I recently had a conversation with a colleague that felt personally offended by Mayor Ray Nagin's(New Orleans) ground zero "hole in the ground" remarks. For those unfamiliar with Nagin's comments, he essentially was responding to criticism (from New Yorkers in this instance) regarding the perceived stagnation of the rebuilding of New Orleans after the Hurricane Katrina devastation. To paraphrase Nagin, he rebutted that New York is not in a position to criticize because it has been five years and they have not fixed ground zero(hence the hole in the ground assertion).
I, for one, agree with the intent of the Mayor's statement but felt that the wording was unwise considering that last week he was in New York asking for monetary aid. Sometimes you have to make concessions when you are seeking help from people. Anyway, this discourse with my coworker quickly sequed into a heated 911 vs Katrina discussion-which disaster was more tragic. The premise is really an unfair one. But sometimes I feel that Black and poor life just doesn't weigh in with some folks. As devastating as 911 was, New York City's infrastructure was minimally harmed. New Orleans is a city and not a building. I just could not convey this to the colleague in question.
A life is a life but there are no million dollar claim settlements going to the Katrina's victims and their families (as it was for the 911 victims). It also did not take 5 days to respond after September 11th as it did with the gulf coast. Whatever side of the fence you may be on with this subject, one thing that we all can agree on is.....the government severely dropped the ball in preparedness in both cases. Let's cross our fingers and hope that there are no immediate future debacles laying in wait for comparisons.....one can only hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment