Meeting in New Orleans to discuss Rights, Recovery, and Renaissance.

[madfloridian]

I think this is heartwarming to read, especially after hearing that FEMA was not eager to give out voter info for next year. Good for the folks who were there...hosted by the NAACP and DFA in Louisiana.

Rights, Recovery, Renaissance Summit

Rights, Recovery and Renaissance, hosted by Democracy for America and the Louisiana NAACP, was a day long summit that stemmed from the realization that only when all citizens are afforded their basic rights can the region and its people recover and achieve an economic and cultural Renaissance. The program focused on the right to political representation, the right to economic security following public catastrophes, the right to participate in the economic development of the community and the right to environmental protection. The summit created actionable items with SPICE -- social, personal, immediate, concrete and effective -- to ensure these rights.

Last weekend, over one hundred people, including DFA Chair Jim Dean, gathered at the historical black Southern University campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for this day-long event. The participants came from ten states and the District of Columbia. They represented a variety of organizations -- including the American Association of Retired People, the American Civil Liberties Unions, the American Federation of Teachers, the Baton Rouge City Council, Common Cause, Dartmouth College, Democracy for America, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Justice, FEMA, the Louisiana Interchurch Conference, the Louisiana Governor's Office, LULAC, the NAACP, Rainbow Push, SEIU, the Sierra Club, the Small Business Administration and the University of Texas. This immense diversity of people, regions and organizations was truly inspiring.

Monisha who wrote up this blog piece was a student there in Lousiana, and she is now without a college home. She is currently working at DFA in Vermont.

http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/006878.html

A dear friend to the DFA community, Monisha Sujan, was one of the tens of thousands of students left without a school:

"People are still trying to figure it out," Sujan said.
But Sujan cashed in on a job offer promised her this summer. Now Sujan will work for Democracy for America, a Democratic group led by former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean's brother in Vermont, to help coordinate hurricane relief efforts until she and her parents—both faculty members at Tulane—are allowed to return to their home in the New Orleans neighborhood of Uptown.

But Sujan added that not everyone has the resources to try to find new schools or temporary jobs.

"The ones who the story's really bad and depressing for are the ones who don't have the money to go to school in the first place....We didn't take care of the people who really need to take care of, and who don't really have any other place to go," she said.

Monisha on the right of Jim.

[shance]

1. I hadn't heard about this! This is great to see.

The people of NO need solidarity and some hope right now. This is very inspiring.

Thanks so much as always for keeping us up to day with DFA and DNC.

[madfloridian]

2. And today we hear the DNC will hold their spring meeting there.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=57189

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean announced today that the 2006 DNC Spring Meeting will be held in New Orleans, La., from April 20- 22, 2006. The decision to hold the next DNC meeting in New Orleans is part of the Democratic Party's commitment to rebuilding the Gulf Coast and rebuilding the American community. DNC members from around the country will gather at the Sheraton New Orleans hotel, overlooking the Mississippi river, for the first of their biannual meetings of 2006.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement:

"Today I am pleased to announce the Democratic Party's small effort to help rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. I look forward to joining Democrats from all across the country in a revitalized New Orleans for the 2006 DNC Spring Meeting.

"Democrats are committed to rebuilding the Gulf Coast, and to rebuilding America's sense of community. Our nation was founded on the notion that we have a responsibility to each other, a shared investment in one another, and the belief that we should leave no one behind. The American people are heroes for coming together the way they did after Hurricane Katrina, and being extraordinarily generous in a time of crisis. We are honored to be a part of that. Together, America can do better."

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