A Better New Orleans is Possible
Belief:
What if People Actually Treated Religion as Just a Metaphor (Like Trekkies and Secular Jews)?
Greta Christina
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
What Happened to That Prosperity Tax-Cutters Promised Us?
Sam Pizzigati
DrugReporter:
The War on Weed: Marijuana Is Basically Harmless -- The Monumentally Stupid Drug War Is Not
Jim Hightower
Environment:
The Real Scandal Over Climate Change Isn't About Hacked Emails But the Media's Coverage
Alex Steffen
Food:
10 Tips for a Sustainable Thanksgiving
Sarah Newman
Health and Wellness:
Is the House's Health Bill Really Worse than Nothing?
Joshua Holland
Immigration:
Hate Group, FAIR, Is Looking for "Ethnically Ambiguous" Actors to Amplify Its Racism
Adam Luna
Media and Technology:
The Memory Scrub About Why Ft. Hood Happened Is Almost Complete ... If It Weren't for Archives
Mark Ames
Movie Mix:
The Yes Men: Pranksters Out to Fix the World
Mark Engler
Politics:
Just When You Thought It Was Safe: 3 Potential Obstacles to Health-Care Reform
Adele M. Stan
Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Why Can't We Look Away From Sarah Palin?
Vanessa Richmond
Rights and Liberties:
Obama Quietly Backs Renewing Patriot Act Surveillance Provisions
Willam Fisher
Sex and Relationships:
Hot Mormon Muffins and Models for Jesus: What's With All the Sexy Christians?
Liz Langley
Take Action:
G-20 Meetings: Nothing Much Happened in the Suites, and There Was Too Much Punch in the Streets
Laura Flanders
Water:
Poseidon's Financial Shell Game: Why Is a Private Desalination Plant Asking for Public Money?
Peter Gleick
World:
Obama Will Announce 34,000-Troop Escalation in Afghanistan 'Within Days'
The best and the worst of America were on full display in the days following Hurricane Katrina. We are still seeing a desperate tug of war between two sides of the American character -- with the fate of New Orleans hanging in the balance.
As the Bush administration hands out reconstruction dollars, the clock is ticking: Will the response be politics as usual? Or will we be able to rebuild New Orleans as a model city and a beacon for possibility?
Looking Back: The Heartbreak -- And the Hope
The winds of Katrina blew back the curtain on some of the worst in U.S. politics. None of us can forget the heartbreaking images of our most vulnerable citizens abandoned to a horrific fate, trying to survive in a city underwater. Nor can we erase the image of a fly-over U.S. president, indifferent and detached during an unprecedented national catastrophe.
The better side of America also came into view. The media challenged the White House's preposterous spin that evacuation efforts were going fine. People of all classes and colors opened their hearts, homes and wallets to displaced families. And progressives led the way, through initiatives like HurricaneHousing.org -- our own "underground railroad" that housed tens of thousands of evacuees.
For the first time in more than a generation, caring deeply about the fate of the black poor seemed like the American thing to do.
The Moment at Hand: Profiteering or Possibility?
Charged with the monumental task of rebuilding, the government has squandered the hope and compassion of tens of millions. The same slowpoke White House that botched the evacuation is now moving at lightening speed to help its friends profit from the reconstruction:
Van Jones is the executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which houses Reclaim The Future: Alliance For Green-Collar Jobs. A version of this essay was originally published at YES! Magazine.
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