The Next Step After Justice for Trayvon

We live in a complicated world. Because it’s so complicated incidents can get lumped together under common issues when they don’t have to be. Sometimes no one is wrong in how they look at something but because we are trying to handle everything together it causes debate where there shouldn’t be any. With that in mind I just want to say that the crusade to bring Trayvon Martin’s killer to justice is a valid cause. There’s no gray area to me.

Even if there was a group of kids committing crimes in that neighborhood it wouldn’t matter because Trayvon Martin wasn’t one of them. As a matter of fact even if he was he still shouldn’t have died that night. That’s why we have law enforcement and a justice system. I know there are times when someone feels threatened or their life is in danger and they must take action but that’s not what happened here. There’s not one shred of evidence to suggest there’s even a doubt that this young man was killed for no other reason than being profiled by a man who was dying to be a vigilante. That is totally unacceptable because I don’t have time to be wondering what someone is looking at when they see me in their neighborhood. I don’t want to be visiting a friend and end up in the morgue because I decided to wear jeans and a hoodie that day.

That’s the reason why I’m 100% behind George Zimmerman being arrested and prosecuted. It’s personal to me because I was Trayvon at a point in my life. I’ve been followed in stores. I’ve been pulled over by law enforcement just to ask me where I was going. I’ve been stopped with my friends while we were just walking up the street. The part that makes it difficult is that even after I made good grades, went to school, and got a job I was still profiled the same way. Any of us could have been Trayvon. That’s why it upsets me so much.

I’m upset but I don’t have blinders on. I see what’s going on in my community and I know that black men have a serious problem with criminal activity and how we treat one another. I don’t think there is no way to justify what George Zimmerman did but it’s frustrating to know that some young men give his supporters the evidence to validate his crime. I know there are a lot of kids running for help and it’s not from anyone that looks like Zimmerman. They are running from young men that look just like them. That problem is our Achilles Heel because it gives people who hate us reasons to question our humanity.

That’s why I am hoping that once the initial goal of justice being served in Trayvon’s case we take that same energy, turn it inward and figure out how to save his peers from the cemetery and the penitentiary. I know it’s been difficult for us to deal with our own issues but if we can’t find the energy now after a situation like this I don’t know when the time will come. A young man is dead because of his appearance and I can’t think of a better way to honor his memory by doing all we can to make sure that many of his peers live as long and productive lives as possible.

There’s been a lot of talk about race lately. If brothers really want to strike fear in the hearts of real racists they need to see us showing each other love and respect. They need see us taking care of our kids and respecting our women. They need to see us as we educate ourselves and improve our community. I have no doubt we could do this if we just stay focused. After you march for Trayvon Martin, put those hoodies back on and let’s try to save these kids.

Be Cautious And Watch Out For Everything

My baby brother just turned 21 years old. I worry about that young man all the time. I have been worried about that kid every day since he turned 12 and went to middle school. He’s a good kid. He goes to Memphis University. He wants to be a writer and even has a blog for a class assignment. He’s one of the coolest, most laid back kids you will ever meet. I don’t remember a time I have ever seen him angry. He’s got a lot of potential and I hope he lives a long life and get to see it blossom. There’s nothing worse than seeing young men leave the Earth no knowing what could be. Young men like my brother can appear to be both predator and prey for different people and both views put them in danger. That’s why the last few weeks have been so disheartening.

My brother could have easily been Ricky Summers of New Orleans who was killed behind an abandoned building on his way to tutoring one Saturday morning. I don’t how many times young men are in the wrong place at the wrong time and get caught up in some altercation that they can’t avoid at that moment. That happened to be once or twice. I remember when I was 18 and caught a ride to work from a childhood friend who decided to “make a stop right quick” and handle some drug business while I’m sitting downstairs in his car. I never accepted another ride again but that one time could have been the last time I had the chance to learn.

My brother could be Wendell Allen of New Orleans who was killed by a New Orleans Police Department while standing unarmed at the top of the stairwell of his home. Some police officers are scared of young black men. You have to be careful not to show any aggression or you could get shot or hurt really bad. When you are a young man like Mr. Allen or my brother you have to try and not make any sudden moves that give them any reason to act against you. The goal is just make it through the experience safely.

My brother could have been Trayvon Martin too but I am not sure how to avoid what happened to that young man. I could show him how to watch out for thugs or guys that may be up to no good. I could teach him how to handle himself when pulled over by police officers. I’m not sure how to handle being stalked in your dad’s neighborhood walking home from the store by a crazy man looking for trouble. He can kill you and claim self defense even though he was the one with the gun following you down the street. I can’t imagine what his parents are thinking. For what happened to their son they could have just lived in the hood and not a gated community. I guess the lesson to be learned is that even if your lifestyle doesn’t fit the profile you still fit the profile. That’s depressing, disheartening, disappointing and a hard dose of reality in the President Obama era of post racial talk.

I guess the best advice I can give my brother and all the young men around his age is to watch out for everything and never assume things can’t happen to you.

Discussions I'm Not Ready For

I dropped the babies off this morning with their innocence still intact. I was hoping that when I picked them up today I wouldn’t be put in a position to have a conversation that may take that away. In this city it’s best to stay as naïve as you can to the issues going on around you. Kids have to deal with things around here that even the most mature adult finds difficult to deal with all the time.

A kid was killed behind an abandoned building in Central City Saturday. He was supposed to be headed to tutoring at KIPP Central City Academy. That school shares the building with KIPP Central City Primary. It’s really one big school community. I see those kids all the time. I watched the older kids as they got off the bus this morning. It was hard to tell if they were really upset because they always look aggravated early in the morning. I was hoping they were okay and I knew there was probably counselors in the building. It’s probably not a lot of those kids first experience with having to deal with death of someone so young.

I was having a conversation the other night with a friend and we were comparing our generation with our parents’. We were thinking about all the things they had seen in their lifetime and how even though history makes it seem like the generations before us had to deal with some serious things we’ve had some real issues to deal with too.

It’s hard to explain being a teenager, looking around at guys your age and wondering how many of them wouldn’t be around anymore. Between drugs, violence, and incarceration I feel like we lost some of those years just to have fun and not care about anything. I think there’s a value to being young and staying naïve as long as you can because once you lose that and the adult part kicks in you can’t go in reverse. I’m trying to keep the kids around me as young and innocent for as long as possible.

Thank goodness I didn’t have to start the clock moving forward today. No one mentioned it and I didn’t ask about it. There will be time to explain these things. Hopefully nothing happens to anyone they know to move the timeline up sooner than I expected. When that time comes I hope I don’t have to answer the question of why in the hell we live in a city this crazy to begin with. That’s one of the questions I don’t always have a logical answer for.

Rest in peace Ricky Summers

Blogging on a Breezy Saturday Night

After a week of what seemed like summertime weather today felt like colder than it probably was. I’m not going to complain about the weather because there are some people suffering after tornadoes yesterday. I always feel a connection to people who are victims of weather events. I want to send my condolences to those people and their families.

While I was out today I saw all the little girls selling those Girl Scout cookies. I didn’t realize how serious they took those cookies until I became a parent and had to come up with sales. The Girl Scouts don‘t play around with those cookies and you better not give your friend a box of thin mints without getting the money because they have every cookie counted to the exact penny.

I’m getting to the Saints bounty story in a minute………..

I am going to give Representative Austin Badon the benefit of the doubt and say I understand why he wants the National Guard to come in to police New Orleans. Everyone is tired of the crime rate and the police department has some challenges right now. I think his intentions are for the safety of the city. I’m sure there will be some people who feel safer if this happens but all I am going to feel is a sense of defeat. It will be like going back to January 2006 when I first came back. We might as well put X’s back on our houses and cut off all the lights past Franklin Avenue like the good old days. There’s no way Mayor Landrieu wants this to happen.

In many ways having the National Guard around would be fitting because I think the city is four years behind where it could have been now. Too many people blamed Ray Nagin for things that were far beyond his control to change. They refused to do anything because they had to make him look as bad as possible. Now Mayor Landrieu is in office and he has the same problems. Neither man could have fixed the problem by himself but we may be further along now if people were invested despite of Ray Nagin.

Rush Limbaugh learned a valuable lesson this week. You may get away with the comments about minorities because most companies don’t cater to us anyway. Child bearing women who want to have sex without getting pregnant spend a lot of money and there’s a problem when you talk about them. It shouldn’t have taken sponsors bailing out on his show for him to know he shouldn’t call that woman a slut.

Are we really at a point in our country where a 30 year old woman who likes to have sex can be seen as a negative for political gain? I can’t support any political group who thinks this is a negative.

I’m having a hard time coming to terms with the Saints bounty scandal. It’s not because I have an over romanticized view of the players on the team. It’s not because I am wondering if Tom Benson is going to fire everyone who didn’t stop it or the loss of draft picks. The thing I am having an issue with is that for how the Saints defense performed this entire scandal was a big waste of time. I would have had a real easy time accepting if the offense had a pool for how badly they could run up the score. That would have made sense to me. Maybe things were going on in the pile or off camera that I didn’t see but I can’t recall more than one or two times the Saints defense really delivered a serious hit on anyone.

The NFL picks on James Harrison from the Steelers but you can make a highlight reel of plays where he was trying to take someone out. I haven’t seen the visual evidence of the Saints doing anything yet. The media keeps bringing up the NFC Championship game against the Vikings because they lust behind Brett Favre and want to make it seem like dirty play cost the Vikings the game. If the Saints had collected the bounty that game he wouldn’t have been in the game late in the fourth quarter on the way down the field to win the game. Sacrificing the image of the franchise and being punished for a defense that played like the Saints did the last two years is like some fool getting 50 years for arm robbery when there was only 10 dollars in the register.

Fighting Back Indifference and Pessimism

There are two feelings that I always seem to be fighting away. I struggle with them and they slow my progress down to a crawl. It’s like my entire life gets stuck in cement and I just can’t move. Those two feelings are indifference and pessimism.

Indifference is more of a coping mechanism than a real feeling. At some point your mind decides that you have invested enough in whatever the issue is and decides to shut down the section that makes you care. Whatever happens is just going to happen and I am not worried. As long as I don’t have to be involved in the circumstances it doesn’t bother me. I have my own life to worry about. My indifference is spread across personal relationships and the community at large. I find myself not making calls to stay connected to certain people like I used to. It doesn’t bother me if my phone doesn’t ring that much. I don’t read every news story with as much attention as I should. Some things I don’t read at all. A smart man told me today that after Katrina we had no choice but to be overly involved and he was right. These days I have more of a choice and I choose to ignore a lot of things.

The best thing about indifference is that it’s very curable. No matter how much you think you don‘t care there’s always something that can snap you back into consciousness. I act like I am not really concerned about some of the people in my life but if they called right now with something serious they needed me to help them take care of I would spring into action. Some people ignore the problems in their community but if the right event happens they take notice and get involved.

Pessimism is an entirely different animal for me. I find pessimism much more difficult to get over than indifference because when I am pessimistic about something there’s concrete evidence and experiences to back up why I feel the way I do. I don’t have a positive outlook on the violence in my city because I am living through my second decade of it. It’s not like this behavior just came out of nowhere. I am pessimistic about getting involved with parent groups at the school because whenever I go it’s the same old people. I don’t have much confidence that anyone else is going to be there and get involved.

The biggest challenge I have with being pessimistic is that I have never been able to ignore what I see and replace it with a thought that I have no proof of. I really want to feel like things are going to be better than they have been but it’s difficult. Maybe if we went a month without any shootings I would feel better. Maybe if we had a parent meeting at the school and there was standing room only that would do it. Maybe if no one called me in crisis looking for assistance and if at my job we didn’t have any new client records because there were no new homeless people are families in crisis I might be able to beat back the pessimistic part of my attitude. I don’t think any of these things will happen anytime soon. I don’t know how to not pay attention enough to not realize that nothing is changing. Since I can’t ignore I guess I have to engage myself and try to make things better. I’m just saying……some positive reinforcement wouldn’t be bad every now and then.

Now that I have gotten that off my chest we can return to regularly scheduled blogging.

Sitting On My Porch Part Seventy Nine

It’s been 17 days since my last post. Life is once again winning over blogging. Since I love my readers why not come back on the day of love? I was in the store yesterday and saw all those teenage boys spending their money on teddy bears and candy. I thought that was nice. In the next aisle was a bunch of older cats looking at greeting cards and shaking their heads like they were being forced to have a root canal. I thought that was funny.

There’s a lot going on around New Orleans right now as we are right in the middle of Mardi Gras season. I don’t think I will be seeing too many parades this year. It will be a miracle if I make it to more than three. I’m not in the mood for standing up and being bothered with random people. Plus, for the first time ever I am concerned about what might happen out there. I don’t know why that is. Maybe the crime has finally gotten to me and is affecting my quality of life. I do find myself checking around me more than I ever did. I have also started to pay attention to how many police cars I see out on the street. I was talking with my neighbor and we were trying to figure out the last time we seen a patrol car pass up our block. I know the police office has a lot of issues right now. I just hope Chief Serpas can get it together.

It will be Chief Serpas running the show. All you people expecting Mayor Landrieu to go in another direction can forget it. The mayor and the chief are in it together until the end and they are going to try every idea they can to turn the crime problem around. Lately the police department can’t seem to get out of its own way. First they made a lot of people upset by releasing the arrest records of murder victims. Then, some officers wrote a letter to the citizens about how dysfunctional everything is. Now today I read an article saying police will put a sticker on your homes that have been searched for drugs. If they actually go through with doing this it’s going to end badly. I think the NOPD is worried too much about statistics. I can’t say anything negative about stats because I work with data all day. Every now and then you have to look at a situation and apply old school reasoning. I think we need officers on the street right now having a presence and making criminals uncomfortable.

New Orleans has the second highest homeless rate in America. Tampa Bay has the highest. No one would be surprised about New Orleans’ issue but I am willing to bet many people would have guessed Tampa had such an issue. The answer is marketing.

Thursday KIPP Central City School will be holding it's annual parade. It starts at 11:00 AM. If you make it out there you will definitely see me. I'll be the guy throwing rocks at all the dads that didn't show up Saturday to help build floats. I'm going to need a lot of rocks.

Seven years ago my governor was Blanco, my mayor was Nagin and my president was Bush. My main concerns were education, infrastructure, the long term future of my community, jobs and black on black crime. In 2012 my governor is Jindal. My mayor is Landrieu and my president is Obama. My main concerns now are education, infrastructure, the long term future of my community, jobs and black on black crime. I’m not saying it doesn't matter who I vote for. I just want to know how long one has to wait until they see some glimmer of change. I guess I need to wait a little longer.

I know there is supposed to be a difference in candidates and agendas but at this point the only person that really concerns me is Rick Santurom because I honestly think he would try to outlaw any fun activity that involved showing a body part above the knee.

Rest in peace to my kindergarten best friend Trevon McCoy. He was a good man with a good family.

In memory of Don Cornelius I wanted to post my favorite YouTube clip again.

Don't Get Distracted. Murder Is The Real Issue

I knew when the New Orleans Police Department started releasing the arrest records of murder victims it was a bad idea. The potential distraction was too great. It would be a different situation if every single murder was due to illegal activity like mafia hits but that’s not the case. Releasing the arrest records of the victims is an insult to their families. Unfortunately we now have a situation where a man was killed and he just so happened to have an arrest record. Now people are distracted talking about that instead of the real issue. Mike Ainsworth’s record has nothing to do with his death. He didn’t get killed in a drug deal gone bad. He was killed trying to stop his neighbor from being car jacked. We should be more concerned with the identity of his killer and the people who are hiding him.

Some people in the community are also questioning why the FBI offered help in this case and not with all the other murders. I can see how that would appear to be questionable. I look at the situation and realize that the attempted carjacking and murder was a random thing and there’s no connection to the victims and their assailant. There’s no one for the police to talk to on the block about beef that’s been going on or anything. It may actually take resources that the NOPD currently doesn’t have to find this person. You can’t look at every situation the same.

I notice that the NOPD has been identifying suspects for shootings faster than they use to. Kim and Alcee Perry were murdered at their home in October of last year by their next door neighbor who became upset when he Ms. Perry asked him to stop driving so fast because the kids were outside playing. You didn’t need an investigative team to find that fool. He was right next door. When one year old Kiera Holmes was murdered in December it didn’t take long to identify who did it because the shooters and the suspected target had already been feuding. If someone would have kidnapped that baby or shot her attempting to steal her mother’s car the FBI probably would have gotten involved. You don’t need the FBI to help with foolishness and ignorance that spills into the streets. The NOPD already knows who those guys are. They just can’t do anything to stop them before they kill someone.

Let’s not get distracted by spending too much time on issues that won’t solve anything. I don’t think the police should put the arrest records on victims out there the way they do. I think if the FBI was going to help out in the case of Mr. Ainsworth they should have just done it quietly so no one would feel like their family member who was killed was important enough to get that kind of help. I think it looks bad when after all the negative things that have happened within the police department and all the other crimes it took a man being killed in Algiers Point to get commanders reassigned and changes made.

The truth is that if the NOPD never released any information on the victims, the FBI had an entire team dedicated to nothing but solving every murder in New Orleans, and we had new leadership in the police department the people who were murdered in our city would still be dead. We have to figure out how to change the mind state of the killers. The man who killed the Perry’s is arrested. The men who shot Kiera Holmes have been arrested or murdered themselves. Hopefully soon law enforcement will catch the man who shot Mike Ainsworth and he’ll be brought to justice too. At the end of the day the one thing they’ll have in common is that they are not here anymore enjoying their lives just like the rest of the victims. We need to be united in trying to stop this from happening because if the police have to decide whether to issue arrest records or not and the FBI is involved we have already failed. I don’t want to have the conversation about releasing the arrest records because I don’t want anyone killed in the first place to even make the topic valid.

Let's All Be Careful Out There

Yesterday a man named Mike Ainsworth was murdered in New Orleans after trying to defend his neighbor from a carjacker. I would like to send my condolences to his family. I’m sure yesterday and every day after will be a tough day for them. His murder yesterday was another blow in a battle that right now the criminal element seems to be winning.

We should all appreciate a person that would put his life on the line for the safety of others. That’s real bravery. I’ sure Mr. Ainsworth had more courage than his killer but his killer had a gun and a gun to some of these fools gives them all the courage they need to do something senseless like trying to carjack someone and killing a good man for no reason.

There may come a time when any of us will defend ourselves or our family and neighborhoods from danger. I hope it never happens but if it does I hope it can be resolved without anyone getting hurt. I just want to tell the people in my city reading this to please be careful and try to avoid as much confrontation as possible. These fools don’t mind taking lives and unless you are ready to take their life too it may be better to not resist and call the police so they can handle it. We need to protect one another and be as safe as possible.

Sitting On My Porch Part Seventy Eight

It took a whole week but I am finally ready to accept that the Saints are not going to the Superbowl. It was a heartbreaking lost in San Francisco and I have been in denial ever since. I was in so much denial that I invited my co-workers to my tailgate party this weekend when we played the Giants. They suggested I go home. I’m still not ready to talk about the season so I will direct you to Grandmaster Wang who did a pretty good job at it.......I still can’t believe we gave up the exact same play to lose the lead twice. That was unbelievable.

Saturday was a beautiful day in New Orleans. We are not having much of a winter and I am not complaining. The weather was almost good enough to make you forget how bad this year has started for New Orleans. I almost did a spring time activity and bought some crawfish to go sit on the lake and eat. It’s a little too early for that. Days like this makes you wonder why we have so much violence in this city. It’s such a beautiful atmosphere that we make ugly with our behavior. I didn’t want to watch the news tonight because I didn’t want a double shooting to ruin my mood. I figure it will be there waiting for me in the morning and I can depressed over breakfast.

What I really need Mayor Landrieu and Chief Serpas to do is to stop having press conferences and talking their way into animosity for something everyone should be united against. This is especially true for the chief who seems to be using the past of the victims to explain why his department hasn’t been able to calm things down. Anybody who lives here and pays attention knows what’s going on. A lot of the victims have criminal past that put them in the environment where violence is likely. The problem is that you can’t use that to explain every victim and even if that was the case it’s the police department’s job to protect everyone even if they have been in trouble before. We don’t want to start picking and choosing what person’s death deserves proper attention. I don ‘t think Cheif Serpas means it that way when he’s talking but why give anyone the chance to misunderstand? Let the media give that kind of information and just keep working to stop it.

I’m watching Newt Gingrich celebrate his win in South Carolina tonight. I am not surprised by the results. I don ‘t know how well Mitt Romney’s going to play in the south. Newt Gingrich is from Georgia so he understands how to win votes down here. People in the south vote for the person they can recognize with the most. They will also rally behind their guy if they feel he’s being picked on and will cast their vote as a way to strike back. This is true for black, white, Republicans and Democrats in the south.

Once Juan Williams and CNN started asking Newt about cheating on his wives and his race baiting code words the election belonged to him because he responded in defiance instead of acting like both of those topic were valid to ask someone who wants to be president and lead the country. That means that the people who shout family values to the top of their lungs all the time gave Newt a pass for trying to turn his wife into a swinger just because he’s from the south and they hate all media outside of Fox News. It’s no wonder we ended up with eight years of George W. Bush, a ten year war in Iraq and almost had the second great depression. That’s not a good way to choose a candidate.

Just for the record, if anyone I know tells me they are voting for President Obama only because he sung two lines from an Al Green song at the Apollo Theatre I am going to tell them the same thing. That’s not a good way to choose a candidate.

I’m taking the kids to see Red Tails for several reasons. The first reason is they need to see their history and understand that they weren’t put here destined to be thugs and gangsters. Part of killing a destructive culture is changing the outlook of the kids that’s involved. The second reason is that George Lucas spent 58 million dollars of his own money to get the film made. I figure we at least need to go out and generate enough money for him to get that back. I respect him for putting up his Darth Vader money for the Tuskegee Airmen’s story. The third reason is that my grandpa fought in World War II and it always fascinated me that those men put their lives on the line for their country knowing when they came home they wouldn’t get to enjoy the full rights of the country. The older I get the more I am amazed by these men and the more the present situation in our community seems even more confusing. I’m hoping the movie confuses some of the young men who see it as well. The way we behave right now isn’t supposed to make sense.

Living the Dream in The Era of Self Destruction

Today is the day we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. I always take the time to recognize his sacrifice along with others to give us the opportunity to fully experience freedom and the American dream. He was gave his life for that cause and changed society so there’s no doubt in my mind that he deserves the proper recognition.

I think if Reverend King were alive today he would not attend any of the events planned to celebrate his work. The people who he fought and sacrificed so hard for are killing one another in the streets for nothing. Gun violence is widespread and it’s tearing our community apart. Year after year it seems we are mourning the loss of young men, women and children. If that wasn’t bad enough, there’s a code of silence that keeps killers on the streets and that only leads to more violence from them or someone feeling like they have to get justice themselves. We have kids who are so out of control that some parents have to stretch their finances to pay tuition at better schools just to keep their kids away from their own people so they can have a chance to learn.

These things are going on in full view of the rest of the world and our leadership and community doesn’t seem to be willing to concentrate 100% on this issue. What could anyone in a position of leadership and influence today say about living the dream when there’s a chance someone could kill me in cold blood because I stepped on his shoes by mistake? Today is a day to recognize a man who loved everyone enough to preach non violence but his own people hate themselves enough to embrace their own destruction.

I don’t mind listening to a few old speeches today from Reverend King himself but the folks here now should all be quiet and in meetings trying to figure out how to fix this situation we have. I don’t think we can consider anything accomplished until this violence goes away. I'm just hoping no one gets shot today at a MLK Day parade. That would be shameful if it did but at the same time no one would really be surprised.

Raising Our Kids to Change The Culture of Violence

Today was my grandpa’s birthday. He would have been 96 this year. My grandfather was a great family man. He was a World War II veteran in the U.S. Navy and had worked with his hands for so many years of his life that when he rubbed them together they sounded like to pieces of rough sandpaper. Despite his toughness and grit, he was also very caring and had a great sense of humor. I stole his custom of giving people nicknames as a term of endearment.

My grandfather and my dad used to talk to me about growing up and being a man even when I was real young. They used to talk to me about working hard and being responsible. They also used to like to tell stories about fights they had with other kids when they were young. Men take pride in being tough and not letting anyone push them around. That’s especially true around these parts because sometimes toughness and the willingness to fight is all some people have to identify with. The men who raised me had way more substance than that but when you grow up around some of these ignorant cats the fighting part comes in handy from time to time.

Like I said before, this is the land of misguided soldiers who look for any reason to have confrontation with other people. We literally grew up around people who wanted to fight because it made them feel like somebody. Bullies were everywhere. I was raised that the best way to deal with a bully is to beat him down as best as you can one time and hopefully you do it so well that he won’t bother you anymore. My grandmother used to say that if the person was too big to fight off with your hands find something on the ground and hit them with that. She used to give us that advice from her experiences of fighting her way home when she was in school. That’s how deep the culture is. I don’t think the elders worried too much about it because unless things got totally out of hand they all lived to tell stories about the battles they had.

Now there’s a new generation with the same basic approach but they have far less guidance and support from their family. They also have weapons that can wipe out entire groups of people at once. Their guns are status symbols in the circle of people they hang around. They want to show them off just like guys used to want to show off gold teeth, expensive tennis shoes and car rims. If they have the guns they are waiting for a reason to put it on display. What better reason than another dude talking shit? It’s the perfect recipe for shootings that seem to be happening for no real reason at all. The shooting is somewhat new. The fighting for no reason has been there for a long time. Last weekend a man and his teenage son were killed at their home in what seems to be an argument between some girls that started over rumors. Thirty years ago that argument would have led to a few fist flying and everyone waking up the next day to tell the story. Now two people aren't here anymore for nothing. An argument like that can breakout anywhere at anytime when anyone is around. That's frightening.

If I had a son right now I honestly don’t know what I would say to him in regards to how to carry himself. I don’t know if he would have much freedom to go anywhere without me bringing him. I would probably teach him the same principles my grandpa gave to my dad and they both passed to me but I think I would take out some of the tough bravado. I wouldn’t want him to be so soft that people ran all over him but I would be so scared of him ending up in a cemetery or a prison that I would want him to think violence was the worst way possible to deal with any issue. I would hope he could enjoy growing up in New Orleans without me having to take him away from here to escape this drama.

It’s not the New Orleans tradition to walk away from a fight but we need to do something different. We have to switch things up a little so the next generation isn’t caught in this cycle. I know Walter Harris would be okay with that because he wanted nothing more than his family to be okay and you can’t be okay if you are dead or incarcerated. It's time to apply this to all of our extended family and neighbors in the community.

Sitting On My Porch Part Seventy Seven

Today was the first real day back at school and work for most people in the new year. That means there was less sleep and more traffic. There was also all kinds of people coming back from vacation and trying to catch up on three weeks worth of emails and voice messages. When you add this consistent cough that I can't get rid of my day has been pretty aggravating. The worst part about today is that I am taking cold medicine so I can't have a birthday toast for my dad today. I'll make it up to him this weekend when I am back to full strength and watching the Saints game.

Not enough Saints fans seem to be concerned with playing Detroit as I am. I think they have enough offense to hang with ours and are young and crazy enough not to be effected by the crowd. I also think they are ignorant enough to do something like hitting Drew Brees early to knock him out of the game. They are too unpredictable to feel comfortable about. I don't like the Saints in a position as favorite anyway. I am not listening to any media that gives the team that kind of status. I watch Saints games in paranoia like we constantly have something to prove and the minute we lose that edge something bad is going to happen. For that reason I need to think that the Lions have a shot.

Last night Mitt Romney won the Iowa caucus by eight votes over Rick Santorum. Politics aside I think Rick Santorum is strange. I don't know if I would want him to be president even if I agreed with his agenda. Crazy as he is I also think he's authentic. If he was acting he would be trying to come across more normal. In a strange way I respect him for keeping it real. If he was elected my expectations would be exactly where they need to be. I would be prepared for his foolishness. Mitt Romney on the other hand scares me because he's like a used car salesman. I believe he would say anything or adopt any idea if he thought it would help him get elected. If wins the nomination and the presidency no one would quite know what the hell is going to do. That worries me especially since he thinks corporations are people. Wal Mart might be his Secretary of State.

The person who should really feel bitter is Michelle Bachmann. No one got out in front of the world and carried the ball for their party like she did the last few years. She was one of the main faces of the Tea Party and had no problem going after the president and his agenda anytime she could. She was a fresh face with the skills to energize her party and when she won the Iowa straw poll and showed she might actually be a real contender for the nomination the good ole boys in her party dissed and pushed her to the back. It was almost like she disappeared after that.

Rick Perry is still in the race. That means we need to look for our governor in New Hampshire.
If the murder rate in New Orleans went up 14% and Warren Riley was still the chief, how calm would everyone be right now? I miss the days when New Orleans bloggers would try to come up with ways to insult Chief Riley without sounding racist. The local blogosphere is much milder since Nagin and Riley are gone.

Yesterday a friend mentioned she went on a social media fast and how clear her mind was after not looking at Twitter and Facebook for awhile. I don't know if I can do that and still maintain a blog like this but I have decided to take at least two days a week and not log into any social media site. I'm also not reading any internet comments under news stories because those will make you lose faith in society.

My dad is 62 years old today. Since I am in New Orleans he's not I have been playing his kind of music all day in dedication. I was listening to the song on the clip below. My dad used to have an old reel to reel player be brought back from Vietnam and on weekends he used to pull it out and play B.B. King Live in Concert very loudly. He can't do that anymore since everything he brought back from the war was destroyed in the flood. This song is for him, his reel to reel player, and all the people who want to keep telling me New Orleans is so much better since Katrina. We have some nice new buildings and they only cost us lives and memories. Who wouldn't want that deal?

Certain things still trigger my anger.

2012 : Looking Forward

Wit is on guard, I challenge you to a duel

Who needs a chain when every thought's a jewel

God bless the weirdo when everyone’s a fool

F_ck a genie and three wishes

I just want a bottle, a place to write my novel

I am like heroin to those that hear a rhyme and think

How do you find this upper echelon this time?

Let’s toast to better days, a beautiful mind, and a flow that never age

Greg Porn from The Roots – Kool On

2012 is here and I am starting it off when one of the worst colds I have had in my adult life. I have the most miserable cough that wakes me up out of a dead sleep. I’m tired and full of medicine which I hate. I don’t know how people drink cough syrup or pop pills for recreation. It makes you feel off balance. Give me a glass of bourbon or brandy any day over a pill. All I need is a ham sandwich with mustard and a large glass of water before bed to get over a few glasses of Crown. It’s going to take two weeks to come down from this cold syrup high.

I wish the calendar was powerful enough that when it reset so did your life so you could change course faster. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions but I do rank years and try to see what I could do differently going forward. 2011 wasn’t like 2005 or as frustrating as 2007 was to me but in my view it wasn’t the best year. I'm sure I didn't have the right energy last year. My favorite post of the year was the 20 things I hate. Work was draining. I felt tired and uninspired. So many people seemed to be stuck in cement when it came to progress. Black men in New Orleans wouldn’t stop firing weapons at one another. I lost two close family members which made me less and less concerned with things going on around me. I checked out a bit on following the news and the happenings in the community. Those are the things people blog about so in turn the page suffered because I wasn’t in the mood to pay attention.

Now the pages turn to 2012. Work doesn’t seem as draining as it was this time last year. I shouldn’t have to do so many things on my own. I have a good crew and I like how things are going. People are still stuck when it comes to progress but it’s easier to deal with when you are engaged. It help clears your conscience. I’m at a lost about what to do about black men in New Orleans firing weapons at one another but we have to keep fighting that too even though it’s going to come with lots of frustration and disappointment on the way to fixing it. As far as my family and friends go, all we can do is pray for good health and prosperity and deal with whatever happens.

Life isn’t that complicated when you really get down to the basics. Most people just want good health, a safe place to live, and enough money to pay their bills and have a good time every now and then. Some people add a lot of extra things to that list and some don’t but between all the extracurricular activities we all come back to the same thing. In 2012 I’m going to work on my basics and try to add a few extracurricular activities to the mix. Hopefully next year in 2013 my first post will be talking about all the fun we had and how everything is changing for the better. If not at least we can toast to our efforts in trying.

Clifton

Fed Up And Aggravated With Violence

I've been making post like this a few times a year for the last seven years and that's depressing. I was trying to come up with new words to describe this new wave of violence that I haven't used before during all the other waves. I didn't do a real good job. This was all I could come up with...

Yesterday I was speechless. I didn't know how to explain how I woke up Monday morning feeling like I was partially responsible for a two year old's murder. There's that feeling that since the shooter was a black male and I'm a black male and his dad probably didn't do the right things for him and I am a dad and he's from New Orleans and I am too, that somehow in a very indirect way I am partially responsible. That kind of guilt used to always accompany the grief I feel for the victims of all the shootings. As time passes and the incidents pile up my grief and sadness for the victims is just as deep as it ever was but the guilt part is fading more and more each day. I think we are at the point where the killers have to carry the blame on their own because I haven't shot anyone.

I know a wide range of people in this city from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures. If I threw a party and invited everyone I knew it would be a pretty diverse scene. I can count members of the media, college professors,cats that shoot dice for a living and everything in between among my personal friends. The one kind of person I can say I don't know is a killer. I don't know any killers. I know of a few people who might be killers but over the years I separated myself from anyone like that to actually verify if they were or not. I look at the Crimestoppers list all the time and I can't help them out. I don't think any of the people I know could take you to where any killers are sleeping either.

We can't do it but someone can and when I was reading about all of the violence over the weekend and the descriptions of the suspects and the automobiles they were in I know somebody knows who that car belongs to. They could call and even if they don't give a name they may send the police to the place where the gun is and at least we could get that off the street. It's better than nothing.

It's hard to explain how difficult it is to approach this problem from a black perspective. On the one hand the violence has a greater chance at effecting us than it does anyone else. We are more likely to lose our friends and family to it. On the other hand, so many things have taken place to cause the mind state that leads to the violence that we almost feel obligated to not throw that element of our community to the wolves. Whenever something tragic happens people get to talking and they come up with all kinds of reasons for the problem and solutions to fix them. Everyone is right but everyone talking isn't a killer in the first place so what do you do when the assailants are out here and they don't mind dying and taking you with them?

Folks, I don't know the answer but I know I am sick and tired of this and I am willing to try anything except the National Guard unless they are coming to do forensics and detective work to keep some of these fools in prison. We've came back from too much and work too hard to feel this down.

Sitting On My Porch Part Seventy Six

I realize there were no post this week. I was busy getting a new project off the ground at work. I was trying to focus. Despite what Newt Gingrich said some poor kids did learn how to work from the people around them so that's what I had to do. The funny thing about his statement is that poor people usually have jobs that require nothing but hard work for little reward. Poor folks don't know anything but manual labor. Rich kids probably grow up not knowing the value of hard work but it's okay with them because they can always hire illegal immigrants do it for them.

After reading the Forbes article this week "If I Was a Poor Black Kid" I would like to apologize to my parents for not checking the test scores of the school I was in for 2nd grade and making them pay for me to go to a private school. Had I taken my destiny into my own hands when I was 8 I could probably be hiring illegal immigrants to work for me right now. I regret those years when all I wanted to do was watch Mid South Wrestling and play sports with my friends.

New Orleans is probably going to be the murder capital of America again. When all these stories are written like the one from the New York Times last week I hope it's understood that the majority of us are trying to make it better and don't like this shit.

There are some things in life that no matter how hard you try to get right you just can't do it. For me that thing is Christmas lights.

Chris Paul is a Los Angeles Clipper. Thursday morning I listened to a CD created by the kids at KIPP Central City school. I had to listen to my baby bust a freestyle about education. On the front of the cover under the picture of the kids was the letters CP3. There will be no Chris Paul bashing here. The only thing I will say is that I never pegged him as the kind who needed the major city shine like some of his friends. I think there's a little following going on in this situation.

I have always felt from the beginning that the NBA didn't really want a team here. That was made even worse by the fact we had a shady owner who couldn't make it work in Charlotte which is a basketball town. He was so bad the market hasn't recovered yet. You know it was going to end well for him in New Orleans. I believe Commissioner Stern when he says the team will be staying here. I don't think it has anything to do with how he, the owners, or the players feel about New Orleans as a market. I think they see the Saints and that waiting list for season tickets along with the Mercedes sign on the building and they want to show the world they can make it happen like that. The Saints went through 40 years of drama to get to this point. The Hornets won't have that much time. They need to do it in a few years and that's hard when their players act like signing here is like going to Siberia. Look at the faces on these guys. Who is supposed to get excited about that?

Tomorrow the Saints play my fourth most hated opponent in history the Minnesota Vikings. If you're curious the first three are the Falcons, Rams, and 49ers. Minnesota has nothing to play for except for pride and the fact Jared Allen's an asshole. They have no pass defense and we have a little. The difference is we have Drew Brees and they have Christian Ponder. That's worth 20 points so my prediction is Saints 34 Vikings 14.

I know if this was true someone in the media this week would have mentioned it but I have been scanning my memories and I don't ever recall a good game the Saints have had in Minnesota. I can't remember a win during my life time. The Metrodome is where Saints dreams go to die. Nevertheless I think we are past all that and will whip on the Vikings. I advise Saints fans not to get too emotionally invested in tomorrow's game. Save your energy for Monday night and the arrival of the Atlanta Dirty Birds featuring the quarterback with the coolest nickname even though he hasn't done anything Matty Ice and Jared Allen's distant black cousin Roddy White.

Saints, Titans and The Chris Paul Trade Fiasco

Before I get to the Saints I want to talk about the Hornets because this week was one of the dumbest episodes in NBA history. Not every relationship has to end with animosity or bitterness. Sometimes people grow apart because of circumstances and everyone knows it. That was situation with Chris Paul and Hornets fans. We knew he was leaving. That wasn’t a big secret. It’s just the way things are with basketball. For as much as the Saints are legitimate and respected team in the NFL, the Hornets are the opposite in the NBA. It’s been that way since they moved here and it hasn’t gotten better. It’s actually gotten worse. That’s not Chris Paul’s fault. He played hard every game while he was here no matter who his teammates were and never spoke negatively about the city. He was an active member of our community while he was here and I can personally vouch for that. Everyone had accepted the inevitable and it was going to be the smoothest way a franchise player could leave town without many hard feelings.

Then the NBA had to cancel the trade that sent Chris Paul to the Hornets because the other small market owners got pissed. I'm not a big fan of any of the players the team was getting back in exchange for the franchise guy but at least they were getting something. Since the league still owns the team there was nothing Chris Paul or the Hornets general manager Dell Demps could do about it. Now if the trade doesn’t happen Chris plays out the year angry and the Hornets end up with nothing because he’s signing with the Knicks or the Lakers anyway. The Hornets could end up with no owner, no CP3 and the worst record in the league because right now there’s not even a full roster. The NBA was more fun for me when New Orleans didn’t have a team.

The Saints play the Tennessee Titans tomorrow. I haven’t watched a lot of the Titans this year but I know they are a tough team. They have Chris Johnson who’s finally found himself and their running game has been strong the past few weeks. We have a good chance at stopping him. Our run defense isn’t so bad. The Titans quarterback is Matt Hasselbeck. He’s the destroyer of Saints Superbowl repeat dreams and the man in Roman Harper’s nightmares for the past year. When Roman Harper’s on the field Hasselbeck turns into Joe Montana. I hope Malcolm Jenkins makes this not as big of an issue tomorrow. He hasn’t quite been standing out either. It’s usually the games against an offensive player that should have a big game where the Saints defense steps up the most.

A win tomorrow means another 10 win season and a playoff berth. Tennessee is trying to keep pace with Houston so they will be playing with playoff intensity as well. I think the game will be close because it’s in Nashville and the Saints defense makes a play to change the game. We get the win and change our focus to winning the division and catching San Francisco for the number two seed.

Saints 27 - Titans 17

P.S.

While I was writing this the trade between the Lakers, Hornets and Rockets was resubmitted to the league. Even if it’s approved it doesn’t change how awful the NBA handled the trade on Thursday and how sad it is the Hornets don’t have an owner. As long as there's no owner they'll always be the least desirable team in the league for players.

At This Point Just Teach The Kids

There’s an article in the local paper this morning about charter schools and who gets and doesn’t get permission to run a school. The locals are getting restless because they don’t have control of most of the school system anymore and are having a hard time competing with national charter school organizations. I haven’t spoken about this issue for awhile but every now and then a reality check is needed. I would like to tell all my local friends that no one really wants you to run your own schools. New Orleans is now the proving ground for any charter program looking to show its value and we made it that way with years of failure and neglect. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

The people who are running our schools now will listen to you because they can’t piss you off too much but they don’t have to cater to your ideas and history because they have the grades of your kids prior to Katrina to show we don’t what we are doing. This is a stats driven society and there are a lot of people in our city who haven’t came to this conclusion yet. Bobby Jindal just got elected to his second term. This state is as red as it’s ever been. Very soon our superintendent and state board representative will be Teach for America disciples and our mayor endorsed them. His chief deputy mayor was the leader of Teach for America in the state so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what’s about to happen. The charter system is here to stay and the best thing we can do now is support the kids to make sure they have the best opportunities possible.

I’m a charter school parent and I love the school my kids attend but I am not necessarily pro charter schools. I can’t say that I am a big supporter of local control either. I’m for educated children of New Orleans no matter what. If the teacher most qualified for that task is a recent graduate of an Ivy League school or a twenty year teaching veteran from Algiers then let them do their job. At this point I just want the kids to make it because we are at a crucial time. We have to support whoever happens to be teaching them and hope they succeed.

The only thing I will add to this is that even though I accept the failures of the past and change in the system I am still a big believer in the fact that New Orleans natives can control their own destiny and do for themselves. If some of these groups from out of town receiving charters can’t make it work and kids are failing then I am going to turn pro local control really fast. I can’t support anyone who comes here to get paid and doesn’t teach our kids because they’ll be living somewhere else ten years from now while we are here trying to keep their failures off of the street and out of the cemetery. We don’t need anyone to help us do that. We are already experts at school failure.

The 2011 Struggling Bowl : New Orleans vs Detroit

Tonight the Saints play the Detroit Lions in what I called a few years ago the Struggling Bowl because of the state of both cities. In the three years since I wrote that the Saints won a Superbowl, New Orleans has a new mayor and some things appear to be getting better. I wish I could declare victory in the tale of the tape against the Motor City but thanks to the auto industry bailout they still have Ford, Chrysler and Chevrolet. That has to count for something. The Lions play in Ford Field. We have the Mercedes Benz Superdome. At night does an image of an Ford F 150 drive around the stadium with flashing lights on? I’m giving us a slight edge since the Benz Dome is always lit up like a Christmas tree and it’s the holiday season.

We have Treme on HBO to spotlight our city. The show is set during the time right after the storm so it’s not the best representation of the current situation but if it makes people visit and spend money I am okay with it as long as no one stops me on the street and asks me to dance. Detroit has the best group of meter maids and traffic people on Parking Wars. I’m giving Detroit the win on television entertainment because of the dude on Parking Wars they call Ponytail is more entertaining than the Mardi Gras Indian gang on Treme that showed everyone their suits before they are ready. That’s not supposed to happen.

I’m deducting ten points from each city for crime.

Detroit is on the verge of bankruptcy and the state may have to step in and take over. I’m going to give New Orleans the win in this one because we are poor but not bankrupt and have only lost control of our schools. You know, if the bug three automobile companies are doing so well now why is Detroit and the surrounding cities so broke? I thought when the private sector was doing well financially people would have jobs and that would take care of everything? Shouldn’t they be rolling in cash? I guess the trickle down hasn’t started yet. I’m giving New Orleans the slight edge on fiscal shape.

As far as tonight’s game goes I think the Lions are having a good year considering where they were a few years ago but they are too inexperienced and not ready to deal with Drew Brees at home. There’s still a chance for the number two seed and after last year I think Coach Payton doesn’t want to end up playing on the road the first week of the playoffs if he can help it. I expect the Saints to play with playoff intensity. Detroit won’t quit because they have enough talent on offense to score on defense and their coach is too crazy to give up. As long as we contain Megatron Johnson we’ll be okay If Houston can hold on against Atlanta today and we win tonight we can get some cushion in the division.

Saints win this year’s Struggling Bowl by a score of 34-20.

Sitting On My Porch Part Seventy Five

8 - 3 looks pretty good........and can someone please beat Atlanta so we can get some distance please.


Tuesdays after the Saints shine on Monday Night Football seem to go pretty quick. You forget all about the lack of sleep and over drinking on a Monday. Late Tuesday is about the time your body starts to come down from the football high which meant that Wednesday was going to be a hard day and it was.

The only drawback to watching football games this time of year is the endless stream of jewelry and luxury car commercials. The Lexus commercials are the worst. Do you know how much money you need to have in this economy to buy a Lexus behind your partner’s back and they don’t look at you like you’re crazy? Everyone on those commercials is part of the 1%.

I can't stand the flashing lights on the Mercedes Benz Superdome. I don't mind the colors but why do they have to flash all night like a club sign on Bourbon St?

I don't like neighborhood associations that fight when stores want to open close to them. New Orleans isn't big enough for you to be that selfish. A store in the right area actually serves dozens of neighborhoods because everything is so close. You just happen to live in an area where companies feel good about investing in. Bite the bullet and do what's best for the rest of the people living around you. If you want to move somewhere that no one wants to change come out to New Orleans East with me.

The NBA lockout isn't officially over yet and poor Hornets fans have already been subjected to Chris Paul trade rumors. Chris Paul is a good guy and his situation with the Hornets doesn't reflect on him personally. The way the NBA works almost dictates he has to leave for a larger market team. The players have all the control over where they wanna go and the financial structure makes it possible for them to play together with their friends if that's what they choose to do. That doesn't bother me but it's hard to get totally behind a team you know has no shot of winning a championship without a miracle before the season starts. The best player in the NFL at the moment is Aaron Rodgers (sorry Drew). He plays in Green Bay Wisconsin. If the NFL was the NBA then all the Green Bay fans would hear about is what big team he was going to leave for.

It really bothers me that every time someone gets arrested for murder it seems as if they have already been arrested 20 times for all kinds of crazy shit. I know we don't have enough witnesses coming forward but these cats are not leaving any evidence around. We have some sophisticated uneducated criminals around here.

Today I went to lunch and in the mile or so I drove I saw at least ten guys just hanging out around 1:00 PM during the day. The reason we are having so many violent crimes early in the day is because when you don't have anything to do there's no difference between day and night.

There's nothing funny about what's happening to Herman Cain's campaign right now. I would much rather his campaign just fell apart because he wasn't the best candidate than to have the whole world making fun of him as sex hungry black man that can't control his zipper. It would have been better for him to win the nomination than what's happening now. The worst image of a black man besides we are overly violent is that we want to have sex with everything moving. It's so bad even we believe it. Having Herman Cain's campaign fail because he couldn't be faithful to his wife is not good for any of us. That's true even for the guys who think he's an Uncle Tom. If I was a Secret Service agent and a woman other than Michelle Obama came within three feet of the President I would hit her with a stun gun. We can't have any of that foolishness going on. If the brothers at the top can't get right then there's no hope for the guys on the street. If Herman Cain had a stable of women he should have never ran for president to begin with.

Back IntoThe Grid

I tried to stay off of the information grid as much as possible this past week. I’ve realized over the past week that between phones, having a job that depends on web based software, and my addiction to Words with Friends it’s almost impossible to escape the internet. I would have to take a vacation and drive until I couldn’t get a signal like those guys on that car commercial. They drove a long ass way to get somewhere without a signal. It’s not the worth the gas money. I guess I was really off the disconnected from everything. I just didn’t have much to say so there weren’t many tweets or Facebook updates. There wasn’t any blogging either. I missed a lot of things.

I’m happy to report that as far as post Katrina life goes the start of this holiday season isn’t so bad. I guess I am finally used to not having tradition enough that I won’t force myself into being miserable until the new year anymore. I’m not sure how I feel about that but feeling normal beats being depressed.

I can name many things to be thankful for. I know a lot of good people. I’m not rich but I am currently not broke. I have all my visible teeth. I have a full staff at work now which is one of the best Christmas gifts I could have received. Maybe I can leave work at the office now. When you have a full staff with an extra twenty bucks and most of your teeth it’s hard to be upset. After I write this I am headed to make a donation to a family that really needs it. Then I’m coming home to sit outside in this cool weather and smoke a cigar if it’s not raining. I guess I’ll watch some football even though I’ve been conserving my energy for the Saints on Monday Night

P.S.

If anyone reading this in the New Orleans area has a stove or knows someone with one who may want to help a family in need let me know.