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Occupy New Orleans
I watched the Arab Spring wondering why it was taking so long to get Americans out in the streets. Never understood why it didn’t happen when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. That’s when the destruction began, with the un-holy marriage of Reagan and Thatcher. They were two “conservatives”, both of whom used their position to usher in an era of destruction of the middle and working class-their own family origins. They disparaged labor, de-regulating, anointing the financial industry as being above reproach and the law. Any intellectual pursuit that was not connected to making money with money was disparaged, discredited, dismissed. Education, science and the social compact were discarded, as being impediments to business, not cost-effective.
That being said, I am glad it’s finally happening. .
I live in New Orleans. Our Occupation began a week ago, in Duncan Plaza. It’s across the street from City Hall, and was the scene of great controversy under the Nagin administration post-Katrina. There were major efforts to keep the occupants of the housing projects from returning home, although many of their buildings in the housing projects weren’t storm-damaged. It resulted in a massive homeless camp, challenging the government’s authority to further displace and otherwise marginalize the working poor of New Orleans. It climaxed with a violent confrontation between the protesters and the police in December 2007.
That was then. We had a fantastic March yesterday. The planners had not been able to get a permit. However, perhaps because the Occupation, which is across the street from City Hall has been so peaceful (and clean) the police led us through the street! They led us! A couple of officers even told me that they were glad to be able to help! But, this is New Orleans; we do Mardi Gras. I suspect though, that sober marchers for democracy and economic equality are a much easier detail than streets full of drunken revelers…
Last week the Mayor came out to meet and greet the Occupiers, and ask how everyone was doing. And officially, because some construction is going to happen down the street, the City set up port-o-lets in the park, mostly for the convenience of the Occupiers! But Mitch Landrieu is a different animal than many other Mayors (Hello, Rahm the Hun?!). He is a native of the City, and is a self-described “street-rat”. Mitch (yeah, we’re on a first-name basis with the Mayor) is passionate about the City and about helping people. This kind of co-existence we’re enjoying wouldn’t have been possible under any of the past 3 mayors, for example (Ray Nagin, Marc Moral, and Sidney Barthelemy)
This week, the current Mayor came out to meet and greet the Occupiers, and ask how everyone was doing. Yesterday, before the March, officially “because road construction is going to start down the street”, the City set up several port-o-lets in the park
As a City, we are struggling with the same issues that working people and the poor face every day: adequate access to health care, affordable housing, a quality education for the children, grocery stores in poor neighborhoods, not just liquor stores with junk food and bread. With a governor and state legislature obsessed with destroying the social fabric of its working and under-class, New Orleans is the 99%
This is what Democracy looks like. One: We are the People. Two: We stand United. Three: This Occupation is not leaving!
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=occupy+new+orleans&aq=f
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