Rev. Jackson Makes Second Rescue Mission into New Orleans

[Kevin Spidel]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
9/3/2005

Contact: Jerry Thomas
773-256-2714
773-677-6378
[e-mail]

Tannis Williamson
773-256-2718
773-678-6744
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Rev. Jackson Makes Second Rescue Mission into New Orleans




Rainbow PUSH Coalition Leader to Hold 11: 30 a.m. Press Conference in Chicago on Saturday to Discuss His Findings
CHICAGO – (SEPT. 2, 2005) – One day after rescuing about 450 students stranded in dorms and on thoroughfares in New Orleans, Rev. Jesse Jackson returned to the predominantly black city with more buses to transport some of the hungry and desperate citizens who remained in the city five days after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

“President Bush has come very late with very little,” said Rev. Jackson, describing the dire scene in New Orleans as looking like “the hull of a slave ship.” “I’m leaving once again from the City of New Orleans and there still is no plan to rescue, nor is there a plan to relocate them. The president has not put together a federal program or a coordinated effort to address this massive crisis. Mr. Bush came today and did what can be described as a ceremonial tour of the area. He would not touch the ground in New Orleans where suffering black people are dying”

Rev. Jackson said many of the people stranded in New Orleans are not being left in the dire conditions because there are no buses to transport them, but because the drivers do not know where to transport the people. As his buses departed from the city, he observed at least 150 parked buses with no passengers on them.

“The good news is that we finally got to some of them,” said Rev. Jackson, who led 10 busloads of people out of the city, where they had no water or food and where their homes and belongings where destroyed by water. “The bad news is there are others who wanted to leave so badly that they formed a human chain around the buses. It was so painful to leave them there.”

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New Orleans/Page 2

Rev. Jackson believes his buses left some 300,000 people in New Orleans, and he fears more people will die from starvation and dehydration than from the floods. Most of those left behind, he said, are black and poor.

Rev. Jackson said the Bush Administration has to be held accountable for not protecting the citizens of New Orleans.

“We knew as of last Friday that the violent storm was on the way and that the levees in city could only handle a level three hurricane,” said Rev. Jackson, noting that Katrina hit just weeks after President Bush cut nearly half (more than $71 million) of the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, the body responsible for protecting the city from floods. This is also the same administration, Rev. Jackson said, that reduced the budget for port security. “Monies for levees were shifted to Iraq and left New Orleans vulnerable,” he said.

Rev. Jackson, who responded immediately to the crisis after returning from a trip in Venezuela, said he was able to secure the buses through a coordinated effort with Louisiana State Senator Cleo Fields, who serves as the general counsel for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

Rev. Jackson said his next move would be to continue to get people out of the danger zone. He will also continue to urge the government to speed up its rescue efforts.

“America can do better than this,” he said. “There should be a massive air rescue effort. Several hundred busses should be dispatched to the city. We need our churches to house the people. We can also use our military bases to house people.”

Rev. Jackson will hold a press conference on Saturday, Sept. 3, at 11:30 a.m. (CST), at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago to provide an update on his trip, his plans to return to New Orleans, and his recent trip to Venezuela.

The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition is a progressive organization, which seeks to protect, defend and gain civil rights, even the economic and educational playing fields in all aspects of American life and bring peace to the world. The organization is headquartered at 930 E. 50th St. in Chicago. For more information about the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, please visit the organization’s website, www.rainbowpush.org, or telephone [phone]. To interview Rev. Jackson about this topic, or to secure pictures from his trip, please call the numbers listed above.


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[proud2BlibKansan]

1. You go, Jesse Jackson, you go

He is exposing the appalling lack of compassion of our president.

Thank goodness he is there to help the president.

[barbaraann]

2. 300,000 still in New Orleans???

Jesus.

[Child_Of_Isis]

3. Leave it to Jackson to get himself in the

media limelight. :sarcasm:

[Cogito ergo doleo]

4. Dems are stepping up to the plate where it counts

The Black Caucus, President Gore, Rev. Jackson show what it means to be leaders.

[chalky]

5. Well, to be fair...

They can go in safe in the knowledge that since they weren't behind this catastrophe, THEY don't have to worry about getting their asses kicked by an angry mob.

:sarcasm: