Through CPC we are a community of people united by a commitment to social justice, ending racism, securing educational and economic opportunity, expanding access to high quality health care, investing in people and communities, and building a future that works for everyone not just the wealthy and the well-connected. Many times we focus our work on what happens here inside of Colorado's borders. This is one time when we cannot.
Like many of you, we at CPC are devastated and angered by what we've seen and read about Hurricane Katrina. For many of us here, we can't help thinking of our nation's hypocrisy about race, class, freedom, and equality and how the images from New Orleans show Americans and people across the world how we often do not practice what we preach.
In a sense, as more people are evacuated to points across the nation, thousands of dead bodies are discovered, and the long process of remembering and rebuilding begins, we are ALL New Orleanians.
CPC Program Director, Bill Vandenberg, was traveling on the East Coast at the time of the hurricane and has this to report:
"Life is full of many ironies, many painful, and as I boarded a bus in New York City last Thursday heading north to spend Labor Day with my family, I began my daily routine of reading the newspaper. As the pictures of death and despair and the accompanying narratives began to really sink in I looked around at the ironies surrounding me. The bus I caught was on time, clean, and less than half full at a time when people in New Orleans were dying to find any mode of transport out of their flooded city. I arrived in Maine several hours later and heard many people around me express their annoyance that the bus was somewhat late due to traffic.
"The next day I went to Popham Beach, a spectacular several mile long stretch that - over the decades - has faced down hurricanes and winter 'nor'easters' that have swept homes into the sea. The Maine ocean, no more than 55 or 60 degrees of cold, salty water, is where I rejuvenate every year and I jumped in, dove underwater, came up to shout out from the cold, and then swam for many minutes as my body adjusted to the water temperature. Bounding about in the surf and then heading up the beach to take in the sun, I was struck by the irony of the waters that recharge me and give me life were at the very same moment taking the lives of many thousands of others in New Orleans."
As progressive minded people we, perhaps more than others, know that the United States often says one thing and does another. We know of the beautiful words of the Constitution and the simultaneous ugly realities of slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow laws. We know of the 'they hate us for our freedom' speechifying while the USA PATRIOT Act is implemented. We know of the tremendous diversity of our nation while systemic discrimination and xenophobia continue to occur, stopping our nation from reaching its true promise.
The U.S. - at least that which is represented through its foreign policy and our day to day domestic workings - is the embodiment of hypocrisy, speaking lavishly about freedom, democracy, and equality while at the same time powerful forces within our nation work to squash those very principles. The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, a natural disaster that some would say is an 'act of God', has revealed much about what is really happening in our nation. To recall a childhood story, in this case the Emperor truly has no clothes.
For all that is beginning to be said about what the pictures of suffering in New Orleans show us - that those facing disproportionate pain and loss of life are economically poor African-Americans - what we do not hear is much talk about why this is so. Beyond the talk about wealthier, mostly white, people with cars and some available cash being able to evacuate, we don't hear about why there was such a tremendous concentration of poverty among the African-American residents of New Orleans. We do not hear about how the intersection of race and poverty in this nation must be confronted and ended now so this can never happen again.
CPC has often been challenged by many of our fellow progressives for our prioritization of racial justice work. Of course we expect this from conservatives but it often surprises us to hear it from liberals, mostly well-intentioned white folks, who have told us that focusing on race and racism is "divisive". Many other "progressive" or "liberal" groups do not even mention racism for fear of offending their white liberal base unless it is an election season when they struggle to reach people of color communities to attempt to get out the vote. You can't inspire people to vote if you aren't working on issues of concern to people from diverse communities. Otherwise it's a form of liberal paternalism or, even worse, co-modification for political gain. This is deeply offensive and no way to build a movement.
So, let's not just critique the criminal negligence of the Bush administration in failing to secure our homeland. Let's look in the mirror, today and everyday, to rededicate ourselves and our movement to the struggle for racial justice in this nation. Making a donation - if you are able - is necessary. Making a commitment to ending the intersection of race and class and ongoing inequality in this nation is essential.
Tell us what you think and thanks for being part of our community.
In peace,
from the Colorado Progressive Coalition |
