A REPUBLICAN CONVENTION IN NEW ORLEANS?

June 26th, 2020

New Orleans, Louisiana

A REPUBLICAN CONVENTION IN NEW ORLEANS?

Republicans just a few weeks ago were scouring major cities across the country to find a new location for their national convention, scheduled for mid-August. The GOP had originally planned to congregate in Charlotte North Carolina, but the governor set extremely strict standards for any type of large gathering.  President Trump seems dead set on going to a more friendly environment.  New Orleans was   initially in the running.

There is a huge financial stake involved, with some 40,000 conventioneers projected to be attendance at wherever the location may be. The economic impact is estimated to be well over $200 million. Such conventions prove to be a huge financial generator for hotels, restaurants, cab drivers, bars and a whole host of local of entertainment options the fuel the local economy of any convention city.

And hands-down, New Orleans is the best convention city in the country. Hosting a convention at the Superdome makes it easy for those in attendance to walk from any hotel in the downtown area. Good restaurants, the French Quarter, the Riverwalk, the World War II museum, and many other attractions are all close at hand. No other city can offer such accessibility.

In 1988, the GOP gathered in New Orleans at the Superdome to pick their nominee. An old friend had a box suite and invited me to join him there to watch the festivities. The President to be, George H.W. Bush, had just completed his acceptance speech and the suite emptied out. I lingered to watch all the celebrating, when the door opened and Senator Bob Dole walked in.

Dole had lost the nomination to Bush in a heated battle marked by some sharp exchanges. The Kansas Senator had won the first battle in the Iowa Caucuses, with Bush finishing third. But Bush recovered and was unopposed for the nomination at the convention.

“Sorry, I must be lost,” he said. “There’s supposed to be a suite where I can sit a bit, but I’ve forgotten the number.”  “Senator, you’re welcome to relax here.” I offered him a drink and we sat and watched the jubilation and TV commentary. You could tell he was wishing he could have been the nominee taking on Governor Dukakis in the coming fall election.

“Dukakis is leading in the polls now.” I asked, “Can Bush win?”  Dole paused for a moment, and said: “Yes, I believe he will. But that promise about ‘read my lips — no new taxes.’ That may come back to haunt him in the future if he is elected.”

The Senator was right on the mark. That promise was a big factor in Bill Clinton’s victory over the incumbent President four years later.

Under normal circumstances, New Orleans would have been an easy sell for Republicans. Louisiana is a red state, with President Trump receiving some of his highest ratings down here in the deepest of the deep southern states. The clinker of course was whether the state could be ready to take in 40,000 visitors with the coronavirus hanging an uncertain cloud over the city and the surrounding area.  The governor and the mayor just didn’t feel comfortable in lifting current restrictions to allow such a gathering.

There are trade-offs and dangers in bringing huge crowds to New Orleans.  COVID-19 had an early spread compared to most states in the spring follow the following the influx of visitors for Mardi Gras. There were tough decisions to make weighing the safety of local residents and whether the economic benefits of thousands of conventioneers were worth the risk. 

The Republicans opted for Jacksonville Florida, and despite the economic losses, it probably worked out for the best. Louisiana still has a long way to go in curtailing COVID-19.  Hopefully, it won’t be too long until such opportunities come again under a safer environment.

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.

REWRITING LOUISIANA’S HISTORY!

Friday, June 12^th, 2020

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

REWRITING LOUISIANA’S HISTORY!

It looks like it’s time to get out the soap powder in Louisiana and the rest of the nation. In protests all over the country, there is a growing call for the banishment of whatever tattered remnants are left from the aftermath of the Civil War. Not just flags, but monuments, names, Dukes of Hazzard, Aunt Jemima syrup, Uncle Ben’s rice, Gone with the Wind, they all gotta go. The cultural cleansing in the Bayou state has begun.

 Of course the Confederate flags should come down from public buildings, and should have been lowered years ago. But the question is, just how far should government bodies go to pacify those who feel offended by tax dollars being used to maintain past symbols; reminders of a once divisive nation that are an affront to many black Americans.

Actually, despite newspaper accounts otherwise, the Confederate flag never flew above the state capitol in Baton Rouge, both during the time of the Civil War, and in the years afterword. Louisiana adopted its own flag of secession, comprised of a yellow star on a red background. What to see what it looked like? Check out the present flag of Viet Nam.

So what happens now? Do reasonable voices want to open up a discussion to learn from history, or will there be an emotional reaction to determine and shape history? Do we purge symbols and inscriptions of the past that causes discomfort to some? Isn’t that what ISIS has doing in the Middle East; wiping out monuments that commemorate both the good and the bad of a region’s history?

If there is an effort to wash away memorials that defined the state’s mindset of slave ownership at a certain time in its past, then just how far does the “cleansing” go? New Orleans recently took down the statute of General Robert E. Lee since he led the war effort for the South. Lee never owned a slave. The leader of the Union Army and future president General Ulysses S. Grant was a slave owner. Go figure.

Do we change the name of Grant Parish to dishonor the Union president who himself was the owner of slaves? For that matter, what about the nation’s first president George Washington, who owned 316 slaves?   Should folks in Washington Parish start searching for a new name? How about Jefferson Parish, whose presidential namesake owned 171 slaves and fathered several children by one? The same concerns are now front and center for those who live in Madison and Jackson Parishes, both named after slaveholding presidents. In fact, eleven presidents were slave owners.

Jefferson Davis Parish is certainly at risk along with Ft. Polk, named after Confederate General Leonidas Polk. And families in Lafayette may witness an assault on the statute of Louisiana Governor, U.S. Senator and Confederate General Alexandre Mouton who was president of the state’s secession convention to leave the union 1861.

Now, for a real shocker! The LSU Tigers were named after a Confederate Army unit called the Louisiana Fighting Tigers that fought in a number of Civil War encounters, often joined in battle with another Louisiana unit call the Pelican Brigade. So if some within the state’s leadership feel pressure to demonize the past, then could we see a name change from the LSU Fighting Tigers in favor of a name more politically correct?

And let’s not even get started on the plight of the American Indian, whose tribes were assaulted, sometimes massacred and eradicated as America expanded to the West, all under the red, white and blue. Not a Confederate flag, but the American flag. Is what’s good for the goose, good for the gander, or do we ignore this wretched period of American history?

A cultural purge of historical monuments opens old wounds, and stands in the way of meaningful understanding of a new generation living in a new South. Political grandstanding can do little more than widen an already growing racial divide. Learning from history should be the bellwether, not a doleful attempt to rewrite the colorful and often controversial highs and lows of our nation’s past.

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

― George Orwell

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

WE ARE TOO BUSY FOR NATIONAL ANTHEM!

June 18^th, 2020

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

WE ARE TOO BUSY FOR NATIONAL ANTHEM!

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has stirred u a national debate on standing when the national anthem is played at sporting events.  I’ve always looked on honoring the flag and standing for the national anthem as a basic premise that connotes a commitment to protect our freedoms guaranteed to us under our constitution.

 It’s also a symbol of reverence for our soldiers who protect us throughout the world. It’s never occurred to me not to stand as the national anthem is being played. I guess I’m just an old-fashioned coot that has allowed current trends to pass me by. It apparently is just not “cool” or “hip” to celebrate freedom and to honor those who protect us.

I guess I have never been all that “cool.” I was one of those young kids who didn’t dodge the draft, and even though I was married with a child on the way and past draft age, I still volunteered to serve in the military. Initially in the Army and then 12 years in the National Guard. I was a lawyer, but enlisted in the infantry. I still have and wear my dog tags given to me by the Army back in 1966. I wasn’t all that special. Thousands of young men did the same. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

But I guess being patriotic is passé in this day and age. It’s not just many overpaid NFL football players who can’t seem to take a few moments to honor those who serve and protect our country. Have you been to a college or pro game recently? Just take a look around you while the Star-Spangled Banner is playing. As sportswriter John Branch wrote in The New York Times, maybe we ought to turn the cameras around on the fans. “Those who have spent a lot of time in stadiums and arenas know that they are rarely sanctuaries of patriotic conformity and decorum.”

Go to LSU’s Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night or venture into the Super Dome for a Sunday afternoon Saints game. Many fans seem oblivious to the anthem as they wander towards their seats or walk about looking for bathrooms and concession stands. Tailgaters, almost without exception, carry on with their cooking and drinking as the music drifts outside the stadium gates. No time or interest in pausing for the anthem.

Actually, there is a federal act that requires allegiance to the American Flag. In United States Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, the law states that non-military persons “should face the flag and stand at attention with their right hand over the heart, or if applicable, remove their headdress with the right hand and holding to the left shoulder, hand being over the heart.”

I’m sure lawsuits would come raining down from the ACLU if such a law were enforced. I oppose players taking a knee, but those that do are at least staying quiet and focusing on the anthem. Not like many fans who seem to be oblivious to a two-minute pause in honor of those who defend the freedoms that allows these same fans to attend a sporting event. As Jack Nicholson said in A Few Good Men: “We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline.”

Sure, there are many problems involving fairness throughout our nation. I have written a book about discrimination in the federal judicial system called Justice Denied. But there are times when our country should speak as one voice, and that time to me is during the playing of our national anthem.

The American Flag is rarely flown anymore, outside of public buildings and some car dealerships. When I grew up, many homes throughout our neighborhood proudly hung the Flag. I still fly the nation’s flag in front of both my house and my office, 365 days a year.

But that’s just me. I guess, to many of us old guys, patriotism is something that too many Americans acknowledge in passing. Take for granted. No big deal. Now let’s get on with the game.

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. 

FIFTY-TWO YEARS OF POLITICAL CONVENTIONS!

Thursday, June 4^th, 2020

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

FIFTY-TWO YEARS OF POLITICAL CONVENTIONS!

 Assuming in this strange day and age, we still have political conventions this year, no one at this stage is sure just how the process will work. The old process of picking national candidates in the proverbial smoke-filled room has gone by the wayside in favor of party primaries. In the old days, candidates would spend years wooing state party leaders, who would then select delegates and tell them whom to support.

This time-worn system produced Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. The current process gave us George Bush and Barack Obama along with either Donald Trump or Joe Biden this year. You be the judge as to which process has worked out better for the country.

My first Democratic convention was in Atlantic City back in 1964. On a summer break from Tulane Law School, I was driving my fifteen-year-old Volkswagen convertible up to New York for a summer job, and I stopped in Atlantic City on the way. The Democrats were gathering in the old civic auditorium on the boardwalk, which for many years was the site of the Miss America pageant.

I was able to park my car about half a block from the auditorium and walk right up to the front door. A guard asked me where I was going, and I said I wanted to join the Louisiana delegation.

“Are you supposed to be with them?” he asked.  “I sure am,” I said. I might have exaggerated a bit, but I really wanted to get in the door. “Well, then, welcome to Atlantic City, go right in.”

I stood about fifty feet away from the stage where President Lyndon Johnson kept the crowd in suspense until he announced that Senator Hubert Humphrey would be his running mate. Johnson was a cinch to be re-elected, and the Democrats pulled together as one big happy family. What a contrast to what happened four years later.

The next Democratic convention was held in Chicago. I was living in Ferriday, Louisiana at the time with my wife and our two-month-old daughter, Campbell. On the spur of the moment, we decided to travel to Chicago and visit old friends, so we packed up the car and headed north.

The main party headquarters was at the Sheraton Hotel, which faces Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago. Major opposition to the Vietnam War was building, and a large number of protesters had gathered in Grant Park across from the Sheraton. \ I knew I could get a better view from the top of the Sheraton, so I headed for the elevator in the lobby. When the doors opened, there were two people inside: Senator Russell Long, and Louisiana Governor John McKeithen.

Sticking my hand out, I introduced myself. “Governor, I’m Jim Brown from Ferriday.” McKeithen smiled. He was visibly surprised.

“Why Jim, what are you doing up here?” he asked

.

“Governor,” I said, “I came all the way up here to support you for vice-president.”

McKeithen laughed, slapped me on the back, and told me he could not be more pleased.  I later learned that the Senator and the Governor had been on their way up to Vice President Humphrey’s suite to urge him to put McKeithen on the ticket. When he was not tapped for the job, the Governor left in a huff and headed back to Louisiana.

Subsequent conventions produced numerous additional Louisiana antidotes.  I attended seven conventions in all, both republican and democrat.  I’ll fill you in on more political yarns next week.  Stay tuned.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

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