Turned down for what?

10th November 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

In this political season of name-calling, race-baiting and fact-fudging, it would be easy to get frustrated and just shut down. But shutting down or even turning down is not an option when there is so much at stake for communities of color.

We need to do whatever we can to elect the best possible candidates available and make it clear to those candidates that we expect them to understand and act like they work for us and not nice versa. We need to make it clear that we expect and demand them to deliver on campaign promises of safer streets, fresh air and water, better public schools and access to better health care. We also expect them to work on delivering constitutional policing, a justice system that promotes equal protection under the law and enforcement of the U.S. Con­stitution.

It’s been said that the squeaky wheel gets the oil, which is simply another way of saying that we need to be “turned up” about protecting our voting, civil and human rights. Turning down with so much at stake is not an option. Not if we want to make life better for our children and our children’s children.

Let’s get turned up with some questions about the current social, economic and political climate. Here we go:

• After more than a year of reaching out to Black voters, what is a Republican-controlled Congress going to do to demonstrate to Black people its commitment to promoting, democracy, equal protection under the law and justice for all?

• Was anyone shocked about the recent article on Nola.com that said that the public education system has a symbiotic relationship with the city’s tourism industry, which needs a steady supply of undereducated applicants for low-wage, dead-end jobs?

• Is there anyone who thinks last month’s Black male summit at Dillard held several days before the 20th annual Black male summit at Watson Memorial Teaching Minis­tries and just one day before the mayor announced his pick for NOPD superintendent, wasn’t scripted and carefully orchestrated and choreographed down to the smallest detail?

• Why didn’t the mayor invite students from all of the city’s public schools to the summit or say anything at all about the Recovery School Districts plans to build a school for Black children on top of a toxic landfill?

• Why hasn’t the mayor said a mumbling word about the city’s climbing murder rate after several years of decline?

• Why does it take French Quarter business owners to convince the Landrieu administration and the city’s new police chief that it makes more fiscal and common sense to use $2.5 million in hotel taxes to hire actual NOPD officers rather than civilian patrol officers?

• Why is the mayor now trying to convince residents that they said they wanted the city to have 1,600 police officers when it was clearly him who came up with that number and repeatedly sold it to the media?

• Why haven’t the Feds and the city’s famed Multi-Agency Task Force been able to catch any of the traffickers bringing heroin and cocaine into the city and region by the boatload?

• Who thinks that a clandestinely planned, well-scripted “production” showcasing the Landrieu administration’s spin on racial reconciliation in New Orleans — one that completely ignores the struggles and concerns of the Black masses and seeks no input from everyday people — is going to convince Black residents that the city is committed to protecting the constitutional and human rights of everyone who lives here?

• Refresh my memory: Why didn’t the people of New Orleans get to have a say in selecting a new police chief this time?

• What ever happened to those five NOPD officers who were forced to work in a City Park FEMA trailer because they fell out of favor with New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and former NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas?

• What is up with the Civil Service Commission’s decision last week to hold a vote on two proposed changes to the city’s hiring policies without even a full hour of public discussion about the changes and refusing to explain what the changes are intended to accomplish or to disclose who actually voted for the changes?

• When you think of the Landrieu administration, do the words “transparency” and “integrity” come to mind?

• Why can’t the mayor seem to grasp the fact that trampling upon the constitutional rights of the people of this city to “make New Orleans better” really does not make New Orleans better?

• Are you even the least bit disappointed or appalled that local elected officials have not said anything publicly about the Recovery School District’s plans to build a new school fork Black children atop a toxic landfill?

• Why do New Orleans voters let local elected officials get away with eliminating potential challengers before Election Day?

• Just one debate between U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu and GOP challenger Bill Cassidy with so much at stake for Louisiana — really?

• With a GOP-controlled Congress primed to weaken or do away with “Obamacare,” how are Tea Party supporters going to afford the kind of health care that allows them to get out there and fight for the nation’s one percent?

• What products sold by the Koch brothers would you be willing to give up to send a message to America’s rich and powerful shot-callers?

• Why don’t lawmakers see a connection between attacks on funding for the nation’s public schools and the decline of America’s economy?

• When was the last time you visited a library or bookstore?

• How many people on your holiday gift list are going to get an African-centered, life-affirming book from you?

This article originally published in the November 10, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.