"This is Solidarity, NOT Charity"

The project that Bob is working on is gutting a building to become the new home of the Common Ground Health Clinic. Common Ground began offering free health services on a street corner in the Algiers section of New Orleans within two weeks of Hurricane Katrina. They moved into the corner storefront pictured above about a year later.

When we arrived Monday morning at the corner of Socrates and Teche, there was already a line out the door. It is a compact, efficient, welcoming environment that provides much-needed health services to an under-served community. The sign on the plywood outside the clinic says it all: "This is solidarity, not charity." (Coincidentally, this was the theme of the Monday night discussion that Terry describes below.)