RE: [greenyes] Michael Moore helping with relief efforts in New Orleans

["Pat Franklin" <pfranklin@no.address>]

too bad he's so down on recycling
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Gary Liss [mailto:gary@no.address]
  Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 1:52 PM
  To: crra_members@no.address; greenyes@no.address
  Subject: [greenyes] Michael Moore helping with relief efforts in New
Orleans


  From: TRiesing@no.address
  Subject: [ZERI_Practitioners] We've Raised a Half-Million Dollars and Sent
Over 50 Tons of Food and Water

  Michael Moore is our guy. He is getting stuff where it needs to be --
often ahead of the Red Cross and FEMA (are we surprised?) Please read the
forward from him below. You may also want to check out his website at
http://michaelmoore.com   ...and if we want to have an impact, I would say
that he is the one to contact with our ZERI ideas.

  Peace,
  Tom

  From: "Michael Moore" <maillist@no.address>
  To: TRiesing@no.address
  Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 02:30:56 -0400

  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@no.address
  www.michaelmoore.com


  Gary Liss
  916-652-7850
  Fax: 916-652-0485
  www.garyliss.com