Nagin Speech Transcript

[Anita Garcia]

<http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1174582805170570.xml&coll=1>

Excerpt:
We have a steep history, a deep history in African-American publications and also in African American history that is unique to many places. You know I get in trouble a lot for some of the things I say. I like the Clintons. I like George Clinton. It wasn't until I described my city, y'all know the story, until everybody in America started to wake up and say way wait a minute, what is he doing? What is he saying? Maybe we should try and do something different to make sure that this man does not go any further. Because they realized that I wasn't a person to be controlled. I was going to speak my mind especially when I saw our people suffer. I look in this room and I see the wonderful Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and I see all the great work she has done around the country. This lady, when we were in the midst of the election cycle, when they put the golden boy up, and all the prognosticators were saying there's no way you are going to win because see they had dispersed all our people across 44 different states with one-way tickets out. They thought they were talking about a different kind of New Orleans. They didn't realize that folk were awake and they were paying attention and they weren't going to let a plan unfold that changed all the history of what we have fought for over many, many years. And Maxine started to talk around the country. I remember when we went to Memphis. She talked to black folks around the country and tried to wake them up and say look at what's happening. Because ladies and gentlemen what happened in New Orleans could happen anywhere.

They are studying this model, this model of a natural disaster dispersing a community and changing the electoral process in that community. We need to really understand what's going on. When I stood up and spoke out and they started to vilify, I knew there was going to be a reaction. It's a law of physics. For every action there's a reaction. I knew it was going to happen, but I didn't realize how strong it was going to happen. My Google hits probably went up a million that week. And it's been a heck of a ride ladies and gentlemen. But, you know, what? It's people like you who give me strength and give the people of New Orleans strength, and we will prevail. I believe Almighty God has a special plan for this moment. It's not by accident that Democrats are controlling Congress right now. That's not an accident. One of the things that propelled us into power was the Katrina fallout. Republicans are now sitting back and saying wait a minute, maybe we should have done better, but it's too late. Maxine and them are in large and in control. They got them scrambling on Capitol Hill. And they're talking about what they should have done; and what they're going to do.

[peace13]

1. Thank you for posting this.

What a guy! Peace, Kim

[Anita Garcia]

2. Thank you.

I hope more people will take the time to read the transcript.