There will always be ignorant people in the world. Just like there will always be crime. Best way for us, as Americans, to reduce this as much as possible, obviously, is to vote for the proper candidates and support morality in politics. Ignorance will always have a place in America and the world, but it is the obligation of educated Americans to keep this ignorance down to a minimum.
mikus wrote:i thought he did a remarkable job in standing up for new orleans. on a number of occasions he called out the governor and even W!!! but now, he has made a huge blunder and i think it will cost him big time.
A remarkable job? You mean where he blamed EVERYBODY except himself and took zero responsibility after Katrina hit? How in the world, can you tell everybody in the city that the Superdome is a shelter yet fail to stock it with water? Remember, this happened BEFORE the hurricane hit. You can't blame FEMA for the complete and total lack of preparation made by the city.
He's an imbecile.
I agree that there was issues he handled improperly. And things he was not prepared for as the mayor. I am not saying he did a good job preparing the city for the disaster. I don't think any mayor could have prepared a city for the type of destruction caused by Katrina.
What I was saying is that when the government was no where to be seen in the aftermath, when we desperately needed the help, Nagin was the guy standing up for the city and calling out the leaders.
Like I said, I am not condoning his lack of perparedness or judgment, but he did stand up for his city when there was nothing to stand up for.
However, as I stated earlier, I have lost respect for him as a mayor.
Mercer Boy wrote:It just seems as though racism will never die.
It's a long process, although it's a LOT better now than it was 30 years ago, and in another 30 years, it will be even better.
Education is HUGE. As soon as education is truly embraced by all races, we will see giant strides. Speaking and writing proper English is EXTREMELY important. How many rednecks are going to get a professional job speaking ignorantly? The reason they don't get the job is not because they're a redneck, it's because they're uneducated and unprofessional. (Obviously, not all rednecks are uneducated and unprofessional). How can you possibly blame a company for not wanting to promote or employ an individual who can't speak or write proper English?
It's not better, just better hidden. It is acceptable for this guy to say that, but if Daley said he wants Chicago to be an Irish town, or an Italian town, or any kind of town for that matter he would be hounded relentlessly for it. The only thing that has gotten better is that people aren't allowed to burn crosses and hang people and basically get away with it like they used to.
Speaking and writing proper English is EXTREMELY important.
Apparently it's more important to speak Spanish than it is to speak English. You can talk like you just learned the language a week ago, but if you speak Spanish you are a hot commodity in this country. It's damn near mandatory nowadays.
New Orleans mayor sorry for 'chocolate' remark Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:56 AM ET By Ellen Wulfhorst NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The mayor of New Orleans apologized Tuesday for saying the hurricane-ravaged city would be rebuilt as a "chocolate" city and for blaming the storm on the wrath of God over U.S. involvement in Iraq.
The "chocolate" remark, which Mayor Ray Nagin made in a speech Monday, struck a nerve, as racial tensions and concerns loom over proposed plans to rebuild New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina.
Several of the hardest-hit neighborhoods were mostly black, and many residents have expressed fears that those areas will not be rebuilt while those with more white residents may be. Before the August 29 storm, New Orleans was about 70 percent black.
"If I offended anyone, I sincerely apologize," the mayor, who is black, said Tuesday. "I need to be more sensitive and more aware of what I'm saying.
"I want everybody to be welcome in New Orleans -- black, white, Hispanic, Asian -- because that's the kind of city that we deserve going forward," he said. "I was trying to, and didn't do it very well, to deal with this whole notion, the undercurrent what's being talked about, and what's being talked about is who is going to come back to New Orleans at the end of the day."
In his speech Monday, marking the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Nagin said: "This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be. .... This city will be chocolate at the end of the day."
Other black leaders in New Orleans said they were taken aback by Nagin's remarks.
"Everybody's jaws are dropping right now," City Councilman Oliver Thomas told The Times-Picayune newspaper. "Even if you believe some of that crazy stuff, that is not the type of image we need to present to the nation."
In his speech, Nagin also said a wrathful God sent the hurricanes.
"Surely God is mad at America," he said. "Surely he's not approving of us being in Iraq under false pretense. But surely he's upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves."
In his apology, Nagin said: "I said some things that were totally inappropriate. I shouldn't have made any references to God as it relates to this city. In the moment I got caught up, and it shouldn't have happened."
Nagin also said he has made the "chocolate" reference several times before, including before Congress.
Chocolate city? Anywhere near the "Hershey Highway"? Sounds like it based on the mayor's comments. Stuff like this does no one any good at the end of the day.
I like simple pleasures, like butter in my ass, lollipops in my mouth. That's just me.
MadScott wrote:Chocolate city? Anywhere near the "Hershey Highway"? Sounds like it based on the mayor's comments. Stuff like this does no one any good at the end of the day.
New Orleans mayor sorry for 'chocolate' remark Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:56 AM ET By Ellen Wulfhorst NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The mayor of New Orleans apologized Tuesday for saying the hurricane-ravaged city would be rebuilt as a "chocolate" city and for blaming the storm on the wrath of God over U.S. involvement in Iraq.
The "chocolate" remark, which Mayor Ray Nagin made in a speech Monday, struck a nerve, as racial tensions and concerns loom over proposed plans to rebuild New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina.
Several of the hardest-hit neighborhoods were mostly black, and many residents have expressed fears that those areas will not be rebuilt while those with more white residents may be. Before the August 29 storm, New Orleans was about 70 percent black.
"If I offended anyone, I sincerely apologize," the mayor, who is black, said Tuesday. "I need to be more sensitive and more aware of what I'm saying.
"I want everybody to be welcome in New Orleans -- black, white, Hispanic, Asian -- because that's the kind of city that we deserve going forward," he said. "I was trying to, and didn't do it very well, to deal with this whole notion, the undercurrent what's being talked about, and what's being talked about is who is going to come back to New Orleans at the end of the day."
In his speech Monday, marking the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Nagin said: "This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be. .... This city will be chocolate at the end of the day."
Other black leaders in New Orleans said they were taken aback by Nagin's remarks.
"Everybody's jaws are dropping right now," City Councilman Oliver Thomas told The Times-Picayune newspaper. "Even if you believe some of that crazy stuff, that is not the type of image we need to present to the nation."
In his speech, Nagin also said a wrathful God sent the hurricanes.
"Surely God is mad at America," he said. "Surely he's not approving of us being in Iraq under false pretense. But surely he's upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves."
In his apology, Nagin said: "I said some things that were totally inappropriate. I shouldn't have made any references to God as it relates to this city. In the moment I got caught up, and it shouldn't have happened."
Nagin also said he has made the "chocolate" reference several times before, including before Congress.
Theres that famous sentence that I cant stand! Apparantly he saw nothing wrong with his remarks if he doesnt know who he offended. It shouldve just been a given that his remarks would offend a lot of people. People who say stupid things need to not be allowed to use the word IF.
Does anybody happen to have an Everlasting Gobstopper handy? Mayor Wonka and the Chocolate City Wednesday, January 18, 2006 Chris Rose
I wake up in the Chocolate City mad as hell.
It's like this: I'm supposed to be on vacation this week, cooling my heels, and then our mayor, Willy Wonka, loses his grip in public again and that's hardly headline news in and of itself, but this time he really lets one go.
I mean, he really gasses the place up, if you know what I mean. Now, how am I supposed to sit this one out?
First thing I do, I follow the mayor's lead and call Martin Luther King Jr. Of course, it takes a while to get through because he died in 1968 so he still has one of those avocado green rotary dial phones on his kitchen counter and no call-waiting.
As you might imagine, his line was pretty tied up Tuesday morning.
"King!" I holler when I finally reach him. "What in blazes are you thinking? You're writing speeches for Wonka, and the best you can come up with is 'Chocolate City'? Meet me at CC's Coffee House, bruh. Pronto. We gotta talk."
"I'm tired," he complains. "I had a big day yesterday."
"We all had a big day yesterday, King," I tell him. "Eleven o'clock. Be there."
Then I call God.
Of course, my call gets answered on the first ring, but it's some lackey working out of a phone bank in Singapore. We tangle a bit; she's giving me the runaround about him being busy and can she help me, and I'm wondering: What's with authority figures these days?
"Just who does he think he is, he can't take my call?" I say. "What, He's Dan Packer now? PUT HIM ON!"
I finally get him, and I calm down a bit because he's got that comforting voice, kind of like Barry White, but I'm still all dandered up and I tell him: "11 o'clock, CC's. We gotta talk."
He starts to make excuses, tells me he's got lunch at Ruth's Chris with Pat Robertson, but I'm all over him like white on rice.
Unless it's brown rice, of course.
I suppose it could be brown.
Anyway, I wear him down and he finally admits that he thinks Robertson is a lunatic blow-hard who's always asking God to take out some foreign leader or burn down a place like Oklahoma because there are sodomites reportedly living there, so he says to me: "All right. Chill, amigo. I'll be there."
So me, King and God all meet up and I'm ready to tear into these guys about the advice they're giving Mayor Wonka, who's gone all Shirley MacLaine on us and has had almost five months to compose himself since his multiple-meltdown and the best thing he could come up with was this?
We're standing in line to order, and I let loose: "All right, you knuckleheads, which one of you wrote the 'Chocolate City' thing?"
They are aghast at my strong language, "knucklehead" being the harshest term our mayor can come up with to describe the dirtbag, scumbag, dope fiend gangbangers who have run roughshod over this town for the past decade making us the Killing Fields of America.
Knuckleheads. Yeah, that's great, like they're the Three Stooges now. "Hey, I'm gonna cap yo ass with my 9. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk."
Anyway, King waves me off. "Can we order before we get into this?" he says.
The barista, one of those bright and perky UPTOWN people -- and I think you know what kind I mean -- says "Hey, guys, what can I getcha?" and sure, she acts all Ladies' Auxiliary toward us but we all know -- me, King and God -- that all this white girl really wants is to grab up as much property as possible in the Lower 9th and build a couples resort and day spa.
Me, King and God -- we're not stupid.
King orders first. "Coffee," he says. "Black."
Well, do I need to tell you: The whole shop is paralyzed into the most uncomfortable silence you ever heard.
"Jesus!" I mutter under my breath, and God pokes me in the eye. "Watch it, knucklehead," he says.
The barista, she goes, "nyuk, nyuk, nyuk," and I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have gotten out of bed; I should have just stuck to my original plan to meet Kafka for racquetball at noon.
Coffee. Black. This King guy, he just doesn't get it. Then it turns out he's just joshing around. Suddenly he breaks the uncomfortable silence and screams: "I'LL HAVE A CREAM!"
And he starts wagging his finger all around like he's back at the Lincoln Memorial, and he starts yelling: "And my children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their coffee, but by the content of their character."
God, he cracks up at this. He starts nudging his elbow into my side and he's practically got tears in his eyes.
"What are you, Chris Rock?" he says. "That's hilarious, King. You are one loco dude!"
They do that knuckle-knock thing, and God orders. Café au lait -- who would have guessed?
So we sit and I ask them: "Guys, what's the deal? Wonka says he consulted with both of you before that blasted speech yesterday. Tell me you're not behind this Chocolate City thing. It's tearing us apart!"
King falls silent; he's eyeballing all the Uptowners like they're going to steal his hubcaps.
God pipes up: "Listen, hombre. Me and King, we had nothing to do with that speech. We told Wonka to go with a unity theme, black and white together as one. We did have this thing about Oreos in it, but we scratched that long before the final draft.
"Your boy, Wonka, that was all off the cuff, man. Extemporizing, you dig? He was off the script on that one. Completely off the reservation."
This gets King's attention. There's another uncomfortable pause as the whole place goes mute again.
"Sorry, cats," God says. "Poor choice of words. My bad. But listen: You people have got your race thing so screwed up down here that even I'm having trouble concentrating. You've got to get your house in order, folks. Your boy Wonka is walking around tossing matches on kindling. If you don't watch out, the whole place is gonna blow.
"And that will put us all out of work," he says, and he pushes his chair back and stands up.
"Gotta vamoose, bruh!" He says. "Been real, but there's mucho work to be done in the Chocolate City. Hasta la vista."
Silence again.
"All right, I'll take the bait," I tell him. "What's with all the gringo lingo?"
He looks at me like I'm crazy. He reaches into his wallet, grabs a card and hands me one before he rolls out the door.
The card, it says: "God & Sons Roofing. Reasonable Rates. Fully Insured. Habla Español."
I look at King. I stutter, "Did you know. . .?" But he's just shaking his head at me.
"Go figure," he says. "But it makes sense, when you think about it. His son's name is Jesus. The stepfather was a carpenter. All of them living in a Kenner hotel without electricity and running water like it's no big deal. It just goes to show, you never can tell. I guess you really need to be careful about what kind of assumptions you make about people."
We both take a sip and pause for a moment, and he adds: "And God, for that matter."
I nod at him over my tall glass of milk. "Now you're talking, King," I tell him. "Now you're talking."
Speaking and writing proper English is EXTREMELY important.
Apparently it's more important to speak Spanish than it is to speak English. You can talk like you just learned the language a week ago, but if you speak Spanish you are a hot commodity in this country. It's damn near mandatory nowadays.
Pretty much you can be hired anywhere with that kind of resume. Which makes me wonder why I took French back in high school Zut!
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by Omaha Red Sox » Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:39 pm 
Sounds like it based on the mayor's comments. Stuff like this does no one any good at the end of the day.
Zut!
