Our time in New Orleans is rapidly coming to an end. The Workers' Rights Project spent another day in the field documenting the experiences of workers in this city and the surrounding parishes. Once again we were in tent camps and grocery stores, apartment complexes and hotels.

This evening after a shared meal with our fellow BLS students in the French Quarter, several of us were pulled into a conversation with several local attorneys and other BLS students at a neighborhood bar. One of the attorneys, I believe he's been referred to as "the Crocodile Dundee of Indigent Defense" in previous postings, challenged me. After hearing what we had been up to and what we had discovered about the abhorrent living conditions of a large group of workers in the City Park he said, "So, what are YOU going to do about it?" While I was challenged and inspired by him, my sense of helplessness, anger, sadness, and frustration also came rising to the top.

If this blog has not given you a sense of things already, please understand that things are bad here. New Orleans needs help, competent not corrupt help. Another local in the crowd, who helped diffuse my rising emotions, was happy that I had gotten a taste of what New Orleans is going through and begged me to spread the word. I'm still figuring out what I'm going to do about it. It will be a process of trial and error but every one of us who has witnessed this situation has a serious obligation to use our skills and privilege to do more. I hope you reading out there in cyberspace will help us spread the word.