Sharing A Birthday With the Mayor

Yesterday, I discovered that me and my mayor Clarence R. Nagin share the same birthday. The mayor was born on June 11, 1956 exactly 18 years before yours truly. That was one of those facts I would have never bothered looking up but now that I know many things make sense to me. I have a whole new understanding of the mayor. We were born under the sign of the twins and I have often been told that I am about three or four different people rolled up into one. The mayor’s behavior makes sense to me now. Just like the mayor I can go from being really engaged to tuning everyone out in the matter of minutes and that can be triggered easily by just one comment that I don’t like. People can sit down and explain something to me in total detail and I won’t seem the least bit concerned about it. Yet, when someone questions me and I get challenged I can replay everything down to the outfit everyone involved had on. That’s why the mayor seems clueless until someone calls him out and he gets angry and breaks down every recovery project. We have a lot of similarities. The mayor should have called me to be his community spokesman. I could have explained his actions without sounding crazy.

There is one thing that we don’t appear to have in common. I’m kind of an obsessive person. This is especially true with people and things I care about. I can’t rest knowing that someone or something I love is in crisis. I have a deep affection for the working class of New Orleans. The cooks, maids, plumbers, hotel workers, the men working on the river and all the folks I see on the way to work in the morning are my people. That’s the cloth I am cut from. Those are the folks that keep this city afloat and sit by as the privileged at the top keep their wages low while the disenfranchised at the bottom make their quality of life stressful through crime and irresponsible behavior. That reminds me that sharing a birthday doesn’t necessarily mean two people are alike. If I was the mayor people would be driving past City Hall saying “damn, the mayor still at work”. I probably wouldn’t change things like I wanted to but those folks would know I tried. That’s why I would never run. I would be too invested. That’s why the mayor has had so many issues and misunderstandings. He hasn’t shown the people he was invested enough. I guess the day you were born doesn’t mean everything.