IN LOUISIANA, IT’S ALL ABOUT FOOTBALL!

Monday, December 8th, 202

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 IN LOUISIANA, IT’S ALL ABOUT FOOTBALL!

A lengthy article appeared in newspapers across the country by syndicated columnist George Will concerning  the innovative programs involving higher education throughout the south.  The University of Tennessee was recognized  because of its Institute of American Civics. The University of North Carolina, my alma  mater,  because of its School of Civic Life and Leadership. The University of Mississippi because of its Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom. There was no mention of Louisiana’s flagship, LSU.

The state’s major university did make big news across the country. It hired a new football coach. It ran off the last head coach having to pay him a total of $54 million as a buyout. The former athletic director, who also was recently fired, summed it up insightfully. The top three priorities at LSU are number one, football. Second would be football and the third? Oh yeah, it’s football.

LSU’s new football coach, a guy named Lane Kiffin, will be paid $13 million a year for a total of $91 million over seven years. Extra incentives could move his salary up to $17 million  That makes the highest paid college coach in America. How much is $13 million? The school could hire one hundred new full-time tenured professors for the same amount of money. One Hundred educators offering an educational foundation for the state’s young people. But that doesn’t win football games.

Louisiana’s Governor Jeff Landry said there would be no more sweetheart deals for the new football coach similar to former coach Brian Kelly’s $54 million buyout. “I’m tired of rewarding failure in this country and then leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill.” So was the Governor right? Instead of a $54 million buyout, Coach Griffin has a $72.8 million buyout.  And that’s supposedly a better deal?

The guiding force behind LSU, the Board Supervisors, says there will be very little public money involved in paying a new football coach. It’s all raised through the giving by private donors to the athletic program. So the public pays nothing, at least that’s what they say. But let’s call it what it is. These private donors deduct what they pay to the university football program, a nonprofit, from their income taxes that would normally come to the state and federal government  to pay for public services. So actually, it is the taxpayers who are footing part of the bill. 

Tulane University in New Orleans, where I went to law school and for years was LSU’s archrival, has been paying its football coach a little less than $3 million a year. The team just won the American Conference title and has qualified to make a run for the football national championship. The fighting tigers of LSU were lucky not to have to play Tulane this year.

As a sidenote, the last time Tulane beat LSU was on November 27, 1982. I remember the date well. I got married to my wife of 43 years on that morning in New Orleans, and came back to Baton Rouge to watch Tulane stomp the Tiges. After the game, many fans walked over to the LSU Assembly Center to watch a  late night concert by singer Neil Diamond. Quite a day for me.

Let’s go ahead and call big time college football for what it is. It’s a professional sport. Nothing less. You can forget about all these sentimental values of pulling for your home team. In the old days, college football players brought value to their home state.

They played at local high schools, attended universities like LSU for a solid education, and went back home in their communities to make a solid contribution. Billy Cannon stayed in Baton Rouge as a dentist, LSU all American Tommy Casanova is an eye doctor in Crowley Louisiana. Star LSU quarterback Bert Jones runs a lumber company in Ruston Louisiana. They all contributed to their state. Those days are gone. It’s all about the money.

So cheer on your big time college team. But just recognize that it is no different than any other professional team. Such college teams bring little educational value to their home state. And for a state like Louisiana, that desperately needs a first rate flagship University, that’s a shame.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. 

 

 

 

GOVERNOR JIMMIE DAVIS BROUGHT US SUNSHINE!

Monday, November  24th, 2025

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

GOVERNOR JIMMIE DAVIS BROUGHT US SUNSHINE!

Louisiana Governor Jimmy Davis died 25 years ago this month. He was my friend and a great supporter for many years.

 Besides serving two terms as Louisiana Governor, he wrote the song that could be the most recognized American song worldwide. Go to a small Asian community where little or no English is spoken. Start humming, “You Are My Sunshine.” More likely than not, the locals will join in singing the song in English. Everybody knows the words to a down-home tune written by a Louisiana country singer and movie star. And he was sworn in as Louisiana Governor seventy-five years ago

Jimmie Davis was a popular country singer in the 1930s and made a number of western movies including the likes of Cyclone Prairie Rangers, Mississippi Rhythm and Square Dance Katy. But throughout the world, he made his mark with Sunshine.

A few years back, I was in Cambodia at the Golden Triangle, where Burma and Thailand converge. I was having breakfast in a rural village at an outdoor cafe, and the young waitress who knew a few words in English said, “You American. I love America. I sing about America.” Then, with a big grin on her face, she broke out in song and danced around the dirt floor singing “You Are My Sunshine.”

After serving two terms as Louisiana Governor, Davis spent a lot of time at his farm in northeast Louisiana, traveling back and forth from the state capitol in Baton Rouge. The Governor was friends with my senior law partner in Ferriday and made it a habit to stop at our office for a coffee break. I was a wet behind the ears 26-year-old attorney and often the only one in the office. So Jimmie Davis would talk at length about his life and gave me my first political education.

He would often ask me to notarize some document, which I was glad to do. “So what do I owe you Brother Brown?” he would say. I always settled for a few verses of Sunshine. He regularly inquired if I could find him a raccoon. Up in redneck country, we just call it a coon. His favorite meal was coon stew. Knowing the coon request would always come with his visit, I asked some local hunters I represented to drop off a raccoon. So I would keep one of those critters in the office freezer ready for the Governor’s visit.

Now I know I have whetted your appetite for a delicious plate of raccoon. When I was elected Secretary of State some years later, I wrote a cookbook, and the Governor graciously gave me one of his favorite coon recipes to include in my gourmet collection of sumptuous dishes.

Davis made one last futile effort to be elected for a third term in 1971, while I made my foray in politics running for state senator. He often campaigned with his band in the district where I was running, and I would put up signs that read: “Come to the Jim Brown for Senator campaign rally. Special guest: Governor Jimmie Davis.” Davis laughed when he caught on to what I was doing and always called me up on the platform to introduce me as the district’s next state senator. He supported me every time I ran for public office after that.

Throughout my 28-year political career, Jimmie Davis would often come by my Baton Rouge office or call me to come visit at him at his home, which was right by the state capitol. I always knew he needed a notary. My last call was a few weeks before he died in 2000. He was donating a piece of property, but he insisted he pay me something. “OK Governor,” I told him. “When you pass on, I want you to give me your driver’s license number.” You see, Davis instituted the license requirement during his first term as governor in 1944. And the number on his license? Number one. “A done deal,” he told me.

Of course, I never actually got it. But it was good way to end our 35-year relationship with a smile. And Sunshine? Who was she? A past lover? A devoted family member? No. Sunshine was Jimmie Davis’s horse. The palomino mare is buried up on the northeast Louisiana farm. I pass that way occasionally and remember back on my conversations with the Governor. And yes. I do hum a few bars of “You Are My Sunshine.”

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. 

 

A DREADED DISEASE-ALZHEIMER’S!

Monday, November 30^th, 2025

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

A DREADED DISEASE-ALZHEIMER’S!

 

This is a difficult column for me to write. Recently, I returned a message from my friend I've known for many years. He was calling to tell me goodbye. He told me he was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and didn't know how his memory will hold up in the weeks to come. What do you say to a colleague in such condition?  Apparently, a number of people just wake up to the fact that they have been captured by Alzheimer’s and take a last gasp to put their life in order. 

 

In “Paradise Lost”, the rebel angel Belial puts it this way.

     

“For who would lose, though full of pain, this intellectual being,

Those thoughts that wander through eternity.”

 

I was touched indirectly, but somewhat forcefully by the ordeal of CBS Sunday Morning reporters Barry Peterson and his wife, Jan. The married journalists were living and working in Asia, until Jan's diagnosis with Alzheimer’s at age fifty-five cut their close relationship short.  Barry was a guest on my nationally syndicated radio program on several occasions.  We talked at length, both on and off the air, of the trails he faced taking care of and loving his wife, and trying to figure out what his own life would become in the years ahead.

 

“The hardest thing was watching her disappear a little more,” Barry said. They discussed what Barry’s life might look like without her. “She was very adamant that if something happened to her, which I didn't think was going to happen, that I should go on and have the rest of my life,” he said.

 

As Jan’s condition worsened, Barry was alone, and he had to make a difficult decision. “I really felt that for my survival, my sanity, my desire to have conversations with someone that really understood the process, that I needed to reach out and I did,” Barry told me. Here’s how Barry delt with the difficult problem of being a caregiver and also trying to carry-on a separate relationship. He met Mary Nell Wolff. 

 

Friends encouraged Mary to go on Match.com. She said she later got a message from Barry, who shared his story about his wife's illness. With Barry traveling the world for work, Mary Nell took on caregiving responsibilities for Jan. “I felt at peace the moment that Jan and Mary Nell bonded,” Barry says. 

 

“I didn't not love Jan, and I was not going to in any way abandon her, but I loved Mary Nell at the same time,” he explains. “And Mary now loved me, and Mary Nell loved Jan.”

 

      Barry shared his experience in his book called “Jan's Story.” Jan passed away in 2013. He said if you can understand the love he shared with her and Mary Nell, “then you have understood the matrix of what love is like with Alzheimer’s for people who just want to survive.” 

 

Each time Berry appeared on my radio program, I was stunned at the number of messages, calls, and emails that I received. So many people wanted to share their stories of dealing with Alzheimer’s as a caregiver supporting someone who was suffering from the disease.

 

Following one of the appearances by Barry on my radio program, I stopped in at local hardware store that specialized in radio cables and microphones. I gathered the few items I needed, then went to the cash register to pay for my acquisitions.  As I handed over my credit card, the salesman asked if he could visit with me for a while. Of course, I said.

 

He told me that he’s been a caregiver for his wife who has had Alzheimer's for the last 12 years. He was taken by my interview with Berry and told me how much it meant to him that I would brooch such a difficult subject. As he told me more about his wife’s deteriorating condition, tears filled his eyes, and he finally lay his head on the counter and cried and cried.  I did my best to console him, but it was obvious that I could do little more than standby and watch him 

as all these pent up feelings came out.  I still call him from time to time.

 

I hope we all will be understanding when such difficult conversations arise in our lives.

 

Peace and Justice

 

Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. 

 

 

 

ILLEGAL SPORTS BETTING PUSHED AT LSU!

Monday, November 10^th, 2025

Baton Rouge. Louisiana

 

ILLEGAL SPORTS BETTING PUSHED AT LSU!

 

There is a grave danger for college kids sweeping the country. A new study published this month in Rolling Stone Magazine found that 67% of college students living on campus are betting on sports, The lengthy study, by the way, was co-authored by my grandson, Eli Senor, who lives in New York City.

To pay for this gambling habit, the study shows how many students revert to “borrowing” from their parents, even stealing, from their credit cards. The problem has become so bad that a number of students have been driven to suicide by their compulsion.

None of this should be any surprise to young gamblers at Louisiana colleges. Gambling illegally has been a way of life for thousands of students, particularly at flagship LSU, for many years.  Gambling is everywhere in the Bayou State. Presently, the state has 15 so called “floating” casinos, a huge land-based casino in downtown New Orleans, four racetrack casinos, 200 truck stop casinos and over 1000 restaurants and bars that have video poker machines. Wow!  Was there anywhere else where the gambling industry can go in the Bayou State to suck out more dollars from gullible locals?

Sure there is. Go after the college students.  Even though it’s against the law for someone in Louisiana to gamble who is under twenty-one, the state’s flagship LSU has been openly soliciting students to sign up for an online account and gamble on any number of sporting events. 

As the New York Times reported: “LSU sent a mass email to, among others, students who were not yet 21, the legal betting age in the state. The email told students of all ages that they could bet on all the sports you love right from the palm of your hand, and every bet earns more with Caesars Rewards — win or lose.” This email was not sent out by gambling interests. No, it was sent out by the state’s flagship University. I kid you not.

Is this now the mission for universities in Louisiana? Promoting gambling on campus to impressionable young students even though it is illegal? “It just feels gross and tacky for a university to be encouraging people to engage in behavior that is addictive and very harmful,” said Robert Mann, a former LSU journalism professor.  “You cannot get away from it.  You take a daily shower in sports betting when you walk around.”

In the Senor recent study, he explains how college students are microbetting, 

that keeps users in action. “You lose track of time and space, and next thing you know, you’re betting Indian cricket at 4 a.m.  I don’t even know the rules of cricket.” Another better says “ I’m betting Chinese ping-pong at 3 a.m.”

 

Casino supporters point out that the state is broke and about to fall off this so called “fiscal cliff.” But isn’t it interesting that the more progressive states throughout the south, from Virginia and the Carolinas all the way across to Texas, have developed new economic development prospects that offer their citizens better job opportunities without relying heavily on income from gambling?

There are many ways in the Bayou state to “Laissez les bons temps rouler.”  Expanding the present high level of sports betting, particularly to vulnerable college students, should not be one of them. There are just too many other ways to have a good time, without gambling away our already fragile quality of life.

 

Flagship LSU should quit worrying about their next $10 million football coach. What to do about the school itself urging students to bet and the dangers in doing so should be the number one priority. But don’t count on it.

 

 Peace and Justice.

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STANLEY NELSON-ONE OF LOUISIANA’S BEST!

Monday, October 27th, 2025

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

STANLEY NELSON-ONE OF LOUISIANA’S BEST!

A Pulitzer Prize nominee, one of Louisiana’s best and brightest, was honored this week in Baton Rouge at the Old State Capital. His name was Stanley Nelson, and he was a journalistic giant in rooting out the Ku Klux Klan activity in Louisiana.

Here is what best-selling author Greg Iles had to say about his friend Stanley Nelson, who he patterned one of his books after. “The South lost a quiet crusader. Not a fictional super-hero from the cineplex, but a genuine hero, a knight-errant for truth and justice..”

After 60 years, the FBI opened widespread murder investigations into what was left of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan had once held a significant presence statewide throughout the first half of the 20th century. But following the enactment of 1964 Civil Rights Act, the FBI was given the authority to crack down on what used to be unevenly enforced state violations, and Klan activity in the Bayou State slowed to a trickle.

Not so in my old hometown of Ferriday, as well as across the river in Natchez, Mississippi. As many as 20 local black citizens were reportedly killed by the Ku Klux Klan in the 60s, and there were ties to Klan members to one of the busiest houses of ill repute in the South.

Few arrests were made, and a number of cases ended up on the back burner as years went by. But sparked by the dogged reporting of Stanley Nelson with the Concordia Sentinel, whose series of articles on the Klan won him a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize, the FBI began taking a look at what happened just about the time I landed in Ferriday, Louisiana with a new law degree.

In 1964, worldwide attention was focused on the deaths of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ordered several hundred agents to fan out and investigate all over the state, as well as into Louisiana. The widespread investigation quickly focused on the Silver Dollar Group, an offshoot of the Klan based in Natchez, but terrorizing a number of black males on both sides of the river.

In late December of that year, the KKK burned down a local shoe shop in Ferriday with the owner, Frank Morris, in it at the time. Morris was severely burned, and died a few days later. Why was he targeted? Apparently because he was black, ran a successful business, and had a number of white customers.

Another major fire attributed to the local Klan was the burning of Haney’s Big House, one the best known black music nightclubs in the Deep South. Every black jazz great in New Orleans, from Louis Armstrong to Fats Domino, played at Haney’s. And local cousins Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart were known to sneak into Haney’s by the back door. When white fans started to come to Haney’s, it was quickly burned to the ground.

One of the busiest establishments in lower Concordia was the Morville Lounge, a popular house of ill repute and illegal gambling establishment. Morville was located some 15 miles south of the bridge that connects Natchez and Ferriday, and customers from as far away as Baton Rouge and Jackson, Mississippi usually filled up the parking lot over the levee. The girls of Morville travelled a regular route from Atlanta then Birmingham, on to Jackson, down to Morville and on into New Orleans. That’s how popular this small rural lounge off the beaten path had become. And the local Klan was reportedly active in the running of this red-light stop.

The notorious Jim Leslie murder that took place in Baton Rouge in 1976 had ties to Concordia Parish and the Klan. Leslie ran a successful public relations agency, and had been a key player in the passage of Right to Work legislation at the state capitol in Baton Rouge. He was killed in a motel parking lot a few hours after the legislation was successfully adopted. 

The purported triggerman, Rusty Griffith, was gunned down in a lower Concordia wildlife refuge a few months after the Leslie killing. The Dixie Mafia tied to Shreveport’s top law officer at the time, the Public Safety Commissioner named George D’Artois, supposedly hired Griffith. The assassination money, some $100,000, was allegedly funneled via the local Natchez-Concordia Klan to Griffith and his accomplices. When Griffith got greedy and wanted more money, so the rumors go, he too was gunned down.

When the gang that bumped off Griffith was arrested, yours truly was appointed by the court in Concordia Parish to represent Clay Kimble, one of the ringleaders involved in the Leslie and Griffin murders. So I’m well aware of all the gory details, and where the skeletons are buried. Well, maybe not literally (or at least I’m not sayin’ nothin’).

When I ran for Louisiana State Senator in 1971, Klan activities had moved north towards Franklin Parish. One of my opponents had strong support from the local Klan, and I received my share of threats that I, perhaps foolishly at the time, did not take that seriously. But signs and billboards in support of my campaign rarely lasted the night after they were put up. Fortunately for me, the local white knights were fairly old guys by then, and had little support in the local community.

Now, after 60 years, and thanks to Stanley Nelson, renewed pressure was put on the FBI to aggressively pursue those Klansmen still living who may have been accomplices in these Louisiana murders. Old wounds have opened back up, and many older folks who were there at the time seem to be pleased that some justice may eventually come to some of the families who suffered the loss of loved ones.

A number of Klansmen, particularly in the North Louisiana area, got away with murder. At least up until now. Thanks to Stanley Nelson, a few less got away.

Peace and Justice.

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. 

 

 

 

 

THERE’S A MELTDOWN AT LSU AND CHAPEL HILL!

Monday, November 3^rd, 2025

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

THERE’S A MELTDOWN AT LSU AND CHAPEL HILL!

I’m getting deluged with calls, texts and emails. What the heck is going on with my two favorite teams in college football? Of course they’re talking about the deluge of criticism taking place at LSU and the University of North Carolina. I have followed both of these college teams for years, but cannot remember so much well-earned criticism.

First come the Tar Heels. I love my alma mater at Chapel Hill. I had the privilege of having an athletic scholarship (basketball and track) at a school  that is, year and in year out, ranked as one of the top public universities in the nation. While at Carolina, I received a great education, competed in track meets all over the world, and dated a number of really pretty coeds.  I couldn’t ask for more. But Carolina is a basketball school. Sure, I attended football games. I went  with my fellow fraternity brothers just for fun. But you never expected a winner there.

I did have high hopes when Mac Brown took over as football coach. He had spent time coaching at LSU and Tulane, and we became good friends when I was Louisiana Secretary of State.  Coach Brown called me when he applied for the North Carolina job and asked me to contact basketball Coach Dean Smith, who ruled the roost and called the shots for all Athletics at Carolina. Coach Brown had a number of winning seasons, but never was in contention for a national championship.

Mack called me a few years later to tell me he was going to the University of Texas. “I love my life at Carolina, but I’ll never win a national championship here. It’s a basketball school. I’ll retire back here, and my kids are going to school here. But I’m going to Texas to win it all.”  He did, winning a national championship for Texas in 2005.

But the powers that be in Chapel Hill did want to win it all. Who, they thought, better than the NFL’s winningest coach? The problem was, Bill Belichick was a has-been. Once quarterback Tom Brady, probably the best that ever was, left Belichick’s team, his program crashed and burned.  He was a bust. A mediocre coach at best. But the Board that governs the University at North Carolina were blinded of his mistakes in later years, and were so hungry for a winner, that they jumped at the chance to get Belichick. It was a huge mistake.

There was more than his poor coaching of football. He was diverted in his attention by his 24 year-old girlfriend. When the Tar Heels had an off-week, he vacationed on the beach rather than developing a closer relationship with his players and their families.

He will never be a winner at North Carolina. He’s over the hill. Now Carolina is doing the same reckless thing that LSU is doing and that’s hoping for a contract buyout.

Then there are the Fighting Tigers. I know LSU football is a way of life for many Louisianans. The athletic director said it best. There are three priorities at LSU. Number one is football, number two is football and number three- football. They had a coach a few years back that won a  national championship with a team that many said was the best football college team ever to play. But he didn’t perform up to expectations the following year, so they ran him off.

LSU stopped at nothing to win it all. Progressive colleges today hire young coaches in their 30s.  But the powers that be in Baton Rouge hired an older coach from a big name school that had done OK, but never won a national championship. What do they pay him? $100 million. What? You’ve got to be kidding!  What Board overseeing any major university, especially one that is ranked mediocre at best, would authorize such an enormous contract that undermines the purpose of what is supposed to be the flagship school?

Now LSU is licking its wounds, has fired the football coach and the athletic director, and is putting on a questionable face in dealing with an untenable situation.

Both colleges need to review their historic missions of educating their young people with the mission of developing their leaders and their workforce for the future of their states. Right now, both schools are traveling a really a rocky road.

Peace and Justice.

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. 

 

 

 

 

NEW ORLEANS GETS A SECOND CHANCE!

Monday, October 20, 2025.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

NEW ORLEANS GETS A SECOND CHANCE!

 

For those who do not live in the deepest of the deep southern states, you may not realize that New Orleans, the Queen city of the South, has been under siege. No, not from hurricanes. The siege has been from within. New Orleans is known as the City that care forgot. But it’s hard to let the good times roll in the Big Easy when the dice keep coming up snake eyes. 

 

The Crescent City has been in a battle for a number of years to stay afloat as it dealt with Major Street crime, inept public leadership, and a dysfunctional criminal justice system. Even federal officials can no longer be trusted. Author James Lee Burke writes about this corruption and dysfunction in his novel Last Car to Elysian Fields. “One of the most beautiful cities in the Western hemisphere was killed three times, and not just by forces of nature.”

 

Many crimes go  unreported out of a sense of frustration that nobody will do anything about it anyway. Drug deals gone bad play a major role in a majority of the killings according to the New Orleans Police Department. The city is a cesspool of illegal drug activity in many neighborhoods, even in broad daylight. Recently, I watched a Tom Cruise movie “Jack Reacher: Never go Back.” It was made in the Crescent City. A local drug dealer tells Cruz: “More  s--t in the streets of New Orleans then they make in Afghanistan.”

 

In the movie “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” Nicolas Cage plays a corrupt New Orleans police officer, and tells a fellow cop to “Shoot him again.” “What for?” says his companion. Cage casually observes: “His soul is still dancing.” You can’t kill enough in New Orleans. It is the murder capital of America with one of the worst murder rates in the world. And the killings continue at an ever-growing frequency.

The system that is supposed to protect the citizens of New Orleans is rife with corruption and incompetence. In too many instances, those who are charged with safeguarding and serving have betrayed their mission to see that the public is protected, and that justice is done. The current Mayor is currently under a federal criminal indictment.

Is there any hope for New Orleans? Actually, yes. A brand new mayor has just been elected and she starts out with a huge mandate. Helena Mareno is a lady of  Spanish decent and a  former state legislator and former head of the New Orleans City Council. She won the race for mayor easily in the first primary. The voters’ message was they had enough of the old and were looking for some new, progressive and highly competent leadership.  Do I think she is able to bring about major reform? Yes, I am cautiously optimistic.

I would offer the new Mayor two pieces of advice. First of all, clean up all the trash. The city has become a waste dump. The last mayor ran off a very competent cleanup guy Sydney Torres IV.  Give him free reign and direction to clean up the city, make it smell better as he did in the French Quarter some years back and get the trash off private property that’s been allowed to pile up for years.  If landowners don’t comply, put a lien on their property.

Secondly, meet with the President. Tell him you will willingly meet him more than halfway and you want to cooperate. Tell him yes, you would like Louisiana soldiers under the direction of the Governor to bring New Orleans National Guard members into the city to work with the New Orleans Police Department. Have it done in a cooperative manner and not have confrontation. The new Mayor is both persuasive and attractive, and has the ability to bring the President around even though she is a Democrat.  

It would be wrong to give up on New Orleans, particularly with the new leadership that will take over soon. The city has always been a special place for me. My first apartment there was in the French Quarter back in 1961 when I was a student at Tulane Law School. I’ve had an apartment off and on there for the past 64 years.  So the Queen City now has the second chance under a dynamic new Mayor. Let’s all wish her well.

Peace and Justice.

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.