of a nation to care for the least among us.

Believe us when we tell you that even before Hurricane Katrina or the Census Bureau's report, neither we nor our friends of other faiths had the resources to turn back the rising tide of poverty in this country. The FY '06 reconciliation bill that is working its way through the authorizing committees will send more people searching for food in cupboards that, quite frequently, are bare.

We commit ourselves to working for economic policies infused with the spirit of the One who began his public ministry almost 2,000 years ago by proclaiming that God had anointed him "to bring good news to the poor."

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, USA

The Rt. Rev. Mark Hanson
Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American

The Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

The Rev. John H. Thomas
General Minister and President, United Church of Christ

James Winkler
General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society, United Methodist
Church

Related Post:  Would Jesus Pass Tax Cuts For The Rich And Leave The Least Of These Behind?

Don't Hurt Homeless Kids In School

Action Alert

In response to Hurricane Katrina, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has announced her intention to seek permission from Congress to waive the educational rights of homeless children and youth under the McKinney-Vento Act.

The McKinney-Vento Act has opened the doors of public schools to hundreds of thousands of children displaced from Hurricane Katrina. The Act has enabled these and other children experiencing homelessness to be immediately enrolled in school, to receive transportation to be stabilized in school, and to benefit from the resources, support, and normalcy of neighborhood schools.

Many states have worked hard to comply with the law and to give children whose lives have been disrupted by the loss of housing a regular school experience. Lafayette schools in Louisiana have enrolled and provided services to more than 3,000 children made homeless by the storm, Shreveport schools have enrolled over 1,000. Communities across Texas have integrated and supported more children, with upwards of 5,000 children being enrolled in Houston, and well over 1,000 children each in San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin.

Despite these and countless other successes, the Secretary of Education has announced that she will seek from Congress the ability to waive homeless children's educational rights in order to accommodate a handful of requests for greater flexibility.

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED: Please urge your U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative to deny Secretary Spellings request for authority to waive the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.

Tell them that the McKinney-Vento Act is needed now more than ever, and that children made homeless by the hurricane deserve the full protections and benefits of their education.

Phone numbers for U.S. Senators may be found on http://www.senate.gov and for U.S. Representatives at http://www.house.gov .

The timing is URGENT, as Congress will act soon. Phone calls are needed, and/or faxed letters. Please distribute this alert to as many community partners as possible, and ask them to call, too. For more information, please contact Barbara Duffield at NAEHCY at [email protected] or 202.364.7392.

Related Post:  Homeless Youth and Public Schools

Related Link:  National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth

Louisiana Clergy: Help The Gulf Coast And Don't Cut Health Care For The Poor

Louisiana religious leaders yesterday called on the federal government to do more to rebuild the Gulf Coast and to do more to address poverty. The AP reports:

Louisiana religious leaders said Monday they want the federal government to develop a comprehensive family recovery plan for victims of Hurricane Katrina, but not without input from New Orleans' displaced families.

"We don't want to be just the recipients," said Father Michael Jacques, pastor of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in New Orleans. "We want to participate."

Nearly a dozen religious leaders from New Orleans and other Louisiana cities traveled to Washington to join a previously scheduled news conference by a national grassroots religious group protesting President Bush's proposed $10 billion cut in Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for low-income Americans….

Allen Stevens, administrator of St. Phillip the Apostle Catholic Church in New Orleans, said he's received countless calls since the storm parishioners asking, "What do I do? I'm in a hotel I have two days left. I'm out of money. I can't go back home. What's the future of my family, my daughter, myself?"

Jacques said the family recovery plan should provide for debt relief and mortgage reduction help, decent housing that's not in temporary shelters but is near grocery stores and schools, jobs and job training, counseling and schooling for children.

"We need help," said the Rev. Steve Beckstrom of the Little Rock Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. "We need to be able to look beyond the bureaucracy and be moved with compassion and realize this isn't a Louisiana and Mississippi thing, this isn't a Baton Rouge or Lafayette thing. This is a national thing. We need to throw our arms around each other."

Paula Arceneaux, chair of New Orleans All Congregations Together, said the hurricane exposed the federal government's failure to provide a safety net for poor Americans. And the proposed cuts in Medicaid, she said, will worsen that problem.

"Now is not the time to cut low-income children and families from health care," she said.

Click here to read the full story.

Is anyone surprised the Bush Administration is proposing even more reductions in Medicaid during a time of increasing poverty levels and national crisis?

George W. Bush is still leaving the least of these behind.

Related Link:  PICO National Network

Exodus 16:2-21: A Sermon By The Rev. Dr. Deborah Krause

This morning The Rev. Dr. Deborah Krause, the academic dean here at Eden Theological Seminary, preached on Exodus 16:2-21 during our chapel services. Her sermon - which deals with history, grace, Barbara Bush and Hurricane Katrina - was powerful and it is too bad an audio recording is not available.  However, Dr. Krause was kind enough to give me permission to post the text of her sermon here.

Beware of stories like the quail and manna story.

They sound nice, but they should make you quite suspicious. Stories like this are the stories that religious communities tell about themselves to remind their members of the institutional values, and authorities of the community. They are origin stories. They can be a kind of map as to who plays what role and to what the overarching cultural assumptions and rules are. In other words – they can be told as stories that tell you who you are and what you should do. Beware of stories like this.

Eden seminary has a story like this. Like the Israel story from the wilderness tradition it is grounded in the origins of the school. Much like the story of the quails and manna, this Eden story sets a baseline for the identity of the Eden community and its members. The story is this – that back in 1850 – at the founding of this school in Marthasville, Missouri – just about forty minutes west of here – students had literal “field work” to do before they went to class. In fact, these original students had farm chores of cultivating the fields of the campus, tending the livestock, mending the buildings, fences, and equipment. For several hours each day these hearty and pious students would work as farmers for the Eden community before they would begin their own academic studies.

This is a story about the origin of Eden seminary that bespeaks our simple piety, our thriftiness, and our pride in hard work. When we recite this story for current students it plays a very important rhetorical role – it says: “we are made of sturdy stock,” “hard work with and for the institution insures an enduring legacy,” and “students today have nothing to complain about.”

Likewise in ancient Israel, the story of the quails and manna in the wilderness bore several core truths about the community. Our leaders lead well and are obedient to God. Our practices and observances, such as the Sabbath, were established even at the very founding of our community. Our members were contrary and disobedient, and required strong leadership. You might guess that this was likely a story told by the religious leadership of Israel.

Now imagine rhetorically what such a tradition might mean in the hearing of such a community: It would reinforce the established leadership of the religious community, it would authorize the practices and observances of that community. The story would call for its hearers to follow the leaders and follow the rules. The message of the text might be something like: “Obey the rules and all will be well.”

Come to think of it – the Dean likes that message from the text for this morning – “Obey and all will be well.”

But theologically what does the story mean? Is there more to the story from the wilderness generation other than a moral tale about how Israel ought to trust and obey its God and ought to trust and obey its leaders?

Yes – indeed there is. Look at the central theme of the story. Those who complain and who challenge the system of God’s leadership of the people – they are fed, and nourished, and sustained. While Moses and Aaron may have liked to institute a system that those who complain most receive less, or that those who attempt to gather more than their fair share – find their food ruined and are never allowed to gather again – such is not the case.

In fact, those who break the rules are ultimately rewarded. No doubt those who take more than their fair omer of manna, find their food to weigh what their neighbor’s does, and their extra gathering for naught. Those who keep their food overnight, find that food ruined with worms a day later. But every day there is always more. And on the Sabbath – there is a double portion . . . for any and for all – both the compliant and the complaining.

So this text is not simply about rules, and expectations for membership in the community of Israel, it is also about something much bigger, and much less “map – able” It is about grace.

And grace resists the voice of authority that announces with such confidence the summary value of the religion to be “Obey and all will be well.” Grace sneaks up around the side and behind the back of institutional norms and authorized self certainties and says to the outsider (and even the broken down insider) “Hey, guess what, there’s enough for you too. It’s alright, have something to eat.”

And so the story bears both an institutional message and a subversive message of grace.

This last week there was quite a bit of institutionalized rhetoric about the hideous disaster on the Gulf coast and the response of the government and private citizens to the tragedy. In this rhetoric you could hear echoes of the stories we tell ourselves as a nation – stories that authorize leaders to lead and inform those who follow to comply and not complain. One, now infamous expression of this national rhetoric came from former first lady Barbara Bush.

Last week while in the Houston Astrodome, visiting with survivors from Katrina, many of whom had spent several harrowing, life threatening days in the N.O. Convention Center or the Superdome, Barbara Bush shared with reporters her response to how the survivors were processing their good fortune to be out of flood ravaged N.O. and in a situation of relative comfort and safety. She said:

“What I am hearing, which is sort of scary, is that they (the survivors) all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the Arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, (chuckle) so this is working very well for them.”

Barbara Bush’s institutionalized worldview of the established authorities – a worldview oblivious of its own investiture in white privilege and upper class elitism -- was reading the story of Katrina survivors in Houston as a case of the underprivileged making out like bandits on gracious Texan hospitality of Houston’s largesse. But theologically, what “Bar” seemed to miss is that the provision that has come forth in the aftermath of Katrina is not some silver teaspoon of sympathy measured out by the “haves” to the “have nots.” It is nothing less than the goodness of God which is beyond all of our control and maneuvering, providing enough and even a double portion for those who have been stranded in this wilderness of disaster, devastation, and despair.

Mrs. Bush’s attempts to supervise that expression of grace, and to codify it into categories of who deserves what and how left her this week with nothing but a mouthful of worms. The goodness she seemed to imagine she spoke for dried up in the noonday heat, and left her not the grand dame of Texan hospitality she seemed to imagine herself to be, but a callous classist and a racist.

Never fear for Barbara. The good news is that if she hangs out in that wilderness long enough there will no doubt be grace enough for her as well. That is the way grace works, and at one time or another we have all been at the wrong end of telling a story where we have desperately needed grace before.

The good news of Israel’s story – if we read it theologically – is that it resists a simple claim like “Obey the rules and you will be saved.” Instead, the story from God’s point of view is a kind of parable about God’s grace and provision. Such parables offer not so much institutional legitimacy and authority – I think Israel knew there would always be claims to those things in ample measure. Rather there is a promise in this story of God’s provision and goodness that might call us from our certainties and carefully constructed views out into something much more liberating and life giving – new communities, new relationships, and new life.

For that encouragement, for that promise, let us thank God as we journey on in faith in these days of both wilderness and blessing.

Photo credit: Eden Theological Seminary web site

Update: Read the comments on this post in the UCC's online theology forum.

Update On Dillard University

Important updates from Dillard University, the United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church-related school in New Orleans, have become available this evening.

First, news reports over the last several days do confirm that the campus was seriously damaged in the storm and a later fire that impacted several buildings this past Tuesday. Dillard, however, has posted a recovery plan on their web site.

Before posting those plans let me say the school is going to need enormous financial contributions. Please consider helping out. If you own a business or can write a large check this is the moment to do it. Your gifts will help educate young people and there are few things more important than that. Click here to give. The United Negro College Fund is also raising money for this effort.

The Recovery Plan from the Dillard web site:

DILLARD UNIVERSITY RECOVERY PLAN UNDERWAY

Eunice, Louisiana—The Dillard University Board of Trustees, Dillard’s ninth President Dr. Marvalene Hughes and the senior staff are fully engaged in the recovery of the 55 acre campus.

The following action items are being executed immediately:

• We have committed to all registered students that they will not lose academic credit for this academic year. If we can resume classes in January 2006 on the Dillard campus, we will provide the equivalent of two full semesters of academic instruction between January and August, 2006. We must await an assessment of the physical status of the Dillard campus to determine if we can resume classes on the Dillard campus in January of 2006.
• The Provost is currently developing a plan to provide the required weeks of instruction. Once developed, the plan will be available at www.dillard.edu.
• Dillard students who enroll at other fully accredited colleges and universities this fall will receive full course credit in accordance with Dillard University Guidelines.
• A locator registry is being established at www.dillard.edu to allow faculty, staff, alumni and friends to identify their locations as soon as possible.
• We will need significant support from alumni, friends, corporations, foundations and government agencies to rebuild Dillard’s physical facilities and infrastructure.

Dillard requires significant cash investments from alumni, government sources, foundations, corporations and friends to restore the physical facilities and infrastructure, equipment, and academic instructional materials.

More than 68 prominent universities around the nation have offered their campuses and their services to aid Dillard students during the fall semester. Many are generously offering tuition, room and board to our students. We are grateful and reassured by our generous colleagues and by offers from numerous community agencies, leading national organizations and affiliate churches.

We are dedicated to the success of our students and the entire Dillard community, and all of us await eagerly our return to Fair Dillard.

The web site also carries a message tonight from the university’s Chaplain. Several students and parents have written to let me know that you’re reading this blog looking for updated information and I wanted to make sure you heard these inspiring words:

My grandmother used to say, “God is still on the Throne.” Perhaps you or one of your family members proclaims this also. Beloved of the Lord, Fair Dillard, God’s holiness, compassion and faithfulness has never been more real than it is at this instant.

We are not overwhelmed. We are challenged, yes. We are scattered, yes. Our hearts bleed and threaten to break. Nevertheless, with God’s help and the prayers of countless thousands, we will meet and consume this challenge. We will be gathered together again. And we will follow the pain in our hearts through into a deeper gratitude for what is entrusted to us, and a more profound sympathy for and understanding of those who suffer displacement and loss.

Hold fast to this: We are not overwhelmed. A better day is coming. God is still, still, Still, STILL on the Throne.

Rev. Gail Bowman

I hope that all the Dillard community know that people are praying for your success all across the United Church of Christ and the nation-at-large.

Jewish Leaders Reject Prominent Rabbi’s Claim Katrina Was God’s Punishment

Religion News Service reports:

Jerusalem, Sept. 9 - Jewish groups have strongly condemned remarks by a leading Israeli rabbi who said that Hurricane Katrina was God's way of punishing the United States.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Sephardi chief rabbi and the influential spiritual leader of the Shas political party, made the claim during his weekly sermon on Tuesday (Sept. 6). He said that the devastation wrought by Katrina "was God's retribution" for pressuring Israel to relinquish Gaza and the northern West Bank to the Palestinians. Yosef, a Torah scholar who often mixes religion and politics, said that President Bush perpetrated the removal of Jewish settlers and Israeli troops from the territories, which are scheduled to be handed over to the Palestinians within weeks…..

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism said Thursday that Yosef's assertions were "despicable" and "substantively absurd."

"It was not President Bush but Prime Minister (Ariel) Sharon who launched and implemented" the Gaza disengagement, the organization said. While the Internet has been full of messages linking Katrina to divine retribution, Yosef's reputation as one of Judaism greatest scholars makes his comments particularly disturbing, according to Rabbi Arik Ascherman, director of the Israel-based organization Rabbis for Human Rights. "People listen" to what Yosef says, Ascherman said, "and I think his statements are only going to degrade Judaism in the eyes of many."

Noting that Jewish communities around the world have rallied to help Katrina victims, and that the Israeli government has sent planeloads of humanitarian aid and medical personnel to the stricken areas, Ascherman said that "clearly the hearts of the State of Israel and the Jewish people are with the people suffering in New Orleans."

Related Link: The Gaza Withdrawal: What You Need To Know

Related Link: Donate To The Union For Reform Judaism Disaster Relief

A Prayer for the City

God of peace, in Jesus you wept for the city,
you loved the city,
place of human greed, violence, wealth, and poverty,
but also a place of hope and human gathering.
We pray for New York City, for New Orleans,
and for their metropolitan areas,
that the needs of all for food, and shelter, and work,
for justice and dignity, might be met.
We pray that the diverse people living here
may join their efforts to seek the good of all.
Minister to these cities through the hands of your people,
as they feed the hungry,
heal the sick, and comfort the sorrowing.
We pray for people living in cities around the world,
who have come seeking to work and to survive.
We pray for refugees and for those who have been driven off the land.
May they too find what they need to live.
Keep alive in us that hope of the new Jerusalem,
of the city that finds its light from your presence,
and its joy in doing your will,
where tears are dried, and violence is destroyed.
Through Jesus Christ, Let it be! Amen.

Ruth Duck in Touch Holiness: Resources for Worship (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1990) 223. Used with permission

Adapted for use here from www.ucc.org .

Leadership

Gore airlifts Katrina victims out of New Orleans

The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy: Americans Must Be Charitable - And Political

Fellow Americans,

Seldom, if ever, has the interdependence of our lives been more apparent.  When one of us hurts, all of us hurt.  Our lives are inextricably linked together.

As head of The Interfaith Alliance, the national non-partisan advocacy voice of the interfaith movement, and as pastor of a congregation in Monroe, Louisiana, my recent experiences have prompted me to assess what has happened in the wake of hurricane Katrina, and to rethink what we need to be doing in the days ahead.

My strong hope is that the realization of our interdependence that has emerged from shared problems will prompt a commitment to interdependence focused on help. When one of us is in need, all of us can and should help.

But not even “I’m sorry,” rings with much authenticity in the ears of loved ones grieving the loss of lives that could have been saved.  And certainly, someone who is not hurting should not try to tell someone who is hurting how loudly to scream.

In the days ahead, we must commit ourselves to empathy, compassion, charity – and politics.  We’ve got to work harder.  Conscientious involvement in politics on the part of people of faith and goodwill has never been more important. Americans who are grieving, suffering, and bearing witness will now be acting in the spirit of democracy.

For starters, just as there is no place in our national psyche for racist attitudes, there must be no place on our national agenda for racist actions.  A national outcry against racism is not enough; actions are needed now to assure that our institutions of justice, commerce, government, and education are free from racism every day even as our systems of rescue, recovery, and rehabilitation are devoid of racism in the aftermath of a disaster.  Americans must recognize the racism, and actively, immediately, work to stop the hate.

Americans will act, and Americans will listen.  It is precisely because Americans are hurting so badly that we cannot afford to give a pass to John Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court.  A “Roberts' Court” may, in the wake of Katrina, be certain to confront grand issues of morality – and immorality -- in the coming decades: the moral responsibility of providing assistance and real homeland security to all Americans; the moral questions posed by the recently exposed (to all) economic duality that is America; and the morality necessary to balancing rebuilding with security.

Now, more than ever, I believe that we cannot confirm any nominee, affirm any policy, or endorse any legislative proposal simply because of a recommendation from the president.  Nothing that this president does should escape our careful scrutiny.

Let us pay attention to facts: several months ago President Bush led our nation into war on the basis of false information.  In recent days, the president has concluded a tour of the devastation in Louisiana praising the man whom he named as the executive officer of FEMA for doing “a heck of a job” facilitating recovery efforts that simply were non-existent early and inadequate late.  Acknowledging grave difficulties related to the timing and quality of rescue and recovery efforts after Katrina, President Bush has blamed the Washington bureaucracy for failures in the timely delivery of services, though he is the chief executive officer, of that bureaucracy.

All of us—especially members of the United States Senate at the present moment—have a moral and patriotic responsibility to ask the hardest questions possible about the president’s nominees.  We must examine with equal care his legislative proposals.  We simply cannot afford listlessly to open the door to decades of retrenchment in support for and defense of the basic rights and freedoms that have guided our pursuit of a nation led by a government of the people, by the people, and for all the people.

Fellow Americans, as we continue to do all that we can to help the poorest and weakest among us as well as to assist all devastated by this deadly storm and its aftermath, we are more aware than ever that real help resides not in the rhetoric of religion or the claims that we make about the importance of moral values but in the actual substance of our actions.  Our theology holds us responsible, our faith allows us to listen, and our shared democracy demands that we act.

Sincerely,

Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy
President, The Interfaith Alliance

Edgar: End Poverty that made Katrina victims vulnerable

NCC General Secretary says Katrina response must be two-fold:
Aid the victims and end the poverty that made them vulnerable

New York, September 9, 2005 -- The General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA today described the plans of member churches to aid the millions of persons displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

But the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar warned that catastrophes like Katrina will happen again unless national, state and local governments come to grips with the poverty that left so many people trapped in the path of the storm.

"The real hurricane crisis began years ago, not only with the neglect of the levees in New Orleans but with the neglect of poor people who live in the city and throughout the Gulf coast," Edgar said. "When the hurricane approached, people who had the means to buy gasoline or public transportation or refuge away from the storm, left the city. Those who could not afford it stayed -- and we are still waiting with horror to learn how many died."

The NCC is working closely with Church World Service, its sister humanitarian and relief agency, to rush food, blankets and other supplies to New Orleans and to areas where hurricane victims are being sheltered. FaithfulAmerica.org, the council's online network of socially committed persons of faith, raised $40,000 for relief in the week following Hurricane Katrina.

But Edgar said governments must work harder to prevent future tragedies. "Every city in the U.S. and around the world that neglects the poor makes the poor vulnerable to a disaster on the scale of Katrina," Edgar said.  "The rising waters of human desperation may not be caught on camera, but that desperation is no less real for millions in our nation and abroad who live in 'the ground below zero.' When we fail to pay attention, crisis comes as an expensive wake-up call.  The time to build the ark is before the flood begins."

"The world is knit together into such interdependence that we cannot live in isolation as a country," Edgar said, "just as Gulfport and Biloxi and New Orleans are irreversibly connected to the power grid and the highway system and the disaster relief networks that transcend state and local boundaries."

The United States and other members of the United Nations should offer maximum support to the UN Millennium Project that plans to use "practical solutions" to cut worldwide poverty in half by 2015 and save tens of millions of lives, he said.

"Government can give us effective ways to work together, to organize and channel our resources to help each other, and especially to help those who cannot help themselves. Government itself is not the problem.  Our failure to manage government wisely and fairly is the problem," Edgar remarked.

"We must never forget that Jesus spent most of his ministry proclaiming the kingdom of God while reaching out to the poor," Edgar said. "Persons of faith can do no less, and we remind governments throughout the world that they have been called by God to bring us together and help those who cannot help themselves."

The National Council of Churches is composed of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, historic African American and peace communions representing 45 million Christians in 100,000 local congregations in the United States.

Oregon Schools Open Doors To Katrina Evacuees

Oregon schools are opening their doors to Katrina evacuees and Dona Bolt – my hero, friend, and Oregon’s homeless education coordinator – is leading the effort. The Oregonian reports:

Oregon may be on standby to receive Hurricane Katrina evacuees, but a few area school districts already are helping displaced students enroll.

Six students from elementary to high school started classes in Lake Oswego this week, with more on the way. Three elementary students began in Beaverton, and more plan to attend public and private schools in Portland, Tigard, Gresham and Vancouver -- even in Lake County in south-central Oregon.

"It's been very, very sporadic," said Dona Bolt, Oregon homeless education coordinator.

All of the students are living with extended family. Oregon's mass relocation centers stand empty for now.

Bolt has no hard figures on the number of displaced children in Oregon schools, but she estimates about 25 a week are moving here and will continue to arrive for the next two months.

If Oregon moves off standby and takes survivors at relocation centers, Bolt estimates that 60 percent of the total would be school-age children -- 1,000 total evacuees would require 600 classroom seats for students.

More information on displaced students from the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY), National Center on Homeless Education (NCHE), and National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) can be found here.

FEMA: No Experience Necessary (But Political Ties A Must)

The Washington Post reports:

Five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters and now lead an agency whose ranks of seasoned crisis managers have thinned dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

FEMA's top three leaders -- Director Michael D. Brown, Chief of Staff Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler -- arrived with ties to President Bush's 2000 campaign or to the White House advance operation, according to the agency. Two other senior operational jobs are filled by a former Republican lieutenant governor of Nebraska and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official who was once a political operative.

Full story

Church World Service Hurricane Katrina Relief Plan

Church World Service "is the relief, development, and refugee assistance ministry of 36 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations in the United States."  The agency has outlined their goals for Hurricane Katrina relief and need your prayers and donations.  Please take a moment to read about their efforts and do what you can to help.

This Church World Service appeal will address the hurricane's damages to communities and lives through meeting immediate needs, organizing for long-term recovery at multiple faith community levels, and will address the relocation of individuals across the country in concert with other state, federal and CWS programmatic partners.

This appeal requests collective funding for three program components of Church World Service activity that will assure development of effective, sustainable long-term recovery. The appeal will support: Response; Recovery; Relocation; Spiritual and Emotional Care; and CWS Tools of Hope in the form of blankets and kits.

I. Response

Church World Service Disaster Response and Recovery Liaisons (DRRLs) are actively working in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, to support and help formulate the long-term responses to the extraordinary nature of the disaster. In all, 10 DRRLs anticipate deployment to support and enable the organizing work for community long-term recovery.

Church World Service DRRLs and senior New York staff will work closely with leadership of state councils/conferences of churches in their efforts to bring about coordinated or collaborative activities of the faith community across the affected states, particularly in relationship to relocation activities.

Church World Service will also provide support to media and publicity efforts utilizing its own staff and the staff of Disaster News Network, to appropriately raise the public awareness of the role of the faith community efforts in the relief and recovery programs.

DRRL Deployment Costs (support, travel and materials for 12 deployed staff) $170,000

On-Call DRRL Stipends (6 persons @ approx. 8 weeks @ $150 per day) $50,000

Church World Service support of media efforts $10,000

Total $230,000

II. CWS Blankets and "Gift of the Heart" Kits

To date, Church World Service has shipped more than $300,000 in donated material assistance to affected areas, including 18,100 CWS Blankets; 14,335 "Gift of the Heart" Health Kits; 1,000 "Gift of the Heart" School Kits; and 500 CWS Heart-to-Heart Kids Kits. Shipments have arrived in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Shipments of donated material resources we have in inventory, for support of sheltered survivors in states across the country, are currently being processed or anticipated. CWS has also processed a shipment of 20 Interchurch Medical Assistance Medicine Boxes to Louisiana. Additional lightweight blankets will need to be purchased to allow us to respond to anticipated requests.

Inventory of 39,000 lightweight CWS Blankets valued at: $195,000

Inventory of 150,000 Health Kits valued at $1,800,000

Inventory of 4,000 School Kits valued at $44,000

Purchase and shipment of 20,000 lightweight blankets (at $5) $100,000

Expedited air freight for initial response $50,000

Total $150,000

III. Recovery

Age, health, education, economics, ethnicity, religious heritage, gender and geographic location all serve to increase vulnerability and diminish capacity to recovery from a disaster. DRRLs will concentrate organizing activity in areas where significant numbers of vulnerable survivors have been identified to help assure that their unmet needs are identified and given priority. Church World Service will support and encourage the research and training of community leadership to effectively organize new and diverse communities for long-term recovery.

CWS DRRLs work with local faith groups and religious leaders to equip them in development of, and participation in, long-term recovery organizations that provide case management services for vulnerable survivors of a disaster. The case management is designed to help families resource their recovery plan, particularly in rebuilding and repairing their homes. Based on previous disasters, CWS estimates as many as 25 recovery organizations may be developed to respond to the “normal” affects of the hurricane, that of damaged and destroyed homes because of wind and flooding.

Community Organizing Training Consultants $20,000

Seed Grants for developing long-term recovery organizations (20 @ $5,000) $100,000

Sustainability Grants for long-term recovery staff and administration (3-5 years) $3,500,000

Home reconstruction grants to long-term recovery organizations $3,500,000

Total $ 7,120,000

III. Spiritual Care and Care-for-Caregivers

Spiritual and emotional care will be of primary concern in coming months and years for those who are directly and indirectly affected. Church World Service will particularly focus on support for clergy and lay caregivers who are ministering in the early days of relief and rescue; the support of relocating operations in their communities and states; and a continuum of care for long-term recovery. CWS stands ready to offer local faith leaders: 1) training opportunities and support through the Interfaith Trauma Response Training (ITRT) that helps equip them for care within their communities and self care for themselves; and 2) trauma care through its Spiritual and Emotional Care Response (SECR) cadre of volunteer professional counselors. Both programs were developed during recovery after the September 11 disaster.

Church World Service DRRL with high expertise in disaster emotional and spiritual care will supplement and support the development of a national strategy for provision of appropriate care in shelters, relocation communities, and for public operations such as morgue and death notification.

Deployment of SECR Professional Trauma Intervention (3 years) $750,000

Provision of ITRT sessions (1.5 years) $750,000

DRRL Assignment to emotional and spiritual care provision (3 years) $12,000

Total $1,512,000

IV. Relocation

CWS proposes to organize and execute a processing and relocation program for Americans who remain displaced as result of evacuations and destruction of housing in their communities. CWS will utilize existing resettlement affiliate offices in 8 sites around the United States and initiate two sites where groups of churches will be organized to support the relocation of up to 500 displaced Americans or roughly, 165 families, over the initial period of three months. The initial phase of this support will focus on existing affiliates that have already received uprooted families. The budget below assumes a significant amount of supplemental cash and/or in-kind resources will be contributed from the local community to the affiliate or congregation for the purpose of assisting displaced Americans. A full proposal and budget is available for this aspect of the Church World Service Katrina response.

The cost for provision of services and support for 500 persons for 3 months is slightly higher than an average of $1,000 per person:

Transportation (average of $100 per person) $50,000

Rent ( average of $1,000 per month) $165,000

Airport/Bus Stop Reception (average of $50 per family for transport of belongings) $8,250

Utilities (average $350 per month) $57,750

Local transportation (public transportation passes at $200 per family) $33,000

Money for living expenses (dignity stipend $100 per month per family) $49,500

Food (supplementary to local provisions $100 per month) $16,500

Local community staffing and travel, office, and materials expenses $86,800

National contingency, travel, staffing, equipment $ 46,475

(This is preliminary budget for this support. Additional support may be required if additional numbers of families or individuals seek this assistance.)

Total $ 513,275

TOTAL OF FOUR COMPONENTS: $9,525,275

EMERGENCY APPEAL:

CWS is issuing this appeal (#6280 - Hurricane Katrina Response) to support the recovery activities described above.

Contributions to support these efforts may be sent to your denomination or directly to:

Church World Service
Hurricane Katrina Response -- #6280
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515

Contributions may also be made by credit card by calling: (800) 297-1516, ext. 222, or online.

Katrina Timeline

KATRINA TIMELINE

Comment on the timeline here.

Friday, August 26

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: [Office of the Governor]

GULF COAST STATES REQUEST TROOP ASSISTANCE FROM PENTAGON: At a 9/1 press conference, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, commander, Joint Task Force Katrina, said that the Gulf States began the process of requesting additional forces on Friday, 8/26. [DOD]

Saturday, August 27

5AM — KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE [CNN]

GOV. BLANCO ASKS BUSH TO DECLARE FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: “I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.” [Office of the Governor]

FEDERAL EMERGENCY DECLARED, DHS AND FEMA GIVEN FULL AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO KATRINA: “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.” [White House]

Sunday, August 28

2AM – KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]

7AM – KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE [CNN]

MORNING — LOUISIANA NEWSPAPER SIGNALS LEVEES MAY GIVE: “Forecasters Fear Levees Won’t Hold Katrina”: “Forecasters feared Sunday afternoon that storm driven waters will lap over the New Orleans levees when monster Hurricane Katrina pushes past the Crescent City tomorrow.” [Lafayette Daily Advertiser]

9:30 AM — MAYOR NAGIN ISSUES FIRST EVER MANDATORY EVACUATION OF NEW ORLEANS: “We’re facing the storm most of us have feared,” said Nagin. “This is going to be an unprecedented event.” [Times-Picayune]

4PM – NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ISSUES SPECIAL HURRICANE WARNING: In the event of a category 4 or 5 hit, “Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer. … At least one-half of well-constructed homes will have roof and wall failure. All gabled roofs will fail, leaving those homes severely damaged or destroyed. … Power outages will last for weeks. … Water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards.” [National Weather Service]

AFTERNOON — BUSH, BROWN, CHERTOFF WARNED OF LEVEE FAILURE BY NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER DIRECTOR: Dr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center: “‘We were briefing them way before landfall. … It’s not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped.’” [Times-Picayune; St. Petersburg Times]

LATE PM – REPORTS OF WATER TOPPLING OVER LEVEE: “Waves crashed atop the exercise path on the Lake Pontchartrain levee in Kenner early Monday as Katrina churned closer.” [Times-Picayune]

APPROXIMATELY 30,000 EVACUEES GATHER AT SUPERDOME WITH ROUGHLY 36 HOURS WORTH OF FOOD [Times-Picayune]

Monday, August 29

7AM – KATRINA MAKES LANDFALL AS A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]

8AM – MAYOR NAGIN REPORTS THAT WATER IS FLOWING OVER LEVEE: “I’ve gotten reports this morning that there is already water coming over some of the levee systems. In the lower ninth ward, we’ve had one of our pumping stations to stop operating, so we will have significant flooding, it is just a matter of how much.” [NBC’s “Today Show”]

MORNING — BUSH CALLS SECRETARY CHERTOFF TO DISCUSS IMMIGRATION: “I spoke to Mike Chertoff today — he’s the head of the Department of Homeland Security. I knew people would want me to discuss this issue [immigration], so we got us an airplane on — a telephone on Air Force One, so I called him. I said, are you working with the governor? He said, you bet we are.” [White House]

MORNING – BUSH SHARES BIRTHDAY CAKE PHOTO-OP WITH SEN. JOHN MCCAIN [White House]

11AM — BUSH VISITS ARIZONA RESORT TO PROMOTE MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: “This new bill I signed says, if you’re a senior and you like the way things are today, you’re in good shape, don’t change. But, by the way, there’s a lot of different options for you. And we’re here to talk about what that means to our seniors.” [White House]

LATE MORNING – LEVEE BREACHED: “A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new ‘hurricane proof’ Old Hammond Highway bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina’s fiercest winds were well north.” [Times-Picayune]

11:30AM — MICHAEL BROWN FINALLY REQUESTS THAT DHS DISPATCH 1,000 EMPLOYEES TO REGION, GIVES THEM TWO DAYS TO ARRIVE: “Brown’s memo to Chertoff described Katrina as ‘this near catastrophic event’ but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, ‘Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities.’” [AP]

2PM — BUSH TRAVELS TO CALIFORNIA SENIOR CENTER TO DISCUSS MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: “We’ve got some folks up here who are concerned about their Social Security or Medicare. Joan Geist is with us. … I could tell — she was looking at me when I first walked in the room to meet her, she was wondering whether or not old George W. is going to take away her Social Security check.” [White House]

9PM — RUMSFELD ATTENDS SAN DIEGO PADRES BASEBALL GAME: Rumsfeld “joined Padres President John Moores in the owner’s box…at Petco Park.” [Editor & Publisher]

Tuesday, August 30

9AM – BUSH SPEAKS ON IRAQ AT NAVAL BASE CORONADO [White House]

MIDDAY – CHERTOFF FINALLY BECOMES AWARE THAT LEVEE HAS FAILED: “It was on Tuesday that the levee–may have been overnight Monday to Tuesday–that the levee started to break. And it was midday Tuesday that I became aware of the fact that there was no possibility of plugging the gap and that essentially the lake was going to start to drain into the city.” [Meet the Press, 9/4/05]

PENTAGON CLAIMS THERE ARE ENOUGH NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS IN REGION: “Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said the states have adequate National Guard units to handle the hurricane needs.” [WWL-TV]

MASS LOOTING REPORTED, SECURITY SHORTAGE CITED: “The looting is out of control. The French Quarter has been attacked,” Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson said. “We’re using exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue while we still have people on rooftops.” [AP]

U.S.S. BATAAN SITS OFF SHORE, VIRTUALLY UNUSED: “The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It also can make its own water, up to 100,000 gallons a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came roaring ashore. The Bataan rode out the storm and then followed it toward shore, awaiting relief orders. Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans residents. But now the Bataan’s hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty.” [Chicago Tribune]

3PM – PRESIDENT BUSH PLAYS GUITAR WITH COUNTRY SINGER MARK WILLIS [AP]

BUSH RETURNS TO CRAWFORD FOR FINAL NIGHT OF VACATION [AP]

Wednesday, August 31

TENS OF THOUSANDS TRAPPED IN SUPERDOME; CONDITIONS DETERIORATE: “A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers. ‘We pee on the floor. We are like animals,’ said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. … By Wednesday, it had degenerated into horror. … At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for. There is no sanitation. The stench is overwhelming.”" [Los Angeles Times, 9/1/05]

PRESIDENT BUSH FINALLY ORGANIZES TASK FORCE TO COORDINATE FEDERAL RESPONSE: Bush says on Tuesday he will “fly to Washington to begin work…with a task force that will coordinate the work of 14 federal agencies involved in the relief effort.” [New York Times, 8/31/05]

JEFFERSON PARISH EMERGENCY DIRECTOR SAYS FOOD AND WATER SUPPLY GONE: “Director Walter Maestri: FEMA and national agencies not delivering the help nearly as fast as it is needed.” [WWL-TV]

80,000 BELIEVED STRANDED IN NEW ORLEANS: Former Mayor Sidney Barthelemy “estimated 80,000 were trapped in the flooded city and urged President Bush to send more troops.” [Reuters]

3,000 STRANDED AT CONVENTION CENTER WITHOUT FOOD OR WATER: “With 3,000 or more evacuees stranded at the convention center — and with no apparent contingency plan or authority to deal with them — collecting a body was no one’s priority. … Some had been at the convention center since Tuesday morning but had received no food, water or instructions.” [Times-Picayune]

5PM — BUSH GIVES FIRST MAJOR ADDRESS ON KATRINA: “Nothing about the president’s demeanor… — which seemed casual to the point of carelessness — suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.” [New York Times]

8:00PM – CONDOLEEZZA RICE TAKES IN A BROADWAY SHOW: “On Wednesday night, Secretary Rice was booed by some audience members at ‘Spamalot!, the Monty Python musical at the Shubert, when the lights went up after the performance.” [New York Post, 9/2/05]

9PM — FEMA DIRECTOR BROWN CLAIMS SURPRISE OVER SIZE OF STORM: “I must say, this storm is much much bigger than anyone expected.” [CNN]

Thursday, September 1

8AM — BUSH CLAIMS NO ONE EXPECTED LEVEES TO BREAK: “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” [Washington Post]

CONDOLEEZZA RICE VISITS U.S. OPEN: “Rice, [in New York] on three days’ vacation to shop and see the U.S. Open, hitting some balls with retired champ Monica Seles at the Indoor Tennis Club at Grand Central.” [New York Post]

STILL NO COMMAND AND CONTROL ESTABLISHED: Terry Ebbert, New Orleans Homeland Security Director: “This is a national emergency. This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can’t bail out the city of New Orleans.” [Fox News]

2PM — MAYOR NAGIN ISSUES “DESPERATE SOS” TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: “This is a desperate SOS. Right now we are out of resources at the convention centre and don’t anticipate enough buses. We need buses. Currently the convention centre is unsanitary and unsafe and we’re running out of supplies.” [Guardian, 9/2/05]

2PM — MICHAEL BROWN CLAIMS NOT TO HAVE HEARD OF REPORTS OF VIOLENCE: “I’ve had no reports of unrest, if the connotation of the word unrest means that people are beginning to riot, or you know, they’re banging on walls and screaming and hollering or burning tires or whatever. I’ve had no reports of that.” [CNN]

NEW ORLEANS “DESCEND[S] INTO ANARCHY”: “Storm victims were raped and beaten, fights and fires broke out, corpses lay out in the open, and rescue helicopters and law enforcement officers were shot at as flooded-out New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday. ‘This is a desperate SOS,’ the mayor said.” [AP]

CONDOLEEZZA RICE GOES SHOE SHOPPING: “Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, ‘How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!’” [Gawker]

MICHAEL BROWN FINALLY LEARNS OF EVACUEES IN CONVENTION CENTER: “We learned about that (Thursday), so I have directed that we have all available resources to get that convention center to make sure that they have the food and water and medical care that they need.” [CNN]

Friday, September 2

ROVE-LED CAMPAIGN TO BLAME LOCAL OFFICIALS BEGINS: “Under the command of President Bush’s two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan…to contain the political damage from the administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina.” President Bush’s comments from the Rose Garden Friday morning formed “the start of this campaign.” [New York Times, 9/5/05]

9:35AM — BUSH PRAISES MICHAEL BROWN: “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” [White House, 9/2/05]

10 AM — PRESIDENT BUSH STAGES PHOTO-OP “BRIEFING”: Coast Guard helicopters and crew diverted to act as backdrop for President Bush’s photo-op.

BUSH VISIT GROUNDS FOOD AID: “Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush’s visit to New Orleans, officials said.” [Times-Picayune]

LEVEE REPAIR WORK ORCHESTRATED FOR PRESIDENT’S VISIT: Sen. Mary Landrieu, 9/3: “Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment.” [Sen. Mary Landrieu]

BUSH USES 50 FIREFIGHTERS AS PROPS IN DISASTER AREA PHOTO-OP: A group of 1,000 firefighters convened in Atlanta to volunteer with the Katrina relief efforts. Of those, “a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew’s first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.” [Salt Lake Tribune; Reuters]

3PM — BUSH “SATISFIED WITH THE RESPONSE”: “I am satisfied with the response. I am not satisfied with all the results.” [AP]

Saturday, September 3

SENIOR BUSH ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL LIES TO WASHINGTON POST, CLAIMS GOV. BLANCO NEVER DECLARED STATE OF EMERGENCY: The Post reported in their Sunday edition “As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.” They were forced to issue a correction hours later. [Washington Post, 9/4/05]

9AM — BUSH BLAMES STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS: “[T]he magnitude of responding to a crisis over a disaster area that is larger than the size of Great Britain has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need.” [White House, 9/3/05]

Republished from Think Progress