From:
mike@michaelmoore.com
www.michaelmoore.com
Michael Moore Writes:
Friends,
Last
week I closed my New York production office and sent my staff
down to New Orleans to set
up our own relief effort. I asked all of you to help me by sending
food, materials and cash to the emergency relief center we helped
set up on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain with the Veterans for
Peace. We did this when the government was doing nothing and the Red
Cross was still trying to get it together. Every day, every minute
was critical. People were dying, poor people, black people, left
like so much trash in the street. I wanted to find a way to get aid
in there immediately.
I hooked up with the
Vietnam veterans and Iraqi war vets (Veterans for Peace) who were
organizing a guerilla, grass-roots relief effort. They were the same
group that had set up Cindy Sheehan's camp in Crawford and now they
had moved Camp Casey to Louisiana.
I have good news and
horrible news to report. First, your response to my appeal letter
was overwhelming. Within a few days, a half-million dollars was sent
in through my website to fund our relief effort. This money was
immediately used to buy generators, food, water, a mobile medical
van, tents, satellite phones, etc.
Others of you began
shipping supplies to our encampment. People in communities all over
the country started organizing truck caravans to us in Louisiana.
Twenty-two trucks from southern California alone have already
arrived. A semi-truck from Chicago delivered ten tons of food. A
group of friends in New Jersey got two 24 foot trucks, got their
community to load them up with goods, and arrived in Covington
tonight. Fifteen iMacs are inbound from California. One man gave us
his pick-up truck and another donated truck is en route from
Houston.
Your response to my appeal
has been nothing short of miraculous. And it has saved many, many
lives.
A number of you decided to
just get in your cars and drive to our camp to volunteer to help. We
now have had 150 volunteers here doing the work that needs to be
done. Last night they unloaded twenty tons of food from a tractor
trailer in under two hours. Each day more volunteers arrive.
Everyone is sleeping on the ground or in tents. It is a remarkable
sight. Thank you, all of you, for responding. I will never forget
this outpouring of generosity to those forgotten by our own
government.
My staff and the vets
spend their 18-hour days delivering food and water throughout the
city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. What they have seen
is appalling. I have asked them to post their daily diaries on my
website (www.michaelmoore.com)
along with accompanying photos and video so you can learn what is
really going on. What the media is showing you is NOT the whole
story. It is much, much worse and there is still little being done
to bring help to those who need it.
Our group has visited many
outlying towns and villages in Mississippi and Louisiana, places the
Red Cross and FEMA haven't visited in over a week. Often our
volunteers are the first relief any of these people have seen. They
have no food, water or electricity. People die every day. There are
no TV cameras recording this. They have started to report the spin
and PR put out by the White House, the happy news that often isn't
true ("Everyone gets 2,000 dollars!").
The truth is that there
are dead bodies everywhere and no one is picking them up. My crew
reports that in most areas there is no FEMA presence, and very
little Red Cross. It's been over two weeks since the hurricane and
there is simply not much being done. At this point, would you call
this situation incompetence or a purposeful refusal to get real help
down there?
That's why we decided not
to wait. And we are so grateful to all of you who have joined us.
The Veterans for Peace and my staff aren't leaving (and that's why
we are hoping those of you who can't get to Covington will make it
to the Veterans for Peace co-sponsored anti-war demonstration in DC
on September 24:
www.unitedforpeace.org.)
If you want to help,
here's what we need in Covington right now:
Cleaning Supplies
(glass cleaner, bleach, disinfectant, etc.)
Aspirin and other basic over the counter drugs.
Bottled Water
Canned Goods
Hygiene Supplies
Baby Supplies - Baby Food Formula, diapers #4, #5, Wipes,
Pedialyte
Sterile Gloves
Batteries - All kinds, from AA to watch and hearing aid
batteries.
Volunteers with trucks and cars
Self contained kitchens with generators, utensils, workers
Consider sending supplies
in reusable containers. List the contents on the outside of the
package so the folks in the warehouse can easily sort the items.
Clothes are not needed. If
you go, keep in mind that you MUST be self-sufficient. Bring a tent
and a sleeping bag. People are driving to Covington from across the
country and often have extra room in their cars for you or for an
extra box of supplies. For more information, go to the Veterans for
Peace message board:
www.vfproadtrips.org/katrina/.
Send supplies via UPS
to:
Veterans for Peace
Omni Storage
74145 Hwy. 25
Covington LA
Thanks again for funding
and supporting our relief efforts. It has been a bright spot in this
otherwise shameful month.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mike@michaelmoore.com
www.michaelmoore.com