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.

My Daddy Said Think For a Minute Before You Do It

Today is my dad’s birthday. I have probably said this before but I can’t say it enough. I don’t know another man with his honesty and integrity. Compared to him I am a big knucklehead. I might get to his status one day. At least I have something to strive for. When you grow up with a man like that you get a lot of knowledge dropped on you all the time. Some of it comes when you are younger and doesn’t make total sense but as you get older it starts to become clearer. I was thinking about one of the things my dad told me this weekend when I was watching football. Two people really embodied some of his words, Michael Haywood former football coach of Pittsburgh University and LeGarrette Blunt running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Michael Haywood worked a long time as an assistant coach until he got head coaching job at Miami of Ohio and he finally made it to a BCS school after all those years of work when he got the job as head coach of Pittsburgh. He had the job less than a month when he lost it after being arrested for domestic violence against the mother of his child. He was charged with a felony, stayed in jail a few days and then was released and fired by Pittsburgh. When I heard about the story I was upset because there are only a handful of black head coaches at the top level of college football and I couldn’t believe he let his anger get the best of him to the point where he would put his hands on the woman and ruin his career. I saw it as the same lack of critical thinking that lead to so many black men reacting violently and ending up in prison with another person hurt or in the cemetery. I didn’t have to hear the full details to think he could have handled the situation better than he did.

Now some brothers will tell me “You don’t know whole story Cliff. That woman could have been tripping and anything could have gone down in there before the police came.” That might be true but if he was thinking about the big picture he still should have walked away and removed himself from the situation. He’s worked too hard to get to where he was to give it all away for a few minutes of anger and the same baby whose mother he was fighting with will suffer because of that decision. He’s got to be bigger than his anger.

Sunday the Saints played Tampa and LaGarrette Blount is their starting running back. He is the second undrafted back to rush for 1000 yards. The brother is physically gifted. There were a few plays this season where he actually jumped over a tackler. The young man has talent and should have a long career. At the beginning of the 2009 college football season when he played for Oregon, LeGarrette got suspended for punching a player from Boise St. after a game. He was projected to be a first or second round draft pick but ended up not getting drafted at all. He cost himself millions of dollars by punching that guy and not controlling his anger.

Now some brothers will tell me “If that had been me and that guy was talking trash all in my personal space I would have punched him too. The NCAA overreacted. It was just a regular punch.” Where we grew up that might be how to look at it but LeGarette was no longer in the hood. He was a man on the verge of making millions of dollars and helping his family and he should have looked the bigger picture and just ran through the tunnel. Once again, he heeded to be bigger than his anger. He let that part of our culture that requires reacting with violence to cost him money. I realize he has a chance to make it back but why take the chance?

It’s like Big Cliff always used to ask me whenever I was pissed off about something and wanted to react to it in a way that wasn’t going to change the situation. He used to ask me if my anger and my reaction to it were worth the relationships I would damage and the opportunities I would lose if I responded in the wrong way. If the answer is no then you have to take a deep breath and think a minute before you make life harder than it has to be. There are times when you have no choice but to fight. There are other times when you have to take a deep breath, suck it up and move on after looking at the big picture.

Looking Forward To 2011

This picture was from my book reading at Mimi's for the Howling in the Wires book reading. Between this, my CNN appearance and being giving award named after Ashley Morris, how could I see this year wasn't a good one.

If I had to describe 2010 in one word it would be bipolar. Never has one 365 day period given so much joy, excitement, pride, sense of accomplishment, aggravation, despair, grief, and frustration all at the same time. The high point was the Saints winning the Superbowl. The low point was definitely the oil spill which showed what happens when big money controls politicians. Less than a year later since the Deepwater Horizon blast you barely hear about the story. At least we didn’t have any extreme hurricanes that made the problem a lot worst. If I take my personal year, add it to the events that affected everybody and look at the hurricane season, 2010 wasn’t so bad. I mean it could have been a lot better without the oil spill, violence in the streets and blatant stupidity of a lot of people but there was no need for Contraflow or constantly refreshing Weather Underground. That’s always going to give a year extra credit. Now it’s time to move on to 2011 with a more realistic forecast of what could be on the horizon.

In 2011 many things will be just like they have been for a long time.

In 2011 there will be a few things that shouldn’t make sense to anyone but someone with a vested interest will try to convince us that it should.

In 20ll there will be a few things that should make sense to everyone but someone with a vested interest will try to convince some of us that it doesn’t to us separate.

In 2011 I probably won’t be changing much about myself or giving up anything because I am pretty cool with who I am and what I do. I finally have a good idea how to balance my different personalities so why mess with it now.

In 2011 even though we are not old, cats my age will have to start the process of taking a more leadership role in turning our community around. The older men who are fighting the battle are already stretched thin, the sisters are doing all they can and there’s a void that needs to be filled. It’s unfair to ask one man to be a hero and save an entire neighborhood by himself. We could start turning the tide by just talking to the kids on our block or ones that we know around town.

In 2011 dozens of new impressive buildings will be built or started all over New Orleans and further strengthen the foolish notion that suffering and loss of life due to Hurricane Katrina was a good thing.

In 2011 I will go crabbing for the first time since the BP Oil Spill. I will probably look down at the water and think it looks a little different, get worried but then tell myself that there’s no harm and keep going. Just like a lot of people in South Louisiana it’s something I have been doing my whole life so I’ll tell myself that everything is safe.

In 2011 Governor Bobby Jindal will cut so much money from the Health and Hospital system that a record amount of babies will be born at home and 2012 will be considered the Year of the Midwife. When a kid says he was born in the 7th Ward he will really mean it because it was in his kitchen.

In 2011……….Three Dat!

In 2011 Drew Brees will commit to being more focused this offseason and only do 500 endorsements instead of the 1000 he did last year.

In 2011 our focus should shift to teaching young men what bad choices are because I’m not sure they really know the choices they are making are the wrong ones.

In 2011 we have to be more focused and dedicated to protecting our children and not exposing them to dangerous situations.

In 2011 we need to do a better job of making young people in our community understand the consequences of bad choices because right now we have too many people throwing caution to the wind and do whatever comes to mind without thinking what’s going to happen afterwards.

In 2011 Jay Electronica will finally release his album so I can stop putting him on the list of things I am looking forward to every year.

In 2011 I will try to push myself and take my blog and my writing to the next level because I can’t talk to these young men about recognizing who they are and embracing it without doing that to fullest myself. I have to do what the words in my blog title that was sent to me by a friend years ago. I need to “embrace my potential and be productive” because that’s what I want the young cats to do and I hate hypocrites.

In 2011 we are going to live, love, laugh, cry, eat, drink and enjoy life. A lot of my people like to take the things they have been through and use that as the reasons why they should give up hope and pack it in. I’ve been guilty of that a few times but now as we go forward I’m looking at things a different way. We are battle tested and ready to handle everything we need to in order to make life better.

Happy New Year and I’ll see you in 2011

Katrina is Off Limits When Trash Talking

I want to post this before the end of tonight’s Saints game because how I feel has nothing to do with if they win or lose. After waiting my whole life to see the Saints just make the Super Bowl I had very realistic expectations going into the season. These days it’s difficult to repeat. A lot of teams barely have winning records after making it all the way. I figured as long as we didn’t fall on our face and stayed in the hunt all season it was a good year. I watched every game intently but I didn’t have the same stress and paranoia. As far as I was concerned it had been a good year. I was enjoying the legitimacy. Even the great season by our biggest rival the Atlanta Falcons didn’t bother me as much as it would have in other years. They are pretty solid team and their record is legitimate. Besides, no matter what happens we will have always won a championship first. I’m good with that.

Leading up to this game Roddy White had to go and make everything personal with his insensitive and ignorant tweets. I guess the NFL made him apologize after the New Orleans folks went all out crazy on the internet. Today I read an article on SB Nation Atlanta about how Saints fans are looking for sympathy because of Katrina. That might not be the exact context because the coward took the article down so I couldn’t read again when I got home.

I don’t like when people from my city do or say ignorant things. If there’s anyone that can use a change of image it’s us. However, if anybody references the K-word to take shots at us then whatever is said is fair game. Don’t people understand that people died during the storm? Don’t they know people suffered? Don’t they know that Saints fans passion for the team has nothing to do with rebounding from Katrina? That’s two separate things all together. It’s not like the Saints won the Super Bowl and the recovery sped up. It’s not like the Saints won the Super Bowl and we suddenly got category 5 levee protection. It’s not like the Saints got rid of all the crime and challenges. Our love for the Saints has nothing to do with Katrina. I would never belittle what happened during the storm by associating it with a football team.

Of course the NFL will do that. The fact that the Saints are still here in New Orleans and thriving is a major achievement for their league. I’m not mad at them for that. I’m not mad at the players who feel that way either because the majority of them arrived in town when things were still in really bad shape. They should take pride in what they accomplished since then. I’m just a fan and a lifelong resident. I love the Saints and if they would have won the championship ten years ago my reaction would have been the same. I was home and rebuilding before we even thought about a Super Bowl ring. I lost family in the storm so I don’t know how to look at an attempt at being a witty writer as just playful trash talk. Call us the Aints if you want to. Make fun of the fact we stole some Atlanta rappers’ song and made it our theme song. That’s all fair in trash talking. When you talk about Katrina that transcends football with me and it makes me want to hate you even when there isn’t a game. Besides, Steven Godfrey doesn’t write well enough to make being an asshole entertaining.

P.S.

The next time you put that much work into talking about something leave it up there and stand by it.

Rest in Peace Teena

Last year on the Just A Song blog I wrote my first post dedicated to my favorite Teena Marie song. After she passed away last night I was fascinated at the crossover appeal she had in the black community without any mention or care of her race. There's a lot of black people that didn't know she was white until they were older. I hope now more people will look into her work to figure out what the fuss is all about and realize she is one of the most gifted performers in history.

Sitting On My Porch Part Sixty

This is 60th edition of this foolishness. I wonder if I can make it to 100. If I make it that far I am retiring this blog and you people need to find something to do.

The holiday season is supposed to be cold. It was 75 degrees today in New Orleans. People were walking around in shorts. The only good thing about weather like this is it allows you to do things you things like sit outside in the evening and enjoy the cool breeze. That’s what I just did over a cigar and a nice glass of whiskey. Now I’m ready to write my last Sitting on the Porch for 2010.

The criminal element is trying to ruin our holiday season. We’ve had a rash of murders the last few days. It seems like whenever we let go of the negative energy long enough to allow ourselves to feel positive about the future we go through is. I can’t say it doesn’t make me feel down. I just feel like if we ever get to the point where we accept this kind of behavior as a routine thing it will never change. So while we grieve for the victims and offer support for their families, we have to try and remain positive enough to keep going and do what we can to save more people from ending up the same way. I think it’s the best way to honor the deceased.

I know I just said we need to try to be as positive as possible but you have to wonder what kind of world we live in when faith would put a young brother with nothing but good things ahead of him at the same gas station with a guy who has been charged with quadruple murder that his brother is serving time for. On the one night he’s out celebrating his achievements he had to run into this guy. That’s hard to come to terms with.

The one thing I don’t want us to do is act like this culture of violence is just a local thing. The other night there were so many people talking about how they were thinking about leaving and making statements like somehow living in New Orleans or being from here made the them more prone to be violent. We must never accept that. A few years ago after the incident where a kid’s mom told him to go back out and kill another kid I did a post on my blog called 100 Brothers Strong where I asked people to send me names of positive brothers. I posted the list a few days later just to prove that we are not all monsters. I’m thinking about doing it again. Since we know that were not monsters we can stop other kids from being monsters too. I’m stuck on how to do it but I know it can be done.

For a man who seemed to take such a beat down during the midterm elections President Obama seems to be on a roll. Almost all of the major bills he wanted have passed. He knows more than me because I thought the first thing he should have done was pick the biggest fight possible. That’s why he’s the president and I am just a blogger.

I still don’t know how I feel about the tax deal but I am all for the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Besides having no issue with gay people the repeal fits my philosophy that no one should fight for their country and not have the same rights and freedom they are risking their lives to protect. I’ve never understood that. My grandfather fought in World War II and defended the country in his 20’s. He was in his 50’s before he could eat and shop in certain places and other people still had to struggle to make that happen. America is at its best when we embrace people despite their differences instead of excluding them because they are different. That’s why people should want to fight for ideals in the first place.

The best thing about being a new millennium daddy in the digital age is you can buy your children loads of gifts and there is nothing to stay up all night and put together like Big Cliff used to do for my toys.

Either Bobby Jindal is a genius for telling BP building those sand berms would catch oil and getting them to pay for the project knowing all the time they would end up being helpful in coastal restoration or he’s the luckiest traveling governor in American history because he sure made a lot of noise to get those berms built when we could have picked up just as much oil with trash bags and cooking spoons.

The 2010 Census data is out and it looks like Louisiana will be losing a seat in Congress. I am already expecting an assault on the 2nd Congressional seat held my Cedric Richmond. Since I don’t know this for sure I won’t say anything else right now. This should be fun.

I haven’t been listening to much Christmas music because I just haven’t been in the holiday spirit. I’ve only played Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto by James Brown twice. Tonight I ran across The Roots performing The Christmas Song on Jimmy Fallon’s show on the Soul Bounce blog. Not only is Black Thought a lyrical assassin but he can sing too. I want to ask The Roots to hit New Orleans for a show in 2011 and I promise to be there even if I have to go myself.

Stay together New Orleans….We gonna be alright.

The Win Streak Is Over So the Saints Posts Are Back

Now that the winning streak is over I can break my blogging moratorium on the Saints.

We lost a tough game on the road today to the Baltimore Ravens. It was a combination of poor tackling, a few mental errors, and a great day by Ray Rice. The Ravens running game went wild on us today. There’s no shame in losing a close game in cold weather to a team like Baltimore. I’m upset we lost but I am not tortured by it the way I am about the losses to Arizona or Cleveland. Those two losses are going to come back and haunt us if we are playing on the road the first week of the playoffs instead of having a first round bye and home field advantage. I expected to get Baltimore’s A game today because we are in the upper echelon now and we come to town teams are going to get excited. I think that’s a beautiful thing. We’ve come a long way to get to the point where teams look forward to playing us.

While I am only slightly dejected by the lost I am completely ticked off by some of the questionable officiating calls towards the end of the game. There was a personal foul called against Will Smith that the television broadcast didn’t show and no one seems to be able to find. I don’t think that penalty lost the game but it sure didn’t help any. Right now we have a cash reward on Twitter for anyone that can produce a video clip of this penalty. At the time I am writing this the total amount of the reward stands at twenty three dollars. Please feel free to send me the link. I can’t guarantee the money but send it anyway.

Now it's on to Monday night and the Dirty Birds.

Things Change and Memories Stay The Same

It always feel strange when you run into old friends on the street. It’s usually the same routine. You hug one another, ask how everyone is doing, and then you exchange numbers and say you are going to call but you don’t. Time and circumstances have a way of separating people. There was a time when I spent more time around a certain group of friends than I did around my own family. Friendships that have that kind of bond or often stronger than blood relatives because you are together by choice. When it was this far into the holiday season we would be in and out of one another’s houses all the time. Everybody would be up all night drinking, eating, and playing games. We bought one another’s family gifts for Christmas. We even all had our Saints season tickets together.

I can remember when Gabby was born and there was so many people in the room at the hospital that I thought the nurse was going to kick them out. People were sitting along the wall just hanging out and having a good time right in the maternity ward. I also remember lighting the grill at night and drinking moonshine my boy got from his neighbor. The orange color from the charcoal used to make these fools so excited that they wanted to go to the store at 2AM to find something to put on it so they wouldn't waste the fire. Those were good times. I thought things were going to stay that way for a long time. Then the water came and flooded the city. Some people came back and others didn’t. Some people held it together and other folks changed. Today most of the people I am talking about barely speak or see one another. There’s no bad blood involved. I love everybody and if someone needed me right now I would be there. It’s just that we are all on different paths now.

A few years ago thinking about stuff like this used to depress me. What made it worse is that I used to think because I was having such a difficult time dealing with how much things changed that I didn’t do enough to keep everyone together. These days I don’t think that’s true. I think it was just a great period in my life that I can remember fondly. I’m only 36 but I have had a few periods like that involving different people and they were all cool in their own way. As time goes on there will probably be more. If there aren’t anymore that may be cool because then that’s less people to think about and hope they are doing okay until you run into them again.

Thinking like this is one of the side effects of the holiday season.

Tax Cuts Passed : Now Rich People Have To Do Something

The House of Representatives passed the tax cut package last night for the president to sign. I guess he’s real happy right now. Once he signs the bill the tax cuts for the rich will be extended for two years. I would be more optimistic if this same strategy had worked the past ten years it was in place. I would also not be so disappointed in President Obama right now if he wouldn’t have campaigned against these same tax cuts during his campaign. In fact he campaigned so hard against them that even if making this deal made sense from a political standpoint it still looks like he caved in. The first President Bush had the same problem after raising taxes despite having that video clip of him saying “Read my lips, no new taxes!” He did the sensible thing at the time and raised taxes when he had to but he never recovered from it. I hope going back on a campaign promise doesn't come back to haunt President Obama like that.

Since our economic policy is basically staying the same as it was the past ten years I think it’s time to talk about the rich and their responsibilities to the country. I grew up in a family without a lot of money. I never heard anyone sitting around talking bad about rich people. The truth is that people without money are much more hated than the rich. A lot of Americans seem to have a problem with the single mother in the grocery store paying for her overflowing basket of food with her food stamps or living on a housing subsidy. We think she’s getting over on hard working people even though she’s probably working too and has to make her life an open book just to live in a neighborhood where here children get a sub par education and are vulnerable to crime and violence. They feel she’s bringing down the country by getting just enough help to live in a neighborhood that most people won’t even drive through.

Rich people are different. Despite the fact that a formerly rich bastard like Bernie Madoff can ruin thousands of people’s lives by taking their money, we don’t really care what they do. We just assume it must be good for the country because they have a lot of money and we hope to have a lot of money one day too . Over the last year we have been listening to politicians tell us that we had give the rich and powerful as many breaks and benefits as possible so they would feel good enough about their own situation to hire the rest of us and bring unemployment down. If that’s true and they now have an extension on their tax cuts, the question becomes how long do we give them to actually invest in America and start hiring Americans before we get angry and question their patriotism the way we do the poor?

The fact is we are borrowing money from other countries to pay for these tax cuts. According to the conservative ads that ran for the past two years there is nothing worse than leaving all this debt behind for our children and grandchildren to pay for. I heard this every day before the midterm elections. That was the line when it came to helping average people. If we are willing to live with such horrible debt for the tax cuts to continue then how long do we give those that control wealth to reinvest in the people whose family will be paying the bill? If the rich are making and keeping all of this money and we are not going to demand that they do anything, then we might as well let them run the country and we can stop voting because it won’t matter who’s in office. The rich and corporate America has gotten everything they want from the government. Now it’s time for them to step up to the plate like everyone else is expected to do. After all of the yelling and screaming for two years just to get to this point, if the people who have the most resources are not required to do anything then we all should just be quiet and accept the country the way it is now.

How Big Is Your Jail?

There’s going to be a new jailhouse in New Orleans. We can’t seem to agree on how big it should be. The deputy mayor Mr. Kopplin led a group that determined the size of the jail should be 1438 beds. Sheriff Marlon Gusman says he needs 3200 beds. I think Mayor Landrieu is leaning more to Sheriff Gusman’s side on this one and things the jail should be bigger as well. If I were a betting man I would put my money on a number closer to the 3200 because we are going for the bigger and better theme these days. Right now there’s blocks of property being torn down in the middle of the city for a new hospital and that’s just for the parking space. Why wouldn’t we build the biggest jail possible? Plus, we like locking people up in New Orleans. If it’s a real good Mardi Gras season we can get at least 2500 tourists in there with no problem.

If I had a vote I would want the jail to be about 500 beds and maybe another 200 to hold people until they went to court after being arrested. All we need room for is people who commit violent crimes, sexual assaults and anything against children. Maybe if we had a jail that small people would get serious about coming up with strategies to change the circumstances that lead to so many people being arrested in the first place. Besides, there’s a bunch of inmates in parish prison now and crime keeps happening. When I see a number like 3200 beds I think about 3000 black men being locked up. New Orleans court isn’t the most diverse place in the world when it comes to defendants. There’s got to be a better way to spend that money on new programs that will do more to help those guys be productive citizens and make the city safer instead of giving them a new jail cell and more space to waste the prime of their lives away. I know we are spending money that was allocated specifically for a prison but there has to be a way to do something different and creative with that space.

I’m sure everyone involved knows that already. There’s just the small issue of having so much money to spend on a facility. The planners have to get their cut. The consultants are going to want some of that. Then there’s the construction company and contractors who need to stick their hands in. I’m sure I’ll be seeing construction crews full of illegal immigrants and out of state license plates thinking to myself how funny it is that we are building a jail for the city of New Orleans and it’s future occupants didn’t even get a chance to make some money building it. When I think about some of the things that have went on in the redevelopment of this city the 3200 bed plan might actually be conservative. I should be happy the new prison complex doesn’t stretch all the way to Hollygrove.

There's No Replacement For Daddy

Tonight I am heading downtown to check out Monday Night RAW. I’m going with my cousin, my nephew, and my little brother from the mentoring program. It should be a lot of fun. My first experience as a mentor has gone pretty well. My only issue has been trying to remember what a mentor is supposed to do. The kid is only ten years old and it’s hard for me to just talk with him about things without fussing and telling him what he should do. According to what the mentor training says our job is to just help them work through issues and not take the place of a guardian. I guess that’s for the best but it still feels strange to me because Big Cliff was my friend and he helped me work through a lot of things but at 10 years old he was still the boss of me and didn’t hesitate to shake the life out of my body if I was tripping.

My little brother could be on the verge of having that kind of relationship with his dad. He just got released from prison about a week ago. I’m not sure how a mentor comes into play when your own father is around. My dad would have taken it as an insult if I would have been in a mentoring program but he was there every day. Maybe this brother won’t mind since he has a lot of things to do to get his own life together. Only time will tell. Once I was informed that he would be released I already told myself that if he steps up and decides that he is ready to be a full time presence in the kid’s life I will call and check on him occasionally but get out of the way. I’m not sure if that’s what I should do but that’s what my instinct tells me.

The close it came to his dad getting released the better his attitude and behavior got in school. It’s too early in the day for black father bashing but there’s one thing I am sure of and that’s that all these kids want their own father involved. I don’t care if they are 5, 15 or 25 years old; when it all comes down to it you can’t beat the power of having a relationship with your dad. For most of his life my little brother never had that chance and now he does. I really hope things work out and I can lend my time for another young brother that didn’t get the opportunity to have that reconnection. If it doesn’t work out then he can always call me. I’m looking forward to the day I call to check up on him and all he does is ramble on and on about all the cool stuff he and his dad did together. That will be a great conversation and we can add having awesome dads to the list of things we have in common like our love of professional wrestling and being good looking black men from New Orleans.

Repost: Neighborhood Wish List

I'm not getting lazy when it comes to blogging. It's just that a lot of issues have been going on so long that I have spoken about them before. This morning on the front page of the Times Picayune was a story about how despite having 71,000 residents living out here New Orleans East and having a pretty good median income compared to the rest of the city we have no retail and amenities of a neighborhood with middle class people. When I read it this morning I felt the need to say something about it. That's when I realized that I already had so I went back and found this post from July 2008. I went back and read it and despite a few references to some officials no longer in the positions they were in at the time everything I said still holds form. Hopefully I won't be re- posting this again in 2012. If I have to post this again two years from now I won't be so nice about it especially with all these feel good development stories going on.

I have never been one to get excited by stories in the paper and magazines about up and coming developments in my community. I believe it when I see it. Actually, I believe it when I see people coming in and out of the building. With that in mind I want to discuss my current area of the city. I live right along the border of New Orleans East and Gentilly. There are thousands of people living out here and most of us are middle and working class people. Any given day you can ride around this area and see work being done on houses everywhere. I would argue that besides the affluent non flooded neighborhoods, there is probably more working people in New Orleans East and Gentilly than any other neighborhoods in New Orleans. So why is it when I want to buy a non bootleg CD I have to spend gas and time just to go to the store? I know we are supposed to be all in this recovery together but its obvious no one in control of the money wanted us to move back out here. This may seem petty to most people but by the time I get to a place with a really good cup of coffee to sip on the way to work I am already in the building.

This is not about the obvious things like a hospital or new schools. This is also not intended to disrespect and minimize all the stores like Winn Dixie, Home Depot and Sears that are open already, the small businesses opening up around the area or the Asian and Middle Eastern grocers who were here months before anybody else. What I am trying to say is that I want some of the things that are on the Westbank, Metairie, Slidell or Uptown. I think the folks around me make enough money to warrant some of these things. Here is my list. If you want to add to it or tell me about something being built please let me know. Keep in mind we had some of this stuff before the storm. I know we won’t get all of this. I will settle for five and would actually be shocked if we get one anytime soon.

Wal Mart

Best Buy

P J’s Coffee ( I would be in here every morning. They would probably stop charging me after awhile.)

Any Big and Tall Men’s Store

Buffalo Wild Wings

PetSmart

Fox and Hound

Borders Books (because I have a discount card)

A movie theatre (with proper security)

A cigar shop

Martins Wine Cellar

24 hour fitness center with a basketball court

Chuck E Cheese

Cell phone stores from all the major carriers.

Applebee’s, Outback, N.O. Hamburger and Seafood, Bennigans, anything?

Another original restaurant like Sassafras will be ok in place of the names above.

Dillards

Burlington Coat Factory

Kroger’s( I know we don’t have these in New Orleans but they have the best steaks and beer selection for a grocery chain )

Golden Corral

About three of those 5 min oil change spots.

A really good hibachi restaurant

I think five from this list is fair. We definitely have the space. I have a great idea. How about we tear down that destroyed Six Flags park that is an eyesore and never going to open again. We can take half of that space and give some of these companies free rent. I should send this to Ann Duplessis and hope her lack of a pay raise hasn't affected her ability to open emails.

A Bit of Justice For Henry

The verdict came in for the Henry Glover trial yesterday evening. Three officers were found guilty for killing Mr. Glover, burning his body, and trying to cover it up. Two other officers were acquitted and get to go home to their families. Yesterday when the verdicts were being announced there were a lot of people who were pissed at the fact that David Warren who pulled the trigger and Greg McRae who burned the body weren’t convicted of first degree murder. Warren was convicted of manslaughter and McRae was convicted of civil rights violation for burning Mr. Glover’s body. Personally, I will take these results as a victory for justice because the truth is that there isn’t a good track record of officers being brought to justice for killing black people. I honestly expected all of the defendants to be going home with their families after the verdict.

I didn’t expect any convictions in this case. I was ready for a hung jury. This is not like the Danziger case where there is almost no gray area in what happened. The Henry Glover story in our world was a bit fuzzier. Henry Glover was a “would be looter” like our local newspaper called him a few weeks ago when the trial started. It was Katrina and people were under a lot of stress. The reason of Officer McRae says he burned his body was because he was tired and stressed from seeing all of the things he did during the time. I fully expected that jury to get behind closed doors and have at least four of them to think to themselves that it was totally understandable how these officers did what they did. Besides, it’s not like they kicked in the door of a man’s home or shot up a family like the Danziger cops did. Henry Glover was a looter and a lot of people in this area agree that looters should be treated like animals.

When I think about like that the verdicts yesterday are disappointing but don’t seem like a travesty at all. The officer that killed Oscar Grant in Oakland was on film and wasn’t convicted of murder so a manslaughter conviction in this case under the circumstances is a win for justice. Maybe I have the bar set too low when it comes to the justice system and my community but we have to start somewhere if things are going to change. As I have said before, just because there's a crime problem in our community doesn't mean that anyone gets to compromise our rights and dignity because of it. This is especially true if the same people responsible for helping end the crime problem are the ones who are going to compromise my rights. How are we supposed to know who to trust under those circumstances?

We still don’t know what the sentences are yet but at least Henry Glover’s family has it on public record that wrong was done to him. Hopefully during the sentencing phase the system doesn’t pull a fast one and have these men spend less time in jail than people do in Orleans Parish for traffic tickets. If they do we’ll be right back to square one. No matter how this case and the others on the horizon turn out we still have a long way to go. I just hope it happens during my lifetime.

Are The Hornets Leaving?

The New Orleans Hornets have become the first team purchased by the NBA. That’s embarrassing. According their financial statements the team is bleeding money. I had a feeling this day was coming. I knew George Shinn wasn’t going to make it. I just figured by now someone would have stepped up to buy the team and move them another city. I think the recession saved the Hornets in New Orleans. I would love for the Hornets to stay here. I know Gary Chouest has to be disappointed after trying to buy the team for a year. Nobody spends that much time on something if they don’t really want to do it. I hope someone or a group of people step up and put the money together to make that happen.

At the time the Hornets moved here I had Saints season tickets. I knew there was no way I could afford both and when it comes down to the choice I will always choose football. If I had the money I would both even though I wouldn’t make half of the games because of my lifestyle. I think that might be some of the reasons the Hornets have trouble with attendance except for big games. People drive from all over the Gulf Coast for Saints games and that’s only 9-10 times a season. The Hornets have to sell tickets because we don’t have the corporate sponsorship around here to guarantee enough money where our arena can be empty like the other places I see and still be profitable. There’s no way they can survive without a strong season ticket base. It will be interesting to see what happens. Chris Paul and his teammates are doing so many good things for the inner city youth. It would be ashamed to lose that at this point.

I realize as a market we have to ultimately take responsibility if the team isn’t successful but I think the NBA needs to take some too. I’m addicted to sports and will watch a sport I like on any level. I love NBA basketball but when the Hornets moved here I never got totally into them as my hometown team because the NBA and the NBA media never really acted like they wanted the team to be here. Maybe they saw some of the issues the team has now on the horizon and were too worried to be enthusiastic but I have always expected the team to be gone at any minute. I could have probably purchased a few more tickets and got more into the team on a consistent basis but I never thought that made sense when I thought the league was trying to figure out a way to get them out of here. If the ownership thing gets worked out I will try to do better. I hope it's not too late.

Timing is Everything in Politics

This post is not about any part affiliation or whether or not I agree with any policies or decisions that have been made so far. This is about the actual art and skill of being a good politician. I’m also not trying to compare being a mayor to being the president. Those are two different things by far and the POTUS has a much tougher job than any mayor in any city. I’m just trying to show you that in politics timing means everything.

Since Mayor Landrieu took office he’s been doing a lot of things in small amount of time. He got things done during the budget process that Ray Nagin would have been ran out of town for even suggesting the last few years of his term. He’s taking on the sanitation contracts that some black people in the city treat like the symbol of Civil Rights. He’s also gotten taxes increased and council members that voted No if Nagin asked no matter how dire the situation was. We don’t know how things are going to work out but I can give him credit for knowing when to strike when the iron is hot.

The city has so many issues that eventually things about to start getting rough and when that day comes people will retreat back to their comfort zones. When that happens it’s going to be hard to get anything major done because then you’re worried about votes and campaigning. If you want to play hardball with the black owned sanitation companies and raise property taxes on everyone including the rich then you have to do it when the majority of people were so disenchanted by your predecessor that they are willing to give your plans the benefit of the doubt. That’s how you use political capital. You use it before you lose it.

That brings me to President Obama and his style. I know he had an economic collapse and the auto industry to deal with when he first got in office but it just seems like if he was going to make major changes the best time to take a shot at it was the first six months of his presidency. I know he passed the health care bill and know one else was able to do that but it just seems like it took so much time and effort to get done and there was so much compromise involved that it drained all the political capitol he had to get it passed. His party controlled the House and the Senate.

With all the chips he cashed in to pass that bill he could have gotten the Bush tax cuts handled, closed Gitmo, and probably got a green jobs bill passed before his conservative opponents regrouped and the Tea Party movement had a chance to establish itself and gain all that momentum. Now I can’t see any of these things happening because his opposition has no fear of disagreeing with him. I think President Obama didn’t make use of President Bush’s incompetence the way Mayor Landrieu is making use of Ray Nagin’s. Of course, I’m just assuming the president wanted to make a lot of changes in the first place. If the current direction was part of the game plan and he didn’t really want to do all the stuff he said during the campaign then I’m misinformed and I owe him and his staff an apology.

It's December Already

It’s December already. I don’t know where this year went. It seems like only yesterday I was firing up the grill to get ready for the Superbowl and now I am hanging up Christmas lights. There’s a saying that time flies fast when you are having fun. I don’t know if I had that much fun but I guess it wasn’t so bad. I guess if I was really having fun it would be 2012 already. With a month left in the year I really don’t know what to make of it. It seems like we have the same amount of issues to work on. I can’t say anything this year changed so drastically that 2011 gets me that excited. I thought we were turning the corner on the violence thing and the last month has shown me that things are the same as they have been. I think we can say that about a lot of things. It just doesn’t feel like December. Maybe it’s because I put up decorations in shorts and a wife beater yesterday. I have always found it hard to get in the holiday spirit when you are running the air conditioning.

Right now I am relaxing after eating a breakfast fit for a king. I had four eggs, CDM coffee and a leftover Popeye’s biscuit to pick up the leftover egg yokes. I can feel the jealousy through the screen. I’m getting ready to watch the Saints play a underachieving Cincinnati Bengal team who will probably be looking at this game like their last chance to make a statement. We’ll see how we do with the cold weather. That’s all I am saying about that though because I haven’t made a Saints post since the winning streak started. I don’t want to jinx anything. I’m not talking about the Saints until the streak is over which hopefully means that you won’t hear about them until February.

Maybe after the game I’ll go to the store and see how I can contribute to the economy by spending money on Christmas gifts and other stuff I don’t really need. They just showed one of those dumb Lexus commercials where the people say corny things and somehow managed to buy a Lexus for their spouse without anyone asking how much the damn note was going to be. The people in these commercials must be in those brackets that need their tax cuts extended so they can give everyone a job. They can’t be doing too badly if they are buying Lexus for Christmas like it’s no big deal.

Anyway, the game is about to start and I need to put on my lucky shirt.

Some Things Should Never Make Sense

I have a friend on Facebook that I went to high school with who recently lost someone close to her to violence in the metro area. She’s been really upset and trying to come to grips with it. She’s not the only one suffering from the same circumstances but I have been watching her go through the process of trying to accept what happened. Wednesday she posted a message saying she was trying to make sense of his murder and why he’s gone. I am not that good at saying things to people in grief. I’m sure what I wanted to tell her may have been misunderstood. My advice to her and everyone else was going to be not to try to make sense of it because it shouldn’t make sense. In my mind some things don’t make any sense and admitting that is the only way to change it.

We have the issue whenever a murder or act of violence on the street happens that we have to come up with some reasonable explanation of why these things keep taking place. I think that’s why the violent culture became so entrenched in the community. There was just too much investment and energy needed to admit that kind of failure and we didn’t have enough leaders willing to put in the work to change course. I was in my teens when it really got bad. I have many friends that aren’t here anymore and it still bothers me. Back then it was usually just the drug dealers or someone associated with them who got killed so when a shooting happened we just charged it to the game. After all these years of losing young men I’m thinking that if maybe we treated the first wave of killings like it was the plague here to destroy us all we may not be in the predicament we are now. Just maybe there would be many more fathers and sons here. Maybe we would have found a way to work around the obstacles that put us in the situation to be around this violence instead of finding as many reasons to validate it and not stopping it. I don’t know for sure if things would be different now but I wish we would have tried that approach.

The need for things to make sense no matter how wrong is not just limited to the inner city. We see it everyday all over the world. There are people who ignore obvious things right in front of their faces because they have to validate the beliefs in their head. You can’t spend years telling yourself that something is happening for a particular reason and then just let that go. The human brain is too stubborn for that. If you think black on black crime is caused because of slavery when they split up the families of because the government let drugs flow into the community then you’ll never get to the point mentally that you need to be to fix it. I happen to think that the reasons people give are true but I never let that dominate my mind where I find validation in any violence. At the end of the day it’s genocide. That’s the bottom line and we all have to see it that way if we want to stop it.

The black on black violence in America is just one example of what I’m talking about. People all over have the same problem. We see it everyday in many different areas. I think the violence will end and some of the problems around the world will change when more and more people can look at something and say to themselves that this situation makes absolutely no sense at all and try to change it instead of trying to validate why things are the way they are. We can’t bring our family and friends back but we can stop people from joining them by just admitting that there is no excuse for any of this foolishness. We have to get to the point where murders hurts all so bad we can’t focus on anything but stopping them.