Nagin "criticizes" WTC recovery. Who thinks this is nonsense?

[Brotherjohn]

So 60 Minutes points out abandoned (formerly submerged) cars still sitting on the streets of N.O., and Nagin responds: "You guys in New York can't get a hole in the ground fixed, and it's five years later. So let's be fair." http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-08-25-nagin-remarks_x.htm

I mean, Nagin can certainly speak "off the cuff", as it were. But this is nothing compared to "Chocalate City", and even THAT was a tempest in a teapot. But you can bet it'll be all anyone remembers from the interview (thanks to stories like this).

First of all, I don't think it was even a "criticism". It was more like a comparison (thus the "so let's be fair" part). He's speaking to a reporter based in NY (as 60 Minutes is, I believe), and was obviously making the point that, compared to what Katrina did to N.O., the WTC WAS, basically, a "hole in the ground". (lives lost aside, of course, as they were talking about the rebuilding aspect).

Nagin, I think, is rightfully indignant at criticism locals receive for the rebuilding in N.O., especially considering it has basically taken 5 years to convert a few square blocks of lower Manhattan to a cleaned-up, ready for construction, "hole in the ground". I've read that the area of New Orleans flooded (for weeks) by the levee breaches was SEVEN TIMES the size of the entire island of Manhattan.

Love him or hate him, Nagin was merely illustrating that the job in N.O. is much more vast than most people (including 60 Minutes reporters) seem to grasp. People need to realize that.

[ShortnFiery]

1. It's been taken out of context ...

Anything that old Rove-Co. can get their nasty twisted spin on will work for these racists freaks. Too bad that they could not "buy off" the Mayoral Election. However, these evil bastards never give up when they've been crossed. Nagin knows the score and will react appropriately. :puke:

[Junkdrawer]

2. Kinda like "If it's fair to criticize me on NO, it's fair to criticize NYC

on the World Trade Center." So, of course the Republican/Corporate Media pushes it as "Nagin criticizes WTC recovery."

[babylonsister]

3. When I first heard Nagin's remarks, I took it as a slam against

the federal government for their pattern of dragging their feet, starting with 9/11. But I didn't hear the story in its entirety, just snips as the media whores are good at doing.

[merh]

4. The engineer sent by my insurance company to inspect the

damage, to determine if it was wind or flood, was a New Yorker who had worked in NYC on 9/11 - he had also been an engineer that had been assigned to the WTC inspection team.

The WTC had affected him so much he moved to Florida and was working on the hurricane inspections, has been for the last 3 or 4 years since the WTC.

Any way, he was standing with me on my front porch, all that was left of my house (with the exception of the rubble in the yard and the street) and I was pointing out to him the twisted trees and the path of the winds/tornado that took my house. He had just gotten through walking my lot and around the neighborhood, taking in the extent of the damage, the wiped out neighborhood.

He looked geniunely sad and he stood there on the porch with me for a few quiet moments, then, while still staring at the debris of my home, he volunteered the fact that he had been at the WTC. He went on to say that, yes, 9/11 was bad, but the magnitude of Katrina, the vastness of the damage, the miles of destruction and devastation, made the WTC look so small. He was visiably overwhelmed and shaken.

So what Nagin said is in line with reality. He makes a good point and folks need to appreciate and understand that the level of the devastation and the magnitude of the damage and loss in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are so much greater than the WTC. Both events are tragedies, both have left their impression on the heart of this nation and are wounds that we must heal. The neglect of the Katrina wound has gone on long enough, the little band aids aren't doing much to cover the wound let alone help in the healing, imho.

[babylonsister]

9. merh! How are you?

Long time, no see. Your post is very touching. :hug:

[merh]

11. I'm tired and things are the same as they were

and now another tropical storm is headed into the gulf and we could be facing another hurricane and I have to figure out how to pack all that I have accumulated in this trailer to take with me, cause it won't survive a storm.

:shrug:

Whatcha gonna do?

[Generic Other]

10. Nagin bluntness is refreshing

nO ONE BATS AN EYELASH WHEN gUILLIANI OR bUSH evokes the memory of 9/11 to justify their warmongering. Nagin would have been praised if he had used Katrina to advance the right's fucking fascist agenda. Good for him for reminding Americans how little has been done for both NYC and NOLA.

[merh]

12. The friggin media distorts what he says

and folks don't get it.

Yeah, the WTC was horrible, tragic and should never be forgotten, but the land mass, the lives broken and ruined, the entire neighborhoods and communities wiped out and changed forever, have made Katrina a "larger" tragedy that just happened a year ago. It will a very, very long time to recover and for some though they physically are restored, they may never fully recover.

Katrina fatigue has blinded the nation, imagine what it has done to the survivors. :(

[stepnw1f]

5. Much about Nothing at all

I don't see anything wrong with what he said...


Slick how they took his statement out of context... AGAIN!

[onethatcares]

6. and the WTC was insured,

how much is the government kicking in to pay for the reconstruction?

[annabanana]

7. Media Distract-o-thon

Designed to gin up phony "my tragedy is more tragic than your tragedy" to avoid taking a good hard look at the continuing disaster that is the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast.


see earlier post:http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1980119

[lies and propaganda]

8. i think its a fair comment

Dont throw stones, you know?