Time is Running Out for Katrina Victims

African American ministers are outraged and indignant because the Bush Administration has allowed American citizens in New Orleans to experience displacement, despair and rejection for almost two years -- since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Crescent City and the Gulf Coast Region. "We are demanding an audience with President George Bush and White House officials because President Bush holds the lives of children, women and men in his hands," said Dr. Iva E. Carruthers, General Secretary of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference (SDPC). "We are calling on the United States government to create a trust that would ensure the complete restoration of the Lower Ninth Ward and the rest of New Orleans East. The Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference is prepared to non-violently fight for the public policy rights of the victims of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast," added Carruthers.

The Conference is also calling for a meeting with state and local officials, including Mayor Ray Nagin.

Prominent national African American ministers, theologians and community activists will host a news conference today, Thursday, February 8th at 11:00 a.m. at the Sheraton Hotel located at 500 Canal Street in downtown New Orleans.

The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc., the nation's fastest growing ecumenical, social justice organization has been responding to the needs of the people of New Orleans. SDPC convened the National Katrina Justice Commission and Hearings in 2006 in Washington, D.C., New Orleans and Houston, to hear accounts of problems in the aftermath of the hurricane and subsequent breach of the levee which resulted in devastating ruination.  Its findings were published in "the breach…Bearing Witness," documenting the testimonies of people affected by the disaster, including victims, government agencies, local churches and community organizers.

This week SDPC hosted its 4th annual meeting, in New Orleans with the theme, "In the Wake of Katrina: Lest We Forget…Call to Renewal." Nearly 1,000 African American pastors, clergy, laypersons and seminarians are in New Orleans this week meeting with African American church pastors and community leaders to galvanize the Black Church in America to demand restoration for Hurricane Katrina victims. "People are still dying; they are having heart attacks and strokes and committing suicide because they are under so much stress. Children are depressed because many of them are still homeless. Their parents are not receiving any money from FEMA and some of them cannot afford to pay the high rental fees that landlords are charging," said the Reverend Lance Eden, pastor of the First Street United Methodist Church in New Orleans. "We know that we are still losing people every day. Now that the floodwaters are gone, the government has stopped taking a death count. But we have found out that church and other community members are still suffering with post-traumatic stress syndrome in New Orleans and others are dying in other parts of the United States where they have been dislocated since August 2005," Eden continued.

"SDPC  Trustees and members appreciate the advocacy of local and national politicians who have worked with the Conference,  such as U.S. Congressman, James Clyburn (D-SC), Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Senator Barack Obama, (D-IL), Senator Susan Landrieu (D-LA), State Representative Charmaine I. Marchand and New Orleans Councilwoman Cynthia Lewis- Willard," said co-chairs Rev. Drs. Cynthia Hale and Freddie Haynes. However, members of the nation's fastest growing ecumenical African American social justice organization say this inhumane treatment of United States citizens in New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast Region that has been going on for 18 months must stop.

SDPC Trustees and members are prepared to take action in Washington, DC at the national and local levels of the political districts in America. African American pastors, clergy, laypersons and seminarians are unanimously asking, "Why is President George Bush willing to ask for $245 billion more dollars to fight unjust wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when New Orleans needs $831 million to repair schools and $650 million to restore low-income housing?  If this deadly-devastation had affected neighborhoods where residents were more educated and affluent, would it have taken the government more than 18 months to restore the neighborhoods?" they asked.

According to the Reverend Tim McDonald, "We are going to find out why corporations and land developers are sitting at the table with government officials making decisions about what should happen to the Lower Ninth Ward and the rest of New Orleans East while Lower Ninth Ward home owners and residents who lost family members, houses and jobs are not seated at that same decision-making table." Trustees said that the women and men, who are suffering, along with sensitive business owners, should be the ones to change public policy. Reverend McDonald was trained by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights movement and is a member of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference.