The Puppet, the Dictator, and the President: Haiti Today and Tomorrow

by BAR editor and columnist Jemima Pierre, PhD
Originially published at Black Agenda Report | 01/17/2012 - 20:13 — Jemima Pierre

There they were, at the official ceremony: the living, breathing banes of Haiti’s existence. “Rubbing shoulders on stage, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries were Haitian President Michel Martelly, former US President and UN Special Envoy, Bill Clinton, and, Jean Claude Duvalier,” the mass murderer and former dictator. The dictator is hoping for some kind of comeback, and the puppet president “will open up Haiti to permanent US occupation and economic exploitation while terrorizing Haitians who fight back.” Clinton oversees the whole process on behalf of imperialism.

The Puppet, the Dictator, and the President: Haiti Today and Tomorrow

by BAR editor and columnist Jemima Pierre, PhD

“Duvalier has been allowed to roam Haiti’s streets, even dining at the finest restaurants with the likes of Sean Penn.”

Lost amidst the heart-wrenching stories and photographs of the “poor Haitians” living in squalor and misery circulating on the second anniversary of the 12 January 2010 earthquake, another set of images appeared. Few people noticed these other images – they received little attention in the mainstream media – but they offer an insight into the prospects for Haiti’s reconstruction and, indeed, into the prospects for Haiti’s political and economic future.

The images were taken during the official commemoration ceremonies at the hillside of Titanyen [pdf], north of Port-au-Prince, where former dictators Jean Claude Duvalier and his father, Francois Duvalier, discarded the bodies of their political opponents. After the earthquake, it became the gravesite of thousands of unidentified earthquake victims. During the ceremonies, local delegates and international diplomats paid their respects to the Haitians that lost their lives and pledged to help those who lived. But the most striking image that emerged during the ceremonies was that of an immoral triumvirate. Rubbing shoulders on stage, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries were Haitian President Michel Martelly, former US President and UN Special Envoy, Bill Clinton, and, Jean Claude Duvalier. To understand the future of Haiti, we have to shift our focus from the “poor Haitians” who dominate Haiti coverage and understand the significance of these three figures to the shaping of US imperial designs on Haiti.

“President Martelly is the face – and backbone – of a resurgent Duvalierism.”

“Baby Doc” Duvalier returned to Haiti after twenty-five years in exile on 16 January 2010. His arrival was supposedly a surprise, though it is becoming clear that he was given the go-ahead by France and the United States. The Obama administration’s relative silence around the return of Duvalier needs to be contrasted with the noise it made while it forcefully tried to prevent the return of Jean Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected President. The contrast smacks of duplicity. Let’s remember that under Duvalier (and his father, Francois) nearly 50,000 Haitians were killed, disappeared, and tortured by the reviled tonton macoutes, his private army. At the same time, Duvalier embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars, most of which sponsored an exiled life of grandeur. Despite the calls for his arrest and prosecution by Haitian survivors, lawyers, and international human rights organizations, Duvalier has been allowed to roam Haiti’s streets, even dining at the finest restaurants with the likes of Sean Penn.

What does Duvalier symbolize? For Haiti’s elite, he represents a form of totalitarian nostalgia. There is a cultish aura that surrounds Duvalier, a reminder of the era of “macoutized bourgeoisie,” as journalist Kim Ives has referred to it, when there was an alliance between the elite and the paramilitary forces of terror. But Duvalierism was also good for US politics and economics. In the 1960s, they needed Francois (“Papa Doc”) Duvalier to offset the rise of revolutionary communist Cuba. Under Jean Claude (“Baby Doc”), they were able to open up the Haitian markets and resources to US businesses, expand sweatshops, and lay the basis for the coming neoliberal economic policies.

“Duvalierism was good for US politics and economics.”

This is where the US-selected President Martelly and “Papa” Bill Clinton come in. As we’ve pointed out here on Black Agenda Report, right-wing candidate Martelly was handpicked by the Obama administration to become Haiti’s president in a forced election marred by irregularities and low voter turn out. More importantly, he is the face – and backbone – of a resurgent Duvalierism. His Duvalier affinities are well known as is his animus towards former President Aristide. He has historic ties with Duvalier loyalists, has called for “amnesty” for Duvalier, and is now in the process of reestablishing the Haitian army. Moreover, his erratic and belligerent interactions with his constituency and political colleagues – and, in particularly, his threats against Haitian journalists – are early indications of his repressive tendencies.

But he is a good puppet. As Ezili Danto of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network reminds us: “Martelly is merely a tool to be used by those ‘more schooled in the patterns of privilege and domination’ than any self-serving Haiti politician could ever dream to be. Martelly is the valve that releases accumulated surface pressure while reinforcing the ‘violent Haitian’ narrative. Brilliant US/Euro move. A no brainer.” In the meantime, he will open up Haiti to permanent US occupation and economic exploitation while terrorizing Haitians who fight back. As the U.S. attempts to consolidate its military presence in the Western hemisphere, control of Haiti is important. For many, this is one of the reasons explaining Haiti’s currently military occupation by the UN-led criminal force, MINUSTAH, the largest UN military force in a country that is not at war. It is also the reason for the massive new US embassy in Haiti, the fourth largest US embassy in the world.

“Clinton practically dictates Haitian policy.”

And then there’s Bill Clinton. Clinton provides the “kind” face of US control of Haiti. With his push to turn Haiti into a Western tourist paradise while Haitians become cheap sweatshop labor for making Western goods, Clinton is the arbiter of a new phase of neoliberalism. Clinton practically dictates Haitian policy. In fact, in one of the more absurd and nepotistic twists of Haiti’s political history, Haiti’s Prime Minister, Gary Conille, is Clinton’s former chief of staff. Conille also has a long family history with the Duvaliers: his father was a minister to Baby Doc. As @dominique_e recently said on twitter, everything is set to “kill Haiti with neoliberalism.”

Last week, Glen Ford remarked that in the US media, “Haiti is most often spoken of as a tragedy – when it is actually the scene of horrific crimes, mainly perpetrated by the United States over the span of two centuries.” With the puppet, the dictator, and the president on the scene, it is hard to imaging a more sinister cohort guiding Haiti down the path of US exploitation.

Jemima Pierre can be reached at BAR1804@gmail.com.

Until the Day I Die: Haitian Women Winning Their Rights

by Gerta Louisama and Beverly Bell (Other Worlds)

Original article at: towardfreedom.com

Gerta Louisama (Photo by Beverly Bell)

Gerta Louisama is a member of the Executive Committee and the National Women’s Committee of Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen, Heads Together Small Producers of Haiti, Haiti’s largest and oldest peasant group. She is also head of the local Tèt Kole Women’s Committee in her village of Savanette. Here she speaks about the Tèt Kole’s efforts to win recognition, social equality, and economic rights for rural Haitians, especially women.

I am a peasant women and the daughter of two peasants. I’ve been a victim of this society which ostracizes women.

My father was a member of Tèt Kole and I chose to follow him and join the organization. I’ve gotten all my knowledge through Tèt Kole. I’m illiterate, but thanks to the organization, after women helped me for three months, I could even spell my name and write a little. Even though I’m getting older, I’ll keep going to school.

Tèt Kole started on September 6th, 1986 and the Jean-Rabel massacre was on July 23, 1987. We lost 139 peasants [when the two largest landowner families in the region hired hit men to stop Tèt Kole’s work for land reform]. Then we had a second massacre in Piatte in 1990. The big land owners, the army, and the local police are responsible for those blood baths. It was asking for these necessities that got the peasants slaughtered. They were well-planned massacres to subdue us.

It’s like the peasants have no rights because they don’t have access to clean water, no access to roads, no access to health care, no access to free schooling. And if we protest for those rights we’re entitled to, they will send in the police or MINUSTAH [UN peacekeeping troops] and they’ll spray tear gas, arrest people and beat them up. You don’t even have the right to protest for your rights.

Legally speaking, both men and women have the same rights. In this country, we have plenty of laws. They’re on paper, they’ve just been set aside. Part of our movement is to get these laws respected.

Us Haitian women, we have a lot of challenges, but as peasant women we have even more.

We truly carry the burden of society. We’re the ones who hustle to feed the household and send the sick to the hospital if need be. We women, we work the land, we raise cattle, we transport merchandise like plantains, yams, and black beans to the capital. If we don’t work, there won’t be any flow of goods.

One of the priorities of the women in Tèt Kole is to get things working in our favor. We have to address economic problems and social problems. We need ways to process the foods we produce, we need access to seeds. We need to help women who’ve been victims of domestic violence get support in the courts.

What the women do in Tèt Kole is to group ourselves together in teams of 10 to 15 women. We work in the fields together, we do laundry together. We do personal development training. The chances for peasant women to go to school are small because they don’t have the financial means, so the trainings are designed to remind them that they’re also human and part of the society, even though society has marginalized them. They help peasant women understand their strength in society and understand that as for those services they’re entitled to. The government’s not doing them favors, they’re their rights.

We’re asking the government to do a thorough agrarian reform. Most times, the peasants don’t own the land they are working on. The peasants should have ownership of the land they’re working. Land needs to be taken away from people who aren’t using it, and the state needs to let go of land it holds on to that could be used for farming, and be given to the peasants who are working it, with the other [agricultural] resources they need to farm.

Actually, the women have been tirelessly working the small plots of land they’ve been able to get their hands on, so we should be the ones to own them. We peasant women think the government has to have in its agricultural plan a way to help us hold onto our land in the mountains so we can produce food, and help us get seeds and tools. We don’t have tools to work with, we don’t have seeds, we don’t have technical support.

The problem is even worse for women because both the family and the society keep us from owning land or other big assets. We’re not entitled. If the land isn’t in the hands of the government or the church, it’s mostly for the sons.

Say my father dies. If he owned three hectares of land and he had two sons and me as a daughter, he’ll never say that I can have one hectare and each son receives one hectare. Me, I’ll only be entitled to 1/4 hectare or at most 1/2 hectare, and the extra will be divided among my brothers.

And if I was living in common-law with a man, if he died, I’d need to race to get myself off the land, even if I didn’t have anywhere else to sleep. I wouldn’t have any right to stay on the premises.

Another priority for the Women’s Committee is all the people who don’t have birth certificates. The state has no respect for the peasants. People may have a piece of paper but it might not be valid, because the number on it might be the same as on 15 or 20 other certificates; only one person has the actual birth certificate and all the others are just photocopies. This comes out when the children of the peasant women have to go study or take care of something [legal]. Also, they used one birth certificate for people from urban areas and one for those from the countryside [this has since been changed]. I’m 42, and up til this day, I don’t even know if my birth certificate is valid. Maybe if I go to get a passport one day, I’ll find out.

The lack of respect for peasants is also why today cholera is spreading throughout the country. There was no plan from early on, and that’s why it’s killed so many in all the departments [states], especially the poorest who can’t get medical care for themselves. In remote areas, people might need to carry the person with cholera four to five hours on a stretcher to make it to the hospital. [Cholera can kill within 4 to 6 hours after infection.] Where I’m from there’s a joke: since [the village of] Savanette has no roads, cholera can’t travel there. Actually, if it were to hit Savanette, no one would survive.

They talked about sending Clorox, but we haven’t gotten any. They’ve told peasants to use soaps to wash their hands but some of them don’t have the money to buy soap, which costs 12 gourdes [33 cents]. Cholera is an even bigger burden on peasant women because they’re the ones that have borne their children and that are responsible for the household.

If there were to be cases of cholera in Savanette, we as an organization would have to get involved. We’d have to go to the local radio stations and tell people to do preventive medicine.

Where we are, we only see outsiders when there are elections and the public officials need votes. Once the officials have been elected, you won’t see the senators again. Let’s not even talk about the president.

The fight to change the conditions of women living in the country is coming from men as well as women of Tèt Kole. This isn’t a movement of women against men, but really against the society which has isolated women. Women and men have to join together to fight. Generally as peasants, whether men or women, young or old, we’re all fighting for our rights, and men have to have that same mindset of aligning themselves with the women in this struggle.

You find there are men who really misunderstand women. They assume that the women are increasing their strength against men. But in Tèt Kole, we’ve made lots of efforts to show that our work is to change the conditions of all peasants. We’re showing that this isn’t a movement of women against men but rather a movement against the society which has isolated women.

Based on how things are going, we can almost say we’re losing the battle fast. We are slowly but surely going backwards. But as long as we are breathing, we can’t get discouraged. We are responsible for changing the conditions of our country so we’ll continue to fight.

But so far, we haven’t seen any real positive outcome. That’s why we say we’ll continue to fight, even though we won’t see the changes; our kids will see them.

I have one daughter and I have given all my energy to the organization. I have given back what the organization has done for me as a peasant woman who struggles against a society that excludes us. If it wasn’t for Tèt Kole, I wouldn’t have any value in this society. I never have thoughts of life after I leave Tèt Kole, because I see myself being involved until the day I die.

Many thanks to Patricia Bingué And Bill Davis for translation, and Deepa Panchang for help editing.

_________

Beverly Bell has worked with Haitian social movements for over 30 years. She is also author of the book Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance and is working on the forthcoming book, Fault Lines: Views across Haiti’s New Divide. She coordinates Other Worlds, www.otherworldsarepossible.org, which promotes social and economic alternatives. She is also associate fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. You can access all of her past articles regarding post-earthquake Haiti at www.otherworldsarepossible.org/haiti.

Copyleft Beverly Bell. You may reprint this article in whole or in part. Please credit any text or original research you use to Beverly Bell, Other Worlds.

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and... other American Pastimes

It's not a book review, it's a life review.

They say sports and politics don't mix, but reading progressive writer Dave Zirin's book "What's My Name, Fool?" one sees that there is a rich legacy in America of athletes being at the forefront of demanding social change. These athletes transcended sports to become real champions. The book specifically covers athletes who have either spoken out on social justice issues or acted upon their principles symbolically or actionably, particularly in line with the sports they played. Many athletes courageously risked not only being ostracized and marginalized, but they also lost or stood to lose their livelihoods.

This book is also about good 'ol fashioned muckraking of the best kind. It casts a critical eye on the school athletic programs, owners fight against unions and the enormous profits and perks that the public subsidizes for corporate magnates who build the stadiums and groom the superstars that people follow, watch and obsess over. These are the controversies the mainstream media and the folks at ESPN won't cover.

While Zirin focuses on some celebrated non-comformist athletes like Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Billy Jean King, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Carlos Delgado, Reggie White, but also covers lesser known courageous athletes like Tommy Smith, John Carlos, or former Notre Dame basketball player Danielle D-Smooth Green, who lost her left hand in Iraq and has spoken out against the "war" in Iraq. He also covers the unsavory side of sports like steroid use, collegiate sports abuses, homophobia, and the misogynist and discriminatory practices that plague women in sports years after Title IX became law.

Zirin gives some attention to often vilified sports figures like Kobe Bryant, Barry Bonds, Rasheed Wallace, and grill man George Foreman. These are not the usual people associated with social justice and resistance, but Zirin includes them in the lineup to make a point. In Kobe Bryant's case, if convicted of raping a Colorado woman, he faced a shockingly invasive procedure, which is a part of a supposed "rehabilitation" system. Zirin describes the process in an article entitled "Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom" posted at Counterpunch.

There are also a couple of passages on teams as opposed to individuals. Teams featured are the Iraq soccer team: "Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign, he can find another way to advertise himself." There's a passage about the University of "Alabama's Crimson Past:" Yeah, the words "Segregation forever!" were used and perfectly incapsulates Alabama's torrid history of racism. The story of Sylvester Groom who was passed over as coach of the Tide, although he was far more qualified than the less qualified Mike Shula, who had half of Groom's experience. As Zirin puts it, "Groom was set to resume his role as an invisible man, returning to the shadows where all African-American assistant coaches are told to sit and wait." An incensed Reverend Jesse Jackson said of the decision, "The SEC maintains a culture of excluding Blacks beyond the playing field." Jackson continued, "White players, beyond the field, can expect to become coaches, athletic directors, and college presidents. Blacks have no life beyond the playing field." Jackson was predictably skewered by the media for pointing out these facts. Zirin concludes that the "tradition" that Alabama was trying to preserve consists of a pattern of racially motivated persecutions and "the ordinary people bleeding rivers in the streets as a result of asking for the most basic of human rights." Zirin also points out that it's time for the Redskins football team to retire that tired and offensive name, which alludes to a historically racist perception of Native Americans.

Zirin invites controversy in a passage called "USA Basketball in Black and White!" To make his point he describes America as lording it over other countries in sports and politics as the world's only superpower. This he says, has led to people in other countries seeking "dents in the armor." What is a new phenomenon, writes Zirin, is that people inside the U.S. are cheering against one U.S. team in particular. The "U.S. basketball squad became the team fans in the U.S. love to hate," says Zirin. "And for all the wrong reasons," Implying there are good reasons. You gotta like this guy! He describes the animosity of these "fans" as "more racist than a Bob Jones University course syllabus." Zirin goes on to describe how talk radio has fanned the flames because of its tolerance of people making statements like "a caller who identified himself as a former member of the American military." The man "said he hates Team USA because they don't "represent the America he fell in love with." This is the same kind of rhetoric that is rampant in the tea party. So it's not surprising to see racism reflected by people who purport to be all-American patriots. The rule of thumb being to always preface your demagoguery with patriotic lingo or your service to your country.

Muhammad Ali never sought to be a political hero or resistance fighter, he was thrust into that realm because he took a stand. Ali is considered a hero, not only for his prowess in the ring, but also because he refused to serve in Vietnam. For that, he was stripped of his boxing title and threatened with jail.

Ali famously stated, "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong." Is there a more colorful character in the American sports pantheon? Only boxer Jack Johnson (he's in the book) could possibly rival Ali for brashness and flash. Says peace activist, Daniel Berrigan, "It was a major boost for an anti-war movement that was very white." Ali, "couldn't be dismissed as cowardly." Ali was pilloried in the press and lost his livelihood and prestige for a time. Redemption came when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his sentence.

It makes one wonder whether a crucified Ali might have been a more effective leader in the struggle for civil rights in America. He probably would have been a dead Black hero. But what would motivate the "Supreme Court" of white men to acquit this big baddass Black man? The answer lies in the fact that Ali symbolized the type of hero that so many men admire. Many men of all stripes must have identified with Ali's braggadocio, swagger and the physical violence evidenced in his domineering presence in the ring. For a country whose unofficial motto is "might makes right," this must be a consideration.

Muhammad Ali got the seal of official approval for his dissent, so did it make it easier for him to abandon his mentor and friend Malcolm X? Ali got unprecedented support from the public for his stance on Vietnam. Those who continue to view him as anti-establishment these days are no longer mainstream. The change in Ali and in America was not overnight, but these days Ali is an establishment hero. Also, sadly, Ali's infirmity due to Parkinson's has drastically blunted his radicalism. In recent times, politicians and promoters have counted on Ali to show up and promote diverse spectacles, from the Olympics to fund raisers.

That politics is a taboo topic for many of today's athletes is a stark reality. Undoubtedly, athletes avoid the topic in order to keep or get endorsement deals. It's ironic then, that what's unacceptably bad behavior for most of society, such as cross-dressing, drug abuse, sex scandals, fathering multiple children out of wedlock and even criminality are too often just temporary bumps on the road for famous athletes.

It must be noted that there are always exceptions to the rule, and so the athletes who endorsed Barack Obama's run for office were bucking the trend, but nonetheless, few athletes came out and declared themselves to be supporters of Candidate Obama. It was interesting, to hear that Kareem Abdul Jabbar – who was featured in Zirin's book under the heading "Why can't Kareem coach?"– rebutted statements made by Magic Johnson, a Hillary supporter. Johnson suggested that Obama was an overreaching rookie. Kareem's comeback was "Obama's no rookie."

Black athletes today are able to avoid political land mines, but this was not so easily done back in the fifties and sixties during the civil rights and the politically charged "Cold War" era. Jackie Robinson and "[m]any African-American witnesses [were] subpoenaed to testify at the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings in the 1950s [and] were asked to denounce Paul Robeson (1888–1976) in order to obtain future employment.

An interesting passage in "What's My Name" describes Jackie Robinson's true personality as "angry, combative and confrontational." Since this is a stark contrast to the public image of Robinson "as a quiet, subservient, soft-spoken gentleman," it may be difficult for some to take too seriously the author Dave Zirin's attempt to rebut an often one-dimensional narrative on Robinson's legacy. The perspective of many blacks during the "Black power" period was that Robinson was as a "white man's negro." Evidently, Robinson was a Republican, who voted for Nixon. Zirin is right that no one remains static, but the perception is there because there is plenty of basis for it in reality.

The task becomes more difficult for Zirin in light of Jackie Robinson's betrayal of Paul Robeson at the McCarthy hearings. The book explains that although the NAACP offered to defend Robinson, if he chose not to speak, Robinson refused the offer and went in front of the committee with a prepared statement.

After the preliminaries, Robinson proceeded to volunteer a condemnation of Robeson. Robinson: "I haven't any comment to make, except that the statement [about blacks refusing to fight the USSR]--if Mr. Robeson actually made it--sounds very silly to me. Negroes have too much invested in America to trow it away for a siren song sung in bass."

The book describes Robinson's betrayal of Robeson as "the blow that took down a seemingly indomitable Robeson."

The "blow" lead to even more sustained attacks on Robeson, who was an All-American football player, valedictorian and recipient of a Phi Beta Kappa key at Rutgers University. Robeson went on to receive a law degree at Columbia and became an internationally acclaimed concert performer and actor as well as an influential worldwide political activist.

Paul Robeson was a man of enormous athletic and artistic talents, there is no doubt, but his courage, poise and principles where what he displayed in his statement to the HUAC. Robeson: “You are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.” Robeson's historical legacy as an activist and renaissance man is intact. In 1961, Robeson was found with slashed wrists following a "wild party" in a Moscow hotel room. His son Paul Robeson, Jr. has tried to get the release of withheld government documents that he believes could shed light on the circumstances surrounding what he believes was an "induced suicide attempt."

In stark contrast to Robeson, Mr. Robinson was able to find gainful employement after his retirement from baseball. He won many awards and recognition. He was as a spokesperson for Chock Full O' Nuts and was named their "Director of Personnel." While there are many exceptions to the rule, in America, traditionally the personnel department is chock full of African-Americans. Coincidentally, executives in the personnel department are very often not in the boardroom with the decision makers of a corporation.

Robinson brought a home in a white upper class neighborhood of Stamford, CT. Robinson's family was probably that town's first Blacks. In the neighboring town of Greenwich, CT, usually ranked as one of the richest in America (top three), evidently such a thing was not possible at the time, the sign at the Cracker Barrel restaurant on the Post Road up until 1968 read, "Whites Only." '68 was not a good year for Blacks in America. On April 4, 1968, MLK was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while in town to support a garbage man strike.

Jackie Robinson as a resistance fighter may have emerged from being the first black in baseball to suffer the outrageous abuses of being spat at, baited, ridiculed and threatened, but the radicalizing of Robinson was probably solidified when he experience the "blow" of being ignored by his "friend" Richard Milhous Nixon when Robinson sent "Tricky Dick" a letter requesting his intervention on behalf of MLK, who had been sentenced to four months on a Georgia work gang.

In 1955 many historically explosive civil rights events occurred, including the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, Emmett Till's murder and the swelling of the ranks of the White Citizens Council to 300,000 members. Also significant was the signing of a petition by one hundred Congressmen pledged to uphold segregation. It was also an incredibly taxing year for Jackie Robinson according to Zirin. Robinson was "never silent" on the issue of civil rights and for that and his race, he was "viciously booed and threatened" on and off the baseball diamond.

It must have been a great release to be able to express himself freely after his retirement from baseball in 1956. Robinson jumped right in, becoming a spokesperson for the NAACP. He also voiced criticism of discrimination in baseball after he retired and was writing a column for The New York Post (then a liberal paper).

The highest praise for Robinson as a "resistance" fighter comes from MLK who supported his right to speak out on politics: "He has the right because back in the days when integration wasn't fashionable, he underwent the trauma and the humiliation and the loneliness which comes with being a pilgrim that walks in the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides."

Reading the book gives one hope, because these men and women embodied the best instincts we have as human beings. These athletes tackled the difficult issues that make others uncomfortable; matters of war and peace, race and social justice and economics and class warfare.

Of course, most heroes are the extraordinary people who make a difference by the actions they take to help their fellow human beings. A hero is not necessarily honed by their physical prowess on the field of play, but is made strong by the adversities they face in life and the positive changes they make in people's lives. In that sense there are many unsung heroes waiting to be discovered.

Shirley Sherrod is just such a hero. Sorry Alvin Greene, the NAACP will probably not be honoring you this year, but they most likely will be taking a second look at Ms. Shirley Sherrod.

Update 6/26/2014: Edits to clarify the legibility of the passage on Jackie Robinson and his legacy .

Accused Pedofile Perlitz Files Motion for Secrecy from Behind Bars

No More Secrecy
HLLN on Douglaz Perlitz's new motions asking for secrecy

Photo credit: Chris Simmons, Fairfield Mirror

The new court date is December 2, 2009. Please continue writing to Judge Margolis, and if you are in the East Coast, attend the hearing to show support for Haiti's children.

At his Oct. 28 bond hearing, accused pedophile Douglas Perlitz withdrew his bond request for now. The awareness-raising campaign HLLN-led to warn the community that an accused pedophile may be set free on bail had some effect. (Perlitz Court Date Moved, Groups Raise Awareness of Perlitz, O'Brien Cases; Letter-writing campaign aims to keep Perlitz jailed , and Jesuits, diocese asked to help sex abuse victims). Defendant Perlitz was not set free and shall remain behind bars until the matter is revisited again on December 2nd, if at all.

This is a small victory, but a victory nonetheless for all children considering that last time in court, on Oct. 8th, Perlitz's attorney kept pointing out how massive Mr. Perlitz's support was, implying the children of Haiti had no support and stating outright that our children are liars, not to mention detailing, in racist terms, how violent and corrupt Haiti is as the reason why Perlitz is being wrongly accused. (See in contrast, Pointing Guns at Starving Haitians: Violent Haiti is a myth. According to the UN, the violence rate in Haiti is 5.6 homicide per 100,000. In 2006 the neighboring Dominican Republic had 23.6 homicides per 100,000 according to the Central American Observatory on Violence. Brazil had 52.2/per 100,000 ... whereas in the USA, the rate is 13.2 per 100,000 in some excluded communities and 5.7 per 100,000 overall.

The Caribbean region's average murder rate were at 30 per 100,000 in 2007. If you compare the US, Brazil, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, the facts indicate more violence there than in Haiti. But it is Haiti that is singled out, negatively stereotyped and saddled with UN occupation and people abusing Haiti stereotypes for their own ends. The facts reveal that the only time there is more violence in Haiti than normal crimes is when the US/Euros sponsor coup d'etat and dictatorship over the objections of the Haitian peoples' democratic vote.)

This time in court, the children of Haiti had more people there to support them than Mr. Perlitz's so touted "supporters" which were mostly no-shows in comparison to the Oct. 8th showing.

Thank you all who wrote and asked Judge Margolis not to release Douglas Perlitz on bond. The process has just begun. We suspect,the information Ezili's HLLN has been circulating about the systemic abuse of Haitian children by white charity workers and the UN troops is making a difference and the new information filed by the prosecutors on October 27 to support Perlitz's continued incarceration has raised the bar.

We suspect as more information is made available and as the media learns more about what is actually going on in Haiti in terms of the raping and molesting of Haitian children by charity workers and UN peace keepers, more of Mr. Perlitz's supporters and prospective bond financiers will be asking to remain anonymous. For instance, according to new information divulged by the federal prosecutors, from June until his arrest in September 2009, computer records show that Douglas Perlitz was using a laptop computer to seek Haitian and black boys on sexually oriented Internet sites and over 100 sexual images of black boys where found on his computer. Perlitz's attorneys has file a motion supporting bond where he requests that the individuals putting up money on defendant Perlitz's behalf remain anonymous. But all children need protection and we are publicly campaigning against this demand for secrecy. This sort of crime against children flourishes in secrecy. Its prosecution must be done in the full light.

Every Douglas Perlitz's bond supporter ought to be able stand in front of the entire community and say they are standing by Mr. Perlitz' innocence. Too many times in Haiti's past we've seen, as we just saw with the arrest of ex-priest and accused pedophile John Duarte last week, that the authorities are willing to make arrests but, as for instance in the John Duarte pedophile case, categorically refuse to name the hotel in Port au Prince where Mr. Duarte was having sex with children. This is exactly the sort of thing Save the Children did last year when it announced that UN peacekeepers in Haiti and NGO workers were sexually abusing Haiti's children, but did not name the UN peacekeepers nor the NGO charities involved.

Perlitz ran a residence for humanitarian aid workers in Haiti, as well as, the school for boys. Our investigation show an entwine international network in Haiti and a systematic cover up, it seems, by the authorities to keep this matter as "isolated incidents" when it is not. (See, for example - The 'Father Teresa' of Haiti – Armand Huard - was convicted on sex abuse charges against minors in Haiti orphanage • Two Canadians Charged with Sex Abuse in Haiti orphanage • Former Windsor priest John Duarte arraigned on child-molestation charges • Fr. Paul Carrier, S.J. Near The End Of The Line • Sex scandal in Haiti hits U.N. mission • and, A Swiss accused pedophile was arrested in Haiti.)

Thus, in this case with defendant Douglas Perlitz, those who wish to stand with him ought to be sure enough of him and his innocence not to hide their names as his attorney asked in the motions filed in court yesterday. If Douglas Perlitz is the "saint" that his attorneys say he is - just simply a wrongly accused white American in a "Hatfield/McCoy" caper concocted by Haiti's children and teachers, if that is so, as his attorneys are vociferously pleading, then there ought not to be a problem with revealing who the 19 "people of fine standing in the community, as well as of sufficient financial means," many from Fairfield County, are, who will agree to post the required $5 million bond for defendant Douglas Perlitz.

Our concerned community (local, national and international) is asking for transparency.

We have had ENOUGH of secrecy in the exploitation, abuse, rape and molestation of black children and people in Haiti. Haitians are still waiting for the UN authorities to RELEASE the investigation report from the 114 Sri Lankan soldiers accused of the systematic sexual abuse and rape of minors in Haiti and deported back, in disgrace, to Sri Lanka. It's been two years and the UN investigation has never been made public to Haitians. This is the sort of racist double standard, complicity and capriciousness Ezili's HLLN finds an abuse of power by supposedly lawful and respected authorities. (See, UN Peacekeepers and Humanitarian Aid Workers raping, molesting and abusing Haitian children.)

The media must begin to look into the carnage in Haiti - the fleecing of Haiti's natural resources while the people starve and die, as well as, this systemic tourist sex trade bringing disease, rape and molestation to Haiti behind the disenfranchisement of 9 million blacks by the 2004 Bush regime change and current UN occupation, all, in the name of bringing stability, democracy and humanitarian aid to Haiti. ( Minimum Wage, Maximum Outrage and Haiti's Holocaust and Middle Passage Continues.)

The world needs to wake up to the voiceless poor's plight in Haiti. That is why Ezili's HLLN shall continue explaining these concerns to the world and go, people-to-people, as we just did with this Perlitz case, as the Haitian public does not seem to be getting anywhere with those in power, or who have taken power illegally (the more than 10,000 NGOs in Haiti and the UN forces) and who are supposed to be protecting and defending democracy, justice, and Haitian welfare.

Ezili Dantò/HLLN
October 28, 2009

____________________________________
Recommended HLLN Links:

Documents Say Abuse Suspect Tried To Buy Off Victims
By EDMUND H. MAHONY, The Hartford Courant, October 29, 2009

Photos of Haitians speaking out on Douglas Perlitz case outside the courthouse -
Chris Simmons Mirror's photostream

Ex-Fairfielder accused of abusing Haitian boys drops bond bid
By Michael P. Mayko, STAFF WRITER, Connecticut Post, Oct. 28, 2009

Perlitz detained without prejudice, defense plans to eventually ask for release
by Chris Simmons, Fairfield Mirror, Oct. 28, 2009

Feds: Haiti abuse suspect sought boys while in US

Direct from Okap: Lakounewyork interview with Cyrus Sibert on Perlitz case

New motions filed in Perlitz case

Fr. Paul Carrier, S.J. Near The End Of The Line, Posted by Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit blog

Haiti's Holocaust and Middle Passage Continues

Thank you: Haitian children had no public voice in this process until you came on the scene

Help Haiti's children - Demand that accused US pedophile, Doug Perlitz, not be set free on bond

Oil in Haiti - Economic Reasons for the UN/US occupation by Ezili Dantò

Sex scandal in Haiti hits U.N. mission

The 'Father Teresa' of Haiti – Armand Huard - was convicted on sex abuse charges against minors in Haiti orphanage

A Swiss accused pedophile was arrested in Haiti

The Slavery in Haiti the Media Won't Expose

Video Child Abuse/Molestation by white tourists in Kenya

Video Paradise for Pedophiles - Senegal

Video Peacekeepers 'abusing children' in Haiti - 27 Sep 08

Video 108 sri lankan troops accused of sexual abuse in haiti UN


Take action
Contact your local newspaper or congress people:

Please continue writing to Judge Margolis and attend the Dec. 2nd bond hearing, ask your local media to report on this case.

Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers

Cry Fowl -- Blind Spot to Suffering

Governor Palin displays the same blind spot to suffering that goes into providing for Westerner's pampered consumerism. In the same vein, most Americans are not aware that Christopher Columbus never set foot on American soil. He spent most of his time in this hemisphere in the Caribbean participating in the genocide of the Tainos. Likewise, most Americans celebrate Thanksgiving in complete oblivion to the suffering, murder, rape and mutilation that was the hallmark of the Pilgrims "landing" on Plymouth Rock.



Talk about being right under your nose. It always amazes me that wealthy African-Americans like Oprah go into South Africa or other countries to provide assistance and charity while ignoring the suffering of Haitians in this hemisphere. It is almost like they are ashamed to be associated with the ancestors of the people who were the catalyst for the end of slavery in the Americas.

I've had the distinct impression that African-Americans are resentful of and fearful of Haitians. Of course, it is not hard to understand given the propaganda and bias of the mainstream media toward Haiti. Particularly in the run up to the coup-knapping of President Aristide in 2004.

Chavez on Fronline of Global Change

A global change agenda that gives voice to the poor and dispossessed continues to be spearheaded by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

You would not be able to gather that if you watch the Frontline documentary about Hugo Chavez called ""The Hugo Chavez Show" which aired on PBS this week. It claimed to present "An illuminating inside view of the mercurial Venezuelan president, his rise to power, and the new kind of revolution that he seems to be inventing -- on television."

I was surprised by some of the information. Like about the oil magnate that came to the rescue of the Chavez government during a paralyzing strike staged by workers on December 2, 2003 at the national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). This so-called "worker's strike" was actually called by the opposition after the Chavez government called for an increase in the government's share from oil profits in order to fund social programs. Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil producer and ranks among the top four U.S. oil suppliers. The strike cut total oil imports to the U.S. by 14%.

I was not surprised by the criticism of Chavez's programs or the adversarial tone of the piece, which held out little hope for the success of the Bolivarian Revolution movement. This piece was the usual U.S. mainstream media propaganda. The role of the U.S. in the attempted coup by the Venezuelan opposition in 2002 for instance, is just a short aside that avoided mentioning the extent of U.S. involvement. The piece implies that Chavez is "obsessed" with Bush, in that he falsely attributes an imperialistic and interventionist agenda to the U.S. However, the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice has made many statements branding Hugo Chavez a threat to hemispheric stability and implied that he must be stopped. Just this September, the U.S. ambassador was expelled by the Venezuelan government for his role in an attempted coup. No mention of this was made on the program.

One positive is that the piece acknowledges that Hugo Chavez has been a voice for the poor indigenous people of South America, that he has put their needs on the agenda whenever there is a legitimate discussion of the political priorities of the Latin American nations. This is a significant and very important change.

Hugo Chavez is well on his way to affecting real change in South America because he has eschewed the mindset that allows extreme poverty to exist in the same space as extreme wealth. Leaders of Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay officially launched the South American Bank in Buenos Aires in December 2007 to challenge the world banking system of debt and dependency which is controlled by capitalist bureaucrats at the IMF and the World Bank. The global economic crisis resulting from the U.S. economic collapse serves to confirm the need for such an alliance.

Hugo Chavez's ideals are a positive change for the poor people of Venezuela and the world. They are in the majority. The rich who enjoy most of the world's resources compromise a very small minority. The documentary's narrow exploration does not reflect the Herculean proportions of his struggle, nor credit him primarily for the global seismic shift left that has occurred in the political, social and economic life of Latin America and the world.

"The Hugo Chavez Show" producer Ofra Bikel should know that even though the revolution is televised, it is also bringing about positive change to Latin America and the world.

Cite Soleil Under Siege by UN Occupiers | Illegal Demolitions Must Stop

Attorney Marguerite Laurent of Haitian Lawyers Leadership has issued a statement condemning the wholesale expropriation and demotion being undertaken in Cite Soleil of 155 homes. Cite Soleil, a shanty town in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is under siege by the UN occupying forces. In the past at least two (July 6, 2005 and Dec. 22, 2006) documented attacks by United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) have been characterized as massacres by many journalist and human rights activist.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

HLLN Statement:
Regarding the allege illegal expropriation of the private property of people in Site Soley by USAID, MINUSTAH, US Embassy and DYNCORPS

On August 22, 2008, we posted on our Ezili Dantò's HLLN listserve an urgent appeal, from Haitian human rights lawyer and advocate, attorney Evel Fanfan, in Haiti, asking for international mobilization of help for property owners in Site Soley whose assets were taken over to make way for a new MINUSTAH headquarters in Site Soley, allegedly being built by the private US Embassy defense contractor DYNCORPS with monies from USAID.

According to counselor Evel Fanfan’s appeal, “More than 155 private homes and buildings in Site Soley are being destroyed without even a notice or compensation plan for the owners. This giant cleanup operation is being carried out by the firm, DYNCORPS, the chief agent of the American Embassy in Haiti with USAID as the financing source…”

Upon further investigation, HLLN learned that the subject property owners have complained to the Haitian government, to at least three Haitian officials and apparently have been told by these officials that they are not party to this transfer. There is apparently a "magistra" in Site Soley who has the "case.” It is clear that no mayor or ‘magistra’ in Site Soley has the legal right to unilaterally confiscate private property whatsoever and hand it over to foreigners. So, the question is: who within the Haitian government had the legal authority and authorized the demolition by DYNCORPS and building for MINUSTAH and US Embassy on the property of Haitians who did not transfer their land titles and are still the legal owners of the expropriated properties?

Who in the Haitian government authorized this taking of private property for MINUSTAH and foreign use and do these buyers or lessees not have the duty to not only 1). disclose to the owners how they came to claim title to these private lands, but also 2). to make sure that the authority from whom they rest their rights and title actually has the LEGAL authority to transfer said private Haitian property to them and for the use being made of it? MINUSTAH, DYNCORPS, US Embassy, USAID cannot break ground and take possession of private property in Haiti without the legal right to do so. What are MINUSTAH, USAID, US Embassy and DYNCORPS basing their titles to occupy these lands upon? Upon whose authority?

There is a Haitian law and procedure for decreeing certain private property state property. We shall soon publish this Haitian law. Suffice it to say it requires due notice, hearing and compensation to the property owners. The owners in this matter have not had any notice whatsoever, and certainly no compensation before DYNCORPS, the private US Embassy defense contractor, began demolition of their property.

“Rev. Eddy Michel, a preacher at the Christian church, The Apostles' Foundation, one of the institutions that is a victim of this operation, said he was, " completely astounded to find out about this cleanup operation with no warning, no explanation, or plan for compensation on the part of City Hall, MINUSTAH, or the American Embassy which together are authorizing, securing and financing this work." Lebon Isaac, Senior Pastor of the church says he is "the legal property owner of this piece of land on which we have been building the church since 1994", and, he reports, "this is the case for several other neighbor owners". (See Evel Fanfan’s August 22, 2008 appeal, copied below).

This is an urgent matter for the Haitian government to address. The demolition must stop, and the people living in the community must be heard on this issue before USAID may fund whatever it is going to built behind the MASSIVE walls that are currently being built on private property by DYNCORPS. Whoever it is, within the Preval government, who has the legal oversight over the actions of MINUSTAH, USAID, DYNCORPS, US Embassy must step into this breach, call for a stop to the demolition and constructions in Site Soley “taking place in front of the Place D'Arme.”

These foreigners – MINUSTAH, USAID, DYNCORPS and US Embassy should not be above the law. While telling all in sundry they are in Haiti to institutionalize law, transparency, justice and democracy, they must adhere to the appropriate Haitian law that mandates that the owners of the land and buildings cannot be divested of their interests without the due process of law, and proper compensation. At the moment these Haitian owners allege their properties are being illegally taken. This charge must be answered, not only by the Haitian government, but by MINUSTAH, USAID, DYNCORPS and US Embassy - all are obligated to show they have legal authority, legitimate title and have followed the proper legally mandated procedures for divesting these owners of their legal titles in the subject lands.

These "buyers/lessees" have a duty to be sure they are contracting from a seller ABLE to make the transfer, before their personal defense contractor, DYNCORPS, can start bulldozing private HAITIAN property and building a massive, massive wall, right in the middle of a defenseless Site Soley community that has no idea what is happening.

Finally, I note that we are aware that many of the property owners are hesitant about protesting this gross and flagrant violation of their civil rights and existing Haitian laws. It took a lot of courage for these poor resource-less Haitians from Site Soley to ask for our help in the international community because their adversaries are powerful and many fear 'y ap mete yon bagay sou do m' - that these internationals will simply label them as "bandits" or "gangsters" and they'll be disappeared or thrown into jail with indefinite detention for expressing outrage and dissent over abuse of their rights. Remember DYNCORPS, who is financially benefiting from demolishing these properties and building this massive compound, is a powerful private Defense Contractor with authority from the absolutely powerful US Embassy, USAID and MINUSTAH forces in Haiti.

We ask that everyone stay tuned and please call Attorney Evel Fanfan directly as he indicated in his appeal, as well as Rev. Eddy Michel of the Apostles' Foundation and Pastor Lebon Isaac, et al, to help in whatever way you can and to show your solidarity

These Haitian men are facing down very powerful forces and the solidarity of truly caring people, the world over, is immeasurable in times like this. When one knows not the manner of retaliation that may be exacted, the suffering, irreparable damage, if not death that may come about from this simple appeal for help and for simply asserting their human right to tell their story to you and ask for your help and solidarity. Your solidarity is critical. Human lives are at stake.

We urge all major media and international news outlets to not remain silent and to please cover and report on this story as soon as possible.

Marguerite "Ezili Danto" Laurent, Esq.
President, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
August 25, 2008


BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

ALERT: SERIOUS VIOLATION OF RIGHTS IN CITÉ SOLEIL
by Atty. Evel Fanfan, President of AUMOHD

More than 155 private homes and buildings in Cité Soleil are being destroyed without even a notice or compensation plan for the owners. This giant cleanup operation is being carried out by the firm, DYNCORPS, the chief agent of the American Embassy in Haiti with USAID as the financing source. This is taking place in front of the Place D'Arme in this poor, inner city zone and beside the new building serving as headquarters for both the police and the soldiers of MINUSTAH. The properties being razed were damaged by the armed violence which took place in this section over the past several years. Community members are organizing to resist this illegal action.

Rev. Eddy Michel, a preacher at the Christian church, The Apostles' Foundation, one of the institutions that is a victim of this operation, said he was, " completely astounded to find out about this cleanup operation with no warning, no explanation, or plan for compensation on the part of City Hall, MINUSTAH, or the American Embassy which together are authorizing, securing and financing this work." Lebon Isaac, Senior Pastor of the church says he is "the legal property owner of this piece of land on which we have been building the church since 1994", and, he reports, "this is the case for several other neighbor owners".

Yesterday a meeting was held between AUMOHD and CODEL, the committee of landowners, victims of this operation and the Mayor, Charles Joseph. After a long discussion it was agreed to hold another meeting with the people from USAID, DYNCORPS and the City Hall of Cité Soleil to reassess the case.

So AUMOHD is asking you to make an urgent call to the mayors of Cité Soleil and other officials to say that you (as defenders of the rights of the poor and voiceless) are aware of these serious violations (illegal appropriation of private property and impeding the exercise of the religion of the people) and ask them to intervene in this affair so that justice be done fairly for all the owners of these houses and/or lands.

INTERNATIONAL ADVOCATES ARE URGED TO SEND AN E-MAIL (SEE DRAFT BELOW) TO AUMOHD WHO WILL DELIVER IT TO THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES

============ ========= ========

1.-Cite Soleil City Hall
- Mayor Charles Joseph Tel : 509-37052083
- Mayor Gustave Benoît Tel : 509-37303620

2.- American Embassy in Haïti, to give them the same message.

Mr. Lucien Cantave, Director of political and human rights
services : Tel. 509-22230707

3.- The authorities of USAID, to pass on the same message

4.- MINUSTAH through SDH, Ms Andrea Eloi Tel. 509-39211103,
to pass on the same message.

5. Call Pastors Lebon ISAAC : 509-3798-5388

Eddy Michel : 509-36983515
Mr. Claude LOR : 509- 35572585

To tell them that you are engaged in their battle for
justice and reparations for them

For all other additional information call:
AUMOHD DWA MOUN
Evel FANFAN Esq.

President AUMOHD
(Action Des Universitaires Motivés pour une Haïti de Droit)

4, Delmas 47, Route de Delmas
Port au Prince, Haiti (WI)

Phone: (509)-37548022 / 34297129 / 3490-3394
E-mail : presidentaumohd@yahoo.fr | fanfanmel@yahoo.fr
website: http://www.hurah-inc.org

Blog: http//aumohddwamoun.blogspot.com
Skype: evelfanfan

Miscarriage of Justice: NY Cops Given License to Kill

Another slap in the face to the Black community. Another case of police brutality, murder, assassination, reckless endangerment ends in acquittal for the criminal police perpetrators. The judge in this "bench trial", Justice Arthur J. Cooperman of State Supreme Court in Queens, ruled that the detectives were not guilty on all felony and misdemeanor counts.

The officers were allowed to have their case tried before a judge, after alleging that a jury trial would be prejudicial. It should be illegal, in my opinion, for such a case to be tried by a judge (someone who is part of the system). The judge has a conflict of interest. His acquittal of the three cops is evidence of his bias.

In numerous cases of police brutality, the police have been acquitted.

POLICE ACQUITTED...
Eleanor Bumpers (shot dead), Abner Louima (beaten and sodomized), Patrick Dorisman (shot dead), Amadou Diallo (shot dead), Sean Bell (shot dead)... and numerous others who don't get the same publicity.

When will the community get justice?

NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE.

A DAY OF PRESENCE; National Focus on Recovery of New Orleans

Urgent Action Alert:
Letter From Susan L. Taylor, Essence Magazine, July 10, 2007
A DAY OF PRESENCE; National Focus on Recovery of New Orleans and Gulf Coast;
August 29, 2nd Anniversary of Katrina and Rita

I'm just back from the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, which was a grand success, contributed more than $120 million to the city and raised the hope and spirits of our people throughout the region.

While there, Tommy Dortch and I, our spouses Carole Dortch and Khephra Burns, Marcia and Michael Eric Dyson and PR guru Terrie Williams met privately with Mayor Ray Nagin about the deplorable and shameful conditions that the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region are still suffering under, the obstacles the mayor has faced in trying to marshal resources for the recovery and the actions we all can and must take on August 29, the second anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

There must be a national outcry, a day of outrage, a day of protest, pray and possibility that the media cannot ignore; a day during which we demand that our national decision makers redirect our tax dollars away from war and war profiteering to create a regional Marshall Plan that restores New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

8/29: A DAY OF PRESENCE

We Matter. We Care. We Act.

We're all weary, and our lives are overscheduled. But taking a stand at this crucial moment is something we must do. As Frantz Fanon said,

"Each generation must discover its mission and, having discovered its mission, either fulfill or betray it." Our generation is at grave risk of the latter. There's not an issue killing our community that African Americans have stood solidly together on and remedied since the Civil Rights Movement. Let's write a new history. Let's stand together on this and win social and economic justice for the people of the Gulf Coast region. With the hope and courage garnered from that victory we can then address the failing schools, the over incarceration of our young and the other ills sucking the life out of our community.

This is the call: On 8/29 the tens of thousands who can travel to New Orleans will gather for the massive demonstration being planned there. (The exact time and place to follow)

Millions of Black people, our White, Latino, Native and Asian brothers and sisters - all who are committed to social and economic justice - are to call their congressional and state representatives and the White House to demand the restoration and betterment of New Orleans, Gulf Port, Biloxi and the entire Gulf Coast region. The telephone number for the White House switchboard is (202) 456 1414; the U. S. Congressional switchboard operators at (202) 224-3121 connect callers directly to their Senators' and Representatives' offices, after asking for a state of residence and zip code.

America will inundate Washington with a storm surge of phone calls, emails and faxes, loudly protesting this administration's shameful disregard for the people elected officials are supposed to protect. We want the state and national headquarters of both the Republican and Democratic parties to get a startling and disturbing wake-up call: Black people will not be taken for granted.

On 8/29 we must be fully present with all of our caring, compassion and determination. Present on that day we must have our national leaders, presidential candidates and elected officials, faith communities, fraternities, sororities, union members and celebrities present in full force.

Tyler Perry, Kimberly Elise, Regina King, Victoria Rowell, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Blair Underwood and others are with us in spirit, checking their schedules and awaiting details. CSI's Hill Harper is taping and is requesting the day off. Comedian and festival host Jonathan Slocumb, who kept the 8/29 initiative alive each day and evening before the tens of thousands of festival goers, cares and will be present on that day. Tom Joyner will be broadcasting from New Orleans on 8/29. We need Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover; we need Oprah, Spike, Halle, Angelina, Brad and Bono, Sean Penn, Wynton Marsalis, the hip-hop community et al.

And of course, we need a huge turnout from the people of New Orleans and the Gulf region and as many thousands of displaced evacuees as can manage to return and have their presence register in Washington, in the media and the national consciousness.

We want all presidential candidates to take heed of the national discontent and our resolve to hold them accountable.

Americans are unaware of how gravely people of the Gulf Coast region are still suffering. Mayor Nagin said, "We are physically, emotionally and spiritually tired." A flood of media nonsense has washed over the facts of life for the people of New Orleans: Nearly two years later, 200,000 people are still living in trailers. More than 250,000 evacuated residents are still scattered throughout the nation. Two year later, 70 public schools in Orleans Parish remain closed. There are no mental health services, no hospitals to serve the uninsured poor.

And yet, as Barack Obama pointed out the evening he spoke at the festival, $165 million a day is being spent on the war in Iraq. Other research puts the number at an average of $259 million each day – an amount that could pay for a full year in Head Start pre-school programs for 35,000 three- and four-year-olds. For less than the amount spent in one month in Iraq, all of New Orleans could have been completely rebuilt.

Marian Wright Edelman noted that the Day of Presence is taking place at an opportune moment, just before Congress reconvenes to make its final decision, along with the President, on whether or not to fund the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and help the dispersed children of Katrina get the mental health support and health coverage they desperately need.

Regional co-conveners include Mayor Nagin; Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, who represents the Ninth Ward; committed activist lawyers Tracie Washington, president and CEO of The Louisiana Justice Institute, and Judith Browne, co-director of the Advancement Project; and the Rev. Norwood Thompson, Jr., president of the New Orleans chapter of SCLC. The Louisiana Justice Institute is the lead organization and is forming a broad coalition of regional and community-based groups to plan the day's program and work on the regional turnout.

Marian Wright Edelman will help to organize our faith communities, and Marcia Dyson is working on a framework to sustain the movement beyond 8/29.

Who will step up as national co-conveners, along with Melanie Campbell, executive director and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, ESSENCE Cares and those leaders who joined me in meeting with the mayor? Please contact Melanie Campbell at melaniec@ncbcp.org and me at taylor@essence.com

On August 28 The Louisiana Justice Institute, Mississippi Economic Policy Center, Gulf Coast Young Leaders Network and a coalition of regional organizations, with support from Oxfam, Rutgers University and other institutions, are also convening a policy forum: Recovery and Renewal for Gulf Coast Working Families. For more information about the policy forum and the time and place of the 8/29: A Day of Presence rally, log on to the Institute's Web site, louisianajusticeinstitute.org, after July 17.

We need all hands on deck. Our job - all of us - is to mobilize the masses to act. Together we have the compassion, the will and spiritual resources to help our sisters and brothers in the Gulf region to reclaim and better their lives. They matter and deserve to be treated with the dignity and respect due every human being, none more than tax-paying African Americans, whose ancestors helped build and make the nation the wealthiest on earth.

Please give this email, and the related ones that will follow, the widest possible distribution. Let's organize our community to stand up and stand together as we haven't done in decades. With the needs of our people - not our egos - leading the way, we will win.

No forces arrayed against us can withstand our unity and love.

OneLove,
Susan

Susan L. Taylor, ESSENCE