NEW YORK, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- In a guest essay, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) says that this week's images from New Orleans remind him of his 1992 trip to Somalia. "I've cried a lot of tears the past few days as I watched television -- to see somebody lying dead outside the convention center," he writes in the September 12 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, September 5). "But this is America. We're not a Third World country. This is an embarrassment. It's a shame. It's a national disgrace."

Lewis disagrees with President Bush's proposed method of fund-raising for the relief effort. "It's so strange that when we have something like this happening, the president gets two ex-presidents -- his father and Bill Clinton -- to raise money. What they propose to do is good and I appreciate all the work the private sector and the faith-based community is doing. But when we get ready to go to war, we don't go around soliciting resources with a bucket or an offering plate. We have the courage to come before Congress and debate the issue, authorize money," he writes. "If we fail to act as a nation, I don't think history will be kind to us."

Lewis also says we've got to do more than the $10 billion Congress appropriated. "We need a massive Marshall-type plan to rebuild New Orleans. But in rebuilding we should see this as an opportunity to rebuild urban America. New Orleans could be a model," he writes. "I think even in other urban centers, there are people who are just barely existing. We sing the song 'Hope is on the way,' but it's taking a long time before hope arrives." (Read Lewis' entire essay at http://www.Newsweek.com)