Putting Up With It For A Dollar

Yesterday I took my extra cash and decided to go to the shoe store and get my baby some tennis shoes for school. I try to stay in the city limits when I can to shop so I went to the store around the house. When I walked in the first thing I noticed was a group of people shopping with two bad kids that were knocking every display down. The sisters working in the store looked like they were going to pass out. Walking in the store behind me was a lady with two shoes in her hand, no box and no bag. She went to the counter and told the manager she had a problem. Apparently she came into the store and purchased two right shoes. One was a size 7 and the other a size 8. This might not have been a big deal if the store didn’t keep only right shoes on display and when you check out they go in the back to get the left one. She might have had an even better chance if she had a receipt, or a box the shoes came in.

The manager went to the back and the exchange that followed went something like this:

Manager: Ma’am, I have two left shoes of this size in the back and two right shoes on the rack. If you would have bought those shoes like that from this location I would not have any shoes on the rack at all or the left ones would be on the rack and there would be no shoes at all in the back to go with them. Do you have a receipt?

Customer: No!!! I DON’T KEEP RECEIPTS FOR SIMPLE STUFF LIKE SHOES!!

Manager: Can you bring me the box they were in? Are you sure it was this store?

Customer: I DON’T KEEP BOXES EITHER! I KNOW WHERE I BOUGHT THESE DAMN SHOES FROM! Y’ALL ALWAYS TRYING TO ACT FUNNY WITH PEOPLE!

Manager: Look, I am not giving you a fresh pair of shoes without a receipt from one of our locations. If you don’t like that then call the home office.

Customer: Fine then…….you blocking your blessings!

Then she drove off. After she left all I could do is look at the manager, shake my head and pray this economy doesn’t get to the point I have to try and go back to retail management to feed my family. My patience is not what it used to be. I would have taken both of those shoes and threw them and her out in the parking lot. Compared to some of the things I have had to put up with personally this was a mild encounter. (My favorite was the guy who cussed me out for a five dollar refund and then needed me to fill out his personal information for him because he couldn’t read the refund slip. You would think he would have been real polite.) Sometimes you have to put up with crazy stuff to make an honest living.

Follow The Money To the Unemployment Line

This morning I got up to watch the usual news shows that I always watch in the morning. Everyone was talking about how all of these major financial institutions are going down in flames and have to be bailed out. Let me tell you from someone who has been involved in a corporate restructuring that changed his life, this is no joke. I am no economist by a long shot. I can barely pay my credit bills on time. After watching a good job slowly fall apart, I think I have a good idea about how all of this works. If the financial institutions responsible for taking care of everyone else’s money fall apart then the company you work for will soon start having problems. When any company has serious financial problems the first thing to go is labor.

You’ll see a regional office here and a plant there. They will send a few more thousand jobs overseas where people work for half the wage and none of the taxes. Petty soon we will be headed to 1929. I don’t know what a great depression would look like in the digital age but it can’t be pretty. I know my explanation is very remedial in its description but I have to be right because the government wouldn’t be trying to come up with billions of dollars to bail out all of these companies. If you want the technical information watch CNBC.

What’s bothering me more than the fact that the country could be headed for a depression is how both of these jive political parties are taking the opportunity to score votes from our fear of standing in a soup line. I don’t give a damn at this point who is responsible. We just need to come up with a way to fix this. I know George Bush was in office the last eight years and I know he hasn’t done a good job at much. Nevertheless, he’s going to be the president until January. I don’t need the Democratic congress sitting on their ass watching the ship sink so Obama can get elected. There comes a time when you have to put the politics aside for the benefit of the people. In my opinion all of this comes from the power that lobbyist have had on both sides of the aisle in Washington. This is why I am an independent now. Ask yourself how could and American company send entire operations to other countries without the senators and representatives from that area going completely crazy? These things have been brewing for years but no one cared because the marketing army in this country makes us all feel good about our middle class and overpriced lifestyles.

I am turning into the black Lou Dobbs. It’s time for a vacation.

Obama For Breakfast

I got this picture from a blog written by Professor Tracy at Aunt Jemima’s Revenge. She already did great job writing about it so I will just link to her words so she can explain it. Somewhere in New Orleans a "concern citizen" would probably love to make a product like this for Ray Nagin. This is how people get divided.

Week 2 - Pass The Ball!!

Until Sean Payton realizes he has an offense designed to be a passing team and becomes aggressive in the passing game they will continue to give games away. This an era where a team can have an undefeated regular season without putting much emphasis on the run. He keeps trying to force his talent to do things that they are not built to do. We can pass early in the year to set up the run later. Instead we play into the defense's hands by forcing the run game and short passes when there are 8 people in the box almost every play. We should be punishing teams for playing that many people close to the line of scrimmage.

Sean, your offensive line can't run block. I know it's only the second game but they are not going to get any better unless you have a back like Deuce he can run so direct through a hole they don't need to do much. It's time to let the play makers go down the field and make plays.

And we have to find a set of plays that can get us a first down when we need one. We should be 2-0 but we could easily be 0-2 because we keep giving the ball back to the other team.

Lisa On The Sidelines

This USC/Ohio St. game ended up being so boring. Ohio St. just can’t get it going in these big games anymore. The highlight of this game was not anything on the field but the stellar and underrated presence of Lisa Salters. How can you not dig Lisa?

Guys sit around and discuss women like Beyonce and Halle Berry but I think it’s time we give sisters like Lisa Salters their credit. With all due respect, she’s the total package. She’s educated, she’s intelligent and she knows more about sports inside and out than the average man. That’s a great conversation waiting to happen. Not only that, she has natural prettiness. That means you could call her without notice to catch an afternoon movie and she would look just as good as she does on TV. This is an underrated quality. Thank you Ms. Salters for making these blowout games much easier to watch until the end.

P.S.

This entire post applies to Pam Oliver on NFL games too. How come Fox never lets Pam do a Saint’s game?

Act Like A Man Vince

What the hell is wrong with Vince Young? I’m tired of these brothers getting to the height of their profession and then folding mentally. You can’t refuse to go back into a game and then talk about doing harm to yourself because the crowd booed you. Eli Manning and his entire family got booed at the draft and he kept going.

I heard Jason Whitlock on the Jim Rome show last week and he was right. Some of these brothers need some male influence in their lives. It would be great if that person was their dad. If I would have not wanted to enter that game my dad would have went down there and made me put that helmet on. Then again, he wouldn’t have to because I am too proud of my name and wouldn’t embarrass him like that. You can’t quit in life when things don’t go right. Men are supposed to take pride in the fact that things happen to them and it can’t break them. That’s the best kind of swagger to have. I'm not saying he can't be upset or emotional. Handle that in private with yourself and your love ones then back out there and keep grinding. Too many of these young cats live for constant praise. That’s impossible because everybody is going to have a day when they suck. If you think getting booed after a few interceptions is bad, try going to the unemployment office to file for your check when you have a four month old baby at home. That’s a day that truly sucks and I was joking with my unemployment agent.

Stories like this one make me think about the old Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks. Aaron had some rough years here and most people couldn’t stand him. They booed him. They called him names. I was in that dome and let me tell you it was rough on that guy. Through all of that Aaron maintained his dignity. He didn’t go home and beat his wife. The police never found him wandering through the French Quarter drinking and starting fights with fans. That’s why even though I am still amazed at how many times he could drop the ball out of his hands without anyone touching him I still respect him. Someone needs to give Aaron Brook’s number to Vince.

Another Friday Night Ramble

I’m sitting on the floor of my den listening to the wind whistle outside. I’m flipping channels back and forth between Friday Night Smackdown and some college football game. I am trying to pretend there I don’t have people I care about living in Houston right in Ike’s path. I am glad that it didn’t intensify back up to a category four because no one in that city seemed to be taking this thing serious enough for me. It still might be a rough one next week for everyone over there. The categories of hurricanes are based only on the wind. Gustav taught us that you can still get quite a punch from a storm that size. Plus, we are about 300 miles away from the storm and the wind is still gusting outside. This storm is going to take awhile to come ashore and its going to suck for a long time after it does.

I was watching the news earlier and there were still people in Galveston waiting to ride out the storm. All these people are crazy. There shouldn’t be anyone near the coast of Texas at all. I know legally the government can’t force you to leave your home but someone should have made everyone near the coast evacuate. What good is freedom when you drown? Some people don’t learn to respect water until it’s too late.

I am really worn down from all this hurricane stuff. Because of my job, I not only have to deal with it personally. It’s also consuming me professionally too. After hurricanes is when people in non profits and social services seriously think about changing their career path. There are lots of people who need help and the stress to help them is made worse by all the people trying to get over. It can be difficult trying to figure out what group everyone belongs to. I offered to screen everybody because my bullshit meter is a fine tuned machine but I was told that wouldn’t be ethical. It might not be ethical but I would have had fun doing it.

On the way home I stopped to get some gas before the price goes sky high once the refineries get flooded. When I drove up all the working cats were out there sharing an after work beer. All of my neighbors were out there. I felt bad about that. There was a time when a community beer sharing session couldn’t start without me. My boy was right. I m becoming a suburban cat trapped in the city. In the past a revelation about myself like that would have made me sit out there for an hour and drink with them. I left though because their bottles were looking low and the new man always has to buy the next round. This wasn’t a pay week so I didn’t have time to buy those big bellies any drinks.

I guess I will go home and do my usual blogging and watching Youtube. I am going to find some old school Slick Rick videos. I don’t feel like doing anything else. I went to the sports bar with my cousin and closest comrade yesterday but you can’t hang around him too long when storms are in the Gulf of Mexico because he keeps looking up the street for water. There is only so much of that you can take. I am going to watch a little football this weekend and rest up for Monday when the madness starts again. A vacation has to be coming soon.

A Positive School Story

I have blogged about many different aspects of my parental journey through the New Orleans school system. Tonight I don’t have anything negative to say. I want to let everyone know that there are many great people working with these kids. One of them is the principal at my daughter’s school. I still won’t say the name of the school because this city is crazy.

One of the reasons why we decided to go with this particular charter school is because after meeting with the principal he left us with a good feeling. Even with that good feeling the stigma attached to the public school system is such that we had no choice but to take a wait and see approach. I have to say that since the school year started I have been more than impressed with the environment at the school. Much of that is because of the principal. There are a few things that stick out to me. One thing is how he knows every kid by first name and shakes their hands and talks to them in the morning to see how they are doing. Four and five year old kids can have rough mornings and not want to go to school. When he sees that they are having a rough one he walks them to their class themselves to make them feel better.

The other thing I like is how when every parent who picks their kids up in the evening walks through the door he instantly puts the parent’s face with the kid and calls them out of the class. It’s impressive he can remember moms and dads and what child they belong to. It also makes me feel better leaving my girl in his care during the day. He even engages in conversations with me during the evening about the school, my kid and just general things to keep me aware of what’s going on. So far I have to assume that the stuff he said sitting in my living room was not just a scripted sales pitch. I think he actually meant every word of it.

He’s going to do well for these kids as long as some of these crazy parents don’t look at all the interaction as a burden on their time. Some of those parents show up in the evening and act like whatever they are headed to do is way more important than what is going on with their children. If those kids don’t learn anything by the end of the year I don’t know if they are going to be able to blame that guy and his staff. Mr. ‘J’ is the man.

My Take On Palin

I am just going to come out and say that I am voting for Barak Obama. Even still, I have to admit that the selection of Sarah Palin was a stroke of genius and whoever made the decision really knows America. Anybody supporting Obama that doesn't realize that is fooling themselves. She’s the biggest threat to Obama winning since this thing started. See, Americans all are conditioned to vote for people they can identify with. It’s not racism. It’s just the way the media and corporate America has conditioned us to think. It’s the reason we all have different McDonald’s commercials and stuff like that. Smart people write and talk about deep issues and try to be void of color and identification but that’s not how most Americans see things in the media. Most people form opinions based on their own circumstances. That’s how me and my friend can watch the same story and see two different things.

The truth of the matter is that the majority of black people in this country knew nothing about Barak Obama this time last year. However they see his wife, his kids, and how he stands up there dignified and they instantly feel connected to him because of what he represents to their own existence. That’s how local black politicians like Bill Jefferson keep getting re-elected. The same thing is true for Sarah Palin. Women around this country can identify with everything about her. You can step out of your house during the day and run into 50 women who have the same circumstances as Governor Palin.

We all know women pissed off about Hillary losing has been the focus of both campaigns. When you look at it, Palin’s story is more symbolic than Hillary’s. Hillary Clinton is smart and strong but she is academically and socially elite. Her husband was the president already. Sarah Palin started on the PTA and worked her way up while raising kids with her fisherman husband. She’s got kids and some of them have issues. You can’t get more American than that. I would suspect that middle class working moms in small towns around the country would get the same inspiration out of her as people get from Obama. There are enough small towns in America to make her vice president. Yeah, the policies of her party may actually go against those women but like I said earlier we are conditioned to assume that someone with the same background and appearance has to be a better deal in the long run.

All of this could have been avoided if Barak would have just picked Hillary for his running mate and ended this thing. McCain would have picked Romney or Palenty and this would be done. I’m afraid that just like Hillary Clinton’s campaign didn’t see him coming and giving them problems he didn’t see this Palin thing coming and giving him any trouble. Barak’s going to have to work hard these next two months or get someone to Alaska and find something damaging enough to kill her momentum. If not there will be some broken dreams all around the country.

Sitting On My Porch Part Thirteen..Hurricane Lagniappe

Well, we are now out of the dreaded cone of error for Hurricane Ike’s path. Today was the first time in weeks I can say that people around me were relaxed and normal. You still have to be leery of the thing until it lands in some poor place. I feel bad for anybody in its way. We should take the time to send regards and help if you can to the folks in South Louisiana, Cuba, Haiti and the Bahamas. Gustav was rough and Ike didn’t help the islands any. I know there are a few months left in hurricane season but this usually the time of year you have to be very careful. The ones that come in October and November usually don’t get big enough to scare you. I don’t want to jinx anything.

This may be an interesting weekend. All the refugees from New Orleans that’s living in Texas may be running home for Ike. Oh my goodness! It’s going down this weekend! I’m staying home.

I realize now that the biggest thing we have to conquer here in New Orleans is our mind state when we evacuate. Before Katrina we always packed with the idea we might be gone a few days. Now we pack everything with the idea that we are leave to start a new life. We are going to have to get to a point where we trust the protection and not have a funeral mentality when we hit the highway.

I have to give credit to Governor Jindal. Say what you want about his politics but when it was emergency time that guy was in charge. I am not used to being giving the exact day and time that things are going to be happening and it actually happen. He might cut every social program in the state budget that helps people but at least he is not leaving them behind to drown or die in hospitals with no power. You have to respect him for that.

I know the mayor was a little over the top in his storm warnings but he had to be. These folks don’t scare easily.

All looters should not be taken to Angola. They should be shot right in the ass on sight. People are just getting back in their homes and shouldn’t have to deal with that when they are leaving to be safe.

It’s time to look into Entergy to find out what they are doing with the infrastructure. Something is wrong with their routine. The tree cutters came by to cut the tree limbs away from the power lines while the power was out last Thursday. I asked the cat cutting the trees if he thought it was better if they did that BEFORE hurricane season. To make it worse, they still haven’t came by to pick up all the mess they cut down.

I can’t believe that in 2008 when I can go to Google Earth and check on my parent’s house in Memphis just by typing in their address that people had to stand outside in the heat waiting for disaster food stamps. There had to be a better way for that to get done. It is bad enough we had to spend hundreds of dollars to leave for the “Mother of all storms”. Now people have to stand in line like third world refugees just to get a little relief. As much as I wouldn’t mind replacing all the food I had to throw away, I am not standing out there.

I appreciate Duff sending me that chart of the Katrina levee breaks in my comments section. After the Times Picayune reported this morning that there were 70 loose barges in the canal during Gustav, I want the levee breaks during Katrina looked into even more. That’s right I said 70. I can’t link to it because for some reason nola.com doesn’t have the story. That’s really strange because it was their front page story. Just take my word for it. Actually if you go over the I-10 high rise and look to your right you can still see two of them they are trying to remove because they went too far out of the normal water level. Those big ass things can knock a levee down easy.

A Good Start To The Season

The only thing better than watching Reggie Bush show the world he is ready to have a breakout season as an all around performer was watching the defense actually hold up long enough for the offense to get going. Last year if the Saints offense started off a little cold you could go outside and mow the lawn at halftime because it was over. The key to the season is the defensive line. I also think that in a few weeks Jeremey Shockey will be the biggest cult hero in the city. That guy was born to be a New Orleans favorite. He looks just like one of those cats from St. Bernard Parish who runs a shrimp boat.
This was a big win because Tampa always gives us trouble especially Joey Galloway who may be finally getting old enough not to terrorize us any longer. I won’t make any complaints about today’s game. I won’t even mention the play calling that gave Tampa the ball back at the end. The team looked pretty good. Everything should be fine as long as #42 doesn’t have to play. It would be nice if #29 didn’t play either.

Is Kim Kardashian going to be at every game? Will they show her on television every time Reggie does something good? I just hope Reggie isn’t hanging out with the rest of the people who were in that suite. That was not a New Orleans looking group. I can’t see them coming to a crawfish boil.

Take A Second Look

In all the time since I have been blogging after Katrina you have never read any conspiracy theories about levees being blown up and things of that nature. There are certain things you keep in the back of your mind but in the spirit of moving forward you don’t throw it out there. Well, this time I feel compelled to do it. I think it’s time to have another investigation into whether or not the barge seen floating on top of houses in Lower Ninth Ward during Katrina actually broke that levee instead of the storm surge.

I was watching Lee Zurick at the top of the Claiborne Bridge Monday as the water was being blown over the top of the old west levee wall at the Industrial Canal. At the same time Angela Hill was interviewing someone from the Corps of Engineers (This is not the Corps responsibility. She just happened to be talking to him.) about the news that three barges were loose in the canal. She asked him questions that seem to imply that the barge during Katrina hit that wall and caused it to fail. I’m not saying that was her intent but it does make you start to wonder.

I remember that morning when the breach happened in the Lower Ninth Ward. There was no wind blowing in the city yet. I know from first hand accounts that one of the reasons it caught everyone off guard is that there was no wind blowing. If the wind wasn’t blowing then how did the water come over the top and erode the wall?

Another thing is how strange is it the barge just happens to turn the right way and fit directly into the space where the levee broke. Shouldn’t it have hit something else along the way? There were three of them this time floating around and yet none of them found there way to the exact direction of the water. Maybe that barge was already in that area and wasn’t tied down correctly. It broke loose when the water rose and hit that wall just like the barge did Monday. The only difference this time is that they were aware of it and were trying to slow it down.

I don’t think it’s irrational to come to this conclusion. You can’t ignore the circumstantial evidence. Lots of people lost love ones or had their lives altered forever. I don’t know how you go about re-staging that whole event but I think it’s worth looking into. It’s too bad that Katrina wasn’t as mild as Gustav and those reporters could have stood out there and filmed that too. Unfortunately the only people who could probably tell you what happened were washed away on impact.

I think after Monday’s events the people of the Lower Nine and St. Bernard Parish deserve for someone to take a second look at this. It probably won’t happen because of the lawsuit factor. Well, if that’s what comes out of it then so be it. That pain and suffering is real and if someone left that barge in there and changed our lives forever then there should be some compensation for that trauma. Even if there is no compensation someone should be punished. I will be talking about this again soon if I don’t hear anything.

Shaken Up By Gustav

For the first thirty years of my life I lived in New Orleans and I never really feared Hurricanes. I guess it was because we never had a big one do any damage we could relate to. People older than us talked about Betsy but they never acted like it really bothered them. They wouldn’t leave for any storm. No one left for storms. Then Katrina happened.

For the last week we have been waiting and dealing for Hurricane Gustav to hit. He came along at the right time to make us all realize that we are really screwed up mentally. I am not exaggerating when I say that Saturday night after Gustav ballooned to a category 4 with potential to make it to 5, my only goal was to not have a heart attack or die in my sleep from anxiety. I just kept thinking to myself that I have come so far and have so many good things going for me now three years after Katrina. It took a lot of strength to get back to that point. This whole event with Gustav has knocked me back into a reality that I was trying to ignore.

The reality of it is as much as we love the city, we are going to have to accept the fact that at any given time during hurricane season we may have to leave and not come back for a long time if ever. My patience is wearing thin for all this evacuating. It’s been three years since the last time but it hasn’t been long enough not to drive everyone crazy. I don’t really feel like starting over so as long as the levees hold and we don’t have a direct hit I guess I will have to start accepting that as a normal part of life. Even that is going to require all kinds of energy that I could use towards something else.

What I can’t do again is start over. I didn’t secure my house before I left this time (foolish on my part). That’s because I figured if the levee breaks and we are under water I am not fixing it anyway so the windows won’t matter. My head hurts and my heart is pounding. When I started writing this water was coming over the top of the Industrial Canal levee wall. If that wasn’t enough to kill you, the news reported there were loose barges in the canal that could have easily hit one of those walls and started our second massive rebuilding in three years. Plus, it brought back memories of the barge floating in the Lower Nine when the levee broke during Katrina. It makes you wonder in the back of your mind if that’s not what broke the levee the first time. I wish those news cameras would have been on that bride in ’05. If you have never watched a massive pile of water threaten your city on television let me tell you something. There isn’t enough liquor, legal or illegal drugs to help you deal with that scene. My blood pressure and heart rate haven’t came down yet.

Anyone with any type of education or skill has no reason to live here without really wanting to out of a real love for it. Personally, I could spend the next forty years just sitting on a porch somewhere downtown drinking and laughing with my neighbors. As much as I love the place, I don’t know if I can live with this anxiety when I could just move to higher ground and love the city from afar. If it happens and we have to go, at least we can say we tried to make it work but nature decided it wasn’t a good idea.

So we made it through this time. Now it’s back to the house whenever the mayor decides its safe enough for us to be in the city. The storm must have done more damage in the city than I thought. Everybody is going back before us. I bet the surrounding parishes asked him to let us come back last because they have all the stores and don’t want us coming over to shop until they everything up and running to take our cash. Most of us are out of the city hanging in limbo. It’s a good thing the Saints have a game Sunday or we might not be allowed to come home until next week. I’m doing all this complaining out frustration and aggravation and yet, I sit in a hotel in Baton Rouge dying for the moment I can get across the city line. I don’t know why. There is nothing waiting for me but aggravation and anxiety until the rest of these storms in the Atlantic pass. At this point I am just hoping that the oak tree in my back yard isn’t lying in my kitchen. That will be the final blow to my fragile sanity. I think I will be fine when I get to sleep in my own bed.

Commemoration Vacation

First of all I want to thank everyone involved with organizing the Rising Tide Conference for inviting me to be on the education panel. I had a great time on the panel and at the conference as a whole. I didn’t think I was going to talk so much but I guess that came easy to me because I live this city’s experience every day. I hope I was able to bring the perspective I set out to. I wish we had more time to get into some things more because it is a very complicated problem.

It was cool to meet the bloggers I hadn’t met before and put faces with the names of the people whose words I read and sometimes inspire me to express my own thoughts. I want to especially send a shot out to Allen Boudreaux for our conversation Friday Night and Mrs. Butler from Wounded Bird. She was cool to talk to. I also want to once again thank Clancy DuBos and Kevin Allman from The Gambit for the distinction of being the first guest blogger to appear on the Blog of New Orleans. From now on when Clancy’s on election night I can tell my friends I know someone on television and it’s not a lie.

It’s not lost on me that most of these cool things that I have got to take part in as a blogger have happened because of Hurricane Katrina. I will modestly accept the fact that a portion has to do with some personal talent. I am sure people wouldn’t ask me what I thought if it sounded crazy. However since the aftermath of the storm drives every agenda around this area it can’t be ignored. That’s why this is going to be my last post for the rest of the month.

There are two events this week that stick out in my head. The first one is August 27. That’s my surviving grandmother Mildred’s 90th birthday. It’s not only significant because she’s making 90. It’s significant because her 87th birthday party was the last time my family was all together at her house in the Lower Ninth Ward. The second event is obviously August 29th the anniversary of the storm. That’s the day I lost my other grandmother Geraldine to flood waters when the levees broke. She was 72 years old at the time of the storm and going strong. Beyond just the fact of losing her forever, the sad truth is that everyone I know lost a part of themselves in some way.

The way life has been since August 30, 2005 has required even the strongest person to ignore the human aspect from time to time in order to put their lives back in order. Even people like me who lost so much had to suspend that reality for enough time to move back home or get used to another place, rebuild their homes, plan the next five years and all that other stuff that goes with a total life change. In many ways my personal success and achievement is at an all time high. Unless I have a total meltdown it can only get better. Regardless of that, sometimes I just want to go sit on the patio and drink beer with my aunts or listen to my grandmother tell me how she can refurbish some piece of furniture she found at a garage sale that she has absolutely no room for in her house.

That’s the human aspect of the whole event that we have lost because everybody now is caught up in where the money is and what neighborhood gets enough of it to come back strong or not. I can’t lie and say it doesn’t happen to me. I rant and rave about stuff like that all day because I can’t help it. This year I am not going to do that. I’m not doing anything. I’m not going on the radio. I am not writing anything for anybody. I had a really cool idea I told Kevin about Friday night. I am not doing that either (sorry Kevin). This year I am going to chill out and spend time with my friends and family like every other week. I don’t want any exposure. I don’t want to be Cliff the blogger. I just want to be Cliff from St. Claude Avenue who use to hang out with Devin and Big G. Everybody from New Orleans may not feel this way but I personally think that storm was way to traumatic too turn into a holiday I need to look forward to every year. I’m trying not to give it any more power than it already has. That’s why until September I am officially vapor. If you are looking for me I will be sitting somewhere with a drink in my hand laughing at something crazy.

I'm Rising The Tide

When I was first asked to be on the Education Panel at this year’s Rising Tide Conference I was honored. Then I remembered just how much I didn’t really like school and it was kind of funny. I would have never guessed in a million years that I would be on a panel about education. Out of all the years I ever went to any school I only enjoyed maybe one year’s worth of that. Nevertheless, I always went and did well. That was probably more of my parents doing than my own.

There will be some very informed people on this panel that know all the ins and outs of the inner workings of the school situation here. I won’t be dropping any statistics. Earlier today I started to do a little research beyond what I already know so I wouldn’t be sitting up there sounding stupid. Then I thought about it and realized that I don’t represent that part of the equation.

I am going to be representing those parents that are confused, concerned, angry, frustrated and hoping they made the right decision when it comes to where their child is going. I’m going to represent the hard working people who don’t want to have three jobs, or lie about their situation in order to be in a better situation. I’m going to represent three generations and the parent of a fourth generation of family to go to public schools in the city. That is important because there is no way anyone can reform the system and ignore the last 40 years. When it comes to local issues there is usually a divide between what is written by the experts and the media and what the people in the neighborhood think.

I’m coming to represent the neighborhood for the good and the bad.

Cliff's Olympic Blog

I’m sitting here trying to figure out why I am so into these Olympic Games. The last time I really got into the Olympics was 20 years ago. I just got through watching the women’s beach volleyball final and it was so exciting (not for the women this time). There are two things I am wondering about. What the hell is Jamaica feeding those sprinters and why do all of these Chinese teenagers look as big as my five-year old? One of the women from the beach volleyball team just sprinkled her mom’s ashes on the sand after they won. That was a tear jerking moment.

Why does NBC stick the microphone in the face of these athletes after they fail and don’t win a medal? You know they have been training their whole life to get to this point and it sucks to not win. I wish I was there and someone interviews me with the way I hate to lose. Bob Costas would turn red.

That was messed up how they interviewed the brother about two minutes after he realized he has been disqualified from his medal in the 200m race. He should have punched that guy.

Man, I wish I had the money to go to Jamaica next week for the coming home party of Usain Bolt and the rest of the track and field team. You could party at least three days from the contact high.

Thank goodness the USA Basketball team is returning some respect to hood basketball. If I have to listen to one more commentator talk about how the world is catching up I am going to scream. If they are catching up so much, why do all the foreign players choke in the NBA playoffs?

Would I be a bad American if I was pulling for a Brazil vs. Cuba Women’s Volleyball final? I don't mean to be disrespectful to all the American sisters. They are awesome too. ( I am such a pig when the volleyball is on.)

Some of these sports are kind of ridiculous. Why is walking an event? Trampoline? Badminton? Equestrian? The horse is doing all the work. They might as well put Horseshoes and Cool Can in so New Orleans can bring home some gold medals. ( I realize that most of you don’t know what cool can is. That’s a true New Orleans hood game right there.)

If I was a male Olympic walk racer, I would compete hard as I could for a medal but would never watch a tape of myself switching like that. There are just some things a brother from the Ninth Ward can't have on videotape.

It's The First Day

Well, we sent her on in there. I hope nothing happens to make me show those people why they called me the Incredible Hulk in 8th grade. I'm sure she will be fine. She had to go somewhere sooner or later. Anyway...

In honor of the first day of school I thought I would tell a funny first day of school story. It happened at my first school McDonald # 19 Elementary School. Back in the old days when you went back to school for the new school year kids would go to the previous year’s teacher until they found out whom their new teacher was. Well, I wasn’t aware of that heading to first grade. My mama walked me to school with my three year old sister and 7 month old brother in a stroller. I walked in the door of the school and was talking to my friends about how I was going to my new teacher. That’s when someone told me I had to go sit back in Ms. Ford’s class. Not knowing it was only for an hour or so, I screamed NOOOOO!!!! Ms. Ford wasn’t that bad. I was just a spoiled at five years old and didn’t want anyone to tell me anything. At five she seemed like a demon and I had enough of that.

I took off running down St. Claude St. like Jesse Owens. I made it back home so fast that my mama wasn’t at the house yet. She was just walking up to the gate when I came running behind her.

It was at that very moment when I realized my mama was down for me no matter what. She didn’t fuss or anything. She just turned around with those two babies and walked me back up the street to the school and brought me to the class. Personally, I would have whipped my ass for that.

I need some comic relief so I think I will listen to Monster teach the babies their ABC’s. Don’t laugh too hard. He means well.

My Meditation Music

Friday morning I had to speak at a meeting. I knew almost everyone in the room by first name but for some reason I felt nervous. After I sat down and tried to figure out what was wrong with me I realized I wasn’t nervous. I just didn’t feel like talking about the topic at hand. This happens to me from time to time. I hit the wall when it comes to dealing with stuff and I get tired of thinking so much. Between the job, school issues, bills, money, and problems of friends and family, Cliff needs to reboot his hard drive.

As corny as it sounds, this is when I go back to hip hop to clear my head. Say what you want about the music but it calms me. I used to be one of those kids on the bus heading to school with the Walkman radio and the backpack full of tapes and batteries. That was the last part of my life that I didn’t have anything to worry about. I didn’t care about much except for school and trying to get a date or two. It’s back during the time when I used to challenge Brian on who could make the best mixtape. That’s before all the stuff my daddy used to preach about applied to my own life situations. It also separates me from him because he hates rap music. It’s when the Ninth Ward wasn’t infamous and we just lived and hung out there. I can’t say if things were better or not but my mental burden was sure much lighter. It does for me what Motown does for older generations. I guess that’s why through all of life changes I still stay true to the music as long as the lyrics aren’t too crazy. There are future queens at the crib so I can't be listening to some of that garbage.

I think my blogging is a way of letting out the frustrated rapper in me. The only difference is bloggers don’t have groupies or money. I’m just doing what I do for the love of it. Friday morning I left for my meeting with my morale really low. When I got in my truck I had to play something to put my energy in the right direction to do what I needed to do. A Tribe Called Quest did the trick.

It's Time For Big School

Did I mention anything about my post on the Gambit's blog about the school issue?
That was more than two weeks ago. My self promotion skills suck.

On Monday morning my baby will be headed to kindergarten. It’s a big day for her and she is ready to go. I have no doubts she will do great and take to school like a fish to water. She can’t wait to get in there. She's been dying to go for months. Times have changed because I don’t remember my parents telling me I was even going to school. My mom just dropped me off with a strange mean lady and some snotty nose kids and left me there. She could have warned a brother that I wasn’t going to be watching Tom and Jerry that day.

I am nervous about her first day for several reasons. I’m wondering if she’s going to a decent school. I’m worried about environment in and around the school. I am not ashamed to admit I love my hood but there are some aspects of it that I don't want my kids exposed to. I am concerned about her being under too much pressure since everything is based on test scores and her homework package has things in it I didn’t see until the third grade. I have been beating myself up for the past two weeks because I figured I had five years to put myself in a position to send her wherever I wanted even if it meant paying tuition. That was before a company downsizing, a pay cut, and a hurricane. Now she's going to a public school I never heard of until a few months ago. I guess that's what happens when new charter schools pop up weekly. All you can go on is what they promise you.

I don’t want to be overly negative about the situation. I met the staff and reviewed all of their plans and it appears to be a good deal. This morning in the newspaper there is a big story about the plans for new schools. If everybody's actions go along with the plans then the situation should be constantly getting better. I want to believe that. I need to believe that because my lack of confidence in the ability or willingness to educate black kids in New Orleans is the first issue that has ever made me really consider leaving. Nobody should love the city enough to compromise their child's future. If I still believed in conspiracy theories I would say that this is all being done at a slow pace purposely to keep black families from moving back into the city. If you fix the schools too quick then even people who left before Katrina are coming back. I have been trying to talk myself out of thinking that way even though my own experience tells me it might be true.

Maybe that's not happening this time around. Maybe I am stuck in my old way of thinking and can’t notice the things changing around me. Maybe ten years from now we will look back and feel good about sticking with the system. Maybe she can roll through this one charter system until she graduates high school and end up prepared to handle the Ivy League. Maybe I’m just a paranoid daddy. Her grandpa told me any good parent is supposed to be paranoid. He calmed my nerves a little. After talking to my daddy about it we will go with the positive outlook.

Tomorrow morning the only thing I will be thinking about is how she looks like a big girl in her uniform and her backpack on and trying not to cry when she walks in the building. I promise not to drive around the building every 30 minutes like I planned on doing. I can't go in with her. She probably doesn't want me to anyway. When she sees those other kids she's going to forget all about me. Man, watching your daughter getting bigger is rewarding and it sucks at the same time.

Sending All Reporters To Mandeville

I hope no one thought I wasn't going to say something about the great city of Mandeville........

I will concede that Mandeville is a really nice city. Their public schools are great. There is very little crime. If I didn’t have such a problem driving across the Causeway everyday I wouldn’t mind living over there myself. The way people live across the lake isn’t a problem for me. Their horrible and judgmental attitudes are. Every time there is a story about something going on in New Orleans I have to sit and read letters in the paper and messages on comments and messages boards online about how New Orleans is a cesspool and how that’s why they left in the city years ago.

Northshore residents talk lots of trash when they are minding other people’s business. Well, apparently some of the corrupt politicians and crooks liked living across the lake too. This week has been great. It’s been fun to see them muster up the energy to react in the same spirit they give towards city issues when it’s their own tax dollars and a man they trusted. I just have a few thoughts about this whole mess.

Ralph Goyeneche, of the Metropolitan Crime Commission is an honorable and fair man across the board. I don’t know exactly where he lives but I would trust him as mayor. He’s the only one who stepped out forward and suggested Mayor Price step down. I know some of you are wondering why he has never asked for Ray Nagin to step down. That’s because Ray Nagin hasn’t stole anything like this no matter how bad everyone tries to turn him into The Godfather.

Could you imagine if Ray Nagin had spent 65K of city money for personal use and it was backed up by a state audit? Spud McConnell’s head would have exploded on the air and Stacy Head would be calling in the National Guard to seize City Hall. Lee Zurick would have gotten his own 30 minute special just to go over the credit card statement on the air. I won't even think about what would have happened if Mr. Goyeneche asked him to step down and he said no. If Warren Riley would have misspent money from the Toys for Tots fund that was funded by citizens’ donations he would have had to resign from the force and leave the state.

I challenge anyone to argue with me that the coverage locally has been even in intensity. If your point is that Mandeville only has 7000 residents compared to over 300,000 in New Orleans I will simply say that when it comes to prestige and the influence in the area the Northshore has lots of it. If the radio stations here can have a show about city government and think its ok to take calls from the suburbs all day putting the city down because we all have a vested interest in the city, then the suburbs deserve the same scrutiny when they do something wrong. If you don’t want it, then mind your own business next time Ray Nagin puts his foot in his mouth. Even one of his misspoken moments can’t add up to a trip to Mexico.

I take no pleasure in another city getting messed around by their mayor. I just want that mayor to be treated like mine gets treated for a lot less.