As you drive around New Orleans it’s easy to get depressed, especially if you visit areas like New Orleans East or the Ninth Ward. Lots of places around the city don’t have phone service yet. Forget about phone service, though; a lot of places don’t even have gas or electricity. Some places are okay. For example, in the state capitol it’s pretty much business as usual for a lot of politicians. And, that more than anything, is really starting to piss people off.
Everyone I meet and talk to these days wants to band together to counteract the entrenched political forces. What can we do? Well, we can form grassroots organizations, pass around petitions, and build websites, and we no doubt will. But first we should be aware that there are some great citizen action groups that already exist. CLOUP is one that I recently found out about. Check out this page about proposed federal legislation known as the Louisiana Katrina Reconstruction Act (S. 1765). This is good information, and it looks like a good resource for Louisiana citizens who are interested in making some real political change, especially those who live in New Orleans. I’ve joined their email list and hopefully some of you will too.
We can’t sit around waiting for politicians to make smart decisions. None of us have that kind of life span.
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