LIVING AND DYING IN LOUISIANA!

Monday, March 24th, 2025

 Baton Rouge, Louisiana

LIVING AND DYING IN LOUISIANA!

 It’s been a number of years since the death penalty was carried out in Louisiana. A vicious rapist and killer, a fellow named Jesse Hoffman, was put to death at Angola State prison just two weeks ago. I can look back 21 years ago, as I witnessed the highs and lows of life and death here in the Bayou State.

It was a cool Tuesday evening, and I was leaving a reception for former congressman Billy Tauzin at the Old State capital in downtown Baton Rouge. Billy and I had fought many battles together when we both served in the Louisiana legislature back in the 1970s. He had fought and won a separate confrontation with cancer, and a number of Billy’s friends turned out to celebrate a full life he had led.

I headed to my parked car about a block away across the street from the East Baton Rouge Courthouse.  It was 8 o’clock in the evening, and as I approach my car, I could see numerous television lights and a large crowd on the front steps of the courthouse.

“What’s going on?” I ask one of the reporters I knew. “The jury’s still deliberating whether Derrick Todd Lee lives or dies,” he told me. “Will they come up with the verdict tonight?” I asked. “It’s getting late.” He nodded and said: “That’s what we hear. They’re supposed to push on till they make a decision. They’ll want to go home,” he answered.

I walked into the courthouse and took the elevator up to the sixth floor to the courtroom of the presiding judge, Richard Anderson. Sheriff’s deputies were everywhere and security was tight. I went through the metal detector and walked into a packed court room.

Col. Greg Phares was in charge of the numerous deputies surrounding the walls in the court room. Angola prison warden Burl Cain and I talked for a while. “Whatever happens, I’ve got a full night ahead of me. He will go to Angola tonight for the rest of his life, however long that is,” the warden mused.

About then, the bailiff quieted the court room and the jury filed in. The process was short. A signed verdict sent to the clerk, who read out the decision.  Derrick Todd Lee should be put to death. Then tears and sobs from the victims’ families, from Lee’s relatives, even the district attorney’s wife wiped away a few tears now that the ordeal was over.

So, should Derrick Todd Lee die? There was an overwhelming community feeling that, yes, he should. The guy is charged with killing seven women. And there may be more. If you were looking for the right poster face for the death penalty, you can’t do better than Lee.

Putting aside the arguments for opposing the taking of anyone’s life, what possible reason would there be not to execute him? One is money. It costs on average 4 to 5 times more to invoke capital punishment than it does to put him away for life. The costs of appeal, including attorney’s fees that are almost always paid for the state, often run several million dollars. It’s much cheaper to stick him in a cell and spend a few dollars a day to feed him.

And you can make a pretty good argument that if you want to put someone through hell, stick them in a maximum-security prison where he will either be brutalized by the prison population, or confined in solitary where he lives almost like an animal in total boredom. Some would argue this punishment is worse than the death penalty.

But we demand an eye for an eye. Oh, it may take a decade or more. But the odds are, one day Lee will die. John McKeithen, Edwin Edwards and Buddy Roemer each told me the toughest decision they ever faced as governor was whether to let a condemned man die. It was the first decision Roemer had to make the day he was sworn in. But they always let it happen.

Two different people that night at two different events. One a celebration of a full and continuing life. The other, just a block away, a decision to take away a life.

The challenge, of course, is to live a life of dignity. To see your own existence as a heightened example of universal experience a life that is fulfilling in a way that is somehow larger-than-life. On that night twenty-one years ago, I was a witness †o the obvious.  That one had succeeded and one failed.

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. 

 

THE CASE FOR A NEW LOUISIANA CONSTITUTION!

Monday, March 17^th, 2025

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

THE CASE FOR A NEW LOUISIANA CONSTITUTION!

 

Here we go again. Voters will soon be asked to consider changing the state constitution. Every time Louisiana has an election, it seems like  there is an effort to change what is one of the longest constitutions of any state in the country.  

 

The Governor is hollering that the financial sky is falling and the state is in dire fiscal straights. Legislators protest that their hands are tied by too many constitutional dedications. And since there is little appetite for trimming the budget, the legislature now begins its regular gathering at the state capitol with a major shortfall. 

 

After years of allowing state dollars to be dedicated and ignoring constitutional limitations on spending, there are finally murmurs in the halls of the capitol that it just may be time for a constitutional convention to unlock so many dedicated funds.  Since the current constitution was adopted back in 1974, it has been amended 186 times, often to dedicate tax dollars for a specific purpose. This means fewer dollars for the legislature to appropriate for current and changing needs.

 

To put into perspective as to just how often the present document has been amended, the United States Constitution, which has been around for 231 years, has been altered only 27 times. One might argue that the legislature really isn’t all that necessary with so many constitutional amendments, approved by the voters, which require how the annual state budget is to be spent.

 

Currently, almost $2.5 billion has been constitutionally dedicated in 40 different funds. Programs that have such protected revenue include a Transportation Trust Fund that receives $1.2 billion of revenue for road construction, the TOPS scholarship program, and the minimum foundation program to fund public education.  All these programs are noble and necessary to improve Louisiana’s quality of life. The question is whether or not the legislature in Louisiana should be able to set spending priorities to adjust for changing needs. Right now, lawmakers are, for all practical purposes, impotent to adapt as other financial concerns arise.

 

This lack of any fiscal flexibility was not always the rule. The original 1974 constitution gave specific instructions as to how state funds were to be disbursed. Spending was set out in Article VII, stating: “except as otherwise provided by this Constitution, money shall be drawn from the state treasury only pursuant to an appropriation made in accordance with law.”

 

What this article meant was that all state funds would be put into the state treasury, and then appropriated by the legislature, who were entrusted with the duty of evaluating and setting priorities for state spending on an annual basis.  Initially few tax dollars were locked in to the constitution.

 

I have first-hand knowledge about the spending protections built into article VII of the 1974 Constitution. I was an  elected delegate, and during that time, I served as co-chairman of the revenue committee along with future Gov. Buddy Roemer. We often went to a local Pizza hangout, and debated for hours the pros and cons of giving the legislature the authority to set spending priorities.

 

We concluded that a constitution should be flexible enough to allow for changing times. A responsible legislature should have the tools to deal with current emergencies, catastrophes, new innovative programs that needed state funding, and have the ability to curtail or eliminate programs that had outlived their usefulness. What was important in 1974 maybe irrelevant in 2018.

 

Others will argue that they just cannot trust legislators to be directly responsible.  Maybe that’s a good reason not to re-elect them.  You might agree with a motto some will adhere to next year of  “in the fall, fire em’ all.”  But any private business would be on the verge of bankruptcy if it functioned as the Bayou State is being run now. A good start, by any measure, would be a new constitution.

 

Louisiana was recently named the worst state in the nation (again) by U.S. News and World Report when it comes to healthcare, education, infrastructure and other aspects of day-to-day life. Going back to square one with a new constitution could be a new demarcation line. After all, it can’t get any worse.

 

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.  

 

MUST WE ALL SPEAK ENGLISH IN AMERICA?

Monday, March 10^th, 2025

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

MUST WE ALL SPEAK ENGLISH IN AMERICA?

Should America have one official language-English? The President says yes, and asserts that a single shared language “is the core of a unified, cohesive society that serves to streamline communication and empowers new citizens to achieve the American dream.” Who could argue with  those goals? 

There are many, particularly in Washington, who would contend that America is one big melting pot. “We came to America to be Americans.” They would argue. Nothing wrong here. It all comes down to how they would define “American.” Remember that when our forefathers came to America, they did not assimilate or adopt the native Indian language. Actually, there was a good bit of “ethnic cleansing” going on back in those early days.

Louisiana is a state that is about as culturally diverse as you can get. Bayou country has a long history as a domestic mix of rednecks, Cajuns, Creoles, Latinos, African Americans, Italians, and Irishmen, just to name the larger ethnic groups. They don’t party at all hours of the night down in New Orleans in the “American Quarter.”

Now I know it’s the political rage throughout the country to demand that English should be the official language.  And quite frankly, I agree.  That is, from the public perspective.  I occasionally get a bit irritated when I’m told to “press one for English, two for Spanish”  If a U.S. governmental body insists on printing forms, giving tests, and processing governmental applications just in English, then that is how the process works.  It would be an unjust burden to expect the federal government to print documents in every language requested.

But here’s where states’ rights come in. If any state feels the need to offer services in another language, that should be its prerogative. In some areas of my home state of Louisiana, French is the only language spoken by older Cajuns. Grocery stores in some small south Louisiana communities post daily specials in French, and the southern part of the state has a number of radio stations that carry French Cajun music.

Recently, The New York Times profiled Mamou radio station KVPI that broadcasts to a large listening audience in French. The popular morning show begins early and is called “La Tasse de Cafe. “Certainly the President would not want to interfere with this morning ritual that so many of his constituents enjoy.

In the southeast corner of the state, a number of publications appear in Vietnamese to service the growing Asian community of immigrating fisherman. When I served as the state’s chief elections officer back in  the 1980s, Louisiana election ballot information was printed not only in English, but also in Spanish and Vietnamese. It still is today.

The recent census found that over 380,000 Louisianans speak another language besides English. This number, just to name a few, includes French (194,314), Spanish (108,189), Vietnamese (23,326), German (8,047), Chinese (5,732), Arabic (5,489), Italian (3,730), Tagalog (Philipino-3,335), Korean (2,402), and African Languages (2,2278).

But what about “Speak English or Get Out” as some of our politicians in Washington are advocating?  Look, I’ll stay out of your face and you stay out of mine.  Don’t tell me what language I can or cannot speak. I don’t need some government official telling me what to do.  If I want to go around speaking any foreign language, that’s my right as an American. I will not voluntarily stand by and let some politician or Big Brother set the parameters as to how I can or cannot communicate.  When you tell me what language to speak, then you start down the path of telling me where I can speak, what I can speak, or whether I can even speak at all.

So to all my friends, redneck like me or otherwise, pick and choose your fights wisely. The real problem is the overspending, money wasting, high taxing, and freedom-limiting bureaucrats in Washington and in our state capitols that lack the courage to set this country in the right direction with a little common sense.  You up there! Take care of the economic chaos you have created.  And for goodness sake, leave Boudreaux, Jinjing, Abdul, Jamarcus, Bubba, poor Pedro, and me alone.

And don’t forget what my old friend Homer Simpson says: “English?  Who needs that?  I’m never going to England!”

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.

 

 

SO CALL IT THE GULF OF WHAT?

March 3rd, 2025
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

SO CALL IT THE GULF OF WHAT?

Our new president has stirred up a hornet's nest by declaring that we no longer have a Gulf of Mexico. From now on, all government references will be to a Gulf of America. I grew up along the gulf coast, spending just about every summer there that I can remember. From Gulf Shores, Alabama to Perdido Key Florida. Passing away more hours than I can remember water skiing, fishing and, as Jimmy Buffett would sing, “wasting away” days on my used Sea-Doo sports boat. I drove that boat for 40 years until it landed in a treetop blown away by hurricane Katrina. And when I went to the coast, often for many weekends in a row, we didn’t say we were going to the Gulf of Mexico. Just to the Gulf. No one thought of dismissing Mexico’s name until Trump came along.

So then I got the thinking. The name of Mexico is not relevant to our part of this vast body of water. So maybe the President is right. A name change might be in order. But why America? The Gulf Coast is unique to our part of the nation. The fishing, the beaches, the oil and gas production the boating with vessels, big and small, the uniqueness of the location of the Mississippi river, all this combined reflexes a way of life that cannot be found anywhere else in America. And the center of these many economic and recreational qualities is found in Louisiana.

Let's start with fishing. Many diehard sports fisherman claim that Venice, Louisiana, at the bottom tip of the Mississippi river, is the sports fishing capitol of the world when it comes to catching giant tuna, marlin, wahoo, mahi-mahi and other prized offshore fish species. I've traveled the world, and no fish is more tasty than the Bayou state’s red fish, black drum, speckled trout or flounder. Come to the Louisiana shoreline to find oysters, shrimp, and crawfish. How can there be any better place on earth as concentrated for delicious seafood?

How about the cruise lines than regularly travel in and out of New Orleans? Yes, there are cruise lines to other ports along the Gulf Coast. But where would you like to start an end your trip? Can any other port beat New Orleans?

Oil and gas is produced along the Gulf Coast. And within its state boundaries, the largest producer is the state of Texas. But when it comes to drilling offshore, Louisiana dominates production within several hundred miles of our coastline. Some of the largest drilling platforms that can be found anywhere in the world can be found off the Louisiana coast.

So just what am I suggesting here? Mexico is not relevant to our part of the coastline. And the recreational and economic engine that produces jobs, huge income for the entire country, and vast recreational activities are heavily concentrated in Louisiana. America receives bountiful benefits. So to keep it in the family, if the name of the gulf is going to be changed, what better way to honor that part of the country that gives so much back, here's what we should do. Call it the Gulf of Louisiana.

The President's suggested name change has significant opposition. For example, just last week, the Jefferson Parish Council strongly opposed a resolution to require all maps to change the gulf’s name from Mexico to America. And even though the council is overwhelmingly republican, the resolution failed on a 6 to 1 vote. “Keep national partisan politics of the council”, said local members.

So since many feel that the name change will be looked on as part of the Mega agenda, the nation needs an alternative. No recognition of Mexico, yet acknowledging that the nation receives plentiful benefits from a certain part of our country. And where is that? It’s the coast that boarders the deepest of the deep southern states, the coast that borders Cajun and redneck county, the state that dead centers the Gulf Coast. It’s the Gulf of Louisiana. That’s what we should call it. So what do you think about that? Am I on to something?

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.

WHY SO MUCH VULGER AND CRUDE LANGUAGE IN LOUISIANA?

Monday, February. 24th, 2025

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

WHY SO MUCH VULGER AND CRUDE LANGUAGE IN LOUISIANA?

It would seem that the use uncouth swear words have become a way of description throughout the Bayou State, as well as across the country, from the President on down in recent years. The routine use of words that are both course and foul-mouthed are being used more and more across the athletic, business, political and academic spectrum.  My opinion? I personally feel the growing use of vulgar language is right down disgusting.

The language controversy raised its ugly head in the past few weeks as an LSU professor chose to criticize both Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and President Trump during a lecture in his classroom where he teaches as a tenured professor. The law professor argues that he can gush about anything he wants using any filthy language he feels he can spew out  under his protection of freedom of speech and academic freedom.

Granted, this professor, a guy named Ken Levy, can go into his empty classroom and say about anything he wants. The simple test? I’ll stay out of your face but you stay out of mine.  But the rules rightly change when you are teaching young students, and a portion of the professor’s salary is paid for with public funds.

The bar has been set by Louisiana’s flagship university by determining that dissenting views are allowed in an academic setting, but disagreements can take place without using vulgarity or showing disrespect. Professor Levy crossed that line. As expected, the courts are now involved.  Levy has been suspended from teaching at LSU, and he is appealing his dismissal. A question you might ask yourself. Would you want your daughter to be sitting in the classroom as the teacher laces his or her lectures with swearwords? I would not.

“The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it,” President George Washington once wrote.  It’s a good thing our nation’s first president did not take a law course under Prof. Levy.

 Vulgarity  was the cause of a shake up recently when the Vice chairman of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, Davante Lewis, was removed from his post over his use of coarse language directed at Governor Jeff Landry.  He was not fired like professor Levy. But fellow commissioners removed him from his vice chairmanship.  Is this a violation of Lewis’s freedom of speech?  No.  Lewis has the right to say whatever he wants.  But when you’re a public official, there are consequences. The rules of the commission say that a majority of the commission can either elect or remove those in leadership roles. Lewis could not put the majority of votes together to keep him as commission vice president.  So he can live by the sword or die by the sword.  If he continues to criticize by using vulgar language, he will do so out of any leadership role.

College football coaches are rampant in their use of swear words. My two young grandsons and I watched the post-game press conference of the Alabama football coach after their humiliating defeat to Vanderbilt this past season, and after listening to his rants and alibis for a while, I thought someone should wash his mouth out with soap.

It’s going to be difficult to come up with some exact formula governing vulgar language used by public officials.   I get that. And so many of these foul mouthers holler that they have the right to say what they want because they have freedom of speech. But what about us?  What about our right to expect and have freedom of decency?

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. 

 

 

 

 

PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE CIVIL WAR!

Monday, February 17^th, 2025

Baton Rouge Louisiana

PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE CIVIL WAR!

A number of former Presidents are being honored this week, as several new books have been released detailing actions of President Lincoln during the Civil War. President Donald Trump continues to express his opinion on virtually every subject involving America, both past and present. He recently has questioned why the conflict between north and south was even necessary. In a recent interview, Trump asked: “Why was there a Civil War? Why could that one not have worked out?”

Could Lincoln have done more to stop the fighting? Was there a middle ground to buy time for ongoing discussions? It was not like the South’s eventual leaders, from Jefferson Davis to Robert E. Lee were from a foreign land. Davis was a U.S. Senator, and Lincoln asked Lee to take over command of the entire U.S. Military. They were colleagues in government. Couldn’t Lincoln have been more persuasive?

Imagine the public reaction today if either Joe Biden or George Bush stood by and let some six million Americans kill one another in battle. That’s the number of deaths based on today’s comparative population. There would be open revolt and an immediate cry for new leadership. Did Lincoln fail the test then? Oh, he did take action. Lincoln suspended parts of the constitution including habeas corpus, arrested numerous political opponents, and shut down several hundred newspapers.

Was Lincoln obsessed with freeing the slaves? Here are his words in a letter written to New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley on August 22, 1862: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”

So was it a total commitment to keep the Union intact? Not if you believe Lincoln’s words a few years before the Civil War began. “Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. 

Professor David Goldfield has written a recent book called “America Aflame, How the Civil War Created a Nation.”  He’s a past guest on my syndicated radio show. Goldfield computes the total monetary cost of the war to around $6.7 billion in 1860s currency. He asserts that if “the government had purchased the freedom of four million slaves and granted a 40 acre farm to each slave family, the total cost would have been $3.1 billion, leaving $3.6 billion for reparations to make up for a century of lost wages. And not a single life would have been lost.”

What about the morality of a President declaring unbridled warfare on his own citizens? One can well argue that saving human lives would have been far more important than keeping the Union together. How can a President responsible for so much bloodshed be thought of as the greatest President in US history? I understand that Lincoln wanted to avoid the Civil War. However, was preserving the Union worth the cost of spilling so much blood on both ends of the battlefield?

Lincoln went on to lead the country in reconstruction and offered exemplary leadership as the nation healed its all too deep wounds. Maybe it was because he was brand new at the job as the war began. But it seems clear that when real leadership was called for in an effort to save hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens, Abraham Lincoln blinked. Whether you agree with many of his decisions or not, our current President wouldn’t  back down in trying to find some kind of a workable solution.

 The country is, after these 150 years, still reeling from this national tragedy. President Trump was right on in asking why the war was necessary in the first place.

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. 

 

 

 

TRUMP, “OLD HICKORY” AND LOUISIANA!

Thursday, February 13^th, 2025

Bato Rouge, Louisiana

TRUMP, “OLD HICKORY” AND LOUISIANA!

If you ever have a chance to walk into President Trump’s new oval office, the first thing you will see is a portrait of former President Andrew Jackson. A different painting of Jackson hung in the same location during the four years of Trump’s first presidency. Simply put, Trump is a big admirer of the America’s 7^th president.  And so should every Louisianian. For good reason. Along with Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson was the key critical component in keeping Louisiana as a vital part of America. In fact, without Jackson, all of us here in the Bayou State might be speaking French as our native language and might be living under a different culture in a different country.

Andrew Jackson was not  a native of the Bayou state. He was America’s seventh president, and was the only president to have been a prisoner of war, having been captured by the British at 17 while serving in the Revolutionary War. He later was Nicknamed “Old Hickory” for his legendary toughness on the battlefield. During his presidential campaign in 1828, his opponents called him a jackass. Jackson was amused and used the image to win the presidency. He founded the Democratic Party and used the jackass as its symbol.

But what Andrew Jackson did for Louisiana was incredible. In the war of 1812, New Orleans was under siege by the British. Major General Andrew Jackson rushed to New Orleans and gathered a rag tag army made up of a motley group of local citizens, frontiersmen, slaves, Indians and even pirates.  He was eager to fight the British, telling his wife: “I owe to Britain a debt of retaliatory vengeance, and should our forces meet I trust I shall pay the debt.”

Louisiana should regularly thank its lucky stars for Jackson’s tenacity to get his revenge. He soundly beat the British at the Battle for New Orleans, became an American hero, and saved Louisiana from becoming a permanent British protectorate.

If ever there were any two individuals who should be regularly honored and commemorated in Louisiana history, there should be doubt that the two should be Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. And for many years, the Louisiana Democratic Party did honor both American heroes by hosting an annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner as a yearly fundraiser. Democrats held similar events across the country.

But no more in Louisiana. Party officials have decided it is no longer “politically correct” to honor these two American icons. You see, they were slave owners. It made no difference that the first seven American presidents also owned slaves, as did most of the nation’s founding fathers. The democratic leadership apparently wants to judge these past heroes based on present-day values, and continue a warped effort to re write Louisiana and American history.

The new Louisiana fundraising dinner is now called the “True Blue Gala.” I suppose we will see a resolution at the dinner calling for the re-naming of Jefferson and Jackson parishes, Thomas Jefferson High School in Gretna, the town of Jackson, La., Jefferson Island in Iberia Parish; the list goes on and on.

The Louisiana Democratic Party has become more and more irrelevant in the Bayou State. And Jackson’s symbol for the Democrat Party would seem to have a different connotation today. The real jackasses are those democratic ingrates who try to rewrite history and belittle past leaders who served and saved our nation, particularly in Louisiana. Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson deserve a lot better.

President Jackson l once said: “I was born for the storm for the calm did not suit me.” When it comes to being a controversial leader, both Jackson and Trump have a lot in common. That’s why our new President honors Jackson as being his most admired leader.  So thank you “Old Hickory.” Louisiana owes you a great debt of gratitude.

 

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.