board77

New Orleans Mayor Says God Mad at U.S.
Jan 16 9:44 PM US/Eastern

By BRETT MARTEL
Associated Press Writer


NEW ORLEANS


Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that "God is mad at America" and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting.

"Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country," Nagin, who is black, said as he and other city leaders marked Martin Luther King Day.



"Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves."

Nagin also promised that New Orleans will be a "chocolate" city again. Many of the city's black neighborhoods were heavily damaged by Katrina.

"It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans _ the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," the mayor said. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

Nagin described an imaginary conversation with King, the late civil rights leader.

"I said, `What is it going to take for us to move on and live your dream and make it a reality?' He said, `I don't think that we need to pay attention any more as much about other folks and racists on the other side.' He said, `The thing we need to focus on as a community _ black folks I'm talking about _ is ourselves.'"

Nagin said he also asked: "Why is black-on-black crime such an issue? Why do our young men hate each other so much that they look their brother in the face and they will take a gun and kill him in cold blood?"

The reply, Nagin said, was: "We as a people need to fix ourselves first."

Nagin also said King would have been dismayed with black leaders who are "most of the time tearing each other down publicly for the delight of many."

A day earlier, gunfire erupted at a parade to commemorate King's birthday. Three people were wounded in the daylight shooting amid a throng of mostly black spectators, but police said there were no immediate suspects or witnesses.

This is being discussed somewhere else...maybe HOF

Anyway I posted there...and SF you will appreciate this, has he ever been to Detroit?

Well; the ancient Chinese certainly would have viewed recent events as evidence that the mandade of heaven had been withdrawn.

(that's my attempt at coming up with a nice response)

I have a dream. A dream that one day our political leaders no longer need call upon the will of God to back up their contradictory political agendas. I have a dream that one day even the state of Louisiana, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of dishonesty and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of integrity and consistency. I have a dream that my future children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the name of their God but by the content of character. I have a dream today.

When Mayor Nagin begins to publicly wash the dirty laundry of the Black Community by daring to bring up such things as black-on-black crime and advocating a more introspective look , he has one foot in the political grave. The Mayor did not learn the lesson of the humble ostrich.

What a turkey. There sure are a lot of turkeys in politics.

Remember MariaHobbit's turkeys? That's all you need to know about turkeys!

Where does this man's fault lie?
Is it that he is saying to his community that a New Orleans without a big black community is unimaginable. Given the importance of New Orleans in the black cultural history of the US and even the whole of Western culture for that matter that seems a fair point. Is it that he used the term chocolate? He's allowed figures of speech surely; it didn't seem disrespectful. Is it that he is scolding his community for crime? All politicians raise crime as an issue.
Is it that he is using God and Martin Luther King to back up his statements? He's hardly the first American politician to do that, however deplorable that is intellectually. God seems to be best mates with all US politicians.

Quote:

A dream that one day our political leaders no longer need call upon the will of God to back up their contradictory political agendas.

Ah but its worked for all of humanity....why change now?

And its not just our political leaders....hey the Roman Empire changed religions to keep itself going. What a better way to contain an Empire than becoming the head of state for the main religion.

God doesn't want gays to get married, if you allow it God will destroy the US. meh...maybe God did want gays to be able to get married, thinking back now, why he picked New Orleans to devistate because of it I don't know.

Tosh
for my part, the one thing that Nagin did which will get him in trouble is saying

Quote:

"We as a people need to fix ourselves first."

People do not like to look at the three fingers pointing back at themselves when they have grown accustomed to only focusing on the one pointing at the bad guy who they blame for their misfortune.

I am not saying Nagin is wrong. I think he is right. Just that some of the very people he is speaking to will not be receptive to his frankness and honesty.

SF,

I agree. Look at the trouble Bill Cosby got into by saying what he said about the young black inner city culture. I have often thought, that is not the dream MLK was talking about. I think if Nagin actually wants to do some good it will take him and other black leaders to look hard in the mirror and say what can I and we as the black community make things better as a whole. How do we go about changing the 'gangsta rap' mentality that holds the black communities down and how do we get passed the ideas that education is not a good thing, that selling drugs is a viable form of living, that gangs are better than families. This could apply to all of America, by the way, not just the black communities.

Most voters are comfortable with politicians railing against crime providing they don't have to do anything themselves. To take an example motorists will cheer on anyone cracking down on car theft, drunk driving or agressive drivers but are in two minds if the law makes them keep to speed limits or stops them from parking where they will. Nagin will have either judged his community well or not, time will tell. Poor people are not generally in favour of crime, they are usually the chief victims of it.

Tosh
time will tell.
It looks to me that Nagin went beyond the traditional comments urging a reduction in crime. He made a point of saying several things that taken together may not sit well with his core voters.

Quote:

I don't think that we need to pay attention any more as much about other folks and racists on the other side.' He said, `The thing we need to focus on as a community _ black folks I'm talking about _ is ourselves.'"

There is a segment of the Black community that does not take well to anyone dismissing racism or racists. Strike one.

Then he adds strike two.

Quote:

"Why is black-on-black crime such an issue? Why do our young men hate each other so much that they look their brother in the face and they will take a gun and kill him in cold blood?"

Some in the Black community will take this as a much too public airing of dirty laundry much as they were angry at Cosby for his efforts.

Then Nagin adds strike three

Quote:

"We as a people need to fix ourselves first."

When you are conditioned through a lifetime of "woe is me - everyone hates me and is holding me down", tought talk like "we need to fix ourselves first" are not welcome by a section of the community.

Racial politics have rules and a life all of their own.

God didn't punish New Orleans, Mother Nature did! It's when we forget about her that she rears her powerful head. It was just time for New Orleans to fall, it's as simple as that. Black, white, yellow, red, green, blue or purple skin has nothing to do with it.

It's one thing to speak to your community about rebuilding its image it's another to pretend that you are being oppressed and punished by a higher power because of skin color, and because you are ashamed of how your culuture is treating one another. Stop hiding behind silly metaphors and just say "Hey brothers and sisters stop shooting one another".

Katrina and Rita were not acts of God, they were an acts of nature.

Mary I agree, but building a city below sea level...thats an act of stupid engineering.

I dont think the hurricane as an act of god. I do however think that planning a city below sea level with a lake on one side and the ocean on the other....recipe for this to happen. Pure poor engineering and planning is what happened in NO, not an act of god.

On Tuesday, Mayor Nagin issued a profuse apology for his remarks.

Perhaps human stupidity is an act of god.

Interesting audio program I came across today on the subject of cities and natural disasters:
BBC News

The focus is on the possibility of earthquakes in southern California, but this is framed as part of a broader context:

Quote:

In mature countries in the old civilisations of Asia, Europe and Africa, the big cities are, by and large, where they ought to be. So London, Paris, Cairo, Beijing, Moscow, all thousands of years old, are all in seismically stable places untroubled by terrible weather. But by the same token these ancient countries are littered with the ruins of cities built where they ought not to have been built - Pompeii, Petra, Ayutthaya in Thailand, Heliopolis. As tourists we cluster around these ruins, in awe. Ruins are part of our cultural inheritance, important for the perspective that they bring, reminders of our impermanence.

But America is a country without any ruins. Maybe the odd ghost-town in Utah and Nevada, but basically no ruined cities. The country is young enough to have set down its cities wherever it pleases...Which prompts me to wonder out loud whether - if one can imagine a map of America drawn up, say, two centuries from now - whether there may in fact be a litter of abandoned and ruined cities. New Orleans, for example. It is a little eccentric to create a city on a swamp, six metres below sea-level, between a river and a lake, in a part of the world afflicted by near-constant summer hurricanes. Might this not, one day, be abandoned to the elements? And what of Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, even? There is no water there. And there is no great world tradition of building cities to last in the middle of deserts. So Phoenix may go the way of Petra, though it is a little difficult to imagine its ruins attracting quite so many tourists. And then what of San Francisco?