Monday, January 16, 2006
I don't believe that there's no place for religion in politics, as long as it's as a basis for general principles. But with a few exceptions ( some conservatives on abortion, I respect the pro-life position, I don't agree with it, some liberals on the death penalty) if you try to claim that god has an opinion on most specific details you sound either nutty or insincere. Or both, like Pat Robertson. So which was Nagin today? Or to put it another way, do you think the fact that his main opponents are white had anything to with his statements today?
-- the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans, This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans.
I know, some might consider me a little suspect after my NIMBY posts, but get real. His speech would have been totally different if he had needed white support against black opposition. For the record, I think the city will be majority black again and I have no problem with that. I'd also hate to see a white mayor elected in a potentially divisive manner. I don't care if the city ends up with a black mayor or white mayor; right now, I'm in the anyone but Nagin or Wilson Camp.
But this was ridiculous. N.O. wasn't N.O. until the seventies? God wanted all the vanilla people to move to the suburbs? It took God 200 yrs to work his will with regard to New Orleans? Yeah, it's uncomfortable territory for a white liberal, but if you're going to be quiet when a Nagin claims to know the will of God, don't you give up the right to object to a Robertson claiming to know the will of God?
Of course, I do have a personal prejudice against Nagin. It's not racial though, I'm prejudice against bosses who layoff workers without doing everything possible to save those jobs. He couldn't have saved my job (I was too far down the totem pole), but he could have saved more jobs than he did.
-- the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans, This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans.
I know, some might consider me a little suspect after my NIMBY posts, but get real. His speech would have been totally different if he had needed white support against black opposition. For the record, I think the city will be majority black again and I have no problem with that. I'd also hate to see a white mayor elected in a potentially divisive manner. I don't care if the city ends up with a black mayor or white mayor; right now, I'm in the anyone but Nagin or Wilson Camp.
But this was ridiculous. N.O. wasn't N.O. until the seventies? God wanted all the vanilla people to move to the suburbs? It took God 200 yrs to work his will with regard to New Orleans? Yeah, it's uncomfortable territory for a white liberal, but if you're going to be quiet when a Nagin claims to know the will of God, don't you give up the right to object to a Robertson claiming to know the will of God?
Of course, I do have a personal prejudice against Nagin. It's not racial though, I'm prejudice against bosses who layoff workers without doing everything possible to save those jobs. He couldn't have saved my job (I was too far down the totem pole), but he could have saved more jobs than he did.
