The Stages Of Life At Carnival Time

Yesterday was a busy Saturday for my standards but that comes with the territory of Mardi Gras season. I went to KIPP Central City School and helped build a couple of parade floats with some good parents. There parade is Thursday at 11:00 AM. It’s not a long route but you can stand on Martin Luther King Boulevard and catch a few beads from the kids. I also managed to catch two parades last night. Mardi Gras parades and be a great morale booster in days of struggle. You see the kids out there marching with their schools or marching teams along with the chaperones and realize that not all is lost in the community. I know that sounds corny but it’s true.

While I was standing out there last night I realized how the season changes as you get older. When I was a kid there is nothing like going to parades. That might be one of the few things kids in New Orleans have over other kids. We got to do that year after year almost every day of the week. You couldn’t beat it. The best part besides catching beads was the time before the parade passed or in between parades when you could run around and play with all the other kids. There were some epic football games on the neutral ground of Canal Street and in parking lots in St. Bernard Parish waiting for those long ass night parades. It wasn’t a good day if you didn’t have at least a bag full of beads and cups to bring home and play parade with. That was good innocent times.

Once you get a little older you stop worrying about going with your family so much. If you aren’t participating in the parade by marching you want to go hang out with your friends. A bunch of teenagers walking together can cover the entire parade route from start to finish and back again like it’s nothing. I don’t think I ever actually saw a full parade during those times because I was too busy clowning. It was a good day if you didn’t get in a fight and made it home before curfew. It was a great day if by some luck you got a girl’s phone number in the midst of all that chaos and competition. My parents don’t know this but the first time I ever had a beer was with my friends at Mardi Gras parade. It probably doesn’t count because I only too two sips being afraid of going home like a drunk to Big Cliff. I perfected the art of parade refreshments in my later teens and early 20’s. Those times weren’t always as innocent as the childhood years but they were definitely fun.

Now I am older. My priorities and perspective on parade season is different. These days the perfect day is getting a spot within two blocks of the parade route, I have enough space to open my chair so I can sit down half of the time, and when I get there I want to hear the sound of the first band within 20 minutes which means the wait was short. It feels like I am trying to watch everyone's child to make sure nothing happens. I really hope the float riders don't throw me a whole bunch of beads because I might throw them all away before I make it back to the car. I don’t mind the young cats walking around just as long as they don’t stop too long behind me and my people. That’s when I get nervous. I used to look around at the girls and say “DAMN! I need to thank her parents for making her fine like that!” Now I look at girls walking around and I think “WTF? Why did their parents let those babies out here dressed like that?” It’s the progression of life.

I probably won’t be chasing any floats for throws unless they are handing out money or utility assistance vouchers. Unless I get stuck being a chaperone me and my bad feet won’t be walking with any parade either. Nevertheless Mardi Gras time is still fun. After everything that’s happened down here I am just glad we are still here for the experience in any form.

Sitting On My Porch Party Sixty Three

All day long I debated whether or not to kick off my Mardi Gras season and hit a parade tonight. I passed on that because in the morning I have to go help make floats for KIPP Central City’s annual parade. I’ll let that be the start of my holiday season then I’ll catch the 2PM parade after that. The other reason I decided not to go is that it seems to be really warm for February. My seasonal clock is all off. Today women were out stopping traffic in their outfits and that doesn’t usually start happening until April. If the weather stays this way Mardi Gras day is going to be wild.

It’s been a long week and I am not much into being out in the crowd tonight. I just want to tell everybody that I have some wonderful friends. I treat a lot of them like they get on my nerves but I really appreciate them.

To be an effective blogger and cover the type of content I do you have to try and pay attention to what’s going on in the world. I have been watching this fight over collective bargaining that started in Wisconsin and it’s puzzling. Everybody is in an uproar now but with two years of passion and fire coming from the Tea Party and other conservative groups, what did everything one think was going to happen when you put guys like Scott Walker in office? Did you think they were going to win the election with an energized voting base and then all of a sudden start compromising? That’s what Democrats do. Republicans don’t usually go compromise their agenda like that. If they say they are eliminating half of the state employees they are going to eliminate half of the employees or try their best to do it. The time to fight was before the election. Now there are 14 senators in Wisconsin that can’t come home until the governor’s term is over because it’s the only way he stops trying to pass that bill.

After all the rallies and all the passion for two years before the 2010 election we have ended up with unions, Planned Parenthood, and PBS being the reason we are spending too much. Our solution to too much government was to take out Grover and Cookie Monster. Once the spending on health exams for poor women stop the jobs will just start rolling in.

Down here in South Louisiana people dislike the president so much that Democrats are changing parties just to keep their opponents from putting their name and Obama’s name in the same sentence. I hear them talk about the stimulus breaking the bank and I know Governor Jindal took a stand and sent money back. Everybody thought that was great. Even though I felt he should have taken all the help he could get I was willing to respect his decision. Then one day was driving out to the mall and I got to the Causeway where they are doing all kinds of work to make the ride to and from work easier for people that live on the other side of the lake. I was wondering how we had the money to pay for that kind of thing when I seen the signs that said the project was paid for by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”. That’s when I realized that the governor was only turning money down that made him look good to his close minded supporters. If he really wanted to take a stand he would have stopped that Causeway project because the money came from the tax payers. It’s all just a dog and pony show.

That’s why Governor Jindal can have a press conference to suggest the UNO/SUNO merge. He knew a lot of people in this state would see the “NO” parts of those schools’ name and have his back. Now when he cuts the budget for higher education again everyone will blame SUNO and UNO and he’ll be alright politically. There are dead fish and oil showing up daily on the shores of the state and I haven’t heard anything from our leader. I bet if President Obama said tomorrow he was putting a hold on deepwater drilling again the governor would have a press conference ten minutes after the announcing saying the president was killing jobs.

The country was in such turmoil financially when President Obama got elected. We were in two wars, employment was high, and the Republican president had blown the deficit wide open with his tax cuts and refusal to end the two wars he started. The country was so starving for change that they elected President Obama because of his passion and promise to change the way the government does business. Its two years later. We are still in Iraq and Afghanistan. The tax cuts for the rich got extended two more years. The only time I hear President Obama get angry is when he’s talking to his own supporters and his opponents seem to be trying to implement things they didn’t even try when they had all three houses of government. So far this isn’t working out quite like I thought.

A Blog For Big Easy Slim

Periodically I get mentally and physically tired. When I’m tired a lot of small things seem to bother me and I feel disengaged from everyone. I usually just snap out of it provided that nothing major happens to make the small stuff seem petty in comparison. Today I was at work being aggravated by something I really didn’t need to waste energy on when I got a call from dad to tell me that my cousin passed away. From now on if he calls me before 6PM I am not answering because something is wrong. My cousin was the eldest grandchild and the first one to pass away. No matter what issues he may have had it still feels pretty strange. None of the other things that were upsetting seem to matter as much.

The daily challenges of living in the city for a black man who grows up without a lot of money is not exaggerated. Regardless of our much your parents try to keep you out of the traps it’s still not a sure thing that everything is going to work out. I think that paranoia about everything falling apart is what keeps me on the path that I am now. Some brothers choose a different path and they hope somehow they can manage to live a long time without the consequences of their actions coming back to get them. A few of them make it that far. Most of them don’t. It’s rough out there.

If you are lucky you can make it through all the challenges and lack of opportunity that everyone swears is there if you just wake up and decided to go work without anything bad happening. If your loved ones are healthy and your personal situation is reasonably stable then you did a good job. If all of those things are not the way you want settle for the consolation prize that you tried. There’s a bunch of cats that didn’t try as hard as they should. We have to love them too. Maybe they didn’t know how to try or the pressure was just too much. I’m not making excuses. I’m just keeping it real.

There are times when I am driving and I see a bunch of older cats sitting under a tree in the middle of the day drinking or something. Most days I want someone to stop them from loitering and bothering everybody. There are other times when the reality of their lives hit me and I feel like going into the store to buy them another cold one because you never know what those cats had to go through to end up sitting under that tree. Tonight I am going to have a toast for Big Easy Slim from the Lower Ninth Ward.

Rest in Peace Harold. Try not to get on grandpa’s nerves when you see him.

Busy Times Are Upon Me

You have to forgive my lack of blog posting. I’ve been a little drained lately. Things have gotten a little hectic in the professional life. If I wasn’t so competitive things might not be as busy as they are. There was a time when no one really knew my name or had any expectations on me. Even though I try to stay out of the spotlight I still feel the need to go out of my way to show people my value. I really don’t know why I do that kind of thing but I always do. I jump into everything full speed. I take on responsibilities that I probably shouldn’t because I don’t get paid enough and I’m always coming up with new ideas and things we can do to move the program forward. I thought a lot of those ideas fell on deaf ears because no one ever said anything about them or tried to put them into action. That was until now when almost everything I have been saying has been requested all at once. Not only are new things happening there are agencies around the area who won’t submit reports or any information to anyone unless I look at it first. Even when I try to pass them along to another person they refuse. On the one hand I feel good about being so busy. It shows the effects of my hard work. I take pride in getting things done and getting them done right. More responsibility comes with that. On the other hand it can be overwhelming when it all seems to come together at one time. I’ve been taking work home a lot more than I should.

It would probably be a lot easier if I could hire one or two people to do the tedious work but in this economy there’s a lot of extra work and responsibility without any guarantee for extra manpower. You have to do more with less. This is especially true for non profits that depend on donations and grant funding. Budget cuts shake agencies like the one I work for to the core and everybody starts holding on to every dollar they can find to just maintain the stability they currently have. As aggravated and drained as I am right now there won’t be much rocking of the boat from me. I’m just like most working Americans. I recognize the competitive job market we are in now and I am not trying to put my name back in competition with all the other people searching for an opportunity if I don’t have to. I’ll just suck it up and ride out the busy time until we get everything straight and things are running on cruise control again. When you get right down to it I would rather be busy and have my phone and email blowing up from people contacting me for things they need than my director looking at resumes in his office with my replacement in mind because I can’t get the job done.

Conflict and Revenge Have No Schedule

There was a shooting Monday at around 1:30 in the afternoon that wounded five people including a three month old baby. The baby didn’t die so this may not qualify for the most tragic story of the year later. There may be something worst coming along. It’s not even hot outside yet. One of the things that always concerns me is the high number of people just hanging out during the middle of the day on weekdays. You can ride around and see entire blocks of people just sitting around like it’s a Saturday. I was going to make this post about the need for police officers to do a better job at spotting this kind of trouble during the day when the streets are less hectic than the evenings but I thought about it today and I didn’t think that was fair. Granted I have passed some blocks and thought to myself that something is going to happen around there if no one starts breaking up those groups of people standing around. I guess the police department deserves some of the responsibility for that. It doesn’t take a train detective to spot that. You just need experience living in the city.

The actual criminal act is a bit more complicated to snuff out because you never know who or what caused the conflict to begin with and how long it’s been brewing. It’s hard to blame the police for that or the woman for having the baby out near guys who were being targeted in a shooting. She was just an innocent bystander out in the middle of the day but even if she knew the other victims and had knowledge of who they were beefing with she had no idea to know when things were going to happen. People in New Orleans don’t plan rumbles to settle scores like they did on The Outsiders. I wish we did then everyone could just stay clear until it was over. Our statute of limitations on having issues with one another goes a lot longer because we have trouble letting things go. I remember people I knew in school holding on to something from the first day of class until the last week of the school year before they decided to get the person they were pissed with. Many times the person that they were mad with didn’t remember what they did to deserve the ass whipping they were about to get. All you could do is fight them off and hope someone refreshed your memory on what the hell happened. Even now as adults we run into people we remember from the past and have to wonder are these fools still upset. You just never know for sure.

For all we know those guys were targeted for something they did two years ago or two hours before the shooting. The police can’t stop that unless they turn physic and the neighbors really can’t either unless they can call and report two people being mad with one another so they can be arrested for future crimes. They can call now and report who they think pulled the trigger Monday but it’s still too late to bring back the deceased or take the bullet out of that baby’s leg. The only real solution is education, self esteem and death to that part of the culture that says conflict isn’t over until you get the last lick in no matter how long it’s been.

20 Things That I Hate

The last two weeks have been draining and frustrating. I must be getting close to hitting the burnout wall that I get too every few months or so when the routine starts to get to me. As usual with this kind of feeling there’s always something personal that bothers me like a few issues at work are now accompanied by news coverage of something that I take to personal and it sticks with me. The census numbers and all the stories of the lost citizens of New Orleans was more than enough to get under my skin. Me and one of my friends talk to one another throughout the day in and effort to keep one another sane. Whenever something has really bothered me I will explain it followed by the phrase “I hate everybody”. That’s not true. I don’t think I hate anyone personally. I try very hard not to because all it does it eat at you until it consumes you. Hating people is not healthy but hating situations and things is another story. I have developed my own personal list of things I hate. It changes everyday. In the interest of therapy I thought I would share a few with you tonight. Hopefully I feel better by the end of this.

1. Being bitter

2. Hypocrisy

3. Cold rain

4. Ironing clothes

5. Parents my age or older that put things on Facebook with foul language or their asses hanging out when their children are on their friend list.

6. Any leadership on any level that is not straightforward with me.

7. Out of state consultants that the city pays to tell us about things we’ve known for 20 years.

8. Copyrighted Mardi Gras Indian costumes. – I don’t like to play the old school New Orleans card more than I need to but the whole point of the tradition is for people to admire how pretty you are. That’s the reason they do it. It’s not to make money. The first time some regular person gets a request to remove a picture of them and a Mardi Gras Indian that was posted without permission the culture is officially dead.

9. Oil tainted seafood. – I know the oil is in there but until it changes the taste I am still eating it.

10. Brake tags.

11. Police checkpoints because I still don’t have a new brake tag.

12. I hate the fact that I don’t have a son only because if I did I would make sure he played baseball and got good enough to accept a scholarship to play for this dude. Wake Forest should have the number one recruiting class for twenty years after this.

13. The overuse of the N-word on Twitter. - For a social network that can be seen by just about anyone we sure don’t care how we through that word around.

14. Valentine’s Day and spending money on junk that doesn’t prove how you love someone. What if it’s not a pay week?

15. Relationship experts especially the ones that haven’t had a successful relationship themselves. If your daddy had totaled five cars and had three DWI’s would you let him teach you how to drive?

16. The Black Eye Peas – I guess the Saints Superbowl half time wasn’t that bad with The Who.

17. People who try to make you feel bad for enjoying something by reminding you of a serious issue like watching a game or something means you are not involved. I hate seeing those messages like “While all of you are fussing about the Saints and the Falcons there are families struggling in the streets.” Everyday I work with people on the frontlines of the fight to help struggling people and today we are all going to watch this game. Shut up and leave us alone.

18. Birthday parties for little kids.

19. Girl Scout cookies, spirit cards, Worlds Finest Chocolate, those stupid coupon books that you never get to use anything out of and whatever other item the fundraising hustlers at schools try to get parents to sell. I extra hate the parents who leave their kids sitting outside of the store for hours pushing that candy. Give that baby twenty bucks for candy and let those children play instead of pushing chocolate.

20. I hate anytime someone compares my beard (which is my current pride and joy) to the rapper Rick Ross. I take this as an insult. Rick Ross and I have nothing in common. He’s an overweight, untalented, fake drug dealer who raps about things he didn’t experience. I’m just overweight and untalented. That's a big difference.

Undercounted : My Take On The New Orleans Census

Just for the record I have always disagreed with the population count of New Orleans. I thought it was too low before the storm. According to the census there are 343,829 people living in New Orleans now. Yesterday I read a great blog about this yesterday by Sean Fitzmorris. You can read it here. While I agree with him that there seems to be far more people here than the census counted. I can’t say that the population is as big as it was before the storm. Since I know at least 200 people personally that’s not here anymore there’s no way that can be true. What I really agree with is the silly fact that not everyone sent in the census forms to be counted.

I wasn’t surprised by that because after looking at the voter turnout for the last citywide election I knew too many people are tuned out of reality to even think about the impact on the city that a low census might have. We have too many people that are worried about their own individual daily hustle and don’t see the bigger picture. I bet you there are some people who sent it in and only listed a few people living in their house and left other people off because they have a voucher or a subsidy that doesn’t allow all those extra people. That’s why homeless families pop out of nowhere because they were living in someone’s house as long as they could and no one knew they were there. Those are going to be the folks hurt most by a low census count because they need the most help.

Then there’s the complicated part of post Katrina New Orleans that includes all the folks we can’t count in the population but we should get credit for. We can’t count all the people who came back to the area after the storm but couldn’t find a place inside of the city so they settled in all of the surrounding parishes. It really doesn’t make sense for them to move back into the city limits because they have to drive back out to where they are to shop and do things anyway so they just stay there but they consider themselves New Orleans residents. We should get half credit for them.

Then we have the yo-yo residents who have moved back and forth three or four times because they really want to be here but they keep getting frustrated so they leave out and then come back again in a few months. I always seem to hear someone’s coming home at the same time someone else is leaving. Who knows where those people were when the census was going on. We should get half credit for them too and they need to keep still and stop moving every six months.

We will probably never know what the population of the city is. The census is the official count so we have to roll with it for now. I guess we’ll lose some political power and some funding. In some ways I think we deserve to lose. It's not good for us but we brought it on ourselves. I am not one of the rich and elite or lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that wasn’t flooded. I am also not one of the voucher carrying people who got to come up and suck up all the available rental property because landlords wanted that sure money. I’m part of that middle group who didn’t have to live her but chose to and while the powerful spent all of their time trying to keep the poor from coming back they made it hard as hell for regular people to get their lives together.

I don’t have a romanticized few of post Katrina New Orleans. From where I sit the truth is that we didn’t do a good enough job at trying to get as many people back to the city as we could, not enough people care and try to understand the big picture to vote and make sure they are counted in the census. Let them take the congressional seat and send less money. Maybe that will wake everyone up and make them pay attention.

Wednesday Groundhog Freestyle Blogging

I have to post this before midnight or the title makes no sense.

It was a pretty cold day today. I tend not to try and get caught up in harping on how cold it is down here because there are other cities buried in snow right now. Plus, it won’t be long before the heat and humidity have me carrying around a damp towel to keep my face from being drenched in sweat. I will deal with a few more days of this kind of weather. I heard the groundhog didn’t see his shadow today so it will be an early spring. I always wondered how in the hell they know what that groundhog sees and how did that one rodent qualify to predict the seasons.

I have been real busy at work but this morning I couldn’t take my eyes of the coverage of things going on in Egypt. I knew it wouldn’t make it all the way to the end without violence. Those pro Mubarak protesters just came out of nowhere. I knew he wasn’t just going to step down after all that time. Tomorrow may be a rough day once the sun comes up. This story is not over.

I watched the coverage on Al Jazeera. I know all of the journalist there are brave and dedicated people but the correspondents for Al Jazeera were really on the front line. There was one lady describing the situation on the ground and ducking rocks at the same time. I was just amazed how she could talk like that in the midst of all that chaos. I wasn’t productive as I could have been this morning but I couldn’t take my eyes off the coverage.

America is going to look like a bunch of hypocrites if they keep allowing Mubarak stop the progress of democracy after we went to war in two other countries for the same principle the Egyptian people have been peacefully protesting for.

Five years after the storm we have many new condominium developments popping up all over. At the same time we have meetings where parents have to argue the case for building or repairing a new school in their community.

Thank you Ms. King and Good Nola.Com for the profile. That was nice.

Thank you for the Archdiocese of New Orleans for posting the baptism records of slaves in Colonial New Orleans. I don’t know how many people are going to have time to do the work to connect their family but it will be enlightening for everybody to go through them and take in that kind of history. I know what's going to happen. As soon as I see anyone with the last name of one my elders I am going to become obsessed thinking that's my great great great great grand people.

Why is the government messing with the definition of rape? I know what rape is. Rape is touching anyone sexually when they didn’t give you permission. If it’s someone under age it doesn’t matter if they gave you permission or not it’s still rape. This is not the way to go even if you are anti-abortion.

If Glen Beck was a black man he would only be known on YouTube by his twenty subscribers and not have his own primetime show on the highest rated news network. Not only would hardly anyone know him but he would have changed his username about 10 times by now because people would report him and they would keep suspending his account. No brother could be that crazy, loud, and disrespectful yet become rich and successful unless he was a rapper. Glen Beck is the Wacka Flacka Flame of political commentary. He goes hard in the paint for fear mongering and insanity.

The sun is about to come up in Egypt. I hope I don’t stay up all night watching this.

Stepping Up For Change in Egypt

I have been watching the coverage of the protests in Egypt for the last few days but I didn’t want to give an opinion because I wasn’t sure if the President Mubarak was going to start feeling desperate and order the army or police to start hurting people and turn the whole event into a tragedy. There is still a chance of that happening because it’s not going to be easy for him to give up thirty years of power without fighting for it. I hope that doesn’t happen because the unity and dedication of the Egyptians have been quite inspiring. I know there have been some deaths and foolish looting that’s only going to take away from the message of the people but I have been quite impressed. There’s been Christians and Muslims out there walking side by side. I have seen shots of the soldiers in the military standing on top of their vehicles and cheering on the protesters.

One thing that looks apparent to me since this started is that the Egyptians seem to be putting their differences and status aside for the greater good of democracy and a better situation for all. They seem to be saying that if we all get up and work hard everyday we shouldn’t be struggling as much as we are and our government needs to change in order to change that. The people want to have a voice. Things can be complicated when you try to bring about change on this scale. There’s some people who like the status quo who will do things to end the movement. I wouldn’t be surprised if the lack of law and order over the next few days made the citizens start turning on one another for safety reasons but at least they let their voices be heard and brought attention to their struggle.

I can’t think of anything that would make people do this in America other than aliens invading and taking over. That would be the only way we would like at one another in a common vein to join as one and take a stand. When the people in control of things in our country don’t do things to make us all prosperous we blame the people who aren’t prosperous like it’s their fault. The police would be out spraying water on the homeless or people in public housing and other people who are one paycheck away from being in the same situation would be cheering it on. Just look at our military. Every day I see images from the Middle East of our military and it includes people from different races, gender, religions, etc. Those same people out there fighting for our country can come home and see, hear, or read someone blaming people with their background for destroying the same country they are fighting for.

The strange thing is that as much as that angers me, we still got the best deal out there compared to these other countries and that’s what the Egyptians are trying to get. It might be a challenge for U.S foreign policy if the wrong person comes into power but democracy isn’t easy. If that’s what the Egyptians choose then we just have to deal with it.

Sitting On My Porch Part Sixty Two

Last night I had decided I was boycotting the State of the Union address by President Obama. I just wasn’t in the mood for being inspired. Earlier during the day I had been really upset about the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar who was sentenced to ten days of jail for fraud after she used a family member’s address to send her kids to a better school outside of her neighborhood in Akron Ohio. I didn’t think that story would piss me off as much as it did. I must be hanging around kids too much these days. I don’t condone her breaking any laws. I was just heartbroken that she had to put her freedom on the line just to try and save her kids from a substandard education. The judge laid down the law like she went on a crime spree when she was just trying to be a good parent. Make her pay the tuition she should have, fine her or expel the kids from the school and send them back to the hood if you feel the need to but don’t send the lady to jail and try to kill her future career. After reading about that all day I was in no mood to hear the president’s inspirational words that don’t seem to be making it down to real America.

There’s a strange bi-product going on around the country since President Obama was elected. Most black people tell themselves that they don’t expect him to be just our president and that’s true. He’s the president of the country for everyone. At the same time there have been these local stories here and there that seem to be racially motivated but none of the so call leaders we have seem to be saying anything because they are trying not to hurt the president. A school system in North Carolina reversed the desegregation of their schools and there’s been hardly anything said about it. If the sheriff in Jena Louisiana would have locked up the Jena Six in 2009 or 2010 they would have probably still been in there because no one would have went down there to rally.

While I didn’t watch the speech live I did read up on it later and I noticed a lot of people in Louisiana were upset that the president didn’t mention the oil spill or offshore drilling. When will people understand that modern politics is all about independent voters and swing states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania? The president knows that even if he came down here and handed out the offshore drilling licenses himself the people in this state still won’t vote for him. There was no need to mention us in his speech. Our electoral votes have already been counted for his unnamed opponent two years from now.

One thing America could improve in is trying to understand what a person does or says based on their perspective. When George W. Bush was president I knew his dad had been president and that he made money working in the oil industry. He could have done the first 30 minutes of his state of the union address on the benefits of oil and offshore drilling and I wouldn’t have been the least bit shocked. I would have thought he was wrong and delusional. I may have even called him stupid but not part of an evil plot to destroy the world. Even without the tragedy in Arizona there are thousands of people dying from assault weapons throughout the country and most of them are young and brown. Would it had really been a socialist plot to kill freedom if the president had mentioned gun control last night? Even if you have ten guns in your home and haven’t murdered anyone, wouldn’t it be understandable if a man that started his public service working in Chicago where there are a lot of issues with gangs and violence just mentioned that gun control and illegal weapons was something we should at least have a discussion about? Maybe he wouldn’t bring it up to destroy the second amendment and come and take everyone’s guns. He could just be concerned with young men dying where he comes from. We have to stop discussing issues like everyone in the country came from the same neighborhood, in the same state with the same amount of money and access.

On This Same Day Last Year

This happened........

Congratulations Green Bay and Pittsburgh. We'll be back next season.

My Weekend Vibe: Lauryn's Coming To The Jazz Festival

It’s late Saturday morning now and I am finished with my favorite weekend breakfast of eggs sunny side up, toast, and CDM coffee. There’s no college football today so I am out of excuses for not getting up and getting out of the house. I will be going to a kids party later which is pretty much the worst thing ever. Between the work and news it’s been a rough and tiring two weeks. Despite everything going on we got through our deadlines at the office and things are well. Last night I went to the Mentoring Children of Promise annual banquet and saw some great kids. They let me know that all is not lost when it comes to the youth in our community. Everything isn’t good either but as long as the possibility to turn things around is there we have a shot at doing it.

Another thing that took place this week was the announcement of the acts for this years New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. It features the local favorites along with larger worldwide acts like Bon Jovi. The festival gets bigger every year by combining the local flavor along with major acts to draw in more people. That doesn’t bother me. The only draw back is the ticket prices but I guess you have to spend money to have a good time. I spend about the same amount of money to get into the Essence Festival. The only difference is the Essence Fest has air conditioning, no mud on the ground, and if it rains we’re in the Superdome drinking and having a good time so it doesn’t make everybody wet and miserable.

Lauryn Hill is listed as one of the performers for this years Jazz Fest. Ms. Hill is a legend for my generation despite not releasing a lot of music in the last ten years. Her album the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is one of my top five albums of all times. She also had those classic Fugees records but I don’t expect she will be performing any of that during the Jazz Fest. After she released her first album Lauryn disappeared from the scene basically. Lately she’s been working her way back into the spotlight and doing shows. We don’t know how long this is going to last so seeing her at the festival may be the only time we get a chance to see her live before she goes back to her private life again. Some of the reports about her recent shows have been hot and cold. The main issue is that she’s been late to a lot of shows. I sure hope Lauryn is on time for her show at the Jazz Fest. Those tickets are 45 bucks and 60 if you wait until the day of the show. I would hate to see all those people standing out there sweaty, possibly wet and itchy from the mud waiting for her only to be let down.

Don’t let us down Lauryn and don't dress too heavy. It gets hot out there.

When Family Fails Us

I’m trying not talk about this depressing news about crime and violence but I can’t help it. I’m running out of ways to keep saying the same thing over and over but the issue deserves someone keeping the spotlight on it. Tuesday there was a 2 year old boy that was killed from his grandmother’s abuse. I was going to link to the story but I don’t feel like pulling it up and looking at the comments. It was difficult to read that story because grandmothers are usually the anchor of our families. You usually get more affection from them than anybody else. That's who you run to for goodies when your mama say you can't have any. Your grandmother is not supposed to be a danger to you. She beat this little boy until he died and that’s tragic but it got me wondering how many little kids get treated like this and don’t die. How many more Titus Gooseberry’s are there that are suffering but will survive and take the path of violent behavior. Titus had a three year old brother that’s still living and I am sure he’s had his share of abuse as well. Who’s going to save him from learning not to care about anything?

How many kids are hard and callous by the time they are ten years old because their innocence is gone? It’s hard to educate that kid or teach him right from wrong when he gets to school because he already hates the world. What difference does it make to him if he shoots a few people? The community didn’t come and save him so why should he be worried about our concerns? Besides, the only place he’s ever found acceptance and what seems like love is from a bunch of cats he hangs with who revere him for his fearlessness. Everyone wants to be loved and accepted even if they don’t know it.

A few years back I gave a good friend of mine a ride to pick up his brother. His brother had a young son at a time. He had to be somewhere between 2 and 4 years old. The baby started crying because his daddy was leaving like kids are prone to do. He starts shaking the kid telling him to be a man and not to cry. I let him know that the baby was crying for him because that’s what babies do and that if he did while I was standing there again I was going to bring him outside and kick his ass. He apologized to me and got in the car but I know that wasn’t the first time or the last he did that to his son. It’s 2011 and I am pretty sure that kid is close to being a teenager now. Maybe his mama was able to give him the affection he needed not to be a victim of the streets. I hope so but it wouldn’t surprise me if I seen him on the news for doing something crazy. If he’s out there doing wrong we are going to lock him up like an animal. The bad part is we can’t lock his daddy up too so we can send a message that raising our kids the wrong way won’t be tolerated.

Rest in peace to Titus Gooseberry. I wish I could have given him one of my grandmothers.

Cities Are Rough All Over

I read the story about the shooting at a high school in Los Angeles today. It looks like the City of Angels is trying to make sure they stay relevant in the battle to see which U.S city is doing the most to keep it real. So much for the non violent spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. The city I live in is a serious contender for the crown. We might be wearing the title belt right now. Nine murders in 17 days and a bunch of other people shot is quite a resume. I bet there are a lot of people who feel the same way we do in New Orleans about where they live. Crime and social issues are personal and it’s hard to see past where you live and the immediate danger and concern of that.

I’ve been ready for my city to come off of the list of dangerous spots for a long time. Since most of the victims around the country look like me no matter where they live I am ready for the culture of violence to die world wide but it would be great if New Orleans was one of the first places to turn the corner. I’m ready to have a few conversations with my friends where we look around and marvel at how far we have came and how safer everything feels. That might be a dream that seems impossible especially after a particularly violent night or yet another tragic story of a young lady like Mariah Woods whose only mistake was going out with her friends in the city she lives in and ending up in the middle of a police chase. It’s hard to recover from that mentally if you have any concern for your community.

We’ve been going through this same drama for a long time now but I am old enough to remember that it wasn’t always this way. Some of my best memories as a kid are playing in the streets at night in the 7th Ward by my aunt’s house when everyone was sitting outside for blocks and no on was scared of anything. There’s no reason we can’t get back to that. It’s going to be a rough road back but we can do it. We better to do something and get this stuff turned around because I’m not leaving. I’m sure people in other cities are feeling this way too. If they fix it before we do I hope they let us know how they did it. I'm open to anything.

Honoring Dr. King For His Own Times

“All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We are living in times of great achievement and great challenges in our community. Since Dr. King was assassinated we have seen an African American president in our lifetime and faced some incredible epidemics of crime and other issues in our community as well. We have made many great strides and still have a lot of challenges to face as we go forward.

Negative news has an impact on the morale of people and some look at the stories of murder and neglect within the black community and feel like celebrating Martin Luther King Day doesn’t have the same reverence it once did. One of my friends asked the question wondering what Dr. King died for with all the black on black violence happening right now. It’s not fair to him to try and figure out how he would feel and what he would say about anything going on today. It’s a different world.

We’ll never know the answers to any of those questions about his feelings because in 1968 Dr. King was killed while fighting for equality, dignity and justice for everyone. As far as I am concerned it doesn’t matter what’s happening today as it relates to him because what he did while he was here was great enough for a holiday. You know he had to be a special person because America just doesn’t give out holidays to anybody. Nothing we are doing in these crazy modern times can take away from any of that.

We have 364 other days of the year to discuss all the current issues our community faces. Today is a day to honor a great man the work he and others did to move society forward. He’s worthy of that recognition regardless of what’s going on now. We have a long way to go but I would hate to see where we would be without the sacrifices of Dr. King and the people that went out there and put there life on the line for us. It doesn't matter how the actions of some of the men in our community would have affected him. It doesn't matter how he would feel about the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. It doesn't even matter what he would have felt about President Obama's election. What matters is that in a world much different than it is now he put his life on the line so I could have the opportunity to try and succeed or fail at whatever I wanted to. That's good enough for me. Nothing we are dealing with now should take anything away from what they did back then.

Besides, how are we going to fix what we need to if we don’t remember how we got here in the first place?

Good Luck Oliver

Tonight is the start of former New Orleans City Councilman Oliver Thomas one man play at the Anthony Bean Theater. I hope the show goes well and that soon as the run is over he takes the same message of failure and redemption to the streets and talks to as many young brothers as he can about it. I think he has an important message that goes far beyond politics.

I remember when Oliver Thomas went to prison. It was a sad day in the city because he was a person who everyone thought would be our next leader. It also put black political leadership on life support if you care about that sort of thing. When he fell from grace there was a huge leadership vacuum that is still there in my opinion. All I could think about at the time was how could a man with that kind of a future ahead of him throws it all away for an amount of money that’s not even a drop in the bucket compared to some of the other cases of corruption in the city. The money he took didn’t set the city back by years but the small amount actually made me more disheartened because it appeared he was just going along with the crowd. There are just too many brothers who have found trouble in their lives and he should have known better. He also did much more jail time then he should have because he refused to rat on anyone. There’s just too many people that are terrorizing our community because no one wants to rat. I wasn’t just disappointed I was angry.

I get angry at all brothers who put themselves in situations they didn’t have to be in. It’s not just because Oliver Thomas was on the city council and maybe the next mayor. When I’m just riding up the street and see someone not conducting himself the right way I get upset with them too. I want to get out the car and shake some sense into them. I know how hard it is for a man to get rid of the labels and stigma attached for making mistakes. There are guys my age still suffering from bad decisions they made in their teens. The worst part about having a negative stigma attached to their name is when they embrace it and live out the rest of their lives like they had no choice but to validate it. That brings the whole community down because we have a bunch of men that don’t want to step up and be responsible. Maybe we can’t do anything about the overall view of society but our actions don’t have to match what people think. If we fix our behavior everything will take care of itself. The best thing Oliver Thomas can do with this play and in the future is show the guys struggling to get it together that you can fall all the way down then rebuild everything and prosper. If he can do that he’ll probably get more out of that than being mayor. The community would too.

Creating Our Own Climate For Violence

I’ve been thinking about words and the climate they create since the shooting in Arizona. There has been a lot of conversation about how words have consequences and the current political climate may have lead to Jarred Loughner feeling more compelled to to carry out what he did. We still don’t know if that’s necessarily true or not but if it is true and six people lost their lives because of it, I wonder how many people have lost their lives because of the climate in my community.

How much of a price do we pay for a nationwide climate of destructive behavior? In New Orleans we had 176 murders in 2010 and some of those victims are dead just because that’s what happens when there’s a conflict in their world. I would argue that the climate of hate created in the black community is worst than anything the Tea Party or a fringe group could come up with because we don’t use violent references to pull people over to our viewpoint. We embrace it, celebrate it and put it on display for the world to see as a way of life. We have a lot of financially successful people who do nothing but add negativity to the atmosphere.

The reality of the situation is that those of us who are more equipped to handle some of theive images and words tend to try and blow the impact of these situations because we watch the same shows and listen to the same music. It’s not making us kill anyone or have kids we can’t take care of or have unprotected sex so it can’t be all that bad. I’m not trying to exclude myself from the problem. I love ignorant entertainment and I listen to some artists with horrible lyrics but despite all the negativity the thought of harming another man or disrespecting a woman never crosses my mind. I’m relatively stable just like most of the people who listen to talk news shows or follow some radical political leader are. We learned from the tragedy in Arizona Saturday that the climate doesn’t have to energize millions of people to run out in the street and do something crazy. It only takes one to make a tragedy.

To create a culture like we are trying to change now all we need is a few dozen kids without the proper parental guidance along with other social and economic issues and do nothing but sit in front of the television or computer all day watching images of how it’s cool to kill somebody as long as you are getting your hustle on, and that bitches ain’t shit, and how you should always keep it real no matter what, and how it’s kill or be killed on the streets, and how dignity, respect and community mean nothing as long as you got money to buy material things. Put twenty kids like that in every section of your city and you have an epidemic. I don’t have any statistics in front of me but I know we have more than twenty kids in this situation. That’s why the situation seems so hopeless sometimes. It’s hard to fix something when you are creating your own climate for it.

Sitting On My Porch Part Sixty One

It was a cold day in New Orleans. The weather has been bad ever since the Saints loss to Seattle. I think Mayor Landrieu secretly bet our normal warm and sunny weather against the clouds and rain. I have already gotten over the game. Yesterday I was in Winn Dixie supermarket and I cross paths with a guy wearing his Saints fleece. I was wearing my Saints hat. He looked at my hate and nodded his head in affirmation. I nodded back and instantly I was ready for next season. No one wins the championship every year.

Back in the day when New Orleans still had its old school personality we would have had a parade for the Saints this weekend anyway just because that’s how we roll. Now since our culture is so commercial we can’t do it because the Ying Yang Twins and the cast of Treme aren’t available.

I guess we have bigger things to worry about. Crime is still sucking the life out of everybody. The other night some young ladies were in an accident resulting from a police chase. The getaway car was being driven by a guy who should have been in prison for a dozen different things before this accident. I’m afraid it may be years before New Orleans stops paying for years of incompetence in the justice system and education. Rest in peace to Mariah Woods. We have to do better.

Then there was the shooting in Arizona that has sparked debate about the political climate, the consequences of words and gun control.

The political climate is not going to change because of this incident. Both sides have too much to lose to just stop scrapping now. Besides, if you listen to the opinions the last few days this guy was both a left and right wing wacko. No one knows for sure. The words will keep on going. They may be toned down slightly but I don’t know how long that’s going to last. I gave up on the idea of civility in politics after 9/11 didn’t bring about a permanent change.

Then there’s the issues of the words people use to make their arguments and the type of environment those words have sparked around the country. I do believe that the environment is pretty mean spirited right now. The shooter in Arizona was probably crazy enough to do something anyway but maybe the atmosphere made him just a bit less hesitant when he finally got a clear idea in his head. We may not ever know for sure because how can you trust anything that maniac says?

What if he mentioned Sarah Palin by name? How much weight would that hold coming from a man in his mental state? She’s taken a hit for this and I think she knew she would which is why she cleaned up all of her social media accounts to get rid of all the violent references. I’m a pretty hardcore blogger. That means I love writing my blog and reading others. There is some pretty wild shit going on around the internet. There are things being said about politicians and different groups of people that make Sarah Palin’s crosshairs on her website seem like something from PBS Kids. The difference is that the blogs that have that kind of language may have a few thousand hits a week if they are lucky. They are not harmless but have a far less chance of inspiring something crazy than a former candidate for vice president and highly popular leader of a political party. I’m always prepared to deal with a fair amount of crazy in America. It comes with free speech. The only group I feel should be above that or at least try to fake it are people in leadership. Why doesn’t she just say that she’s in it for money and entertainment? I don’t have a problem with that and maybe the media would stop broadcasting what she says on the news like it’s legitimate so she can reach a million times more people than a blogger ever could. The higher the exposure you have the bigger the responsibility. People need to stop talking about what she and other politicians say and what bloggers say like it has the same impact.

Rest in peace to the victims in Tucson Arizona and I hope Congresswoman Giffords and everyone else recovers.

It Was A Great Run

This end of the year post is 1000 times sadder than last year……

Many things in the world have put football in perspective for me. I have finally reached a level of maturity where I can take a lost and not hate anyone. Even the trash talk tonight hasn’t really bothered me too much. Nevertheless I love the Saints and I hate to watch them lose. It’s weird when you are the defending champs because you know you won’t be the champ forever but you want to hold on to it as long as you can. Our run came to an end in Seattle today in a game that fit the rest of the season. There were big plays and it was close to the end. We just didn’t come out on top this time. In sports you always find out the truth about your team when you lose. With all the injuries we had going into today’s game I think we found out that the most important person on the injury list was Malcolm Jenkins. Our secondary didn’t have the best game and now we know how important Jenkins was to the defense this season. I think a healthy team going into next season should be right back into the playoffs again. That’s all we can really ask for.

There are two things I noticed this season about our fans and those from other teams. For some reason fans from other teams seem to be so excited about watching us lose. It seemed like every game we lost fans from all over the country would take time to celebrate even if it wasn’t their team they were playing. That’s just jealousy because of the relationship between us and the players.

The other feeling I had all year is that Saints fans never really got to sit back and really enjoy the Superbowl run. For some reason we had this paranoid mind state that made us feel like if we didn’t go undefeated and back to the championship this year everything that happened last year was invalid. I don’t know about every fan but by the end of the game today I was so tired and drained from everything that happened I just wanted the game to be over with no matter if we won or loss. We still had a shot at it until that incredible run by Seattle. The only part that sucks about that is we will be watching that play for ten years on highlight reels. Being a Saints fan is full of highs and lows. It comes with the territory.

Thank you Saints for a great run. I’m counting down the days to the draft, training camp and the first game in December so we can start the drama all over again.

Who Dat!

Leave The Books Alone

Whenever I see something like an edited version of Huckleberry Finn that removes the n-word I can’t help but wonder who is this being done for. I guess the easy thing to say is that it’s racially insensitive to black people. That argument would have a lot of weight if I didn’t hear the n-word while listening to music all day or read it 10,000 times on Twitter. Maybe the editors of the revised version of the book decided to do something we can’t do for ourselves and remove the word. That’s a nice gesture but we didn’t need it. Maybe I would be for removing the word if the book was set in modern times where we should be passed that. Huckleberry Finn was set in the early 1800’s. Not only did they call black guys the n-word but there wasn’t that many who would even admit they knew how to read in order to be offended by Mark Twain’s words. Things were different back then and the words in the book fit the time period.

I guess they are doing it for the kids but taking out the words that fit the times weakens the understanding of life and history for the kids who read it. If your child asks you why they keep using the n-word then explain it to them. Stop trying to change how history happened or how real life works. One day I was reading Little Red Riding Hood to the kids and was waiting for the part where the big bad wolf gets busy and takes out grandma. I was going to use it to teach a lesson there’s some shady characters just like the wolf so you have to be careful. My only problem was that in the version I had grandma wasn’t even home when the wolf got to the house. He put grandma’s clothes on and all that but he didn’t really try to mess with Little Red Riding Hood either. They ended up hanging out or something at the end of the book. Instead of my great speech about being careful around strangers or hairy men the only thing I could say at the end of the story was “Who bought this fake ass version of Little Red Riding Hood?”

I’m going find me an old version of the story where the wolf eats grandma and gets his ass chopped up for it. While I am there I am buying an old version of Huckleberry Finn with all its n-words on display. Maybe they will read it and realize just how far we have come in a relatively short amount of time. I would rather have the kids have to put up with that uncomfortable word while reading a book then have them read a watered down version of the same story and be misinformed about what was really going on in those times Mark Twain wrote about.