Springing forward
7th April 2014 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis,
Editor
Spring is in the air and so are questions about just about everything. Why are we here? What are we supposed to be doing with our lives? Why are we still fighting the same battles that our forebears fought 200 years ago? How do we regain control of our destiny as a people? What do the ancestors think about our current efforts to advance the cause of freedom and justice? Where do we go from here?
Spring is about rebirth and renewal, so as we continue to seek the truth about who we are and what our divine mission is, let us also acknowledge the myriad of gifts we have possessed since the beginning of time and use those gifts to find our way out of this darkness that impedes our vision of a brighter, more productive tomorrow.
Let’s ask some questions and start searching for answers to the many challenges and issues that lie before us. Here we go:
• Why are so many elected officials and residents of this city saying so little about the travesty of justice that continues to unfold in the Danziger Bridge and Henry Glover cases?
• Which news story has gotten the most buzz this spring, the rumored cat fight between Porsha and Kenya on “Real Housewives of Atlanta” or the brilliant young Black teenager from New York who was accepted into all eight Ivy League schools?
• When somebody white is bitter about not getting accepted into a college or university, why does he or she seem to automatically assume that it’s somebody Black, Brown, Red or Yellow who took their spot and not an underqualified white applicant?
• Isn’t it magnanimous to offer pay raises to city employees after making moves to undermine City Hall workers’ job security over the past three years?
• How can the mayor and police chief expect anyone who has lost a loved one to trust the police or report crimes to the police when it has been proven time and again that this police department and its officers believe they can do whatever they want to whomever they want whenever they want?
• Now that the New Orleans City Council has a Black majority again, do you feel like Black residents and businesses will get a fair shot?
• If the City of New Orleans decides to only collect garbage in residential areas once a week, as some have suggested, will that mean residents will only be charged half of what they’re currently being asked to pay?
• What does the U.S. Department of Justice have to say about Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard’s inability/refusal to determine the cause of death in the Henry Glover case?
• How will the U.S. Department of Justice regroup and secure justice for the families victimized by the Danziger Bridge and Henry Glover cases?
• Why hasn’t the Multi-Agency Task Force aimed at reducing violent crime and removing “gang members” from the streets been able to arrest or prosecute any of the major players or mid-level “managers” bringing heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances into New Orleans?
• After witnessing the corruption and rampant abuse in the New Orleans Police Department, who thinks this police department should be allowed to reform itself or proceed with very little in the way of involvement from the U.S. Department of Justice?
• What’s going on with the federal investigation of former U.S. Attorney Jim Letten?
• What’s going on with the federal investigation of Fifth U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones?
• Why does the ultraconservative Republican brain trust think that Black and Brown voters will vote for ANY Black or Brown presidential or congressional candidate regardless of the candidate’s demonstrated commitment to fighting for justice, democracy and equal protection under the law?
• Why do American consumers continue to buy household products from companies whose executives and owners use their wealth and power to advocate for white supremacy, states’ rights, anti-poor legislation and taxation without representation for the masses?
• Why don’t we hear and see more people who routinely use social media talk about the books about the struggle?
• Why is it normal for schools in communities of color to teach ad nauseum about the history and glory of Western civilization but it is considered taboo or controversial to offer African-centered courses?
• Why do so few Black students in grade school learn that Alexander Pushkin, the father of Russian literature, was Black, that the great military strategist Hannibal who defeated the Roman empire was Black or that Alexander Dumas, the author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, was Black?
• As we reflect on the anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s April 4, 1968 assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, what are you doing personally and as part of the collective community to further the aims and objectives of the Poor People’s Campaign?
• When was the last time you wrote a letter to or called your city councilperson, state legislator or congressman?
• What would happen if every resident of this city who is dissatisfied with the city’s inability to hire minority contractors, the lack of police protection, overgrown neutral grounds, understaffed city playgrounds, the ongoing problem of neighborhood blight and a host of other failures actually showed up at City Hall and demanded answers one morning?
• Do you remember when the overwhelming majority of the community acted like they knew that Black is beautiful?
This article originally published in the April 7, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
