New Orleans Neighborhood Group Buys Spread In "Roll Call" Begging The US Congress For Help Getting Back Their Homes

New Orleanian residents from the Lakeview neighborhood took out a full-color, full-page advertisement in the widely-read and influential Capitol Hill publication, Roll Call. According to one New Orleans news source:

The ad, called "A message from homeless New Orleanians," contains a 570-word message saying they "have lived like refugees in our own country" and are still waiting for members of Congress "to spearhead the rebuilding of our flood protection, and reclaim one of the nation's most important cities from ruin."

The residents, located in other states, organized this effort to leverage help from the U.S. Congress by means of an online message board and by raising $10,000 to cover the high costs of advertising (their original plan involved publication in the Washington Post, which was even more expensive). Where they could meet face-to-face, they held neighborhood meetings in other people's neighborhoods.

This is further proof of the potential of online organizing as a tool for surviving, for communicating, and for broadcasting neighborhood resolutions to the most remote and removed halls of governance.