[Kreweoftruth] TOMORROW: Second Line for Healthcare and Education

[cbrylski at aol.com]

SecondLine for Healthcare & Education!
Friday,April 9, 5:30 pm, Lafayette Square Park in New Orleans
Pleasespread the word... re-mail & forward!
 
There'sgoing to be a big, crazy second line in the CBD on Friday: the Stooges BrassBand, the Free Agents Brass Band, and a level of booty-shaking the businessdistrict hasn't seen since the Second Line to Reopen Charity. We're going toparty and rage down Poydras, and we're going to show the boy prince BobbyJindal that the people of Louisiana have had it with his policies ofprivatization.
 
TheSouthern Republican Leadership Conference (SRLC)  takes place from April 8-11 in New Orleans, and is thelargest gathering of Republican leadership short of the presidential convention.As Bobby Jindal is groomed for higher office, the Second Line for Healthcare& Education is our opportunity to present a unified response to Jindal'sassault on Lousiana's state hospital system & public education.
 
Jointhe SRLC Welcoming Committee, some of New Orleans' finest brass bands and awhole lot of ticked-off, high-stepping citizenry on Friday, April 9, as we letthe SRLC know what we think of Jindal's efforts to dismantle public education,healthcare, and other Louisiana public services. Under the bright lights, let'sgive Jindal and all his GOP cronies-- Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich,Rick
Santorumet al.-- the big loud New Orleans welcome they deserve.
 
Ourmessage is clear: Stop gutting our public schools and universities, stopdestroying access to health care. Restore funding to community clinics, andre-open Charity Hospital!
 
TheSRLC Welcoming Committee is a broad coalition of local educators, healthcareworkers, students and other Louisianians, as well as members of the Committeeto Reopen Charity Hospital, Save UNO, the Iron Rail Collective, Pax Christi,and many others.
 
-Meet at 5:30 pm
-Step-off at 6:00 pm
 
Route(0.4 miles):
-Start at Lafayette Square Park at St. Charles Ave. and Lafayette
-March down Camp St. to Poydras St.
-March down Poydras to the Hilton Riverside Hotel
 
Thisis a legal, permitted march.
 
Latestinfo at http://southernpeople.wordpress.com
OurFacebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106484989383993
Tweetus! >>  http://bit.ly/uheardme
 
Background:
 
Lastyear Jindal shut down the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, the ONLY publicmental health hospital in the metro area. He refuses to rebuild and reopen NewOrleans' Rev. Avery C. Alexander Charity Hospital, and now the Earl K. LongCharity Hospital in Baton Rouge is being squeezed dry and shuttered up. Bothnon-profit and for-profit hospitals in Louisiana are bleeding red ink.Healthcare in New Orleans and Louisiana is in crisis!
 
Onthe education front, the University of New Orleans, already reeling frommillions in cuts, already eliminating core departments, has had more than $13million in further cuts since the beginning of the academic year. UNO is beingdestroyed.
 
Atthe beginning of the academic year in August 2009, Delgado Community Collegehad to turn away 1500 applicants because of insufficient building space. It'salmost five years after Katrina & the failure of the federal levees, andthe campus remains severely crippled.
 
AtSouthern University at New Orleans, the majority of students and faculty stillattend classes in trailers. SUNO has experienced no real recovery whatsoever.
 
Allof this is unacceptable, and the blame rests on Jindal.
 
Froman article in the March 28th Times-Picayune, "Jindal moves to privatizemany services" (http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1269757842162310.xml&coll=1)
 
"Overall,Jindal's $24.2 billion budget proposal calls for eliminating nearly 3,000 statejobs in the 2010-11 fiscal year that begins July 1."
 
"InBaton Rouge, an estimated 500 civil servants who now work at Earl K. Long doingeverything from nursing to administration will be displaced when that facilitycloses."
 
"Similarly,the civil servants who make up a significant chunk of the 2,300-personworkforce at the Interim LSU Public Hospital in New Orleans will no longer bestate employees..."
 
"...theadministration is proposing what officials say are the biggest changes to thestate's mental-health system in generations. The Department of Health andHospitals is planning to discharge 118 people from state-run psychiatric hospitals...while another 138 institutional beds would be transferred to a privateoperator..."
 
"Rep.Tom McVea, R-St. Francisville, said the downsizing at East Louisiana StateHospital -- a state-run psychiatric hospital in his district -- will havelasting effects on his rural community as up to 300 state jobs are lost."

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