The Way I See It
Jamala Rogers
Last week, Alderman Ken Ortmann tried desperately to get his public urination bill passed in time for the City’s Mardi Gras celebration. As I sat through the Board of Public Safety Committee meeting, I wondered what Katrina survivors would think of the proceedings. I know about plans in New Orleans to protest or disrupt Mardi Gras while residents are still struggling to bring some normality to their lives. As for St. Louis, which has the second largest Mardi Gras party in the country, rumblings for similar counter-activity have also been heard. I say whatever it takes to keep the post-Katrina recovery in the news – go for it.
Mayor Ray Nagin obviously feels the same way, but for a different reason. I was thinking the man was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) until I found out that he had issues prior to Katrina. Nagin, a corporate executive and wanna-be entrepreneur, had been nicknamed “Ray Reagan.” This was after he made a contribution to the George W. Bush presidential campaign in 2000 and endorsed a Republican candidate for governor in 2003. Now, you can understand why Nagin couldn’t get any play from Governor Katherine Blanco during Katrina. Poor and black folks always have to suffer needlessly when poli-tricksters play their power games.
Nagin is working closely with Joseph Canizaro, a major supporter and fundraiser for Bush, to implement plans to rebuild New Orleans. Canizaro is also a major player in New Orleans banking, real estate and business circles. His involvement on the Mayor’s commission is clearly a conflict of interest. Neighborhood groups are being forced to come up with viability plans with no real specifics that define the meaning of “viable”. New Orleans is now a greedy developer’s playground and is wide open for the taking – or so they think.
Community activists are fighting both for the right to return and to rebuild in the face of a blue ribbon commission’s plan designed to exclude most of them. Militant residents are organizing to resist the official rebuilding plan and chart their own course. One resident vowed to “suit up like I’m going to Iraq” as he prepared to do battle with land grabbers. With only a third of the city’s original population tattered, but in tact, fighting residents face an uphill battle against the government, insurance companies and developers. Potential allies are dispersed across the country and are now consumed with making a life wherever they ended up.
Sarah White, a resident of the Gulf Coast, will be in St. Louis this weekend. She is the keynote speaker for the 26th Anniversary Celebration of the Organization for Black Struggle. The plight of black workers and farmers along the Katrina route face new barriers, mostly man-made. I wonder what she would think about special provisions being proposed for beer-guzzling Mardi Gras revelers who can’t find a portable toilet in time. Eventually they will find their way to the comfort of their homes. That’s more than can be said for the thousands in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Florida displaced by the hurricanes and the policies driven by racism and greed.