You see what I often find in business is that when someone is trying to avoid owning up to a mistake or covering up an inadequacy that they often try to either change the subject matter or to deflect blame. What I see going on in N.O. is probably a little bit of both. What I see is a Mayor that was woeful unqualified and unprepared for the disaster that struck. What plan that was in place was not adhered too, and when the original plan began to fall apart the people running the city had no idea what to do. Ray Nagin as the elected city leader has got to take responsibility for the mistakes that were made.

The first attempt to detract the blame for the failures that occurred was to blame the federal government for not coming to their aid. Now had Mayor Nagin been prepared he would have known that it was his responsibility to contact the Governor to have a request made for Federal assistance. The federal government is precluded from send in troops to one of the states without a request from the state. This is to protect the rights of the states and the rights of the citizens. That may seem very bureaucratic in a situation like this but we have this procedure for a reason.

By now everybody knows about the School buses and city buses that just sat by while people where trapped in N.O. Most people also know about the train offered by Amtrak to help in the evacuation. Now I wouldn’t think that this had anything to do with racism, but rather poor communication and horrible decision making.

Now Mayor Nagin has made an obviously racially charged statement regarding having a “Chocolate city.” To me it seems that he is looking for platform to run on, and he certainly can’t run on his record. If I were him I would be ashamed to run for re-election knowing how poorly I had carried out the duties of my office.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not laying the blame for the entire catastrophe at his feet. The Corp of Engineers should have been keeping better track of the condition of the levees. If you take any tour of the swamp lands and the marshes the tour guides will tell you that they lose wetlands to the ocean every year, the ground is falling under them. This should also tell them that the levees over time are not going to be tall enough. The local housing board could have also required any new construction to be built above sea level. This would raise the cost of individual construction but it would reduce the amount of damage done by individual storms. They could have also taken some lessons from the telecommunications world and looked at ways to build redundancy’s into the pump and levee systems to keep damage more localized and less extensive. The 9th ward that we have heard so much about on the news is actually one of the smaller neighborhoods that were damaged in the storm. It had a high degree of damage than some of the other areas but the sad part is that it was the barge that broke loose and tore through the levee that created the flood there. You have to ask, why the waterway wasn’t cleared of all vessels knowing that a storm was approaching. That should have been part of the emergency plan, if it wasn’t.

My point is this, leaders prepare for the things that others don’t see coming; they foresee the unforeseeable and develop a plan to compensate. I look at what happened in N.O. and I don’t see a race issue, maybe I am naive, what I see is a failure of leadership. We current have a leadership vacuum in this country from the White House all the way down to city governments and the problems are not going to get solved by allowing people to make racial cases or anything else out of it. That is counter productive and after all it only detracts from the real problem, we need people that can lead.

Ray Nagin’s recipe:

“How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about,” he said. “New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It is going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive? It is white and black working together, coming together and making something special.”

Maybe he was thinking about Hershey’s Syrup when he said this, because notice Hershey’s instructions for this delicious drink.

Chocolate Milk: Stir 2 to 3 Tablespoons (equivalent of 1/8 to 3/16 ounces dark chocolate) in 8 ounces Cold Milk. (white)

So, if New Orleans ends up like a chocolate drink, hey, that’s the way the Mayor, MLK, and God wants it. Quit fussing, let the Mayor do his job already!

PS: Tomorrow I will apologize for my offhand comments. Maybe I can include a recipe for dark fudge to make it all better.

Yes, I do think we need federal assistance, and I’m not ashamed to say it. Yes, 400 homeslost in WI, is terrible and super-sad, and of course, FEMA should have helped them – this government has the money and power to do it. BUT, that situation is just not the same as an entire metropolitan city going through ahurricane that spanned the entire gulf of mexico AND on top of that, experiencing a break in levee protection that spawned tidal-wave-style flood waters. It is a situation that has been previously unknown to US history and personally, I have never in my life seen anything like it.

I DO think, however, that the state of Louisiana should also help in paying for its own most-loved city…I’m not talking about the displaced people who are strewn all over the US. Many of those were so poor that they can’t bankroll anything like that, so the rest of us have to foot the bill…just like we do for all other kinds of government programs. People who have money pay to help people who don’t – that’s how it is in the US.

I figure that, if the state of LA values N.O. as the tourist cash-cow that it is, then it should help to pay-up. People come to Louisiana because they want to see the city of New Orleans, eat the food, and live it up. If the state values this city, then they should help. I live in this state and would not mind paying a special tax to help.

Recently, I drove by 2 plantations outside the city, one of which told me that the only thing holding them up financially is the local weddings…usually, they get busloads of N.O. tourists visiting the historic sites. Now, it’s a trickle. You see, this state knows that anywhere else the tourists go in LA usually is an off-shoot of visiting N.O. first.

Look, this government has money. This state has money too. I’ve been paying lotsa taxes for years and I see oil refinery after oil refinery when I go driving – it just depends on where our state officials want that money to be allocated.

I figure, IF we value New Orleans at all, then some of our tax money has go towards the levees that protect the city. Is somebody else in the state going to be mad that they didn’t get as much moola as in years past? Of course they’re going to hate it. Everybody wants as much money as they can get. Yes, it’s going to suck for somebody, no doubt. But, if we value this city, then we need to pay up – federally and state-wide.

The core of engineers has told us for years that we need to strengthen the levees, that it was “only a matter of time” Well, they were always shot down because of the money – people in office want to please the people, who want other things, federally and state-wide. Nobody around here thought the levees would ever really breech, but guess what, they did. Now, we have to deal with the aftermath of our own laziness and delusion about the realities of levee protection. Yes, I understand people in other states who don’t want to help out. It’s human nature. But, the bottom line is we need help. And I think plenty of people would help out, if they thought that the money wasn’t going to end up in the hands of a man who values “chocolate” over protection.

The bottom line is, if we value our money more than we value our city, then we should stop talking about rebuilding because it’s futile to do it without the assurance that levees are going to rise higher and stronger than before…plus, it is plain disheartening to have that false hope thrown out there.

My hope is that people do care enough to pay up – the Feds, the State, and the big industry like OIL that drains our natural resources and makes TONS of dough by drilling in LA. I also hope that we get a NEW governor and a NEW mayor, who have better-working brains and see the bigger picture than race, and actually DO something about our situation so that ALL of us can survive. Otherwise, this formerly awesome N.O. is going to be the next Atlantis.

We’ve got to stop talking race, which is just stupid under the circumstances, and start talking about our SURVIVAL. Who wants to rebuild in such shaky circumstances? Hurricane season is only months away and white, black, hispanic, whatever…we ALL need protection.