DeBerry hits it on the head

This column by Jarvis DeBerry is required reading.

The issues of the poor often intersect with those who are racially oppressed, but not always. We see the conflicts between the two groups when black people with money wage campaigns against those who are without.

Eastern New Orleans has often been a battleground for this kind of intra-racial class warfare because that part of the city has included beautiful mansions and huge unsightly apartment complexes -- one of which I used to call home. Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis gave the impression soon after Hurricane Katrina that she spoke for the entire area when she trumpeted the phrase "right to return."

She's fought mightily for homeowners -- that is, those who have already acquired some semblance of wealth. However, she has shown herself to be indifferent -- if not outright opposed -- to the interests of low-wage residents who require affordable-housing options to return to the city.

In leading the opposition against a developer looking to build 36 affordable single-family houses near Lake Carmel at an average cost of $200,000, Willard-Lewis said the interests of current residents are her chief concern. So much for everybody else returning.

The City Planning Commission voted 6-2 to approve the legal subdivision developer Harold Foley needs to start his project. The New Orleans City Council, however, voted 5-2 against the project. The only two members to show Foley support were James Carter and Shelley Midura.

In voting against the project, the City Council isn't showing itself to be any different than the St. Bernard Parish Council, which has twice been scolded by a federal court judge for violating the Fair Housing Act.

The judge found that St. Bernard officials have withheld a routine re-subdivision request for a developer planning to build apartments because parish officials are trying to keep out black people.

See Judge Ginger Berrigan's order.

The City Council is employing the same strategy St. Bernard officials have used. It's difficult to imagine a judge looking any more kindly on the city's blockade of this project. The federal court would be unfairly punishing St. Bernard if it allowed New Orleans to do the same thing.

Cowen's Concerns Indicative of Swirling Skepticism

In a letter to the editor responding to James Gill's passionate criticism of LSU's entrenched stance in the debate over whether to restore Charity Hospital, Tulane President Scott Cowen asks the following questions:

-- Given the current health care reform movement, do we remain comfortable that the proposed hospital meets the medical needs of our wider community and its citizens, especially those who are under- or uninsured?

-- Do we have sufficient funds to build and operate the hospital without it being a drain on the state's future resources, especially in these economic times?

-- How can any new facility best meet the educational, research and clinical care needs of the institutions that rely on it to support and advance their academic missions? Some of these institutions include Xavier, LSU, Dillard and Tulane.

-- Given the importance and wide impact of this hospital to our community, who should own, govern and manage it to ensure that the proposed facility meets the needs of its various stakeholders while being operated in the most cost effective, efficient and transparent manner?

These are the issues that have been flagged at every turn by proponents of Charity. It is about time that LSU, the GNOBEDD, and the DDD be forced to provide legitimate answers. There has not been one public hearing in Orleans Parish on the matter. Not one. Not in front of the City Council. Not in front of the City Planning Commission.

Goody Clancy, the firm that just released a master plan draft online, was told not to evaluate the GNOBEDD or the LSU/VA footprint.

But it is clear as you're browsing the draft plan, that the issue of Charity Hospital was simply unavoidable. The public health challenges examined by Goody Clancy clearly underscore Mr. Cowen's first question above. Check out Chapter 9 on Health and Human Services (pdf)

What else?

And more still:

Given the distubing public health crisis, why are we so convinced that the LSU/VA complex is the way to go when there's another proposal on the table promises the same first rate medical care without nearly the same wait. LSU does not have the funding to proceed with their plan but they've blocked any and all attempts to evaluate it side-by-side with the alternative from RMHM Hillier. It could take another decade if we continue to subject our health care emergencies to their incompetent guidance.

Get into the Details?

I don't want to dwell on LaBruzzo for ever and ever. His shocking and abhorrent proposal is not something I want to continue to talk about. It discriminates based on race, class, and sex both in theory and in practice. It is hateful in every respect. It is also impractical and stupid from the get-go. As the Times-Picayune pointed out today, welfare expenditures actually represent an almost insignificant portion of the budget. LaBruzzo's proposal is a typical racist's attempt to deflect criticism of the excesses of the wealthy onto minorities.

Eugenics is pure evil. Period. LaBruzzo can never recover from this ever. He's finished in my book. Finished!

The controversy does remain of critical relevance.

Why?

Because look who else has exposed themselves to be racist:

(Excerpted from today's T-P)

Some of LaBruzzo's political backers, meanwhile, responded cautiously to his controversial pronouncements.

"It definitely caught me by surprise," said lawyer James Garvey, a member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. He has given $1,000 to LaBruzzo's campaign treasury. "I guess I would say that Johnny is a really good guy and really bright guy and that he comes up with ideas that have not been thought of by many other people. Some are good. Some are bad."

Garvey said he had not given LaBruzzo's sterilization idea enough thought to take a position on it. "This might turn out to be a horrible idea," he said, "but you can't get his good ideas without getting some of his off-the-wall ideas."

Real estate developer Henry Shane, who has given LaBruzzo $2,000, also was noncommittal, saying he has not digested the proposal or talked to LaBruzzo about it.

"I'd have to know what he is actually proposing," Shane said. "It sounds like it might be unusual, but when you get into the details of it, it may make sense."

WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? There is no due diligence here. When someone proposes genocide through sterilization you condemn it automatically. There's no 'oh well he's a great guy, there might be something good in here' or 'yeah you know I'm not ready to take a position until I see the proposal.' THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST RACIST BILLS ANYONE COULD EVER PROPOSE. EVER.

James Garvey is on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and may soon rubber stamp a proposal that closes New Orleans public schools. Do you think he cares about the public education of the poor minority children of Orleans? Sounds to me like he wants them to have never been born. If James Garvey is the type of guy to take a pro-eugenics bill 'under advisement,' he has no business being in government, let alone on a board with jurisdiction over the lives of children.

This petition prevents the BESE board from rubber stamping the master plan until Orleans Parish voters get their say through a new school board. You should probably sign it, unless you're a soulless fool that thinks eugenics bills should be entertained.

This other guy, Henry Shane, whoever he is (a big Vitter-booster), also appears to be a flaming racist. He's suggesting that LaBruzzo's eugenics proposal might "make sense" if us crazies only took the time to look at the details.

Beyond that, we see that Congressman Steve Scalise continues to tout the endorsement he got from LaHitler on his website. I'd love to know what Mr. "the Sleaze" has to say about his friend's proposal. Until he repudiates it publicly, rejects and denounces LaHitler's endorsement, and returns any and all money LaHitler helped raise, I'll just have to go ahead an assume that Scalise is a white supremacist too. We're 48 hours and counting. Anything to say Scasleaze?

Perhaps Mr. Scalise is worried about alienating his base, the racists of Jefferson Parish. He has a difficult political calculation to make because he needs strong racist turnout if he's to retain his seat against the surging Jim Harlan, who not only rejects and denounces 19th century white supremacist philosophies like eugenics, but has a bold plan to move forward on coastal restoration. I fully expect that Mr. Harlan will have no problem pointing out this key difference with his opponent.

Mr. Harlan is closing the gap toward single digits! Prove reasonable people wrong, Jefferson Parish. Vote against politicians like Steve Scalise and his white supremacist friend, Eugenicsathan LaGenocide.

Accountability...

is not just having the incompetent head of the Dept. of Social Services resign for her failures during the recent hurricane evacuations. It is also providing restitution to those that were forced to use their meager wages to pay for food that was supposed to have been provided by the DSS. I heard on the radio that there was a small protest today over the poor conditions at the state's shelter sites. One woman explained that she had had to use her rent money to buy food at a state shelter because DSS had failed to provide special needs meals to those with diabetes. Then she started bawling as she tried to explain that she'd just been evicted as a result. What a disgrace.

It's Not About a Hurricane, It's About America

Let me second Oyster's post on the incredible Trouble the Water, which will be released in New York and LA this weekend.

I also have high hopes for this film and hope that it helps to elevate a national discussion of poverty during this campaign season. This is critical especially now that Mr. Edwards can no longer effectively lead the poverty tour that had been planned for this fall.

This past weekend was the second time I've seen the film and the first time I got to shake hands with the Roberts family.

Kimberly Rivers Roberts, during the post-screening Q & A, had this to say about Ray Nagin:

"He has blood on his hands."