Coming home to St. Bernard.

Yesterday, on one humid Martin Luther King Jr. day, the residents of the St. Bernard parish went to reclaim their homes. Having been shut out by the HUD, which tentatively plans to bulldoze the perfectly livable projects to replace it with mixed income (i.e. higher income) housing, the residents were furious, and yesterday was their day to go home. Common Ground showed up for support.

We arrived in the 7th and gathered around a stage. After a slew of impassioned speeches from former residents, activists, and lawyers, we marched to the projects. Cameramen followed. There were chants --- "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" --- and people waved signs. When we arrived at St. Bernard, the gates were open, and the displaced residents were free to enter and empty out their homes.

Common Ground stood across the street and watched it all. Many of us would have liked to go in and help, but because there was the chance of arrests and CG lacked the money for bail, Caroline decided it would be best not to risk anything. Also, we lacked respirators or gloves, making us unfit to empty the now moldy houses.

In the end, it all went off without a hitch. Police hovered around, but no arrests were made. Who knows if this will change the minds of city developers, but hopefully, it will.

In other news, Douglas Brinkley, author of The Great Deluge, came to speak with our class yesterday. He mainly talked about his own experience during Katrina, how he and Sean Penn and a few others went down to rescue people, and the current political climate in Washington in regards to New Orleans. He argued that the biggest problem in the response to Katrina was Washington's utter neglect of the Louisiana's depleted wetlands, a pressing issue of security that, if left as it is now, could cost even more lives and damage in future years.

These last two days I've gone out into the French quarter and have finally gotten my fix of my beloved beignets (from Cafe du Monde, of course.) Today we finally go gutting again, in freezing cold weather.

Just a few more days left...