An Acadiana group held a brake light clinic today, but it was about more that auto parts.
The Democratic Socialists of America, Southwestern Louisiana chapter, set up the clinic at the corner of Evangeline Thruway and Louisiana Avenue. Anybody who needed a brake light fixed could just pull over and get some help doing it.
This was the first of what the local group hopes will be regular clinics. Stephen Price, a member of the New Orleans chapter, said his group was there to help.
"We're helping them with their first brake light clinic. We've had a couple in New Orleans and they've been very successful," Price said. "They're about public safety, but more than just that. It's an economic issue, because when you get pulled over for a brake light, that ticket is expensive. And if you can't pay it, it snowballs."
Price says it's not charity, it's just "regular folks helping regular folks."
It's also a way the group hopes to spread the idea of democracy in a non-political way.
"Our organization is about extending democracy into as many spheres of life as we can, not just the political, but also the economic," Price explained. "One of the things we hope people can do is take charge of their lives and exert some power over their communities in a way that maybe the system as it exists doesn't let them do right now."
Price says it's not a new concept for Acadiana.
"This part of the country is no stranger to hard times right? When disasters happen people come together and they help each other out. This is just bringing some of that spirit into everyday life, that's the big thing we want people to take away from it," he said.
