To Be Equal: Put words into action

Marc H. Morial

In late August, I was down in New Orleans to visit my hometown one year after Hurricane Katrina hit, causing the levees surrounding the city to give way and devastate entire neighborhoods and lives.

While progress had been made, it was still depressing to see the city, of which I was mayor for eight years, still in such a state of disrepair.

Right after Katrina wreaked havoc upon the Gulf Coast, the National Urban League devised the Katrina Bill of Rights for all New Orleanians and Gulf Coast residents forced to leave their homes. As the storm hit, our affiliates hit the ground running, bringing emergency relief to thousands of victims.

Our manifesto outlined the following rights for Katrina victims: 1) the Right to Recover; 2) the Right to Return; 3) the Right to Rebuild; 4) the Right to Work and 5) the Right to Vote. Since then, we’ve fought vigorously for the protection and advancement of these rights through legislative advocacy, program activity and public education.

And as I contemplate this anniversary, instead of stating the obvious — that the recovery is less than what I had hoped for — I am calling upon our political leaders to put their rhetoric into action. Our federal government and the U.S. Congress are great at talking up a storm at congressional hearings or in sound bites. They talk and talk and talk, but what action have they taken?

Last November, Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., introduced legislation (H.R. 4197) patterned after our Katrina Bill of Rights on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus, which he chairs. In early 2006, the powers-that-be in the House referred it to the House Subcommittee on Education Reform, where it still sits.

And while lawmakers have provided the Gulf Coast $128 billion in direct assistance and tax relief, it is still surpassed by the cost of tax cuts to the treasury — $225 billion — and military action in Iraq and Afghanistan — $357 billion (as of October 2005).

Is providing tax relief to the upper echelon of income earners more important than helping Katrina victims, many of them at the lower end of the economic spectrum? I think not. Our nation needs to do more.

I recently sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman urging them to hold their 2008 conventions in New Orleans. I also recommended that they cap their expenditures to half of what they spent in 2004 and donate the excess to Gulf Coast rebuilding.

In July, New Orleans actually pulled out of the competition for the Democratic National Convention, citing fundraising difficulties to provide the city’s contribution to the financing of such an event. So, I realize my suggestion is a pipe dream for 2008 — at least for the Democrats’ convention.

But I wanted to get the idea out there for discussion, just to get our nation’s political parties to ponder the possibilities for 2008 or 2012 or 2016. Their consideration of New Orleans will at the very least show confidence in the city’s rebuilding progress and prompt other conferences to return to or come to town. The city’s convention infrastructure — though a little shaken — is still in place. It was spared much of the destruction that the 9th Ward and other neighborhoods experienced.

In my letter to the RNC and DNC, I also urged our political party leaders to limit convention expenditures at 50 percent of 2004 levels and contribute the rest to Gulf Coast rebuilding. I will now say, in light of realities, that they could do this whether they hold those conventions in New Orleans or not. Somehow, they need to send some kind of signal to Katrina victims that they have not been forgotten and that, despite the slow response from the federal government, our nation still cares.

In 2004, a little less than three years after 9/11, Republicans took their convention to New York City, injecting an estimated $255 million in much-needed revenue into the city’s economy, according to the office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The host committee spent a total of $82 million, according to a Federal Election Commission audit. The Democrats held their event in Boston, generating an estimated $154.2 million in economic revenue and costing $50.3 million.

Holding political conventions in New Orleans and/or diverting some funds earmarked for convention spending to Gulf Coast relief would send a powerful message to the nation and the world and demonstrate that the nation’s political leaders are squarely and solidly committed to rebuilding.

The GOP came to New York City’s rescue in 2004. According to published reports, the Democrats are eyeing the Big Apple also. Why can’t the political parties come to the aid of New Orleans, which was hit by a tragedy nearly as grave as 9/11 and is just as deserving of such grand gestures?

Our political leaders need to put their rhetoric into real action. What better way to help the victims than to hold their conventions right in the midst of Katrina’s ‘Ground Zero’?

Mark H. Morial is the president and CEO of the National Urban League.