Don’t shoot the messenger

29th May 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

Despite efforts to convince folks that things are looking up in New Orleans, media coverage of the city’s escalating crime problem and its struggle to rein in trigger-happy officers say otherwise. These are dark, dangerous times. Crime, poverty and health costs are up while mental health care services, job opportunities and hope are down.

People looking for reasons to keep on keeping on will not find one in the city’s insistence on focusing on major sporting events and music festivals while neglecting the basic needs of people who live and work here. Nor will they find reason for hope in the city’s dismal education system or the demise of many of the city’s historic Black high schools like Booker T. Washington, George Wash­ing­ton Carver and McDonogh 35.

People who had never set foot in New Orleans before Katrina are now calling the shots and dictating to people who have lived here for all or most of their lives what schools should be closed or merged, as well as major changes to historic neighborhoods whose history they haven’t even taken the time to learn. Why are they getting away with this? Because we let them. When we get sick and tired of being sick and tired and understand that no one has the right to come into our house and turn everything upside down, we will summon the strength, power, unity of purpose and courage to do something about it. As Dr. Frances Cress Welsing is fond of saying, “When the fool learns the game, the game is over.”

Keep talking about the issues that lessen the quality of your life, sharing your thoughts and insights about what changes are needed to make New Orleans safe for democracy and justice and remember that if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. Most importantly, keep on keeping on and marching “’til victory is won.”

• If the mayor thinks he needs to bring in more than six dozen federal agents to fight violent crime in New Orleans, isn’t it safe to say that the mayor doesn’t have much faith in NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas’ ability to do his job — and if that’s so, why not cut your losses and start looking for a bright, dynamic police chief to step in and get the job done?

• Where do the powers that be keep finding these Black political appointees that the average Black person in New Orleans has never heard of?

• Why is it so hard to identify a predominantly Black high school in New Orleans that wasn’t altogether decimated or negatively impacted in some significant way by the changes made in public education since Hurricane Katrina?

• Shouldn’t the people of New Orleans who most desperately need safe, affordable housing have a say in whether the governor can get away with convincing FEMA officials to take millions earmarked for housing and use those funds to continue renovations at the Louisiana Superdome?

• Why have so many members of the Black community who say Hurricane Katrina opened their eyes about racism, classism and privilege in New Orleans gone back to spending a considerable amount of their time attending parties, parades and second lines?

• When are families, schools and churches going to return to the age-old tradition of doing whatever is necessary to make sure that children are loved, nurtured, protected and educated?

• Does anyone really believe that the Jefferson Parish School System psychologist who resigned last week after saying that Blacks should be put down like dogs and that “these Black dudes will kill” tourists in New Orleans is the only employee in that school system who feels that way?

• Of all of the questionable changes and decisions made by the New Orleans City Council since Hurricane Katrina, why did it take so long for any of the council’s Black members to finally get fed up?

• If so many people are appalled about being “forced” by the Obama Administration to enroll in a healthcare program, why aren’t those who have been making the most noise about how this violates their constitutional rights up in arms about Louisiana Governor Piyush Jindal and his charter school allies forcing changes to public education down the throats of New Orleans residents?

• How does a woman in Florida who fired a warning shot when she was fearful of her abusive husband attacking her get 10 years behind bars when that state’s criminal injustice system takes its sweet time trying to figure out whether George Zimmer­man even deserves to go to trial after killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin?

• How does the person who stole Henry Glover’s skull after the NOPD shooting victim’s body was burned in a car on a Westbank levee sleep at night?

• Why are so few people talking about the Black institutions and organizations that have been forced by government decisions, law changes or other circumstances to close their doors?

This article was originally published in the May 28, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper