Let’s Pretend Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco were White Men
By Mary Mostert (09/30/05)
This morning among my e-mails I received one talking about the media reports of what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina as “the worst reporting in the history of American media” and another e-mail from a South African reader demanding an apology for my article The Tale of Two Cities: New Orleans and Houston.
I have received a number of e-mails from people who tell me my response to the worst reporting in the history of American media” was “heartless” and “cruel” to the people of New Orleans, 67% of whom are black people. As the South African put it this morning:
“I note that you have written at length about the 'anarchy' in New Orleans, attempting to connect it to the moral decadence of its citizens, as if they somehow deserved it. I find not an iota of compassion in your writing. You strike me as an utterly heartless person.
“It now turns out that you have willingly swallowed falsehoods and are regurgitating them uncritically on several websites. I would suggest that the people you have publicly maligned - people who have lost everything - deserve some sort of apology from you.”
This fellow obviously does not know the definition of “anarchy.” According to the dictionary anarchy is a word that means: 1. the state of a society without government or law or 2. political and social disorder due to the absence of governmental control... That perfectly describes the situation in New Orleans within hours of the hurricane hitting the city.
It was on September 1st that Mayor Ralph Nagin ordered the city’s 1500 police, to stop search and rescue efforts and instead to address the looting that was going on. However, almost 1/3 of the police never showed up for work during the emergency and some of them that did show up are now accused of looting stores themselves. On September 5th Nagin announced on NBC News that the death toll from the hurricane would be “10,000 people” and when that wildly inaccurate figure turned out to be 200 dead bodies actually found by September 12, Nagin announced the low count was “part of a White House campaign to prevent black people from getting what they deserve. We were on track to have the most horrifying natural disaster in America's history," said the mayor, "but Bush knew that would generate huge compassion and lots of cash flowing to this predominantly-black community.
"Follow the money," Nagin said, “Low body count r. means less federal aid and less redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor black folks of my city. You don't have to be a cable guy to figure out that this benefits George Bush and his rich cronies."
When asked why he left school buses and regional buses sit in their depots rather than sending them out to take the poor and handicapped people out of the city in the days before Katrina hit, as the city emergency plan dictated, Nagin said it was because Bush had not given the city the money to do so. So, all those buses sat there, empty, and are now a total loss because they ended up under water. Now the rest of us are supposed to be sending Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco billions of dollars so they can redistribute your wealth.
As for the charge that New Orleans was in a state of anarchy, the first time I read that was on the liberal Democrat website MoveOn.com which announced on August 31st that looting started the DAY the Katrina hit and within hours there was “anarchy” – which, of course, was obvious based on statements Nagin and Blanco were making to somehow create a political situation that would translate into billions of dollars in federal money they would get to spend while covering up their own incompetence that created the anarchy.
So, here we are, with $62 billion already passed by Congress to alleviate the suffering of Gulf Coast Hurricane victims and $1.4 billion contributed individually by individual Americans to citizen organizations helping Katrina victims.
The major question being tossed around in think tanks now is: Should the dysfunctional New Orleans be rebuilt at Federal taxpayer expense, especially with a dysfunctional mayor and governor still in charge of the money? Some have pointed out that the breeched levees, after DAYS of warning the hurricane was coming, destroyed the city and caused over 1000 deaths to those who failed to leave. What would happen to the city if, after being rebuilt, there was a terrorist attack that opened up a hole in the levees –with NO warning? How many would be killed –especially if they had to wait for the federal government to bring in the buses because local authorities failed to do anything to save either the people or the buses?
Before hurricane Katrina, in a city of less than 500,000 people, there were 20,000 public housing units, occupied by many people who did not have paying jobs. Does it really make any sense at all to spend a couple of billion dollars of our tax money to rebuild public housing beneath those vulnerable levees? It won’t cost billions of dollars to rebuild the port facilities and housing needed for those who work there. Why build housing for unemployed people below the levees?
In 2004 New Orleans had a poverty rate of 23%, double the national average. After Rita flooded the city the second time within a month, according to Governor Blanco now one third of New Orleans’economy has been destroyed. IF there is an economic viability and need for the city, then by all means re-build it. But – not with public housing and rampant socialism. Rebuild it as a viable city, not a welfare community. .
Put another way, if, as our Declaration of Independence says, we are all created equals, let’s pretend for a minute that the incompetent mayor and governor were white men, instead of being black and female. If they were white men, how long would it take the media and my South African reader would be demanding that they resign for incompetence or be impeached for the anarchy instigated in what appears to be a deliberate political extortion ploy. Apparently they thought by accusing the President of "racism" the Republican Congress would give them hush money. I think they may have overplayed their hand.
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