I spent the latter half of last week in New Orleans, attending the convention of the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA). The ILCA brings together labor communicators from across America so they can learn from each others' experiences.
The reason I bring this up is because this convention had a unique end product. A core component of the convention was for attendees to actually get out of the conference rooms and into the city, finding the stories of workers whose lives were affected by Hurricane Katrina and the long and slow reconstruction that followed, and communicating those stories to the world through a special Web site, NewOrleansLaborMedia.org.
On that site, you can watch video, view pictures and read stories involving working people across New Orleans, and the struggle they have faced over the last two years to rebuild their city and their lives. For example, here's a story of how carpenters across the country pulled together to help the members of Carpenters Local 1846 recover, and here's another on the fight to reopen Charity Hospital, which had provided health care to a million people each year before the hurricane.
While the rest of America frets over Lindsay Lohan's driving record, the workers of New Orleans are doing everything they can to bring their still-battered city around. Check out NewOrleansLaborMedia.org and you'll see what I mean.