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Liberal Blogosphere for Hurricane Relief
I try to run TNH more a-politically than I did when I started out. I want a place where people of many different persuasions can talk to one another and find the commonalities rather than the differences. So why am I running a "Liberal Blogosphere for Hurricane Relief" ad?
1) I personally know the people organizing the effort.
2) However I run TNH, I am a liberal and proud of it (to be specific, a left-libertarian on the Political Compass). As they say in the military, your unit is only as strong as your weakest member, and right now the weakest members of our unit are Louisiana, Mississippi and the other areas hit by Katrina. Putting aside even humanitarianism, which we shouldn't, there is naked self-interest in helping them. We have to bring them up or they'll drag the rest of us down.
If you haven't been paying close attention to the news--and I sure don't blame you, I've had to go on a news blackout today because this is so upsetting--however bad you think it is in Louisiana and Mississippi, it's ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times worse than that. It's unimaginable. This is a third world-style refugee situation in 21st century America. It's unacceptable anywhere, but unfathomable here. If you can't bring yourself to give through a liberal effort, that's fine; do what you can through other avenues. Just do something. Thanks.
Comments
Another way to help: Offer housing
If you are within 300 miles of NOLA or the rest of the affected area, and have any crash space at all--basement, spare bedroom, even a couch--you can get matched up with a refugee here. Even if you're not close-in there may be refugees in your area.
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
And yet another
You may remember that when the tsunami hit last December I recommended donations to my friends at Northwest Medical Teams. I still recommend that, and have changed the blurb at the bottom of the website to reflect that. Here's what they're doing:
If you're in the Pacific Northwest you can also buy Portland Timbers, Portland Beavers or Seattle Seahawks games and have part of your ticket price go directly to NW Med Teams' relief efforts. These are good folks; they're Christian and I'm Neo-Pagan and we're friends and I support them.
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
university towns/schools
I've learned through my dad, who is chair of his dept. at a Memphis school, that universities across the south are honoring the paid enrollment of Louisiana students, and displaced families are enrolling kids in school systems wherever they happen to be.
If you live in the south you could check with the local university or public school system about whether they are absorbing students and what needs they might have. Memphis is over 6 1/2 hours from NO, and my dad has 5 folks staying with him; a neighbor has 11. So it's hard to be too far away to help directly.
Animals need our help as well
www.noahswish.org has sent a team to the hurricaine area to rescue animals. They take donations and they also need foster families to take in animals within a 2 hour radius. Keep everyone affected in your prayers.
More emergency help and housing websites:
Besides the link to hurricanehousing.org that Lynn put up above, to open your home to refugees there are the The Katrina Volunteer and Housing Opportunities website set up by an independent web development company and the KatrinaHomes.org through whom the Red Cross is coordinating all Open Homes activity. And there is also the ubiquitous Craig's List, too.
And there are even more places than this to post an open home. MSNBC for instance has a whole section of places to post.
Also, for pet rescue, besides the one mentioned above is the The Humane Society of the United States, mobilzing to save animals in the wake of the hurricane and floods.
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"If you want your children to be bright, read them fairytales-- if you want them to be brilliant, read them even more fairytales" Albert Einstein
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