Page 2 The Skanner September 13, 2017
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Challenging People to Shape
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Opinion
Rebuilding the Gulf Coast, Preparing for the Next Harvey
I
t has been nothing short
of horrifying to watch the
pictures of Hurricane Har-
vey’s impact on Texas and
Louisiana. We can only imag-
ine what it has been like for
those, who have been the di-
rect victims of this storm.
There is much that can and
needs to be said about Harvey
and its aftermath. The first
is, of course, that extreme
weather will become an in-
creasing pattern in our lives
unless something drastic isn’t
done quickly to address cli-
mate change.
The second point is that the
natural disaster that has hit
the Texas/Louisiana area is
compounded by the politics
and economics of the region.
Specifically, the toxic com-
bination of neo-Confederate
politics and ideology along
with neo-liberal economics
has resulted in a situation
where “development at all
costs” was the law of the land.
This meant that simple things
like zoning ordinances were
treated as hindrances to de-
velopment. It also helps us to
explain the complete disdain
that Texas Republicans have
had towards the federal gov-
ernment, at least until they
need government assistance.
There will be a fight over
the reconstruction of Texas.
There will be those who will
that must be factored into the
rebuilding of the eastern part
Candice
of the state.
S. Cason,
Texas is also suffering from
M.Ed., Ph.D.
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
The Global
African
argue that Texas should re-
build according to old stan-
dards or, worse, go into a
deeper rabbit hole of fewer
regulations and protections
for the public, all in the sup-
posed interest of economic
gain. We believe that such a
course will lead, at best, to
“
NNPA
Columnist
ernment.
Yet more is needed. Any re-
building plan needs to consid-
er the existing environment
and consider the possibility
of future environmental di-
sasters. How can a metropol-
itan area constructed on the
least permeable clay-based
Any rebuilding plan needs to con-
sider the existing environment
and consider the possibility of
future environmental disasters
the cleansing of the region of
working class people and a set
up for the next so-called natu-
ral disaster.
Texas needs a 2.0 strategy:
a reset, for lack of a better
term. This means addressing
the immediate crisis, some-
thing that should be a “nation-
al” priority. There should be
no embarrassment about the
federal government playing
the leading role. That is one of
the central purposes of gov-
soil ignore the need for effi-
cient rainwater removal sys-
tems? How can multiple oil,
gas and chemical plants be
constructed with so few safe-
guards? How can so little con-
sideration of public transpor-
tation systems be given to the
fourth largest city and metro-
politan area in the U.S.? What
does this mean for the popu-
lation in the immediate area?
What about the impact on the
land? These are all questions
tremendous wealth polariza-
tion. The pictures that we are
all seeing are mainly those of
poor and other working peo-
ple trying to recover what
they can and reconstitute
their lives. But this means
that full recovery involves
moving Texan working peo-
ple away from instability and
towards jobs with living wag-
es.
Finally, there needs to be
serious consideration of and
attention to very basic infra-
structure. How is it possible
that the fourth largest city
in the United States has such
limited physical infrastruc-
ture? The answer lies, at least
in large part, in thought pro-
cesses that suggest that gov-
ernment and the public sector
are the problem, i.e., that their
existence and the safeguards
they might establish could in-
hibit growth and wealth.
The results of such thinking
seem to be draining into the
Gulf of Mexico.
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a talk show
host, writer and activist. Follow
him on Twitter @BillFletcher-
Jr, Facebook and at www.billf-
letcherjr.com. Candice Cason
is a psychologist and specialist
in substance abuse treatment.
info@theskanner.com
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2018
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We Must Have A Poor People’s Campaign and Moral Revival
C
hanneling the incisive
analysis of our best his-
torians, TaNehisi Coates
cut through the talking
points of political pundits
last week to name Donald
Trump
America’s
“First
White president.” Writing
for The Atlantic, the National
Book Award recipient made
clear how there could be no
Donald Trump without Pres-
ident Obama. The chaos from
which the whole world now
suffers is a direct result of the
backlash against racial prog-
ress in America.
To see this is to know that
Trump is not our problem.
He is only a symptom. During
this time of intensifying po-
litical, economic, and moral
crisis, with the lives of the
most vulnerable and the spir-
its of all under vicious attack,
people in growing numbers
around the country are fight-
ing back for their lives, com-
munities and deepest values.
As we respond to invitations
from communities across
America, we hear a resound-
ing call for a Poor People’s
Campaign and Moral Revival
in America today.
Fifty years ago, Rev. Dr. Mar-
tin Luther King, Jr., and oth-
ers called for a “revolution of
values” in America, inviting
people who had been divided
to stand together against the
“triplets of evil” — militarism,
racism, and economic injus-
tice — to insist that people
Bishop
William J.
Barber, II
President,
Repairers of
the Breach
need not die from poverty
in the richest nation to ever
exist. He joined with people
across the country like Myl-
es Horton of the Highlander
Center, Loretta Two Crow of
“
across difference to take ac-
tion together. In the aftermath
of 2016’s rejection election,
we are building a Movement
from the states up, to unleash
what Dr. King called “a new
and unsettling force in our
complacent national life.”
This Campaign has emerged
from more than a decade of
work by grassroots commu-
nity and religious leaders, or-
ganizations and movements
fighting to end systemic rac-
ism, poverty, militarism, en-
vironmental
destruction &
related injus-
tices and to
build a just,
sustainable and
participato-
ry society. We
would need to
do this work
even if Trump had not been
elected. But the blatant ex-
tremism of this administra-
tion only serves to amplify
the need.
The twin forces of White
supremacy and unchecked
corporate greed continue
to gain more power and in-
fluence, both in statehouses
across this nation and at the
highest levels of our federal
government. Today, one in ev-
ery two Americans are poor
or low-income, while millions
of children and adults con-
tinue to live without access
to healthcare, housing, clean
water, or good jobs.
We need a Movement
rooted in the mor-
al forces that have
demonstrated a capac-
ity to change America
National Welfare Rights, Ce-
sar Chavez of United Farm
Workers, Al McSurely of the
Appalachian
Volunteers,
Phillip Bernstein of the Coun-
cil of Jewish Federation and
Welfare, Tillie Walker of the
United Indian Scholarship
Fund, and John Lewis of the
Southern Regional Council.
Theirs was a coalition as di-
verse as America.
We draw on the history, vi-
sion and unfinished work of
the 1968 Poor People’s Cam-
paign as we embrace the task
of reigniting that campaign
to unite the poor, disenfran-
chised, and marginalized
At the same time, the issues
of poverty and racism have
been forced to the margins
of our moral narrative and
claims that a limited focus
on personal morality should
overshadow and supplant a
commitment to public mo-
rality rooted in a critique of
greed, racism, and injustice.
Our campaign aims to build
a broad and deep national
moral movement—rooted in
the leadership of poor people
and reflecting the great mor-
al teachings — to unite our
country from the bottom up.
For years, we have seen a
kind of attention violence
towards issues of systemic
racism, poverty, and milita-
rism. There was a time when
our nation was fighting a
war against poverty; now, it
seems, we are waging a war
on the poor. Our social fabric
is stretched thin by widen-
ing income inequality, while
politicians criminalize the
poor, fan the flames of racism
and xenophobia to divide the
poor, and steal from the poor
to give tax breaks to our rich-
est neighbors and budget in-
creases to a bloated military.
The Poor People’s Cam-
paign: A National Call for
Moral Revival will strategi-
cally connect and grow differ-
ent struggles and deepen the
leadership of those affected.
Read the rest of this commentary at
TheSkanner.com