The Good Shouldn't Suffer For The Bad

Nothing would bring the rebel out of me when I was in school more than when a teacher tried to punish me for something someone else had done. She comes back in class, sees one person out of their seat acting crazy and wants to give everyone detention. I don’t believe in the good suffering for the bad someone else has done.

There’s an article on the front page of the Times Picayune that says, “Witness said civilians fired guns on span” According to the defense attorneys in the article, the witness testimony can back up allegations that there was a shootout. If anyone looks at the title of the article without reading the whole thing they will probably assume that there is a justified reason why all those people were shot on the Danziger Bridge. Once you read the article things get a little more questionable.

The witness that claims someone was shooting near the bridge that day was Lance Madison. He was arrested on false attempted murder charges that day and his brother Ronald Madison was shot in the back by the same police officers his testimony may help. According to the story he testified that a group of teens ages 14-18 were chasing him and they started shooting first. So, Mr. Madison lost his brother by the hands of the people who were supposed to be helping him? He almost went to prison for attempted murder because he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Nothing screams discrimination to me like someone thinking that it’s alright to harm innocent people just because they happen to be around some bad people. At the least it compromises the community’s trust in the police department. You are not allowed to do anything you want to me because a criminal may be around. You are supposed to protect me from the criminals not turn me into one. The thing to remember here is that none of the people who were shot had a weapon. At some point those officers had to realize none of the group they were shooting at was shooting back. The Madison brothers definitely weren’t shooting back because they were running. It kind of reminds of the movie Rosewood where one lady made an accusation and the mob tried to take out everybody. It’s the same principle.

Sometimes in the neighborhood a guy may get some information about someone wanting to do him something. Depending on the environment and tension in the air at the time he may decide to take matters into his own hands. He gets his guns, jumps in his car and goes to whatever block or corner the threat is supposed to be to handle things. When he gets there he doesn’t know if anyone has a gun and if someone does who it is in particular. They just come through blasting on everyone to eliminate the enemy. It never fails that an innocent bystander or two are injured, maybe even killed. When the police catch up with that guy, and he tells the judge that he shot all those innocent people because he heard someone had a gun even though no one on the scene or anyone he shot actually had one, he’s headed straight to the penitentiary. No one knows this more than the kind of officers involved in the cover-up of this case because catching people that engagein behavior like that was their job. That’s why they put everything on the line for their officers and tried to cover it up. The sooner we all accept that, the faster we can get justice done and move on.

Complicated Justice In The 504

In June of 2006 someone shot and killed five teenagers in cold blood. Whoever did that needs to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. The District Attorney in New Orleans swears it’s a young man named Michael Anderson. He was already convicted for it once. If he truly is the shooter then I guess the prosecutors will have to do a better job because he was awarded a new trial yesterday. My stand on this particular case is I want the right person punished for the crime. Someone needs to be held responsible. Community leaders have to be careful that they don’t get so focused on going after the DA they forget that five young men aren’t here anymore. Everyone needs the proper justice carried out. The best case scenario to me is if everyone would work together to find the right person but I know that is not going to happen. Our current district attorney is taking a page out of long time DA Harry Connick’s book and is swearing he has the right guy. I take that to mean that it doesn’t matter what any other possible leads come up. He’s going all in with convicting Michael Anderson and if he has to trying another two or three times then he will do it. If everyone would have done their jobs correctly the first time then we wouldn’t have to go through all of this.

I find things like this difficult to properly make sense of in my own mind because of the way things have been in the city lately. I am confused and waiting for things to sort themselves out. The way it stands now is that at the time this case first came up we had a black district attorney that could have not accepted the charges if the case didn’t seem right but he didn’t. He went ahead with the case and it's questionable evidence. It goes back to the question of how you fight the power when the power looks like you. It makes it even more confusing when people excuse the mayor and police chief from responsibility for things their office does but want to protest the same office. If the shadow government is so powerful that you can’t even do anything against them even when you are in charge of the office then why try to fight them in the first place. The easiest way to avoid episodes like the Michael Anderson trial is for young men not to kill one another in the first place. Then there won’t be any high profile cases for the district attorney’s office to prosecute unless they created it themselves. The sad reality of the situation is that whatever is going on now is not more serious of the fact that five kids were murdered that night and money more have been murdered after that. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

These People Look Familiar

After Saturday’s runoff elections the new city government for New Orleans is complete. I’m looking at the winners and I only see two names that represent new blood to me. The rest of the people that one are pretty familiar faces. Even our new mayor has been around forever. The question now for me is that how much progress I can expect from a group of people that were already involved when nothing progressive was going on. None of the election results surprise me. The progressive community in New Orleans is a small section of the population. They talk about a lot and get themselves involved in exposing a lot of things about city government but none of that trickled down to the minds of most of the people. Folks here stick with what they know and who they are comfortable with. If there is ever going to be any new political figures to really take control they will have to be so impressive that they get people to step out of their usual thought process. That may not ever happen so I’m just hoping that everyone was holding their great ideas until Mayor Nagin was out of office and now they are going to share them with Mayor Landrieu and get things going.

Since there’s so many people that won’t be learning on the job my timeline for wanting to hear and see a significant difference in what’s been going on is considerably shorter. I figure six months after everyone is sworn in should be long enough to at least hear some new agenda items. My new mind state will be Nagin’s gone so there are no excuses. There’s a little under two months left for everyone to hide behind him then we really get to see what’s going on.

For The Girls Who Are Not Precious

The Academy Awards come on tonight and I probably won’t be watching. I haven’t seen any of the movies up for nomination so I am really not interested. The movie Precious is up for all the major awards and I hope they win at least one. If Monique wins for Best Supporting Actress she will be crying about it for two years but I am willing to put up with that for her to get the award. You know I am all for stories that lead to black people receiving recognition but where is the balance? I’m not going to go into a rant about Precious and the images it sends out. First of all I haven’t seen the movie so it would be disingenuous of me to talk down about it. Second of all there are sisters that have lived through the kind of things that the young lady in the movie has and I never want to take away from the seriousness of that. I don’t have a problem with that story being told even if I choose not to watch it. My problem is that it seems like almost every major movie about African Americans has to be this triumph of the human spirit where the main character has to overcome something horrible. That’s the only time sisters can get nominated. It seems to be the only time they get any real recognition from the Hollywood establishment. Halle Berry won an Oscar for Monsters Ball. I have trouble watching that movie. I was watching the night she won and I was happy for her but I kept thinking that as beautiful and talented as she is it’s a damn shame she had to play a character like that to get nominated.

Maybe I am not qualified to talk about this because I am a man but I think images mean a lot and without some balance in there you have everyone thinking that every sister has circumstances of this magnitude she has to climb. There are some things you have to get over just from being black but not everyone has had a life so bad that it required a super human effort. Some sisters just grew up, went to school, got married, got a job and lived their lives. It’s to the point where some who never had rough times start talking like they did to give their accomplishments more value. You have people you grew up with talking about how nobody believed in them and they always felt ugly and you are looking confused because you don’t remember any of that happening. Deep down you want to tell them to stop trying to get sympathy for making things seem harder than they really were but if you do then you get jumped on for being insensitive and not understanding the plight of the black woman. To me women who do that are doing a disservice to the reality of our community. That would be like me telling all of you I sold drugs and had to get my life together because I come from the hood. I’m from the heart of activity in my neighborhood and I never sold drugs, got shot, or even rode in the back of a police car. Some of my friends did and some didn’t. What we don’t have is the balance between those two realities in the media. I would love to see a movie where black actors get nominated when the lead actress is a regular housewife, a professional woman with no baggage or a sergeant in the Army or something. If Precious wins tonight we will be in for a string of movies so depressing we will want to keep our daughters inside until they are 30.

Fill Out The Form And Send The Damn Thing Back

I just got my census form in the mail. I hope some people don’t leave it in the mailbox thinking its junk mail because it came in a bag. I also hope my people in the city don’t have the same urgency in filling it out as they did with voting. If they do we will get about the same amount of funding as a small village. I know there are more people here than the official numbers say there is. You can drive around and see it. We need to get folks to take action to get close to the right amount. This is a true story. My best friend was so set against participating in the census the last time that the guy who was assigned to his neighborhood had to hide around the corner and sneak up on us when we drove up one afternoon. He had this defeated look on his face like he gave in to the system. I know he’s not the only one that feels that way but I hope everyone fills out the questionnaire and sends it back.

Even if you are offended by the word Negro you need to send it back anyway. Check off Negro, black, homeboy, or whatever applies. We just need to be counted so the government will know how many people are here. That means we have to put everyone on there. If your cousin is staying with you but still uses her address in Houston to get cheaper insurance it doesn’t matter. Put her on there. If your boyfriend is staying there put him on there. If your grown kids came back home because they were homesick and brought the grandkids too and they are all bunched into your house put them on there. The forms are our best shot because I don’t think the folks that walk around and count go to every spot of the neighborhood to count how many people are there. Let’s not give anyone a chance to use statistics to cut our money short. If I didn’t think we would all get indicted I would say to add three extra people to your tally for all the folks that are going to come home in the next few years as new housing opens. I’m sure they will take that under consideration in the final total. Then again, they might not. Either way if the count of how many people are here comes up short let’s make sure it’s not our fault because we only sent back half of the forms.

Sitting On My Porch Part Forty

Any day now (barring dental work and fires) Lil Wayne will be headed to prison in New York to serve his sentence after pleading guilty to gun possession. In the neighborhood we like to call people haters when they don’t go along with our decisions and lifestyle. You can officially call me a hater. If wanting to see him enjoy his kids and all the things success has given him makes me a hater then so be it. Guys like Lil Wayne, T.I. and Gilbert Arenas get in trouble because they think they have this allegiance to the hood that requires them to keep it real at all times. I feel an allegiance to my hood (Lower Nine all day baby) but I choose to take a different route. We can all represent were we come from and tell the world about the reality of life there while at the same time trying to change the reality and making sure we are not in the same situation as the cats we are speaking for. We keep telling the world that we act a certain way when we are broke and have no opportunity. When you get both of those things you have to change. That’s just the way it is. I hope Wayne gets out and focuses his time on all those babies. He’s made enough to stay busy.

The earthquake in Chile was so strong that it shifted the Earth’s axis and shortened the day by 1.26 millionths of a second. I am sure no one felt that but that’s a little scary. There was another quake in Taiwan today that registered 6.4. So far in 2010 the person making the biggest statement is Mother Nature. She’s showing everyone that there isn’t a damn thing we can do if she decides to flex her muscles. All we can do is sit back and hope for the best. I know Pat Robertson has something to say about this.

They tore Mr. Bob’s house down today. He was our next door neighbor before Katrina. He and his wife were animal lovers and would even nurse squirrels back to health. I remember when he used to practice his golf swing on the lawn while she sat in the chair and watered her rose bushes. To the people outside of New Orleans, the fact that they are just tearing that house down in 2010 is reason number 433,533 why we still can’t let it go. It would be the good neighbor’s house that gets demolished. The neighbors that are a pain in the rear end probably have the strongest house on the block.

Senator Jim Bunning learned that after giving billions to all kinds of corporations it probably wasn’t a good job to take a stand against money meant for every day people. I’m sure some people thought he was being a maverick and it might have worked if his own voting record didn’t show he voted for all kinds of bills that weren’t paid for. Anyone that thinks unemployment is some handout that will put you on easy street obviously has never been on unemployment. I was on unemployment for 4 months. Since my salary was pretty good I got the maximum amount, a whopping 258 dollars a week. I was balling out of control with just enough money to pay my light bill. I kept thinking if I got the max at the amount I was making, what a person does if they were making twice what I was and had to drop all the way down to 258 dollars a week. When I was reading the comments after the story on Yahoo there was some lady talking about Americans need to stop whining about having tough times when her and husband survived four years on 1000 a month and all that jazz. I know that’s possible but don’t act like when you were living off 1000 a month you weren’t miserable. America is designed for broke people to be miserable because if we ever figured out how to be happy and broke we wouldn’t need to spend money and the economy would collapse. Why do you think people drive 2 hours from their suburb to the city in the morning for work when there are empty houses three blocks away from the job? They are trying not to live around all those miserable broke ass city folks. Trust me, none of the folks on unemployment are happy about it so go ahead and pay them before we have riots.

Just a few quick things before I end this……………

Just for the record, I believe there is a form of shadow government by way all of these different commissions and business groups that influence decisions in the city. I just don’t think they have anything to do with Mayor Nagin’s performance.

If enough Democratic senators sign on for the public option and the bill ends up getting killed I think I will be cool with that.

I like when the panhandlers at the stop light give you one of those little papers after a donation so the next time you pass by you can show it to their friends like a receipt.

If I only watch the Oscars when black actors are nominated does that make me prejudice?

The best thing on television is classic episodes of Soul Train on the Centric channel. They make me smile.

Did you ever notice there’s been no talk of cell phone companies having any financial trouble at all?


Get well Guru.

Where Do We Stand?

I have been struggling with trying to find the right words to discuss this issue with the police shootings. I don’t think I have enough writing skill to explain this properly but it’s difficult as a black man when a situation comes up that reminds you of where you stand in this society. It seems like since Katrina there has been more of these times than ever but this Danziger 7 situation is the exclamation point. It bothers me, scares me, and pisses me off at the same time and I am having trouble moving past it and I’m trying to work through it. I’m really not sure what I want to see happen. Maybe I want all those people who chanted “heroes!” when the officers left the court the first time to apologize to the families of the victims and to the community for standing by their side. Maybe I want the other officers involved to come forward, plead guilty and accept their punishment so we can start moving forward. I think I want Jim Letten to make sure everyone involved gets the highest possible sentence and at least life in prison for the shooters because if anyone else shot an innocent family for no reason we would probably be sitting on death row. For myself I need to get over the thought that my dad, brother, cousins and friends were all here after the storm and could have ran across the wrong officers in the wrong place and got shot down. I’m thinking about how it would be to go through life day to day for all this time with the world thinking my brother was a criminal who was trying to harm police officers and got what was coming to him. I need to stop taking this so personal.

Jarvis DeBerry broke this down already but I really would like our police chief to accept some responsibility for this taking so long. I know he wasn’t on the bridge when it happened but sometime during the first year he was chief he could have at least read the report. I would like to hear something from my mayor as well. They are always talking about the ‘shadow government’ and all that junk. Well, here’s the chance to stand up for the people and all I hear is nothing. It just reminds me one more time of why people in the community don’t vote anymore. It doesn’t matter who is in charge. The pecking order is going to still be the same. Now I am waiting to see who Mitch Landrieu will select as the next police chief. That choice may make or break his administration before it even starts.

I’m not talking about this again until someone else pleads guilty or gets arrested. I hope that is not too far away.

There Must Be Justice

When I saw the news that an NOPD office had actually pled guilty to covering up the shooting on the Danziger Bridge and agreed to cooperate with the government it floored me. The fact he tried to cover up what really happened didn’t floor me. The fact that he actually pleaded guilty did. They must have some serious evidence on Officer Lohman. My first thought about this is that there is a lot of pressure on prosecutors in this case. If any one of the seven officers accused doesn't plead guilty or get indicted we may see some race cards being thrown out around town and they will all be legitimate to me. This kind of thing should never happen and there needs to be zero tolerance and maximum sentences to anyone who had a hand in the shooting or the cover-up. We also need someone to look into every case these officers worked on to see if other people's rights have been violated. That’s the only way I feel we can move on without this hanging over the city.

There was a time in my life when an NOPD car would drive up and I and all my friends would cringe in fear hoping everything would be okay. When I first started driving in my teens there was nothing more frightening then seeing those blue lights behind me. I knew anything was possible if they pulled me over. I am older and not panicked like that now. I know enough officers personally to understand that it never was every one on the force who was doing wrong things. When you think about it the culture of the police department is just like the culture in the neighborhoods they fight crime in every day. There are good police officers that know some things are going on that shouldn’t be happening just like they are good people in bad areas that know the things are going on that shouldn’t be. In both instances those folks probably make up the majority. The problem is they all live by a code. Good officers don’t lose any sleep when a bad cop goes down but they won’t step up and speak out against those same officers. There’s a code. People in the community know who the killers are and whether they admit it or not, no one loses sleep when they get shot or go to jail. As rough as the environment is they are not going to call and turn in Ms. Jones’ grandson especially to the police that disrespected her nephew last week. It’s the same kind of code and a viscous cycle.

I just hope that since this officer chose to break the code and admit his wrong doing we can get this case resolved and start fixing the image of the department. If not then it will be interesting to see what happens because I don’t think this is one situation that the community should let go and get over without justice being served.

I guess it's time to get focused again. Football season is over and so is Mardi Gras. It's time to put up my Saints memorabilia until next year and cut down the number of times I watch the Superbowl replay to only once during the week and maybe once on weekends if the weather is bad. It's time to put away all the beads you fought hard to catch even though you don't have any real use for them and find a proper place to display you Zulu coconuts if you were lucky enough to get one. We've had a lot of fun these past few weeks. There's been so much fun going on that everybody almost forgot that we live in a city full of problems and things that need to be done. Since I am one of the 20 people that voted in the last election I just want to say that some of us never really stopped paying attention. I know that we have a new mayor and almost new city council here in the city. I know that Congress is working on a 15 billion dollar jobs bill which should be just enough money to give jobs to about 1000 people by the time it makes it through the red tape. I know it seems like every week Toyota seems to be recalling a different model but they will probably still outsell Chevy (Just for the record, I own a Chevy truck so don't send me none of that stuff about buying American). There's a whole bunch of things going on but the truth of the matter is I am tired and I need to recharge. The theme for the next few days is resting and using as little brain power as possible until Monday. Next week we are going to get all into everything. For the next few days I will trying to sleep as much as possible.


The posting of this video does not mean I forgive Lil Wayne for picking the Vikings in the NFC Championship game.

The Last Football Blog From The City Of Champions

I think I just wrote an 900 word post just to get a chance to put up a picture of the Lombardi trophy but I couldn't help myself. I’m sorry this season had to end. The beauty of how everything turned out is that six months ago if I would have titled this post the way I did everyone would have thought I moved. Deep down everyone in New Orleans, from New Orleans, or around New Orleans felt like champions already inside. They were just looking for a way to show the world how they felt. That is the key ingredient of Saints Fever. How else can you explain people that don’t know a touchdown from a free throw coming up to me to talk about how many times Gregg Williams blitzed Brett Favre? 800,000 people lining the streets in the cold last night just to get a glimpse of these guys pretty much put the exclamation point on it. Let's finish this football blogging strong.

I have a few more things to say before we close out the season and move on to other things. My years as a season ticket holder taught me that it was not a good idea to watch the game with anyone but family or close friends. I’m too into what’s going on and I may say something out of character. I watched all but two of the games this season in the same spot. The week after the NFC championship game my favorite hobby was going online and finding video clips of people’s reaction to going to the Superbowl. It was cool to see how other people reacted to that moment like I did. There is one clip I ran across that sums up what this season did to the vibe of this area. Somewhere under the interstate after that game there was this group of about 20 young black men celebrating. They were in this circle jumping up and down singing the chorus to one of my favorite Saints songs from the season, “Ya’ll boys ain’t messing with dem Saints!!” They were hyped. It wasn’t a normal New Orleans hype either. It was first time Saints are going to the Superbowl hype and that’s a whole different kind of energy. They were so energetic and jumping around so much that unless you were prepared to get knocked down you shouldn’t be getting in the middle of that. While I was smiling and feeling jealous that I wasn’t in the middle of it out of nowhere came this white guy and his female companion. They had to be in their late 30’s or early 40’s. They jumped right in the middle of those brothers and started getting bucked up too! I think the lady got a chest bump and everything. That couple didn’t look the least bit afraid and those brothers were not the least bit puzzled about why they jumped in. They were all there together representing their city. That explains why sports make so much money. Nothing else in our society has been structured to generate that kind of reaction between different kinds of people. I don’t know how long the feeling can last but at least now we have a point of reference of what it could be if things start going downhill.

Now that the season is over the question becomes ‘who dat’ among us is going to do what we have to do to keep the winning spirit going and change the conditions in the city. Are we going to translate our championship spirit into our own personal performance and good deeds? The one thing about the Saints team that I admired over everything else is that they were a team and everyone did their job. They didn’t just wait around for Drew Brees to win games for them. He deserves his time in the spotlight since he’s the leader but everyone chipped in to get to the top. We have to be just like that. We all have to do our job and take care of our own individual responsibilities and everything will be okay. The day before the game I went to a pretty informative parent meeting at my baby’s school and there were less than ten families there. It doesn’t take over 24 hours to get ready for your Superbowl party. Sean Payton may be the best coach in the NFL right now but he can’t help us with these real problems. We have to do all that hard stuff ourselves. Eventually we are going to have to talk about things as bluntly and honestly as possible and it won’t be warm and fuzzy. It might get a little ugly but that shouldn’t be expected after all these years of division. I don’t have a problem with that as long as we are working towards making progress. If everyone starts bitching and moaning just to keep their supporters divided enough to hide their incompetence I’m going to put in my Superbowl DVD and watch Tracy Porter’s intercept another 500 times to refresh my spirit again.

I guess after waiting 43 years for a title, getting washed out, rebuilding homes, rebuilding sanity, trying to find a way to sleep more than two hours a night, dealing with all kinds of other problems and being a Saints fan through the Ditka and Haslett coaching years, I guess I can chill to the end of Mardi Gras and bask in the glow of my team winning it all. I think we earned that much.

I’m a proud member of the Who Dat Nation since 1980 and we are the NFL champs. It's been a glorious time.

P.S….

All you fans from the 31 teams looking up at us ask yourself this question. Would your quarterback show up at a bar full of regular folks and do this? I don’t think so. That's why he's the MVP.

Politics Of The Moment Part One....I Told You So

In the middle of all the Saints hoopla New Orleans had an election and we will have our first white mayor in over 30 years. He won every precinct except one. That means that we have a white mayor because black voters put him there. I hate to say I told you so but when Ed Murray dropped out of the race I predicted this. The outcome of this election should send a message to the leaders in our community. There needs to be a change and a shift in our approach. I was going to put all of this into one post but I decided to break it down a little further. Since I already wrote the post I linked to about this I will be brief.

I know the history of the city and what it means to have black leadership. Keep in mind that I am 35 years old and the first black mayor was elected when I was 3. That means that for my generation and those behind me we don’t have any personal memories of the same struggle. All we have is a lifetime of living here under declining conditions and difficult circumstances. We have been here looking at opportunity and people leave us behind for greener pastures. It just so happens that the whole time we couldn’t find a good job, the school system was failing us, and we were all scared of the NOPD black people were running these entities. Instead of being angry at them for not coming out to vote and doing research, go to the hood and find out where we went wrong. I think this is a perfect opportunity for a rebirth of grassroots leaders that are born out of real action for the community. I truly believe that the people will engage in the process again if they think the system can work for them.

Part two is coming soon……..

It Really Happened

You would think that after writing a blog every week during this great season I would have saved the best for last. Honestly, I have nothing to say except it feels just like I thought it would. I'll let the outcome speak for itself.

The Final Chapter Of A Wonderful Season

This is the day we have all been waiting for. I have never seen the city this excited about anything. This week people have been randomly shouting “WHO DAT!” to total strangers and giving one another high fives. I love it. I don’t know how long it’s going to last but if things get out of hand and people start bickering at least we have a point of reference to remind them of how it feels to be unified about something. It’s been very hard for me to get the same nervous and paranoid feeling that I usually have for a big Saints game. I really wanted the team to play in the Superbowl and I never really changed my agenda to winning it. I am already so satisfied that I can’t get it going for today. I hope the team isn’t feeling the same way I do.

Some people in the national media really got upset when we beat Brett Favre and have refused to give us any respect for being in the championship. If you listen to some of them it was like the Vikings were ahead in the game 28-0 and Brett’s intercept was worth 28 points at the end. For years I have listened to these experts give good teams credit for not beating themselves and taking advantage of the other team’s mistakes. The Saints did it to Brett Favre and suddenly they are not worthy of being in the game. That kind of stuff has made me not watch a lot of pregame coverage. I wasn’t letting their sour grapes take my joy.

I don’t think our team has gotten enough credit. Football is a team sport. No one player can be so good that he can make up for the other 52 guys. It just doesn’t happen. If that was the case Peyton Manning would have 8 Superbowl rings by now. Other guys have to step up. That’s what made this season special for the Saints. There hasn’t been enough mention of the fact that we played a full season with an untested backup left tackle after Jamaal Brown was injured. That usually spells doom for a team and he more than held his own. There hasn’t been enough mentioned that one of our starting defensive tackles was hurt early on and that there was a stretch in the middle of the season where both starters were hurt and a bunch of guys no one heard of played their hearts out and held up just enough for us to win those games. It was around this same time that both of our starting cornerbacks were hurt too and we fought through it with Randall Gay, a rookie, and some guys we had to sign off the street. We beat New England on Monday night with this lineup. I would for someone to mention that our fullback Heath Evans got hurt and our leading receiver from last year only played in a few games yet we still managed to lead the league in scoring. We didn’t have one running back with 2000 yards but we had three backs combine for over 1800 yards. Don’t get me started on Anthony Hargrove. We have had the ultimate example of 53 guys working together to do something special and these groupies want to make it seem like we are a charity case. We are a really good team and there’s no reason we can’t beat the Colts.

We are in the big game. Rickey Jackson made the Hall of Fame. The city feels good about itself. I can’t ask for much more. Let’s finish strong and see what happens. I’m going to light this grill and get my food ready. We’ll talk when it’s over.

The City Champ Goes To The Hall of Fame!

The picture above has been the desktop wallpaper on my computer all year. When the Saints got to 7-0 I refused to take down this picture until the season was over. Rickey Jackson is going to the NFL Hall of Fame. It's only fitting he would make it in the year the team broke through to the Superbowl. He's been my all time favorite Saints player for 30 years and he deserves this recognition. A lot of fans won't know much about his career when they see he made it but if you watched him play in his prime you know the only thing he didn't have was enough quality teammates and a big market to give him the proper exposure.

This has been the greatest season ever even if tomorrow doesn't go well. Congratulations Rickey.

Who Should I Choose For Mayor

Tomorrow night New Orleans will have elected a new mayor or shrunk the candidates down to two for a runoff. I watched the last televised debate last night. I have been following everything since the beginning. Most of my friends seem to think that the major candidates are interchangeable. That says to me that anything can happen tomorrow because there are enough folks who are going to walk into the booth and make their decision at the last minute. I am not totally sold on any particular candidate either. I have a few favorites but there has never been a point where I knew for sure what my vote would be. I think it would be a good idea to write out what I feel about each of the major candidates to see if people have seen the campaign the way I have.

Nadine Ramsey: If I were voting strictly on personal bias she would be my choice. We are from the same area and I am comfortable with her. It took her a minute to get her legs in the race but she has performed pretty well lately. There is a part of me that hopes she doesn’t win but chooses to stay involved in politics as voice in the community because we could use a few more voices that operate out of the political circle. Everyone doesn’t have to hold an office to be effective. If she did win my biggest concern would be her stage presence. She seems to be a little nervous in front of the camera and the mayor will be staring down the media every day. That could be a problem for her.

Rob Couhig: I am going to say something that may seem a little crazy. If Rob Couhig were black or an old school white democrat and said some of the things he has during the forum he might win the election. The problem is he’s a Republican in a heavily Democratic city. His party hasn’t done him any favors either nationally with the over the top reaction to President Obama. I think he ran this time around just to get his agenda out in the open and go after Mitch Landrieu. If makes the runoff it would be more surprising than the Saints in the Superbowl.

John Georges: The most confusing person in this race. He doesn’t need the money. He’s getting endorsements from everywhere and from people of all races. He sounds like he understands the problems of the poor and disenfranchised. He sounds the most like an old school black politician. I don’t know what to make of him. I saw those pictures of his fraternity dressing in black face and taking racism to the highest level. None of the black people that endorsed him backed out after those things became public. Local bloggers think he’s paying everyone off but I just don’t see the benefit in wasting all that money. As far as the pictures go, they are disturbing but I am not coming down as hard on him because that was 30 years ago. If blogging had been around when I was in my late teens and early 20’s the FBI would have had me on a watch list somewhere. You have to give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s grown especially with so many minorities that work for him in high positions. I am not sure if he can win but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him in the runoff.

Troy Henry: He’s a very smart man. He carries himself like a leader. He’s polished enough that I don’t worry about him embarrassing everybody by saying something crazy. I think he would be competent mayor. I agree with his general ideas and he lives in New Orleans East so that would have to be a benefit. My only issue with voting for him is that he’s a business man and I don’t think we need another business man right now. I don’t want to say anything to get myself in trouble at work but if more people had to actually deal with the city in a working capacity they would know that there is a sense of urgency and progression that needs to happen in order to get things done for the people in a timely manner and that’s not happening right now. I don’t blame Mayor Nagin for everything but I blame him for this because he hasn’t done anything to make these folks recognize the need and move any faster. It’s not fair to say that Troy Henry is going to do the same thing but I can’t help it. I’m still working this out.

James Perry: I was ready to vote for James Perry six months ago. He’s young, intelligent and represents a changing of the guard from our parents’ generation to leadership to our time to take the torch and move forward. If you talk to him about the issues you will come away very impressed with him. I think he would be the best person to tackle the crime issue because at 34 he grew up in the city during the time when things really changed and he understands the factors and circumstances that lead to crime better than any of the other candidates. I think he could reach out to those young men and relate to them on a personal level. I even like the fact that he thinks a 40% reduction in the murder rate is achievable because that tells me he believes that some of these young brothers can be saved with the right opportunity. It would be a new day in local politics if he wins. I wish he would have gone door to door and spoke with the people. James ran a 2009-2010 campaign in a city that most of the people are around 1998 in terms of technology. We are logging on the internet more and more but this isn’t the main choice of media in the neighborhood. He should have bought more signs and posters and got his street team moving. I don’t know if enough people know who he is.

Mitch Landrieu: He’s an experienced politician and I think we need that. He doesn’t have a questionable history with dealing with the black community hanging over his head. His sister is the senior senator from the state and I think if he’s the mayor there is no way she or their party allows him to fail. All the money that’s being held up to spite Ray Nagin would magically flow like a river and things would get done. Plus, sometimes when a man is trying to fulfill a family legacy they work hard at it. His opponents attack him more than anyone else because he’s a heavyweight. His presence made two qualified people drop out. He’s probably going to at least make the run off. I just wish that after all his experience he would blow me away when he speaks at least one time. Just once I would have liked to listen to a forum and thought to myself that his experience set him apart from everyone else. The question is did he just put everything on cruise control since he didn’t feel that any of the people running could challenge him or is this all the energy he can muster? I guess shall see if he wins because I don’t believe you can turn the energy it takes to lead off and on that easily. If there is a runoff and it’s only two candidates sharing time instead of six or more, he’s going to have to step his game up or become a three time loser for mayor.

The first time I had a chance to vote for mayor was in 1994. Marc Morial won that election. The key issues that year were crime, blight, jobs, and economic development. Now in 2010 I am going to vote again tomorrow and the key issues are crime, blight, jobs, and economic development. It’s a good thing the Saints are in the Superbowl because that reality would have me very depressed.

Television, Blogging, Reality and Local Elections.

Around 6:40 PM Sunday night Don Lemon of CNN's Newsroom introduced me to world wide audience as a guest on his show along with Terrence Blanchard. I only had two goals. The first one was to not freeze up and stare at the screen. The second one was to not cuss and say anything overly Ebonic. I managed to accomplish both of these. I want to thank Karen Gadbois. The best part about the whole experience was the reaction of my family and friends. They were way more excited than I was. If you really want to know how people feel about you do something nice and see how the people close to you react to it. Judging by the reaction I got I have to assume that the people around me must really like me. It's either that or they are faking it thinking I am going to get some big money real soon. I'm just joking. They already know I am cheap. I don't have a clip to post. I have to step my game up in video recordings. Mark another notch for cool stuff blogging has allowed me to do. When someone in Congress tries to regulate this I am going to Capitol Hill and testify. Blogging has been the greatest thing I ever started doing just to kill boredom. Anything that happens after this is lagniappe.

Despite the Saints and the good feeling going through the city there is always reminders of our real situation. It doesn't take much to get some perspective. While I was feeling good this morning I got a call from a good friend and work colleague who were calling to cancel a meeting Thursday. I never knew her son was murdered back in 2003. I guess that's one of those things that don’t come up during casual conversation. Well, one of the guys charged with it is finally going to trial seven years later and she has to go testify. That's got to be rough having to relive that after all this time. As bad as I want to Saints to win, we could go 0-16 and if I never had to hear another story like my friend's then I would never complain. That's the power of the Saints I guess. They give you something to take your attention away from all the drama and baggage around here.

Ricardo left me a comment on my last post that went something like this...”Cliff if you can not tell us who you will be voting for maybe it would be edifying if you told us who you will not have on your list."

My answer is that I have not officially eliminated anyone because everyday I get more and more confused about what I want to do.

Superdeformed said..."I'm more concerned with city counsel, sheriff, and the assessor races."

He's right and I think I have those figured out. Here is the almost official Cliff Voting Card that is subject to change but probably not.

Assessor: Lemle
Sheriff: Gusman
Council: Hedge Morrell, Marshall, And Fielkow
Coroner: Not really worried about this.
Judge: Only voting for one of them because I know her personally so I won't pretend like I have a valid reason other than that.

The last thing I have to say about this election year is that it's really strange. I just read this today about a candidate that has gotten all kinds of African American support. He has a lot of black people working for him in the private sector too. My personal opinion is that if it's true he was involved in any of this foolishness I wish all former racist frat boys showed their regrets with jobs and opportunity to grow. We would have a better city.

I am tired of people thinking we are going to be distracted by the football game so we won't vote. After all the stuff we have had to rebuild and move past with negative energy, why would we let a time of positive energy keep us from doing what we need to do. We need a little more credit for our focus. The game is Sunday and voting is Saturday. We will be fine. I think we are going to have a high turnout and everyone is going to let their voices be heard. I have to vote and go to a parent meeting Saturday morning so I am dialed into everything. I'll go to the polls and press some buttons for our next leaders, go to the parent meeting and get my opinion drowned out by the mama's in the room, and then I will clean my grill to get ready for the greatest football day ever. It’s time to bring everything to a close this weekend.

I wouldn't want to be anywhere but New Orleans right now.....except for maybe seats on the 50 yard line in Miami on Sunday.

One Week Left And I'm Still Deciding

After I wrote my first Saints Super Bowl post the rest of the week was supposed to be about the New Orleans mayor’s race. I didn't write anything because I am too uninspired about the whole process. I have decided on who I am voting for every other position except for mayor. Before everything got started I had high hopes for the ideas and agendas of the candidates. Maybe I wasn't being realistic. I am not sure what I got instead but at this point no one has sold me totally on voting for them. I look at the number of people voting early and I wonder if I am missing something. What did they hear to decide that this person is the right one for the job? I haven’t heard that yet so at this moment all candidates are still on the table for me.

In general my view on the mayor has changed over the last few months. Watching the State of the Union Wednesday night solidified the way I feel. I watched the president up there practically begging the people in that room to work together and I could see it all on their faces that they really had no intentions on doing that. One person can only change things so much if the rest of the people involved aren’t willing or capable of doing what they need to do. Regardless who wins, if the other people involved in making the city work don’t get together and do the right thing then it doesn’t matter. If everyone is fully committed then we could have an average mayor and things would be okay. I’ll make a decision soon.

P.S.

I would like to tell Ms. Nadine Ramsey that even if she doesn’t win the election she should still get out there and address the issues. I don’t know if she’s ready to be mayor or not but as time goes by she’s more impressive to me. You don’t have to be a politician to be a voice for the people. Please stay engaged.

Sitting On My Porch....With A Halas Trophy

There's a nurse that works in my office building who is one of the most upbeat people you will ever meet in the morning. Her face is usually full of life. This morning I got on the elevator with her and she looked like she had never been to sleep. As she was yawning and trying to get herself together I couldn't help but making a comment..."You haven't been to sleep either have you?" Turns out she was down in the French Quarters last night and had to get up this morning for work. I started with this story to prove that New Orleans is home to the people who can party real hard and grind out 8 -12 hour work days afterward with no problem. That's how we roll. I have never seen people look so tired and be so happy at the same time.

When I was seven years old I watched my first Saints home game on television. Back then the games never sold out so if you didn't have enough money to go you had to listen to the radio or follow the scores while watching another game if they were at home. We played the Falcons and I was real excited to see the home team actually play at home. The final score was 41-10 Atlanta. I don't know if the Falcons were running up the score but we sure didn't do much to stop them. This is my first solid memory of dozens that didn't end well. I could name them all but it doesn't matter now. If you follow the team you should realize like I do that the game last night played out exactly the way it needed to in order to close all the open wounds of things that went wrong.

It had to be the Vikings because the two of the Saints dream seasons were ended by them. I love Minneapolis as a city. I want to go there again but this morning I hope they feel just like we did after that playoff game in 1987. I hope all their fans tossed and turned thinking about every call and they have to avoid ESPN so they won't have to see Hartley's kick go through again and again and again. It had to be the Vikings.

How many times would something like the Reggie Bush muffed punt live on for years because it turned the game around and we lost? How many times did Jim Mora's teams dominate games in time of possession and statistics only to lose on a few mental mistakes? The botched hand off at the end of the first half had to happen.

How many games did the other team get the ball and drive for a winning score and we sat back praying for our defense to just make one play but it never came and we had to sit there and take the stomach punch? Tracey Porter's intercept had to happen.

How many times did referees call penalties on us that changed games and we couldn't see them even after watching the replay 20 times? A few of those happen last night. The interference call in overtime was legit and we paid dues for the referee to throw that flag.

How many times since Morten Anderson left have we been haunted by horrible field goal attempts? Anyone remember the River City Relay extra point try? Garret Hartley's kick had to happen.

How many times have the Saints signed free agents that couldn't play, made trades for people that never came through, gave up on draft picks too soon or had someone playing that no one ever heard of and they sucked? Jabari Greer, Darren Sharper, Jonathan Vilma, Devery Henderson, and Pierre Thomas all had to contribute to this win.

This may sound corny but I don't know what New Orleans would look like right now if the team would have moved. The Saints are the one thing that everybody connects with. The Colts and Archie's son are next. Win or lose this team doesn't owe me anything else. All I want to see is those shiny gold helmets run out of that tunnel in Miami. It's going to be a beautiful sight.

Nothing About This Sucks!!!

I tried to write the blog I wanted to write all week but I can't get the words together. I am in a state of disbelief right now. I need this to sink in first.