I Voted for him twice

I think this was a very good speech by Ray. I will admit that I jumped on the band wagon with a lot of people who have criticized the Mayor since his re election in April. However, after hearing his speech I think that I was not fair in the criticism. Mayor Nagin may not be rolling up his sleeves and rebuilding the lower9th or Lakeview moldy piece of wood by wood, but he is out there on the road, promoting our city and trying to get the desperately needed tourism dollars back.

The city council should be responsible for implementing the plan (whatever that is) And Nagin should be out there doing exactly as he is doing. I am sure that as non politicians it is very easy for us to crucify a person without having all of the facts straight. The bottom line is that if we want positive change, we must be proactive, not reactive about the mayor or crime or mold. Being negative is not going to make anything positive.

As to the issue of racism, I agree with Nagin’s comments to a large extent. The Katrina aftermath would have been handled much differently if it happened in South Beach or in Orange County. However I think the racism was not about not wanting to help black people, but not wanting to help New Orleans in general.

I will concede that as New Orleans was 70-75% black that does give you a cause for pause. I think the general public opinion was, “Well you knew that this could happen so what are you complaining about now that it has?” “Why are you stupid people living below sea level in a place that has hurricanes?”

I am sure that we are not finished with catastrophic events occurring in our country. It will be interesting to see if anything was learned by Katrina. For your sake, I hope it has. Never think that this could not happen to you.

Listen to the speech – and learn a bit about what is really going on down here.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin addresses the National Association of Black Journalists
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin blames racism and government bureaucracy for hamstringing his city's ability to recover from Hurricane Katrina.


Mayor Nagin and City Council member's :

GIVE OUR FIRE FIGHTERS A BIG RAISE!!!!

$8.00 IS NOT ENOUGH

$9:00 IS INSULTING

give them

$15 starting /hour