THE POPE AND LOUISIANA!

Monday, May 11^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

THE POPE AND LOUISIANA!

 

Despite his conflict with President Trump, Pope Leo XIV is quite popular worldwide. There is talk of an American visit by the pontiff soon. He should come to Louisiana. More than half the population in South Louisiana is Catholic. There are over 500,000 Catholics in the greater New Orleans area alone. If the pope wanted to visit a state with a Catholic pulse, the Bayou State should be a “must stop.”

Catholic newspaper OSV Newsweekly puts New Orleans at the top of their list to visit a city that reflects Catholic “culture, history, physical landscape and spirituality.” The St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest continuing functioning Cathedral in the country, built in 1789. The first Catholic hospital was founded in the Crescent City, Hotel Dieu, operated by the Daughters of Charity. It would be hard to find a region more quintessentially Catholic since its founding than a large part of Louisiana.

Now I’m about as Catholic as one can get without actually making the conversion. I was married in the Church, and my three daughters were baptized by Bishop Charles Greco, the late and beloved Patriarch of the central and north Louisiana parishes. When my children were quite young, our family spent a number of winter weekends with Bishop Greco at a family hunting and fishing camp on Davis Island, in the middle of the Mississippi River, some 30 miles below Vicksburg.

On many a cold and rainy morning, a handful of us at the camp would rise before dawn for the Bishop to conduct a Sunday or holiday Mass. And even though I was not Catholic, he treated me as one of his own. The Bishop would patiently sit for hours and answer my barrage of questions about the history and the relevancy of the Catholic Church.

During the years I practiced law in Ferriday, Louisiana, Father August Thompson became a mentor and good friend. He urged me to actively become involved in a number of social issues within the community, and his influences eventually led me to run for public office and to being elected a Louisiana State Senator.

Father Chris Nalty, now pastoring in New Orleans, toured our family through the Vatican, even taking us down under St. Peter’s to the historic catacombs, and opened my eyes to the vast history of the Church and to the influence of Catholicism worldwide.  In my hometown of Baton Rouge, Fathers Miles Walsh and Cleo Milano are my sparring partners when I raise questions about the future direction of the Church. Father Cleo pastors at Lady of Mercy, which is close to my home. The Church has a marvelous adoration chapel that is open 24 hours a day.  It’s my resting place for meditation and solitude several times a week.

So why haven’t I become Catholic? I was named after the disciple James, the brother of Jesus Christ. In the New Testament book of James, the disciple conveys a Christian doctrine of simplicity. He offers two premises to be a convert. Believe in a higher being and do good works. That’s it. No involved ritual. No pomp and circumstance. Simply believing and helping others.

This new Pope seems to be in the direction of more simplification, and appears willing to face head on a number of controversies that have divided the Church. Catholics worldwide seem to want more openness, more discussion and better communication. As Billy Joel sang about the Church: “Virginia, they didn’t give you quite enough information.”

Pope Leo will have to confront the issue of a dwindling number of priests to minister to a flock of over one billion Catholics. What about priests being allowed to marry?  Women joining the priesthood, an increasing responsibility for nuns including the offering of the Sacraments, facing up to the sex abuse scandals, allowing for more evangelical services that are not as strong on ritual, all are issues that have a growing constituency that will require attention and reasonable understanding by the new Pope.

Yet, in spite of all the pressures to change and adapt, the Catholic Church should have a moral consistency, and not just modify doctrine and core beliefs based on current popular whim. Shouldn’t the Ten Commandments and the truths of the Sermon on the Mount be perpetual?

Pope Leo, although popular worldwide, has his work cut out to unify a church enmeshed in controversy. Thousands of Louisiana Catholics, who by and large desire a church grounded in moral stability, seem to be giving this Pope good will and the benefit of any doubt. As for this aging but quite interested possible convert, I’ll be watching on the sidelines.

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.

 

LATEST EROSION OF FREEDOMS NOTHING NEW!

Monday, May 4th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

LATEST EROSION OF FREEDOMS NOTHING NEW!

Congress re-authorized the so-called Patriot Act last week. The law has created an invasive federal surveillance system that began with lies that undermined the liberty of millions of Americans.

Did this unconstitutional act begin the movement of the country  towards a “Brave New World?”  Hardly.  This type of deterioration of one’s constitutional rights has been going on for years.  The press turned its back to gross attacks on our individual freedoms , as the Patriot Act “legalized” a litany of personal and private invasions that our constitution was intended to prevent.  Both Democrats and Republicans have stood by and allowed the Patriot Act to sweep individual protections under the rug.

 In an interview with CNN, former FBI counter terrorism agent Tim Clemente said that the FBI could listen to phone conversations between anybody they wanted.  “Welcome to America,” he said. “All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.”

The Guardian’s columnist Glenn Greenwald took it a step further by concluding that all digital communications are recorded and stored by the government, saying: “This revelation, that every single telephone call made by and among Americans is recorded and stored is something which most people undoubtedly do not know, even if a small group of people who focus on surveillance issues believe it to be true.”

Now I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but this is a damning indictment of Big Brother at its worst, illegally invading the privacy of every American.  But is the daily illegal monitoring of the phone calls made by millions of Americans a startling revelation that has just been revealed?  Is recent Administration’s use of the IRS for political purposes unique?  Hardly. In his book, A Law Unto Itself: the IRS and Abuse of Power, author David Burnham describes how presidents going all the way back to Herbert Hoover have misused the Internal Revenue Service for personal vendettas.  Franklin Roosevelt used the IRS to go after a former Senator in my state, Huey Long.  President John Kennedy authorized IRS investigations into the John Birch Society. And who can forget Richard Nixon’s “enemies list?”

So when your congressman or senator starts calling for special prosecutors to investigate the abuses by the Justice Department and the IRS, ask them why they did not stand up in defense of each American citizen and demand protection from invasion of those enumerated individual rights found in the Constitution?  We are all glad some members of congress are jumping to the defense of the press. But what about all of us little guys?

For good reason, there are calls of a tyrannical federal government that intimidates its citizens and puts a chill over freedom of speech.  But all this undermining of basic freedoms did not just begin recently.  Unfortunately, it is part of the darker side of American history.  When the Patriot Act was passed into law back in 2001, the intimidation and spying increased tenfold.  And these very members of congress, who are protesting so loudly now, stood by silently and did nothing.

If this Washington crowd wants to see the real threat to American democracy, they should just take a long, hard look into the mirror.  It was Pogo who said it best.  “We have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us.”

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. 

 

 

Louisiana Has Worst Drivers in the U.S.!

Monday, April 27^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

Louisiana Has Worst Drivers in the U.S.!

 

Say it isn’t so. The Bayou State, made up of docile souls who are law abiding, courteous and well-trained motorists, has just been tagged by several rating services as having the worst drivers in the nation. Look, the folks down here in the deepest of the deep Southern states do get a little rowdy now and then. Maybe Mardi Gras and Saturday night in Tiger Stadium. But day in and day out, we are a bunch of lousy drivers? It just can’t be!

Ah, mon cher, but the facts don’t lie. Pick your category of worst driving habits and you will see Louisiana motorists at the bottom of the ranking barrel. Some ratings agencies have even suggested that out of state drivers make a U-turn when they approach the Louisiana state line. Here are a few of the reasons why.

CarInsuranceComparison.com rates Louisiana as the number one state for failure to obey, number 5 in careless driving, 6^th in drunk driving, 4^th in average number of fatalities, and an overall rating of number 1 for worst drivers. Bankrate.com reaches the same conclusion that the worst drivers in the country are in Louisiana.

 

Road rage is front and center in a number of metropolitan  areas where irate drivers have gunned down a number of drivers where confrontations have taken place. Any number of hit and runs are a regular occurrence all over the state.

Let me give you my personal observations. I often travel each week from my home in Baton Rouge down to New Orleans on I-10, and once or twice a week to the Covington area on I-12. The posted speed limit is 70 miles an hour, and I generally go the speed limit and maybe even fudge a mile or two. On both interstates, you would think I was competing in the Daytona 500. Not just a few, but hundreds of cars whiz by me zipping along at 80, 85 or 90 miles an hour without giving a second thought to how much over the speed limit they are traveling.

This past Monday, it rained in torrents all over the state. The law is clear that when your windshield gets wet, drivers are required to turn on their headlights. On a trip to New Orleans on I-10, it seemed that every 6^th or 7^th car, in a major downpour, ignored the law and traveled without the car’s lights turned on.

 

DWIs? The penalties are strict, but too often are not imposed. A driver in Livingston Parish  appeared in court following multiple DWIs and a host of other drug related citations and arrests. He walked away with a suspended jail sentence and a small fine.

For a third offense DWI, the Louisiana law is quite clear. Jail time, loss of driving privileges for 5 years, and the driver’s car is impounded and sold. Too tough for such a violation? Heck no! Get these irresponsible drunks off the roads. I know this law well because I wrote it and presented it to the legislature back in 1994 when I served as Insurance Commissioner. Yet the tough law is almost never enforced.

The state police, who should have an acceptable level of troopers out on the interstates, are dramatically understaffed and are several hundred troopers short just for highway duty. The Louisiana legislature, in its wisdom, can find over one billion dollars for corporate giveaways, and millions for football and basketball teams, but no money to hire more of those who protect us.

Bad driving habits are based on personal responsibility and the right attitude. Laissez les bon temps roulez just doesn’t cut it when it comes to safety on the highways. There’s a brashness and arrogance by many drivers that endangers the rest of us. More enforcement is necessary, but it’s going to take the Governor and the legislature to step up and fund a major crack down. There is a lot at stake.

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. 

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THE COMPLICATIONS OF RELIGION AND POLITICS!

Monday, April 13^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

THE COMPLICATIONS OF RELIGION AND POLITICS!

 

I have a request of all of our pontificating politicians. Leave God and me alone to work out our relationship. I consider myself a religious person, but I don’t wear my faith on my sleeve or preach to my neighbors. I have a “comfortable” relationship with the Good Lord. But it’s personal. It’s private. And I want to keep it that way. Political battles are not going to lead any of us to salvation, but that message seems to be lost on Republican and Democrat politicians alike.

 

American politicians today, are saturating their rhetoric with religious references for the purpose of bolstering a particular political point of view. According to a recent Pew Research poll, some 60% of Evangelical Christians support the use of torture against suspected terrorists. Among all regular once a week church goers, the approval rate of torture was 54%.  And according to a recent Rasmussen poll, 55% of Americans think hate is growing in this country. What gives? Why have so many mixed their political rhetoric with their religious beliefs?

 

In many instances, Christians point to the New Testament as the source for their beliefs on numerous public issues. Whatever happened to, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21)?

 

I’m a Thomas Jefferson fan and can make a compelling argument that he was America’s most outstanding President. Jefferson was surprisingly private concerning his religious beliefs, but was a professed Christian and studied the Bible extensively. His personal Bible is currently on display at the Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.  What is unique about it is that it has been carefully razor cut with a series of small sections missing.  Jefferson cut out what he believed to be the actual teachings of Jesus “and pasted them into a slimmer, different New Testament.”

Jefferson made clear his purpose. “We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus.” He was hoping to end up with “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which had ever been offered to man.”  And in his fine tuning of the biblical passages, Jefferson discovered the simple Jesus that so many with political agendas either have missed or purposely ignore.

Jefferson’s premise was simple. Why does religion have to be made so complicated?  If one is a Christian, doesn’t it all boil down to the two — the only two   — believe in a Supreme Being, and do good works?  That’s it. That should be what faith is all about and nothing more.

And such faith is the same foundation for not only Christians, but for Jews and Muslims alike,  the simple acts of believing in the Supreme Being and helping those in need. But too often, internal strife within the hierarchy of many denominations continues to divert attention from these two basic premises of believing in God and lending a hand.

Andrew Sullivan, writing in the London Sunday Times, laments that politics and religion, like oil and water, do not mix well. And he wonders if many religious denominations are straying from their basic goals.  “The saints, after all, became known as saints not because of their success in fighting political battles, or winning a few news cycles, or funding an anti-abortion super PAC. They were saints purely and simply because of the way they lived. “And this, of course, was Jefferson’s deeply American insight: “No man can conform his faith to the dictates of another. The life and essence of religion consists in the internal persuasion or belief of the mind.’“

Remember the Waylon Jennings song called Luckenbach Texas? The key line is “maybe it’s time to get back to the basics of life.” No one is going to find salvation by carrying on political battles. There is nothing wrong with picking a good political fight and going to the mat for a worthy cause, philosophy or a candidate. But the effort should be secular. When the political smoke clears, winners can crow and losers can lick their wounds. Then it’s time for both sides to go back to the basics.

 

 The simple obligation of acceptance and commitment. Believing in a higher being and offering a helping hand. Why do we make it all so complicated?

 

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.  Readers can also review books by Jim Brown and many others he has published by going to http://www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

 

POLITICAL KILLING FIFTY YEARS AGO!

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

 

It’s been fifty years ago that a major event happened in Louisiana political history.  Jim Leslie was gunned down in the parking lot of the Prince Murat Hotel in Baton Rouge.

 

I was just beginning my second term as a State Senator where I represented six parishes in northeast Louisiana. Labor-Management issues were not a big thing in my part of the state. I did not know a card-carrying union man from my district, and there was little industry of any size. But a proposed “Right-to-Work” law had become the major focus and controversy during the spring of the ’76 session of the Legislature.

 

Louisiana’s existing law required that when there was a union contract in place, all employees had to contribute part of their dues to that contract whether they belonged to the union or not. This was standard fare in most states throughout the country where there was a significant union presence. But the newly formed Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, headed by then President Ed Steimel, wanted to have “open shops” where the worker had a choice about whether or not to contribute union dues from his or her salary.

 

There was no middle ground on the issue. No compromise. Edwin Edwards was governor, and had strong support of union interests throughout the state. But he, as well as most of the other elected officials around the Capitol, were on the hot seat from advocates on both sides of this controversy.

 

It wasn’t that big of an issue for me, although I certainly received a lot of pressure. Like I pointed out earlier, there was virtually no union presence in my district, and even the smallest businesses were for a “Right-to-Work” law. This issue dominated the whole legislative session, and tensions filled with both sides actively lobbying legislators every day at the State Capitol.

 

To help promote its Right-to-Work effort, L.A.B.I. hired political consultant Jim Leslie to produce a series of TV spots. Leslie produced four TV spots that ran on every station in the state continually for two weeks. The timing was set right before the final vote in the Senate. The State House of Representatives had passed the Right-to-Work bill several weeks earlier, and the Leslie TV campaign was designed to build major, grass-roots support when the final vote came to the Senate.

 

The debate lasted all day in the State Senate, and you could cut the tension with a knife as I sat in my seat. By a slight margin, Louisiana’s new Right-to-Work law passed the Senate in late afternoon on Wednesday, July 8th, 1976. Jim Leslie was killed a few hours later.

 

The Right-to-Work supporters had a victory celebration that evening, and then Leslie and several friends headed back to the Prince Murat Hotel on Nicholson Drive. No one knows exactly what happened. Gun shots were fired, and Leslie slumped over dead in the parking lot.

 

Rumors ran wild, and some alleged that Mafia thugs tied to organized labor might in some way have something to do with the murder. This proved to be untrue, and it was a terrible time for those trying to find some rhyme or reason out of all the debate and the ultimate price paid by Leslie.

 

As it turned out, the story became even more bizarre. Leslie had handled the campaign of Shreveport Public Safety Commissioner George D’Artois. Back then, the office that was basically the Chief of Police of Shreveport was elected. D’Artois wouldn’t pay Leslie the fee he owed him for campaign related public relations work although Leslie continually complained. Finally, D’Artois sent a check on an account from the City of Shreveport. Leslie sent it back saying that a city check for campaign work was improper.

 

A local state thug with ties to D’Artois named Rusty Griffith was ultimately tagged as the trigger man. Griffith himself was assassinated up in my home of Concordia Parish some months later. Some say it was to shut him up from trying to blackmail D’Artois. D’Artois was charged with Leslie’s murder, but before he could be tried, he died of a heart attack. 

 

So many questions were left unanswered and no one knows for sure exactly what happened. The whole Leslie affair and his efforts in Right-to-Work is part of the fascinating political history of Louisiana over the past century. 

 

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.  Readers can also review books by Jim Brown and many others he has published by going to http://www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

THE CHANGES IN LOUISIANA’S QUALITY OF LIFE!

Monday, March 30^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 THE CHANGES IN LOUISIANA’S QUALITY OF LIFE!

 

 All we know
Left untold
Beaten by a broken dream
Nothing like what it used to be

We’ve been chasing our demons down an empty road

 

Singer Alan Walker

 

 These words hit home to me as I read a number of Louisiana newspaper headlines in recent weeks.  I’m approaching 86 years old and life is just not the same as it was when I started out in public life back in the 1970s.

 

Oh, we had some backroom gambling and horse race betting back then.  You could travel to Las Vegas for a special outing.  Today, every kind of betting is now legal here in the Bayou State.  Casino and riverboat gambling, the lottery, slot machines and video poker. Anything you want to bet on.  You can’t turn on the TV without seeing a barrage of ads featuring Louisiana’s first family of sports, the Mannings, huckstering sports betting.  Even Saints icon Drew Brees raked in the big bucks pushing a new casino referendum in Slidell.

“Sin taxes” used to be only placed on alcohol and tobacco just a few years ago here in the deepest of the deep southern states.  But they stand alone no more. Besides new forms of gambling, marijuana use is rapidly proliferating. Initially, the drug was for medical purposes and only had two growing outlets tied to state universities. Now there are proposals in the legislature to increase these budding outlets to ten or more, and legalize recreational use throughout the state.  So called “massage parlors” are growing in number, and there was a proposal in last year’s legislative session to legalize prostitution.

On the national level, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer enthusiastically supports legal pot, and will introduce federal legalization next month.  Government in Louisiana and Washington used to be all about protecting the public good.  Now it’s about maximizing revenue from whatever source is available. Government has become amoral and sin is both passe’ and just another way to tax and bring more income into state and national coffers.

Church attendance has also become passe’ in recent years, with turnout dropping from some 70% fifty years ago to less than 48% today.  Religious organizations have always had a strong presence in Louisiana, with Pentecostals and Baptists dominating in North Louisiana, while the Catholic Church held sway throughout south Louisiana.  Churches in Louisiana’s local communities have traditionally played an essential role in teaching our young people the virtue of volunteering, getting along, and the importance of family values.  Today, many churches have canceled Sunday school classes, and there is a mass shortage of preachers and priests all over Louisiana.

In my early years as a statewide official in the state, I spoke to hundreds of civic clubs where there were always large crowds in attendance.  I continue to speak to such organizations today, but there are fewer such clubs, and the membership has been dwindling.  Volunteering used to be an important part of “giving back.”  Lending a hand is not as popular as it once was.

There are of course numerous individual exceptions to those categorized in my list of a changing state we live in today.  Many of these lifestyle changes are found in states all over the nation. But Louisiana, in my humble opinion, has always been different and special.  That’s why so many tourists come from all over America to visit and experience the unique flavors of the Bayou State. 

The taste for such flavors are part of our DNA. Outsiders rarely know much about mudbugs, zydeco, Laissez les bons temps rouler!, beignets, Geaux Tigers, Tabasco sauce, Who Dat ( a verb, not a question), Lil’ Wayne, Red Stick, the Hayride, Storyville, You are my Sunshine, Voodoo Queen, King Cakes, Napoleonic Code, bayous, Satchmo and Jumbo, and a long list of matchless symbols epitomizing  a way of life that is unusual, offbeat, often exotic, and always special.

 

Several lessons can be learned here. Elections have consequences so check out the views of those public officials you vote for. Government should be there to help, not take. And if the average citizen yearns for a better quality of life for their families, they need to give back. These premises would be a good beginning.

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.  Readers can also review books by Jim Brown and many others he has published by going to http://www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

WE ALL NEED HEROES IN OUR LIVES!

Monday, March 23rd, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

WE ALL NEED HEROES IN OUR LIVES!

 

I’m a Tina Turner fan, but she got it wrong in her hit a few years back called “We don’t need another Hero.” The song goes on to say:

We don’t need to know the way home, ooh
All we want is life beyond Thunderdome.

 

A full life needs more than this; hope, inspiration, an understanding of the value of charity, and a following of the precepts of what is honorable.  So yes Tina. We do need more  heroes.

I found my first hero when I was eleven.  We visited, my hero and I, as a Saturday morning ritual.  I would leave my house at 8:30 am, mount my prize possession: a Red & Black Schwinn Deluxe Hornet Bicycle.  Then it was a five-block ride to the local Sears store. My mother, bless her soul, had given me a nickel to buy a bag of popcorn on the first floor of the store.  Then it was up the stairs to the TV department where all the new TV sets were on display.

 No, we didn’t have our own TV at home.  None of the kids in my neighborhood did. So when I arrived at the displays of new black and white TVs, I plopped down in a corner to watch my hero, the king of the cowboys, Roy Rogers.  He fought the bad guys in each episode, riding the western plains on his golden palomino horse Trigger.

 Author Bob Greene, a past guest on my syndicated radio show, pointed out to me that besides his weekly fight for law and order, old Roy was also full of sage advice.  In one episode titled “Uncle Steve’s Finish,” Roy warns young boys not to idolize flashy con men.  “He found out that there’s the wrong kind of hero worship, and that his father the schoolteacher was a much better man than his uncle the outlaw.” Who could disagree.

 Then in another Saturday show called “M Stands for Murder,” Roy advised how greed can ruin a person: “He didn’t want some money. He wanted all of it. You know, that’s the funny thing about greed. It sort of grows on you. It starts out when you’re young by wanting somebody’s baseball bat or football that doesn’t belong to you, then later on wanting somebody’s job. First thing you know, you’re wanting everything in sight.” 

There is sound cowboy advice in just about every episode.  In “Quick Draw,” a man bemoans that he might be a coward because he was reluctant to fire his gun.  Roy comforts him by saying: “You’re not a coward. You just won a great victory over yourself. Maybe now you’ll know what guns are really for. To protect, not to kill.”

 And in “The Scavenger,” my cowboy idol imparts the importance of generosity when he tells a skinflint: “The church needs a new steeple and the school could use a new library. Wouldn’t you rather the people remember Moses as the grand old man whose money did so much for the town?”

 Roy rode the western plains with his cowgirl wife, Dale Evans, emoting this kind of wisdom each Saturday , show after show.  I continued to watch my hero, until his series ended in 1957.  I sure miss those peaceful Saturday mornings, my black Schwinn bicycle, the nickel popcorn, and getting an education about upbeat and optimistic living from my first hero, Roy Rogers.

 It’s hard to be a real special champion today because such heroes are often denigrated by cynics, including the media. Politicians succeed by tearing others down. Investor Ray Dalio points out: “The cynics are people who haven’t accomplished much themselves and stand on the sidelines while criticizing the heroes who are on the field of battle.  Politicians are now more polarized than collaborative, more inclined to hurt each other than to be respectful, and more likely to vote along party lines than vote based on principles about what’s right and wrong.”

 Heroes are more important than ever today.  Not just to help us survive, but to encourage us to thrive and bring out our best attributes. Yes Tina, we do need more heroes.  And thanks Roy Rogers for being my inspiration over these many years.

 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. You can also listen to his regular podcast at www.datelinelouisiana.com.