Stop the Violence Hip Hop Caucus
NEW ORLEANS ARENA
OCTOBER 21st, 2006
9:00 am - 3:30 pm
Theme: Communities in Action
Greetings,
Please join the Hip Hop Caucus for a critical phone conference aimed at focusing our work and discussion on immediate actions to stop the violence in New Orleans and in Katrina diaspora communities, as well as addressing long-term challenges in the continuing struggle for accountability and justice.
DATE: Wednesday, September 20, 2006
TIME: 5:00 p.m. EST, 4:00 CST, 3:00 MST & 2:00 PST
Please call 218-936-6666 Code 10512#
Gandhi said "Poverty is the worst form of violence." After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast region, the truly deep and persistent poverty that exists in our country was exposed to the nation and to the rest of the world. Initially, there was unified national outcry at the shocking scenes of abandonment and failed government response. Today, however, the same people who were abandoned on rooftops and in the Superdome continue to be neglected by all levels of government and excluded in the rebuilding process. As a result, crime and violence is surging in New Orleans and in cities like Houston where large populations of Katrina survivors are living. The reality is, people are killing and people are dying because they have lost hope.
All violence must end now! We cannot continue to let our own people die. The Hip Hop Caucus Institute, Common Ground Relief Collective, Reaching Out to Others Together (ROOT), and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) are working together to put on the Stop the Violence Hip Hop Caucus at the New Orleans Arena on October 21st, 2006.
The New Orleans Arena holds 17,000 people. We plan on filling the venue with primarily young people as well as concerned leaders and officialsfrom New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Houston, and Atlanta. The event will bring together Katrina survivors, local and national leaders, elected officials, organizations and institutions to discuss and raise awareness about the root causes of the violence. The purpose of the event is to convey the message that we have to work together as community leaders, national leaders, celebrities, elected officials, police, members of Congress and citizens to resolve both the physical violence resulting from guns and crime, and the greater structural violence of poverty and inequality.
For more details about the nature of the actual event and pre- and post-event outreach activities, please join us on Wednesday, September 20th for a critical phone conference aimed at focusing our work and discussion on immediate initiatives as well as addressing long-term challenges.
Please join our effort as a partner/sponsor of the Stop the Violence Hip Hop Caucus on October 21st. We simply cannot fail.
Sincerely,
Reverend Lennox Yearwood, Jr.
CEO & President, Hip Hop Caucus/Hip Hop Caucus Institute
------------------------
Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr.
Hip Hop Caucus/Hip Hop Caucus Institute
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
1112 16th St. NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
O - (202) 787 - 5256
C - (202) 375 - 3913
Rev@hiphopcaucus.org
www.hiphopcaucus.org
"The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty."
Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? 1967.
"Every Christian who is not a revolutionary lives in mortal sin" Camillo
Torres, a Jesuit priest killed in El Salvador by US funded groups