{"id":6354,"date":"2006-01-17T09:10:01","date_gmt":"2006-01-17T14:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6354"},"modified":"2006-01-17T09:10:01","modified_gmt":"2006-01-17T14:10:01","slug":"new-orleans-nagin-sees-divine-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/new-orleans-nagin-sees-divine-punishment\/","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans’ Nagin sees divine punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can appreciate that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been under a great deal of pressure the last several months, but by publicly arguing that recent hurricanes are a sign that “God is mad at America<\/a>” and at African-American communities, I’m afraid Nagin is venturing into Pat Robertson-like territory.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nagin went on to say that New Orleans will be a “chocolate” city again, because “it’s the way God wants it to be.” What’s more, he described a recent “conversation” he had Martin Luther King.<\/p>\n

“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.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nagin’s been through a lot since August, and the strain of seeing his hometown severely damaged has no doubt taken a toll. Nevertheless, perhaps now would be a good time for Nagin to say less and think more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can appreciate that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been under a great deal of pressure the last several months, but by publicly arguing that recent hurricanes are a sign that “God is mad at America” and at African-American communities, I’m afraid Nagin is venturing into Pat Robertson-like territory. Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}