[StBernard] New Orleans Went Under--A Black Man's Comments (JNH)]

[Westley Annis]

This all boils down to strong, effective leadership, not only in the black
community of New Orleans, but in the white community of St. Bernard Parish.

Children of the parishes are just that: they need leaders to show them what
they need and must do.

In the case of New Orleans, it boiled down to bad leadership. Mr. Nagin ran
his parish like a Cox Cable executive and NOT a governmental leader. The
results of his bad leadership is obvious and a matter of fact and history.

It's quite easy for blacks to blame whites when in a predicament--much of
what was caused by both bad leadership there and personal decisions by
residents. Like St. Bernard Parish, many in New Orleans chose to "ride out"
the storm, as a result previously of the "Chicken Little Syndrome" of
"getting out of Dodge" by a gunfighter (Katrina) only to have the gunfighter
go to sleep. Nothing happens and much effort is wasted.

No one expected what happened to the levees breaching. Getting caught with
one's pants down--so to say, is embarrassing and hurting enough as to place
the blame game everywhere but with the responsibility of each individual.

Whether a mandatory evacuation was called or not, the handwriting on the
wall prior to Katrina's landfall said it all. It was a bad storm and no one
is immune from its effect, minimal or maximum damage forthcoming.

In all, everyone dropped the ball here. Some more than others, but everyone
did. Whether in hindsight, each evacuee forgot to bring extras or
necessities, leadership, boarding school buses in lieu of Greyhounds,
calling officials, communications needed, evacuating, enough insurance, or
whatever--the end result is clear:

We never knew what hit us.

So, in preparation for the next grave event. Be a Boy/Girl Scout and plan
for the worse, and expect the worse.

--jer--

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Subject: New Orleans Went Under--A Black Man's Comments (JNH)

New Orleans Went Under--A Black Man's Comments

By Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson



Say a hurricane is about to destroy the city you live in. Two questions:

What would you do?

What would you do if you were black?

Sadly, the two questions don't have the same answer.

To the first: Most of us would take our families out of that city quickly to
protect them from danger. Then, able-bodied men would ret urn to help others
in need, as wives and others cared for children, elderly, infirm and the
like.

For better or worse, Hurricane Katrina has told us the answer to the second
question. If you're black and a hurricane is about to destroy your city,
you'll probably wait for the government to save you.

This was not always the case. Prior to 40 years ago, such a pathetic
performance by the black community in a time of crisis would have been
inconceivable. The first response would have come from black men. They would
take care of their families, bring them to safety, and then help the rest of
the community. Then local government would come in.

No longer. When 75 percent of New Orleans residents had left the city, it
was primarily immoral, welfare-pampered blacks that stayed behind and waited
for the government to bail them out. This, as we know, did not turn out good
results.

Enter Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. Jackson and Farrakhan laid blame on
"racist" President Bush. Farrakhan actually proposed the idea that the
government blew up a levee so as to kill blacks and save whites. The two
demanded massive governmental spending to rebuild New Orleans, above and
beyond the federal government's proposed $60 billion. Not only that, these
two were positioning themselves as the gatekeepers to supervise the
dispersion of funds. Perfect: Two of the most dishonest elite blacks in
America, "overseeing" billions of dollars. I wonder where that money will
end up.

Of course, if these two were really serious about laying blame on
government, they should blame the local one. Responsibility to perform
legally and practically fell first on the mayor of New Orleans. We are now
all familiar with Mayor Ray Nagin the black who likes to yell at President
Bush for failing to do Nagin's job. The facts, unfortunately, do not support
Nagin's wailing. As the Washington Times puts it, "recent reports show
[Nagin] failed to follow through on his own city's emergency-response plan,
which acknowledged that thousands of the city's poorest residents would have
no way to evacuate the city."

One wonders how there was "no way" for these people to evacuate the city. We
have photographic evidence telling us otherwise. You've probably seen it by
now the photo showing 2,000 parked school buses, unused and underwater. How
much planning does it require to put people on a bus and leave town, Mayor
Nagin?

Instead of doing the obvious, Mayor Nagin (with no positive contribution
from Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the other major leader vested with responsibility
to address the hurricane disaster) loaded remaining new Orleans residents
into the Superdome and the city's convention center. We know how that plan
turned out.

About five years ago, in a debate before the National Association of Black
Journalists, I stated that if whites were to just leave the United States
and let blacks run the country, they would turn America into a ghetto within
10 years. The audience, shall we say, disagreed with me strongly. Now I have
to disagree with me. I gave blacks too much credit. It took a mere three
days for blacks to turn the Superdome and the convention center into
ghettos, rampant with theft, rape and murder.

President Bush is not to blame for the rampant immorality of blacks. Had New
Orleans' black community taken action, most would have been out of harm's
way. But most were too lazy, immoral and trifling to do anything productive
for themselves.

All Americans must tell blacks this truth. It was blacks' moral poverty not
their material poverty that cost them dearly in New Orleans. Farrakhan,
Jackson, and other race hustlers are to be repudiated for they will only
perpetuate this problem by stirring up hatred and applauding moral
corruption. New Orleans, to the extent it is to be rebuilt, should be remade
into a dependency-free, morally strong city where corruption is opposed and
success is applauded. Blacks are obligated to help themselves and not depend
on the government to care for them. We are all obligated to tell them so.

The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is founder and president of BOND, the
Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny, and author of "Scam: How the
Black Leadership Exploits Black America."

You are asked to keep  this moving,,,,,,however, you now have the
information so do with it as you will. 

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ht for it, life has a special flavor the protected will never know..."
-found written on a C ration can in Vietnam.