My Spotlight On Black Fathers

Father’s Day is Sunday and I want to wish all the fathers a peaceful and fun time. I will be heading to Memphis to kick it with Big Cliff in a few hours so this is my last words before the holiday gets here. I wanted to get something off of my chest before I go.

Last month I drove home the Friday before Mother’s Day and there were tables and stands all over the street with baskets and gifts to celebrate mama. I didn’t see one table in anticipation of Father’s Day. Mama definitely deserves her admiration but maybe since everyone agrees we have this problem with responsible fathers we should try giving more recognition and admiration to the ones who are trying to do the right thing.

We have been through all the chastising, the ridicule, the guilt by association, and the constant reminders of what black fathers don’t do. All of those things are real and I see the effects of it everyday but Sunday isn’t about them. Sunday is Father’s Day and that means we should be celebrating real daddies who get out there and grind for their kids. I just want everyone to know that if you have a man around you that is doing the right thing it is ok to put him on a pedestal for a few days. I am sure he would appreciate it. If we don’t start showing more admiration to the men who are trying than we do to the ones that are not, then what reason do those guys have to want to be like us when he is having more fun being selfish anyway? We say we want the brothers to stand up then we treat everything they do like it’s no big deal. At the same time that brother has to hear one of his friends that are supposed to be such a deadbeat brag about all the women he has and how much fun he’s having while not doing anything for anybody. I figure if a guy can ignore all of that temptation and stay focused the least we can do is let him have the big piece of chicken. How are we supposed to change a culture that has a major focus on self glorification when we don’t glorify the alternative at all? Yes, I know we are supposed to do these things anyway even if no one ever gives us recognition. We do this all the time but we are in crisis mode right now and the old approach hasn’t been working.

I’m giving the brothers love this weekend. We are going to make it better.

Is It October Yet

Why is it so hot outside?

It’s now official. The summertime sucks. Remember when you were little and couldn’t wait for the summer to come so you could go outside and play all day instead of sitting in class? Well, those days are over for me and I can’t stand this heat anymore. I was driving a friend to the airport this morning and we determined that this is now the worst time of year. Gas prices are going up every 15 minutes. I had been filling up on twenty bucks as early as April. Now it’s taking forty to get close to the “F”. Pass all the stimulus packages you want to. Americans have low morale after leaving the gas station. I can’t stop sweating because it feels like its 148 degrees outside so I have to wear two shirts so people won’t think I have some kind of illness. I’m carrying around this handkerchief and I keep wiping the sweat from my head like an old black preacher. Everyone’s attitude seems to be a little worse than usual when you are out in the public. Plus, there are too many people wearing ugly sunshades that are supposed to be cool because they cost a lot of money. There’s no football on television and the major sport is boring ass baseball. Then there is the yard work to do and the constant cutting of the grass once it starts raining. It is hurricane season so every night I check out the weather and make sure that I don’t have to start tripping. If that isn’t bad enough, everyone thinks they have to do stuff on the weekends in spite of the heat wave so people keep inviting me to stuff I am not going to attend without air conditioning. They can think I am being anti-social and that’s fine. I’m trying to conserve gas and sweat glands. The bottom line is that if you are over 17 years old you should be waiting for October to roll around.

Technically it’s not even summer yet……..DAMN!

Someone Finally Stopped Something Before It Started

In his resignation letter, Lapene said he didn’t want to be a distraction for Cannizzaro’s office, and wrote “that continuing my employment with you could interfere with your good work in attempting to make a positive difference in this community.”

I read about here on the Blog of New Orleans.

You know when I wrote about this Sunday I felt strongly about what I said. I thought this was one of those stories that would fly under the radar until a major trial later and it would blow up. Apparently, Mr. Lapene or someone close to him did too. I know he was allegedly involved in a racial altercation but give him or whoever made the decision credit for ending a potential problem before it started. Most of the time people here defiantly keep everybody on staff no matter what they do.

The Little I Know About Healthcare

I don’t know all the details about the health care debate going on right now. I only know a little about health care based on real life situations.

I know that when I got laid off and received my COBRA statement in the mail I was floored by the cost of one employee policy. When I saw how much that insurance was and multiplied it by 1000 employees, it totally made sense why companies try to hire temps and part time workers instead of full time employees. Trying to pay for health care packages has to cripple a company if there aren’t great profits coming in.

If you have a family of four and have everyone covered under your package, even if you got a 5% raise each year the increase in your deductions would eliminate it. That’s why families find loopholes to put the kids on the government plan and hope they don’t get sick themselves. The other choice for the employer is to change the package to a cheaper one that is easy on them and the employees but when you do that you end up with a plan that doesn’t pay for anything above two aspirin or the closest doctor on the plan is 50 miles away.

I know that if you have three kids and all of them get sick with the same illness that can cripple your household budget if they have to go to the pediatrician. When you add up the co-pays for each visit, plus the cost of prescriptions (because pediatricians love writing prescriptions) and factor in the return visit for one or two of them, that’s about 200 dollars minimum coming out of your household budget. The backwards part is this scenario describes what happens to be a person who works everyday and pays for insurance. I know when I am sitting in the clinic about to drop my gas and lunch money on an ear infection I wish I had a Medicaid card.

Even though everything I just talked about happens to millions of people everyday no matter what ideology they believe in, some folks feel more patriotic because they pay for these benefit packages that are draining them and the country they work for and don’t complain about it. There are too many people getting sick and can’t afford it or whose company is suffering trying to keep up with the cost of their benefits. I think the public option might be the way to go even if it’s just to give the HMO’s a reason to compromise on their prices. If we don’t do that, then they have to get some kind of tax break or something to get them to bring some of those prices down. If we don’t do anything at all we might as well get used to more layoffs and an increase in home remedies.

We Love To Hire Problems

I voted for Leon Cannizzarro in the last District Attorney’s race. I know he has a rough job in trying to reduce violent crime by getting convictions and sending people to jail. Personally, I’m tired of seeing people on trial for murder on Monday and then seeing them partying the next weekend because they were acquitted. We need that to change because some people need to be off of our streets. The DA says he needs more investigators to go out and make better cases before they go to trial. He also needs better cooperation with the community so they can come forward with information that will help solve cases faster. All of that is legitimate. With that in mind, why would he hire someone that was fired from the police department for a fight that appears to be racially motivated? When I read the story I was trying to imagine what he had to do to get fired from the police department. It’s not like the NOPD has a history of zero tolerance for bad behavior so he had to really do or say something crazy to be terminated. There was five officers involved in the fight and he is the only one that got terminated. Is Leon Cannizzarro playing good ole boy politics at the expense of potentially losing trials down the line? The reason I say that is because I am sure not many people will know who David Lapene is when he is out looking for evidence or interviewing witnesses. My worry is what’s going to happen when that defense attorney tells the jury that will certainly have some black people on it, the person responsible for the evidence was once fired from the police force for fighting and shouting racial slurs at a bunch of black transit authority workers. All it takes is one person with enough distrust of the system to hang a jury.

Is this investigator that qualified where we are willing to have the entire investigative team stigmatized as being prejudiced just to hire him? There had to be someone qualified enough to have that job without the questionable incidents in the past. What about the relationship with the police department? I guess the D.A doesn’t care because there are enough folks in his world that don’t like Chief Riley. Just because certain people are not satisfied with his job performance shouldn’t mean its ok to disrespect the department by hiring someone they just fired for conduct even before the process is over. In the article in the paper the District Attorney made the following statement, "The process has not run its course. The man has not received what I consider to be full due process," What happens if the process has run it’s course and his firing was justified? Does the Leon Cannizzarro fire him immediately because the image of his office would be compromised? We could end up with an investigator going out to the community to help solve crime while at the same time being involved in a lawsuit against the police department for his own crime. Unless David Lapene has the investigative instincts of Jessica Fletcher on Murder She Wrote, the District Attorney should have hired someone else.

Last One

GOT MY WHISKEY - MEL WAITERS

Song # 2

Hard Work - John Handy

Official Birthday Song Number One!

Sitting On My Porch Part Twenty Seven

You know I was thinking..... if it wouldn't have taken me a whole year of blogging to figure out how to be creative I could have just named the whole blog Sitting on My Porch. It really fits the whole vibe. This is another example why spending your 20's getting tipsy doesn't pay. All the young folks reading this please here my cry......Booze makes you slow. After all the dancing, fun, laughs, memories, and courage to ask any girl for a date when she is feeling really good too, what do you really have to show for it? I just made myself want to be 22 again for a weekend.

On Thursday I will be 35 years old. To me 35 is the age where you start crossing the line into full adult status. You know that saying “you are as old as you feel”? Well, between 2004 and 2007 I felt about 75 years old because of stress. I still had my handsome and youthful appearance but inside I felt worn down. I’m happy to say I don’t feel that way anymore. I don’t feel too young but I don’t feel old either. I think I am right about where I should be. Even when things in the news try to get to me I maintain. I guess I feel battle tested or something. Usually around my birthday I write a whole bunch of self glorifying posts about myself. It’s my time to display my inner Ric Flair. Some of my friends might say I do this all the time and just don’t admit it. Either way I won’t be doing all of that this year. Instead, since this is my blog and I can do what I want, I will let Ric do it for me. I and my friends went to this show in the Superdome after watching this. Whoooo!

Let’s move on to other things....

I have been trying to calculate how much of my Chevy truck note balance I shouldn’t have to pay since I own a portion of GM. They ought to give us something for buying their product before the ship was sinking especially since they knew it was sinking behind the scenes.

Chrysler is being purchased by Fiat. Has anyone outside of Rome ever bought a Fiat?

Is my mayor still in China? I think someone is staging this whole thing to make New Orleans look crazier than we do already. I guess if the mayor is potentially sick he should stay there for a few more days. His reputation is bad enough without adding quarantining city government added to it. Even Ray doesn't deserve the swine flu.

William Jefferson’s trial started this week. Everyone in the city should watch this closely because if he is acquitted the next election will be a free for all of racial politics and the selective prosecution card will be played on Jim Letten daily.

Nike should have had a backup for the Kobe and Lebron puppet commercials in case one of them lost. They should have at least had some Kobe only puppets where Lebron got kicked out of the apartment or something.

I want to give a shot out to Leigh and her husband after seeing them at the WYES Beer Tasting on Saturday evening. The fact I can remember our conversation means that I have learned to drink in moderation. I don’t care what anyone says, you can’t beat the bagpipe band closing out a beer drinking event. There is a beer called Brooklyn Local 1 that was so good I thought about moving to New York in the hopes that they pass this out to the citizens. It was my clear blue ribbon selection for the evening.

Finding Local Inspiration In Cairo

I try not to do any over praising of Barack Obama’s time in office so far. I voted for him and I want him to succeed but at this early stage you can’t compliment or criticize his policies and decisions so early in game. You have to give things time to see how everything works out. Today I saw something in him that inspired me when I was watching his speech in Cairo. That speech was the greatest example of his leadership abilities and his commitment to change in the world. It was also the blueprint for the next mayor of New Orleans to follow. If there is a candidate who expresses what I saw today he has my vote.

I don’t talk about committing acts of violence because that’s an easy stereotype. However, one of the things that make me want to punch someone is any reporter or writer that makes the comparison between New Orleans and anywhere in the Middle East. I find that really insulting and out of line for an American city. As much as I am offended by that comparison there is one thing that we sort of have in common. We have deep rooted divisions based on class and background that keep us from making any significant changes. The issues are so deeply rooted in our everyday fabric that too many people are set in their ways to even consider what the other side of the table is saying. When you add the fact that every point of view has leadership that benefits from those divisions staying in place, the prospect of change becomes almost impossible. We are not as brazen with it and we try to hide it but the general principle is the same. That’s why we need the Obama speech.

When you are dealing with this kind of entrenched culture, the only way for anyone to start things moving in a different direction is to stand up, tell the truth about everything and call out the mistakes of your allies as well as your adversaries while respecting their position and at the same time admitting your own group’s transgressions. Basically, you have to give everyone a big hug while pissing them off at the same time. It’s the way you get all the folks in the middle to realize you are trying to be fair and objective so they lessen the power of the people on the far ends of the spectrum. You can open dialogue with more positivity that way. That’s what the president laid the groundwork for today. I thought it was an outstanding speech because of the tone. I believe if we have any hope for the future down here we need someone with the vision to stand up and take this same approach. It’s time to acknowledge and accept the reality that unless there is another disaster the same magnitude of Katrina, no one is going anywhere. Mayor Nagin gets a lot of blame but the truth of the matter is that there are issues that are deeper and older than him keeping this city from doing what it needs to do.

In 2009 there is blame and accountability for all races and classes to accept. The next leader of this city needs to stand up and say “I respect and appreciate all your diligence and dedication to the city now sit down and listen while I tell you what you are doing wrong and what you need to change.” That person has to speak the truth to everyone even their own race or circle of people. It’s the only way to get the people in the center to think you don’t have an agenda so they can get involved and support you. If we don’t have that then we are headed for four more years of finger pointing, email reading and obsessive investigative reports. One speech no matter how honest won’t change the entire Middle East just like one speech can not change New Orleans. What something like this could do for us is start to eliminate the divisive people and open the floor to honest discussion. That’s our first step. The big question is there anyone running for mayor that can come close to pulling this off.

Feeding The Cycle

Last week the open discussion around the office was about this brother in Knoxville Tennessee. His name is Desmond Hatchett. He is 29 years old and has 21 children by 11 different women (Just a side note: If this story was on any of my local news sites their server would have crashed from racist comment overload.).

The discussion was very interesting. I was the only man involved and the sisters seemed to have varying views on who was responsible. A few of them wondered why the mothers of these children kept choosing to have babies with this man when he has already fathered so many children. I couldn’t really argue with that because Knoxville isn’t that big so they had to know already. It would be hard to hide 21 children in a big city. I guess every woman after baby number one bares some responsibility. Unless it’s done through force women have to take responsibility for their own choices in sexual partners. I believe that but let’s talk about this stupid ass man for a minute.

There is no excuse for a man who can barely afford to take care of himself to make 21 children. There isn’t enough time during the day to work long enough or spend enough time with that many kids and give them what they need. Desmond Hatchett knew that before he made them. That’s why I give him almost all the blame. There is no such thing as a grown ass man without any control over what comes out of his body. We are not talking about some naive 14 year old that goes by his girlfriend and makes a mistake. A grown man knows exactly what has to take place to create a child. I can’t stand when a man gives me one of those tired excuses like the woman had a gun to his head and made him plant his seed. I don’t care if she said she was on birth control. In the end you still control your own pistol. You can go to any clinic these days and pick up condoms without even having to speak to anyone. Whenever a situation comes up where you can’t control your own body then your manhood has to take a hit for that. After 21 confirmed moments with no self control, I don’t think we can call this male a man. This is an irresponsible fool consciously bringing all these babies into the world to struggle. That’s 21 more kids in the hood trying to beat the odds on their 1.50 child support. That’s 21 children to potentially keep the cycle going. That’s 21 more children we will be potentially having forums about in 15 years so we can develop plans to save them from the streets. The odds are with so many kids that a few of them will probably make it through to be successful in life. I bet as soon as their first big check clears dear old dad will come walking through the door looking for his 15 dollars of support a year and his 15 minutes of quality time to be repaid. That would fit the profile of jokers like this. Men like this give all brothers a bad name.

The saddest part about this whole story is that I know someone personally that has him beat in children and moms. He just hasn't made the news yet.

Pre-Applying for The Worst Case Scenario

This morning I came back from my three day weekend to find an email telling me about the opportunity to apply for disaster food stamps. For those of you who don’t know what disaster food stamps are, that’s the food stamps they give to people when there is an evacuation so everyone can eat or replenish their groceries. The email was sent a week before hurricane season started. This is taking emergency preparedness to a new level.

I think this opinion may be in the minority but I think this is bad karma. I know where I live and what happened in the past. I am all for having a plan to leave and a long term plan to stay somewhere else for awhile in case something goes wrong and you can’t come back home immediately. I’m not naive and even if you wanted to be clueless about the need for a plan you couldn’t. Everywhere you go someone is reminding you its hurricane season and you need to have a plan. To me there is a difference between having a plan and willing yourself into a situation. I’m one of those people that believe in karma and getting back the energy that you put into a situation. In my mind if I apply for disaster relief food stamps before there is any indication of a disaster coming I am just begging for a hurricane to come. I think this is overkill and generating negative energy. It’s just like when your friend buys a gun to take to the club in the event he gets into an altercation. He hasn’t had a fight in 20 years but now he feels the need to carry a pistol. It never fails that as soon as he does, that’s when trouble finds him and something bad happens.

I’m not applying for the chance to need disaster stamps. I have my game plan to roll out. I will spend money wisely and be prepared if something comes. Other than that, I am going along with my days like I will never have the need to put this plan into place because there is a difference between planning for the worst and waiting for it to happen. I guess next year everyone will apply with FEMA in February and have our claims already in action too. We might as well call up the insurance company and tell our adjuster to start the paperwork now so they can come up with ways to not pay us. We are going to drive ourselves crazy before the hurricane gets a chance to. Maybe I am making too much of this. If I am then please excuse me. A brother just gets tired of expecting bad things all the time.

My Weekend Vibe...Songs That Represent My Life

I stole this idea from Neecha's page so I felt it was only fair I give her a shout out and a link to her page. She admitted to me that she took this from somewhere on Facebook so even if you go and check out her answers don't give her any creative credit for the questions. Don't tell her anything about it because she's one of those New Orleans people who likes a good confrontation. This was fun to think about and it was harder than I thought to settle on one song.

A favorite political track.
"Not Yet Free" – The Coup

The song you’d use to tell someone you love them.
"As" – Stevie Wonder

A song that has made you sit down and analyze its lyrics.
“I Am I Be” – De La Soul

A song that you like, that a two-year-old would like as well.
"Jam On Revenge" - Newcleus

A song that gives you an energy boost.
"Terminator X To The Edge of Panic" – Public Enemy

A song that you and your grandparents (would probably) like.
"How I Got Over" – Mahalia Jackson

A song that you really liked when you were 14-16, and still really like now.
"Hey Young World"- Slick Rick

A sad song that would be in the soundtrack of the movie about your life.
"When Your Life Was Low" – Lahla Hathaway and Joe Sample

A peppy song that would start the opening credits of the movie about your life.
"Gonna Have A Funky Good Time (The long version)" –James Brown

A good song from a genre of music that no one would guess that you liked.
"One Headlight" – The Wallflowers

A song that could play softly in the background every single day without you getting tired of hearing it.
"Moe Better Blues" – Branford Marsalis and Terence Blanchard

A song that you think should have been playing when you were born.
"Grazing in the Grass" – Friends of Distinction

Favorite artist duo collaboration.
"Nothing Better Than Love" – Luther Vandross and Gregory Hines

A favorite song that you completely disagree with (politically, morally, common-sensical, religiously, etc.) But I have it as a ringtone! Just aweful!
"Do It Stick It" – Lil Boosie

The song that you like despite the fact your IQ level drops several points every time you listen to it.
"Can’t Believe It" by Lil Wayne and T-Pain

Your smooth song, for relaxing.
"Back In The Day"- Erykah Badu

A song you would send to someone you hate or are mad at.
"Hit em Up” - Tupac

A favorite track from an outfit considered a super-group.
"Losing My Religion" - R.E.M

A song that makes you reminisce about good times with a family member.
"Before I Let Go” - Maze

A song that puts you in a romantic mood.
"Here I Stand" - Usher

Your favorite song at this moment in time.
"Carried Away" - Mojoe

What's Wrong With A Little Empathy and Perspective

The reaction to the Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court is very fascinating to me. There is nothing that brings out every legal and cultural difference in the country like a Supreme Court nominee. That shows just how powerful that position is. I hope we can all sift through the crazy people’s opinions and have an honest debate. It probably won’t happen. I want to touch on one of the issues being used against her. There’s been a big deal made about empathy and how her cultural and life experiences may have and effect on her decisions. First of all I blame President Obama for that because he shouldn’t have mentioned it as part of the criteria before he made the choice. Second of all, doesn’t everyone do this anyway even if they don’t say it?

Is there really anyone that can read something or hear a story on the news and not apply their own personal experiences and outlook to their opinions? Even if your job is to interpret and enforce the rule of law, you would have to be conscious of who you are and what you believe even if it was just to remind you of the fact that a certain case may make you biased. If I was a judge ruling on a case involving the Corps of Engineers there is way what happened in New Orleans wouldn’t come into my mind. I would still have to judge the facts and rule accordingly but I would have to address my personal feelings even if it was internal. That would be a natural human response. It’s just like when a story about a problem in the black community comes up and a middle class white person from the suburbs tells me they don’t agree with my stance or see it differently. That’s not a bad thing if I engage them and we exchange our different views on it. In my opinion it’s foolish to think that if five people from different walks of life are sitting in a room reading a story that their background won’t come into play when giving their opinions.

That’s one of the products of having a diverse society. People are going to see issues in different ways. That’s a good thing as long as you don’t want to harm the other person who doesn’t see it the way you do. I think different outlooks and opinions are a good thing even when it involves the law. If there was never any wavering in the written letter of the law then it would probably be illegal for a man that looks like me to express this opinion to the general public. Why nominate a Puerto Rican sister from the Bronx, NY if you don’t want any Puerto Rican Bronx flavor added to the mix? When Justice Thomas who is as conservative as it gets made his dissent on cross burning, you don’t think his experience as a black man growing up in Georgia during the 50’s and 60’s had anything to do with that? The point is everyone’s is affected by their life experiences. If not then we might as well let robots take over.

How Hard Will They Fight This One

President Obama’s pick of Sonia Sotomayor will be very interesting to watch. This will be a moment where America gets to learn something new about the Hispanic population of the country. I have Hispanic friends but I am still not that familiar with how they view people like politicians and Supreme Court Justices. I know how black people are about the first person to do anything. When you are the first black anything it is such a big deal that we will protect you forever. There’s a special place for the ceiling breakers. I bet there is a large portion of the people who couldn’t tell you much about what President Obama is doing right now but his picture is hanging up on their wall or they have an Obama t-shirt. On the city and state level every first black mayors, senators, judges or stuff like that have streets, schools, convention centers and anything else we can stick their name on in their honor. We’ll even let go of our own ideology in support of the first person to take a position. The last presidential election proved that.

Are my Hispanic brothers and sisters like this? If they are then this selection by President Obama was a stroke of genius. From what I have read conservatives would be standing on their principles to oppose her nomination. If they decide to go all out to stop her isn’t that like going all out to stop Thurgood Marshall? She would be the first Hispanic member of the Supreme Court. If they stop her appointment and the next candidate isn’t Hispanic, are they basically conceding the 2012 election since the Hispanic population is growing every day? I want to see how it plays out. I think having a diverse Supreme Court is a big deal. It makes the law seem inclusive and fair even if that isn’t always the case. Clarence Thomas probably votes against my personal interests 90% of the time but his image still needs to be in the picture. Maybe Hispanic Americans are not into that kind of symbolism the way African Americans are. Republicans better hope so because she’s liberal and they have to fight her nomination or that will be the ultimate rollover.

A Veteran's Memory Told Grandpa Style

It’s Memorial Day weekend which means folks will be out having a good time if the weather doesn’t spoil everything. Celebrating the sacrifice of military men and women is a good thing. I still say that there should be a law that says when their tour of duty is over, any debts they had are paid and they get a 300 point bonus on their credit score. If they are killed in combat then we do it for their families. Maybe we should let their kids go to college for free too. I don't think men and women who go to war should have to struggle when they come home. So many politicians are quick to kiss up to the troops to make themselves look good but they don't really do a damn thing for them.

I thought I would share the only World War II story I have from my grandfather Walter Harris Sr. My grandfather always talked to me anything and everything except his time in the war. I never asked him about it because since he talked so openly about everything else I figured it was just one of those things that he didn’t like to talk about. I remembered him mentioning one time he was a gunner on a Navy ship. I was always curious about it. One day about ten years ago we were sitting in his TV room watching the Atlanta Braves play the San Diego Padres. The cameras got a shot of the sailors watching the game in the outfield bleachers and that led to this conversation. This is almost verbatim and told through my grandfather’s Seventh Ward dialect as well as I can type it. I'm probably not going to do it any justice and make it as funny as it was when he told me.

Grandpa: Them boys just docked at the port down there. That’s where we used to come in…through San Diego.
Me: Really?
Grandpa: Yeah.....you get off the boat after being over that water for a long time you looking for a game or something to get into. I was on a minesweeper around that time. Going through those channels in the Pacific
Me: It’s that only boat you were on.
Grandpa: No….I was on a battleship for awhile too
Me: Remember when you told me you were a gunner? How did you pull that off?
Grandpa: When we first got on the ship they had us all in the kitchen. One day we got attacked and I was down in the kitchen. I went to the captain and told him if a son of a bitch is going to be shooting at me on this ship then I want to be on a gun or something because if I’m dying I rather be shooting one of them sons a bitches too.
Me: What did the captain say?
Grandpa: He said fool you crazy! Don’t nobody asked to be here around all this stuff going on. Anybody crazy as you need to have their ass up here and that’s how I got on the gun. I still had to cook and everything too but when the fighting started I went up there to help.

I am sure the real scenario was much more complex than that and that he was trained to do whatever job he was doing on the ship. When an old man shares a war story with you for the first time you don't ask many followup questions. As far as I am concerned this story is exactly what happened. As I sit under this patio enjoying the right to drink a cold beer in honor of the best old dude ever, I hope all the veterans are having a good weekend.

My Weekend Vibe.......My Tag Team Partner

I was on a field trip Thursday at a beach with a bunch of small kids. As I watched all the little boys to make sure none of them got swept out to sea I couldn’t help thinking about when I was that small and all the kids I used to play with. When were five and six years old all we wanted to do is running around and play. Nobody had any idea of what was coming for some of us at an early age. The city has a way of taking its toll on a group of friends as time goes by. I was thinking about that on the bus ride home. When we got back to New Orleans there was a guy picking up his son. I remember seeing him at other school functions and thought his face was familiar but everyone looks familiar to me and I never know why so I don’t say anything. While I telling how his son took a belly splash into a puddle of water and sand he looked at me and said. “Didn’t you grow up in the Lower Ninth Ward? You lived on St. Claude St. by Pugilas store right?” I said “yeah that’s me”. He said “I remember you. You used to be with that bright skin dude that stayed in the big house”. I replied “yep that was me and my tag team partner”. My weekend vibe song is dedicated to that bright skin dude in the big house. Back when we made wrestling belts out of cardboard boxes, Mardi Gras doubloons and black shoe polish this was our ring entrance music.Our ring was whoever dad had the least amount of tools and work supplies on the back of his truck or my grandmother's backyard if she didn't have clothes hanging on the line.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly Of Daddy's First School Year

Next week is my daughter’s kindergarten graduation. Tomorrow is the last field trip. No one will be happier than I am that school is ending. She won’t be happy because she loves going but she won’t get any sympathy from me. It’s been a long grind and I after this first year I have new respect for my parents and all single moms especially those with more than one kids. If you all get those children where they need to be on time and still make it to work yourself no one in this world should have a bad thing to say about you. You all have my permission to call in sick the first two weeks of summer to sleep late if you want to. I won’t be mad at you.I got a little taste of what your day might be like and I don't know about doing that until high school graduation. You can have that. I salute you.

The big debate here is charter schools versus local school board control of the schools. Some people love the idea of charter schools and some people hate them. Like other decisions that have been made since the city’s recovery started, this is one of those things that have already been decided and there is no turning back. Once there was any improvement in those test scores that fight was already over. There won’t be less charter schools. There will be more. My personal feeling is that I want good education for the kids of New Orleans. At this point it doesn’t matter to me if its charters, vouchers or letting the school board run them all. As long as the teachers are qualified and the schools are addressing the needs some of these kids have then so be it. Regardless of what system we end up with, it needs to be easier for parents to understand. It is public school system after all and you should be able to go to one spot and apply and test for any school you want to. That goes for those privileged “public” schools where the principals make the big money. Since the year is ending I thought I would give my take on the good, bad, and ugly of my first year as a school parent. One thing I have discovered by being around other parents is that you can be totally satisfied with something going on while the next person thinks the entire school sucks. I guess it’s all about perspective. This is just my opinion.

The Good

The Principal: Any fears I had about sending my daughter to a first year school was settled by this guy. He’s a good guy and he really cares about those kids. I have a naturally apprehension when it comes to the intentions of people not from the community that decide to come in and work with the kids. From now on I will give them the benefit of the doubt because as long as he’s in charge of the school my kids will be going there. If he goes to another school I might follow him there. That’s how impressed I am with his operation so far.

The Student Environment: Every parent likes to see their child be recognized for his/her achievements but I think it’s a good idea if a school promotes the idea that all of the kids are in it together. The kids seem to understand this and pull for one another. I don’t know how long they can keep this up as they older but right now it’s a cool thing. When I was in Kindergarten I didn’t know all of my classmates names because as long as they were quiet our teacher didn’t call us out. Teamwork is a good thing.

The Level of Material: Addition, subtraction, units of measurement, Science, writing stories……what the hell happened to finger painting and nap time in kindergarten? I have a suggestion for the powers that be. If homework is going to be this involved going forward, there needs to be some kind of program for the parents who need to help the kids to get them up to speed on some of this stuff. I’m not trying to be funny at all when I say New Orleans doesn’t have the greatest academic record and by the end of the first grade some of these kids are going to know more than their parents. It’s going to be harder and harder for these kids to get help at home.

The Bad

The length of the school day: The regular school day schedule is 8:00AM to 4:00PM. When you add in the after school program and the bus rides, we are basically looking at an eleven hour day for kids ages 4-6. Add an hour of homework to that and I don’t know how they retain any of the information they learned. They should really think about cutting about an hour of this time down. There’s another big reason for this included in the ugly part.

The Behavior Chart: Teachers need a way to maintain order and discipline since they can’t slap kids on the hands with rulers anymore. I guess these behavior charts work but have you ever seen the look on a kids face with a negative mark on the behavior chart? It’s too much pressure to if you ask me. The guidelines seem to be up to the teacher’s interpretation and I don’t know if that can be fair. This especially bothers me for black boys because they are the quickest to be labeled and a few bad notes in a student record can follow them all the way to high school.

Mandatory Parent Events: I don’t have a problem with mandatory parental events in theory. I have a problem with the type of events they selected. You shouldn’t have to make parents come to the Thanksgiving dinner or the Mardi Gras parade. There should be some other mandatory things like helping with homework, PTA meetings or building that playground like we did.

The Ugly

Uninformed parents: Every Friday afternoon there are dozens of parents out there for early dismissal. Every Friday you hear whining and complaining about the teachers and the program. Every parent meeting the same ones whining and complaining are nowhere to be found. How do they even know what to complain about if they never visit the school or talk to the staff?I don't know how you can manage not talking to them when they demand so much of the parents.

The hood around the school: There’s a store on the back side that’s not so friendly. There’s a house across the street that isn’t so cool either. The few blocks leading up the school are a little rough to pass through too. It’s like one of the parents told the school recruiter about describing it other people “things are really good once you get inside the building”. I am not sure if there is anything we can do about this without moving the school or becoming vigilantes.

I would still rather have this same program around my own house: It's a good thing I work close to the school because there's a good chance I wouldn't have drove across town just for kindergarten. I don’t know how you have a truly functional neighborhood without your own school. New Orleans used to have elementary schools all over the place. We may have had too many before and now I don’t think we have enough. Going to school where you live helps you get to know the people around the area. Plus, it would help some of these parents who struggle to make it across town with their children. I may not change schools now because I like the principal so much but I would still like the option. Maybe they are building a new one and I don’t know because no one is communicating.

Feeling Like A Monday

I came into work this morning. There's a cool front outside so the temperature is lower than usual. They haven't adjusted the thermostat for the air conditioning so I feel cold like one of those episodes of Survivorman when Les is trying to survive seven days on the frozen tundra of Siberia. I got my coffee but it doesn't taste right. Checked my email and found work I don't feel like doing. Opened up my blog and thought about what I was going to the good people today. I came up blank. Everything in the news is not interesting enough to talk about. Plus, I did absolutely nothing this weekend so I don't have any stories or observations about that. All I could think about is how I am a certified expert of hip hop records from 1985-1995. I would put my knowledge and pre-Katrina catalog up against anyone as long as you don't ask me anything silly. I have been sitting here at my desk deciding on the song to go with this post. That turned into listening to old school hip hop music for the last two hours. I know that makes it seem like I haven't done anything productive at work this morning but the music helps me focus while I plan and make policy. I hope everyone bought that excuse. Besides I need something to block out the two ladies on the other side of the wall talking about Mary Kay cosmetics all day. I need to stop playing around and get something done today. If not I will never get that honorary degree from Arizona State. They have high standards for a black man's accomplishments.

After careful deliberation I went with Chubb Rock because dancing to this song at my desk is increasing my body heat and saving me from hypothermia. Notice how Chubb only joins in the dance routine at the end when the kicking and jumping around is over. I thought that was funny back when I was small enough to do the dances myself. Now I understand Chubb. Now I understand.