Sitting On My Porch Part Thirty Six

"Stay in school,Get your education,Get better than qualified and you'll succeed."
George Porter, Tuskegee Airman

Greetings from the planet of New Orleans. If you have noticed a drop in the number of posts during the day you would be correct. Sometimes when you have a real job you actually have to work. This post is going to be written throughout the day when time and thoughts come together. If this post is too long everyone is going to think I didn't do any work today. I need to practice working and blogging at the same time because after the next city budget is finalized we may not have electricity after 6PM to save money.

It's Veteran's Day and here at The Crib we are always pro veteran because of Big Cliff and Grandpa. You know some veterans struggle when they come home even though all we do is tell them how great they are. Just because we call them heroes doesn't mean we take the steps to make sure their lives are good when they come home. I said it last year and I will say it again, when these men and women come home we should clear all of the their debt and pay their mortgages. At the least they deserve not having to worry about being homeless and taking care of their families. Now, if they screw up everything on their own after that then so be it but we should set them up in the best situation possible.

I am glad the city survived the terrible storm named Ida. It wasn't really terrible. The local news made it seem like it was. I know we can't take any named storm for granted but did they have to cut into the Sunday Night football game every five minutes to look at the satellite imagery? Katrina has really changed our mental state. Back in the day we would walk to school in that kind of storm and no one would blink.

Let's talk about Congressman Cao for a minute. I think by the end of the week I am going to feel sorry for him. He broke every rule in the current political book but I understand why he did it. He tried to stick to his beliefs and do the best he could for his district. Say what you want but if he gets any medical facility funding out of supporting the presidents bill he would have gotten more done for his district than any other person in office could have. Let me explain why. If he was a black Democrat holding that seat everyone would have known his vote was Yes from the beginning. There would have been no specific commitment from the president or anything like that. Our vote would have been chalked up and all the special consideration would have been giving to people like Olympia Snow who I am certain got a few perks for the state of Maine when she voted yes in the Finance Committee. He tried to use his vote to get some special consideration for his district. If nothing changes because of what he did then the Democrats played him. If things do happen then he got the most out of his one term he possibly could and he should get credit for being one of the few politicians in Washington that put his own ambition and agenda aside to do what he was sworn in to do.

That reminds me that I have a new theory on the next mayor. I was talking to some brothers this weekend and we came to the conclusion that the only way the next mayor has any chance of making real change is he or she has to be willing to only serve one term. If that person did everything that really needs to be done it would require pissing off so many people from different walks of life that they probably wouldn't win again. Anyone with long term political aspirations will have to compromise some things to get the money and support needed to run for higher office so they can't go to City Hall and lead correctly.

Now for a few random things that no one is interested in but me...........

I'm thinking about going seven full days without any Coca Cola, coffee, beer, or brown liquor. I informed one of my comrades about this and his response was "You won't make it seven hours trying to give all of that up at one time without getting arrested." It feels good when your friends have confidence in you.

Someone made the following statement to me : " Your mind is great, that's why you don't understand the simple things" Was this an insult or a compliment?

Why does Sammy Sosa look like a vampire?

Nickelodeon pulled out of the amusement park deal in New Orleans East. The city says they are moving on without them but it's going to be hard to get people to come there without the Spongebob ride.

According to my coworkers I am the only man that carries a brush around to train his beard hair. I know I am crazy but I feel more creative with my facial hair.

Now back to something serious.............

This story is a small example that as we move forward the three most powerful people in the city will be the mayor, the assessor, and the inspector general. Just for the record I agree with the IG on the plan for remodeling the Municipal Auditorium. My only concern is that it seems the mayor is going to have to get the IG's blessing before he or she does anything. I am not sure if I am right about this but if the majority of the people elected the mayor then they should have to approve the inspector general too if he's going to have this kind of power. If they can't elect the IG then we need to elect the board that selects the IG. I believe in having an Inspector General. I am not sure I agree with the current setup.

In the midst of football games, health care bills, corruption indictments, and all the other stuff no one really paid enough attention to the fact that a 7 year old girl was killed in her house because of a shootout going on outside. Her father was in the Middle East at the time. He's celebrating his Veteran's Day in pain. I heard a term on the radio last weekend called 'social dignity'. I will explain what it means another time but we have to work on that to keep things like this from happening. Let's hope Paige DeJean is the last one because we were pass the limit on this once the first child was killed.

On Veteran's Day and every day we should all strive to have the attitude and dedication of people like Mr. George Porter from Slidell, Louisiana. You have to give extra respect to men from that era who fought for their country because they put their lives on the line for the country at a time when their citizenship was limited. That's patriotism at its highest degree.