Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 6 April 2006 — Page 21

The Muncie Times • April 6, 2006 • Page 21

The Judge s Chambers PUSH marches to force U. S. govt, to help Katrina victims

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Judge Greg Mathis Chairman of the Rainbow PUSH- Excel Board and a national member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

In the hours, days, weeks and months following Hurricane Katrina, countless people showed their support for the storm’s victims by making financial contributions. The social services the money funded were and are still very much needed. However, more than 6 months after the worst natural disaster in American history, the residents of New Orleans also need a push for social justice. On April 1, Rainbow

PUSH was in New Orleans, calling for that very thing. PUSH hosted Our Right to Return and Rebuild campaign, a major march and rally designed to respond to the two tragedies that traumatized so many people, many of them black: Hurricane Katrina itself and the government’s inability to respond to the needs of those affected. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the federal government was slow to send aid to the hardest hit areas, slow to

rescue survivors trapped in the heavily flooded city and slow to find suitable shelter for those lucky enough to evacuate the city before the storm hit. Unfortunately, the government’s efforts haven’t improved with time. Recently, the federal government cut off temporary housing to thousands of Katrina evacuees. Yet, several thousand trailer homes, caught up in government red tape and bureaucracy, are sitting unused. Government officials have yet to reveal a

long-term plan that provides stable housing for evacuees, many of them elderly or ill, and they’ve yet to ensure adequate funding for the rebuilding process. Katrina has been long gone, but the government’s incompetence continues to victimize thousands of people. The Katrina tragedy has shown the country-and the world-the way this government discounts the lives of the poor and the lives of people of color. Americans, African Americans in particular, cannot allow this blatant disregard for human life to persist. The Katrina tragedy has been compared to “Bloody Sunday.” On Sunday, March 7, 1965, civil rights marchers, looking to bring attention to voting rights violations, began a peaceful march out of Selma, Ala. They only made it six blocks, to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. There, police officers attacked them with tear gas and billy clubs; several marchers were injured. The assault was filmed by a news crew and televised for the entire nation to see. Americans saw firsthand

victimization black citizens endured. Support for the civil rights movement grew after “Bloody Sunday.” Hurricane Katrina is this generation’s “Bloody Sunday.” We must now begin to put our voices and our money behind the energized social justice movement. As national vice president of Rainbow PUSH, I urge you to support our efforts, beginning in New Orleans. The April 1 march is a continuation of the organization’s work to advance social, racial and economic justice. Over the past year. PUSH has held a voting rights march in Atlanta, visited schools and jails in over 30 states seeking to reclaim our youth and provided college scholarships to over 500 students. To learn about other ways you can help advance the movement, call PUSH at 866-559-4004 or visit : http://www.return-and-rebuild.org/index. htm. Judge Greg Math :s national vice preside.* / Rainbow PUSH and a national board member of the Southern Christian

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