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Dear Progressive Reader,
Yesterday marked the twentieth anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, a storm which resulted ([link removed]) in the deaths of about 1400 people and the displacement of more than one million in New Orleans, Louisiana, and other surrounding areas in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. It was also the costliest disaster in U.S. history with a price tag of $125 billion in 2005 dollars (worth about $201 billion today). The natural disaster also highlighted a man-made disaster in the failures of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which then-President George W. Bush had severely diminished by appointing a crony ([link removed]) and supporter Michael Brown whose previous management experience consisted of
([link removed]) serving as a commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association. After public outcry and charges of gross incompetence, Brown would resign ([link removed]) on September 12, almost exactly two weeks after the storm hit. In a statement Brown said it was, “in the best interest of the agency and best interest of the President.” It was probably also in the best interest of the people of New Orleans.
The failures of the federal response spurred many individuals and groups to respond directly to the needs of everyday people. The Common Ground Collective, begun in the kitchen of former Black Panther Malik Rahim in the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood of New Orleans, was both legendary and very effective ([link removed]) . “Using a horizontal, all-volunteer approach, the project evolved from a collection of people simply providing basic disaster relief, such as food and medicine distribution, into a fully working clinic where people could receive health care.” Another memorable project was the use of low-power FM radio to provide information and assistance to the many refugees temporarily housed in the Houston Astrodome in Texas. Media activists created ([link removed]) a small radio station to broadcast
([link removed]) news updates and instructions on how to obtain aid and fill out complex government forms. Many of us raised funds to purchase and ship small transistor radios to provide to the 25,000 people sheltering ([link removed]) in the facility. This important non-governmental effort initially received permission ([link removed]) from the FCC, but was ultimately blocked ([link removed]) by local officials. In another project during the recovery efforts, I joined a group of community media activists with the Washington, D.C.-based Reverend Marjani Dele to hold workshops for local youth in the Lower Ninth to train them in using audio and video tools to record the stories of their communities during and after the hurricane.
Today, as President Donald Trump threatens to eliminate ([link removed]) FEMA, and takes actions ([link removed]) to slow FEMA’s response to recent disasters, we need to find ways to plan for the next climate disasters which are sure to come, not hide our heads in the sand. As Dr. Audrey Tanksley writes this week ([link removed]) in an op-ed on some of the lasting and less visible effects of Katrina, “Let’s not wait for the next disaster to act. The levees may have broken twenty years ago, but our obligation to rebuild with care, dignity, and equity remains.”
Elsewhere on our website this week, Saurav Sarkar reports ([link removed]) on the latest flotilla of humanitarian aid set to sail toward Gaza tomorrow; and Nourdine Shnino shares ([link removed]) the moving story of one young boy in a Gaza hospital struggling for his life. Plus, Owen Jakel chronicles ([link removed]) the threats to the environment in northern Minnesota, and the local efforts in response; Caitlin Scialla looks at ([link removed]) the dangers to patients of consolidation in the health care industry; and Glenn Sacks examines
([link removed]) the shortcomings of the push for “America First” teaching in public schools. Also, Evelyn English pens an op-ed ([link removed]) for International Overdose Awareness Day on the importance of making Narcan readily available; and Amber Wallin opines ([link removed]) on the importance of state action to secure funds for the well-being of their residents as federal funding goes away.
As our Hidden History of the United States annual calendar notes, August 28 marked the seventieth anniversary of the brutal lynching of Emmett Till in Mississippi. It would take more than a century for anti-lynching legislation to pass through the U.S. Congress. H.R. 6963 was first introduced ([link removed]) in January 1900, and a bill against lynching first passed ([link removed]) the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but it was not until March 29, 2022, that then-President Joe Biden would sign ([link removed].) the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law, making lynching a federal crime. To learn about this history and other important dates,
you can now pre-order ([link removed]) our 2026 calendar which should be available in about a month.
Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
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