Katrina Send Off

Many thanks to Kathy for organizing the party this afternoon. It was a tremendous success and a great way to kick off our journey. Thanks as well to Alejandro and Scott for their cinematic endeavors; I can't wait to see the finished product!

Timeline for recovery

Our professors have urged us not to take any preconceived notions with us to New Orleans. And yet each of us carries our own life experiences. I drove down 14th Street today and found my self thinking of the devastation that I had experienced there during the 1968 riots. It is now almost forty years later. What remains with me is the pain in the decades that followed when so little was done to help those who had lost their homes; and the mostly unsuccessful struggles to maintain the neighborhood that was with housing for the poor. Decade after decade there were empty lots. Even the stores were gone; particularly absent were places to buy food. And now in the last decade the bright lights are returning construction is everywhere; there are two new super markets and we are even getting some big box stores (made possible by all those empty lots).

But for me the lights are dimmer for the knowledge of families no longer here to enjoy them. Today even young D.C. teachers and social workers too often are commuters from Lounden County and Williams County in Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland priced out of the city by the lack of affordable housing and the opportunity to buy elsewhere. Our devastation was much less than New Orleans and we shall never recover. Once this city was home to almost 900,000 people; today it is at approximately 600,000.


So I think of New Orleans, facing a much larger disaster and I wonder what will be the time line of recovery? What does recovery mean? Recovery for whom? Will it be twenty years or forty years before we know the answers?

Video

The video project is underway. I spoke with library staff regarding leanring to work the equipment the school is providing. It would be best if several of us attend a training with the Library staff. I propose wednesday after class or thursday around noon. Please let me know what works for folks.

Also, I attended a conference "Rebellious Lawyering" a Yale law school this weekend and found some helpful people. To make a long story short, I was given a phone number and email of who is aware of our project and is well versed in film making. I will call him tommorrow to discuss the video plan.

Lastly, is anyone bringing their personal digital video recorder? At this point Will Yancy Burns, the school and myself will be having a video recorder. Any one else?

Video

The video project is underway. I spoke with library staff regarding leanring to work the equipment the school is providing. It would be best if several of us attend a training with the Library staff. I propose wednesday after class or thursday around noon. Please let me know what works for folks.

Also, I attended a conference "Rebellious Lawyering" a Yale law school this weekend and found some helpful people. To make a long story short, I was given a phone number and email of who is aware of our project and is well versed in film making. I will call him tommorrow to discuss the video plan.

Lastly, is anyone bringing their personal digital video recorder? At this point Will Yancy Burns, the school and myself will be having a video recorder. Any one else?

18 months later

This is an article, written by Bill Quigley (whom we heard about in class today, and will hear speak while in New Orleans) about the state of things in New Orleans today.

It details exactly how hard it is for people to return home, more than half the houses don't have electricity, people who have applied for financial assistance have yet to receive it, it really is a dismal account. And something we all need to be prepared for before we descend upon the city this weekend.

The Right to Return Eighteen Months after Katrina

State Farm in MS

A news story today reports that State Farm is suspending the sales of new commercial or homeowner's insurance policies in Mississippi starting on Friday, apparently citing on-going litigation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. You can read the full story here: State Farm.
Interestingly, the article mentions our friends the Broussards and Judge Senter.

Hmm, sounds just like what we talked about in class last week.

Things I love about this course

Perhaps I am just an over-zealous 3L who wants to prolong and enjoy law school as long as possible, but I really am enjoying this course, and thought it'd be fun to start a thread about it. I hope that others out there will chime in. So in no particular order, here are some of the things I like:

• the collaborative atmosphere - it is so apparent that the professors are learning this right along with us. It makes me feel like we are colleagues and equals rather than inferiors.
• the use of technology - using Blackboard to distribute information and creating a blog for discussion is awesome. I think that there is SO much information that we are trying to learn in such a short period of time in the class sessions, that often discussion doesn't happen. It would be great to have more discussion in forums like this.
• the interplay between the professors - watching the dialogue between Profs. McLain, Morin, and Waysdorf is sometimes more entertaining than TV in my opinion. All three have various skills and knowledge and opinions, and just observing their interactions is exciting.

Please feel free to add to this list and/or comment on my opinions.

It's happening everywhere

Hard to believe, I know, but the Army Corps of Engineers has released a list of 122 other levees across the country that are in danger of failing, including 5 right here in D.C. and P.G. County. You can see the WaPo story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020101029.html and an editorial about it here: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2007/02/dangerous_levees_right_here_in.html

For me, this just seems to make this course seem even more relevant to our daily lives and activities. Although we might think that such tragedy can't happen to us since we don't live on the Gulf Coast, information like this brings me back to reality.

Making a Difference

Okay, I am going to get the ball rolling. Professor Waysdorf and I just had a conversation with a student about activism and whether or not it can make a difference in the world. As a baby boomer who was in college during the Vietnam War, I definitely believe that we can make a difference by participating in democratic politics. As we have been discussing in class, the law is a wonderful tool, but there are limits to its effectiveness. Grassroots activism, marching on Washington, and other forms of political protest are often more effective in changing public opinion, and thus changing what our elected officials do. Our service trip to New Orleans is another way to make a difference, one person and one case at a time. We are so excited to be sharing this opportunity with you. Please let us know your thoughts.