Walk With A Real One: Jerald's Introduction

Hello to all...

My name is Jerald and this is my personal segment I would like to call “Walk with a Real One.”  The inspiration of the name comes from the big boss Rick Ross, one of my favorite rappers/businessmen in the rap industry today.  I was listening to a song of his and that’s how he began the song by saying, “Walk With a Real One” and I thought it was so fitting to name this column that because I consider myself a real person who keeps it real all the time, doesn't fake out for anyone, and who will always be the same no matter what.  So take a walk with me as every week I will get down to the real and present it to the many readers out there.  Also, shout out to Rick Ross for his brilliance!!

Now just to get to know me better, I am a student at the University of Memphis majoring in Journalism and my career goal is to write my own publications.  I work part-time as a manager at a sub shop and here’s a fun fact for you: The fellow that created Cliff’s Crib just happens to be my oldest brother and I’m very thankful he’s letting me express my talents to the world on his blog. Generally, I’m a pretty laid back type of guy and in my spare time, I like to write music and chill with good friends.

I would just like to say thanks again to my big brother for giving me the opportunity to jump on his blog.  I hope everyone enjoys my posts and I will be back soon with the kick off of “Walk with a Real One.”  Enjoy!!

Sitting On My Porch Part Eighty Five

Today was the first day of my agency mandated use of vacation time. I have so much vacation time that I had to submit a plan on how I would use as much of it as possible in the next few weeks.  That means there will be lots of boredom, spending too much on lunch because I can eat anywhere without worrying about time, and wishing some of my friends were part of the 47% sitting at home collecting their gifts from Obama so I could go by their cribs to hangout during the day.

I thought Mitt Romney had questionable character when he ran against Jon McCain in 2008. I was sure of it in 2012 when he ran against Obama. He just made me realize I was correct with his theory that President Obama won because he gave minorities and young people gifts. We are in a sad era of the country’s history right now. I work for an agency that uses funding to help people. I’m around case managers and some of the kindest people in the community all day long. They could all tell you that since President Obama’s been in office there’s actually less money to help people.

There are two reasons for that. The first reason is that in his quest to show the people that hate him he could work with them the president put a lot of cuts on the table in one sided deals that included no revenue increases.  The second reason is that red states are really red right now and Republicans are slicing funding for programs left and right. There are a lot of Americans that may not realize these things and that’s unfortunate. I expect a presidential candidate to be informed enough not to make foolish statements. He’s either too incompetent or too stupid to be president so the right man won.

Anytime a candidate uses race, gender, religion, or any other characteristic to divide the public its because they are trying to hide their true agenda and get enough people to vote against their own interest. They are either incompetent or hiding something. Either way everyone loses so people need to reject that kind of rhetoric and pay attention to what’s really going on.

On a positive note, Allen West lost so there’s still hope for everyone.

The General Patraeus sex scandal proves once again that no matter what a man’s status is in life there’s always a chance his little head will take over his thinking.

The Saints are going to finish 8-8 because the whole they dug early was just too deep to get out of. The sad part about that is the record will keep the media from highlighting the greatest  season of leadership in NFL history by Drew Brees.

I still don’t like Donald Trump.

I was at a conference downtown this week. It sucks being the host city because you have to hear people talk about what they see in your surroundings. There was a nice lady from Virginia talking about the homeless young people she saw on the street. I engaged her conversation but the whole time I was thinking to myself that she and the other guests weren’t important enough for us to clean up for. Wait until the Superbowl is closer. 

My brother is a hard working young man. He’s a student, a manager at his job, and a rapper. He’s also going to be a writer and is studying journalism at Memphis University. He asked me if he could make a few posts on here for practice. That wasn’t a hard decision. He could take the whole thing over if it was going to help him. When you have many things going on the hobby suffers. This blog is my hobby and it has taken a back seat to other things. Since my little brother thought enough of it to ask to use it as a way to work on his craft I am going to pick up the pace.

Post Election Thoughts

There was six billion dollars spent on Tuesday’s election and the country ended up with the same set up we had before. We could have given that money to veterans and their families.

The last four years have been fascinating from a politics and policy standpoint. The people are the angriest about Obama winning live in states that are solidly red and there’s anything but progressive policy going on. The thing about it is that those states were going to end up for the Republican candidate as long as he was going against Obama. I live in one of those states and I knew Romney or whoever the Republican candidate was winning this state the day after the last election. There was no way reason to play the angry white card as hard as they did.

In order to play the angry card you have to let the crazies into the discussion. That’s why we ended up with people like Glen Beck driving political agenda.  It’s hard to filter out a certain kind of hate and contain the rest so once you open the door to that kind of rhetoric it gets out of control.  The biggest thing that burned Mitt Romney is that his party managed to turn off almost every minority leading up to the election. I think there were a lot of voters who were literally scared of what could happen if Mitt Romney won the election and that’s why voter turnout was so high.

How much does the news media have to do with Republicans being shocked at losing? Outside of MSNBC no news channel covered the other side of the debate. All we knew that there was a group of angry people against everything. The entire Republican primary was about negativity. After the first debate, despite producing any new ideas or a clear agenda, Governor Romney started acting like the front runner and went into victory formation for the rest of the campaign. He didn’t even have a consolation speech.  The only way that’s possible is if he and his base were only listening to one another the entire time. That makes me feel good about my vote for Obama because if they were tuning out everyone else during an election they desperately wanted they were going to do the same thing in the White House. I already have a governor doing that.

It’s funny how powerful people can control things behind the scenes for so long then suddenly smell blood in the water and make their agenda public. It’s like the people who came out after Katrina with their green space idea for New Orleans and got Mayor Nagin re-elected by mistake. The breakout stars of the last few years are the Koch Brothers. These guys were probably pulling strings behind the scenes for years. Now they’ve replaced Dick Cheney as the face of the evil empire.

I can’t tell you that I have agreed with everything President Obama did his first term in office. I was frustrated with him a lot. I don’t think we’ve made any progress to close the poverty and education cap. Black unemployment is over 14% right now. In my personal opinion the jury is still out on his ability to bring about the kind of change so many of his die hard supporters need. Despite my frustration, I have to say that he will go down as one of the greatest campaigners and candidates ever. The president and his team know how to win elections and their ground game to get out the vote is second to none. He’s the Joe Montana of campaigning.

This was a very stressful election for the country. There’s been a lot of harsh things said and unnecessary finger pointing. There are so many people with the same problems blaming one another for it instead of looking at what really works and what doesn’t.  Making people hate one another for political gain is a terrible thing. I try to keep from wasting energy on that. However, there are few people who were so dedicated to being stupid that not liking them is effortless. Here’s my top ten.

1.    Donald Trump
2.    Donald Trump
3.    Allen West
4.    Donald Trump
5.    Newt Gingrich
6.    Super Pacs
7.    Any official involved in voter suppression
8.    Donald Trump
9.    Koch brother #1
10.    Koch brother #2

It’s a beautiful day outside but it’s too hot for October. I guess New Orleans will get some cooler fall weather any day now. It feels like August out there right now. It’s a good thing it is football season and I don’t plan on being outside that much anyway. I am watching Florida vs. LSU game right now.  After this I may drive over the Gentilly Fest and check out Whodini. If I get there early enough to talk to their manager I might be able to get up on stage and help them perform Funky Beat or maybe One Love. 

Last week I had the experience of serving on a jury trial at New Orleans Criminal Court. Real court is nothing like television. The most interesting part was meeting the other jurors. Trials have a lot of breaks and you can’t discuss the case when you are in the break room so you have to talk about other things.  There were twelve people in the room from a relatively small city and they were all very different. The only thing they truly had in common was everyone was ready to go home. It seems like lately the city and its people are being presented in a monolithic way. I know the fun and revelry sells the city to outsiders but sometimes it’s good just to sit around with a sanitation worker and a grandmother and talk about what’s going on.  

I’ve been very pessimistic about most things lately. I have been keeping a lot of it to myself because I never wanted to be the guy that’s always bitching and moaning about everything. With that being said, I checked out the NOLA For Life program and I support it. There’s no such thing as a program so good it will eliminate murders in this city. I believe that’s something that needs to be done in the homes of those kids. I do think a good program with the mayor’s involvement can change the environment where some of the people involved may not be so quick to shoot someone.  We still need to put the time and resources into the ideas to make them work but I’m optimistic. I hope I stay that way. 

If the Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texas play in the Superdome while the New Orleans Saints have a losing season because their leadership was in trouble for doing something against the rules that will sum up the last 30 years of living here. We’ll call it the Cities Left Us Behind Bowl. 

The Saints have had some really bad seasons and some crazy ones as well.  My top three crazy seasons are the Earl Campbell season, the season where someone slept with Willie Roaf’s wife, and the last Ditka season where the offense had about 5 plays in the playbook. None of those seasons have prepared me for the bounty season where the coach is suspended. The Saints are 0-4 and have lost all four games in a different way. I’m frustrated, aggravated, and I don’t care for the commissioner. I am still not sure what Sean Payton did to be suspended and treated like a criminal. It really doesn’t matter because if the Saints lose tomorrow the season is over and that dream of playing host to the Superbowl and being in it is dead. 

There’s only one thing left to do. I’m breaking out the lucky Superbowl shirt. I was going to burn it after the Seattle playoff game but I changed my mind. I’m wearing the 2006 NFC South divisional hat and the Crown Royal and putting all my energy into beating the Chargers. I’ll be at home so at least I won’t get arrested. This is the last stand of the 2012 season. Let’s go Saints!

Sitting On My Porch Part Eighty Four

I am finally feeling like I am back to normal after Isaac. When you have a storm that disrupts things it takes a week or two to get things back in order. Sometimes it takes months or years to get back to normal. Thank goodness I am not in that position this time around but some people are.  Unless something happens and we get more protection I think it’s time for everyone in this part of the world to accept the fact that every hurricane season we can potentially have a city or neighborhood that is devastated by water. We just have to do our best to recover as well as we can and keep going.

On a light note….I learned two things about life during the days when the power was off. The first thing I learned was that as violent as New Orleans can be now it would be even worse if we had to go a month without traffic lights. It wouldn’t be the usual suspects in conflict either.  Four way stop intersections bring the bad side out of people. There would be middle age women in all out brawls on Claiborne Avenue and Martin Luther King Blvd.

The second thing I learned is that I am willing to bet there weren’t a lot of babies born in April before there was air conditioning in South Louisiana. April is nine months after August and if you are in a house with no air in August it is too hot to want to touch anybody. When I was a little kid it seemed like all old people had a mean look on their face. That was leftover misery from sleeping in the heat.

My attempt to live healthier and lose a few pounds is going pretty well. I think I turned the corner when I stopped eating my second dinner plate after 10:00 PM. I don’t know if it is noticeable yet but I can feel it. I have a new incentive to keep going. I have three new Ralph Lauren Polos from Macys in New York. The only problem is that they are a size too small. In the past few years I have donated clothes to charity with the tags still on them because I was never able to lose enough weight to wear them. I like donating things. There are a few shirts and a few pair of pants that I don’t wear that will be donated soon. You must understand that the New Orleans hood kid in me will not allow me to give away those Polos without wearing them. Twenty pounds is going to make them look real nice on me.

I haven’t had much to say about the presidential election yet. I started paying less attention after Herman Cain dropped out of the race. That guy was entertaining. Now things are going like I thought they would between President Obama and Mitt Romney. The president is on cruise control right now. He’s just trying to get through each day without offending anyone or starting any trouble. I’m not sure what Romney is doing. I look at some of the things he’s tried this week dealing with Libya and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s decided he doesn’t want to deal with this mess in America and is making himself fall behind on purpose. If he was I wouldn’t blame him. No one should want the job of president right now.

Maybe the Republicans have figured out that in a lot of states President Obama is the best thing that ever happened to their agenda on the state level and told Mitt to take a dive. The paranoia and hate for the president is so strong in some parts that people will vote against their own interest like the people in Alabama when they voted for that immigration bill and almost killed their farming industry. You have to be really dedicated to the Republican agenda to put your state’s farmers out of business. It’s been a golden time for the conservative agenda on the state level since Obama took office. They should have a secret super pac that runs ads against Romney in swing states. There’s no need to run them in any of these red states like the one I live in. No one is going to change their mind.

Besides the poor and elderly, the people I feel sorry for most of all since President Obama has been in office is all the commandos who went to the mountains and trained for the day Obama came to take their guns and freedom. They could have been at football games and hanging in strip clubs all this time. Instead they have been hiding away fighting wolverines and looking at dudes in camouflage for nothing.

Me and my coworker was at lunch today laughing and reminiscing about old times. I told him that I noticed that the period of life that I seem to speak most fondly about was the time when I didn’t have any responsibility and didn’t grow and expand as a person. When you are younger you have a lot of carefree fun but you can’t do that forever. Then you get older and start trying to create a life for yourself but the weight of trying to move forward can make it seem like the days when you were drinking with your friends at 9:00 AM and hanging out with girls you barely knew was the good old days. That’s not true. It’s the mental and physical fatigue that makes it feel that way. Sometimes when it feels too heavy you need to dig deep and push through it.

Black and Gold Week 1: Outlook on the Season

My friend Shawn has an advantage when debating the Saints with me because he predicted the 2009 Super Bowl appearance three months before training camp started. I’m usually not the type to shy away from proving I’m right but ever since then I have to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to what’s going to happen with the team. It’s going to be harder this year because we have a disagreement when it comes to the impact of Sean Payton being suspended. He thinks the leadership on the team and organization won’t affect the season. He thinks the Saints are going 13-3. I disagree with that. Before I get to my prediction for the season and tomorrow’s game with the Redskins, here’s what I think about the upcoming season.

I guess you can’t talk about the season without addressing the bounty situation. It’s either going to galvanize the team or eventually tear it apart because the biggest thing to come out of the entire situation is that the coach is suspended for the season. No one really knows what will happen when a crucial situation comes up during the game and Sean Payton isn’t there to make the decision. In my opinion, the lost of the coach is worth at least two games in the lost column.

There was no way the bounty situation couldn’t affect this season. It didn’t have to be as crazy as it is now if the commissioner would have just given everyone 2-4 games and moved on. He decided to be heavy handed because he has no one to answer to and now we have a mess. The media really did a bad job at investigating this story. They ran with whatever the commissioner said and at one point were mentioning lawsuits and criminal charges against Saints players. Now the suspensions have been overturned and the NFL will come back with lighter suspensions they think the players will except without having to go to court and produce evidence. Something tells me Jonathan Vilma isn’t accepting any suspension so Bountyate will be going on all year.

Last year the New Orleans Saints beat the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants so bad that by the end of the game they were trying not to score. 2011 was the first year that I actually felt like we were the best team in the conference and didn’t make the Super Bowl. That is why losing to the 49ers hurt so much. We gave that game way. The defense had two chances to make a play and stop Vernon Davis and they couldn't do it. I'm still shaking my head about it.

I’m having a hard time figuring out what happens this year. There haven’t been many changes to the roster. The biggest additions are Curtis Lofton and Steve Spagnuolo. The biggest losses are Robert Meacham, the coach, and Carl Nicks. We may have Will Smith and Vilma for a whole season but no one knows. The way I see it the season comes down to a few players. If Malcolm Jenkins, Roman Harper, Courtney Roby, and Joe Morgan play okay then there’s no reason why the Saints can’t win the division. The team played so basic during the preseason and the third preseason game against Houston so wild and crazy that you can’t get a good indicator of where things are.

I think the Saints have the talent to win twelve games. I am going to subtract three games due to Sean Payton’s suspension and say they will end the season at 9-7. Of course I’m going to find a reason for them to win every game this year and hope they go 16-0. On one hand this is probably the most motivated team and fan base in the league. Everybody is looking to stick it to Roger Goodell and show him that his suspensions couldn’t keep us from playing for the championship in our home stadium. On the other hand, this is an unprecedented situation and until a few games go by you don’t know how the coaching situation is going to work out. Then there’s always that problem with covering tight ends. That would concern me even if Coach Payton was there. I’m going to stick with my 9-7 prediction and we’ll see how things go tomorrow.

The Saints open against the Washington Redskins featuring Robert Griffin III. RGIII’s parents grew up in New Orleans and a lot of his family still lives here. That means I want him to have a Hall of Fame career. I just don’t want it to start tomorrow. I don’t know if the Saints defense is ready to make any offense look too bad so I will give them three touchdowns and say the final score is Saints 34- Redskins 21.

While I was writing this and watching college football Devin Walker from Tulane University was hurt on a tackle. He fractured his spine and stopped breathing for a few seconds. He’s in the hospital in stable condition. I love football and admire the players.  I never want to see anyone get hurt especially with a potentially life changing injury. I wish Devon Walker a full recovery.

Unfortunate Similarities

First of all I want to let everyone know that I am okay. 

If Isaac hadn’t decided to make his slow journey through the state of Louisiana I would have been at Commander’s Palace with my employees today. I had plans to wear my Saints tie and everything. I would have taken a few minutes of silence for my grandmother and the other victims of Katrina like I always do on today and moved on as best I could. 

I don’t know what is about hurricanes in South Louisiana and August 29^th. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to take that day off of the calendar around here. It was seven years ago on this day that might life literally changed forever. It’s the reason I left for higher ground for this storm. Thanks to my employer I have a room in Baton Rouge. I know the storm passed here too but there are no levees to worry about and that’s enough for me to feel safe.

 I have a problem dealing with any storm that I know is going to have a surge that may affect levees. I would go so far as to admit that I am a bit afraid of storms like that. I don’t think I ever actually used those words before but it’s true. I don’t feel uncomfortable saying it. It’s valid. Losing someone you love in that situation makes it difficult to accept that the new levee system is going to stop it from happening again. It looks impressive but it’s not battle tested and I didn’t want to take the change. I’m not mad at anyone for staying but I understand the rationale of anyone who left. 

My home and my city took a beating from Hurricane Isaac but survived. Unfortunately my friends and neighbors in a few surrounding areas didn’t make out so well. To the people of Plaquemines Parish and Laplace I understand what you are going through. The thing to remember is that you still have your lives and all the homes can be replaced. I hardly ever think about material things I lost in Katrina anymore. It’s the people that I can’t get over.  If you still have one another you are doing okay because there’s nothing more important than what we have in each other.

Watching the Saints and Isaac on Saturday Night

It was a beautiful day outside. I resisted the temptation to do any yard work but I need to cut the grass tomorrow just in case Isaac gets a little too close. I spent most of the day resting and recovering from the third week of the school year cycle. For those of you are not aware of what the cycle is I will share.

First, you get up really early in the morning. Second, you have to move quickly and get out of the house at a certain time because school starts way earlier than it needs to. After that you go to work and try do as much as you can because school lets out at a crazy time. On the way home you keep thinking how great it would be if the school that was a few blocks away from the house was still open and offering a quality education because that would be so much easier. Then you remember that you are not supposed to complain because the kids have “choices”. Choices are great unless you choose wrong. In that case your child is screwed.

I’m keeping my eye on Hurricane Isaac. He can’t seem to make up his mind exactly where he wants to go. I was hoping that since it was so unorganized the mountains in Cuba would break it up but it survived and is heading into the Gulf. Earlier today New Orleans was out of the cone of uncertainty but the computer models keep pushing it this way. By tomorrow morning we might be in the center of the cone. It reminds me of another storm whose name I won’t mention. It changed course three times before heading this way. I know people want to think that we knew weeks in advance she was coming and decided to sit here and chill but it wasn’t like that. Anyway, I hope Isaac doesn’t change close too much because he’s supposed to make land Tuesday so there’s not much time to do much. You can’t really relax until they hit land somewhere. Hopefully wherever it hits there are no people in the way.

I’ve been watching the first half of the Saints and Texans game while I was writing this.  My new activity this season is trying to figure out what section Sean Payton is sitting in and what kind of disguise he’s wearing.  It’s going to be a crazy season. I will have my official preview next week after I am sure Isaac has passed us by. 

I  hate this time of year.

Get Well Tyrann

Sports are clearly based on performance and physical talent. No one gets drafted or plays a long time because they are a good person. It's also unrealistic because you can't tell your son to be Lebron James unless he's 6'8 250 lbs and can run and job like a gazelle mixed with a ballerina. You have to be born that way. Those abilities are the reason why they make a lot of money and things are made easy for them. I have no problem with that.

Tyrann Mathieu was a bit different. He wasn’t really supposed to be a star on the level that he became. I was really into the Honey Badger thing and every time he made a play it made me smile. It had a lot to do with my New Orleans bias towards young black men achieving things. It was cool to hear his deep New Orleans accent on ESPN and you could tell he wasn't trying to disguise it like some people do. It was cool to see him as a Heisman finalist. The only other time I even watched the Heisman program was when Marshall Faulk was a finalist.

In a sport based on size and speed the Mathieu seemed to overcome any deficiencies he had in those areas with tenacity and a spirit that made it seem like he wanted it more than every other kid out there. He was an example of a guy who actually earned his status in the spotlight. He made last season really fun.

The Honey Badger won’t be playing football this year. He has some issues that I hope he resolves even if he never steps on a field ever again. I read today that he is going to stay at John Lucas’ treatment facility until he feels better and then worry about football. I think this is a good decision because the last thing he needed was going to a smaller school and having all that attention without getting some help.

There are things in life more important than football. I hope someone close to him to him that there are things in life bigger than sports. I hope they let him know that he’s so young that whatever he’s going through now can be overcome if he applies himself with the same energy he plays football with. I would rather see the entire football season cancelled than for Tyrann Mathieu not to recover from his addictions. There’s nothing that depresses me more about my city than young people with wasted talent. We’ve had enough of those stories so I want the young man to come out this stronger than before.

Eight Years Deep : The Blog Birthday Post

This blog is now 8 years old. A lot of blogs have come and gone during that time. I can’t think of too many sites I used to like 8 years ago that is still around and if they are they are not the same.  Other than the 50 different template designs I have chosen over the years I think I’ve been pretty consistent.  I tried a few website word counters to see just how many words I have written on this page. I didn’t come up with a good total but I am guessing there are thousands of words that featuring my thoughts, struggles, comedy, pain, tragedy, pride, and all the other aspects that make life what it is. Some of it was real good. A few of them were real wack. I'm sure there's a few things I shouldn't have posted. Hopefully someone got some entertainment or enlightenment from it. 

Besides getting to know some cool people and opening doors to do things like a segment on CNN, the one thing I have gotten from doing this is a higher respect for people who write professionally.  It’s one thing for a person to keep a journal or a notepad at their house to scribble their thoughts in from time to time. That’s private and personal. If things went south for me or I said something I shouldn’t have on this blog I could always hit the delete button and get rid of the words or the entire blog altogether if I needed it.  It’s a whole other level to express how you feel about something, entertain people with it, take their criticism, then shake that off and do it all over again. This is especially true in the Twitter age where I see writers take a beating from the public and yet they keep putting things out there.  I have admiration for everyone who does that even the ones I don’t agree with.

I was going to let the Crib retire but I can’t do it until I sit on my porch 100 times and this Saints season is over. The Post Bounty-gate season will be too interesting not to have something to say about it. In honor of my eight year anniversary I want to give everyone eight things to use for blogging and life.

1.    Never react to the first version of a news story when you see it on the Internet. The rush to be first to break a story means that some of the details may be missing at the beginning. Wait at least 24 hours when all the facts are there.

2.    Never assume you have reached an age where the things people do should make sense. Stupidity doesn’t have an age limit.

3.    Unless you have enough resources to live and support your family, never say anything that will cause you to lose your job unless talking about certain things is your job. That’s not selling out. That’s being realistic.

4.    You may be the only person around that feels strongly about something the way you do and that has to be okay.

5.    Putting your favorite Internet model’s name in multiple blog post hoping one day she would be vain enough and Google herself, scroll through the results, see your page, then send you an email so you could become friends doesn’t work.  If Buffie sends me an email later we’ll just take this one out.

6.    You never know who is watching, reading, or listening to what you say and do. Make sure those things reflect who you are and what you stand for as much as possible.

7.    You can never place a high enough value on having good friends and having a good reputation.

8.    As much as you try to fight time I can’t. You can’t go back in time and you can’t stop it from going forward. All you can do is make the best of what’s going on right now and try to make the future better.

Sitting On My Porch Part Eighty Three

Either I am getting really busy, really lazy or I don't like blogging as much as I used to. It's probably a combination of all three plus the constant barrage or random opinions about everything on the internet that overload my senses to the point where I don't want to give my own opinion as much anymore. Social networking and the internet is the 1st Amendment on cocaine, Red Bull and steroids at the same time. I’m not being hypocritical because I am on the same drug especially during football season. I have been making an effort lately to tune out a lot of things and it's working against my blog. There are stories going on in the world that I know absolutely nothing about.

I don't know what's going on with Chick Fil A, the Jackson family, or even Saints training camp (although this will be changing soon). My agenda is getting prepared for the beginning of the school year (which starts way too soon), trying to conquer my eating and drinking bad habits (tougher than I thought it would be), and watching the Olympics. 

The Olympics are a time to marvel at incredible athletic talent and the awesomeness of female volleyball players. The thing that makes the Olympics cool is that there are so many events where the contestant’s entire life has been built around this one competition. When you watch the Dream Team play basketball you know those guys are going to have many more chances to achieve success in their sport year after year. When you are checking out the synchronize swimmers there's a pretty good chance those folks won't be on national TV and going for a gold medal again. It makes their stories more fascinating.

I've never paid as much attention to women's gymnastics as I have this time. I never really noticed how much pressure those girls feel. I don't know if they are enjoying the experience or just want it to be over. Either way they can't help but cry. I don't know that I could sit there and watch if my daughter was performing. I may have to stand in the hallway or somewhere I could get away quickly if things went wrong. They definitely wouldn't part a microphone on me to get my reaction. It's bad enough everything is being shown on tape delay. People would have to see my reactions to the event at 2AM on Comedy Central because of all the language directed at the judges.

NBC has 75 networks showing Olympic coverage and not one of them dedicated to women's volleyball. They show soccer games from countries I never heard of on MSNBC but you have to search around for the volleyball games and hope you get lucky.

I feel like whatever number of medals China ends up with America should get credit for at least ten of them. With all the things we buy made in China from Wal Mart alone is probably more than enough to sponsor the swimming team’s training program. 

The highlight over the last two weeks for me other than meeting my new nephew for the first time had to be going to Washington D.C. and getting a chance to advocate on behalf of the homeless in New Orleans. I appreciate UNITY of Greater New Orleans for giving me the opportunity to represent the city and the great people who work with the homeless every day. It was a great experience and I learned a lot. The biggest thing I learned about myself is that I will never make it as a politician or working in the political field because I don't know how to tone down enough of my own personality to fit into the system. I did the best I could considering the circumstances but that's not something I could do every day without going crazy.

The day before the visit to Capitol Hill everyone was giving a list of things to do when meeting with the representatives. The first thing on the list was to thank him or her for something they have done in your district. I couldn't really think of anything going on in my district that was exciting me so much I needed to be giving anyone thanks and I was hoping I didn't have to pretend that I was satisfied. I don't want to be coached on how to behave and what to say. I want to be me. I've had a few other recent experiences where someone took my words and changed them up to sound more presentable to a certain audience. I don't like that and won't be getting involved with anything that expects me to do that again.

I've always felt like it was a bad idea to go out of our way to praise someone in public service if the evidence wasn't there they were doing things the way you wanted it to be done. You know what happens when you take that approach? The person in office has no fear of losing their position so they play the same old game and nothing really changes. This is especially true in the black community where politicians have been running on the same platform for 30 years and we just follow along until things slowly broke down. Now we don't control our own schools, can't seem to elect anyone that doesn't get indicted, won't stop shooting at one another and some of our people are so uneducated they probably don't know who the mayor is. What are we doing thanking anyone for anything at this moment?

I didn’t mention who we visited on Capitol Hill for two reasons. The first is that everyone from around the country had the same instructions so kissing up to leadership wasn’t just a New Orleans thing. The second reason is that most of the time when you a political out by name there’s always a supporter of theirs who will let you know about the money they brought to your area for something or some bill they supported. That’s cool with me. My response is why are we so easily satisfied?

If anyone has an extra lemon Hubiq’s Pie laying around the house please let me know if I can get it so it holds me over until they rebuild.

Sitting on My Porch Part Eighty Two

I’m not ready to talk football yet but I am glad Drew Brees got his contract signed. I still don’t think this season is going to be that good because the coach is suspended but we’ll at least have a punchers chance. I knew Drew wasn’t going to give the Saints a discount because he owes it to the other players at his position to keep the market rate going up. Peyton Manning set the scale for Drew’s contract and he just set the scale for Aaron Rodgers. With teams giving out this kind of money to quarterbacks there’s no way they are going to let anyone hit them hard enough for injury. Whatever the record is for roughing the passer penalties the 2012 season will shatter it.

I’m going out of town for a few days. Despite the humidity, random thunderstorms and the chance of getting shot on a public bus I don’t really like leaving the city. I guess it’s always good to get away for a few days and see something different. I was going to mention in this paragraph how the site of a shrimper selling fresh shrimp out of his truck in Gentilly today was heartwarming but I don’t want to sound like a BP commercial. I hope the hotel I’m staying in has Cartoon Network. If not I am going to miss the premier of Black Dynamite Sunday night. 

I went to a healthcare forum sponsored by the National Council of Negro Women on Wednesday night. There was a lot of talk about the healthcare act. I learned a lot about it that I really didn’t know before. It actually made me feel more positive about it. There were other people in the audience that had the same question I did. How come know one seems to know about all these good things? The media spent so much time quoting politicians and so little time explaining the bill that I can’t be mad if a lot of Americans are not as informed as they should be.

Some people are upset with Mitt Romney about using the NAACP to gain favor with his base. I am sure he went there to be booed as loudly as possible. Later that night he made a speech in Montana and used a quote about people wanting “free stuff” that he used before in speaking about other groups.  This allowed him and his supporters to pull out old quotes and dismiss the racial intentions of what he said while triggering racial tension at the same time. It was a shrewd political move. Very few things are out of bonds when you are running for office these days so I am not upset with Mitt Romney. I’m upset with the crowd at the NAACP. Have they been paying attention to the last four years? What did they think he was there to do? The best way to respond to his words about the healthcare bill was to not do or say anything at all. They should have just sat there like a bunch of zombies and left the used car salesman to come up with a way to save face.

Life can be challenging as you navigate it. At the end of the day everyone is just a combination of good and bad choices. In most cases death has a way of taking the edge of off the bad choices we’ve made. A lot of people who did things that weren’t so good get a break when they die. Death shakes humans to the core so much that I think we talk ourselves into making people’s actions not as bad as they actually were. I’ve been trying to think if there’s anyone who’s had their legacy changed from one extreme to the other like Joe Paterno. At this time a year ago Joe Paterno was considered a symbol of integrity and good values. In all the years of following college football I never heard anyone say anything negative about him at all. Now he’s passed away, a report funded by his own college said he protected a child molester for years and people are removing his name from buildings that were dedicated to him. It’s unbelievable. It’s the kind of thing that makes you question everybody.

It's risky for society to build people up sometimes. No human is above doing something wrong and we probably shouldn't hold anyone to that standard. At the same time I don't think we want to get to the point where we have no hope in people at all. If no one has help in society then the world just becomes one big ghetto and no one wants to live like that.

 

Sitting On My Porch Part Eighty One

There’s a lady that cleans up the office building I work in. She’s one of the nicest and most positive people in the world. I hear people complaining all day about their jobs and this lady always has a smile on her face no matter how messy people left things behind for her. I’m guilty of that sometimes. One day I had all kind of small things on the carpet and I wanted it vacuumed. I also had an extra three bags of trash because I was cleaning up my office. I left a note on the door asking for someone to vacuum the floor and just in case the person reading the note would be pissed off I apologized for the extra trash. Not only did she vacuum the room but she left me a note that says “Have a Blessed Day”. I kept the note on my desk to remind me to stay positive. Unfortunately I have never asked her name but I hope she enjoyed her holiday.

This summer has been about me trying to get myself back together physically and mentally. I’ve been trying to clear my mind and not think so much. I want to relax as much as possible before the school year starts again and the routine grind comes back.That’s why I haven’t been posting much. I feel like sometimes I let things that I have little or no control over bother me to the point where it affects my quality of life. Sometimes you have to get away from those things and chill out. Plus when you have been maintaining a blog for eight years in a world where nothing really changes you always feel like you are repeating yourself.

 On the physical side I’m trying to get into better shape since I went to my 20 year high school reunion and everyone looked like they were the same size they were back then except for me. I was already trying to motivate myself to live a little healthier. There’s nothing like looking like the pregnant dude in the reunion pictures to finally push you to a commitment.

I have to make an appointment for a physical soon. I will use the health care that I and my employer pay for. We are exercising our freedom to be overcharged every year for those policies so I may as well get something out of it. I had forgotten all about the health care bill until the Supreme Court and Chief Justice Roberts brought it back to the forefront.  Democrats took a victory lap while Republicans felt like they were betrayed by Justice Roberts. Everybody needs to relax. He still helped the Citizens United decision go forward and that was the real killer to the voice of the people. I know we live in a time where you have to agree with everything your political side thinks and no one is allowed to have their own opinion anymore but this one decision does not make Justice Roberts a traitor. He’s not going to try and restart ACORN or anything.

I was trying to think of an example in every day life that would compare to Mitt Romney campaigning against a plan that he thought was good enough for all of his constituents in his previous leadership role and now that he wants a bigger job he has to basically attack his own creation. The whole situation is baffling to me.

The one thing we never really address through all of the conversations about health care is that we wouldn’t need a health care bill if insurance and health care itself wasn’t so high. There is no phase of health care in this country that is affordable without some kind of help. Regardless of your politics or background, if you or someone in your family gets sick for a significant amount of time you are going to have problems paying those bills. The reason we need a rule about preexisting conditions isn’t because those people wanted to be taken care of by the government. It’s because insurance companies knew eventually they would probably have to pay for something related to the condition so they were actually turning down people who wanted to give them money. If you are trying to do the responsible thing and buy insurance and no one will give it to you then what are you supposed to do? That’s why I was hoping for a public plan in the bill to keep insurance companies from going up every year.

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The New Orleans tourism commercials are really corny. The only thing worst than those are the BP commercials where their representatives talk about what their doing for the Gulf Coast like they didn’t cause the problem in the first place.

Every day I check the news for a Drew Brees contract signing or a Jay Electronica album release date. As of today I haven’t gotten either one.

I also try to avoid BountyGate talk everyday. It’s the story that won’t go away. With the exception of the Katrina season and sitting in the Superdome watching Mike Ditka coach, this is the worst Saints story I’ve had to deal with.

Every now and then a song comes out and I think it’s a really stupid song but I can’t stop listening to it. I get mad at myself for playing it so much. Cashin Out is one of those songs. I need to get this song out of my head.

Paying Respect To The Every Day Dad

Today is Father’s Day. It’s the one day of the year where dads can expect to be pampered and praised without feeling uncomfortable about it. Usually dads don’t worry about all that stuff because they are too busy trying to do all the things that make a good father. It’s a never ending job that you never feel is over no matter how old you are your children are. I’ve never told my dad this but since we’ve been living in other cities after Hurricane Katrina there are certain things I don’t call him about anymore. It’s not because I don’t want to. It’s because I have so much faith in my daddy being there for me that I think he would get in his car and drive from Memphis just to help me if I sounded  like I really needed it. I have to save the man from his own instinct.

While he’s a hero to me and my family my dad is a regular guy to the rest of the world. He can’t sing. He can’t act. He only has one degree. He’s never had much money. In the black community guys like that don’t get much press. There are so many brothers that get up everyday and grind through their daily routine and no one ever recognizes they are there. Those men and the people around them have been trained to not expect anyone to make a big deal out of what they do. We do what we have to do anyway and we should continue to but I think our approach to how we present things sends a mixed message to the kids in our community.

We want our young men to stop being violent and live their lives in the right way but at the same time the men close enough to do something about their actions get hardly no acknowledgement. Our wish is for men  whose plates are already full to accept responsibility for the kids who don’t have fathers in their lives and turn them around. At the same time our music and media do nothing but highlight the kind of behavior and mentality  that leads to the problem. Thug life is big business. On the other end of the spectrum you have the intellectual crowd that are so smart and talented that they don’t know how to interact with regular people anymore so they say a lot of impressive things but the majority of it never gets down to the level where the problem is. If things are going to change it’s going to be the bus drivers, maintenance men, construction workers, security guards, and all the blue collar men who live on the blocks our sons are fighting on. Today is the day to give those guys a much deserved pat on the back.

When We Lie To Mask The Fear

Lately I have found that there are certain things I just can’ find the energy to talk about. I was going to let what happened Tuesday slowly fade to the background of my memory. I changed my mind over the last couple of days because I have never had so many people start a conversation about an incident the way they did after Tuesday. Maybe what I have to say will be good for some people to help cope with how they are feeling.

When you live where I live with the things we are facing right now you have to find ways to cope. One of these coping mechanisms is lying to yourself. Self brainwashing is very effective in this type of environment. One of the main lies I have been able to talk myself into believing is that I am so experienced at living in this city that I can avoid almost every violent situation.  I’m so good at this that usually when I see things on the news happening to other people you can always find something they did that I would never do. That’s how you validate the mind state.  This is one of the main reasons why I am never scared living here. I go through my daily routine with crime being the farthest thing from my mind.

Every now and then something happens to wipe that sense of security all the way out of your mind and you have to start over. Tuesday three men opened fire in a busy intersection towards a kid’s birthday party. Five year old Brianna Allen and 33 year old Shawana Pierce were killed. Ms. Pierce had three sons. Since this tragedy happened I have not only been scared but actually pretty shaken as well. 

It always shakes me when the babies are killed because that’s just a sad event and demoralizing to the community. To me that’s the ultimate failure when we can’t protect them. The baby’s dead shook me but the killing of Ms. Pierce scared me. In the morning during the school year I brought babies to the same school she brought her babies to. Maybe it was the fact that when Mr. Johnson, the principal at KIPP Central City Primary school asked for a moment of silence for her at the end of the year program Wednesday said her name my 8 year old daughter told me the names of her sons and her nephew she went to school with and gave me a confused look like she didn’t understand what happened and I was thinking of ways to explain it. 
I drive the same direction Shawana Pierce was driving day after day. If it wasn’t the end of the school year I probably would have been in the same area she was in around the same time. As good as I think I am at watching for danger I wouldn’t have been able to react to the gunfire she was caught in. It seemed like there was nothing she could have done to avoid that at the time and that’s the part that has everyone messed up mentally.

It gives you that hopeless and helpless feeling because you don’t what to do to stop it from happening. I already know the mentality we are dealing with. I also know the culture it thrives in. We've been through this before. This was another event that led to a discussion with children about violence and we already discussed not wanting to deal with that.

Do you move away? Do you hope the mayor comes up with a task force to go door to door and determine who gets to stay in the city and who has to leave? Do you change your kid’s school and isolate them from the same neighborhoods you grew up in because it’s just too dangerous to have that connection to your hood anymore? There may be a few people who follow through on these things. Most of us will do what we always do. We’ll talk about the thugs and the people who raised them. Then we’ll find comfort in one another knowing that we are not part of the problem. Then the brainwashing starts all over again. If there isn’t a tragic story like Tuesday we’ll all fool ourselves into normalcy soon.pretty soon it will be football season and we'll really be distracted. We just need to talk our way through the summer and things will seem alright.

The tire on my truck has a slow leak in the front tire. I filled it with air and went out about 11:00 PM to see if it was still inflated so I could drive it to work in the morning. As I stepped outside around 11:20 and looked to the left and the right to see what was going on I thought to myself “Why am I tripping like this? This is a working neighborhood and nothing crazy ever happens on this block. I’m safe as long as I’m home.” The sooner you start the brainwashing process the easier it works.