Burn, Hollywood, burn

6th October 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

With so many television industry executives, producers and workers defecting to New Orleans, it remains to be seen how New Orleans’ new role as the indubitable capital of Hollywood South will financially benefit the locals who might have otherwise been ensnared by the traps set by state and local school officials, the tourism industry and the prison industrial complex.

Ideally, someone is already working on blueprints for the kind of trade school that might provide young people with the kind of knowledge, guidance and exposure needed to better prepare to compete for some of these well-paying jobs. It would be great if some of us who have benefited from taking part in the film industry could prepare some of us to meet those demands for a skilled labor force.

Beyond that, I’m wondering if a segment of the population will bet all “bourgie-fied” and superficial like some of our cousins in the ATL and Tinseltown or if a conscious (pun intended) effort will be made to remain true to ourselves.

Beyoncé’s baby sister Solange has been spotted in Treme´ and others like Lenny Kravitz, Raheem DeVaughn, N’Dea Davenport and Mos Def have been spotted doing their thing in New Orleans, but I’m wondering how many R&B singers and “movie stars” will move down here and get their little feelings hurt because the locals aren’t sweating them or hanging on their every word and deed.

You may recall that the former New Orleans Saints running back Rickey Williams once famously said that New Orleans doesn’t know how to treat “superstars.” Clearly.

Enough about Hollywood. Let’s focus on some questions on the minds of many:

• Do you believe the persistent, but unconfirmed rumors that says the Feds might be taking a good, hard look at Louisiana Gov. Piyush Jindal?

• Were your feelings hurt by Sen. David Vitter’s bitter attack on Attorney General Eric Holder after Holder announced his resignation recently?

• Are you happy with the way that either of Louisiana’s two U.S. Senators has handled issues like the privatization of public education, unequal protection under the law in the criminal justice system and unconstitutional policing?

• Do you think senators. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter — or any of our congressional representatives — care about the Recovery School District’s ongoing plans to build Cohen College Prep atop a toxic landfill at the former site of Booker T. Washington High School?

• Has the mayor who clearly adores Black children, sees himself as a champion of the poor and underrepresent and who also famously told CBS news correspondent Byron Pitts several years ago that he sees himself as a progressive from the Northeast, said even a single, mumbling word about plans to put a school for Black children on top of a toxic landfill with high traces of eight toxic metals including mercury, lead and copper?

• Are you happy with the way your congressional representative and state legislator have represented your interests in the nine years since Hurricane Katrina?

• When was the last time that you looked closely at the votes your state legislators and congressional representatives made in Baton Rouge and Washington. D.C. and considered whether they have actively supported efforts to end educational apartheid and bring economic, racial and social justice to New Orleans?

• When was the last time that you and your friends, relatives and neighbors got together to remove an elected official from public office?

• How many people who look like us played a role in the decision to privatize public education in New Orleans, tear down the city’s housing projects without a solid plan for providing former residents affordable housing

• How many congressional representatives and state legislators have not uttered a single word about the state’s decision to terminate thousands of New Orleans Public School teachers, administrators and staffers after Hurricane Katrina or the failure of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana to make those charged in the Henry Glover and Danziger Bridge cases pay for their heinous crimes?

• How many of the same Democratic incumbent candidates that think they are entitled to your unconditional support regardless of how little they fight for you in office think that you as an honest, hard-working taxpayer are entitled to be represented in local, state and federal government by someone who gives a damn about something other than doing whatever it takes to get re-elected?

• Do you get the impression that there’s still more the American public is not being told about the recent break-in at the White House?

• Why isn’t the local arm of the U.S. Department of Justice all over the City of New Orleans, NOPD and consent-decree monitor Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton for doing a half-assed job of implementing the federally mandated police reforms?

• When was the last time you showed up at an elected official’s office with a cup of coffee, a gallon of truth serum and a sackful of probing questions?

This article originally published in the October 6, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.