A drill team makes their entrance to a midday event.

The lines for registration have continued throughout the convention.

In the afternoon Hilary Shelton, the NAACP’s Washington Bureau Director, and four members of Congress presented a workshop titled: “Engaging Congress: The NAACP’s Legislative Agenda to Achieve One Nation, One Dream.” Each of the panelists spoke at length. There was an opportunity for questions from the audience at the end of the workshop. The event went overtime – going for over two and a half hours.

Senator Roland Burris (D-Illinois).

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas).

Representative Barbara Lee (D-California).

Representative Bobby Scott (D-Virginia).

The legislative panel.

Senator Roland Burris.

There will be quite a bit on the legislative workshop in later posts.

The first public mass meeting of the convention started after 6:00 p.m. After delegates, observers and guests were seated a large gospel choir sang several numbers.

The opening public mass meeting – view from the media riser.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) addresses the opening public mass meeting.

Roslyn Brock, Chairman of the NAACP National Board of Directors – the evening’s keynote speaker.

“…the fantasy of the notion of making people whole again…”

Jacqui Patterson, NAACP Climate Justice Initiative Director – speaking on the NAACP’s report on the impact of the BP oils spill on the Gulf region at the opening press conference.

At yesterday’s opening press conference the NAACP released a report of an investigation conducted by their national office to “document the impact of the BP Oil Drilling Disaster.” From the report overview:

…The PB Oil drilling Disaster has overlaid another travesty over a region devastated by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina when communities were still far from recovering from the impact of those disasters of 2005. Therefore the largest disaster in US history was visited upon communities who already suffered from compromised economic status, displacement and substandard housing, fragile mental and physical health status, and socio cultural disruption.

The timing of the tragedy also places the disaster at a time when it has the most potential for negative impact. It comes at the nexus of great economic impact because it occurred at the beginning of harvest time for shrimp, crabs, and oysters. There is also the threat of elevated pervasive impact because of the start of hurricane season, which has the potential to setback clean-up efforts as well as accelerate and intensify the onslaught of oil and dispersant on the shores of the Gulf Coast….

The report provides a synopsis of the disaster impact on communities in the region, a critique of the “mitigation systems/processes”, and a list of thirteen recommendations from those communities.

After the press conference I spoke with Jacqui Patterson, the NAACP’s Climate Justice Initiative Director, about that impact on the region:  

Show Me Progress: How long did you spend on the Gulf?

Jacqui Patterson, NAACP Climate Justice Initiative Director: Three weeks in total.

SMP: And, and you traveled through the communities  just gathering information?

Jacqui Patterson: Yes.

SMP: What’s the most striking thing?

Jacqui Patterson: The most striking thing. The most striking thing is the kind of, what do you call it, the fantasy of the notion of making people whole again. Because, like people talk about making people whole? And it’s just, a, it’s just, uh, the, the, the devastation is just so pervasive that, you know, there’s no one outside of that person that can really do that. You know what I mean? So people who lo, lost, not just their, people have a lot of focus on livelihood and so forth, but people who, like the, the Houma Nation that’s connected, that’s really connected to the land spiritually, culturally, etcetera, to have that land defiled in a way that’s not gonna be reversible, really, in their lifetime, you know. And to have that, the generations of connection to that land just, you know, gone in some ways, or at least defiled, that like was the most overwhelming thing to me. Like the notion just, not just the Houma Nation, but the Vietnamese, Vietnamese folks who have just kind of, not just when they are here, but back when they were in Vietnam their, um, their connection to, to shrimping, to crabbing, to fishing that’s just gone now. They’re not, they’re not, a lot of the folks aren’t speaking English because that’s just what they’ve been doing, just been them on the water with their, with their craft. So, just the obliteration of like everything that, you know, what’s made people, what’s kind of comprised the majority of their life was kind of the most striking thing for me.

SMP: Is there a  realization, um, obviously in the communities, but of people that you’ve talked to outside of those communities that this is the case?

Jacqui Patterson: I don’t think, no, because people do kind of focus narrowly on like this or that. But you don’t really hear people talking about the totality as much. You know, some people, of course, that the totality of the loss, you know. So, yeah, that, so that struck me.

SMP: Um, were you able to actually witness some of the devastation yourself?

Jacqui Patterson: Yes. I mean, ’cause I was in the, the various communities where I spoke with the Vietnamese, I spoke with the Houma Nation, I spoke with the, you know, all the various folks and so, and, you know, went out and saw the oil situations and that kind of thing, so I was in the communities, very much so.

SMP: Well, thank you very much.

Jacqui Patterson: Yeah, sure. All right.

Previously:

The 101st NAACP National Convention in Kansas City

NAACP in Kansas City: Benjamin Todd Jealous at the opening press conference

NAACP in Kansas City: EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at the opening press conference

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at the opening press conference of the NAACP national convention in Kansas City.

Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, spoke on the subject of the Gulf oil spill at today’s opening press conference for the NAACP national convention:

….Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency: …I’m honored to join the NAACP at their annual convention, their hundred and first convention. And it makes me, uh, very proud to know that this organization continues to fight the fight for environmental justice in our country.

This morning I had a conversation with the local Chamber of Commerce which has done a great job supporting a green economy here in Kansas City. I spent time with Congressman Cleaver and the green impact zone in this fair city which he has been so passionate about, not just defining, but devoting real resources to. I’ve just discussed, I was a few minutes late, I was with the NAACP’s Gulf Coast leadership, uh, to talk about the status of our work in the Gulf and hear their concerns, hear their concerns. And we’re gonna have a, another, uh, great step this afternoon, I’m going to leave here and go to a Congressional Black Caucus environmental justice town hall with Representative Cleaver. I’m sure he’ll mention [inaudible]. He’s been my host, he’s been a wonderful partner.

I just want to echo what we just heard the President of the NAACP say, we take it for granted, the air in the Gulf Coast is not safe. But it’s not because of the BP spill. In fact, we can’t differentiate the contamination that we see and have been measuring for months now. You can’t attribute any part of that to the BP oil spill. That makes some sense, it’s happening fifty miles out at sea and there’s a lot of other things going on. But, it’s those other things going on that I hope we don’t forget as a whole…

…Right now there are red and orange ozone alert days all over our country, especially in the Gulf Coast. When the weather is warm it is not safe for our children to be outside, for our elderly to decide to take a stroll around. If you have heart or lung problems you are advised to stay inside and seek out a place that has air conditioning. That is the status quo. And that is the heart of our concerns when it comes to environmental justice. For too long too many areas in this country have just had to live with the fact that when it gets hot you, we have to change our lifestyle.

So I don’t want to minimize the impact of this spill on the Gulf Coast region. I grew up, I was raised in New Orleans, my mother lost her home in Hurricane Katrina. I already know there will be refugees, if you will, from this latest disaster. With the President, what President Obama’s called the greatest environmental disaster our country has ever faced. EPA pledges, Mr. President [Benjamin Todd Jealous] that we will be a partner in trying to insure justice in this response. But we are also gonna, uh, work to insure overall justice – clean air, clean water, clean land, clean dirt as you put it earlier – for every single American, every single American. ‘Cause that’s part of our, uh, birthright as well.

Nothing illustrates the need for us to focus our attention on a clean energy future like the BP oil spill. It is but one incident, but it is indicative of the challenges we face as a country, whether it’s our addiction to foreign oil, whether it’s the wars we fight on behalf of that oil, whether it’s air pollution that, killing, literally killing our children, or whether it’s the need for a new economy, one that gives jobs to people who are now displaced because of an oil spill or who were displaced long before that oil spill because of the greatest recession our country has seen since World War Two.

We need a foundation for prosperity and clean air and clean water and clean land [inaudible]. We’ll continue to push, we’re happy to work to push, uh, this response to be community centric as possible, to include local contractors, local business men and women, and of course, to look holistically at health concerns, not just the concerns from this incident, but concerns for the health of the people, all the people, of the Gulf Coast region. So thanks very much. [applause]

Later, during the question and answer portion of the press conference:

….Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star: …And what about the safeguards for the workers health [in reference to the BP spill]? Are they being properly equipped to do the cleanup work?

[….]

Lisa Jackson: …I have a wonderful partner over at the Department of Labor, uh, Secretary Hilda Solis, uh, who was a representative from the State of California, a fierce advocate not just for worker’s rights, but also for, uh, people for whom English might not be their first language. And you heard we have Vietnamese, we have, uh, Spanish speaking people in the Gulf. I think the situation there, thanks to the, uh, attention brought to it by, uh, organizations like the NAACP and other advocates, has improved. People are getting, uh, the training that they need. We are still encouraging, uh, people to , uh, insure that they have safe havens, places where they can speak up if they feel that they are being pressured or may be in fear of losing their job if they speak up about unsafe conditions. I can tell you that, uh, there is monitoring and modeling going on for a range of air contamination. The biggest threat out there is that with the hot weather, uh, that is a light crude oil. It does vaporize, about forty or so percent of it goes straight up into the air so you can get unsafe levels of what we call volatile organic compounds very close to the well. You can smell it all the way on shore. And we already know, as I said earlier, that that smell just compounds the, uh, for people who already have lung, uh, or heart disease the, the health issues and irritation that they can suffer as a result. I do think things are getting better, but I think it requires constant vigilance and I know that Secretary Solis, uh, has been, uh, along with her OSHA, the Occupational  Safety and Health people, all over the issue [inaudible].

Question: With your meeting with the Gulf Coast, uh,  representatives, what’s [inaudible] you’re gonna take away from this meeting today?

Lisa Jackson: You know, that, that meeting, uh, was about empowerment. These were, uh, uh, leaders who were not asking for any handout. They wanted the ability to represent that their community wants power to impact itself. So, from EPA’s perspective power comes in the form of air sampling and water data that communities can take and bring to their own validators and say, hey, maybe I want to take this to my universities and make sure I feel comfortable. But I think the larger issues, whether it’s making sure that there are command stations and government representatives in, uh, all along the Gulf Coast, making sure that community representation is a part of the command structure. Because, remember, in many places we’re dealing with a government structure that doesn’t necessarily have a huge community component. And making sure that constantly in this response, ’cause it is a long term one, that we honor President Obama’s desire to have this be a community based, from, uh, the community up, uh, restoration plan for the Gulf. All those things are probably the big messages. It’s about empowerment….

Lisa Jackson with NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous.

Previously:

The 101st NAACP National Convention in Ka
nsas City

NAACP in Kansas City: Benjamin Todd Jealous at the opening press conference

Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP.

There was an extensive opening press conference for the NAACP national convention this afternoon at the Kansas City Convention Center. Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP, spoke on the economy and the goal of the convention:

Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO, NAACP: ….These are tough times in our country. History has shown us that in tough times like these, great recessions and great depressions, there’s really only two choices, people of this country. Either we run downhill towards hate and division or we continue to push uphill towards progress and hope.  That choice of hope, not hate, the choice that the NAACP made a hundred and one years ago during a period of tough times – our country was being torn apart when black men were being burnt, hung from trees and burned, Catholic men and Jewish men, to a lesser extent. We were founded to resurrect the dream of Abraham Lincoln that this be truly one nation.  Because we knew that all of its people only had one dream. Which is the great American dream – universal access to prosperity and the things needed to realize the full potential within all of us…

…We come here this year, tough times – tough times in Kansas City, tough times in Missouri, tough times in our nation as a whole. People are impatient. They want to see results. They want to see change. They in many instances want to see all of the change that they voted for two years ago.

And there are, there is once again an insurgent movement in this country to tear this country apart. And if we pull off the veneer what we see behind them are wealthy law firms and fancy lobbyists like Dick Armey, this faux populist rage represented by the Tea Party. There is nothing new, and what is new is that this group of people is smaller than they have ever been in our society, smaller than the White Citizens Council, smaller than the Klan of the nineteen-twenties, but divisive and dangerous.

This convention is going on simultaneously with the convention of the National Council of La Raza and to the conventions of many religious and labor organizations around the country. All of whom have come together to begin pushing the country back uphill towards hope and prosperity, building our country up and making sure that jobs is job one for us. It is outrageous that the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Congress felt entitled  to go out on vacation without passing unemployment insurance. To take this let them eat hotdogs approach to starving families around the country, as if they could afford a hotdog when they’re surviving on three hundred dollars a week and you just decide to stop paying them because you would rather stop debating the issue and just get home to glad hand campaign.  It is disturbing that our Congress can find thirty-two billion dollars for war but can’t find twenty-three billion dollars to save hundreds of thousands of teacher’s jobs.

And it is time for the people of this country, the, the dynamic majority of this country that made history two years ago to reassert itself in streets across the country and say enough is enough, let jobs be job one. If we gotta spend more money to get out of the great recession, let’s do it, ’cause that’s what got us out of the Great Depression. We focused on creating jobs, we put the country back to work, and we pulled the country back together.

That will be our focus with our membership. That is our call to the country. And you will see the biggest mobilization in years on the Mall on October 2nd, one month before the election, to make sure that everbody’s, who is running for office in this country understands that jobs has to be job one.

Thank you and God bless. It’s going to be a great convention, we’re excited. [applause]

Previously:

The 101st NAACP National Convention in Kansas City

We’re covering the 101st NAACP National Convention in Kansas City this week. The scheduled speakers include First Lady Michelle Obama (on Monday, July 12th), Lisa Jackson – Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous and a host of others. We’re particularly interested in a panel which will include Senator Roland Burris (Illinois), Representative Barbara Lee (California), Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (Texas), and Representative Bobby Scott (Virginia).

The Kansas City Convention Center, site of the 101st NAACP National Convention.

Yes, they gave us media credentials, so we’ll be pedaling as fast as we can when it comes to trying to keep up with content.

We have the credential on the far left. Photo courtesy of the NAACP.

This afternoon we’ll attend a press conference with EPA Administrator Jackson and the national leadership of the NAACP.

Our filing home away from home this week.