My Weekend Vibe...Doing What You Have To Do

My brother cut off his dreadlocks last week. He did it in order to have a better chance at finding a job. That was a big deal for that cat because he absolutely loved his hair. He’s probably been cussing since he did it. I have to admit they did look pretty good the last time I seen him. He almost made me want to get some. The thing about the world we live in is that I am at a place where I probably could have kept mine. I am in a little better position. He’s trying to get into the door and unfortunately as black men we get judged on things like that especially without the official credentials that can override appearance. It’s probably worse for him now because he’s living in another city and there is not the same amount of people that know him personally like here in New Orleans. In New Orleans he knows about 50,000 people from all walks of life on a first name basis and I am not exaggerating. That’s a gift he has that I don’t. Me and my brother have had heated discussions about things like haircuts and dress clothes. I want him to know that I never promoted changing his look because I didn’t like his hair or the way he looks in it. It’s just sometimes when you have to move forward in life concessions are necessary. My brother gave up his locks. Now I hope he’s rewarded with enough opportunity to make so much progress he can grow them back and not have to worry about it. You know what, when that day gets here I will grow some with him. I dedicate this song to my brother and guys like him who decided to do what they have to do for progress even though they hated doing it. Keep grinding brothers and things are going to work out just fine.



Indie Arie - I am not my hair - Indie Arie featuring Akon

What Happens After Everyone is Corrupt?

I think Big Man might have said what I am about to in far less words. Since I read his before posting mine I will give him his props. Reading what he said made me feel even better about what I am about to say..

Last night I went to a meeting of black men organized by the Yes We Care group about the rising violence in the city. I wanted to hear what the brothers had to say and show my support. I actually went ahead and signed up to volunteer at one of the local mentoring programs. I figured I could fit in some time around my own personal responsibilities. I will talk more about this later. This was a very positive event but it barely made the news because everyone seems to be overly obsessed about our city council members’ emails.

I believe in being consistent in your beliefs and that they shouldn’t change based on who is involved. When the paranoia was about the mayor’s email and his schedule my opinion was that if we were going to spend all that time and energy trying to prove he has done something wrong then it should lead to some kind of change in leadership or procedure that benefits everybody. Turning the mayor into a criminal mastermind does nothing for me as a citizen if everything is going to continue running the same way it always does. I feel the exact same way about these emails. If we are going to go through all of this time and money to expose all of this information then it better lead to something. If it doesn’t lead to anything concrete and ends in just ruined reputations then who wins? I can tell you who doesn’t win. Hard working people don’t win because every day we sit around stressing over foolishness is another day without plans for new health care facilities or youth programs and things like that. I’m sure those things are being worked on somewhere by people behind the scenes but we have created an environment where most of the public assumes nothing is going on or going right because this group is plotting against this group and the other group is out to get the first group. It was just a few weeks ago that we found out FEMA was sitting downtown playing with our money and a national news show had to tell us about it. How crazy is that?

Let’s take our current mayor and council members out of the equation for a minute. We are having elections next year. What person can run for office and win without being investigated the first week of their term because of the vibe we have set forward now? We all know that this is an intimate city and that most people are connected in some way. If you are a person with enough support or money to run for office then it’s almost a certainty you know someone in the same groups of people involved in all the bickering. After the last few years of fighting is everyone going to hit the reset button and hold hands to sing because there are different people in the positions? Are all the people leaving hurtful comments on websites and making angry phone calls to radio stations going to cease immediately when the individuals they have all singled out as the problem are gone from the scene? My prediction is we won’t be able to. We probably won’t be able to make it through the first two weeks of campaigning without the he said/ she said starting again. The mayor and council will be getting investigated the day after being sworn in. It’s the same basic principle when I am talking about the violence on the streets. We now have a culture of wanting to incriminate everyone over working together towards a better city.

Who in their right mind would even want to be a political leader in this city right now? Can we name more than one or two people we may think are untarnished enough to lead us? Someone is going to have to come in from out of town because there isn’t anyone here right now with a good reputation across the board. I know I am right because if we put a positive article about anyone there’s going to be a commenter making an accusation or posting a link to some story implicating them in some scheme. It happens all the time on our local newspapers website. We have so many investigative reports on the news that regular citizens are speeding through school zones while working their cell phone cameras just to get a shot of a city vehicle’s license plate. We also have an entire group of amateur investigators that just search through everything looking for the big conspiracy. I never really hear most of these folks have any concrete ideas about what we could be doing differently. They just know they don’t like the people currently in office so anything else that gets destroyed in the way was justified. When it comes to leadership in this city my morale keeps getting lower. It’s a good thing I know enough people living here that give me enough hope to balance the negative. I am not sure we have a person with enough the personality to rally everyone together in the right spirit. I think we had one but he is in prison now for having some proven bad judgment. Things are not looking good from my perspective.

I know what some people are going to say when they read this. They are going to let me know that we need transparency, and corruption hurts us all. They will mention Nagin’s trips and the crime camera debacle and Stacy Head’s emails. All of those things did happen and should be looked into but look around this city. Most of these problems were here long before either one of them got in office. Do I think we should ignore any wrong doing? I don’t think that at all. I’m saying that if all we get from turning over all these stones is bad feelings and new faces in office we will have the same problems because there will be no policy changes to benefit the public. Isn’t that what all of this is supposed to be for? Why does it seem that we never talk about any of that very much? Sooner or later we have to move on to other things. What is the plan for the future of the city when there is nothing left to investigate?

Sitting on My Porch Part Twenty Six.......Nothing Serious

This blog has gotten way too serious. People are going to think I am an angry man. You can't live being angry. I am not angry at all. I may be a little delirious and confused by the actions of other people but I can live with those issues.

How does Mark Cuban own an NBA team and not know its never a good idea to shout a big black dude's mama especially one with a big tattoo of red lips on his neck. You want to keep that guy peaceful as possible. Speaking of people with neck tattoos...

Do people with tattoos on their neck wear sweaters to job interviews when it gets hot outside? Unless you are already rich, a musician, in the NBA or a tattoo artist yourself, that might not be the best place for ink.

Is it just me or are those Quiznos Torpedo commercials very disturbing?

The coolest man I ever met was a 4’10 cat with a perm from the 7^th Ward affectionately called Warm Daddy.

Why would the most interesting man in the world drink Dos Equis beer?

Take it from a person with a extensive background of hooptie experience,…..people with cars that can’t go over 40 miles per hour should not get on the interstate. Get a map and study the street routes please.

How may football fans are hoping Brett Favre breaks his shoulder while doing yard work so he can retire for real and stop hijacking the off season with his fake retirements?

Why hasn't Billy Mays done a commercial for whatever product he uses to dye his beard? This is a slam dunk promotion if I ever saw one.

If you are on a helpdesk call at work and the user on the end of the phone shouts "Lord Jesus!!" when you asked them to click on something, that is a good indication that it's going to be a long phone session. Tech support people understand what I'm saying.

Our ex Technology Director in New Orleans spent over 1200 dollars at a New Orleans East strip club. How many lap dances is that? There truly is class division in the city because less than a block away is another club where you couldn’t spend 1200 dollars in one night if you tried. Not only do they not take credit cards, there isn’t even an ATM inside. Of course this is what I heard from other people. I’ve never been in there myself of course.

Why don’t hip hop DJ’s scratch anymore?

If you roll over in the morning and it feels like there are three people lying on your back, it’s time to hit the gym again. I’m not back to three people yet. Right now it’s more like one adult and a small child.

One of my major pet peeves now is people who misspell words on their online profiles and leave it that way. Are you “thinkful for all of your bleasings" or "thankful for all of your blessings". These people usually have 200 friends and no one cares enough to send them a message to fix it.

Textfromlastnight.com is a funny website to read unless you see one of your messages on there.

The Knux along with Jay Electronica will be the next big thing to come from New Orleans as long as they don’t sign with Diddy.

A hot ass BBQ pit + a very hot day + two cocktails = A cure for insomnia.

Don't you hate it when someone does something nice for you that appears to be a favor but they keep reminding you about returning the favor so you end up feeling like a freeloader and wish you never accepted the offer in the first place? "Don't forget now...friends take care of one another."

It’s the hot season down here in the south. It’s time for the greatest fashion statement of them all…………I dedicate this song to the sundress.

The T-Shirt or The Second Line

A 13 year old kid was murdered yesterday after an argument with a 14 year old over marijuana. Add that to the killing of an elderly couple on Mother’s Day and this week joins the competition for the most depressing of the year. All these stories stem from the same culture of violence that I have been talking about. Let’s take the 13 year old kid for instance. There is nothing positive about this but I bet you somewhere right now his friends and people he know are planning a second line or ordering t-shirts in his honor. You know those t-shirts with the pictures and some inspirational saying about death. Those are the ones I refuse to buy or wear. There’s always the t-shirt or the parade. I realize in this city we have a tradition of celebrating life and death in a joyous way. I love second line funerals and when I am about 90 years old and finally leave this place I want people to second line to my life too. When a kid gets killed in the street for nothing we shouldn’t be dancing at all. All we should do is take up a collection for their parents to give them a proper service, support them, pray, and figure out ways to stop the next one from getting killed. His funeral should be a sad and miserable day. The mayor should close City Hall while it is happening and everyone should wear black. Maybe one of these times with the family’s permission we can leave the casket of one of these kids open like Emmett Till and make as many young people as possible walk through there to view the body. We should make them come through with their parents. Some of these men who don’t know where their kids are should walk through as well. We have to do something to make everybody understand the urgency in changing this mind state.

I will be 35 in a month. In my generation everybody knows a few people that are not here anymore for unnecessary reasons. If I am in my 30's and had friends murdered in their teens and teenagers are still being killed now, that means we are dealing with over 20 years of the same drama. The only way something like this goes on for as long as it has is we have let it become acceptable. People are getting tired and worn down. Before we all take to the streets the first step is trying to come up with a way to make everyone understand that this kind of violence is a bad thing. If we are really being honest then we must admit that not everyone in our community thinks its wrong and those are the people involved in the violence. I can hear about this and think it is a waste of life and potential. There's some kid somewhere thinking "my boy went out like a soldier". That’s the reason nothing we have tried to stop it has worked so far. We have to kill that culture to end the violence. I don’t know how you kill it but I know it has to die. I mean no disrespect to the young brother’s life or his family. Pretty soon one of these incidents has to be the last straw for everybody.

When they were deciding to make all these official holidays on a Sunday, why didn't anyone take the time to make sure everyone is off the next day? I have too much work to do this morning to type more than this. So I am going to take the lazy blogger approach and highlight another person's work. This video is cool.

Weekend Vibe.....It's Mama's Day

Concerns About Treme

I’m very concerned about HBO’s decision to pick up the series Treme based here in New Orleans. I am not totally certain this show is a good idea. The fact it’s on HBO doesn’t concern me. I like the fact it’s airing on HBO. I love almost every show HBO does. They are always very detailed and compelling. They were the ones that aired When the Levees Broke and let the people tell the real story of Katrina. I like the fact that David Simon is involved. He managed to deliver a top five show of all time in The Wire that told a harsh reality about some things in Baltimore without totally destroying the city’s image. It takes someone truly gifted with the right intentions to pull that off. That brings me to my worry. I am sure Mr. Simon and HBO have the right intentions. I’m just not sure America can judge our city fairly enough for this show to be as realistic as I think it’s going to be.

I may be overly sensitive about people’s opinion about my city but it seems like no matter what happens and what we do, there’s too many people who think we are the bottom of the barrel. There was a Time magazine article titled "Is Baghdad safer than New Orleans." Now that’s something considering I read a story on Forbes that said we are the 11^th most dangerous city. I’m not saying New Orleans is the safest place in the country but if statistically we are only 11^th, why wasn’t the title of that article “Is Baghdad safer than Orlando?” or “Is Baghdad safer than Stockton, CA”. Both of those cities were ranked higher than us on this list but we get the Baghdad comparison. Why would this reporter pick us as the reference? He did because it’s easy. He did it because people will understand our city as a reference for violence and mayhem despite the fact that statistics show there is ten cities more dangerous. It’s like we can’t play enough music, kiss up to enough tourists or tell enough stories about our never say die spirit towards saving our city for people to think we are anything but a bunch of brass instrument playing thugs. That’s my concern about this show. People watch Big Love every week but I don’t think they assume everyone in Utah has a few wives. People watched The Wire but I don’t think they assumed that everybody in Baltimore sold drugs. I loved the Sopranos but I don’t think every Italian in New Jersey is in the mob. I am not sure after the first scene of Treme showing someone being shot on St. Phillips St. it won’t cut the tourism industry by twenty percent because of fear. Since no one has ever figured out a way to generate the same amount of money in another area if that happens we are going to suffer.

If it is done right America will be treated to an inside look at one of the most unique cultures in America. I just hope that there aren’t too many Americans that think the acts of violence that may pop up in the show doesn’t happen to everyone and is not committed by everyone that lives here. Maybe David Simon can put a disclaimer at the beginning of every episode that says something like. “This is a story about a unique city in our country. Please think openly and not sit there waiting for the one negative thing you see to validate your unfounded views about these people.” That probably wouldn’t work but it would make me feel better about the angry emails I am sending to any reporter or critic who uses the show to make sweeping accusations about where I come from. This show will be awesome to watch as long as it doesn’t turn into a sweeping indictment.

The Mayor Needs To Own This One

There haven't been many people in the New Orleans blogging community that have defended Ray Nagin. I don't think I have defended the mayor as much as I have tried to stress the need for concrete evidence before putting any criminal labels on him. That's a general principle I have. There are some people in the community that go far beyond what I have said and fiercely defend the mayor and any attacks against him as a racist conspiracy to take down black politicians. I have never came around to that conclusion but there have been some over the line things said and done to get them in that frame of mind. It is those things the mayor has played to.

Well now it's time for the mayor to do the right thing by the people who have been trying to support him through all this turmoil and come clean on his vacations. This morning in the paper he claims that the vacation his family took in November of 2005 is a blur. Mayor Nagin, please don't do this and make your supporters look foolish. I'm not going to be long winded about this. I would just like to say that in 1991 on the last day before Christmas vacation me and my high school classmates exchanged gifts. My friends Kendra and Nicole bought me a Georgetown hooded sweatshirt with a hat to match. It came in a white box and both of them gave me a card with kind words that I still had up until the flood. My point is that if I can remember getting a sweatshirt and hat back in 1991 despite all the things that have happened to me, there is no way you don't remember the details of someone paying for your entire family to go to Jamaica. I realize it was after the storm and you were dealing with a lot of serious things. Most people who survived the storm can tell you every little town, person, and conversation they had before they got back to the city. I am certain if a friend of mine would have took me to Jamaica to get away I could tell you everything about that trip. Saying you don't remember just sounds ridiculous to anyone with common sense. Even if you have decided to go with the 'I can't recall' strategy, at least do the city a favor and acknowledge that this all seems questionable. That way we won't have to waste all the time, energy and hurt feelings arguing about a vacation you obviously went on because your family's names are on the credit card statements. If a story comes out and there is no proof I will be the first one to say back off the brother if you don't have evidence. When the evidence is obvious then you need to take responsibility and admit you made and error in judgement so we can move on. You need to speak up on this one.

Things Will Be Alright If We Let Them Be

I was just sitting here trying to figure out why my generation appears to be the unhappiest group of people despite the access to more education and opportunity than any other generation before us. Out of all the people I know personally in my age group, I can’t think of too many that are just generally happy people. Most of us are stressed to the edge and we can’t even explain why if you ask us. I know some folks with money. I know some people without money. I know some educated people. I also know some that are not so book smart. The one thing we have in common is the effort we put into never being satisfied. I don’t think we know how to be satisfied anyway. It’s because our parent’s generation failed too many of us and we don’t have enough basic foundation for understanding what fulfills us in life. Much or our value and fulfillment is based on material things. Since material things are built on marketing and promotion you are going to always feel like there is something better than the things you have right now. There are people who are happy and content with the things in their life but people look at them like they are crazy. Everyone wants to know “What’s wrong with that cat?” and “Why is he so happy driving that old ass car?” “Doesn’t he want anything out of life better than that hooptie?”

Maybe he and his family drive around in that hooptie everyday but their kids are all on the honor roll and they eat big home cooked meals every night. Maybe they have so much fun at home with one another they don’t care what kind of car it is as long as it gets them home. We should all be jealous of that guy. Instead we keep over extending our credit and ruining our savings trying to show the world we are doing big things only to come home and feel like the walls are closing in. That’s why we drink all of that liquor and smoke so much weed. That’s why we can’t sleep at night. That’s why our women question the man they chose to be with and the men question them too. That’s why false prophets find easy pickings among us because they know deep down we feel something is missing so they give us a safer vice to lean on than the booze and the drugs. We are all trying to lessen the impact when the reality hits that we were approaching things all wrong. We want to stop these brothers and sisters from being violent and not embracing life but we have the same problem. The only difference is that they chose to cross the line and risk their lives in the streets. The rest of us have chosen the slower path. I think that’s why we coexist with them the way we do. They might be tuning us out because they already know the truth what we refuse to admit.

This post may not be making any sense. I probably shouldn’t hit the publish button. I just want people to take a few moments every now and then to embrace the good things in their life and the good people in it. There’s too much self misery and all its doing is weighing everything down. We can’t fix the community if there are too many of us feeling broken. If I am not broken then no one should be. We should all do like the Harris family from St. Claude St. Call in sick, buy some chicken and beer. Hit the road, head to your favorite fishing hole, drink laugh and have a good time until it gets dark and the bugs start biting. If fishing isn’t your cup of tea then play this song and dance with someone in your living room.

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Be Alright (LP Version) - Zapp

Why Jim Letten Should Stay

Some people are a little upset with Senator Mary Landrieu’s decision to recommend that President Obama let Jim Letten remain in his post as our U.S Attorney. They say he practices selective prosecution and site the fact he didn’t go after Senator Vitter as proof. Maybe he does target certain people and gives others a break. I can’t argue against that. If it’s true then I guess we need to have another attorney. I guess seeing some new attorney go after Republicans for indictment will make some people feel better. I won’t be one of those people because if that happens it will only take the focus off the real issue. The real issue as far as I am concern is why are there so many black politicians that represent the most vulnerable people in this area getting indicted in the first place? How many people Jim Letten indicted have screamed racism because they were innocent? Let me know when he sets someone up.

The best and brightest of our local leadership Oliver Thomas admitted to guilt and he is serving time in prison right now. One of our former school board presidents wore a wire to help catch the brother of our former congressman as a way to escape prison herself. (As far as I am concerned anyone stealing from the kids should automatically receive at least five years in prison but that’s just me and my 20 year old books in 7th grade talking.) I have mentioned on this page before during some of the Ray Nagin hysteria that I would not convict a black person without evidence and proof that he or she is a criminal. That is not the same as excusing people who have chosen to do the wrong things for their own benefit instead of what was right for the people. I don’t care what you do to them. As far as I am concerned they haven’t gotten enough jail time. Maybe if they did it would stop happening. You simply can’t have this kind of thing especially in a city where the effects of things not being done the right way can be seen so vividly. If my neighborhood looked like some of the ones David Vitter represented then maybe I could spend more time worrying about why Jim Letten chose not to prosecute him. As it stands now, I’m worried about a hospital being open and wondering why there is not an elementary school within walking distance of my home.

I don’t live in a nice subdivision with all the high class politically connected business people and preachers that would like to see Jim Letten gone so they can get their hustle on. I live down here with struggling folks who suffer because of the hustle. Even if the people choose not to acknowledge what happen you can’t ignore the evidence. Corrupt politicians are worse than street thugs because they have been educated and have full understanding of what they are doing. I don’t care if he’s Republican or Democrat or black or white at this point. If it takes Jim Letten to scare people into not stealing or not running for office at all if they have the wrong intentions then so be it. We need leadership and good government in the worst way. All we have to show for that blind and one sided loyalty is regret and wasted opportunity. If Jim Letten needs to be there to make a few people think twice about doing something underhanded then so be it. If we do the right things it doesn’t matter who the U.S. Attorney is.

An Official Sign That It's Hot Outside

The New Orleans summer has officially begun as right now we are in the middle of our first termite attack. This is a good one too. I'm sitting in my room with all the lights off like I forgot to pay the bill. When cars drive through it looks like a big cloud of bugs sitting in the street. They are in your clothes, in your face and if you keep your mouth open too long you might eat one or two. You usually don’t see one this good until Mother’s Day. I always thought the termites had it marked on their calendar because they always come out that Sunday.

The list of things flood water can not get rid of now includes the following

1. Termites
2. A high murder rate
   
3. Pine Trees
4. Second lines
   
5. Cats
6. Squirrels
7. Civic Pride
8. Crazy People
9. Our natural style and swagger
   
10. Politicians not working together

Everything else is still up in the air.

You have to love a Monday morning when at 8:15 it's damn near pitch black outside and everyone has their headlights on. What better weather to start off the week than thunderstorms. At least the bad weather held off until most of the Jazz Fest was finished although I think some people like sitting out there in that mud and slop.

New Orleans has it's first confirmed case of the piggy flu. It was brought to my attention that my office is in a medical facility. The media has built up this piggy flu even though all the medical experts said it was mild and probably not going to be too bad. Since I have to hear about it every five minutes I figured I should get something out of the deal. That's why if anyone in this building or a patient of any doctor in this building gets it I am not coming back to work until July. I'm just joking. I should be safe as long as I survive the elevator ride to our office door. There is so many bottles of sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, and spray around here that a sneeze will instantly turn into fresh air. All jokes aside, I hope we don't get any more confirmed cases around here. Between the governor and our mayor, we will have to shut the city down.

My Weekend Vibe.....A Song Just to Chill With

If you are lucky in life there will be people that you care about and who care about you. I have an existence full of people like that. Some of them are connected to me by blood. The others are connected by spirit but they are just as close. When you have people close to you it can come with responsibilities. One of my responsibilities is being the person that other folks like to call when there is a problem or crisis going on. They share the good things too but more than likely when the phone rings and certain numbers pop up on the screen I know that something is going on and I may have to do something. I am not complaining. This is something that was passed down from father to son. I take it as a compliment of what kind of person they think I am. The only draw back to it is as time goes on and circumstances change, I find myself consciously never getting too excited or overly happy about anything for more than a few days at a time. The reason I do that is to protect myself from the violent swing of emotion when something happens. It was not too long ago that I found out I was getting a raise at work and a few minutes later someone I care about was calling to inform me that she and her son was about to be homeless. It would have sucked to listen to her sobbing while I responded with glee in my voice because of my good fortune. This is how things happen for me. A similar episode happened yesterday. You have to claim those issues as your own to help people work though them. You also need to deal with the realization that there are so many things beyond your control that you can't help fix.

Next month I will be 35 years old. I am not feeling like an old man. I feel like in these times if you happen to be the kind of person that other people look to for support you will be faced to deal with some serious stuff. It’s causing me to lose the ability to display my boyish charm as much as I used to. It only comes out now when I am listening to music. That’s why I always post songs to my blog like this. Sometimes you just need to rock your head from side to side and chill out. That's why this weekend we are rocking with the Black Sheep.

Sitting On My Porch Part Twenty Five

It’s Thursday night and everyone’s eyes are on the swine flu. I am not ready to put on my mask just yet since there are still no confirmed cases in Louisiana. It’s sure taking a long time to diagnose the potential cases here. My place of employment has a head start on prevention measures. There are at least 57 bottles of hand sanitizer all over the place. We are cleaning up after everything we touch in the office. My only concern so far is that you catch this thing just like the regular flu and there is no vaccination. If you get it you have to ride out the illness just like the regular strain. How come health experts already know about all these different strains of virus and don’t have medicine ready for them?

Our Vice President Joe Biden told people not to fly on commercial planes or use the subway. If you have a job and ride the subway to get to work in this volatile employment climate please remember that there are people who can’t wait for your paranoid ass to not show up to work because of the swine flu so they can run in there with a resume.

I wanted to mention this about Las Vegas earlier this week but I forgot. I wanted to tell them that if people are going to spend all the money to come to your city having 10-20 illegal aliens in 24 Hour Girls t-shirts handing out prostitution advertisements to men including ones with their spouse is not a good look.

Whether you like him or not I don’t think anyone can truly grade President Obama’s first 100 days in office. Things have been just too complicated to know if any of his ideas were good or not. If I have to name something positive I think I will go with Sojourner Truth being honored at the Capitol.

Dick Cheney just can’t let it go. Has a vice president ever done this to the new administration before? I am actually starting to believe that he was running the whole administration behind closed doors. It is really ironic that when the last president was in office no one could question anything without being accused of being unpatriotic and not supporting the troops. The whole torture argument is complicated to me because I know some of these terrorist will just kill us all and be done with it. There is no black and white to the topic. If there is no reason to believe that a threat is imminent then I say there should be no torture but if someone knows that a group has a bomb under a building somewhere in an American city and we need to find out exactly where it is, they can pull his fingers off for all I care. Find the bomb first and we can take care of the person after everybody’s safe. That’s my opinion but it’s not my job to make the decision. It’s not Dick Cheney’s job anymore either and he needs to be quiet.

If anyone knows where I can find the Life Alert commercial with Ted please send me a link. I can’t see this commercial nearly enough times.

Glenn Beck's family should really monitor his health for the next four years. He's not going to survive President Obama's first term going the way he is.

If the state approves this new Saints deal it will change my entire opinion on Tom Benson and his legacy as owner of the Saints. When you follow the NFL closely you realize that even though he says some crazy things, we would have had the San Antonio or the Albuquerque Saints a long time ago. I think I owe him a few apologies. Of course if they start the season off with a few loses it will be all his fault. I can't wait until football season starts especially after what happened this week in basketball.......

I have never been more embarrassed in a sports team wearing my city’s name than I was in the Hornets performance against Denver. Not even the worst Saints lost compared to that. I never saw the Saints lose a game where every single person on the team and the coaching staff all quit at the same time. The entire sports world challenged the fans to see whether or not they could show up and support the team. They did that and that’s how the players paid them back. I don’t know if any of the people on that team are aware of the story of this city. We might be a little dysfunctional but we don’t just take whippings without fighting back. The least someone could have done is getting ejected in one of those last two games. Show us you have some pride.

I have never posted a Keith Olbermann clip on my page before. Sometimes I think he is over the top purposely to piss off Bill O’Reilly. I have to give him some love for his Worst Person in the world last night dedicated to Congresswoman Virginia Foxx of North Carolina. I agree with this opinion 100%.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Killing The Culture Part 2 : The Myth Of The Drug Hero

And all y'all dope-dealers...
Your as bad as the po-lice- cause ya kill us
You got rich when you started slangin' dope
But you ain't built us a supermarket
So when can spend our money with the blacks
Too busy buyin' gold and Cadillacs

Ice Cube - US

When I speak about killing the culture I don’t want anyone to think I am talking strictly about the young kids that are having problems right now. They may be the latest product of the culture but by no means did they start any of this. I think this whole thing started with the assimilation of drug dealing into our community as a respected and acceptable profession. When the crack era started we made too many excuses for people selling this drug. Some of those excuses were not many jobs or opportunities were available so the brothers didn’t have a choice but to sell drugs to try to make a living. That was easy to say and believe during the Ronald Reagan era. We turned the guy who used to be an outcast figure into this anti-establishment hero that was going to beat the system and escape poverty by any means necessary. There has been a lot of money to pass through the inner city from the result of drug sales. I pose the question; what in the hell do we have to show for it? What have we gotten for so much death and destruction?

I was watching this special on the history channel about Jewish gangsters of the past. There was a time when Jewish gangsters were just as bad as the Italian mob. There were people like Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky. At the end of the show one of the historians mentioned that the reason the Jewish mob lost a lot of its power was because while the older guys were running their rackets, their kids were going to top notch schools and most of them ended up having legitimate wealth and success. That leads me to my first question.

Where are the poor little hood children who are now successful people, with world class educations because their dope dealing daddies used that money to better their lives? Why do so many kids still struggle in the same ghettos that their families destroyed in the drug trade? Shouldn’t we have set up enough avenues for some kids to escape with all this money? I am not trying to sound like a hater. I’m just saying that if your dad controlled all the drugs in the Ninth Ward at one time and you can’t read, he and the drug culture failed you. When was the last time you’ve seen a group of kids in the store with their dad buying baskets of food with his drug money? How come so many sisters who had babies for these cats still on food stamps? Where are our stores owned by all these outlaw mavericks who beat the system? What did they do to keep our money in the community and change the circumstances for the next generation?

Forget about the false benefits. What about the price that’s been paid. Have we not lost thousands of dads, moms, daughters, sons, grandmas, grandpas, uncles, aunts, cousins, and close friends all in the name of the game? Didn’t the deadly rules of the drug game lead to even more kids not having their father’s present? I have a play cousin I grew up with that has three kids. All of their dads were murdered before the kids were born.

Is it not true that the crack era damaged the family hierarchy and respect factor so much that it’s been difficult to recover? You can’t fix the problem without being open about what really goes on. It’s hard to maintain the same level of respect for your elders when women who were your mom’s friends when you were a child are trying to turn tricks with you for ten dollars. That might make you uncomfortable but it is real life.

Hasn’t the need to move product forced us to accept a level of demand that meant we never properly dealt with the drug users in our community? That led to the user becoming a character to be laughed at instead of cared for which led to acceptable drug use and disease.

Hasn’t the materialism based on the idea of fast money changed the definition of manhood and masculinity in our community thus putting criminal behavior on par with everyday hard work and in some instances in higher regard? Doesn’t this make it extremely difficult to reach out to these young brothers and tell them what they are doing is wrong when at the same time the hustler gets respect, attention, popularity and female attention? At the same time, hasn’t it changed the way young men view the value of women and altered the respect level they have for the mothers of our children?

When you add it all up the years of the drug game have been a horrible mess yet strangely we still accept it. We only get bent out of shape when the violence escalates but when it calms down and contains itself within the acceptable victims it’s all good. There are a few rare situations where guys have been successful doing it and turned it into a good life but there’s probably entire neighborhoods destroyed because of it. It’s time to admit the Scarface mentally hasn’t done a damn thing for us. Hell, even Tony Montana gets killed at the end of the movie with nothing to show for it. We are glorifying the wrong things. When I was a teenager my child hood best friend’s dad ran his own company. His parents could legitimately go out and buy him anything he wanted. Because of the neighborhood we lived in, people used to assume and ask him if he was a dealer. The bad part is that for popularity purposes this wasn’t a bad thing. This kind of mentality has only gotten worse with time. That's why we have so many studio gangsters.

Happy Birthday Mr. Williams

April 29 is the birthday of my best friend and closest comrade Cedric Williams. I met Ced when I was the 11^th grade and for the first six months of our friendship I don’t think he said five words to me. He would just listen to all my crazy ranting and ideas and laugh. That’s kind of what still happens now. Over the last 19 years I can truly say that there is no one on this earth I trust more than that guy. He’s my brother, my friend, and my advisor. He’s my enabler for all my dumb ideas and then my support system when they don’t work. I consider him to be irreplaceable. Plus, he’s one of the few friends I ever had my parents actually like. I love that dude and anyone who has a problem with him has a problem with me.

One of the strange things about my boy that I can’t really understand is his admiration for Bone Thugs N Harmony. I don’t know why. There is nothing thug about him at all. He can’t rap. He’s not from Cleveland. He goes to the barber every week because he’s too GQ to let his hair grow more than a centimeter. You ever took a road trip with a guy who has the entire Bone Thugs music catalog in the car? It’s not fun. Oh well, it’s his birthday not mine. I would like to dedicate this song to Cedric Williams a.k.a. Ebony Man.

It's a beautiful day in the city......I would like to dedicate this song to my boys at Samuel J. Peters Middle School circa 1987.

An Eleven Year Old Morale Booster

I was going to post my second chapter of killing the culture today but Sheena sent me this story and it boosted my morale for the day. In the constant barrage of stories about young black men laying bloody on the pavement, it feels good to read about a young cat like this stepping up and handling a situation that should be above his capacity at that age. Stories like this make you want to work a little harder because there are probably thousands of other kids just like him that get no recognition or they don't know it yet.

Do We Have to Play One More game?

I would like to apologize to Chauncey Billups, Carmelo Anthony and the rest of the Denver Nuggets. After 30 years of being a New Orleans sports fan I know an ass whipping when I see one. I was trying to be positive even though we have a two man team. I know the series is not over and the Nuggets still have to win another game. I would like to think we are going to win the next three and shock the basketball world.

The only way that happens is if you guys stopped at Emeril's after the game and one of the cooks seasoned the BBQ shrimp with something that made the entire team sick. Other than that happening I see Chris Paul hosting a playoff watching party at his crib a little early this year.

How To Kill The Culture Part 1 : Talking to the Younger Cats

I saw a news story today that Tony Dungy is going to visit Michael Vick in prison. That’s a good thing because even though I think Mike Vick made one of the dumbest choices in history, ruined his chance at making millions and set black quarterbacks back about ten years just to keep it real with his homeboys, he is still in a position to make things right in his life with a second chance. Not many people get a second chance like the one he is going to have so I hope it goes well to set a good example.

Coach Dungy is doing the right thing for Mike Vick by going to talk to him and offer some guidance. That should work out for him provided his ears are opened. Personally speaking I have been blessed to have older men around me that were willing to offer guidance and advice. I’m not just talking about my dad and the men in my family either. I’m talking about men like Mr. C at Clark High School or my first work supervisor Marlon. I’m talking about the older cats like Mr. Henry, Mr. Baptiste, and Mr. St.Cyr or guys like Freddie Blue, Tim, Joe and my by Ron. You can’t put a price on having someone who has been there before willing to pull to the side and give you some heads up on what life is all about. I don’t want to sound like everything went perfectly because of people willing to talk to me. Men are always going to test the waters and try things regardless of what people told them. I tried a few ideas and some didn’t work out. Guidance won’t stop you from making a few mistakes. It will help you bounce back from the ones you do make and keep you from destroying yourself. It’s the support factor. As I get older and things sort themselves out, I realize now that as much as it was their responsibility to reach out to me, I still had to make the choice to listen and try to apply what they told me to my own decisions. It has to be a two way street. There is no choice of words that can circumvent what a person is going to choose to do for themselves.

You don’t have to be a coach or have a ministry like Tony Dungy. You don't have to join any organization to be effective. Not everyone is up to that kind of structure. There are enough kids in your family, around your neighborhood, at your job, or someone you know has a son or a nephew who needs that kind of thing. Real life is a daily grind and you have to be equipped with tools to deal with it. One of those tools is the truth about how things are really supposed to be as opposed to the fake thug hero crap that leads to the cemetery or the penitentiary. If Mike Vick would have had someone to talk to him before he got in this situation he might be still be quarterback of the Falcons right now.