If the debate is not coming to Gulf Coast then we need to Bring the Gulf to the Debate!
What will next President do to rebuild the Gulf Coast? Americans want to know but the question has not been fully answered in the 25 Presidential Debates to date. Perhaps worse, New Orleans was denied a chance to bring the candidates to the region for a Debate in the general election.
Thousands of people are displaced from their homes, communities struggle to meet unmet housing and critical infrastructure needs with limited federal funding available for rebuilding. The result is an American human rights crisis.
Stand with the Gulf Coast and make the candidates go on record to rebuild communities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. ACORN, the region’s largest community organization of low and middle income families and the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, a national network of students, are launching a campaign to Bring the Gulf to the Debate.
The Gulf Coast remains a top domestic issue and polls show Americans hunger for a renewed federal effort to empower local leaders and residents to rebuild. Candidates from both parties agree Hurricane Katrina was a federal failure. As communities struggle to comeback, debate hosts like ABC and WMUR avoid asking what the candidates plan to do solve the problem. Republicans haven’t been asked. Democratic debates have devoted minimal time to the issue.
Congress recently introduced H.R. 4048, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, a plan developed and approved by the people to give communities devastated by Katrina, Rita and the levee breaks the resources they need to rebuild stronger neighborhoods:
* Helping displaced families to return home and participate in rebuilding;
* Rebuilding schools, police and fire stations, hospitals and flood protection;
* Creating 100,000 living wage jobs and training opportunities;
* Promoting local businesses and improving economic and social conditions; and
* Giving residents a voice in how their communities are rebuilt.
We need to make the Presidential Debate hosts know this issue matters. During the January 5th Republican and Democratic New Hampshire debates, ABC, WMUR and Facebook have a chance to support the Gulf Coast and get the candidates on record about whether or not they support the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act!
Please use the form below to send an urgent message to ABC and WMUR News Executives and debate moderators Charles Gibson and Scott Spralding!
Facebook.com Users, click here, and join the Bring the Gulf to the Debate user group and learn how to take actions to directly contact ABC political reporters! Thanks to ABC's new partnership, Facebook members can urge ABC News's Charles Gibson, moderator of the New Hampshire debates, publicly to ask Democratic and Republican Candidates about H.R. 4048. Supporters can follow the links and cut and paste the text below or write their own public message urging Gibson to ask candidates:
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“Do you support H.R. 4048, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, to create 100,000 jobs to rebuild Gulf Coast communities still recovering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the levee failures.”
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