New Orleans is the world capital for jacked up circumstances.
Last night I was sitting at my favorite spot celebrating Chris Paul, David West and the rest of the Hornets absolute ass kicking of the Dallas Mavericks for our first NBA playoff series win ever. It was even sweeter that we beat a Texas team for it. I was starting to plan my budget for season tickets next year.
So what happens today?
One of our favorite native sons Avery Johnson gets fired. We can never just celebrate without a hint of bad news in it. Of all the coaches we could have beat bad enough to get them fired it had to be him.
They shouldn’t have fired Avery. It’s not his fault he’s got a weed head small forward and a big German who falls down and slides 20 feet if someone touches his finger. Now I got to hope another coach gets fired so Avery can get another job.
I told someone I wasn’t going to write about this Obama/Jeremiah Wright thing. I got something else on my mind more serious than that. I was prepared to let it go but after watching a few hours of news shows I have to get a few things off my chest.
First off let me say I am not really into this presidential race anymore until the primary is over because I am tired of hearing the same old thing. I can say this however; this whole Jeremiah Wright thing is ridiculous to me. I am not Obama’s speech writer. If I was at the moment I would simply say the following. Anyone who judges my whole agenda based on something my pastor says is racist. If you want to know why I think it’s racist I will tell you why. The whole premise behind the Reverend Wright story is that because Barak Obama went to his church he automatically believes and follows the same agenda as Reverend Wright like he’s some kind of clone in a cult even though he has said repeatedly that he denounces the statements that keep getting played over and over again. If you want to accept that then fine.
Hillary Clinton has been married to Bill Clinton for almost her entire life. To me that is a closer relationship than Obama and Reverend Wright have. Bill Clinton had oral sex performed on him in the White House during work hours. By the same standards you are holding Barak Obama to for Reverend Wright, I can assume that if Hillary wins the nomination and becomes president, some young male intern will be under her desk a few times a week. Doesn’t that sound stupid to you? Of course it sounds stupid. It sounds stupid because no one is judging Hillary solely on the actions of her life partner yet Barak Obama is getting judged based on a man that’s not even his blood relative. That’s a double standard and I know he can’t say it because that kind of truth will only piss off certain people more.
Now that I have out of the way I want to address Mr. Obama’s approach to this whole thing. Although I have no bigger heroes in life than my dad and my grandfather, I realize that I live in a different time with different circumstances and I am around a different and diverse group of people. I have the same core principles of how to behave but there is no way I could have the exact same outlook as my grandfather who went through The Great Depression, World War II and Jim Crow or my dad who went to Vietnam and grew up in the South through the Civil Rights Movement.
I like to think of myself as the evolution of the Harris man. I would hope my teenage brother or one of my nephews or my son would evolve in thinking beyond where I am. I can understand how Barak Obama can have aspects of his life that were guided by Reverend Wright’s council but not see the world the exact same way. However, I would never ever denounce or apologize for anything those men said out of respect for what they went through in life. That‘s why Reverend Wright came back. This is not about Obama. This is about people trying to minimize his life and years of service to his community. Most older black men base their attitudes about people and life on things they seen or went through. Most of them keep that agenda and it’s probably because they look around and don’t really see a big difference in their eyes.
I may not have the same vision or approach but I respect theirs because I know how they got it. You may not believe this but if I was on the job interview of a lifetime and someone pulled out a tape of my daddy or a man in my life I respected on that level that sounded angry and asked me to denounce it my response would be “well, I guess he was angry that day” then I would get up and leave. No job is worth minimizing the life and struggles of your people, not even the presidency. If it wasn’t for the strength to get through those struggles then we wouldn’t be at this moment with Obama having a chance to win. Plus, I don’t know what hood you drive through or live in but most of the stuff Reverend Wright talks about are very current events. I know some people won’t agree with me and that’s fine. If calling your grandmother and grandfather angry and delusional gets you a promotion then go for it. I’m not doing it and neither should Barak. He shouldn’t have to because he’s an American and if he is the most qualified then he shouldn’t have to get rid of everyone in his life that white America isn’t comfortable with to win.
If Hillary doesn’t have to hold a press conference to promise she will never get a young intern to fool around with at her desk then Barak shouldn’t have to keep reassuring everyone he loves America every other day.
Many people will say that the race for the Democratic nomination is still dragging along because Barak Obama is having trouble putting Hillary Clinton away.
Some people will argue that it’s still going on because Hillary Clinton won’t accept defeat and is refusing to back out of the race.
I say that this race is still going on because the Democrats are stupid. If you had a winner take all system like the Republicans Obama would have been the nominee after winning twelve in a row. This is why you guys can’t win big elections. You are always trying to play both sides. How did Hillary get all those delegates if she lost so much? Conversely, how did she win a big ass state like Texas and not even shrink Obama’s lead? The candidates are not the problem. This dumb process is.
This is why you couldn’t vote to start the end of the war. You are too worried about making everyone happy. Sometimes leadership has to make a decision and let a few people be upset. George Bush has been getting away with it for 8 years. His approval rating might be low because his decisions have failed terribly but you never hear anyone say how they wish he was trying to make everyone happy. If people think you are going to play both sides of the fence they are going to think you are weak and McCain is going to be president. He’s going to have another month off riding around on the straight talk express and these two will still be fussing even though they agree on almost every issue.
Make up your minds already. Call a meeting with the super delegates. Play rock, paper, scissors. Just get it over with.
I meet allot of different people from all over the city through my job. When people in New Orleans meet for the first time these days, they introduce themselves and share their Pre-Katrina status. No one seems to be in the same place during the same thing. Last week there was a lady in one of my trainings that happens to go to my grandmother’s old church in the Lower Ninth Ward. She is a transplant who moved here after the storm to help people and she just joined the church recently. I gave her my grandmother’s name and ever since then she’s been sending me emails to come to service one weekend and talk to some of the people over there. I will not be going to any of the services. I hope I don’t like a jerk for saying that but I have a rare condition called Bad Katrina News Syndrome. I just made that up so none of you therapist better not steal my name. I have two parents, two sisters, and two brothers. We all lived in the same house for more than 25 years. My grandmother lived next door. Out of those eight people I am the only one back in the city. Do you know what it’s like to replay this story over and over again every time I see someone that knows one of them? “How’s your mama?” “How’s your daddy?” “What happened to your grandma?” “Where’s your brother?” “What are you going to do with the house?”. It happens all the time. I remember when I used to go check on the house. Whenever I would go down there it would take less than a minute for someone to drive up asking questions. My cousin Veronica found me on the internet and asked about everybody. It took me two weeks to reply to her email. I get so tired of doing it that sometimes I see friends of theirs and purposely go the other way or turn my head so they won’t see me and I have to get into the story all over again. It’s not the people fault. They are just being concerned. It’s not my family’s fault either. I guess that’s what happens when you are the only dummy to move back down here. At least if I was out of town and people ask me I could chalk it up to being nosey and cuss them out. I can’t do that to my distance cousins that find me on the internet. I can’t do that to those old ladies that used to stand at the bus stop with my grandma or one of my mama ex-coworkers. Oh well, I guess I should do like the rest of these folks around me who didn’t really lose anything but material items and act like everything is cool again. Maybe the next time someone asks me how my grandmother is doing I will show them a picture of my new bathroom. At least I won’t have to look at the sad look on their face when I tell them what happened. I’m not tripping about it. This is nothing to a soldier. This is all part of my everyday routine these days.
It was a rough weekend and it’s been a rough week so far. The primary reason is that I can’t shake this cough. I missed both of the festivals this weekend. The other reason is that ever since someone stole my bankcard and went on a shopping spree my financial clock is off and it seems little things keep happening to keep me broke. I am flying on American Airlines Monday and I can’t find the inspection report on the plane I am flying on. Gas is 3.22 in New Orleans and people were wearing jackets this morning in mid-April. Last but not least, I can’t figure out what is making my face break out like I am 12 years old again and the fact I am obsessing over it so much is making me depressed. I guess I shouldn’t sound like that. The new season of Deadliest Catch started tonight. Plus, my oldest friend Big G just got his vocational degree and worked his way from the street life and trouble. That overrides all of that. Too bad I am about to kill that heartwarming story with this other foolishness.
The more Bob Johnson from talks the more I am starting to wonder if Mrs. Johnson was the real reason he made all of that money.
I have a question for the FBI. When are we going to see some local white politicians arrested for corruption? Look, I don’t feel sorry for Derrick Sheppard just like I didn’t feel sorry for Oliver Thomas. The amount of money between both of their cases isn’t twenty thousand dollars. We are lacking too many things and have missed too many opportunities for this kind of thing to have started with Pampy. White people in this city control too much money to not get some of the under the table money too. Speaking of Pampy, whatever happened to the money he delivered to Una Anderson’s husband when she was on the school board? I read that in the Times Picayune so I know it’s true.
Brothers, it’s time to stop looking so pissed off. I went to Wal-Mart this weekend and every cat in there was looking at me like I am the one who shot their cousin. I know we live in a rough city but did you ever stop to think we might be making it rougher by always looking to kick the next brother’s ass? Besides, most of the guys who look all angry were walking with women that had three shopping carts full of groceries. If I had enough money these days to buy one full basket I would not only be smiling. I would be doing the running man in the check out aisle.
Sisters, you know there is nothing in this world I adore more than you. Please forgive me. I am buying a taser. The next time I see one of you with a shirt that’s too small, your belly hanging over your pants and a rag on your head in public, someone is receiving voltage. I will set it to low so you won’t get hurt but someone has to stop this. There is a difference between a head wrap and a damn rag. If you just refuse to take a few minutes to comb your hair before you head out, do your kids a favor and leave them at home. There was a girl in Wal-Mart with a smedium sized yellow shirt and matching yellow rag on her head. If her two sons were tall enough to see over the steering wheel they would have left her in there.
I hope this doesn’t sound prejudice. I am just curious. We have thousands of migrant workers here in the city. I have no problem with that at all because we have too much work available and I don’t expect a bunch of Americans to show up all of a sudden to fill all those positions. The question I have is this. Where do they learn all these special skills. How did a 20 year old Mexican man who has spent two years trying to get established in America have time to learn how to wire an entire house? When they have the time to learn home elevation, plumbing, plus a/c and heating repair? How did the entire town learn to do drywall? I went to school in America my whole life and no one taught us shit. We need to send the brothers to Mexico for training so they can come back and find a job.
This is not an endorsement but the longer this presidential election goes along the more and more I am convinced that Barak Obama will be the next president. The man is truly special. How else can you explain a brother that can make a white woman cry, have a radical black pastor and not denounce him, call his white grandma a bigot and call Republicans bitter people who cling to guns, the bible and hate of others yet still be ahead or close in every poll. A man who can get away with this in American politics can surely get the Sunni and Shiite talking.
This video is dedicated to Big G for his graduation. How come we never got our full Wu Tang concert in New Orleans?
We found this school to apply to. Some friends have a child there and by all reports is a good school. It’s not that far from the house so she won’t have to get up like she is going to the shipyard. That was a worry for me. It’s a Catholic school and I have a public school mentality but this school is established and stable. I feel good that the faculty won’t be experimenting with my baby trying out all of their new techniques hoping to impress the state board so they can take over my school charters. If she gets accepted into this school I think I can live with it.
The problem is that the pre-k program only holds 80 kids. My application was the 44th one received. Once the applications pass 80, everyone goes into a lottery. We won’t know the lottery results into the middle of July. That means that I have to come up with another option and hope that the second option isn’t as loaded with applications as the first. It’s looking like if she doesn’t get into this school then it’s off to the Recovery District or spending money on another private school. Either option sucks to me. When I was turning in the application, the receptionist who took reviewed it told me I needed to either change my income amount or increase the number of people living in my household. I’m thinking to myself what the hell is going on in this city when a man gets penalized for making extra money. Normally I would feel bad for lying on the application and taking a spot from a less fortunate child. Then I thought about it and said what the hell. It’s not like I am that far from being poor myself.
I am starting to think that the city just doesn’t care if the working and middle class live in the suburbs and let the city rot from the inside. I could move twenty minutes away from where I live now and send her to a state of the art school for free. I know too many people who live within the city limits that use too much of their income to pay for private schools so they can help their kids escape the Recovery School District. Some people say the charters schools are better and have all this innovation and creative methods of teaching. That could be true but since the only thing I know of those is the flyers stuck in the grass at the stoplights, I can’t endorse them yet. Someone is going to read this and think I am tripping when I say that there is no way this would happen if it wasn’t little poor dark children going to these schools. Most white people in New Orleans don’t send their kids to public school unless it’s a magnet like Lusher or Ben Franklin. All the uppity negroes who are supposed to be leaders send their kids to private school. None of them care. If they did they would never have given Lusher the Fortier building after Katrina. That was the biggest and least damaged public high school building on the Eastbank and I am still pissed about seeing those kids in the 7th Ward standing at the bus stop at 6:30 AM to make it all the way to Edna Karr across the river. No one is experimenting with their children. Those will be the same people a few years from now accusing these guinea pig children of being animals and ruining the city and we’ll have to build a bigger prison and tear down some more public housing.
If you think this post is negative or unfair…my bad. I guess I should apologize for thinking a city that lost so many decent families because the parents didn’t want to bring their kids back to this school calamity would have that in mind when they started making plans on how to make things better. You shouldn’t have to take a week off just to research the locations and qualifications of every school in the city.
Tomorrow when I leave work. I am heading to my cigar shop and buying the biggest, smelliest cigar I can and enjoy it in honor of my blog friend and huge supporter of this blog Ashley Morris. I went to his page tonight and found out he passed away. I met Ashley once at last year's Rising Tide event but I communicated with him at least once or twice a week. I am sorry we never got to enjoy our cigars together. We should have made those plans sooner. You never know what tomorrow is going to bring. I would pour out some liquor for you but I know you would want me to drink it instead.
"They want people to pay for their incompetence and their mistakes. What they need to be is aggressive about finding the underpayments," he said. "People relied, to their detriment, on their expertise and rebuilt their houses, and now they want to squeeze this money back out of them." Frank Silvestri, co-chairman of the Citizens' Road Home Action Team
First I got screwed by the Corps of Engineers. They built a sub par levee wall and it collapsed and ruined what I thought was a pretty good life. Ever since then I have been putting up with all kinds of bullshit from local government, the media, people in the area who weren’t flooded, and a host of other uninformed and stupid people. We have been through it all to get to this point. ICF is the company that our incompetent ex governor selected to manage the Road Home program that is designed to help people rebuild or settle their lives in other places after Katrina and Rita. I am pretty sure she selected ICF and paid them a incredible amount of money because the company wasn’t from the state so they could be heartless bastards and make the process so complicated that many people wouldn’t want to deal with the hassle and the state could keep that money. They also made the process almost impossible to cheat. They wanted deeds, birth certificates, DNA samples, photos, and anything else they could ask for to disqualify you for eligibility. This company had no problem telling a person whose house was completely washed away from water that there were getting nothing. After awhile the citizens got angry and stories of the evil company started coming up everywhere. In their effort to keep the politicians from doing what they should have done in the first place and hold them accountable, they started speeding up the process. Now they claim that because the process was accelerated they paid thousands of people an average of 35,000 too much and they want to collect this money back.
I know allot of people who have went through the Road Home process. I don't know anyone who got the maximum amount. First of all, none of us understood the process to begin with. The decision on what we got was all on ICF. I don't think the folks in Baton Rouge that selected that company understood either. They only knew you were trying to discourage everybody and that turned them on. I am comfortable with the thought that there wasn’t one person that came into that office and knowingly beat the system. All applicants did was submit their paperwork and wait. Some people had to go back dozens of times with more documentation. My grandmother passed away during the storm. The house she owned was on the same lot as my parents' house. My parents and my aunt damn near had to bring her remains into the office before they would even start the process on their application. Secondly, I am one of the people who believe that everybody should have gotten the maximum anyway. That would have been the right thing to do. This is poetic justice to me. It’s 2008 and I still can’t believe how many people act like this wasn't a government made disaster. All of this could have been avoided by adding up all the destroyed homes and dividing the money evenly to the homeowners. If you had other funds to rebuild or relocate beyond that then so be it. I have said it before and I will say it again, if I sit here and make a list of everything, and everybody I lost during this foolishness, not only should we get the maximum Road Home payout but our debt should be cleared and our kids should be allowed to go to any college for free. Maybe then it would be even.
A strange thing happens when you lose all your possessions. Whatever money you get to rebuild is actually money you need. There’s no saving for a rainy day. This is the rainy day. I can guarantee you that most of that money is spent. These people commenting on some of these websites make me sick accusing someone of trying to get over. Yes, I bought a big television with some of my Road Home money because I lost a big television when that raggedy flood wall broke. We are not getting over. We are getting whole again. If a man had a Cadillac in his driveway that he only drove on Sundays and it got flooded during Katrina then let him buy another one as long as his house is finished. If a family in Lower Plaquemines purchased a new shrimp boat with their money then call me for the first boil. I would hate to think that the same government that flooded me out is going to allow this corporate monster to come in and destroy my credit because of a mistake that I had nothing to do with. ICF needs to take the lost out of the millions they already pimped out of the state.
Contrary to what some people may think, my disgust for this process is not just about the Lower Ninth Ward, or New Orleans East. It's not all about the black community either. There is a group of educated but uninformed people that live around here who have pre conceived notions of what is really going on with this recovery. If you think this is about some poor people looking for a handout, think about it like this. The 900 million dollars ICF has received probably could have rebuilt every public building in St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parish. This whole thing has been a joke for everyone and if everyone would see it that way it wouldn't keep happening. I have a good idea. Today I am heading to the Crawfish Festival in St. Bernard Parish. Why don’t someone from ICF go down there to make that speech to the crowd and lets see what happens. I am sure the folks will give them a warm Chalmette reception right before they are dipped into a big pot of crawfish water.
I have to make a correction on something that I said in my previous post. I make jokes and suggestions that somehow if I in public office there would be this scandal involving women or something crazy. I joke around like that to keep people from asking me about getting involved in political stuff. Politics fascinate me but I have no interest in running or being part of a campaign. The truth of the matter is that I would never do anything in the public eye to put a stain on my daddy’s name. It's been a long time since I had the lack of self control needed to do the kinds of things that get these cats in trouble. If Katrina wasn't strong enough to pull me into the dark side then I am sure the power of public office couldn't do it. For the chance to make the lives of the people in the city better I would even give up drinking the whole time I was in office. My character and principles are bigger than I write about. Hell, I could be mayor. I could be president if I felt like it.
I'm not trying to question Bill Richardson's endorsement of Barak Obama. My question is more of a general one concerning endorsements. Didn't Bill Richardson only get around two percent of the vote when he was in the race? Why does the media make it such a big deal when candidates get endorsements from losers? America wasn't feeling John Kerry so much that they voted for Bush again. How is that endorsement so special?
I know John McCain's advisers are hearing the concerns about his age. I just hope that he doesn’t start trying to start adding some slang to his speeches. People over 50 should never use slang even if its something their generation invented. I don't want to hear anyone referring to him as John McCizzleNizzle.
If Chris Paul wins the NBA MVP that he rightfully deserves it will be the greatest achievement in New Orleans sports since Rickey Jackson played a game on Sunday with screws in his face after wrecking his car that Friday before the game. Takes one tough SOB to pull that off. Rickey should be in the Hall of Fame. Look at these stats. I am dedicating this post to The City Champ, my favorite professional player of all time in any sport.
I don’t want to say my bank’s name because my case is still pending. Let’s just say there is “One” number in the name. That commercial about hassle free banking is a joke. Here it is that someone stole my bank card and the operators at their customer service center keep talking to me like I stole my own money. After having the same bank account for ten years there was a television I wanted to buy bad enough to mess up my light bill money? I hope they ship your jobs to Indonesia. Of course, if anyone in the fraud department happens to read this, please remember this is only for entertainment.
In about two weeks all of the big four housing developments will be torn down completely. That’s when the real fun starts. Residents of the Iberville Project you are now on the clock. Please find another place to live. They are selling three hundred thousand dollar condos in the building directly in front of you. Like I said before, it’s 2008 and we don’t have one new school building and the public hospital plans are still being discussed but I am supposed to believe they are going to rebuild four major housing developments in two years time? If this happens I will not only be surprised, I will shave all my hair off.
I see you have a little trouble up there in Detroit. Wouldn’t it have been better to just admit you were getting your freak on and only had that one thing to deal with? I know the politics game requires that you don’t step down for the perjury charge but I wanted to ask you to step down anyway. I realize I don’t live in Detroit. Hell, I am having problems with my own vagina friendly mayor here in New Orleans. I don’t have a chance to vote against you but I’m sure if I was in Detroit right now brothers would be walking away from me because I would be ranting and raving against you any chance I got. I will give you the two reasons why you should step down in my opinion.
The first reason is the same reason I would never run for office. See, I know and am very comfortable with all my vices and weaknesses. I know I have the type of personality that would have tried to have a stripper party full of Crown Royal. I would never hold office until I knew I was fully ready to let go of those flaws. Why embarrass my family like that? Then I know we have a problem with how brothers view and treat our women in society. Since politics are where we have set the bar for our best and brightest, I believe that any man or woman who holds office should be morally solid and at least have the will to not break his vows. If you were single the text messages would be kind of funny to me. Every man can slip every now and then. When you slip then you should leave the public eye. Your transgressions don’t make you a bad brother. They do make you unsuitable to lead and represent the aspirations of the people who support you.
The second reason is that those people I was just talking about have a habit of putting their efforts towards protecting people like you. We can’t really help it. We find our drive in the actions of our public figures. The problem with that is that usually the figures themselves can be selfish and have trouble letting go of the power they have to benefit the group. That means the group looks stupid and accepting of destructive behavior. I’m tired of throwing my support behind people who don’t have enough sense to not be taped on camera, wiretapped, or use the city issued phone to send freaky text messages. It’s not a good look for you to give a speech about being called a nigga after messing over your wife and have a room full of people stand up applauding like they were listening to the Martin Luther King speech at the Selma March.
Brother Kwame, don’t do to the people of Detroit what William Jefferson did to us. Get out the way brother, let another person take over as mayor and take care of your personal issues without holding all of your citizens hostage. I got love for you brother but you shouldn’t be the mayor.
I would not be a good New Orleans blogger if I didn't pay respects to the one and only Al Copeland, the founder of Popeyes chicken. Like Harry Lee, I don't know if any other city could have created a dude like Al. One of the best guilty pleasures in the world is a three piece spicy dinner from Popeyes with a pineapple Big Shot cold drink.
Remember when Al Copeland but those Christmas lights on his house and people would drive pass all night like a tourist attraction?I remember back in the day when my boys used to say Al Copeland had the speedboat that could make it to Cuba in 30 minutes. My first real date was at Copeland's Restaurant on St. Charles Avenue.
Who could forget the Popeye and Pals cartoon show on Channel 4 growing up. "One Two Three Roll em!!!!"
In the last few years the city has lost Al Copeland, Buddy D, Harry Lee, Tootie Montana and Austin Leslie. If you add Krauss, and Masion Blanche being closed, we are slowly becoming a city full of regular people and regular places. We need to start running old SeafoodCity commercials or something.
Before you read any of my personal account of trying to get a child registered in school here, I want to give a shout out to my blog friend Leigh who's been all over the school situation and is probably being followed and investigated by the secret society as we speak. Also, I stole the picture of this application directly from G's page. Thank you ladies very much. I am now living the New Orleans school application nightmare so this won't be my last post about it unless I have a stroke from fussing so much.
Let me paint a picture for you. Say there is a nice young family living in Texas since the storm. The area they live in and the school their kids go to are good but they are homesick. It’s two and a half years later and they finally found a place they could afford and decent jobs. They decide to wait until the end of the school year to move back so the kids are not affected too much. Finally, in July they move back to New Orleans. They like the neighborhood, the jobs are cool and they feel good about being home. Then, they start trying to put their children in school but realize that the best public schools in the city either have a two year waiting list or stopped taking applications six months before they moved back. Imagine the feelings of guilt these parents must have knowing they are about to send their kids to a school that pales in comparison to the one they just left in another state or city. To be fair, there are probably more good schools than the ones with the waiting list but these parents would have two problems. The first problem is that they probably won’t have an idea about where these schools are located and what the criteria is to get in. The second problem is they all have stopped taking applications too.
I sent an email to the city and the school board with a few suggestions. I think it would be a good idea to have the same registration dates for every public school and that date should be sometime in June. Our population is changing too much daily for the current process to be fair to parents. The second suggestion is that people shouldn’t be allowed to register a child for school unless that child is actually the age required to go to school. There is no way pre-k programs should have a two year waiting list. People are registering their kids for school when they are two years old and I am sitting here feeling like a bad parent for actually waiting for my daughter to turn four. Waiting might be a costly judgment call. The last suggestion is this. I think the city should spend the money and create a map of every available school in the city with phone numbers and class ratio and mail it to every house in the city regardless if kids live there or not. The person at that address may have ten family members about to return home. We should do it every six months or until the situation is stable (whatever that means). There are schools open that I only found out about by seeing them in the Mardi Gras parade. Who has the time to track every single opening or new charter? Of course, I could always send my baby to the school around the corner from the house. Since they just started cleaning old furniture out of it recently, I don't think it's going to be ready by the time she graduates elementary school. She'll probably end up going across town to a school I have to pay for and have to get up at the crack of dawn like she's going to work in the ship yard.
Before you read this keep in mind that I am only 33 years old. The best speech I ever saw in person was Cornell West at UNO. The best speech I ever watched on television was Jesse Jackson at the Million Man March. Giving the circumstances of the speech today, Barak Obama may have topped those. I’m not sure how everyone is going to take the words he spoke today. I have heard enough of Limbaugh and Hannity to realize that not everyone felt like I did. Either way the cards are now all on the table. America now knows that Barak Obama represents all people of America even the black ones. Since the campaign started all I wanted was for someone to acknowledge that my community has certain issues and concerns that are probably not shared or understood by the rest of the population. I think it’s fair to address those things in the general conversation of American politics since we are Americans. Up until the last week that wasn’t happening. Now, Reverend Wright may be brutally honest about how he feels about race in this country and I am sure that there will be some race neutral black people who will accuse him of destroying Obama’s campaign. I believe that this was the only way those feelings ever get brought to the table. The way he delivered the sentiment may be uncomfortable but those feelings are real for allot of people. If Obama wins and we have the open dialogue on race that he envisions Rev Wright would have been a catalyst for something special in this country even if he didn’t mean to do it in that manner. I think Obama was very fair today. He did everything he could to explain the existence of people who look like he does and at the same time understand the feelings of the folks that look like the people who raised him. His background allows him to do that comfortably. You can’t get more balanced than that. The ball is in white America’s court. As a black man I know and understand the philosophy that sometimes the actions of one brother can affect the group. I will be pissed if Reverend Wright is the sole reason someone doesn’t vote for Obama but I will understand that. White America has a chance to destroy that mind state. You can judge Barak Obama on his policies and if you don’t like him vote for Hillary or McCain. That is fair. Black people should vote based on the same criteria. On the other hand, you could log on to Youtube and watch as much Reverend Wright clips as possible. Then you can listen to talk radio all day and make up your mind who to vote for based on everything but the actual candidate. If that happens then I will move on knowing that my country is closer to the Katrina aftermath than it is to the Iowa caucuses.
Sex scandals in politics really make you realize just how much personal sacrifice it takes to be a successful political family. Take the governor of New York’s wife for example. She has to stand behind that dummy and have this look like she understands and supports him. I am sure they will be making a tape like Kwame and his wife in Detroit. I guess you have to make some tough choices to gain power and influence.
Don’t you wish just one time during a press conference where the guy is standing there asking for forgiveness, one of these women would snap and break a chair over his head? Would anyone be mad at her? If Hillary would have slapped Bill when she found out about Monica she would be the president already. I don't know any women personally that's about to forgive over thirty grand a year for getting your freak on. Some cats get have to sleep on the sofa for taking twenty dollars out of the strip club ATM. I don’t want to condone violence but I don’t know if I could stand there next to the guy that spent over 4000.00 a session with a prostitute without at least balling my fist up. I couldn’t stand next to my own brothers after that. I have seen some FINE women in my lifetime. I don’t know if I have ever seen 4000.00 a date fine. If she’s out here in New Orleans I don’t want to meet her. With gas prices, bills, a recession, the cost of food and Crown Royal going up, and possible school tuition, it would take me five years to pay for our date and twenty years to get over the fact I spent that much on sex. At least Bill Clinton and Kwame used status and talked their way into shame. You are the governor of New York. I am sure there was someone out there who was impressed enough by that to do it for free or at least a job recommendation. There are guys getting dates using their construction site hard hat and you can't have fun as the governor?
"Sen. Clinton is fighting hard. She's tenacious. I respect her for that. She is working hard to win the nomination. But I want everybody to be absolutely clear. I'm not running for vice president. I'm running for president of the United States of America,"
"With all due respect. I won twice as many states as Sen. Clinton. I've won more of the popular vote than Sen. Clinton. I have more delegates than Sen. Clinton. So, I don't know how somebody who's in second place is offering vice presidency to the person who's in first place,"
Barak Obama
This week Senator Obama had to shut down any idea of him being Hillary Clinton’s running mate. I know and understand why Barak doesn’t want to be labeled the “black candidate”. The longer this thing goes on the more he has to deal with black people situations. Do you know how many times I have had to train my future supervisor? Do you know how many times I lost jobs to friends of the CEO’s cousins and nephews? The feeling of entitlement in those circles is real. I have spent lots of time working under someone that should have been working under me. Hillary just played the "accept your place" card on Obama.
See, here is where things get tricky. Maybe the people that brought this up didn’t have race in mind when they did it. They are probably just playing the political game. I guess that's what you do when you get behind and time is running out. On the other hand, have you ever heard of the leading candidate being asked to consider being the sidekick before? I don’t think so. That's offensive, dismissive and disrespectful. I would like to thank Senator Obama for responding to that foolishness the way everybody wants to at their job when this happens but needs the paycheck too bad to actually say it.
Personally, I would have added “kiss my ass” to the quote but I guess that’s why he’s running for president and I am not.
The city’s number one revenue generator just went high tech. Red light cameras are now online in the city of New Orleans. This is going to be so entertaining. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that technology and New Orleans have a bad relationship. A few years ago I got a ticket downtown. I went looking for it for months to pay for it online so I wouldn’t have to take off from work. To this day it’s still not there. I can’t wait for the story about someone getting a ticket from a camera six months after the picture was taken. I may just go hang out in traffic court during the summer. I just hope that the cameras work better than the parking meters we have. I still don’t understand why I have to park, walk to the middle of the block to pay. Then I have to hope the machine is accepting debit cards and has receipt paper in it. If all of that works out, I still have to walk back to my car, unlock it again, and put the paper on the dashboard hoping that the meter maids are not walking on the other side of the car pretending they didn’t see that little piece of paper. Don’t get the wrong idea, I am all for stopping people from running red lights. There are some intersections in the city where you not only need a camera, you need a electronic laser beam to stop some people from flying through the light. The cameras should cut down on that. In Jefferson parish people are stopping on yellow lights now. I have no remorse for anybody who endangers other people by acting like they can’t see that yellow light about to change. I just think it’s fair for people to get the ticket within a reasonable amount of time so they can actually remember being on that street. Let's hope whoever the friend of the city council was that got this contract can make it work right.
burn·outa. Physical or emotional exhaustion, especially as a result of long-term stress or dissipation.b. One who is worn out physically or emotionally, as from long-term stress.
Everyday I do the same thing. I get up in the morning. I shave, brush my teeth and take a shower. I get dressed. I take the same route to work. I park in the same spot. I get the same thing for breakfast. Talk with the same people everyday. I go home and iron clothes. I watch the same television shows. I work out then I surf the internet. I drink my evening cocktail and then I lay down on the same side of the bed every damn day. Every now and then I wake up and say "DAMN!, I am tired of this shit". It’s funny when you get a case of burnout. You don’t get much done at work. You stop reading the paper. You can’t watch the news. I can’t find anything to make me want to update this damn blog. It feels like I am in a trance. I want a hug but at the same time I don't want anyone within ten feet of me. I want to fight and get a lapdance at the exact same time. That has to be those people I see sitting at the bar in the middle of the day. When you have the issues in life I have, you need to be careful. Feelings such at this can go from "This is only a test I have passed before." to "Fuck everything. I understand how James Evans daddy felt. I am gassing up the truck and getting the hell out of here." You have to dig deep to get out of that place.
Back before a storm named Katrina hit the city I could get out of this mind state easily. There were a good amount of people around me that understood sometimes you have to take a day and go fishing or light the grill on a Wednesday afternoon. These days tend to linger longer now because things are set up to feel lonely and boring. One day I left work this week to go mess around the city for awhile. I went a few blocks and realized I had nowhere or no one to mess around with so I went back to work. I should have driven to my old crabbing spots except gas is too high to drive all the way down there and have them be closed because of the flood. Hell, if I was in another place at least I could expect to be confused about where to go. I realize everybody is supposed to be moving on and everything but this is bullshit to me.
It’s all really just another challenge on the road to a new way of life. You can’t fall back on the old ways of dealing with things. Like the old Keith Sweat and Gerald Levert song says, It's just one of them things I am going to get used to. I have to come up with new solutions. Some quiet moments of meditation is a start. Enjoying a cigar on the lake after work while listening to some old school hip hop helps a little. Talking with your boys that are dealing with the same thing is good. Throw a Hornets game in there somewhere. Having over 30 years of daddy quotes doesn't hurt. If you are lucky enough to get some kind words from special people you can get the energy back to go home and play parade or do some color by numbers with the little ones. Now I can get back to the grind for another few weeks.
re·plen·ish1. To fill or make complete again; add a new stock or supply to2. To inspire or nourish
I was truly inspired Saturday at the State of the Black Union. The even itself was cool because I am a big fan of Cornell West and Michael Eric Dyson. Plus, I got to see Dick Gregory act totally ghetto in front of all those intellectuals. That was great.
I think there could be more ideas exchanged during the event if the format was different. The way the event is setup lends itself to many applause grabbing lines. After awhile it seemed like everyone was trying to out do the other person for an ovation. I would have given everybody two minutes to answer and kept it moving. I didn’t hear too many reasonable solutions come up. It’s funny that I watch this thing every year on television and never picked up on this until I was actually there. I love W.E.B Dubois but that was a hard stretch making him the theme of a 2008 discussion on race. They could use a few radical cats mixed in there just to shake the panel up a bit.
Out of all the speakers I saw, Donna Brazile, Michael Steele and Nicole Lee from Trans Africa impressed me the most. Dr. Akbar is the person I want to have a one on one conversation with.
Our local leadership was on full display. Mayor Ray Nagin is crazy. Did he know he was on national television? Why was Cynthia Willard Lewis standing up and applauding comments about people struggling when she votes against struggling people all the time on the city council? Cleo Fields being up there made it hard to take the whole thing seriously. Me and my boy kept wondering if they checked his pockets for cash. It's a wonder I still vote. We should have let Pastor Jones, Ms. Harrison and Ms. Woodard represent the city.
Barak Obama’s nomination dominated the whole conversation. I actually have some new respect for Hillary Clinton for putting herself in front of that hostile crowd especially after they had been worked up into a frenzy. The most amazing thing about the whole Obama phenomenon is how the new school black agenda and the old school civil rights crowd have all come together for the audacity of hope. You need serious game to bring these two groups together. That tells me in the end they are all fighting for the same thing to begin with. If they can keep that understanding after the election is over and listen to one another we might get something done.
Here is what inspired me. I was sitting in the middle of the auditorium on the third level and got a good view of the entire crowd. There were elderly people. There were scores of college kids. There were men and women with their kids. There were church groups and youth groups. There were serious men and serious women. There were even some white brothers and sisters. (That must be why the local media didn’t cover it much. We are not supposed to support one another.) A large majority of these people were from the city and the Gulf Coast. When I first came back to see the city in October of 2005, the hood was so empty that me and my friend stood in the middle of St. Bernard and Broad St. and there was not a car or person in sight except for a Red Cross truck handing out water. If someone would have told me that day that in two years time we would have enough people here to host anything let alone fill an auditorium I would have thought they were crazy. It felt good to see that. I know everybody who wants to be home isn’t here and I know not everyone who should have been taking care of has been. Saturday afternoon was a moment to give ourselves a pat on the back and say we have probably come back further along than we should have with the way things have happened. For that display alone the day was great to me.
I am writing this edition drinking a long island tea and waiting for the Suns/Lakers game to come on. Please add drive through daiquiri shops as reason number 343 why I don’t want to leave the city. I am not ashamed to say that I am a Shaq apologist. Even if he plays ten minutes and runs out of breath I will only harp on his one dunk. I like how the analyst talk about Shaq not being able to run like he works in a coal mine or something. If Shaq came to a pick up game he would not only dominate, we would all be scared of him. Anyone who has negative words about Shaq, Iverson, Kobe, Donovan Mcnabb, Chris Paul, Drew Brees or Stephen A. Smith is no longer allowed to read this blog. There is an open invitation to talk about Tony Romo, Tracy McGrady, or any Atlanta Falcons except for Warrick Dunn. Why does the media like to keep black male beef going? Didn’t Shaq and Kobe kill that two years ago?
They have started tearing down the C.J. Peete and the St. Bernard housing projects. I feel safer already. All this time I thought lack of quality education and disenfranchisement was the reason for the amount of crime in the city. It turns out that living in a brick building instead of a new wood one with light colored paint was the reason. Way to go City Council! If we tear down every brick building in the city we can have a utopia. I would like to thank Jefferson Parish for proving this area is 40 years behind in race relations. I think it's funny how some people get so upset when accused of playing the race card but stuff like this comes up. Here is an idea, since all the schools in question are public, how about if we make a pledge for all of them to receive equal funding and resources. That way a parent won't feel the need to send their kids 10 miles away just for computer access and new books. It won't matter where any kid of any color goes. We can call the plan No Child Left Behind. Wait........nevermind.
This question may seem out of place where I have it but how many black women from New Orleans are nicknamed Keedy, Teedy or Deedy? I have two in my family and know three more. Is there a local historian who can tell me when this tradition started? My nanny is 60 and that’s her nickname so I know it’s at least that old. I think I just created the next PBS special for Black History Month. African American Nicknames: From Pookie to Teedy.
This city has to be the only place your social agenda can swing far left to far right in a one block radius. You can literally be on one corner, see a homeless guy and think to yourself “I need to get out and give that guy my jacket and money for a meal. Katrina really did him in” ; then go to the next corner see another guy and roll down your window to yell out “get up and go to work you lazy bastard”. That sounds harsh but it really is that bad. Somedays I drive up Claiborne Avenue and get depressed. Other days I want to find out where the hell all those extra tents come from.
I have been working out lately and it’s a weird feeling when your body starts to come back to you after years of abuse. I can tell you this. If your body would hurt as much getting out of shape as it does getting back in shape no one would ever gain weight. Exercise is biology's sick joke on the people who like to eat. Have you seen the video of the young sister in Texas dunking the basketball? If I see her on the playground where I am playing I am catching a charlie horse. No teenage girl is going to embarrass me.
They also played one of those Before the Dinosaurs shows where they show all the pre-historic creatures. I am all into science and everything but some of that stuff is crazy. How do they know that a group of giant scorpions chased a school of walking fish into a pool of desert water. I wonder if someone is going to find my bones a million years from now and can tell what I did. If they do my name will be Clifferous Crowndrinkerous. I challenge anyone that reads this to come up with their own name.
The last few weeks recent events in the country have made me a little confused about how I view the state of the country. When a wave of optimism takes over it makes you wonder to yourself if you are missing something. Today I took the long way home. I went through Central city then mid city. I went through the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Ward. Then I hit Gentilly, the Ninth Ward and finally New Orleans East. I realized that not only is my opinion justified, I might have been too nice.
The video below is dedicated to me because it’s my favorite hip hop song of all time.
