NEW YEAR THOUGHTS FROM THE BAYOU STATE!

December 29, 2016

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

NEW YEAR THOUGHTS FROM THE BAYOU STATE!

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I always do.  A New Year always brings with it promise and uncertainty, but this coming year brings with it a greater foreboding than we have experienced in the past.  The Chinese have a saying: "May you live in interesting times." But their definition means dangerous or turbulent. We in Louisiana and throughout America certainly live in “interesting” times today.

Like many of you, our family welcomes in the New Year with “Auld Lang Syne.”  It’s an old Scotch tune, with words passed down orally, and recorded by my favorite historical poet, Robert Burns, back in the 1700s.  (I’m Scottish, so there’s a bond here.) “Auld Lang Syne,” literally means “old long ago,” or simply, “the good old days.”  Did you know this song is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the New Year?

I can look back over many years of memorable New Year’s Eve celebrations.  In recent years, my wife and I have joined a gathering of family and friends in New Orleans at Antoine’s Restaurant in the French Quarter.  Our private party normally clusters in the Rex Room for dinner that includes an array of seafood appetizers (oysters, shrimp and crabmeat) and flaming Baked Alaska for dessert.  Yes, a number of champagne-filled toasts take place with an occasional family member dancing on the table. After dinner, we make a stop at St. Louis Cathedral for a blessing of the New Year.  Then it’s off to join the masses for the New Year’s countdown to midnight in Jackson Square.

When my daughters were quite young, we spent a number of New Year holidays at a family camp on Davis Island, in the middle of the Mississippi River some 30 miles below Vicksburg.  On several occasions, the only people there were my family and Bishop Charles P. Greco, who was the Catholic Bishop for central and north Louisiana.  Bishop Greco had baptized all three of my daughters and had been a family friend for years.  And he did love to deer hunt.

On many a cold and rainy morning, the handful of us at the camp would rise before dawn for the Bishop to conduct a New Year’s Mass.  After the service, most of the family went back to bed.  I would crank up my old jeep, and take the Bishop out in the worst weather with hopes of putting him on a stand where a large buck would pass.  No matter what the weather, he would stay all morning with his shotgun and thermos of coffee.  He rarely got a deer, but oh how he loved to be there in the woods.  Now I’m not a Catholic, but he treated me as one of his own.

One of the most fulfilling and rewarding projects I undertook in my Louisiana state senate days was to help Bishop Greco fund and build the St. Mary’s Residential and Training School for children with developmental disabilities in Alexandria.  He was a great mentor and friend who touched the lives of so many.  He died in 1987, and I will always think of him as the New Year begins.

New Year’s Day means lots of football, but I also put on my chef’s apron.  I’m well regarded in the kitchen around my household if I say so myself. My annual menu includes cooking up black-eyed peas as well as cabbage and corn bread.   And don’t bet I won’t find the dime in the peas.  After all, I’m going to put it there.

I’ll be back next week with my customary views that are cantankerous, opinionated, inflammatory, slanted, and always full of vim and vigor. Sometimes, to a few, even a bit fun to read.  In the meantime, Happy New Year to you, your friends and all of your family.   See you next year.

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“May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolution.”

 Joey Adams

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.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

THE HOLIDAYS OFFER US A SECOND CHANCE!

December 22^nd, 2016

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

THE HOLIDAYS OFFER US A SECOND CHANCE!

Most of us have been swept up in the momentum of the holiday season.  We have passed the Christmas milestone and are approaching New Year’s Day, the third in the trilogy of holidays that we celebrate during this time each year — Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.

But too often, our focus is on holiday shopping, football, and social events, and we pass up the opportunity to seize the moment and take advantage of what all three holidays present to all of us.  A second chance, and maybe even a new beginning.

On Thanksgiving Day, we recognized and celebrated the new beginning of the Pilgrims who made the two-month journey from England to America back in 1620.  They too wanted a second chance.  They were searching for a better life with the freedom to live and worship in their own way, free from the intolerance they faced under King James I and the Church of England.  Their leaders created the Mayflower Compact, which established a new set of laws so that they could be treated equally and fairly as part of their new way of life.  A rebirth.  A new beginning for all of them.

The second link in the trilogy, and to Christians the most important, is the Christmas season. The Bible teaches that Christ died on the cross to give believers a second chance.

There is one book that I try to read over the holidays every year — “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.  In the early 1960s, I had a golden opportunity to study English Literature at Cambridge University in England, where the writings of Dickens was my focus.

Dickens was a major writing personality in his day, and newspapers serialized many of his stories.  He initially published under the pen name of “Boz,” and he used this pseudonym for many of his early novels.  He entertained his wide London audience with humor in books like, “The Pickwick Papers” and “The Life and Times of Nicholas Nickleby.”  Dickens pulled at the heartstrings of his readers with the drama of “Oliver Twist” and “A Tale of Two Cities.”  But as the Christmas season approached in 1843, Dickens began using his own name, and took on the role of a crusader with the publication of “A Christmas Carol.”

Most of us have seen this poignant Christmas story filled with an array of colorful characters like Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.  But the real lessons of the spirit that emanate from this special time of year come, not from miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, but from his dead partner, Jacob Marley.  While alive, Marley failed to help others, and in death he is damned to the agony of recognizing the pain and suffering of others, and being unable to help in anyway, and this is his special hell.

My attorney friend, Eric Duplantis, who practices law and writes in the small town of Franklin, Louisiana, puts it this way:  “In life, Marley’s worst sin was not his venality, but his indifference.  After death he realizes this.  But it’s too late.  Death gave him compassion, but his sentence for a lifetime of indifference is an inability to act on the compassion he feels.”

Marley is given a single opportunity to do a good act, after which he must return to his Hell.  The ghost gives Scrooge the greatest gift of all.  Marley gives Scrooge the chance of redemption.  The message here from Dickens is that even someone as lost as Ebenezer Scrooge can be saved if he seizes this one time gift of a second chance.

Here’s hoping that the coming year brings you the opportunity of a second chance if you feel you need one.  But whether you do or you don’t, may you and your family have a blessed and healthy holiday season and a very happy New Year.  As Tiny Tim said in “The Christmas Carol,” God bless us every one.

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“He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”

Roy L. Smith

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.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

ARE REPUBLICANS FLIP FLOPPING ON OBAMACARE?

December 15^th, 2016

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

ARE REPUBLICANS FLIP FLOPPING ON OBAMACARE?

Remember the old knock on presidential candidate John Kerry back in the 2004 presidential election?  “I was for it before I was against it.”   Today, about the single worst charge that can be made against any conservative Republican politician is that they support Obamacare.  President-Elect Trump said during the recent campaign that his first act would be to abolish Obamacare. And the key component is requiring every citizen to buy health insurance.

But here’s the problem for GOP legislators. For decades, the Republican leadership in Washington embraced and championed individual mandates…well, that was before they “saw the light,” and flip-flopped against such an Obamacare requirement. As Ricky Ricardo used to say: “Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.”

The push toward mandated health care began back in the mid 1980s under President Ronald Reagan when he signed legislation that mandated free health care for all who seek it. That law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), was the largest expansion of government mandated health care since Medicare. But from the start, this new law engendered controversy from conservative economists.  Their concern was that the system was not encouraging individual responsibility. Their thinking was that many people would not purchase health insurance, so the taxpayer would get stuck with the medical bills.

From that point on, a whole host of Republican congressional leaders called for mandated health coverage.  Here is House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 2007 — “Personal responsibility extends to the purchase of health insurance. Citizens should not be able to cheat their neighbors by not buying insurance, particularly when they can afford it, and expect others to pay for their care when they need it.”  An “individual mandate” should be applied.

As these comments and many others by Republicans and numerous conservative think tanks have pointed out, there is a strong case for personal responsibility.  Why should a certain portion of the population ignore their healthcare protection, then have an accident or get sick and run to the emergency room for treatment, forcing you and me to pay their bills?  If we have to pay the piper, then why doesn’t everyone?

There is little hue and cry over mandated automobile insurance.  Everyone is required to be insured, so that if you are in an accident, and it’s not your fault, the other guy has to step up to the plate and pay you damages.  What’s fair for one, is fair for all.  Most of us don’t want to subsidize the uninsured driver, so why would we want to subsidize the irresponsible guy who just doesn’t care enough to buy health insurance?  If someone can’t afford the cost, then perhaps there should be a subsidy. But everyone should pay something. That’s called being responsible. And that is why in the past, so many conservative Republicans embraced the individual mandate.

What about property insurance?  Just try to go to a financial institution to borrow money for a new home, or for refinancing.  No property insurance?  Forget it.  And the flood insurance itself is highly subsidized by the federal government.  Now catch the irony here.  With health insurance, the insurance company will reject you if you have a pre-existing condition. No subsidy and no coverage.  But for property insurance, it’s just the opposite.  If you live in a part of the country that floods or is prone to hurricanes, your flood insurance is even cheaper because it is subsidized by the government.  Go figure.

Of course party politics plays no role in the current debate.  Yeah, right! Can you envision a Republican Senator looking across the aisle in the nation’s capitol and saying, “Actually, I’m voting against Obamacare even though I’ll vote for most of the provisions that are in it when a Republican is back in the White House.”  And you can just hear his Democratic colleague retort, “Well, I’m voting for it, after I voted against it, back when you voted for it, when a Republican was in the White House.”

So now will we be talking about Trumpcare?  Is there any wonder why the country is so ensnared in gridlock?

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“Gridlock is great.  My motto is, “Don’t just do something.  Stand there.”

William Safire

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.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

LOUISIANA HAS WORST DRIVERS IN AMERICA?

December 8^th, 2016

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

LOUISIANA HAS WORST DRIVERS IN AMERICA?

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’s listing this year 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 the Crescent City where irate drivers have gunned down two former NFL football players recently.  Former Saints linebacker Will Smith’s killer is on trial this week, while former NFL running back Joe McKnight was shot last week.  Any number of hit and runs are a regular occurrence all over the state.

Let me give you my personal observations.  I regularly 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 a Mascara race.  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 7^th or 8^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 just last week 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.  Under the Jindal administration, not one new trooper was hired and trained for the last five years.  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 than 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.

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“Just because you're sober, don't think you're a good driver, Cookie.”

― John Irving, Last Night in Twisted River

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.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.com