Do you agree with Ray Nagin: Ground Zero is still a hole in the ground?

[Stinky The Clown]

So here we go again. Mayor Ray is not one to avoid controversy. Whether by design or serendipity, there he is again, pissing off the pisser-offers.

Do you think he was off base to suggest that New York's not having done a whole hell of a lot with the Ground Zero site is reason enough to stop carping about Nagin's (lack of) progress in NoLa?

By any reasonable measure, it would seem to me the rebuilding of NoLa is a significantly bigger undertaking.

In your view, was Nagin's recent (and yet to be aired) comment on 60 Minutes as big and bad a thing as some would have us believe?

[SaveElmer]

1. I understand his frustration...

With critics from places that have never experienced anything like the magnitude of Katrina berating New orleans, I can understand why Nagin would lash out.

[Ignacio Upton]

2. Nothing is happening in NOLA

but nothing is happening at the WTC Site. The rebuilding process in both places is flawed and aimless.

[Totally Committed]

3. Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin has no right to criticize ANYONE...

He's been inconsistent, at best, and ineffective at least. He needs to stop giving the racists on the other side a reason to point to him and say how ungrateful he is and what an ignoramous he sounds like.

Anyone else think he needs to be more politic about what comes out of his mouth??? -- Especially before NOLA is rebuilt? I do.

TC

[mrreowwr_kittty]

6. I'm troubled by one statement you made

He is NOT giving racists a reason to do anything. Bigots will be bigots no matter how the targets of their hatred act. Being a "credit to your race" or "a good girl" or "one of those gays that doesn't throw it up in your face" will NOT make the hate go away.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. LOL.

Yeah, those racists sure are right about Nagin, aren't they?

:eyes:

[Junkdrawer]

4. Other: His quote is being taken out of context:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1983409&mesg_id=1983437

[dogman]

5. It was an idiot statement.

But those are the statements idiots make. Really I think it's, who cares what he said. The situations are nothing alike. It reminds me of the phony e-mail about the superiority of Dakotans over Louisianans because of how they dealt with a blizzard. I really was surprised that N.O. re-elected that incompetent.

[skipos]

7. Saying it that way doesn't help the cause at all. nt

[Mnemosyne]

8. It's a crime scene. n/t

[sandnsea]

10. Tacky way to say it, but I agree

I've actually considered ground zero just another failure by our leadership, it's embarrassing to me that it's 5 years later and we really haven't started on whatever it is that's going to go in there. People wonder why the levees weren't finished, same shit. People couldn't get together and decide the best way to manage the water in New Orleans and the wetlands. Politics and corporate interests conflict, nobody tells the truth, nobody will be reasonable. You can look anywhere and see it, the big dig, Iraq rebuilding, Afghanistan. Same as with ground zero, it's very sad. The disrespect to those who lost their lives, the unwillingness to come together and be reasonable. I don't blame Nagin for pointing it out, there's plenty of economic games going on in New Orleans too and he damned well knows it. How dare people single out New Orleans as if we're doing a better job anywhere else in the country. We're a nation on a serious decline.

[snowbear]

11. Even Brian Williams, NBC, said a LOT of NY'ers agree w / Nagin...

And when you hear Nagin in the conversation when he says it, it's easy to agree that it really was no big deal.

His comment will have a short shelf life.

Nobody will be talking about it tomorrow. :shrug:

[beltanefauve]

12. Got to object

to the use of the term, "Ground Zero". This is a 1950's term to describe the aftereffects of a nuclear holocaust. The Neocons have taken this term and have used it as a fear mongering tool to manipulate the "greatest generation" into supporting the "War on Terror"and all the right-wing propoganda that goes along with it.