The Silence is Deafening

When Pat Robertson said Hurricane Katrina was a punishment from God, the civilized world told him to "shut up." But when Ray Nagin says the same thing:

Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that "God is mad at America" and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting.

"Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country," Nagin, who is black, said as he and other city leaders marked Martin Luther King Day.

Why is the ACLU so deafeningly silent? They are usually the first on the scene when a politician starts talking about God. Could it be? Of course.

Ray Nagin is black.

Oh, but Nagin still has his foot in his mouth:

"It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans—the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," the mayor said. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

Such bigoted comments from a white guy, especially one in political office, would immediately draw the ire of the NAACP, and Ray Nagin would be the first to make an asinine comment about "herding all the blacks into the ghettos, just like the Jews under Hitler." But when Ray Nagin himself declares skin color to be a criterion for living in New Orleans, where is the NAACP?

As of this writing, they haven't said a word .

How shameful, on today of all days, when we remember a man who had a dream of a nation where character was more important than skin color. President Bush is right, there's still a long way to go to realize that dream. The tacit approval of the ACLU and the NAACP is doing nothing to help.

Posted on 01/16/2006 at 07:00:13 PM EST.