UPDATE AND ACTION! Attend “Spirit” Event, Call the Gov, Donate to Louisiana's Families

BOOKS NOT BARS UPDATE AND ACTION!
Attend “Spirit” Event, Call the Gov, Donate to Louisiana's Families of
Incarcerated Youth

Dear Friends,

Despite the sadness in our hearts over the death of Joseph Maldonado in the
Chad youth prison last week, we write to you with news of our successful
“No More Lost Lives” event, and three important action steps you can take
today to make a real difference for families of incarcerated youth across
the country. -- Lenore.

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=== "NO MORE LOST LIVES" A BIG SUCCESS!
===

This past Monday, on the Labor Day holiday, over 250 people participated in
our "No More Lost Lives" memorial event in Stockton, California. People
drove from the San Francisco Bay Area, Fresno and the Central Valley, and
as far away as Los Angeles. We honored Dyron Brewer, who lost his life in
the Chad youth prison one year ago, and called on decision makers to close
California’s most abusive and costly youth prison: Chad.

We listened to powerful speeches and heard beautiful songs. Singing,
wearing all white, and carrying banners and flowers, we marched through the
sweltering heat to the Chad youth prison. The Brewer family delivered a
wreath to memorialize their son and we prayed for a new juvenile justice
system.

On Monday, we demonstrated that people across the state are willing to go
to great lengths to support California’s incarcerated youth and families –
driving all the way to Stockton in sweltering heat on a holiday – that’s no
small feat. Today is your chance to demonstrate how many more people are
willing to take action.

BIG THANKS to everyone who made this event tremendously successful and
meaningful: Dyron Brewer’s family and friends, ACLU Youth Group, All of Us
or None, Candice Wicks, Center for Young Women’s Development, Circle of
Life, Critical Resistance, Education Not Incarceration, Enviros for Books
Not Bars, Julia Butterfly Hill, Kathy Smith and the home schoolers, League
of Pissed Off Voters, Reverend Floyd Harris and the California State
Chapter of the National Action Network, United Playaz, Van Jones and
everyone at the Ella Baker Cente, Youth Justice Coalition, Youth Media
Council, Plus all of our amazing volunteers and interns!

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=== HERE'S THREE IMPORTANT ACTIONS STEPS FOR YOU TO TAKE TODAY!
===

1. ATTEND "SPIRIT OF FREEDOM EVENT" SEPTEMBER 22:
Please join Books Not Bars and Van Jones for, "Spirit of Freedom: Honoring
the Families of Incarcerated Children."

This event will be from 7 to 9 PM at the First Congregational Church in
Oakland. We will honor the struggle and success of the families of young
people locked up in California's abusive and costly youth prisons. This is
a rare opportunity to hear from families and honor their strength to fight
for a new juvenile justice system. Bring your family and friends. We hope
to see you there!

For more information or to RSVP, call Monet at 510-428-3939 x 228 or email
her at monet [at] ellabakercenter.org.

2. CALL GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER TODAY (916-445-2841)
Tell Him to Close Chad: Governor Schwarzenegger needs to hear from you and
ten of your friends. As much as we talk about the youth prisons, the
Governor's office has yet to receive the kind of broad public pressure
needed to urge him to action.

He has the power to close the Chad youth prison today, let him know you
want him to do it.

Call 916-445-2841, then press 5 to express your opinion (you will be on
hold for a while - please be patient).

3. DONATE TO OUR ALLIES IN LOUISIANA TODAY
Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC): Everyone
at Books Not Bars is outraged and horrified by the disasters in New Orleans
and Louisiana.

We are especially moved to know that one of the grassroots organizations we
admire the most – Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children
– has suffered tremendous loss. FFLIC organizes families of incarcerated
youth and has members across the state. FFLIC's work on behalf of
Louisiana's incarcerated children is among the most groundbreaking work in
the country and has greatly inspired our work at Books Not Bars for many
years.

FFLIC has members in New Orleans who they cannot find. As well, there are
hundreds of kids locked up who have no idea if their families are alive or
not. The youth from the Orleans Parish Detention Center arrived at Jetson
Correctional Center for Youth last Wednesday, covered in sewage, starving,
dehydrated, having been stranded for days with no water or food. We are
urging everyone to help to donate to FFLIC's emergency hurricane relief
fund to help them find their members and help the incarcerated youth.

PLEASE SEND YOUR CHECK TODAY:
"FFLIC Hurricane Relief Fund"
920 Platt Street
Sulphur, Louisiana 70663

HERE IS A LONGER MESSAGE FROM FFLIC ABOUT THEIR ORGANIZATION AND SITUATION:

Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) is a 5
year old grassroots statewide organization dedicated to creating a better
life for Louisiana's youth, who are or at risk of being incarcerated. We
have offices in New Orleans and in Lake Charles. We have members across the
state of Louisiana.

As you can imagine, our whole world has been turned upside down by the
course of events in the last week.

We have members in New Orleans who we cannot find. Some were old and sick,
some told us they were staying when we called last Saturday, saying "God
will take care of me." In Louisiana right now, there are hundreds of kids
locked up who have no idea if their families are alive or not. The youth
from the Orleans Parish Detention Center arrived at Jetson Correctional
Center for Youth on Wednesday, covered in sewage, starving, dehydrated,
having been stranded for days with no water or food.

We want to find our members and the young people our sister organization
works with (the Youth Empowerment Project) and their families. We need to
find homes for children who are being released but have no homes to return
to. We need to get people out of shelters that are treating them like
prisoners and into homes or at least hotel rooms with food and water and
some security and hope.

We also want the racist, dehumanizing news coverage to stop. We want
members and non-members alike to LIVE and stop being blamed for being
abandoned and left to die. We want our friends and families to stop being
treated like "insurgents" in some kind of war, cast as "looters," and
"thugs," and told that the people who are supposed to be saving them have
the right to "shoot to kill."

We want people to understand that, in the words of a friend, a hurricane of
poverty and racism hit New Orleans a long time ago. The people you see on
national TV today, drowning in contaminated water, starving to death,
fighting for survival in a situation where no one meant for them to survive
– these people have been living this reality for years. Only now, the world
is watching. Only now it is happening faster and being photographed by news
media that can get in and out of the city even though food and water
cannot. Now, in vivi-color, we are all watching the sick truth of how this
city, this state and this nation do not care about poor people of color.
Worse than don't care.

We have to do something. It is not in our organizational "mission" to find
people homes and reunite incarcerated kids with their families. Nor is it
our mission to go shelter to shelter helping people focus the kind of rage
and fury that leads to riots into something powerful, productive, and
potentially future-altering. But we have cried and yelled and talked about
it for days and today we finally pulled out the butcher block and markers
and planned.

So many people have written asking for ways they can help and we're
definitely going to need it. If you want to help FFLIC help our families
survive the ineptitude and racism has left thousands to die, here are some
things you can do:

1) Donate

2) Volunteer: Come and help us walk through the shelters, find people, help
folks apply for FEMA assistance, figure out what needs they have, match
folks up with other members willing to take people in. We especially need
Black folks to help us as the racial divide between relief workers and
evacuees is stark. Email us ASAP if you would like to help with this work.

3) Send supplies for the effort: We don't need tee-shirts and underwear. We
need things like cars, computers, a copy machine, a fax machine. All of
these items are going to what we need to have in place to better help our
families. To find out exactly what we need, call us at the number below.

4) Organize others to send donations, supplies or come down here and help.

5) If you are of modest means and you can't volunteer your time, do what
you believe gives us strength. Pray, write op-eds or letters to the editor,
organize your block, write FEMA and tell them what you think, protest local
racist media coverage

We can't promise you a 501(c) (3) letter to make your donation tax
deductible. We are trying are hardest to get this in place soon but its not
our priority.

We can promise you that every dime will be spent helping the beautiful
people of New Orleans, who have lost everything they have, survive and
resist.

Do not hesitate to email us with questions. PLEASE email all 4 addresses,
however: kdhiggs [at] hotmail.com, familiescantwait [at] yahoo.com,
deenv_2000 [at] yahoo.com, xochitl [at] mediajumpstart.org

With hope, rage, and heavy hearts,

FFLIC staff
Gina Womack, Xochitl Bervera, Grace Bauer and Kori Higgs