Talkin’ about needed changes

10th April 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

It’s April and things are heating up politically and atmospherically. While New Orleans is gearing up for a hotly contested City Council runoff, the governor is strutting around the Louisiana legislature like the State Capitol is his personal playground and the Party of Lincoln is inching closer to choosing a dragonslayer to take on the president in this fall’s elections.

Meanwhile, here we are in New Orleans still trying to make sense of what happened to Justin Sipp, Earl Sipp and Wendell Allen and trying to make sure that the U.S. Department of Justice follows through on its commitment to purge the NOPD of its racist, criminal element. Let’s talk about all of those things and more:

• If school vouchers and charter schools are such a great idea, why was there so much behind-the-scenes plotting and scheming from a wide range of statewide officials to implement these changes, and why are there still a lot of other cities and states watching intently to see how this movement plays out in Louisiana before following suit?

• Why is it that the same Department of Justice that jumped so quickly to help New Orleans police search for the killer of the so-called “Good Samaritan” in Algiers is simply “watching” how the NOPD handles its investigations of the Justin Sipp and Wendell Allen cases?

• Why is the GOP having such a difficult time finding intelligent and credible presidential candidates?

• Why can’t most of those convicted and sentenced in the Danziger Bridge and Henry Glover cases apologize to the families affected by their actions or even admit that they did something wrong?

• When are we going to start hosting “Sweet Tea” parties to begin holding elected officials who fail to address our concerns and represent our interests accountable?

• Why can’t the mayor show the same commitment and zeal in cleaning up the Sewerage & Water Board that he displays in seeking to police the city’s taxi cab industry?

• How many of the city’s wealthy and/or politically connected residents are still getting away with not paying their property taxes?

• What’s up with state Sen. Neil Riser’s efforts to do away with most of Louisiana’s gun restrictions less than two months after Trayvon Martin was gunned down by a trigger-happy, card-carrying member of the NRA in Florida?

• Wouldn’t Neighborhood Watch captain George Zimmer­man be the perfect poster child for people of color who internalize and willfully embrace white-supremacist beliefs and attitudes?

• If George Zimmerman did in fact call Trayvon Martin a “f—ing coon” and thinks of Black people that way, what does he think white racists think of him?

• Does anybody who saw GOP presi­dential candidate Mitt Rom­ney trying to sing think that that brother is ready for “American Idol” or “The Voice”?

• Does anybody think GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum could really hold his own in an intellectual battle with President Barack Obama?

• Why are there still Black elected officials, ministers, civil rights “leaders” and businessmen who are afraid to stand up for justice, democracy and equal protection under the law in the 21st century?

• With more than a handful of successful Black people, why are there so few independent Black educational institutions in Ameri­ca?

• Why are so few of today’s college graduates able to think critically about the plight of Black people in the United States and African people around the world?

• How do Black people unlearn this need or compulsion to be better than other Black people?

• How significant was it that the five NOPD officers who received stiff sentences last week received their sentences on the 44th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination?

• Why are Black people expected to apologize for Kwanzaa or Black History Month while others who live in the United States can proudly celebrate holidays like St. Patrick’s Day, St. Joseph’s Day and Oktoberfest?

• If we are living in Post-Racial America and everything is better with the election of the nation’s first Black president, why have there been so many racially demeaning depictions of President Obama and the First Family, and why is it so easy for political conservatives to fan the flames of racial hatred?

• With so many elected officials adamant about not investing in public education and the nation as a whole refusing to expand educational opportunities for people of color, is it any wonder that the United States continues to fall behind other nations with regard to education?

• How telling is it that many of President Barack Obama’s political opponents see the gradual im­prove­ment of the U.S. economy as a bad thing with presidential elections looming on the horizon?

This article was originally published in the April 9, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper