Moral poverty cost blacks in New Orleans
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 return 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
Democrat 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 Democratic 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
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 intoa 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."