"Pro Life" Hypocrisy

It is becoming more and more apparent that Pro-Life legislators in our state, and in many others, have  adopted a myopic definition of "Pro Life" as encompassing the time span of “conception to birth.”  While they loudly advocate for the protection of the unborn, spending millions to foster this agenda, once the child is born their passionate rhetoric rapidly vaporizes, doing little to pass legislation for resources to ensure the health and well being of the newly born child.  Nowhere is this more evident than are in our own state.  It is a fact, that the Pro Life legislators in Louisiana do little to ensure good maternal care during the entire pregnancy process, which they so vigorously claim to protect.

Louisiana presently exceeds the national average in maternal mortality rates, ranking 47 out of 48, and ranks 5^th in infant mortality rates.  Additionally, 65% of the infants born in our state are more likely to die from being born too early or too small as compared to the rest of the country.

And while our legislators and governor prioritize taking public tax dollars to establish ‘educational savings accounts’ which are basically a welfare hand out to private school parents, and is projected to impact our state budget by over $250 million in three years, and approve ‘step backwards’ criminal justice bills with the cost of $32 million, one has to wonder where is the Pro Life priority for legislative funding assistance for the newly conceived child and postpartum medical care for the mom.  Instead, Louisiana Pro Life legislators have repeatedly voted down attempts to adequately fund the state’s Medicaid program, the program that funds 6 out of 10 births; the highest rate in the nation.  So, while the Pro Life movement in Louisiana may take great comfort in the recent passage of the anti-abortion law, the reality is the Pro Life movement has still failed the unborn and expectant mother.

Heck our Pro Life governor does not even want to accept already allocated federal monies to provide a summer lunch program for our school kids, at minimal cost to the state.  I term that Pro Life hypocrisy.  

Sadly, even if our legislators do finally understand what Pro Life actually encompasses, it’s too late because there is no more money left in in the state budget for this session due to our Pro Life governor’s other priorities.

Thus far, Governor Landry and our legislators have done little to nothing Pro Life for the prenatal/post-natal health of babies or expectant mothers.  It is so much more than simply “conception to birth protection.”  Hopefully the hypocrisy surrounding Pro Life will end soon among our state's governing leaders, and nationally, among others, but so far there is little factual evidence of that.

U.S. Is Losing its Morals

 

As our daily media headlines continue to bombard us with stories about the our border crisis, sexual assaults by Catholic priests, mob-style  slash-and- grabs, car-jackings, shootings, and murders, one has to wonder what has become of the morals in our society.  One of today’s headline stories even further defines America’s moral dilemma.   Dollar General announced that they will begin removing all self-checkout devices from their stores, due to item theft.  Walmart and Target also announce they will now limit the number of items you can check out in their self-checkout lines.

And to top things off we have two men running for president that have serious ethical and moral deficiencies.  In fact, one is presently defending himself from 91 charges in four criminal cases.  However, no one seems to really care anymore when one’s moral character is suspect.

I think my friend best summed up the present day moral sentiment in our country when I questioned him about the moral insufficiencies of these two candidates and he replied, “Well no one is perfect, and to find someone morally fit is not possible today, and should not be expected.”  Please pause and think about what he said.  Do you also buy into this belief?

If so, I wonder if we even internalize what we hear every time we attend church or synagogue.  And while we may simply wish to ignore what we as a society are willing to morally tolerate, one best review the long term plans of two of our top adversaries, namely, Russia and China.

Neither of these adversary’s plans involve going to war with the U.S. for world dominance. Their plan is simply to foster self- destruction of our society from within. Pit us against each other by destroying our moral fiber.  And if you think this is some sort of looney belief on my part, you need only to review the recent report released by our intelligent agencies about all the disinformation that is being disseminated by both these countries on social media to foster not only divisiveness, but to influence our elections. They are striking at the very core of our democracy.

Just look at how successful these two countries have been with their plans in creating a climate of ineffectiveness due to polarization and divisiveness at our Congressional House and Senate levels, and at the many state legislative branches.  Presently, these entities spend most of their time in power struggles rather than focusing on improving the quality of life in our society.  Many simply have sunk so low as to resort to name calling and personal attacks like preschoolers on a school yard.  And, we condone and reinforce this by our cheers and laughter when the folks running for the highest office in the land do it.   

Our political leaders no longer intellectually debate each other on issues important to us. They just personally demean each other.  But then again, maybe they lack the intellect to do otherwise.  However, whatever the reason all are contributing to implementing the perfect Russia/China plan.

Just how low will we morally and ethically go before we come to the realization that Russia and China are succeeding, and we decide to stop it?   It’s time to take your head out of the sand and notice what‘s going on.

What is LSU's Legacy?

As LSU continues to bask in the media surrounding its football team’s, men’s and women's baseball teams’, women’s gymnastics team’s and now the women's basketball team's elite successes, one ranking that is sorely missing from all this excitement is LSU’s academic successes.

According to the LSU website its mission and vision statement reads as follows:

“As the Flagship institution of the state, the vision of LSU is to be a leading research-extensive university, challenging undergraduate and graduate students to achieve the highest levels of intellectual and personal development. Designated as a Land, Sea and Space Grant institution, the mission of LSU is the generation, preservation, dissemination and application of knowledge and cultivation of the arts.

In implementing its mission, LSU is committed to:

• Offering a broad array of undergraduate degree programs and extensive graduate research opportunities designed to attract and educate highly qualified undergraduate and graduate students;
• Employing faculty who are excellent teacher-scholars, nationally competitive in research and creative activities and who contribute to a world-class knowledge base that is transferable to educational, professional, cultural and economic enterprises; and
• Using its extensive resources to solve economic, environmental and social challenges.”

Sadly, when it comes to addressing its academic mission LSU seems to be unable to repeat it sports’ successes. In the 2024 college and university rankings published by U.S. News and World Report, LSU ranks 185 in national universities, which is a 32 point drop since 2021 where it scored 153, and a 9 point drop over last year’s ranking.  Understandably, the media glossed over this stat, reported it in the back pages of the local papers, and never did any in-depth follow up investigative reporting as to why this continual drop is occurring.

Why would you expect any different coverage since LSU is promoted as the “Flagship institution” of the state?

However, I bet if this year’s women's basketball team had suddenly started losing games, that would have been front page news, and all the sports writers would have done in-depth stories as to what was going on.

So as our new governor embarks on focusing his energy and monies on the hot topic of combating crime in our state, just maybe he ought to put as much excitement and resources into combating the educational problem in our state which has now even reached the doorsteps of the state’s premier university. But as of now, he seems to have decided to grant raises to state agency heads as yet another priority.

It’s time for LSU and the governor to decide not only what's the Flagship institution’s legacy is to be, but the state's as a whole regarding educating its youth.

Thank God for Mardi Gras

As Mardi Gras approaches and the city breaks into revelry there is a particular group of individuals that surely is thankful for these celebratory days, namely, the homeless.  In order to make the city as attractive as possible, the homeless gathering in Treme under the Claiborne Avenue bridge is once again being disbanded by city workers and these individuals placed in subsidized apartments.  How long they will be permitted to remain there is anybody’s guess, but at least they are out of view to the tourists.

Sadly, this appears to be the only solution the Cantrell administration has to deal with this chronic problem, and after Carnival ends this population will once again grow on full display for all residents.

When the city will enact a realistic and sustainable plan to deal with the homeless in New Orleans is an unknown, but thank God for Mardi Gras to give these folks some temporary relief.

Just maybe some of that city income from Mardi Gras could be dedicated towards dealing with this problem permanently, instead of using the yearly band-aide solution.

Lazy Parents

Several months ago, I penned an opinion on the public outcry to ban certain books from libraries that were deemed inappropriate or offensive for children by certain individuals.  These regulations even went so far as to allow only a one individual to raise a complaint in order to have a book reviewed for banning.  At the time I raised the issue of where the role of the parent fit into all this regulation, and how parents now days would rather have government regulation of their children’s behavior rather than assume the role of good parenting.

Today, the news media reported that a federal judge in Ohio has halted the implementation of a new law that would require children to get parental consent to use social media apps such as FaceBook, TikTok, SnapChat, Meta, X, etc.  In his ruling the judge claimed the law was an infringement on free speech and overly vague.

For me this law was more than that. It was yet another example of lazy parents who feel they have no responsibility in regulating their children’s behavior; an attitude that is clearly borne out by the rise in teenage crimes.

Additionally, there really is no need for such a law.  There is already a function on all smart devices that allows online sites to be blocked from the device.  It’s called “Parental Controls.”  And there is another function called “Delete” which allows the complete removal of an app from the smart device.   However, it is obvious that many parents today don’t want to be perceived as the ‘bad guys’ by their children and simply want to use the scapegoat of government regulation to enforce their online behaviors. 

Well, I can tell what parents should be doing irrespective of any law.  They should assume the ‘bad guy’ role, monitored their kid’s search history, review what apps he/she are using, and if you feel they are inappropriate or being used abusively (bullying), deleted them.  If your children defy you and put them back on their smart device, take the device away.  Simple isn’t it?

News flash for parents, you don’t have to be your kid’s friend or buddy.  Instead love them, nurture them, and for God’s sake take responsibility in monitoring their behavior.  It's called parenting!

Same old crap

Sometimes my naiveness is an embarrassment to myself. I truly thought that governor-elect Jeff Landry would actually make departmental cabinet appointments based upon an individual's experience and expertise in the area in which they were charged with overseeing. Today, in politics, it's almost a universal practice to appoint friends, cronies, or individuals who assisted monetarily in your election, to these positions.  Sadly, Jeff Landry has kept that tradition alive and even added the requirement that you supported Donald Trump to his qualification's list. His latest cabinet selection to the head the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries clearly demonstrates his appointment desires. 

The only qualification of that appointee that even remotely relates to Wildlife and Fisheries is her contact with water while serving as captain of the Ohio State rowing team, which Landry highlighted in his appointment speech.  The appointee has no formal experience in the areas of ecology, biology, or conservation.  However, she was a true Trump supporter, so she qualifies to head the department. Landry's other cabinet appointments follow a similar pattern.

Business as usual. Why would I think Jeff Landry would be a trail blazer, break the centuries old modus operandi and do the logical thing? Just how naive can I be?

Pay up or leave the city

As a former 40 year resident of the city, I wonder when the residents and businesses of New Orleans are going to put on their 'big boy' pants and start paying their fair share of the cost to live in the city they claim to love. Maybe if the city officials didn't 'rollback' property taxes and let them stay at the real value of property ownership in the city, they could adequately fund the sewerage and drainage system, police protection, the emergency response system, the school system, infrastructure repairs and maintenance, reliable garbage collection, and the drinking water purification system, just to name a few.

If New Orleans residents are truly desirous of a better quality of life for their children and themselves,they need to pony up and adequately fund the city.  Inflation is a reality, and the city finances need to reflect that.  Just as it costs more to shop for groceries, automobiles, and other necessities, so too does it cost more to provide city services. It's time for the New Orleans City Council to face reality and stop being an 'enabler.'