On MLK Jr. B-Day: Pelosi refuses to answer,"Will you stop the Bulldozing in New Orleans?"

On Saturday, January 14th Nancy Pelosi held a town hall meeting at Marina Middle School in San Francisco.
The previous week, on January 6th, the Bay to Gulf People's Pipeline together with Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and the Hurricane Evacuees Council organized an action at the Federal Building and addressed a Pelosi representative regarding the bulldozing of the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. Representatives from more than 20 organizations participated. They were promised a response in writing and received none.
There are thousands of homes, some in rubble, in the 9th Ward that are being threatened with bulldozing by the City of New Orleans which has claimed eminent domain rights over the predominantly and historically African American neighborhood. Most of the residents from the 9th Ward have not even been provided with notification or the means to be able to return to their lands and take care of their matters. Aside from the fact that this is a direct violation of the 14th Amendment, the taking of property without due process, residents and homeowners of the Bay Area should be very worried about this dangerous precendent. In fact all communities of color should be worried that a City is claiming eminent domain over people's homes and land after a natural and man-made disaster such as this one.
There have been several discussions online and off within the environmentally minded people of conscience about what "might be better" for the people of New Orleans. Such discussions have centered around the possibility of pulling back the levees and restoring the wetlands. Although the environmental concerns are valid, it is important that the environmental community realize that it is unconscionable to make the African American neighborhoods bear the brunt and pay the ultimate price for these concerns.
It is vital that the environmental community throughout the country support the rights of the residents of the 9th Ward to return and decide for themselves what kind of city they want to live in. If their land is summarily taken from them, they will be without any kind of bargaining position to even exchange that land for another of comparable size and location in another part of the city.
It is also important that the anti-war movement step up to the plate and make the obvious links with the struggle taking place in New Orleans.
The war mongering budget and corruption in the local, State and Federal governments have contributed to the destruction of an entire city. This is also a national security issue. FEMA funds were tied up by anti-terrorism allocations and the anti-war movement should be able to frame the national security debate where it belongs. The government had the responsability to maintain the infrastructure of the levee system to make sure that this tragedy would not happen and it didn't.
Now, the Louisiana politicians have drafted a bill (H.R.4100) which passed the House Financial Services Committee called the Louisiana Recovery Corporation which will entrench power in few hands over the redevelopment of the lands. It's main purpose is to acquire land from the property owners, not to help them rebuild.
At Pelosi's town hall meeting, a member of the Bay to Gulf People's Pipeline disrupted the meeting by addressing her openly and asking her point blank: "Are you willing to stop the bulldozing that is taking place in New Orleans?" and "Are you willing to stop the bulldozing of African American people's lands in New Orleans?".
Pelosi refused to answer the question, time and time again.
This is an insult to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. whom she had so eloquently expressed admiration for during this town hall meeting.
There were members of the anti-war movement present at the town hall meeting who expressed thier opposition to the war. But none spoke out during the meeting to demand a response to this question from Pelosi. Maybe they were intimidated by the audience which had been organized primarily by the Democratic Party (who came from more affluent areas of the city and were mostly white) and who expressed hostility to the perpetrator of this disruption. Some members of the anti-war movement expressed support after the meeting yet a member of a well known and long standing anti-war organization even criticized the person who had disrupted the town hall meeting, by stating that "Now was not the time". The answer: "If not now, WHEN?"
As the perpetrator of this disruption, I make a call to all of the organizations to issue public declarations and and for all people of conscience to make calls, send letters and otherwise flood Nancy Pelosi's (and other representatives' ) offices to STOP THE BULLDOZING!
The anti-war organizations should join the social justice organizations in making the democratic leaders pay a hefty political price for doing nothing about this.
Let the record stand: Pelosi refused to answer.
Lisa Milos