Black ministers, activists hit Bush for Katrina response

Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice have joined a broad coalition of activists calling on Congress to bring charges against George W. Bush for his racist handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

In a Washington, D.C., press conference on Sept. 14, the coalition issued a statement saying: “Bush’s incompetent and inept leadership resulted in hundreds of deaths and unbelievable human suffering of United States’ citizens.” The coalition of ministers and social justice activists said that Congress should further reprimand and censure the president.

The national president of the group, Rev. Graylan S. Hagler, stated, “More and more lives are being lost in the aftermath of Katrina.

“This is, to say the least, criminal negligence to the highest degree. ...

“We are spending more than $5 billion a month on an illegal and immoral war in Iraq, which we are being told will make us safer. Yet, Americans continue to die by the thousands over there and hundreds of Americans died here at home because our resources were in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is incompetence and criminal.”

Along with Rev. Hagler and other progressive clergy, speakers at the press conference included Imam Madhi Bray, Muslim American Freedom Foundation, Washington, D.C.; Rev. Fred Nixon, Amistad Church, Houston, Texas, whose congregation is supplying direct aid and resettlement assistance to victims of hurricane Katrina; Damu Smith, Black Voices for Peace; Jay Winter Nightwolf, Native talk show host and anti-war leader; Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, ANSWER coalition; Larry Holmes, Troops Out Now Coalition; and Leslie Cagan, United for Peace and Justice.

—Monica Moorehead