God Is Mad At America

[pooh74]

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I frankly think that Nagin suffered some sort of breakdown in the week after the storm and hasn't made a lick of sense since. He has been floating ridiculous ideas one day and taking them back the next. He advocates one thing today and the opposite tomorrow. Each time Nagin says something odd, Oliver Thomas steps in and says something reasonably coherent. Olover Thomas is obviously looking to get Ray's job, and if he actually steps up and provides some leadership he may deserve it.

But all of this is taking place in a poisonous atmosphere of racial hysteria and paranoia. Certain loudmouths in Lakeview (which is almost 100% white and is 100% destroyed) have been crowing about how New Orleans will go back to being the white majority city of their childhoods--and if it doesn't Lakeview should secede. Meantime the Urban Land Institute (carpetbaggers) and the Bring Back New Orleans committee (non-carpetbaggers) have been advocating that the flooded areas be abandoned (80% of the city), and this has gotten all the flooded property owners in a tizzy, especially the black property owners in the Lower Ninth Ward. Because those properties have been handed down for generations, they were not mortgaged and didn't have flood insurance. Therefore their occupants cannot come back unless they have significantly more help than they are getting--which isn't likely as things stand. SO they are hysterical. Meantime Nagin put Joe Canizaro, a major developer, in charge of the land use planning, seen by one and all as akin to hiring Mr. Fox to guard the chicken condominiums. Everyone, including me, sees hidden agendas and ulterior motives everywhere. After 25 years in New Orleans, I have no doubt whatsoever that some folks are maneuvering to take bigtime financial advantage of people with distressed property. It is beyond clear that if the recommendations of the BBNO are enacted, the deck is stacked against poor African-American owners and renters. There have been, for example, no efforts made to reopen public housing even where units are said to be habitable. The trailer fuss is based on concern that poor blacks will live in the trailers near more affluent people (black and white). Each of the planning districts has been charged with coming up (on their own) with a plan to redevelop a viable nighborhood with a May deadline. Lakeview perhaps has the human and financial resources to do this, but the Lower Ninth does not. Any neighborhood which is not deemed viable in that time has been threatened with abandonment. The BBNO has called for a 4-month moratorium on building permits, while Nagin has been urging people to run and get the permits while they still can (before FEMA raises the base flood elevations). So that's the context--Nagin is trying to assuage the fears of his scattered African-American constituents and assure them that New Orleans will still be a black-majority city with the political power still in their/his hands. But he sure put his foot in it.

As for the God remarks, New Orleans African-Americans are highly devout, whether they be creole Catholics like Nagin or American Protestants, and they do believe that they are sinners in the hands of an angry God. But that type of thinking does not belong in the political arena, and Nagin has apologized for it. In New Orleans the barrier between Church and State is, well, permeable, too permeable IMO.

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good post!

[vulturesrow]

LOL,

Good post. Ive really enjoyed your posts on the situation in New Orleans. Please keep the information coming.

[LittleOldLady]

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LOL,

Good post. Ive really enjoyed your posts on the situation in New Orleans. Please keep the information coming.

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Not to defend Ray Nagin who made a fool of himself and stirred a pot that didn't need stirring, but to explain the situation a little more thoroughly--

A friend of mine yesterday used the term "post-traumatic stress syndrome," and I think it applies. All the New Orleanians I have been in touch with, at home and in the diaspora, feel that what we are seeing with Nagin is some sort of psychological breakdown precipitated by that horrible week when people were on their roofs and in the Superdome and Convention Center. Nagin was always a bit of a shoot-from-the-hip guy, but he didn't get to be a highly successful businessman by being an outright fool. I would put Aaron Broussard of Jefferson Parish in the same category. He was always a bit, well, eccentric, but not the emotional basket case he has been after the storm.

I can tell you that mental health problems are cropping up in my acquaintance. I have a friend who has been the personification of pluck--she has been through the removal of both breasts for cancer without batting an eye. But she didn't evacuate when her friends begged, spent a week alone in the dark after the storm, and was rescued by helicopter just when a looter was shooting his way from house to house down her block. A self-described bookish spinster, she bought herself a big-ass pickup truck, but is afraid to drive because the street lights aren't working. She called me the other night to tell me that she is unable to bring herself to get out of bed. I told her flatly that she needs some professional help. Another friend has developed obsessive-compulsive symptoms and keeps returning to her ruined house IN BARE FEET (houses that haven't been emptied and gutted still have deep layers of toxic mud). My best friend who is the most laidback person on the planet has reported feelings of suicidal depression (and he did not lose his house). Others are reporting inability to concentrate, anxiety, raw nerves, and other symptoms of emotional distress. I myself am experiencing what I would describe as an emotional paralysis.

So I don't really blame Nagin, and he is certainly not stupid. But we need people in leadership positions who came through this ordeal in better mental shape. Oliver Thomas is certainly trying to demonstrate that he is such a person and is having some success.

This mess is unprecedented in the history of the United States, and I don't think that the rest of the country really has a grasp of the scope of the problem. Yesterday I spent yet another day on the phone with insurance. I had a violin as a scheduled valuable item on my homeowners policy. While the homeowners policy does not cover flood, scheduled items are covered for all risks. I brought this to my adjuster's attention several times (when I could get in touch with him), but he didn't pay me for the violin--which he unquestionably should have (nothing made of wood and glue could or did survive being under ten feet of water for weeks). So I called my agent (which in this case happens to be another major insurance company) and asked to file a complaint, and the woman I spoke toi asked me for a receipt for the violin. Has she lost her mind??? A receipt for a transaction that took place over a decade ago would have survived sitting in 10 feet of water? Even the documents in the safe deposit box didn't survive. Get a clue, lady.

Eighty per cent of New Orleans still looks like the backside of the moon. The people living in the "good" part of town are living without infrastructure. The half-million or so of us wherever we are are all suffering emotionally, and Ray Nagin is no different. There is supposed to be a mayoral election next month which would probably relieve him of his misery if it were to be held. Unfortuunately it has been postponed indefinitely while they try to figure out how to be sure we all have the opportunity to exercise our franchise....

[hetron]

Of course it was stupid. Of course he deserves criticism.

The difference between Nagin and Robertson/Falwell is that, a. Nagin realized how stupid his comments were and has already apologized, b. Falwell/Robertson have a lifetime worth of moronic comments, Nagin would have to have a lot more diarrhea of the mouth to catch up with them.

[JackWhite]

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Of course it was stupid. Of course he deserves criticism.

The difference between Nagin and Robertson/Falwell is that, a. Nagin realized how stupid his comments were and has already apologized, b. Falwell/Robertson have a lifetime worth of moronic comments, Nagin would have to have a lot more diarrhea of the mouth to catch up with them.


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True, but there is another difference that I find more important: Fallwell/Robertson have never been elected dog catcher. They are basically infomercial stars. Nagin is the mayor of a large American city with power and influence over the lives of hundreds of thousands. I think it is worse when an important elected official says something stupid then when a tv preacher does.

[hetron]

People are allowed to say stupid things off-the-cuff. I do, you do, I am sure we all do. What is most important to me is whether his policies dictate that he is truly nuts, or whether his comments were merely that, comments.

I guarantee you if Falwell or Robertson were ever elected, the policies they would try to institute would be highly indicative of many of their outrageous statements.

[QuadsOverQuads]

Ok, let's decode this for the slow readers.

What he means is :

"See that black man? I think he's a racist! Therefore, black people are racist and racism is really just a 'black problem'."

Any questions?


q/q