Humane Community Formed at SuperDome

We were led to believe that our human family at the SuperDome [Correction: these events took place at the Convention Center, rather than the SuperDome] devolved into nothing more than animals, looters, and ignorants. But this first hand account from a reluctant participant in the SuperDome drama, paints a picture of humanity, care, and compassion that re-enforces my faith in our fellow man. In dire circumstances, we are capable of great things. We know we are the world. We know we are each other.
Vim

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SURVIVING IN NEW ORLEANS

by Peter Berkowitz

Peter Berkowitz is a staff attorney at a Massachusetts prison. He was traveling in New Orleans with his wife Bruni & son Ernesto when the hurricane hit. They were there because Ernesto was planning to start his freshman year at Loyola of New Orleans. What follows is his letter to his 80-something mother. It was forwarded to the PEACE-LIST at Syracuse University by Carole Resnick on Wednesday, September 14, 2005.

9\5\05

---EXCERPT---

"Our community on the walkway was interesting. One day a reporter came by and asked me if we had a "mayor" ... we didn't. Everyone worked. Everyone joined in. Everyone did the job that made them most comfortable. And everything functioned. And as people joined us, they automatically joined in the work. There were differences, but everyone worked.

When there was talk about leaving or looking for ways out, it was discussed collectively. There was always a sense of staying together and getting out as a group. There was also nastiness, and racism, and comments about "the people down there" in the Convention Center. We intervened with a lot with people in our group who were blaming all the "people down there" for the violence. We intervened when reporters started to come and were told that "the people down there" were looting and killing. We told them that they were doing just what we were doing -- doing what was necessary to survive in desperate circumstances.

[VIM: after several days of false alarms, the buses finally came to take them out of the city...]

"The National Guard told us we had to vacate the walkway and go down onto the street to await the buses. Of course we refused. We told them we had a community here that was self-sufficient. There was no need for us to be on the street and in the sun for nothing. That here, we were supplying food, medical services, etc to ourselves and to anyone who had a need. By this time, we had about five or six elderly and incapacitated people in our group. They had been left behind by a hospital when they evacuated. They were with a nurse who had been abandoned with them.

We pointed out that our sick could not go down. We had another nurse in our group who was very well spoken, and helped convince the National Guard that we had to stay for reasons of the health of the children and the elderly. So we stuck together and stayed on the walkway. Nobody left until we finally saw the buses, and were assured that everyone would get out. And then we marched out together as a group, with much of the group still intact."

---MORE AT SIGN OF THE TIMES---