An "adopt-a-block" program in mid-city New Orleans

[KamaAina]

I saw this on one of the rebuilding boards last week. What better way to christen the new GD? This guy who just got down there to go to Tulane med school has come up with a block sponsorship program for the area just back of the school, bounded by Canal, S. Claiborne, Tulane Ave. and S. Broad.

http://www.pnola.org/



Hopefully block B6 will be up for sponsorship soon. It contains Orleans Women's Clinic, a frequent target of anti-choice thugs in my day ('89-'91) and doubtless since. I spent many a Saturday morning jumping ugly with the likes of Rev.* Bill Shanks, quoted here on the aftermath of Katrina, in something called "Agape Press", no less:

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/22005b.asp

Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God's mercy in the aftermath of Katrina -- but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city.

The pastor explains that for years he has warned people that unless Christians in New Orleans took a strong stand against such things as local abortion clinics, the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations, and the annual event known as "Southern Decadence" -- an annual six-day "gay pride" event scheduled to be hosted by the city this week -- God's judgment would be felt.

“New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion -- it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again." :puke: :puke: :puke:

and his protege who famously referred to us clinic defenders as "baby bloodsucking vampire lesbian whores". (I am male and had not so much as read an Anne Rice novel.) A number of us later spotted the same protege driving around City Park looking for parking for a David Duke rally which we were counterdemonstrating. (Rush is right, you know: we really are all the same people. :sarcasm: )

In sum, block B6 is where I first confronted fascism face to face: the physical intimidation, the constant verbal abuse, the smug self-righteousness and yes, the racism. About 80% of Orleans' clients are African American. Shanks and his merry little band of brownshirts would generally make a half-hearted attempt to keep these women from entering, preferring to shame them as they left. When a white woman would show up, though, all hell broke loose (literally). That's when the anti's (surprise, all white save one) would be consumed with a satanic fury to keep the woman out of the clinic. Remember the No. 2 anti looking for parking at that Dukkke rally...

What better way for the progressive movement (both DU and other leftist and feminist groups) to stake our claim to the New New Orleans than by making block B6 the "Feminist Women's and Civil Rights Block"?

[Tuesday_Morning]

1. What a great idea

I'd love to see this happen.

[KamaAina]

2. Hmmm, maybe the overnighters are the New Orleans fans

I can kind of see that. Once while I was down there I watched Letterman and then went out on the town!

[EFerrari]

3. It sounds good! Could you say more about what a "sponsorship"

would mean / be / do?

:hi:

[KamaAina]

5. Project's in its infancy; he doesn't even seem to be quite clear

on that.

http://www.pnola.org/sponsorblock.cfm

Donor Commemoration: A Reflection of American Unity in Supporting New Orleans.

All donors or donor groups will have their name inscribed in the Phoenix of New Orleans Donor Book which will be on permanent display in the neighborhood upon completion. For donations less than $1000, please see what gifts you can receive as additional symbols of your solidarity. Donations greater then $1000 will entitle the donor to receive a special commemoration plate embedded into the neighborhood design. See the Donation Commemoration Chart for more details.

Actually the plates would work nicely with the street name tiles that are already embedded into each N.O. sidewalk at every corner.

I'm ready to take the concept and run with it; I fully intend, at a more reasonable hour, to get back to the guy with ideas like this: since he's calling the area "America's Quarter", why not have various cities, states or regions each do a block? Texas alone could have four or five each trying to outdo the others; San Antonio's could even have a miniature Superdome big enough to hold eleven Saints action figures. :P SF, obviously, given the spiritual connections between the two expressed in everything from Anne Rice novels to Creedence albums, would be a natural.

[EFerrari]

6. It's a great idea. He may need help setting up a mechanism

to manage and report donations.

But, there are a ton of progressive groups here that we could take this idea to!

:)

[pinto]

4. kick.

[Proud liberal Kat]

7. I would also like to call attention to places like

FUUNO, a Unitarian Universalist church who has been fighting for social and economic justice in New Orleans for decades. It is a wheel that already exists and doesn't need remaking, just some refurbishing! Not taking away from the OP and the project. Just throwing out another option...
http://www.firstuuno.org/home.html
here is the churches website and looking into their history on the website gives a good sense of where they have been...it is good to me to think of where they may go.
Kat

[KamaAina]

9. I suspect if/when there is an organized UU effort in NOLA...

...it will revolve around the city's other UU congregation, Community Church UU, located in the devastated Lakeview neighborhood.

http://www.communitychurchuu.org

This was where I went for a memorial service after the "Montreal Massacre" in 1989.



There is even an N.O.-related message right on the UUA home page!

http://www.uua.org

But I also saw our congregations in the city coming together for worship and support in a Presbyterian church which opened its doors to us. Planning has begun for a vital Unitarian Univeralist presence in a rebuilt New Orleans. I am profoundly grateful for the outpouring of support from Unitarian Universalists for our New Orleans churches and for the citizens throughout the Gulf Coast. We will use some of those funds to encourage long term change in that region.

This is what I like to see! Maybe we could have another UU President someday (at least Adams and Quincy Adams already have been)!

edit: speling & pix

[OneBlueSky]

8. at least someone's doing some creative thinking about . . .

rebuilding New Orleans and preseving its culture . . .

unlike our so-called "leaders" in DC . . .

[KamaAina]

10. Actually, quite a few of us are

a good place to see what's up is the forum at the Rebuilding Louisiana Coalition,

http://www.rebuildinglouisianacoalition.org (forum link is down at the bottom)

See if you can scope out my real name by matching up the various posts!

There are at least two DUers (somewhat) active over there; astoundingly, the other one hasn't lived in the city for longer than I haven't, though he can at least plead the excuse of having grown up there!

Also look for the Jason Henderson article under "Urbanism". Yowza!

[KamaAina]

11. Update: An *assassination attempt* occurred in Block B6

I can't believe I just found out about this last night. Dr. Jackson, who runs Orleans Clinic, was stabbed 15 times by a good, God-fearing, white "Christian" a week before Christmas in 1996, five years after I left the city.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/webzine/eyeonextremism/eoe-041221-cooper.xml

That morning, around 8:30, Cooper had approached Jackson outside the Orleans Women's Clinic, a reproductive health center where abortions were performed. After muttering something about wanting to talk to his wife, Cooper began stabbing the doctor. Jackson hit Cooper in the head with a gun he carried for protection, but Cooper managed to slash Jackson in the leg. When the carnage was over, Jackson had been stabbed 15 times, lost four pints of blood, and had one of his ears nearly severed.

This was the clinic I defended many a Saturday in the early '90s - often solo, due to a dispute within the local feminist movement. It could just as easily have been me... :scared:

Wondering how they caught the perp? You're gonna love this:

At first, law enforcement officials weren't sure if the stabbing of Dr. Calvin Jackson outside the Orleans Women's Clinic in New Orleans, LA, on December 18, 1996, was an anti-choice crime or an assault with a different motive. But when Donald Cooper of Corpus Christi, TX, 26 at the time, showed up later the same day at Delta Women's Clinic in Baton Rouge with an eight-inch filet knife, his motives became clear....

Cooper escaped. But later that day, in Baton Rouge, Intelligence Division investigators happened to be at the Delta Women's Clinic, which also provided abortions, looking into a false accusation that a clinic employee had pulled a gun on a protester.

So Cooper got busted, and prevented from possibly killing someone at the Baton Rouge clinic, only because the cops were already there because the anti's were trying to frame one of the clinic employees!! "Instant karma's gonna get you..."

Dr. Jackson recovered and has continued to operate Orleans Clinic, though he later sold the building in Block B6 to the neighboring Blood Center (that'd be the one that provided the four pints of blood he needed because the Nazi thug nearly sliced him to death) and moved up the street. Still and all, a memorial plaque where this happened would be entirely in keeping with the spirit of the project.

Postscript: I have no idea how I managed not to hear about this. I had sort of lost touch with the movement by then, but I did still check various websites that should have had the info... needless to say this was never national news. I mean, it's not like anyone died or anything... :sarcasm:

edit: We all knew Calvin was carrying. Of course he was carrying. There had been threats against him at least as far back as 1990. "Weren't sure if it was an anti-choice crime", indeed. Morans.