We’ve seen bailouts for Wall Street and a bailout for Main Street, but what a bailout for the forgotten streets of New Orleans and recovering communities along the Gulf Coast? If we can work to sway 100 leaders in Washington, we can help bring justice to the survivors of our nation’s most devastating disasters, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Families across Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas continue to endure homelessness, poverty, abusive labor practices, the collapse of local institutions and rampant inequality in addition to the threats of environmental degradation and climate change.
On April 30th the bi-partisan Gulf Coast Civic Works Act of 2009 will be introduced to create 100,000 green jobs for hurricane survivors rebuilding communities and restoring the environment. We need to tell our legislators, now is the time to make good on our broken promises and pass this vital legislation.
If we can gather enough grassroots support to convince 100 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to co-sponsor the bill, we have a solid chance at eventually passing this vital legislation. To do this we need tens of thousands of people across the country to make the voices of hurricane survivors be heard!
Three and a half years after Hurricane Katrina, America’s Gulf Coast remains a domestic human rights crisis. President Barack Obama called the federal response to the storms and levee breaches “unconscionable ineptitude” and campaigned on a platform calling the recovery “a national shame.” Still as we approach the 2009 Hurricane Season, New Orleans levees remains vulnerable, tens of thousands of people have not been able to return home, and residents continue to struggle for access to affordable housing and living wage jobs.
As Americans, this crisis demands a bold response and now is the time for action. Local communities are now lining up behind this legislation as a vital next step for just recovery as part of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign but they need your support.
Can you ask your Member of Congress to co-sponsor the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act?
P.S. On May 30th the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign bring supporters from across the country to DC to push for the bill in person. Also they will be sponsoring a Week of Prayer and Action for people of faith across country to gather and pray for the 2,000 people who died from the 2005 and 2008 hurricanes; for the safety and well-being of families still recovering at the beginning of the 2009 Hurricane Season; and to urge Washington to action. Keep an eye on gccwc.wordpress.com for further details.
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