There’s a sinking feeling inside of me when people like Ray Nagin are given a microphone to speak. It makes my skin crawl when he states that racism was partly to blame for the anemic response to hurricane Katrina. Surely Mr. Nagin knows full well what caused the gridlock of hurricane Katrina - after all he was responsible for many people’s hardships and some peoples deaths in that tragedy.
True to form, Mr. Nagin bellied up to the podium, opened his pie hole and belched out his “pearls of wisdom.” That “tried and true” wisdom that has led Mayor Nagin safely though hurricane Katrina, while leaving his citizens at the mercy of the elements. That “one of a kind” wisdom that can only come from allowing thousands of people, who trusted you to lead them, to be stranded as hundreds of busses became submerged when the waters rose over New Orleans. Who gives an audience to a man whose severe lack of planning, foresight, and execution once jeopardized the lives of thousands of people and taken the lives of others? Yes Mr. Nagin, do “enlighten” America - black as well as white - with your insightful assessment of what really went wrong during the hurricane.
Speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists recently, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said that Katrina "exposed the soft underbelly of America as it relates to dealing with race and class." He further stated that he believed that if Katrina had “happened in Orange County, California, if that would have happened in South Beach, Miami, it would have been a different response.” Perhaps the mayor of Orange County would have used ever means to evacuate his people? Perhaps the mayor South Beach would have had a chain of command and a plan in place before the storm hit?
It never ceases to amaze me how a state run by Democrats for some 40 years can create a virtual welfare state among the majority of its populace, and not assume any responsibility for its people when things go bad. Isn’t the Democratic platform simply to make people as dependant on state or federal largess as possible so their every need is proportionately metered to them by a bureaucrat? If so, then Mr. Nagin should not have only released the fleets of busses to evacuate those who too poverty stricken to flee Hurricane Katrina, he should have personally – out of the kindness of his democratic heart - driven one of those buses full of the poor and downtrodden to safety himself. Yet, once again it wasn’t anything Louisiana did or didn’t do, or anything Mayor Nagin did or didn’t do, it was all the white man or the white government trying to keep the black man down.
According to Mayor Nagin, Louisiana is “being strangled, and they're (the white government) using the money to set local policies to try to take control of the city to do things that they had in mind all along, and that's to shrink the footprint, get a bunch of developers in the city, and try to do things in a different way." He complains that while tens of billions of dollars have been distributed to states affected by Hurricane Katrina that much of that money has gone to developers and contractors. Of course Mayor Nagin does not see the need for developers or contractors in the devastated New Orleans area. It’s not like New Orleans has ever diverted funds earmarked for levee maintenance to build casinos. Besides, everyone knows that Super Nagin himself can build a half dozens two family homes, including drying the foundations with super breath, in a single day. To resent the need for contractors and developers, Mr. Nagin must also be a master electrician, an expert plumber, a civil engineer, a water purifier, and to top it off a demolitionist. Why would contractors and developers receive federal money to rebuild when Super Nagin can do in a tenth of the time (if only the feds would give him the funds)?
Mr. Nagin has shown himself to be nothing more than a charismatic, race baiting, dangerously indecisive novice political opportunist that stood stupefied when his people needed him the most. The simple fact that he himself, by his own words, believes there was nothing wrong with Louisiana, or New Orleans, economically or politically prior to Hurricane Katrina, shows just how poorly the people of New Orleans have chosen their leadership. To be concerned about New Orleans returning as a ‘Chocolate city’ is both asinine and insulting to every American whose contributions and labors have selflessly went into saving those left stranded by Mayor Nagin’s indecision. Yet despite his failure to show leadership and despite his inability to assume responsibility for his actions - or inactions - Mr. Nagin has been re-elected.
America has seen how Mayor Nagin handles high waters for his people. Let’s hope, for his citizen’s sake, that we never have to witness how Mr. Nagin handles hell. After all, the Devil, according to Nagin crony Louis Farrakhan, is a white man.
