Networks IgnoreGulf Coast in Debates
by Jeffrey Buchanan
Gulf Coast rebuilding continues to be ignored in thePresidential Debates. Learn how you can take a stand by clicking http://www.colorofchange.org/gccwpolitico/and following instructions on how by taking a minute you can help get aquestion about Gulf Coast rebuilding asked to each of candidates during theCNN/Politico.com/Los Angeles Times California Debates January 30thand 31st - BAR Editors
CNN, MSNBC, FOX News and the other networks that havehosted this primary season's thirty Presidential Debates have yet to ask eachcandidate how they plan to help rebuild communities in New Orleans and alongthe Gulf Coast. Though media attention to their struggles has faded morethan two years after the 2005 hurricanes and levee failures, many of thesecommunities have not been able to rebuild their schools, police stations, roadsand other critical infrastructure as hundreds of thousands of residents remaindisplaced. The result is an American human rights crisis certainly worthyof being addressed as Americans choose their next President.
Through fourteen Republican Debates, no moderator has askedany Republican Presidential candidates a single question about rebuilding NewOrleans and the Gulf Coast. Moderators of the sixteen Democraticevents have not done much better, directing only a fraction of their debates,less than one percent, to Gulf Coast recovery.
"No moderator has asked any Republican Presidentialcandidates a single question about rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast."
In aninterview with the Sun News before the January 21st SouthCarolina debate, Rep. James Clyburn, the state's member of Congressional BlackCaucus, which sponsored the debate, even named rebuilding infrastructure,specifically in the Gulf Coast, as a top issue he hoped to hear addressed inthe debate. Still the topic was never touched on.
Top candidates from both parties have characterized thegovernment's response to Hurricane Katrina as a failure during their respectivedebates. Still only once this primary season, at PBS's Democratic Debate atHoward University, did the questioners ask each candidate a questionrelated to Gulf Coast recovery. NPR's Michelle Norris asked whether eachcandidate would support a federal law guaranteeing a human rightto return home after Hurricane Katrina, based on international law. Though candidates hinted at their rebuilding plans, they were not pressed toexplain the steps they would take to create the economic and social conditionsnecessary for residents to realize their rights.
"New Orleans' application to host one of four scheduledgeneral election Presidential Debates was recently denied."
Gulf Coast residents fear that important questions about thefuture of their communities and the hundreds of thousands of their friends andfamilies who are still displaced will continue to go unasked and unansweredthis primary season.
Things are not looking much better for the general election debates.
Despite letters of support from a bi-partisan list of seven Presidentialcandidates and supportive editorials from USA Today, the New YorkTimes, Time Magazine, and the Washington Post, New Orleans'application to host one of four scheduled general election Presidential Debateswas recently denied. With New Orleans successfully hosting such large-scale events in 2008 as theSugar Bowl and the NCAA Championship Game and set to host the NBA All-StarGame, city leaders found the snub shocking. Anne Milling, founder ofWomen of the Storm, the group which led the application effort with aconsortium of local universities including Dillard, Loyola, Tulane and Xavier,called it, "acase of politics trumping the clear moral choice."
"A defining moment in American history"
Debates are an opportunity to make candidates take a stand on the mostimportant issues facing American voters. National polling data indicates thatGulf Coast rebuilding is still important to Americans nationwide, not justthose living in the region.
John Zogby, one of the top minds in the polling industry, wrote recently in Campaignsand Elections Magazine that polling data on domestic issues facingcandidates in the 2008 elections indicates, "Katrina, over the long haul, willprove to be more of a defining moment in American history than the terroristattacks of Sept. 11, 2001." He went on to note that after witnessing the failedfederal response to Gulf Coast recovery, American voters "hunger nationwide fora new model for the federal government."
Zogby found that Americans wanted a leader who would could unite the nation andmarshal the necessary resources to rebuild after a disaster. He wrote thatAmericans wanted federal leadership with the flexibility to work with localleaders, including local governments, faith and community groups, and solveproblems.
Still Recovering: More than Two Years Later
In terms of physical devastation, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the leveebreakdown far surpasses any disaster in America's history. They caused more damage than our threelargest disasters combined; the September 11th attacks, Hurricane Andrew, andthe Northridge earthquake. The human face of the disaster can be seen in the hundreds of thousands of GulfCoast residents who remain unable to return home.
Housing shortages threaten communities across the Gulf Coast. Thousands offamilies are about to be kicked out of FEMA trailers, which the federalgovernment recently determined contain levels of toxins so strong that theyhave advised their employees not to enter the structures.
"FEMA spent less than one fourth of the $4.5 billionfederal dollars available for rebuilding critical community infrastructure."
Federal programs like FEMA PublicAssistance have proven slow and inflexible for rebuilding vital communityinfrastructure. USAToday recently reported FEMA had spent less than one fourth of the $4.5billion federal dollars available for rebuilding critical communityinfrastructure across the region.
Critics claim current federal policy often leavesconstruction projects addressing long-term needs ineligible for federal aid. InNew Orleans, this policy has resulted in infrastructure deficiencies with severe social andeconomic consequences. With schools closed, students must travel longdistances and some 300 students in New Orleans during the 2006/07 academic yearwere unable to even enroll. Restricted public transit and battered roads limitaccess to work and services. Scarce childcare facilities limit options forworking parents. Crime rates have risen while police headquarters operate outof FEMA trailers. Death rates rise as hospitals operate at diminished capacity.
Louisiana alone, not including damage in Alabama, Florida,Mississippi and Texas, has reported over $20 billion in public infrastructuredamage due to the Hurricanes and levee breaks, leaving significant unfundedneeds.
Levee construction remains under-funded and preventableerosion continues to destroy nature's flood protection, the wetlands,threatening returning residents. These issues impact the pace of recovery andultimately the rights of residents to return to their communities and live withsafety and dignity.
A handful of candidates this campaign season have traveled to the Gulf Coast. Afew have even posted portions of their rebuilding plans on their websites butnot all voters and Gulf Coast residents have access to this information. Forresidents who are still waiting on the federal government to fulfill itspromises, questions remain about the Presidential candidates' commitment to theregion.
A New Model for Gulf Recovery
Recently, Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Charlie Melancon (D-LA) and GeneTaylor (D-MS) introduced a new model forGulf Coast recovery in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 4048, the GulfCoast Civic Works Act. The policy was developed with the help of Gulf Coastresidents, human rights groups, and the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, acollege campus-based advocacy group. Utilizing a human rights-basedframework, the legislation hopes to empower the region's greatest assets, thedisaster's survivors, with the resources they need to lead.
Through funding infrastructure projects employing localand displaced workers to rebuild schools, police and fire stations,transportation, hospitals and flood protection and restoring the wetlands thelegislation aims to help heal the wounds left by Hurricanes Katrina and Ritaand the levee breaks and allow residents to return to their neighborhoods withsafety and dignity. The bill gives residents and community leaders agreater voice in how their neighborhoods are rebuilt and works directly withcommunity organizations to reach the goal of creating 100,000 living wage jobsand training opportunities for residents and displaced people primarily in thebuilding trades. The plan would create more opportunities for small andminority businesses while pumping more funds into the local economy andbuilding the infrastructure and the trained workforce necessary for sustainableeconomic development. The legislation aims to address the region'shuman rights crisis through helping the displaced realize their right to returnand participate in rebuilding their communities and providing economicopportunity to working families.
"The bill gives residents and community leaders agreater voice in how their neighborhoods are rebuilt."
Stephen Bradberry, State Head Organizer with the Associationof Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in Louisiana, believes thisbold plan will require the support of the next President to become a reality."The current President made a whole list of promises to residents aboutrebuilding the Gulf Coast but the job is not done. The moderators of thePresidential debates need to ask the next President whether they plan to rightthe situation," says Bradberry. "We need to put the candidates onrecord, "Do you support the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act to rebuild strongercommunities across the region hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita?"
Bring the Gulf Coast to the Debate
Gulf Coast residents, ACORN members, students and supporterslike the online organizing group Color of Change, and RFK Center for HumanRights launched an effort bring Gulf Coast rebuilding back into the nationalfocus by first urging hosts of the presidential debates to get a straightanswer from the candidates on Gulf Coast rebuilding. Together they hope to givethe region a voice to influence the discussion utilizing online advocacy tools.
"If the debate is not coming to the Gulf Coast then we need to bring theGulf to the debate," said Bradberry, winner of the prestigious RFK HumanRights Award in 2005.
The effort, aptly named Bring the Gulf Coast to the Debate, beganby targeting Facebook, ABC and WMUR, co-hosts of the January 5th Republican andDemocratic New Hampshire primary debates. Supporters urged ABC and WMUR reportersand producers to ask the candidates about the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. Many contacted ABC's World News Tonight host and debate moderator, CharlesGibson, through his recently opened account on the social networking siteFacebook.com. You can join the efforts' Facebook campaign by clickinghere.
Now supporters are gearing up for the Republican andDemocratic California Debates on January 30th and 31sthosted by CNN, Politico and the Los Angeles Times They will be the lastdebates before the February 5th Super Tuesday primaries.
Supporters can visit http://www.colorofchange.org/gccwpolitico/to learn how to urge the moderators of the Republican and Democratic CaliforniaDebates to stand in solidarity with Gulf Coast residents and ask the candidatesabout the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act using tools on Politico.com.
"Residents and their national supporters still have hopethat the region's crisis can be brought back into the national debate."
Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton, a San Jose State Professor whofounded the 50 campus strong Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, noted that thebill is sponsored by a Californian in Congress, Rep. Lofgren, and additionallyis supported by resolutions in both the California State Assembly andCalifornia Democratic Party.
"With so many Californians behind the Gulf Coast Civic WorksAct, there is no better time than these debates to ask the candidates if asPresident they will enact this critical plan to rebuild the Gulf Coast," saysDr. Lipton.
Though the Gulf Coast will not host a Presidential debate,residents and their national supporters still have hope that the region'scrisis can be brought back into the national debate this election season.
Currently questions on the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act forthe Democratic and Republican Candidates rank #1 and #2 most popularrespectively on Politico.com.
"This is a unique opportunity to move these mediaorganizations to finally ask the questions the people of the Gulf Coast andCalifornia and really all Americans need to hear answered," said ChrisHauck, a San Jose State university student and Gulf Coast Civic Works Projectorganizer.
Visit http://www.colorofchange.org/gccwpolitico/to learn how to vote for the Gulf Coast questions and visit www.solvingpoverty.com to find outmore about supporting the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act.
Jeffrey Buchanan is a human rights advocate,freelance journalist and Information Officer with the Robert F. KennedyMemorial Center for Human Rights. He can be contacted at [email protected].