August 23rd Weekly Update.
Date: Thu, Aug. 23, 2007
Next SilenceIsViolence City Walk: Thursday, August 30, 7pm.
We are postponing this week's City Walk, originally scheduled for Thursday, August 23, to next week. The route will take us from Franky & Johnny's, past Audubon Park, and directly in front of Mahalia Jackson's church in the Black Pearl neighborhood to Carver Playground; it is currently available at www.silenceisviolence.org (under Community Outreach Details).
We began to draft this letter on Monday evening and woke to the horrific headlines of Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Faubourg St. John neighborhood continues to reel from last week's horrific murder of Nia Robertson, a young, professional New Orleanian here to participate in the city's recovery. We are left grappling with the disturbing impression that Nia's death, the result of a senseless rampage by a man with a history of erratic and violent behavior, was not "random" in any comforting way. Our city's atmosphere of chaos and lawlessness is creating a haven for those from New Orleans and elsewhere who would take advantage of the disorganization, who would benefit from a cash-based economy where histories and behaviors indicating mental illness are routinely ignored. The fact that we have virtually no mental health resources to address problems that are identified is compounding the problem.
Monday's Times-Picayune highlighted ongoing concerns regarding health and mental health attention for Orleans Parish Prison inmates ( B1)—that is, people who have been arrested for crimes but in most cases are still awaiting trial, and are thus innocent in the eyes of the Constitution. Clearly our negligence of health and mental health needs is in this case directly contributing to the danger on our streets, when individuals are mistreated and then re-introduced to the community.
For perhaps the first time in history, all of us who are here in New Orleans right now are here by choice. We have all lived outside the city now, and those of us who are here made the decision to come back. Most of us know that we could find easier lives elsewhere. But if we are going to be here and fight for the city, we must look around, recognize those alongside of whom we are fighting, and protect and strengthen each other at every opportunity. Among our myriad issues, we must continue to demand better, more consistent mental health provisions for all citizens.
Because of the growing size of this list, we will begin transferring to a Google group. This will make it easier for us to distribute information, and easier for you to receive it. In the next day or two you will receive an email confirming your "membership" to the Google group "s/v" or Silence is Violence. You will also have the option to choose how you would like to receive your weekly email from us. PLEASE LOOK FOR THIS CONFIRMATION. If you do not receive something from us, feel free to email us to confirm that your information wasn't lost in this transfer.
We will write next week with a schedule of our upcoming activities for the fall. Until then, please stay safe-
Ken Foster and Baty Landis
