say what.......
Posted on 07/20/2007 1:30:47 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It's been two years since Hurricane Katrina and Rita ripped through the belly of the South, and survivors, along with various scholars and activists, are seeking to hold the US government responsible in a tribunal court hearing scheduled for this August.
On Tuesday (July 17), New York City Councilman Charles Barron and former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney met at Manhattan's Center for Constitutional Rights for a press conference to discuss the upcoming trial. The tribunal will target President Bush, the US government, State of Louisiana, State of Mississippi, and various other agencies who were involved in the Katrina and Rita relief efforts.
The Tribunal will include a team of human and civil rights prosecutors, including Joan Gibbs from the Center of Law & Social Justice and Kali Akuno, from the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund.
Overall, the Tribunal's main goal is holding the US government accountable for their reaction to the 2005 storms.
"Some people are being held accountable," said Former Congresswoman McKinney. "But what about [US Secretary of Homeland Security] Michael Chertoff? I'm wondering why he still has a job!"
Councilman Barron believes potential Democratic leaders have not raised the issue enough. "We can't let Barack Obama and Hillary, and all these so-called Democrats, whisper about what happened with Katrina," he said. "America needs a revolution."
"I'm a survivor," said Viola Washington, in a thick New Orleans drawl. "I was there. We had racism, and a whole lot of -isms before the storm, but it don't excuse what happened during the storm. We had helicopters flying over the city and nobody came to help us. We were begging for help."
Like Washington, other survivors will give their testimonies during the hearing, detailing abusive and humiliating treatment during delayed relief efforts.
"They put me in a wilderness, in a place I never heard of in my life," another, graying survivor added.
When Katrina hit, that woman was raising her three grandchildren, after her daughter was murdered. "They [National Guard] were putting guns on you just to ask a question. This is America! It took us from Tuesday to Friday to get out of there," she said.
At the time, the woman owned her home. Her biggest concerned after the storm was returning to it. "But FEMA told me I was supposed to get back to my home or I'll lose my assistance," she said. "What am I supposed to do with three children?"
In addition to survivor testimonies, foreign nations have lent their support to the International Tribunal effort, including Cuba, Mexico, France, and Brazil.
The Mexican government released the following statement: "The Katrina disaster was a disaster organized by a political and economic system rooted in racism, exploitation and oppression. The massive deaths and human suffering could have been avoided were it not for the racism of the U.S. government at all levels."
The hearing will be held August 29 in New Orleans, marking the two-year anniversary of the hurricane tragedy.
If I wasn't for building a wall along our Southern border before, I would be after I read that unbelievable statement!!
You’ve got to read this!!
Barron and McKinney give credence for the use of euthanasia but at much earlier in life, like right now.
Now this I've got to agree with! Have you SEEN the way the US Government treats white folk these days?
I’m a Katrina evacuee (not victim) from Biloxi, Mississippi, who now lives in Fort Worth. When I went to FEMA, both in Biloxi and here, they subtly but plainly let me know that white people can’t be Katrina “victims” so I was on my own. For awhile, I was in charge of one of the workforce offices that worked with NOLA evacuees, but never received assistance myself. If “Bush hates black people” he sure has a funny way of showing it. We were giving away: Target & Wal-Mart gift cards, laptop computers with Wi-Fi, food stamps, unemployment assistance, housing, TANF (welfare money), clothing, gasoline debit cards, bus passes, career counseling, etc.. We offered to bus them to huge job fairs, but there were few takers.
I agree, but does it help relations between the races in this country? Do we want civil strife or a race war?
You got it. They were told to leave and many just sat there and did nothing. Why did so many not buy flood insurance? And the Mayor bailed out on his people. Amazing.
I'm wondering that too, Cynthia. But it has nothing to do with Hurricane Katrina.
I feel compassion for these people, most of whom probably couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag. I’m not particularly interested in following their recovery or non-recovery from this disaster, but I do feel compassion.
I feel nothing but hatred for the ultra-ideologues, U.S. haters in our own country, who are using the New Orleans underclass in order to vilify our society and government — and advance the cause of world government.
I know the Mexican government isn’t our friend, but I sincerely hope this unserious magazine was misinformed when it said the “Mexican government” had made the horrific, almost insane statement quoted at the end.
Does any informed person know about this latter point?
The Republican candidates should get on this outrage, ASAP.
See:
JUNE 2003 end : (BERTRAND RUSSELL PEACE FOUNDATION CONFERENCE -- See BRUSSELS TRIBUNAL, 'WAR ON PNAC, CHENEY, RUMSFELD & WOLFOWITZ') It soon appeared that legal action was unlikely to succeed as the United States have consistently acted against any legal authority that would be liable to threaten them and still continue to do so. Hence the idea to set up a 'Moral Court' or 'People's Court' to condemn the new American policy as well as the think tanks behind it (the latter always remain beyond the grasp of legal action). A broad platform composed of several Belgian cultural organizations was created to carry out the petition's first proposal: to set up a Brussels Tribunal, after the historical example of the Russell Tribunal. At a networking conference set up by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation at the end of June 2003 in Brussels it was decided that a series of hearings would be held in different places all over the world, culminating in a final session in Istanbul. The Brussels Tribunal was the official opening session of the has become the World Tribunal on Iraq and of wich ICTI an integral part.------"THE PEOPLE VERSUS TOTAL WAR INCORPORATED" LOOKING BACK TO THE BRUSSELLS TRIBUNAL (Yokohama-testimony, 5th ICTI hearing June 6th 2004)http://www.icti-e.com/Lieven%20De%20Cauter.html
The fomenter's of hate in their jihadists midsts are radical in all ways possible.
You can not always judge a book by it’s cover but in this case Barron and McKinney are nothing more than five and dime race baiting enablers and full of White hot hate.
Years ago words uttered by Barron and McKinney would have gotten them locked up or hung for their seditious nature.
There is, in my lowly opinion a small group of Blacks who are itching for a confrontation at all costs.
Race relations are now to settled in America and therefore do not pay good donations when things are working.
Same as with some Hispanics.
However, I see those two groups someday having an all out war between themselves.
The Blacks are not going to take having their entitlements messed with or endangered by a bunch of illegals claiming Constitutional rights.
Just my lowly opinion, what do you think FReepers?
Somebody should get on this. Otherwise it looks like anyone who wants can set up court. ' My congress critters will hear about this tomorrow.l
And after all George Bush has done for them! What a bunch of ingrates!
(Ol' George is the number one candidate for the Don't-Bite-the-Hand-That's-Feeding-You Award.)
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