Nov 6
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On this Election Day, I will tell my daughter to get ready, gather up my things, make sure I have my ID in my purse, and travel to my closest polling station to cast my vote. For some, it will seem like something that we automatically do — without much thought — every four years. […]
Oct 10
Last night I was at dinner in someone’s home and the following is the abridged version of a portion of dinner conversation. I say abridged because I was so mad that one, the guest had the audacity to discuss politics in a room of people this person had never met, save one, and two I […]
May 17
The HALO Foundation Holistic Healing for Violent Crime Victims in Healthcare On Thursday, January 26, 2012 the crime that persists in the City of New Orleans shocked us again. And this time it hit very close to home. One of our own, a home health nurse, who has dedicated her life to home care service, […]
Apr 9
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New Nursing Home Trend Many moons ago, the only people living in nursing homes were the elderly. If your parents or grandparents needed 24 hour care, you could put them in a home where there would be nurses and aids there 24-7 to assist them. But, there’s a new trend going on( here in Louisiana for […]
Why this is personal; I stand with Planned Parenthood!
Congressional leaders and President Obama headed off a shutdown of the government with less than two hours to spare Friday night under a tentative budget deal that would cut $38 billion from federal spending this year. I am grateful that they figured out a way to avert government shutdown and not hurt Planned Parenthood in the process. But I AM REALISTIC; this battle is not over; this was simply the first skirmish in the war on women’s health. So I ask you to please support Planned Parenthood and women’s health issues; it has never been so needed especially in a time where there is an all out assault on women’s health. Please read the post that follows; it was written yesterday and it is my personal story on why this matters!
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Friday April 8, 2011; Today I received emails from Planned Parenthood that actually make me sick; due to the stupid GOP who have decided that Planned Parenthood is a bad thing, so they plan to shut down the government and hold the Democrats and all women hostage in order to prove their point because they have decided that Planned Parenthood is ONLY about abortion. The truth could not be farther from this!
I will cite articles, but what I want to do is to relate my own experience with abortion and a woman’s right to choose. The beautiful girl that you see below in the photo is my sister Brenda; I lost her when she was twenty seven years old and the world lost a great crusader for the underdog. It is because I was lucky enough to have her in my life, that I have the strength to speak out against what the GOP is doing; it is fundamentally wrong and it has to be overturned. Here is her story (and mine.)
When Brenda was 25, she found out that she was pregnant. It should have been a moment that most women who are in love and engaged to be married would cherish; the chance to have a child with the man that they love. Instead it was a time of terror for Brenda; you see, Brenda had severe epilepsy, and she could not be taken off of the medicines that kept her safe, in order to carry a child to term, and the medicines that already caused her significant side effects would have caused severe side effects to a child. If she was taken off the anti-convulsive medicines, it was highly probable that she would have died from a seizure.
Additionally, she had a hard time taking birth control, since the pill caused her to have seizures. So after much heartache, pain, and discussion with her fiance to make her decision, she chose to have an abortion, and asked me to accompany her to Planned Parenthood in Santa Clara, California. The year was 1982, and thank goodness, we had good facilities at that time that performed safe abortions. This had NOT always been the case as I was growing up, and indeed many deaths were attributed to back street abortion clinics. When they called her back for the procedure, they had her talk to several counselors before taking her back to the room. She explained over and over why she had no choice and I could see she was getting more and more upset; why couldn’t they just understand was written across her face. Finally they began the procedure; it seemed an interminably long time, though in reality, it probably was over in less than a half hour. BUT not before, my beloved sister suffered a Grand Mal seizure; I stayed with her, never leaving her side and I tried to protect her from the seizure, and to simply be there for her. She was terrified, as she always was when she had a seizure, and once the procedure was finally over, I took her home and put her to bed where she slept for 14 hours straight. She often felt guilt about that act, but I know in my heart that she would not have survived pregnancy, and that she had made the right decision. If the GOP gets their way, the Brenda’s of the world, will have no where to turn. Please do not let this happen!
To finish my story, about two summers later, Brenda married her sweetheart in June of 1984. They began their married life together, but it was to be short-lived. On October 4, 1984, my sister had a Grand Mal seizure while driving and was killed instantly when her car ran into the piling for an overpass on Highway 101 in Santa Clara, CA.
The one thing that I know about my sister Brenda, is that she would not mind me telling you this story; indeed knowing Brenda, she would be on the picket lines in DC marching with Planned Parenthood. Please do not force women to go back to a terrible time where contraception, family planning, and abortions are difficult to obtain. Please stand with Brenda and me; we support and stand with Planned Parenthood and we believe in the rights of all women to get the medical help they need, no matter their financial situation.
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Links;
Today’s (4/9/11) New York Times; http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/us/politics/09fiscal.html?_r=1&hp
From the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/what-planned-parenthood-a… “Though the fight over Planned Parenthood might be about abortion, Planned Parenthood itself isn’t about abortion. It’s primarily about contraception and reproductive health. And if Planned Parenthood loses funding, what will mainly happen is that cancer screenings and contraception and STD testing will become less available to poorer people. Folks with more money, of course, have many other ways to receive all these services, and tend to get them elsewhere already. The fight also isn’t about cutting spending. The services Planned Parenthood provides save the federal government a lot of money. It’s somewhat cold to put it in these terms, but taxpayers end up bearing a lot of the expense for unintended pregnancies among people without the means to care for their children. The same goes for preventable cancers and sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS.”
From Planned Parenthood; I stand with Planned Parenthood; https://secure.ppaction.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=pp_ppol_urgent
From US Dept of Health and Human Services; http://www.hhs.gov/opa/familyplanning/index.html
From the New York Times; http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/us/politics/09fiscal.html?_r=1&hp
Shutdown Near, No Sign of Compromise; After the nightlong negotiations that ended before dawn on Friday yielded no agreement, Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, went on the offensive. He told reporters and said on the Senate floor that Mr. Boehner, the Senate Democrats and President Obama had essentially settled on $38 billion in cuts from current spending. But he said that Republicans were refusing to abandon a policy provision that would withhold federal financing for family planning and other health services for poor women from Planned Parenthood and other providers.“This is indefensible, and everyone should be outraged,” Mr. Reid said on the Senate floor. “The Republican House leadership have only a couple of hours to look in the mirror, snap out of it and realize how truly shameful they have been.”
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Laura Bergerol is a professional photographer in New Orleans and blogs on Posterous and at Time Captured.net. Laura also was a major contributor to our Katrina Photo Project for the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. This essay was cross-posted from her personal blog.
My husband works in an industry that has been directly impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the slow environmental homicide that has been taking place now for nearly ninety days. We are fortunate that my husband is still able to work, but as June came we saw business trail off. So far in July, business has trailed off more. My husband is searching for a new job, afraid each night when he goes into work it is going to be the night that he is told his hours have been drastically cut or for him to take a couple of days off.
It is an uncomfortable situation that causes high anxiety and many sleepless nights.
Last month we filed our claim with BP and were approved for $1000. While I am thankful for the $1000.00, it did not cover our loss and some creative financing on my part was required of me.
When we took in a letter from my husband’s employer, our 2009 tax return and my husband’s check stubs, we were told that each month our claim would “renew” automatically and from thirty days from our last payment we should receive the next payment. At the BP Claim center, a check was written and we were on our way home.
And then I read a press release that stated that there would now be a formula taking into account actual loss compared to estimated loss, that claims were going to be looked upon more closely and an advance would not simply be given as was previous done and that starting in August, this new process would come into play. This confused me, as it completely contradicted the information that we have been given by the auditor at the time of our claim filing.
I called the 800 number provided by BP for any questions regarding already filed claims and I spoke with one BP phone agent that told me that what we received was a one-time payment and we would not receive another.
Ok, great. That’s fine. I am thankful that we received what we did when we did, because it really helped us adjust to the rather large dip in our income.
Then I read another press release from BP, which prompting me to call the 800 number again, this time reaching a young man that seemed to actually know what he was talking about. I was on hold for thirty minutes before I finally was connected to a human voice, but when I did the guy was nice and didn’t get annoyed when I asked a thousand questions, asking for clarification on clauses and statements that appear in the BP claims process handbook and made sure I was getting the correct information.
I was informed that we would get the checks automatically sometime between thirty and forty days and that no more paper work would be required of me and I wouldn’t have to go to a claims office again to re-file.
Great. That really cleared things up for me and sounded more on point with what the most recent press release had stated.
An 800 number was left on our voicemail by BP and we called back. This time, it was our auditor, a man in the local office who was met with when the claim was initially filed.
He told us that we had to bring in documentation (pay stubs for us) every month at the end of the month, because there is no way that BP could give us an advance payment, but would have to pay us our loss after the fact. Ok, I think I get that, especially if they are trying to streamline the claims process, which is the impression that I am getting from all that I have read and the individuals I have spoken to. BUT we were told that now we need to meet with him every month and essentially file our claim on a claim that was already open. My husband informed him that he would not be receiving any more paychecks for July, so perhaps my husband could just bring them in.
It wouldn’t matter; it won’t be looked at until August, even though they are trying to process these during the current month.
Tails are still heads to me and heads are still tales.
I would like to say that all of the individuals we have dealt with, with one exception, have been extremely kind. This does illustrate, however, the disjointed communication of policy going throughout the company from the national office for claims to the local offices to what BP is releasing to the press.
Despite promises by BP to the press to release claim money thirty days after June payments, we are now finding out that a continue stream of documentation is going to be required, given that the information that we received today (since all three people have told us very different things) and this automatic program that BP had spoken about really isn’t an automatic program at all. It has been released in the press recently that most claims are rejected because of lack of documentation. BP doesn’t make filing for the claims any easier when apparently they are changing policy every day. Instead of taking their disorganization into account for many people really struggling financially, a big, fat NO is given instead.
BP needs to get on the same page and stop jumping around like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book.
For some people, their claim check is all they have.
I don’t deal with death well. At thirty-four years old, I have seen death take my parents, a child and many very good friends from me. When dealing with death, I grieve out loud. I weep. I cry. I question. I scream and then I weep once more.
Living in Southeastern Louisiana lately, death surrounds us, creeping into all aspects of our lives. Work is no longer work; it is working while we can. Cooking no longer means going to the grocery store and getting what is cheapest, but stocking up on local seafood before our seafood ceases to exist. It is saying good-bye to the memories we would make on the beaches, because the beaches are closed off. Watching the television means watching local news or Anderson Cooper 360 since those seem to be the only outlets really reporting what is happening here. It means becoming the ‘them’ again, the ‘them’ that is stupid enough to live there, stupid enough to have a state that depends on oil to run, the ‘them’ that is getting what they deserve. We are the ‘them’ who are hurting but the ‘them’ not being listened to. We are the ‘them’ being held hostage by a foreign corporation, the Federal government and the Coast Guard.
Armed security guards in pastel t-shirts and camo pants guard the beaches, not allowing passage, particularly if you have a camera or pen and paper. In your community, you become the outsider, the enemy, the background music that no one really listens to but is just sort of there. Except we aren’t there, because they won’t let us be.
What was once familiar has become foreign, unrecognizable. The spot on the beach, my spot, where I have written so many words and have contemplated so important life decisions is not longer there, now only an oil-covered mess exists, tainted by negligence, blanketed in betrayal and marked with corruption. The calm has been strangled from it, possibly never to return, a victim the no one heard scream in the middle of the night.
Even harder to bear is the defeated looks on the faces of those all around, whether it be the fisherman who no longer has an income or the bartender that has had his hours cut and watched his tip amounts disappear or the children that know what is happening in the Gulf, wondering why this had to happen, mourning their own things in their own way. They are left confused, seeing the adults in their life struggle with the rhyme and reason, unable to feel really secure after seeing the hopelessness enter the lives of the adults that they trust.
So many adults want to help, but we are held back. If adults, who wield the real power, are unable to help, what can children do?
Culture is dying. The days of the familial fishing business is gone, leaving, well, nothing for those who have dedicated their whole lives to the industry, the sport. No longer can one get on a boat and hitchhike from shrimper to crabber down through the bayou and back up again, offering to help chip in for fuel or work off your ride. Gone are the days of the catch, coming home and celebrating with your family a particular bountiful day. The only thing left to celebrate is what once was and no one likes reliving what we have lost.
We plead for answers from our government, the body we should turn to in an event of a disaster of this size. The government looks the other way, pointing to the criminal that is responsible for this crime, telling us to ask them. When we do ask, because all other rational options have been exercised, we are not given answers but press releases. We then receive information contradictory to what was just released to the national press when we call to speak with individuals for clarification. BP is not even in the same genre of book, let alone on the same page, yet, we are expected to put faith in these people that our loss will be accounted for and trust that they will do the right thing and help us make it through this preventable homicide against nature.
Is there anyone there? Is anyone listening to us? Our voices are being muffled by politics, by serious covering of asses, by a system that has been allowed to become an outlaw, doing as it pleases with no consequences for bad behavior. Mainstream media attempt to distract us, trying to fill us with ‘developments’ that aren’t developments but recycled news stories they didn’t bother paying attention to the first time. No one is looking out for us. No one is being our voice. It feels like we live in our own third world country.
It is for these reasons, and many more that cannot adequately be described with words but must be experienced to fully understand, that I’m not okay. The death. The desperation. The hopelessness. The abandon. The shame of it all. I’m not okay.
I’m not okay.
Blair and Gaddafi May 2007
I have a habit of watching CNN on the television, while having BBC or Al-Jazeera English running on my computer through Live Station while I read newspapers online, check out my Google alerts and have my morning coffee. This morning when I turned CNN on,extended reporting aired about a link between the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, and deals made in regards to BP. Annoyed, I turned to MSNBC and what was being discussed on The Morning Joe? A connection between BP and the release of al- Megrahi. Fox News? You guessed it, the possible connection between BP and al-Megrahi release.
What’s all the noise about?
Politicians in the United States are now calling for an investigation into a possible connection that exchanged al-Megrahi release for big oil contracts in Libya for BP.
My question is why, after eighty-some days of obscene negligence, dishonesty that cannot be described any other way than profane, irresponsibility and fleecing of Louisiana’s working class, is this now becoming an issue being reported on the mainstream American media and receiving attention by those powers that be in the US when this information has been available for some time? Like a few years.
In 2007, the rumblings of a BP-influenced deal with Libya began making rumblings shortly after images of Tony Blair and Muammar al-Gaddafi shaking hands (see above photo) appeared in the media. Shortly after this photo-op, it was announced on May 29, 2007 that BP would be going into Libya after a 33 year absence. This was a 900 million dollar deal that gave BP rights to oil exploration and prospecting. United States publications like the New York Times also briefly covered this story. (As well as endless British mainstream publications such as The Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian and The Independent)Is one to believe that the US was just made aware of the information connecting BP with the Lockerbie trade? Heck no! The Washington Post published this article on August 31, 2009 on the connection. MSNBC published this report on August 29, 2009. There are many others.
So, why is it now that US politicians are calling for an investigation into the connection between these two entities? Was it easier to look the other way when Big Oil was filling politicians pockets without consequence or possibility of guilt by association? Is it because we still live in a society fueled by Bush Administration fear of the elusive boogeyman – the terrorist and for a company to have made a trade for a terrorist is just not acceptable? Is it because now it is trendy to speak ill of BP? Or is it because it is a slow news week, with stalled progress on domestic or foreign policy, not to mention the clusterfuck between BP and the Feds in dealing with the oil spill and the mainstream media clan are puppets and report only what each other are reporting, without doing any sort of research or looking for ledes in important stories such as the oil spill? Or perhaps it is because finally we have caught another country red-handed and just as guilty as the US for allowing oil to influence our domestic and foreign policies?
Whatever the reason, this isn’t a new development, folks. This isn’t a new discovered secret deal uncovered by intelligence agencies or leaked documents. This has been there, right under most of our noses, hidden on the back pages of newspapers for at least three years. Don’t fall for the hype. Demand more.
This is just another example of our suffering and tragedy in the Gulf being hijacked by politics to help build someone’s career.
Photo by New Orleans Lady
*Tonight on PBS’ Independent Lens is the story of New Orleans’ Vietnamese community, entitled A Village Called Versailles, and their struggle to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The largest Vietnamese community in the United States, Versailles was the first community in New Orleans to rebuild and most of it was done with no outside help. In January of 2006 Mayor Ray Nagin authorized a landfill within miles of the community to dump toxic waste, left behind by The Federal Flood, without an environmental impact study. This is their story, a story I followed & wrote about on my old blog and an example of what can be accomplished when a community comes together to say “hell no, we won’t take it!”
Now the Vietnamese community is facing another challenge with the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf. One-third of the area fishers are Vietnamese who suffer the added problem of a language barrier.
John Nquyen, Environmental Justice for Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans Rally re BP Deepwater Horizon Lafayette Square New Orleans, Louisiana
Photo by New Orleans Lady
*Programing Note: Original air date was 5/25/10 on WYES – this program airs again at 2 am on June 1. Sorry for the misinformation. Air dates for your area can be found by clicking the link above.
It’s a very difficult time for us down here in Southeastern Louisiana. Between trying to get viable options to stop the oil from spilling into the gulf, to the profane, black sludge reaching shore – the uneasiness in the air that is a combination of bad memories, distrust, anger, fear and insecurity. We look towards our leaders in local, state and national government to offer to us honest answers, yet they remain elusive, hidden away on a need to know basis for everyone but the people who have to live here and endure the impacts the oil spill is going to have as it kills our sea life, wrecks havoc on an ecosystem still trying to stabilize from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, enters our water system as it slowly works it way to shore. Families feel lost, having passed this tradition of shrimping or commercial fishing down generation to generation, afraid that the tradition and culture will die with their generation. In a job market where there are already too many searching, the financial impacts this has on everyone in this region is not only a frightening thought, but seems to now be inevitable.
The father that has to go home to tell his child that work is not there, the single mother that barely gets by finding that things are going to get harder now as hotels are being called for cancellations and not reservations and beaches close, for us in Southeastern Louisiana, this isn’t just about a corporate responsibility or about company oversight. This is our lives that hang in the balance, out of our control, leaving us filled with an uncertainty that no one in one of the superpowers of the world should have to feel. Our environment here is apart of us, from the marshes in Plaquemines Parish to the Mississippi to Lake Pontchartrain to the Honey Island Swamp to the beaches of Grand Isle, these places make up our communities and homes, our neighbors, our memories.
The political is always personal, but this is especially personal.
As I sit writing this, gallons of oil stream into the Gulf of Mexico, poisoning part of the 40% of the seafood that comes from the state of Louisiana. The husbands, fathers, grandfathers and sons that fish this area sit at home, wondering if all hope is lost. Unsure whether or not to file a claim with BP for $5000.00. Part of signing a deal with the devil, however, is that you sign away the devil’s responsiblity in this mess, giving him a get-out-of-jail free card, allowing the bad practices that helped cause this mess go unpunished. What is better, they question, the money now – which for many will barely pay their bills for a month – or holding out, waiting to see what will come as more information becomes available about cause, effect and damages.
In a city known for its food, surrounded by beautiful bodies of water, questions now weigh heavy on the minds of servers, bartenders and chefs. Some are finding their hours cut, businesses cutting back because sales simply aren’t what they should be this time of year while others begin trying to figure out what else they can do in a city where jobs aren’t many. Serving in New Orleans isn’t like serving in high school or college. It’s a tourist city. In this city, it is a career – and a well-paying one at that. Teachers, lawyers and accountants have left the industries they chose to educate themselves in to give a smile to the family that travels down from the mid-west, excited to see what all the noise about New Orleans is really all about.
As five years separates those here for Katrina from the anxiety that horrific time caused, we face another tragedy. I know we are strong. We are family. No matter the strength, the what-ifs and the how-comes can make even the strongest fall.
It is said that ignorance is bliss and perhaps there is truth to that. Being here, we are living this tragedy. It isn’t a sound bite on CNN or Fox or an article in the New York Times and the Washington Post. We know what isn’t being reported. We know what is happening behind the scenes – scenes that include journalists being prohibited from filming damaged areas and threatened with arrest, survivors of the explosion being held in seclusion and brow-beaten until they sign no liability clauses for BP, politics as normal in Washington – – giving $205 million dollars to Israel in aid for missiles systems as oil spews, pollutes and kills — and a great majority of people telling us to shut up, to stop having our hand out for money from the government, to accept what has happened without question because, after all, accidents happen even though protocols were not followed and safety equipment wasn’t all that safe.
While people are telling us that being hard on BP is ‘un-American’ we question what America we belong in when corporations become what matter and the consequences of their bad behavior become our consequences, forced upon us without choice. The us that are good, hardworking people of character and strength that simply want to live life, celebrate it and share it with all those who travel here from around the world for just a little taste of it. Don’t confuse our living out loud as acceptance or our humor as not caring. We are an involved, passionate bunch as can be witnessed on any number of blogs that were created since Katrina when we felt that media left us behind. There comes a point in tragedy, however, where you have to find humor in it or all you are left with is tears. We’ve cried enough tears.
It is my hope that people in other places of this country feel overwhelmed and unable to help because they are not here, instead of being apathetic to the situation. There are many things you can do. Collect non-perishable food items for the shrimpers who are impacted most by this. For a time, they couldn’t even receive food stamps from the state because they made too much money, even though their livelihoods had been lost. Sign petitions asking for stricter regulations in off shore drilling or for development of alternative energies. Contact those in your states and ask them to care about ours. Buy t-shirts made by local vendors, where profits go directly towards animal rescue efforts. Pass on news about what is happening here. In the age of twitter and facebook, you tell one person and they tell another and perhaps, maybe enough pressure can be generated for our government to stand up and see us reaching out for them to help, perhaps they will reach back through legislation or even a tougher approach with those companies involved in this disaster. Stay aware of the situation. Contact BP and express your outrage and your ire.
We aren’t asking the rest of the country to rescue us. We are, however, asking you to care.
We’ve taken a beating down here. Some question why we live here, knowing the potential of loss. It is an argument that often used after Hurricane Katrina and it is an argument being recycled now. The levee failure in Nashville shows that the disasters we have faced can happen anywhere, even in middle America. Although at times it can feel like we live in our own third world country down here, a reference we make jokingly, please dont’ treat this as such. This impacts you, too.
Don’t watch from afar as disaster tourists. Don’t make us tragedy porn.
If it were you, we would be there, doing what we could with what we had, opening our hearts and telling you we too know tragedy and we understand.
The opinions expressed on NOLAFemmes are solely those of the individual writer.
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