Studio Conservatives

I have a question for conservatives. How did this guy get so popular with you? I have looked all over for something in his past that qualifies him to be a spokesman for the right wing agenda and have found nothing. He hasn’t worked for any Republican politicians. He didn’t go to school with Karl Rove. He’s not a member of Dick Cheney’s hunting party. I haven’t found one thing to make you guys love him so much other than the fact he’s on FOX news and says exactly what you want to hear. I’m not the biggest fan of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton but at least they have a history of activism that validates what they try to do. This guy was hosting Inside Edition and would probably be covering stories like why Paris and Nicole aren’t friends anymore if he hadn’t gotten replaced. Does that sound like the champion of American values to you? You people are so gullible. For all we know O’Reilly and Limbaugh get together on the weekends. They pop in a Tupac CD, roll up a fat one and laugh about how they are robbing you fools blind by validating your narrow minded way of thinking.

Love Thy Neighbor

Business travel sure isn’t like it is on the commercials. It’s boring. You don’t get to sleep late because the itinerary starts at 8:00 AM and then when it’s over you have to act like you want to socialize with these people just because you are at the same conference. Needless to say when you get home all you want is peace and quiet. I have been on two trips in the last two weeks and every time I get home my neighbor’s wife is tripping. We have been living next door to one another for years and never had a problem. Now, she has been home from Houston for a month and is losing her damn mind. See, there is a FEMA trailer in front of my home. When the assholes installed it they placed in a position that blocks half of my driveway. For the last year everyone has been pulling in at the front of my neighbor’s driveway and turning into mine. The other day I drove up tired as hell and when I got ready to turn in I noticed a damn barricade made of cinder blocks closing off the open part of the driveway. Before anyone thinks we were just using their space while they were not there, her husband has been home for a year and we have all been living in harmony with no trouble. We even feed the man from time to time like a member of the family. I asked the crazy woman if she was having a problem with people pulling into the driveway when I wasn’t home and she blew me off! I have never had a problem with this woman before and I don’t want to have one now. We already have a problem in our community with unnecessary conflict. I left the barricade there and parked in the street but the more I think about it the madder I get.

Everyone in this neighborhood had the same damn flood water. There are lots of people who haven’t been able to get back or just got back recently. You ain’t the only angry stressed out person around here. You should have kept your ugly, angry ass in Houston if you didn’t want to deal with things. She doesn’t understand that I am a peaceful man by nature and I can’t stand the kind of ignorant drama that causes violence and separation in our community. She didn’t have to disrespect me when I was being respectful to her. What she doesn’t know is that I had an energy bill that was higher than my car note, and that Wednesday would have been my grandmother’s 74^th birthday and that I miss my dog, and my windshield crack is starting to spread, and that I have sat through two weeks worth of seminars and boring conversation and my ears have yet to pop back in place after getting off of the airplane and the Saints are 0-3 and Drew Brees sucks at the moment. When you add all that up, it makes me want to do something to get revenge. I don’t want to hurt her or any of her family. I just want to do something dumb like let all of the propane out of the trailer tanks or fill the drain pipe with old socks so the next time she flushes the toilet it erupts under her. That would give me a good laugh for about an hour but it wouldn’t change the fact that there are people like this all throughout the city and no matter how good the intentions are of most people here there will always be this negative, miserable, close minded group that will suck the spirit out of everybody by doing things that make no sense. It’s people like you that make people like me load up the U-Haul and get my ass out of here.

Why We Don't March on The Thugs

Father Forgive Us For Livin' While All My Homies Stuck In Prison,
Barely Breathin' Believin That The World Is A Prison,
It's Like A Ghetto We Could Neva Leave, A Broken Rose,
It Could Bloom Through The Cracks Of The Concrete,
So Many Otha Things For Us To See, Things To Be,
Our History so Full Of Tragedy And Misery,
To All My Homies Neva Made It Home,
The Dead peers i Shed Tatooed Tears,For When I'm Alone,
Picture Us Inside A Ghetto Heaven, A Place To Rest,
Findin' Peace Through This Land Of Stress,
In My Chest I Feel Pain, Comin' Sudden Storms,
Life Full Of Rain In This Game Watch For landstorms,
Our Unborn, Neva Gotta Grow Neva Gotta See What's Next,
In This World Full Of Countless Threats,
I Beg God, To Make A Way For Our Ghetto Kids,
To Breathe Show A Sign Make Us All Believe

Tupac Shakur

I read a post over at M.D. Filter’s blog that struck me. He listed all the names of the murder victims in New Orleans and asked the question why no one was marching for these men like they are in Jena. Now, M.D. is white but he is a good guy and I believe is sincere. He wasn’t being sarcastic or making the point out of spite like some people have this week in regards to the Jena 6 rally. I’m not an expert on everything involving black on black crime. I'm just an concerned observer who has lost some close friends to the streets and know how they got there. With that in mind I will try to explain the difference between the rally and the violence and answer his question. If anyone reads this and disagrees please feel free to let me know.
The first thing is that the Jena 6 Rally was not to excuse the actions of the kids involved. It was to call attention to the unbalanced charges given by the district attorney. That deserved attention no matter what is happening on the streets of the inner city. That’s an entirely different issue than black on black crime.
There is a difficulty with black on black crime as it relates to a solution. In my opinion, the only way to truly come up with a solution to this problem is to admit that the last 40 years after integration have been a failure and people gave too much to that struggle to admit that. This fight against destructive behavior would be easy if some group of old white men came out and admitted they have been altering the minds of young black people and influencing them to hate one another on a large scale. That would change everything really fast but it’s not going to happen. Black Americans feel a common bond to each other more than any other group. That’s a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing when something like Jena happens because it leads to common outrage. It’s a curse when it comes to violence because we are not comfortable turning our kids over to the system because when we do that’s an admission of failure by all of us on some level. I don’t think we have a clue what to do about all this killing.
What the rest of the nation is seeing is an internal struggle. It’s a struggle that leads to questions to ponder. Did we embrace the drug culture and subsequent violence because of the money involved? Have black men not had enough control over their need for sex, creating too many kids that were unplanned and abandoned? Are we making the educational system a scapegoat for the lack of home training? Many of our great grandparents could barely read and write and there wasn’t 300 murders a year in major cities. Have the black upper and middle class spent too much time convincing themselves that they have overcame and not enough time in the community trying to help? Is that even their obligation and if it’s not then who’s is it? What about the church’s effectiveness? Having a rally won’t do anything to answer these questions. These issues will only be solved from open and honest discussion. The solution won’t be easy to achieve and I am afraid that there will be more death before we even get close.
The only advice I would give to my white friends is if you have an idea to help save a kid from the streets where you live then by all means do so. I would also advise not to try and make sense of some this unless you want to admit that the culture of this country has messed up my people. If you can’t see that then I can’t have an honest discussion with you either because that means you are ignoring history. There are some built in obstacles that are not our fault that make this problem harder to deal with. We might have to march on those once we get this violence under control.

A Great Game To Watch

How much an event lifts the spirit of a community like New Orleans often depends on where you come from in this city. Last night I was at home as usual on Friday night so I watched McDonald 35 Senior High play St. Augustine on ESPN. There have been many games, stories and specials since the storm about the city. I have to say that last night ESPN did the best job of highlighting the fighting spirit of those kids, the schools and the community at large. I can’t recall or locate the names of the two announcers but it was refreshing to watch an event with the attitude those two guys had. I loved the fact that they made sure to include those young men’s grade point averages and favorite classes. I am sure some people around the country were surprised that there are young men in New Orleans that actually go to class and like it. Thank you ESPN for not exploiting the community. Thank you to Avery Johnson and Michael Smith of ESPN for representing their high schools and city. Thank you to the crowd for everyone behaving. Thanks to the parents of Derrick Dean, who did the interview at the end of the game and did a great job. Last but not least, thanks to Mother Nature and Tropical Depression 10 for not developing and running everybody out here before those kids had a chance to be in the national spotlight. I don’t want to be negative, but our local media sucks and only care about certain neighborhoods if someone gets shot or to tell us about all the people that have not came back. From my social perspective, watching that game on national television last night was more fulfilling then watching the Saints first home game in the Superdome last year. The Saints had the NFL, state and local government and surrounding parish support. The people involved in that game last night got back here on their own.

Mayor Nagin is Smarter Than This Dude

The question I have is how did Nelson Mandela have the time to create enough babies for a tribe in Iraq when he spent most of his life in a South African prison.

I'm Wearing Black Today

I just got back to the Crescent City from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis is really nice and a good change of pace from being in the recovery zone all the time. If I wasn’t so used to two week winters here on the Gulf Coast they would be on my potential relocation list. I was supposed to post this yesterday before the march this morning but this is an ongoing thing so I can do it now.

My opinion about modern black protest is that it’s usually ineffective. The reason is that we have placed ourselves in a position has the victim so much that it causes us not to look internally at some of the situations we face and true change is never achieved. Sometimes our issues are not black and white but shades of gray with many different angles and challenges that need to all be addressed before we can deal with the problem. That’s why we put so much energy behind causes that don’t have a real impact. We need to validate that victim mentality or the last 40 years were a waste.

The case of the Jena 6 is not of those causes. This is nothing but shameless injustice based on race. There can’t be anyone that has heard or read this story and thinks these kids should still be in prison. Let’s take race out of the equation for a minute. When I was in high school I went to a graduation party with my boy. During the party he got mad at a guy at the party that happened to be with about 20 people. Thankfully I talked him out of hitting anybody. However, if the situation would have came to a fight, I would have started fighting too even if no one would have jumped into it. That’s all that happen in Jena. Those kids were scared and they started fighting. I can’t blame them for being frightened. I would have too with white only trees, shotguns and nooses hanging at the school. It probably would have been the Jena 7 if I was there. The craziest thing about it is the kid who was assaulted was out having fun the same day. If they were really trying to kill him do you think he would have been able to party that night? Sometimes you to stand up against things like this. Now, everyone in Jena, Louisiana isn’t a racist. However, they get the same negative spotlight because they should have never let it get this far. I welcome everyone down here to the great state of Louisiana. Feel free to talk as bad as you want about our state government because just like Katrina they chose to not take action and now look foolish in the national spotlight again. This could have been handled before the underground movement brought it to the national spotlight. If the bloggers wouldn’t have gotten on this story no one would have known about it and all six would still be awaiting trial as adults and Mychal Bell would be in Angola state prison right now.

It's one thing to be a crazy negro on the local level where the only people that know is your neighbors. It's an entirely different level of craziness to have a majority of the population just dying for your ass to get in trouble again so they can make you pay for getting away with double murder. O.J. is the Tiger Woods of stupidity. His greatness is far above any of his peers. Did anyone tell The Juice that Johnnie Cochran was dead?

Still The Same Sober

I have a formula for making this blog successful. I read, watch the news and observe things around me until I come across something that inspires me in some way and then I write it down. Since I don’t find what I had for dinner or what I did at work yesterday particularly interesting I usually wait until something comes across that I think other people will have an opinion on. The last two weeks I have made a commitment not to drink so much. I think the radio thing reminded me that it's probably not a good idea to always think while in a haze. I have been functioning on the premise that I was going a little crazy. I thought that Post K stress syndrome had gotten the best of me. Now I realize that the rest of these people are crazy like me. We all must be drinking too much.

We have a senator trying to get freaky in an airport restroom and he can’t figure out if he is guilty or not. My own senator is about to be taking down by Larry Flynt and a call girl. The good folks that manage the office building I work in decided that 9/11 would be a good day to have repeated emergency drills and kept setting off the alarm. That’s just what people in New Orleans need on the anniversary of another tragedy is an alarm going off and walking down those stairs to wake up those fond evacuation memories. Why does American media show Bin Laden tapes on 9/11 anyway? That’s like someone killing a family member, getting away with it and then you reading their Christmas card at the family gathering every year afterwards. There are six kids in Jena Louisiana that are in prison awaiting trial for the kind of fight that used to take place at the intersection of Galvez and St. Bernard Avenue damn near everyday when I was going to school. Meanwhile six people in West Virginia kidnapped and tortured a woman and got to post a bond? Kanye West and 50 Cent are having a contest to see who can sell the most records and if 50 loses he is going to retire? I realize I am spoiled by downloading but I remember when I did buy records and don’t recall a time when you were allowed to only pick one. If someone buys both albums does the person who the cashier scanned first get the credit? The suburbs around New Orleans are becoming more dangerous than the city. The governor’s race is in a month and we haven’t had one debate. There have already been 4000 presidential debates. When did every interest group and minority in America get their own debate? Why do all the answers sound the same no matter what crowd they are speaking to? General Petraeus came out with his report and I still can’t tell if we are doing bad or good in Iraq from the hearings. The only thing I learned from those hearings is that if Joe Lieberman was president right now we would be occupying everything east of France. There are killer bees in New Orleans(even the bugs know you can kill here and get away with it). A damn hurricane formed while I was sleeping Wednesday night ending the comfort of thinking you have a few days to plan before one comes ashore. Now I have to keep my Richard Pryor collection in the truck at all times because I am not losing it again.

Some of my peeps have too much drama. Some of them have decided in their mid 30’s that they want to relive their teens. A few of them just can’t get it together. I don’t have anyone to hang out with that doesn’t get on my nerves. To top it all off, an anonymous employee at my job lobbied to our director and now there is a ban on perfume, cologne, and aftershave. I can’t say for certain but I am sure this is the same employee that uses the evening restroom instead of the public one during the day and sprays so much Glade air freshener that my eyes water and little purple elves start dancing across the top of my desk. She can stand that tear gas she sprays to cover her stank but she is subject to a seizure if I wear my Axe body spray?

I picked the wrong time of the year to try and give up drinking on the weekday. I should have at least waited until hurricane season was over.

Another Broken Handout

I would like to take this time to recognize EarthLink for being the latest company to go back on a promise it made to the city. They announced that they will not be expanding their free internet service throughout the rest of the city, giving everyone outside of Uptown and the French Quarter another reason to feel envious. I guess I should not be writing about this. I probably owe everyone at EarthLink and around the country an apology. I forgot that New Orleans is the only city where anyone who expects people to live up to things they committed to is a whiny, lazy, and shiftless bastard that can’t do anything for themselves and constantly looking for a handout. Foolish of us to expect that when someone stands up in front of the public and tells you they are going to do something you are supposed to believe them. God forbid you actually ask questions about it. Oh well, I guess it’s back to opening You Tube clips 15 minutes before I want to watch with my Verizon wireless card.

50.00 Fine If I Can See Your BVD's

New Orleans hijacked my blog for two whole weeks. Now I want to get into something more national. I am a week behind on this so forgive me.

I want to make a few things clear first.

1. I can’t stand white tees and pants hanging down to someone's knees. I am tired of looking at a man’s drawers that’s not my brothers or my dad ( I hope everyone knew what I meant by that).

2. I think it’s tacky, looks sloppy and I don’t know why you would want to walk around looking like you have to go to the bathroom and holding your crotch all day.

3. I also can’t believe that with all the creativity we have as a people we have gotten this lazy when it comes to fashion. We went from Cross Colours and FUBU to a plain white t-shirt like my grandpa use to wear to bed and prison pants. Brothers used to like to look clean!!! Karl Kani is probably working at a gas station.

4. Plus, I am getting tired of not having anything in my size when I go to the store because some kid who should be in a medium has bought all the 3X sizes out of big and tall. Everything they leave behind is ugly or looks like something an old dude wears to play bingo (no disrespect to old dudes or bingo).

But do we really need laws against it?

Don’t young brothers have enough reasons for the police to pull them over already? Do we really want to make bad fashion sense a reason to go to court? What if I am running late and forget my belt one day? People spend too much time in court for foolishness. If you don’t believe me, go down to traffic court and see all the working people in there fighting every ticket imaginable and losing a day’s work. I also find it funny that Atlanta wants to pass this law considering they have the greatest strip clubs in the world especially for brothers. Let’s keep it real. Going to Atlanta and not visiting the Blue Flame is like going to Orlando and not visiting Disney. You just don't get the full city experience if you don't. Now, if you really want to give people citations for bad fashion, I am all for a law banning anyone from wearing those ridiculous 1960 sunshades that cover your whole damn face that everybody seems to think looks good on them. I think wearing those should cost you 40 hours of community service because I have yet to see anyone make those things look cute.

Was That Clifton and Bernadine's Oldest Boy On The Radio?

Yes that was.....................Don't ask me how it happened.

Please forgive this moment of shameless self promotion. Anybody that reads this blog knows how much my city means to me and I was happy to represent it.

You can listen to the show by clicking here.

I would like to send a sincere thanks Devin Robbins and Sister Farai Chideya of News and Notes for giving us an avenue and introducing me to a new show that I wasn't aware of before.

One love to G. and E.J for representing the other side of young black New Orleans with me.

I didn't get a chance to thank all of my English teachers for giving me enough skill to write well enough that someone thought my opinion was worthy of attention.

I also didn't get a chance to give recognition to my two friends who are as close to brothers as you can get without DNA. I couldn't have made it after the storm without them. Shout out to Trevor Brister and Cedric Williams. I love you and thank you.

100% Full Blooded New Orleans

I’m not going to replay the whole Katrina scenario again on the anniversary. I was born in Touro Hospital by way of Old Prieur St. in the Seventh Ward. When I lived on Congress St., I still remember stopping at the Manuels Hot Tamale stand on St. Bernard with my daddy on the nights we had to bring my grandmother home to the St. Bernard Project. I spent 20 years at 5461 St. Claude Avenue in the Lower Ninth Ward. That's a block from Puglias supermarket if you don't know. When I was a little boy, I can remember going to St. Claude supermarket with my grandfather and getting the good meat out the back (because Mr. Walter don't want that stuff that's been sitting out). I went to McDonald 19, Thomas Alva Edison elementary, Samuel Peters Middle and Joseph S. Clark Senior High School. I know the proper way to boil crabs and crawfish. I know that nothing taste better in red beans than D&D sausage and pickle meat. I know you haven't had a ham sandwich unless it's Chesisis. I love pineapple Big Shots with a hot sausage on French bread.

I'm tired of acting like I need to be ashamed of being different from everyone else. I am 100% full blooded New Orleans. If I had moved because of my job, got displaced by the storm, or just wanted to explore the world I would still be full blooded New Orleans. We don't talk like everyone else. Our taste buds are different. We are the only ones that know the proper time to say "Look at the Big Chief golden crown". It's time to stop letting the media and unconcerned politicians persuade us into not being proud of whom we are. It's time to treat the city with the same concern you would treat a member of your family. That goes for everybody know matter where they live now. I'm not saying you have to come home and fix a house (that would be nice). I'm saying we need to stop putting down our city because when we do we basically put down ourselves. There's no one who can do that all the time and function. We need to embrace the good things that we love and start cleaning out the things that keep bringing us down. That means black people in the city have to own the crime problem. After all, it's our sons, and brothers in the streets covered in blood. You can't get mad and scream prejudice if other people are scared especially when we are just as scared if not more. White people have to stop taking local black anger so personal. We know you are victims too so embrace it. We would probably do a lot better if you guys would get in front of the camera and let the world know that you were in the Superdome and Convention Center too. It's not the people in the Ninth Ward's fault they are always the face of Katrina. That's what sells papers and magazines. We need common anger to get this thing together. I am not going anywhere. Unless God decides to send Katrina's cousin this way I will be here. However, I don't want to be here putting up with things that I shouldn't have to because people can't see the big picture.

It's Nothing Serious....I'm Just Here to Blog

In order to get something you got to give something

In order to be something you got to go through something

No Pain No Gain by Betty Wright

Today is the start of a very strange week. The post Katrina world always lends itself to rollercoaster periods of being really up or really down. So it stands that today I don’t feel well while at the same time celebrating the birth of one of my grandmothers. Happy birthday Mildred. In two days I will be honoring the passing of my other grandmother because of Katrina and appearing on a national radio show the same day to talk about the anniversary. Last week, I spent most of the week really blank mentally. I guess I was able to focus long enough to write something that would get noticed by The Slate.Com. That’s usually how it goes for this Ninth Ward brother. I guess I just go up and down. This is my new normality. There is no need to dwell on either direction. I’m just here to blog………..

I would like to start off by saying goodbye to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. I am not surprised President Bush is still defending him. Someone would have had to shoot a video of Gonzales beating one of the fired attorneys in the head with a baseball bat in order for Bush to think he did anything wrong. I am expecting a Medal of Honor ceremony at any minute. Am I the only person that notices Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice are the only ones in the administration that haven’t been suspected of anything? That’s because a brother or sister can’t get that high by being shady.

Welcome to all the media, politicians and fake community leaders are here or on the way for the Katrina anniversary. Speeches full of empty promises and hope are just what we need. Next year there needs to be a rule put in place that says you either have to be a current resident, relocated because of the storm, or have had to be here at least a month out of the year doing something to help people. If you don’t fit into any of these categories then stay your ass home. People who have been let down by their government on all levels shouldn’t be used for propaganda and political gain. If you want to go interview or speak with some folks down in Violet in a trailer, bring them some sheetrock or roofing material. Their Road Home check will be even better. We need money and leadership not speeches.

I was happy to meet some other New Orleans bloggers at the Rising Tide gathering Friday. Other commitments kept me away on Saturday and Sunday but I will be trying to pay more attention to the local scene. I must admit that I like this blog being more of a renegade site for my free expression. It’s not all about New Orleans all the time.

Yes, he was stupid. I know I said I didn’t feel sorry for him because he couldn’t play football right now. I think he deserves what he gets because he should have made better decisions. I also don’t want to sound hypocritical either but some of these people act like Mike Vick was in the bushes with O.J. I like animals too but you can’t be calling for the brother to be castrated and all that foolishness. Some people take things too far. That must be the same fanatics in the canoes passing up humans during the flood to go rescue squirrels.

I would like to welcome Mr. Michael Darnell to the New Orleans City Council. Please don’t feel any pressure to come up with any master plan or make big improvements. Some of your colleagues have been behind that desk for years and haven’t come up with anything. Why should you stress about anything? I will be happy if you just stay out of the news and not give a construction contract to your cousin who doesn’t have a construction company.

Would it be too much to ask for the city to take down all the school zone signs near schools that haven’t reopened? I guess that’s not possible since a school can open in New Orleans at anytime and no one knows where the hell they are going to be located. Now that I think about it, we should just make the speed limit 20 miles per hour everyday city wide from September to June. No one knows where kids go to school anymore.

We Need A Test Run

In a few days Hurricane Dean should be slamming into Mexico twice. A system of high pressure is sitting over the Gulf Coast and is pushing the storm on a westward path. All of the local officials and media are scaling back their paranoia now that we have a good idea it’s not coming this way. I know I have regular readers of this blog who follow my mood swings. I just want to inform you all that I have not gone completely crazy with my next statement.

I am disappointed that a storm hasn't come closer to us.

Before you look up my HMO and find the name of my primary care physician let me explain. Right now there are about 300,000 people living in the city. Some of them are just getting back in their homes. Others are building bigger and better before. There are hundreds of people who have better jobs and better opportunity. Jim Letten and his team are finally exposing the corruption. The Saints season is about to start and I think we have a shot at the Super Bowl. On a personal note, my professional status is better than it’s ever been and my neighborhood is coming back to life with every Road Home closing. The people that live here have truly accepted the fact that we are going to pay some dues for the next few years in order to revive the place we love. With all of that being said, I still feel shaky knowing that the Corps of Engineers is responsible for protecting me. Call me crazy but I have ZERO confidence in anything the federal government does outside of bombing nations that support terrorism. Wait….we got that wrong too. I honestly don’t trust them and I think they just put the same faulty floodwalls right back hoping they won't fail. Unless we get some tropical conditions in here to see if the plan is faulty, no one will be able to truly complain. Hell, our city leaders probably won’t complain anyway but a brother can dream. Now, I don’t want a Cat-5 storm to come up the mouth of the river and wash it all away. I just need a decent wind and a good tidal surge. I need to know if the pumps are going to fail. I need to know if the city is going to be able to evacuate people. I need to know how long before they let me back to my house if the storm passes and nothing happens. I realize Dean was a little too big for a test but I am sure there is a little cousin out there that won’t be bigger than a weak category one that could come through here. We all could use a good reason to visit our refugee family members in other cities while we see what’s going to happen. It’s either going to make everyone more confident or more aggravated. We need to know either way.

P.S.

Is Kathleen Blanco going to call a state of emergency every time a hurricane forms in the Atlantic? I know she wasn’t prepared for Katrina but damn. Are they trying to give everybody a heart attack?

This Was Not The Plan

At what point does keeping it real become stupidity?

Any moment now Michael Vick will be making an agreement to plead guilty to dog fighting charges and will probably end up in prison for a few months. Sunday night, 60 Minutes ran that “stop snitching” piece where those kids sat around talking about how they would never tell on anybody. There are going to be many black people are going to say that Mike Vick is a victim of the racist justice system of America. They are going to talk about how his people turned on him and the government was targeting him because he is a high profile black man. I have no fear in being labeled a sellout by making the statement that I have zero sympathy for him at all. I wish I could give him three years of community service (you know I don’t like jail) for being stupid. I was also ashamed at anyone who got on TV Sunday night and defended a practice that results in killers walking around the neighborhood. If you want to know why, I will be happy to tell you.

For the majority of the history of this country our people didn’t have a chance to do anything but accept a second class position. Our entire basis for the Civil Rights movement was to get to a point in this country where a black man would be judged on the same level and receive the same status as a white man. We were born here, we live and work here, and we pay taxes here. That means we are due the same rights and privileges as any other man. Am I right about that? If I am then the only question I can come up with is after all the blood, sweat and tears have been shed to reach this point, why are we always trying to defend dumb behavior and our willingness to not follow the law. Do you realize how stupid we look to the rest of the world to actually go on TV and basically say its ok for murderers and criminals to do what they want to us because we have a code of not snitching? Is there really a human being in the country with the money and access that Mike Vick has who doesn’t understand how America feels about dogs? He never heard of PETA or the SPCA? Am I the only brother who thinks not fighting dogs is a small price to pay for the blessing of moving all your family and friends out of poverty? How can you defend that? We have got to stop being hypocritical and start having some standards for ourselves.

Somebody has got to have the guts to tell the people of the hood that no one outside the hood thinks the way you do. You can’t smoke weed every single day and get a really good job. You can’t have your baby daddy’s name tattooed on your forehead and go to an interview. Every now and then, you might have to get a haircut, wear slacks and tuck your damn shirt in. That comes along with getting an opportunity to take part in the game. We fought for a seat at the big table and now we want everyone to be cool with us eating off of the floor. You can’t have it both ways. The moral of the story is this, if the goal of the struggle was for thugs to prey on us, black politicians to rob us blind, and rich black people to have loyal support even when they do something to embarrass us, we could have just stayed segregated and let Martin, Malcolm, Medgar and everyone else who gave their life grow old and watch their grandkids “make it rain” in the club.

That’s how I feel about it.

Rising Tide......I Hope You Are Ready For Me

Sad but Necessary

If someone would have asked me who was the one local politician I would have never thought to get indicted it would have been Oliver Thomas. I’m truly shocked to hear that he is going to plead guilty to a corruption charge and resign from the city council. I like Councilman Thomas enough to even defend him if he wasn’t going to plead guilty. I guess it’s not a lie. This is really a sad day for the city. I don’t see anyone on the horizon who I think is deserving of being mayor more than him. However, you have to look at things on a larger scale. To put it in perspective you have to do three things. The first thing you have to do is ride around the city and look at the condition of the infrastructure. The second thing you have to do is pick up the classified section of the newspaper and look at the professional job section. It’s kind of thin. Third, you have to think about all the people from New Orleans that can’t live here because there is not enough opportunity for advancement. After that you have to ask yourself how many people wanted to start a business here only to get frustrated and move to another city to make it work. How many companies wanted to open a branch or an office here but got tired of the political hassle and just said forget it and went to another area? How different would the tour, the classified section and the population be if everything here was fair and square? With that in mind I guess Councilman Thomas and any other person who puts us in negative light has to go. Nobody wants to come here and invest there money in a place full of shady dealings.

The question now is who else did Pampy rat on.

To My Ladies

Pour out some liquor and I reminisce
'Cos through the drama,I can always depend on my mama
And when it seems that I'm hopeless
You say the words that can get me back in focus

 Dear Mama……Tupac

I am closing out my week of positive blogging with a dedication to special people. Today’s blog is dedicated to all the women in life who helped raise me. I still struggle everyday with the fact that you were all so close by and I lost that all at the same time. I would like to thank you all for helping me become the man I am today and the better one I hope to become tomorrow. Lord, I miss those kitchen table conversations. I’m going to need to drive and get me one. It’s going to be one of those days today. It’s been a really good week for me. It just goes to show you that when you dealing with a traumatic experience one quick moment of thought can just jump on your back and make you sad even when good stuff is going on. Oh well….I have it under control mama if you happen to read this. Here’s to my ladies.

Bernadine Harris

Mildred Harris

Geraldine Louvier

Geraldine Baker

Iola Butler

Anna Thomas

Lenell Harris

Ozella Honore

Shirley Kelly

Big Uncle

This blog is dedicated today to Pastor Arthur Harris of the Greater Beulah Land Baptist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana. His church building was destroyed in the Lower Ninth Ward because of Katrina. That forced him to relocate to a new location…….his living room. That’s right. His living room is serving as a full church. There’s even a piano up there. I am not the most church going brother in the world but I respect the fact he was willing to turn his own home into a place of worship for his members. They all should be commended for staying dedicated. Most likely all of them are starting from scratch. This is just one of many stories like this in the city that gets no recognition from the local news. Always remember that for every story you read about someone in New Orleans doing something wrong, there are three stories like this one. That’s why today is dedicated to a good man like Pastor Harris. He’s down here trying to help people.

Plus, he’s my dad’s younger brother, which means he has #2 Harris man spot behind the older Cliff and in front of the younger one. I don’t mind following behind those two cats. Here’s to my Big Uncle. I promise I will visit one day. If you are riding down Broad St. and see his sign, stop and say hello. Be sure to have your bible with you and be prepared because he always is.

If this clip doesn't do anything for you then we probably can't be friends.