Walking to New Orleans: Day 5

What a difference a day makes. The group of walkers is getting larger and larger as we go - where I used to see the back of the caravan in my rearview mirror, now the tail end of it is beyond what we can see or count. And that's in addition to the people loaded on the buses. Today when we left camp and arrived at our start point, Cindy was standing there waving at us. Her sister had been with us all along in a chase vehicle, but still it was nice to see Cindy.

We ran off schedule this morning because some local folks asked us to come take a look at their section of town. They wanted someone to see what had happened to them. So instead of sticking to the planned route, we walked a loop around their area. People came out of their businesses to watch us go by, and were incredibly supportive. I dropped out of formation to talk to a few women from a dental clinic who came out in their scrubs and business suits. They didn’t know we were coming, but felt they had to come out and support us. I introduced myself and explained who we were, and our purpose. They said they came out to watch because they felt they had to show their support. I asked if they’d been affected by the hurricane, and one woman looked away, another nodded in her direction and said she had been. She said she lost everything, and then choked up. She was having a bad day, she said – it was the third time today she had broken down. We ended up just standing in the center of the parking lot, hugging each other.

Changing up our schedule meant we had to load the buses and caravan out to Slidell rather than walk there, because we’d paid for the police escorts starting at 1:00, and a local jazz band from a high school was waiting to escort us through town. Police once again were great. They shut down the westbound side of the road for us, and we just danced our way through the city, with the tuba, sax, and great drum players, Louisiana style. Car after car was honking in support; people were peeking out from their curtains waving to us, people were standing out in the streets to watch us go by. I spoke with a couple standing in their doorway. They said they’d heard we were coming – they were both National Guard veterans themselves.

With the morning being off schedule, we ended up skipping lunch, just running on the awesome breakfast our even more awesome chef Grumbles cooked up for us. The grumble sandwiches were waiting for us when we arrived at camp at about 5:30 in the evening. The support system set up here is amazing – we’ve got medics traveling with us, Jose at every stop is running around hawking his moleskin and sunblock, like he’s selling peanuts at a stadium. Without lunch being served, I guess we didn’t have enough stops to keep him busy, so he appeared at the side of the road as we walked by, holding out a bottle of sunblock squirting it into our hands in the way that folks at a marathon would hold out glasses of water for the runners. A nurse from Florida who joined the protest today was able to have her clinic back home call in a prescription to a local drugstore for my daughter, whose eye has almost swelled shut for no apparent reason.

We are being hosted at a relief camp tonight, and they are giving us the warmest welcome ever. I’ve got a belly full of the best gator gumbo in the world, we’ve got live music, and folks are dancing the night away, with one of the filmmakers juggling in the background.

Nothing but love in Slidell.

day 4
day 3 (the day my thread sank like a stone)
arrival, day 1

I'm only about 30 miles north of y'all. I might ride down! Can you give me an idea of your schedule?

18 MAR 06

6 AM
First Call.

6 AM - 8 AM
Coffee, Breakfast, Hygiene, Packing.

8 AM - 9 AM
Shuttle to Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge at end of Hwy 11
bridge over Lake Ponchartrain.

9 AM - 10 AM
Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge Press Conference. Environmental
Justice advocates will join this, with environmental justice organizer
Reverend Lois DeJean, Gert Town Revival Initiative, giving opening
remarks. Ward Reilly, a Vietnam Veteran, will speak about Agent
Orange, and Iraq Veteran Rafael Naboa about Depleted Uranium.

10 AM - 11 AM
Shuttle to starting point, Leg 9 (New Orleans) – Chalmette National
Military Cemetery/Jean Lafitte Park (commemorating the Battle of New
Orleans... we are inaugurating the Second Battle of New Orleans).

11 AM - 12:30 PM
A veteran each from WWII (Gene Glazier), Korea (Ellen Barfield),
Vietnam (Billy Kelly), the Covert Wars (Stan Goff), Gulf War I (Michael
McPherson), and today's war (Garret Reppenhagen), each will give a
brief bio, followed by remarks on the military and civilian casualties
from these wars. Remarks by Cindy Sheehan (GSFP). A hurricane survivor
advocate, Kali Williams, will commemorate those who died in the storms
or of neglect, hostility, and incompetence later.

12:30 PM - 1 PM
Fast Brown Bag Lunch.

1 PM - 4 PM
March Leg 9; Chalmette Cemetery to St Augustine's Church, New Orleans,
LA.

4 PM - TC
Veteran's Art Collective Event and camping at the church. Visual art
displays, spoken word, music, drama, etc., from vets and hurricane
survivors. Opening remarks by Cindy Sheehan (Gold Star Families for
Peace), Michael Cuzzort (Iraq Veterans Against the War) and Dave Cline
(Vietnam Veterans Against the War).

My best advice if you want to link up with us is to take the phone numbers from the website: http://vetgulfmarch.androiddesigns.com/coordinators.htm in case we aren't where we're supposed to be at the right time. When an area asks us to visit through their community, we do it, unless it would interfere with a scheduled press conference. Some or all of us have been to four different areas I think, at the request of local residents.

Yesterday (I think?) one of the local hurricane victims spontaneously joined us in the march and asked if he could talk to the press at one of the media events. On day 3, someone asked if we could send some people to document his neighborhood, so some of the folks with cameras fell out of formation and piled in a pickup to follow him out. Day 2, I was in the back of a pickup looking at Coden. Coden has been effectively cut out of the FEMA process by the next town over, Bayou La Batre, which is trying to annex their town. So aid earmarked for Coden goes to Bayou La Batre (based on information BLB gave FEMA and FEMA never confirmed with Coden), and doesn't get released to Coden at all.

We aren't breaking camp until 11, because the relief camp where we stayed last night asked that we go along with them and look at the type of work they are doing. I imagine a few folks will head out to the scheduled press conference, but the rest of us will be going with the relief group for the morning, it looks like, and then shuttling out to where we're supposed to be. So again, bring some phone numbers with you, if you're coming to meet us, so you can track us down.

I'm glad it's going well. Congratulations to you and everyone who is participating.

Best to all of you.

I found a link to the Mississippi Press story on us - front page. http://www.gulflive.com/mississippipress/pageone/thursday.pdf

kick

For marching and for writing about it :-)

to look up someone else's journal. Don't be discouraged that no one commented. It will now be easy to find (once I figure out how to do it) and people who missed these great articles the first time posted will be able to find it.

I am going to post some of it and the DU URLs on AOL for the FReepers who claim that liberals hate the troops and never do anything positive but only whine and complain. This is a showstopper. The photos are great!! and so is the writing. We will need this community solidarity in the days to come if bush is not impeached.

:* :7 B-) :thumbsup: :dem: :kick: :loveya: :loveya:

I feel like I am when I read your journal entries. Thank you!

http://neworleansvfp.org/ has some short videos up from this week. Please please please watch them if you have a chance. Our video guys have been amazing, doing the walk backwards, so as to shoot the participants, they've been running up ahead, falling behind, running to catch up, taking the brunt of the police harassment through Mississippi where we were ordered to stay on the sidewalks, and then staying up all hours of the night editing in the wander pod trailer.

my spirit is with you

Thank you for what you are doing. I am sorry that I am not with you. Tomorrow night is the candlelight vigil in my town - I will be there.

:)

really getting involved to help our fellow citizens.

Many on DU have said we can't depend on the bush "government" for anything so we will have to help each other and begin creating community and this is a wonderful example, lwfern, of people helping people.

Is there anyone taking photos you could post? We need a hopeful pick-me-up and this is the most positive article that I have read in a long, long time.

Very nice writing and reporting.

Thank you! :hi:

abandoned on the thread at AOL Message Board about the Australian cyclone this week that was worse than Katrina but the Aussies have mateship and protected their own and though there was massive property damage there was very little loss of life.

There are still FReepers with their "the government doesn't owe you a home" to a woman asking for help because the insurance and FEMA were STILL giving her the runaround. I was only able to give her some links where she might find help but there were a few people who responded to the heartlessness of some Americans and in the midst of the arguing about Katrina obstruction of response to help people and the bush regime and the right wing "compassionate conservatism" "they had two weeks to get out so it's their own damned fault." "Why don't we send the looters to Australia." BS, Your low key story about your attempt to help and to be an eyewitness to the government and FEMA's abandonment of not only Katrina victims but Veterans really stood out for it's humanity.

I think that it would encourage people to get involved with helping new Democratic candidates for 2006 and create interest if human interest type articles like yours were posted on left messageboards.

This is really an excellent and involving series. I hope you and your daughter are feeling better. I was thinking about your daughter in particular because I have had eye problems and I hope she is doing well.

Thank you for your compassion and helping our communities that have suffered from government malign neglect and for sharing with us.

Human interest articles are generated by human interaction. We need to be working in a more organized way within our own communities, and reaching out to other communities, to generate connections with people. That doesn't come naturally to me. I'm an extreme introvert, and generally avoid situations where I have to meet new people and be social. So I am not sure what compelled me to go on this trip, what compelled me to step out of our walk several times and jump into conversations with the local residents who had survived the storm. Certainly I don't know what compelled me to seek out some of the reporters and try to get my thoughts across to them, especially on camera. But after being on the trip, I can see the wisdom in this sort of thing, rather than a traditional protest, which so often involves interaction only between the protestors. Getting out and working with the people, while wearing a Veterans for Peace hat or teeshirt, preaches our message more effectively and reaches the intended audience (purple America) better than a gathering that involves only those who are already converted. I'm not saying I'm going to quit traditional protests, but I see the value in forming connections between our organizations and local community organizations clearer now than before the walk.

On heartlessness: One of the Iraq vets was stunned when he left the rally at the end and wandered into New Orleans to see people wearing shirts that said, simply, "Not My Problem." As my daughter said, it's one thing to feel that way from time to time. It's a whole other thing to openly brag about it.

I'd like to read the thread where you posted that, if you don't mind messaging me with a link.