As I read more and more about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the South and on New Orelans in particular, I can’t help but think how disaster impacts those with the least resources so much harder than anyone else.

There is no doubt that the hurricane has had a tragic consequences for everyone, but watching those low-income New Orleans residents stuck in their uninhabitable city because they have no place to go or means to get there is truly tragic. A friend of mine who lives in Mississppi wrote to me in an email today that what is going on in Katrina’s wake is “the ugly side of america's growing class divide, clearly displayed for the world to view.”

So, when I got an email today from ACORN asking to contribute to their relief fund, I got out my battered credit card and gave $25.

It’s great to provide people with immediate relief, but giving to ACORN also allows us to invest in the future for poor and struggling folks who don’t have anyone else to look out for them. ACORN has a track record as a group that knows how to organize low-income communities for action, and I bet there has never been as great of a need for good organizing in New Orleans as there is now.

Click here to see more about ACORN’s plan for hurrican relief and plans to organize for the future.