Provocative Planet

Devil's Chocolate Advocate

Dear Mayor Nagin,

Monday, I was sitting at home. Sitting in my temporary residence in Slidell with my family when WWL 870AM replayed the perceived relevant clips of you claiming that New Orleans will once again become a "Chocolate" City. They are practicing Catholics and like some Catholics, they tend to be quick to judge and stereotype. It is in amazing and hypocritical fashion that they can become so unchristian-like by coming to an indisputably conclusive judgement based on mere fractions of factual data. These same individuals wouldn't have blinked an eye or may have even uttered the phrase "Yeah you right!" if Jefferson Parish President Arron Broussard were to say, "After the Mexican's have all left, I promise you that Metairie will once again become a Vanilla city!". It's really a shame how double-standards work around here. So when I heard your speech, I stopped, listened, and tried to figure out where you were going. I concluded that your thoughts were on the concentration of people who want a demographics change in New Orleans. The ones who don't want black people to return, whether good nor bad. And I can't imagine that you would not have taken offense to those people's blatantly racist comments. What I do know is that your comments just plain sounded bad... they are probably being taken out of context to the point where they are losing their original meaning. At least I want to believe that. I want to believe that you were really sincere when you had stated your delicious recipe for chocolate (Dark Chocolate plus Milk) is your true vision of the future of New Orleans. If only you'd have said "Milk Chocolate" instead, the meaning would have never been misunderstood. It was probably not wise to claim that you know for a fact what "God" wants for the city and how he's smiting us with tropical storms. Keep that church and state separate in your city planning, please! It's statements like those which make Bush lack more and more credibility. And maybe you really do understand the vision of Martin Luther King, but it just looks bad when you claim to know exactly what he'd think about today's situations in New Orleans and around. I've respected you during your campaign and even since. The way you denounced the localized minimum rage hike, because you knew it wasn't going to happen and wasn't good for the city anyway. Yes, you probably lost votes by being honest.. that took guts, but was quite respectable. The way you "soul-searched" and ignored partisan politics by endorsing Bobby Jindal for Governor, because even though you are both Democrats, you knew he was better for the state of Louisiana than Blanco. I only wish more people would have looked past whatever reasons they had for electing her instead of him and selected the more prepared, intelligent, and energetic candidate in Jindal. So, in conclusion, I'm not jumping ship just yet. We've all said things that have been misinterpreted and taken out of context or just misunderstood altogether. I still hope that you are the one who leads New Orleans into being a world class city.

Sincerely,
Corey Badeaux

P.S. May I suggest getting Mars Inc., Hershey Inc., and Godiva Inc. as our Madri Gras sponsors this year. Might I also suggest that we let Charms Inc. (Blowpop) sponsor our next southern decadence fest!

(I've tried to Email this to the mayor's office, but they have the website hosed up preventing the flood of emails that are probably pouring in! 1-17-2006)