I already detached from any great hope for this team after the Vikings game on Monday Night....
After 30 years of following the New Orleans Saints like they are a member of my family I am almost ready to declare that this season is going to go down as the most disappointing ever. The only season that comes close to this is the year Aaron Brooks played those last three games with his arm about to fall off and we only needed one win for the playoffs. I realize the Saints have had some rough years. We didn’t win a playoff game until 2000.
The difference between now and the old days is that in the old days those teams didn’t have enough talent to win. Even in the Dome Patrol years we were never a better team than the 49ers. It was alright if they lost as long as they played hard. Those teams gave everything even when they were outmanned. They lost a lot and you felt bad for them because you could tell they wanted to win.
Some of these modern guys look like they are out there just to get paid. On paper they should be a contender but for some reason they just look like they play every game in a daze. I watch other teams running around and playing like it’s do or die. My team plays like it’s a 40 game season and they have lots of chances to make up all the games they keep giving away like a charity organization. With the exception of Brees, Bush, Deuce, and a few other guys this is a hard team to root for. This game in London may be one of the most embarrassing in New Orleans sports history and that’s saying something.
Thank goodness we have Chris Paul to take the pain away.
I want to tell you about Mr. Henry. When I first met him 16 years ago he was in his late 60’s. We worked together and our only problem with him was trying to tell him to stop working so we could go home. He’s a retired army sergeant and a World War II veteran. He also had already retired from working another company after 30 years of service. He didn’t need any money and I couldn’t figure out what the hell he kept working for. He’s also probably one of the craziest old men I have ever met. He would give me rides home at night and talk to me about the old days. We joked around a lot with each other but when he decided to get serious I never took what he said for granted. It was almost like having a bonus grandfather except we looked at women together. After we stopped working together I would still pass by his house and have a highball with him or run into him at Bally’s Casino flirting with young women.
I saw him in Jackson, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina but things were so hectic that I lost contact with him. I always worry about him because he is in his 80’s now and rebuilding your home and life again at that age is a rough thing to go through. I’m in my 30’s and it almost took me out. I can only imagine how it is for people who thought they had completed the journey already. People like that definitely didn’t deserve to have to start from scratch. It's a damn shame there's not enough medical facilities for them. There was a trailer in front of his house but no one was living in it. I saw people working on the house but I never saw him.
Thursday evening I was leaving CityPark and needed some gas. I stopped at a gas station in Gentilly and as usual was staring off into space while the gas was pumping. A red SUV pulls up with chrome rims. An old man in his 80’s steps out looking healthy enough to be 30 years younger. He’s wearing a security guard uniform and walks towards me with an ignorant looking smile.
Sometimes men have a strange way of saying I love you and I miss you. The conversation went something like this.
Henry: You tank head summa bitch! What you doing all sweaty boy? I know you ain’t working out. You are going home to eat a whole chicken for dinner.
Me : Shut up you old goat. Who gave you a security guard job anyway? It’s a good thing you don’t have a pistol. First of all you can’t see. Secondly, you might have a D-Day flash back and kill somebody.
Henry: Don’t you know boy if I hit you, you gonna bleed?
Me: Just because some young woman got you thinking you still a young man don’t mean you should try running up on me.
Henry: Shut up boy……when we drinking a highball?
Me: Whenever you are up to it.
The chance of things like this happening is one of the reasons I am glad I moved back to New Orleans.
I took a few days off from work this week. I am one of those people who never take off from work unless it’s absolutely necessary. Because of that I have about 14 weeks of leave if you add sick time with vacation together. I could take off the rest of the year and still get paid. Don’t be jealous. Something strange happened to me Thursday. I went the whole day without one serious thought. It was great. That’s’ been nearly impossible since Katrina. No matter how hard I try to relax I always seem to have something dominating my brain. That’s a warning that this post might suck.
Don’t you know those people who never seem to be bothered or affected by anything? They amaze me. Don’t you wish you knew how to do that?
I know you all want me to say something about all those clergymen who came out in support of Bill Jefferson and how Paul Morton said he would rather see him get elected then removed after being convicted instead of Moreno winning……..I was raised a little too old school to cuss at the pastors.
With all this negative campaigning going on, the question for the next three weeks is can Al Sharpton maintain his control and not go completely bonkers before the election. The fact that Reverend Al has been so quiet shows you the importance to the people of Obama winning. After the election we are turning the pitbull loose. Can you imagine Al and his crew rolling into Wasilla, Alaska?
Why would Joe the Plumber show up at a campaign event and speak to Obama knowing he was lying and owed the state of Ohio money? What was he thinking about? When you owe someone money you lay low. This is another example of why Americans need to communicate with one another. Everyone in the hood knows not to make yourself seen when you owe someone money.
Am I the only person that has come to terms with the fact that no matter who wins the presidential election this country will be divided as ever because of the way we conduct the election process? There is no way half of the population won’t hate the other candidate before the inauguration.
I work in the IT field but is there anyone worse than the smart ass IT guy at the computer store who laughs at you when he points out some obvious problem that he could see and you couldn’t? Don’t you just want to slap that guy?
Will the New Orleans City Council ever be able to resolve any issue without making a spectacle of it? Does ever error or mistake in this city have to turn into Watergate?
Why does my neighbor’s son get out of his car, go inside the house and leaves gangster rap music playing with the windows down? Why does he do that? Is there an imaginary friend in the car with him? I wish he brings him inside too and cuts that noise off?
As Vice President of the Richard Pryor Fan Club I have been waiting for a chance to put one of his clips on here and have it be relevant to something current. Here’s my chance. I assure you Barack Obama’s press conference won’t be like this if he’s elected.
All week I watched Senator McCain and Governor Palin play the fear strategy against Barack Obama. For the first time since this election started I actually have some concern for Senator Obama. Misguided fear has cost many black man their lives. I would actually rather someone hate me than fear me. If you hate me you may still engage me and I can change your feelings. If you fear me you will avoid me and try to eliminate me. I think Senator McCain got the picture himself and had to calm the mob down at that rally before the N word started jumping off and someone brought out a noose. In a strange way I think it was a good thing for black people to see those crazy folks at McCain’s rally Friday. It’s a reality check.
I have two middle aged white middle class female friends from my old job. They are Republicans, their kids go to private school and they live in the same district that voted for the guy who wants to sterilize poor people. I love them both and those ladies love me. Every year I worked with them they put together and bought me a Christmas gift. When my daughter was born they bought stuff for her. I even went to one of their weddings when she got re-married. When I see them it’s like reconnecting with one of my sisters. I am welcome in their home and they are welcome in mine. I have friends of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. However, that doesn’t mean that sometimes I go in a store that is not that used to seeing brothers in it and don’t get followed around. One night I had a blown stop light and the officers that pulled me over got out with guns drawn like I had five kilos of cocaine in the car. There have been times I have been in the presence of some ladies that look like my friends and they pulled out the mace bottle.
My point is that this election has been like no other. Barack Obama has ran it as a candidate for everyone. He can’t win it without open white Americans seeing him as just the most qualified candidate. On the other side black people are riding a wave of pride and accomplishment that is so great that even some friends that have never voted before call me on the mornings after debates to discuss what they heard. I think that’s a beautiful thing. However, just because there are open minded white people and black people feel the glass ceiling has been broken doesn’t mean that on November 5 you won’t run into that lady who called Barack Obama an Arab somewhere.
We have come a long way as a country but Senator Obama is not the end game for racial division. If he wins the next few years will be some of the most racially revealing years in the country's history. We need to be prepared for the good parts and the bad.....and there will be some bad along the way! I'm afraid that McCain rally was just a drop in the bucket.
It's a beautiful Saturday in the city. It's perfect outside weather. I’m sitting in my window watching these kids make mud pies. I remember when my sisters used to make mud pies inside of our red Western Flyer wagon. Do people still buy wagons for kids? That’s one functional toy. I can’t imagine being a kid and staying inside all time playing video games. Our parents used to put us out at 10:00 AM on Saturdays and we didn’t come in until Mid South Wrestling came on. Kids should be outside using their minds to make up games to play. Where are the girls playing double dutch? Where are all the little boys playing football in the street? Here are some of the things we used to do.
Teddy Ball – I know this isn’t the proper name but that’s what we called it. All you need to play is some old stockings, a busted basketball and a stop sign poll. Now I don’t know the rules or the object of the game so I can’t tell you how to play. All I know is that if I am driving through New Orleans and see two girls standing on a corner beating the hell out of an old ball stuffed in that stocking hanging from a stop sign poll I am going to cry tears of nostalgia.
Cool Can – The family kids used to play this in the lot behind our grandparents’ house. The grown folks used to coach us. Only real old school New Orleans kids know how to play this. Some kids use a stick to hit the ball. Others play by kicking the ball. You set up cans behind the plate and if the cans fall down you are out. You are also out if the person who fields the ball knocks the cans down on second base. We have enough empty lots in this city for some great cool can games. By the way, for the authentic touch the cans you use should be old beer cans and have just enough liquid left in the can so when they fall over the smell gets on your shoes.
Marbles – Do stores even sell Cat Eye marbles anymore?If you are over the age of 50 you can use the circle ring. Everyone under that has to use the fish ring. Me and grandpa almost had our only argument behind this.
"Boy, how in the hell you gonna draw a fish on the damn ground to shoot marbles. That ain't a ring! Put a circle down there."
"Grandpa, this is how we play it."
"Well ya'll playing it wrong. Let me draw that circle.......Now you gotta ring."
"............Okay"
Pitch up tackle football – Throw the ball in the air and whoever catches has to run with it and get tackled by the entire neighborhood. I’m not sure how running through 20 guys without any blocking is supposed to be fun but it was. You don’t even need a real football to play pitch up tackle. You can use a tennis ball, old socks bunched together
Man Overboard – When you play man overboard you have two bases on both sides of the park, parking lot, and schoolyard and wherever you decide to play. One person gets touched and he is the man overboard. The object of the game is for that guy to tag someone who’s trying to make it from one base to the other. Once someone gets tagged they have to help him catch other people. Whoever is the last person on base wins and gets to pick the next man overboard. This is a great game for dozens of kids to play together. This is also a game that will lower the fat kids in the neighborhood self esteem. One time Big G got picked as the man overboard and the look of depression on his face after 30 minutes of trying to catch someone was so serious I got caught on purpose just to help him. That moment is probably why we are still friends to this day. Plus, if I hadn’t started helping him we might still be out there playing.
I left homemade bicycle ramps off this list because of all the bad memories. They are the reason I walk with my right leg slightly higher than my left. Looking back at it now, propping up the old dining room table that Peanut's mama threw away under two cement blocks and trying to jump over it wasn't the smartest thing in the world to try. I’m surprised me or any of my friends can have children after some of those ramp disasters. Just talking about it now is making my voice higher.
I'm going outside. Feel free to add your own games...........
I was sitting there writing another angry tirade Sunday about the elections and how and why people vote for who they do when I got a reality check. While typing away my baby asked me to help her with her weekend homework. I don’t know what they are doing at the school but she is taking to it like a fish to water. That responsibility shifted my energy. Then I went outside for some fresh air and noticed that towards the end of the block some of my neighbors are still trying to get their house ready to move back. The people who live behind me and the one directly across the street are doing the same thing. That’s when I realized that at the end of the day no matter who wins some personal work has to be done to make things happen the way we want them to. Instead of acting like I am waiting on a politician to save me. Here are some things that need to be worked on.
Spend money more wisely: 2008 has been a rough financial year. I have been feeling the economic pinch. I know we have a national crisis but the reality of it is that if I would have taken a few dollars and got my old car fixed instead of buying a new truck and taking on extra debt I could have gotten a lot of things done. What’s worse is that I bought it because I thought it would make me feel more accomplished since it was new. It’s been a year now and the only thing I feel is stupid for giving away all my extra money every month to drive to the same places.
Get to know my neighbors: I know most of my neighbors in passing but I don’t know anything about them personally. We live in that modern day philosophy where everyone wants to do their own thing and mind their own business. You could have someone a few houses down on the verge of collapse and sitting in their house hungry. You will never know if you don’t go down there and try to make acquaintances.
Mind the Chiren! : Ladies and gentlemen, these kids have too much leeway to go out and destroy themselves and we just sit by and let them do it. Whatever group came up with the idea a kid has rights should be abolished. Kids have to do whatever the hell we say to. Up until the age of 18 I still had to tell my mom where I was, who I was with and how long I was going to be there. That was a little embarrassing in the hood but I am still here. We also need to get back to the day where someone can stop their car or step outside their door and put some kid in check for doing wrong even if it’s not their own.
More Snitching: Let’s have a keep it real moment. Some of us don’t trust the police because of years and years of corruption and brutality. Even as kids being the tattle tale is a bad thing. When things are going on in the community we tend to keep it under wraps and not share the information we know. We are paying a horrible price for that now. You know, this is not 1960 when Ms. Gladys’ son was a bad boy but not a killer and you might hide him to keep the racist police from beating him up in the back of the station. It’s 2008 and Ms Gladys’ son and his friends will kill you and your whole family to keep control of the block. We can’t dislike and distrust police enough to live in an environment that feels like we are under siege by a rebel army of our own people. We need to tell where the drugs, guns and the money are. We know where it is.
I got some extra cash in my pocket and the stock market is hurting but I don’t have any stock to really feel a difference. This is a perfect day to ignore all my co-workers and listen to old school hip hop at my desk.
I am in such a good mood that I would like to take this time to extend the branch of brotherhood to all those people are truly panicking about the financial crisis. It’s times like this when you need a friend who grew up on a hard time budget. We can handle these times like a summer vacation. Some of my most fondest memories happened with no money. Not only can I show you how to pay all your bills using the every other month/extension method. I will get my daddy to personally make up your dinner menus so you won’t have any extra cash but at least you will be full. You can feed a family of 6 on his plan for about twenty dollars a week as long as you are not one of those people who can only shop at Whole Foods.
Just relax everybody and don’t worry. Those 700 billion dollars of our tax dollars will be kicking in any minute now to save the day. Pretty soon we will all be paid in full like Eric B and Rakim were back in '86.
This is probably the biggest voting year for black since the Voting Rights Act passed and they got the chance to vote for the first time. I have never seen so many of my folks eager to have a political discussion or getting involved in the process. That makes me proud and scared at the same time. I am scared because black voters are the most gullible people in the country and sometimes have no idea what their votes mean.
How in the hell is William Jefferson in a run-off for his congressional seat? He will be on the ballot against Helena Moreno on the day when there will be the biggest black voter turnout of all time. Unless a miracle happens he’s going to win and I can’t be more pissed off.
I remember back in 1994 when Marion Barry became mayor of WashingtonD.C. after he was arrested for and caught on videotape smoking crack. All I could think of was with all the families that have been affected by the selling and smoking of crack, how could they possibly elect a guy that endorses it through his actions. When crack was out of control in D.C. how could you take any cries for help seriously when the mayor was a known user and still got elected? One could assume rightfully or wrongfully that crack was a pretty cool thing in D.C.
Here we are down here in New Orleans bitching and moaning about everything other people have that we don’t. We want better schools. We need some hospitals. We need drug treatment facilities. We need new infrastructure and to fix this blight problem. We need to make the streets safer for our citizens. We need some economic development and more jobs. I could go on. It is obvious even to the most ignorant person that all these issues affect the black community more than anyone else in this city. I know it appears that more white people make their concerns public but the reality of it is that there are no white ghettos and hoods in the city limits. If there is a school with subpar conditions and limited resources I can assure you that ninety nine percent of those kids in there are black. That’s not a racist statement. That’s just the truth and you are in denial if you don’t agree.
All these problems can be corrected but it’s going to take money that we don’t have. We are about to send a representative back to Congress when he and almost his entire immediate family has been indicted for hustling public funds. That’s the person you need to send when you really need some money. The message we are saying to the rest of the country is this:
Hello America! Send us a few billion dollars so we can get things together and give the check to that guy who had money in his freezer and is facing indictment.
It’s just a foolish idea to send him back to Congress. There is no excuse for voting for him and he was selfish to even run again. Even the most pro black/anti whitey black people who vote strictly for a candidate because of his color have no excuse for this. There were five other brothers running! You could have still voted black five different ways and not voted for Bill! You have to know where you live, what you need and vote according to who has the best chance of delivering that. Maybe Congressman Jefferson had a moment of bad judgment and is really a good man. That’s fine but you don’t have to put him back in office to validate your forgiveness. He can be a good guy and rebuild his name from his house while a new, less scandalous person works in Washington.
I love and respect Barak Obama because of what he is trying to do and how he has went about doing it. When he wins it will forever change the game and expectations for every black person and all generations afterwards. However, if he gets in office and falls flat on is face, I will be the first person in line to get him out of there and build up the next brother who can do things the right way. I’m never going to sacrifice the whole community for the sake of one person no matter what he did in the past. You have to do it that way because if you don’t then you can’t say anything when you don’t get what you need.
Now, if anyone has read this and doesn’t agree, please send me an email and I will tell you where to pick me up so you can drive me to the black neighborhood in Congressman Jefferson’s district that is thriving and doing so well that I have to post a public apology. I know one thing; we won’t be driving anywhere close to my house. We don’t have an open hospital.
I brought some work home tonight and I had all intentions on doing it. On the way home I came to the realization that I was becoming the happy go lucky push over in the office that everybody tries to mess over. I have always hated that guy and now I am him. Needless to say no work got done. I chose to drink a few cocktails and watch the debate.
I have never watched a vice-presidential debate before because in the scheme of things they never really matter. Sarah Palin has drawn me into this one because I have to see how she does. I can’t think of another person with this much pressure on them for one event. For the media coverage she got the last two weeks, I think she is doing a respectable job. I expected her to start crying by now. You can’t expect her to know as many details as Joe Biden. He was in Washington before I was born.
We just passed a 700 billion dollar bailout and no one got fired or forced to resign. No one is allowed to talk about poor people getting over on the government for at least five years.
If Katie Couric was black and did to Barak Obama’s reputation what she did to Sarah Palin’s she would have had to move to an undisclosed location and change her name.
I would like to officially endorse the city charter change in the election this weekend concerning the Inspector General’s office. We need that kind of thing even though many influential people will be pissed off early in the process.
Kids can’t buy liquor and they can’t buy cigarettes. That’s a good thing. I drive to the city everyday in the morning and afternoon. If a 13 year old girl can wear a school uniform that is so tight and so small you can see every curve of her body and her belly button ring, you might as well let her get a pack of Newport’s and a fifth of Crown Royal because there can’t be nothing more dangerous to her health than aroused teenage boys with no self control.
I want to go to some high school football games but my ear to the street is not what it used to be. I am certain there is no one looking to do me anything but what if I make a mistake and sit down next to the new downtown kingpin?
I would never tell anyone who to vote for because everyone has to vote on their own beliefs and circumstances. However, this candidate has a link to my blog on her page. That means she has to be brilliant right? If I was in her district she would get strong consideration from me.
This clip is an excellent way to get through a rough work day with some extra energy.
Sometimes you write these blogs and you are never really sure if someone is actually reading besides your friends. Apparently some people do. I received this email after Mr. LaBruzzo’s statements. I promised to post this story but I got sidetracked and forgot. I can't put anything else up here until I do this first. My apologies to Ms. Langdale not doing this when I first said I would.
Hi Cliff –
With all of the buzz about LaBruzzo's possible bill proposal going around, it's hard to remember the people that are facing Louisiana's problems head on and actually doing something to help build a new and better New Orleans, instead of just making the it infertile. Being a New Orleanian, I thought you might be interested in a local girl that is now receiving national recognition for the work she's done to rebuild the city - Sarah Trahan.
For the last 3 years, Sarah dedicated herself to rebuilding her home city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. With the help of her parents, she turned her local church into a relief organization for those who had lost their homes as a result of the hurricane. As a relief worker, Sarah realized that many of the local children affected by the Hurricane were receiving little to no therapy for the life-changing events that they had seen unfold. It was at this point that Sarah realized her true passion, leading her to enroll in the College of Psychology at McNeeseUniversity. Sarah didn’t just survive the disaster and help with the recovery – she allowed the unfortunate circumstance to change and shape her life for the better. She is truly remarkable.
In honor of her efforts to fight for a just cause, Ortho Women’s Health & Urology recently named Sarah Trahan the September “It Girl” – an award for winning their It Girl Essentials contest. The contest sought to identify the ultimate real-life “It Girls” who embody confidence, reliability, compassion and a little bit of flair. I’ve provided some key information about the contest below.
If Sarah’s story and recent award is of interest to you and your readers, please feel free to contact me. I am happy to provide photos and more detailed information for you to share with readers on Cliff's Crib.
Sincerely, Sarah
Fleishman-Hillard, on behalf of 2008 Ortho Women’s Health & Urology
Sarah Trahan
Age: 22
City: Lake Charles, LA
A day in the life of Sarah ... After her hometown was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina during her freshman year of college,Sarah dedicated herself to rebuilding the metro New Orleans area. A few weeks later, her boyfriend’s hometown was destroyed by Hurricane Rita. With the help of her parents, Sarah worked to turn their local church into a relief organization for those who had lost their homes as a result of the hurricane. Sarah did her part as a relief worker and noticed an alarming trend among children in the metro New Orleans area: many were receiving little to no therapy for the life-changing events that they had seen unfold. It was at this point that Sarah realized her true passion, leading her to enroll in the College of Psychology at McNeeseUniversity.
What is important to Sarah? “My greatest desire is to see that children from impoverished families are able to receive mental health care at little to no cost. Coming from a family with five siblings, I know how much having someone to talk to helps.” After getting married in the Summer of 2007, Sarah also has a new priority in her life, her husband Josh: “With life taking yet another turn, this time for the better, we began to plan for our new life together. We discussed our plans for a family and took into consideration that I still had three years ahead of me in school, and decided that prescription birth control would be a responsible way to plan our family.”
What does Sarah consider her greatest accomplishment? Sarah has always loved the arts and is very proud to be a graduate of NOCCA (New OrleansCenter for the Creative Arts). Her favorite hobby is painting, particularly images of the people of her beloved city of New Orleans.
Today Congress chose not to vote for the 700 billion dollar banking bail out. It’s a tense day for America, especially for those who have large investments or work for some of these troubled companies. I know the government has to do something because we can’t risk having total financial collapse. I guess we don't have a choice. Since tax dollars are going into whatever plan eventually gets passed I have two requests.
The first request is that any company who chooses to let the tax payers bail out their country should have to make every decision maker in the company step down. Why should everyone sacrifice money for the failings of a bunch of rich cats and they get to keep the same prestigious position. Not only should they have to step down, for the next five years they shouldn’t have access to any of their money and be forced to work a retail job or on a construction site putting up with foolishness for not enough money like most Americans have to do. Let them see what it’s like to have to take out a pay day loan that takes five pay days to pay back. That rule will change business practices in America for sure.
The next request is this. I have discussed this with all of my friends. It occurred to us that even though we are all working men and have been our whole adult lives, we can barely get a bank to call us back to let us know we are denied a loan let alone give us any money. I have had a full time job since I was a teenager and been with the same bank the whole time. If I apply for a loan they won’t even call me back. I have to chase them down like a jilted lover just to be told no.
I think it’s fair to ask that whatever dollar amount is settled on for the bail out, the percentage of that comprising people like me be taken out of the figure. If the amount ends up being 700 billion subtract my portion and make it $699,999,999,025(Wow, those numbers look serious when you write it out). I take no responsibility for this crisis. The only thing I did wrong was not closing my account and putting all my money in my local credit union. I guess the fact I am still a banking customer makes me a little responsible too. Go ahead and add five dollars of my portion back. I have to do what I can to make sure everyone but me and my friends have the opportunity to keep getting further into debt with high interest rates. The only Banks I am concerned about saving in times of a crisis is Tyra Banks and she doesn't have my phone number.
"Worried that welfare costs are rising as the number of taxpayers declines, state Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, said Tuesday he is studying a plan to pay poor women $1,000 to have their Fallopian tubes tied."
For all the people who sit around wondering how people like William Jefferson and Ray Nagin can win elections and black people vote for them even after they do crazy things. It’s because of the fear that someone the likes of State. Rep Labruzzo will be in office and suggest crazy things like this. All this time I thought racism, class warfare, a jacked up education system and corporate greed were to blame for the rising amounts of people in need and it turns out all they need to do is stop having sex while successful people have more. Can you imagine the state sending this guy to a global company to convince them to do business?
“You’re that guy that wanted to sterilize poor people! Our employees would love moving to that area to live. I just hope we never have a layoff.”
Here is the question and I think it’s a fair one since our local newspaper saw fit to put this on the front page of the morning news. With all the economic trouble going on in the country right now, if all these smart and successful people he wants to encourage to have more kids lose their jobs and their money when things go wrong, do we get to take their kids away and put them to sleep? That sounds fair to me.
I didn't realize smart and successful people weren't making enough babies. It must be all the reading and figuring out how to destroy the economy by running companies into the ground. Since I want to do my part to fill the world with as many elitists as possible, the song below is to loosen you guys up so you can start getting it on like Representative Labruzzo wants you to.
And we wonder why people don't take our part of America seriously........
How you like me now? I go blaow
It's that shit that moves crowds makin every ghetto foul
I might have took your first child
Scarred your life, crippled your style
I gave you power
I made you buck wild
Nas - I Gave You Power
I didn't really want to post this. You know, my people have a problem. I know this is the time of our historic moment and we have all agreed to not discuss anything but the greatness of our candidate but sometimes you have to put yourself back into reality. My friend left work today to attend the funeral of a five year old baby who shot himself while his family was moving. His mother was a friend of her family. Yesterday I watched the news when I got home and saw the story about this 17 year old baby who got killed sitting in her car talking to her friend. I’m not one of these cats who come up with reasons about things happening because they heard it in Sociology class. I’m from the avenue and I seen this first hand. We can’t live in a fantasy land and pretend things are ok. Guns mixed with ignorance are destroying the black community.
I am a proud black man and would not want to be anything else. I love my people including the thugs. However, if there is one thing about my people that I would change it’s our tendency to take bad habits and destructive trends and slowly work them into the everyday routine for how we live. We have a bad habit of incorporating destructive behavior into our culture. It’s like when crack first hit the streets and broke us down so bad that women who used to be friends with my mama were turning tricks with my friends. As horrible as that sounds, eventually the crack head became our comic relief and it was cool as long as they kept working to pay for their own rocks. Now the using and selling is a regular thing and we deal with the collateral damage of that.
The other ingredient to this mixture is our tendency to want to do things above and beyond the normal. Sometimes we can take something and blow it out of proportion. We like nice cars but that’s not enough. We have to get rims and sound systems that cost more than the house we live in. What did we expect when having a gun became a vogue thing for everybody to do? Did you we think people would go and get a revolver and keep in the closet or under the bed in case someone came into the house like our grandfathers used to do? No, people were going to go out and buy the biggest, most menacing piece of human destruction they could afford that day. If you buy something that big and powerful, of course you are not keeping it hidden away in the closet or under the bed. You are going to show it to your friends and walk around with it under your shirt. You are going to pull it out and want to use it for every little thing and it’s going to become part of the normal surroundings in the house so kids are going to think it’s ok to pick them up and hold them “like my daddy do”.Now when disagreements happen where kids used to throw a few punches everybody pulls out a cannon.
Go ahead and send your donations, wear your buttons, your t-shirts and chant “yes we can, yes we can” all you want to. Until we spend that same energy trying to save the lives of babies like Darielle Rainey, the five year old and all these other young people lying in the street, all victories should be bittersweet. What are we changing the world for anyway if these babies won’t be here to benefit?
The New Orleans school system is right in the middle of creating their master plan. We desperately need one for many reasons. In a city that has a public school system in the condition of ours, you would think that a plan like this would go through without a hitch. In an attempt to think more positive I am going to hope that the best plan goes through soon but I see one problem that's not getting enough attention. There hasn’t been enough consideration given to the culture of the native citizens in the city. In recent years many progressive and educated people have moved here with new ideas and opinions on how things should be done. Many times these things have worked in other places without much resistance because most cities are sort of interchangeable with it comes to culture. This is not one of those places.
Two weeks ago I was having a conversation with my brother and he asked me to write a blog about the fact the new high school planned for the Lower Ninth Ward wasn’t going to be named Alfred Lawless High School. He wanted me to tell everyone who reads this page to go do some research on Alfred Lawless and find out who he was and why he had a school named after him in the first place. Walt, when you read this I tried to find a full story on Alfred Lawless but this link about his son Dr. Theodore Lawless was the best I could come up with online. Wikipedia hasn’t gotten around to pages on local black leaders yet this tells the basic story. By the way, I don’t think it’s an unfair request that anyone involved in the planning process know the history of the schools and whom the schools were named after when making decisions.
One of the most popular things out there now is these new high school alumni social networking websites. Every local high school has one and the membership is high. On the site for my alma matter Clark, there are people on there from classes in the 50’s. I can’t say for certain this isn’t true anywhere else but I know it’s true here. Where you went to school in New Orleans is your pedigree. It’s one of the ways we identify ourselves. It’s just as important as what ward you grew up in. Anyone making plans for a new school system should expect the same resistance as another group would get trying not to rebuild a certain part of the city. They will be met with resistance. The concerned Pythians of Lawless are not the only group that is a little angry. I know hundreds of John F. Kennedy graduates seething and looking for a way to get back at whoever decided not to reopen their school. I mess with them everyday about it but I know it bothers them.
I have a solution for this because we don’t have time to sit around fighting for years about this. We have to move forward and it should be all about the kids. We needs to change the name to every school from top to bottom. I am sorry Walt. I know that's not what you were trying to get me to do but I hope I got your point across. Name the new ones by streets or location or something but change them all. Whatever plan you come up with will go over smoother this way. If you are thinking to yourself that doing this will just make everyone angry then you are right. It will in the short term. In the long term as the new schools open and everyone sees how nice they are that will go away. What’s not going to go away is if my school becomes an elementary school and all of our rival schools are still open. That may sound petty but I am four generations deep in this city and I know what I am talking about. You have to take personal affiliation out of the equation because it breeds resistance to change and resistance to change leads to a lack of progress. It appears to me that when people start making plans in this city they want some of us to say goodbye to everything while other people don't have to give up any part of their existence here. Someone has to bridge the gap between the mind state that says things are moving forward and the one that thinks traditions are being taken away. I’m somewhere on the fence.
I know it’s only week three so I am not panicking, There is 13 games left and you could easily win ten in a row and have the best record in the league. However, I have to say that watching you guys give away winnable games is messing with the start of my week so I need to say something. I want to help you out by sharing a phrase that one of my brothers from another mother Trevor likes to use whenever someone is over thinking and trying to do things that they don’t really have the means to do. It has become a part of our regular vocabulary.
“Dance with the girl you brought to the prom”
See, sometimes you have to take an assessment of what you are working with. I was a pretty good basketball player growing up because I was smart enough to know that a 5’6 dude with big legs wasn’t going to play in the paint like Shaq. I focused on the things I could do and did them well. Now, let’s look at your team.
You have a defense (except for Mike McKenzie and Jonathan Vilma) that plays like a Westbank levee. They can go at any minute when pressured. You have one player (#42) that is so terrible the minute he hit’s the field offenses change their game plan just to throw at him. You have one running back (#23) that plays hard and tries hard but just doesn’t have the extra skills to make up for your soft offensive line. The one back who maybe could get a few yards on his own merits has a mysterious illness that requires his uniform doesn’t get dirty in the second half. This is the theory I have developed to explain why Deuce isn’t playing on these do or die plays. Your kicker is a psycho who might cry for the rest of the week and never make another kick this year after missing that last field goal today. That leaves you with two solid dependable things, Drew Brees and the passing game plus the world class skills of Reggie Bush. Stop taking the ball out of both of their hands when the game is on the line. Until you realize you have a team built for passing the ball all the time and not playing smash mouth football, we will continue to live up to the name Saints and hand out charity wins every week.
Dance with the girl you brought to the prom and let Drew Brees throw the ball to win.
Sometimes after a storm it takes awhile to take a proper assessment on just how much it screwed you. For the most part we dodged a bullet with Gustav and Ike but when the scores are calculated I still got whipped. Since my week long exile two weeks ago I have a leak in a pipe running through my driveway, my ice maker isn’t making ice and my Direct TV boxes keep losing the signal and cutting into the football games. When you add up the potential repair bills plus my high cell phone bill because when you are evacuated that’s all you have, the score is now Hurricane season 10 - Cliff 0. The score will only get worse tomorrow when I am soaked in mud trying to stop this deluge in my driveway.
How is it possible that after decades in the Senate and being successful enough to own 7 houses that John McCain can’t speak clearly on the economy? Here it is you have Sarah Palin practically delivering the white working and middle class voters to him on a silver platter and he’s trying his best to give them right back to the undecided column. If I wasn’t a black man from New Orleans who was raised in an environment of racial division I might think this was being rigged for Obama. Since I a black man from New Orleans raised in an environment of racial division I think it may be a set up just to disappoint us extra.
Are there really Americans who are that wishy washy that one bad sound bite or commercial can change national polls in a matter of hours? Chuck Todd on NBC is becoming a celebrity from showing that map everyday of the polling numbers in the battleground states. Everyday the numbers are different. Who are they calling? I refuse to believe that more than 10% of Americans don’t already know who they are voting for. They could have the election tomorrow and the results would be the same as November.
Brothers, I understand your plight and I know it’s not all your fault that so many of you don’t have a job. I would just like to ask that when I am out working during the day I don’t see you all sitting around looking happy about the fact you don’t have a damn thing to do. This pisses working folks off. Please stay inside until after rush hour please. If you are going to be outside do me a favor and at least look angry and frustrated. I need that to help defend you to people in the suburbs.
As a man with a degree and a career in technology, how bad should I feel about the fact that I can’t get my Treo 700 to do anything but ring and dial? Me and my boss have the same phone and he can practically stay home and work from his. I can barely get mine to synchronize. I’m too embarrassed to admit that I can’t get mine to work so when he grabs his and asks me about something I just start clicking on things like I am actually doing something. The only thing that makes me feel more remedial than my phone is soduko. Soduko is the dumbest game ever because I can’t solve a puzzle to save my life.
Keith Olberman is the liberal version of Bill O’Reilly and if you love him just because he makes you feel good by saying everything exactly the way you want to hear it that makes you a hypocrite. He is way too obvious to host any election coverage.
I was going to give my thoughts on the city’s “master plan” it’s own post but I changed my mind because the question is simple. Shouldn’t anyone involved in city government before Katrina already have had a plan somewhere in a file cabinet or locked away in a safe? Even if the plans sucked they should have had some to present. It’s not like New Orleans was this paradise prior to August 2005. If anyone ran for office since the storm, shouldn't they have had some plans already too? Don’t you think there should have been this press conference sometime in late 2005 or early 2006 where council members or the mayor said something like
“I have been working on this plans for the last few years but never thought we would have the money or opportunity to do this. Even though the storm was tragic, we could now make this happen.”
Usually when I make a statement like this someone sends me a comment with a link to a story where this actually happened. If this happened I never knew anything about it.
Finally, I would like to wish my parents Bernadine and Clifton a happy 39th wedding anniversary. Your love has to be strong to survive the first five years of marriage without me. If anybody who has ever met me thinks I have any decent qualities it’s all because of you. I hope you have a great weekend and 50 more years together. This song is for you.
I have a message for the citizens of Louisiana who received disaster food stamps.
I know you didn’t have anything to do with determining who received benefits. I know some of you stood outside in line for hours just to fill out the application. I know the entire process has not gone the way it was supposed to.
However, do not spend the extra amount of stamps you got in error. I know you didn’t do anything to put this extra amount on your card. Even if a few people knew how to hack the computer I am sure it wouldn’t 22,000 of you. You can’t use those stamps because people in Louisiana are silly and love to blame other victims for their situation instead of who really did it. This kind of thinking fuels our lack of progress. Nothing adds extra fuel to this like a story about Laquita in the Iberville Housing Project who bought 1400.00 worth of groceries when she only was approved for 700.00. People around the state love to read stuff like this because it helps them feel good about their stereotypes.
With the price of food the temptation to run out and grab an extra month of groceries is tempting especially since the stamps just appeared one day without you trying to get over. Some people might consider that a blessing instead of getting over. It may not be worth it after seeing your name in the newspaper in a story about people who “beat the system”. If you realize that you received double, just call the number and give it back to them.
