WHY DO WE HAVE HATE CRIMES?

Wednesday, November 230^h, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

WHY DO WE HAVE HATE CRIMES?

 

There has been a wave of mass shootings in recent weeks.  At a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, a shooter killed five people and injured 17 others that has been called a hate crime. In Chesapeake, Virginia, a Walmart supervisor shot and killed six coworkers in a mass murder that is not being called a hate crime. What’s the difference?

 

Well, what’s a hate crime you ask?  If someone is premeditatedly shot and killed, that’s commonly murder.  When you’re dead, you are dead, and there is a strong penalty for that; generally, life or the death penalty.  But hate crime supporters want more than justice. They want vengeance.

Under federal law, one can be charged with a hate crime if the criminality was motivated by hatred involving race, religion, national origin, color, or sexual preference.  Penalties for crimes against these groups already exist, but under the law such crimes are enhanced by what is in the perpetrator’s mind.  What ever happened to double jeopardy?  Simply put, a prosecutor can bring charges not only for an accused’s conduct, but they also can go after him for his thoughts.  In the Four Lads song, Standing on the Corner, Watching all the Girls Go By, there is the lyric, “Brother, you can't go to jail for what you're thinking.” Well, in the case of hate laws, apparently you can.

Having deeply troubling concerns over a thought police is nothing new.  George Orwell’s novel, 1984 paints a disturbing and chilling scenario where one can be accused of a crime, arrested and prosecuted merely for thoughts in your mind.  “The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed… the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime they called it… Sooner or later they were bound to get you.”

Have you ever gotten so mad and pent up that you went into a rage and said things you really didn’t mean?   “That sorry, no count blank, blank, blank, blank!  I’ll get even with him!” Have you ever used a racial slur? Oh, no, you say.  But then, upon reflection, maybe you did once or twice.  Does that make you a racist?

If there is supposed to be equal justice under the law, shouldn’t the punishment be based on the crime, and not on who the victim is?  If a deranged killer opens fire in a shopping mall, is this less of a crime than a maniac opening fire in a club filled with African Americans or gays?  Otherwise, when a life is taken, aren’t we making a determination that that the lives of one particular group have greater value than the lives of another group? Isn’t it a fundamental principle of a democracy that the punishment fits the crime, not the victim?

Ayn Rand wrote about the divisiveness that takes place when preferences are given under the law.  “There is no sure way to infect mankind with hatred – brute, blind, virulent hatred – than by splitting it into ethnic groups or tribes.”

Freedom in America means the freedom to have bad thoughts.  I may not like what you are thinking, but ideas alone should not be a crime.  A criminal should be punished for bad acts, not bad thoughts.  James Madison said it well: “We have extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making the laws for the human mind.”

When it comes to crime, yes there should be a protected class that gets full protection from the criminal justice system. That protected class should be all Americans.  And all Americans should be treated equally.

 

Peace and Justice

 

Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the South and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also look over a list of books he has published at www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

 

 

 

 

A BREAK FROM POLITICS SO WE DON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN!

Monday, November 14th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

A BREAK FROM POLITICS SO WE DON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN!

Don’t you and I deserve a campaign break? For months, we’ve been suffering through accusatory political rhetoric from both parties. I don’t know about you, but I think we all should tune out for a while. After all, the cost of these 2022 federal elections will exceed $10 billion, with most of this money going to advertising trying to win us over. And guess what? All this political marketing changed virtually nothing.

Both political parties accused the other as big soft on crime, not protecting the borders, and doing little to stop inflation and high gas prices. The message was clear. Throw the incumbent bums out. So guess what? After all that money was spent, voters went to the polls and kept nearly all the bums in place.

It’s no secret that, in the majority of elections, there are two key elements in getting elected to a major political office in Louisiana. The first is money. I’ve forgotten what the second element is. In highly contested statewide races, Louisiana often is listed as the most expensive state, per capita, in the nation. Remember Lisa Minnelli singing in the movie Cabaret that “Money makes the World Go Round.” She sure was right when it comes to political spending

Corporate campaign money has been bountiful in recent Louisiana campaigns. The war chests of the present Bayou State officials are filled with corporate checks, both from in and out of the state. Members of the Public Service Commission are actively supported by the corporations they regulate. LLCs formed by law firms are big players in Louisiana judicial elections. And the Louisiana Insurance Commissioner has actively solicited major out of state companies the department regulates for major campaign funding.

Here’s the real problem in Louisiana. And it’s not just corporate contributions. It’s the flooding of out of state money into Louisiana campaigns. Hundreds of millions of dollars pour into Louisiana political war chests every election cycle. How do Louisiana citizens benefit when large amounts of campaign cash flood into the state to influence Louisiana elections? Isn’t there a built-in conflict of interest as to where an official’s loyalties lie when large out of state donations are accepted?

Hey, I have an idea. There is a simple and constitutional way to keep Louisiana elected officials focused on Louisiana issues. A candidate for public office should only raise campaign funds in the district from where he or she is running. If you are running statewide, raise all your financial resources within the state. If you are running parish wide, your limits are within your home parish. Legislators, congressmen, and U.S. Senators would be limited to raising campaign dollars from within their respective districts. Simple.

Keep fund raising local. Make the candidates focus and be responsive solely to the voters in the districts that put them in office. No soliciting by candidates for campaign funds from any person or group that resides out of district or out of state. Oh, there would be loud protests from lobbyists who hand out the campaign dollars to gain their “special access.” And incumbents, who can work the system from day one in office would object at having to forgo all the many out of district fund raising opportunities. But the voters would be the beneficiaries.

If by accident a few new faces get elected, unfortunately we all will have to take heed of the song by The Who. Their refrain sums up a voter’s dilemma well.

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
Don’t get fooled again, no, no
Don’t get fooled again.

So don’t count on any groundswell of change. As long as out of state money floods the state, it’s going to be the same old, same old in both Baton Rouge and Washington.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the South and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also look over a list of books he has published at www.thelisburnpress.com.

LOUISIANA VOTERS NEED ELECTION ALTERNATIVES!

Monday, November 20^th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

LOUISIANA VOTERS NEED ELECTION ALTERNATIVES!

In last week’s column, I wrote about the aversion of a large number of Louisiana voters who were not in favor of any candidate on the ballot.  Many voters just wanted to throw the bums out.  But most of the incumbents running for reelection had large campaign war chests, and just overwhelmed any significant challenge. 

 Our US senator, John Kennedy, could have paid off the national debt with all the money he was able to raise. His expensive TV spots were first rate and portrayed his Washington accomplishments and his commitment to Louisiana values well.  But it took money. Lots of campaign money. His handful of challengers didn’t have a chance. You can say the same for all the members of the Louisiana congressional delegation. Like Lisa Minnelli sings in Cabaret: “Money makes the world go round.”

Really, most voters in the Bayou State are satisfied with their elected officials they send to Washington.  But what if they’re not? Do they have any alternative, especially when the competition is made up of minor candidates, who are unable to raise any significant campaign dollars to challenge?  Not at present.  But what if there was a third choice for voters, one that allows a voter to express dissatisfaction with the current crop of candidates?

You may be too young to remember, but such a third choice was proposed back in 1973 by an obscure state senator from Ferriday. I’m not sure of his name. Might have been some guy named Senator Jim Brown. Legislation was proposed to give voters an additional choice. If you did not like any candidate on the ballot, you could simply vote “None of the Above.”  That’s right. Voters would have the option to express their dissatisfaction all with the candidates running for a particular office.  If “None of the Above” received the most votes, then a new election would be required.

My legislation received strong support from a number of good government groups throughout the state. I received numerous letters and phone calls from Louisianians all over the state expressing their support for such a unique propopsal.  But then the old guard got together and torpedoed what I thought was a good idea. Older senators said  they just could not support my legislation. They were worried that "None of the Above" might win. As the state’s senior member, BB “Sixty” Rayburn told me: ‘"Gettin’ beat by none of the above? That could happen, and how humiliating it would be."

But if such a choice was available in Louisiana elections, the polls show that “None of the Above “would win in a number of races in a landslide. And to many voters here in the Bayou State, that wouldn’t be all that bad.

Actually, the idea has picked up interest and has started to create a lot of traction, especially out west. Here’s what the Wall Street Journal recently wrote.  “It’s time to consider giving voters a binding None of the Above line on ballots.”  And how about Nevada? Since 1975, Nevada ballots have included this ultimate protest option: “None of These Candidates.” It’s something no other state has so far.

“In Nevada, it was a post-Watergate effort to try to get people to participate in the process, but also here’s a chance to sort of vent if they’re disappointed about their choices,” says University of Nevada Las Vegas political science professor David Damore. “The big consequence of it is that you end up typically in a close race with the winning candidate not getting 50 percent.”

So who knows where this unique idea may end up. A few years back, there was a fellow up in Winnsboro named L.D. Knox.  He went into the court and legally changed his name to L.D. “None of the Above” Knox. He never won elective office, but apparently garnered more votes than most people in that area thought he would get.  Maybe this was a little extreme, but it did show more interest in the idea.

Here's the bottom line. As I wrote last week, until there are ways to reduce the amount of campaign funds that incumbents are allowed to raise and spend, a significant number of voters are going to be unhappy. None of the above may not be the solution, but there’s got to be a better way for candidates to talk about issues, and not spend all their time raising campaign dollars.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the South and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also look over a list of books he has published at www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jerry Lee Lewis is Laid to Rest!

Rev. Jimmy Swaggart joined me in honoring Jerry Lee.

November 7^th, 2022

Ferriday, Louisiana

I wrote last week about the passing of Jerry Lee Lewis, who, in my opinion, was the greatest rock and roller of all time. Since I was in attendance at his funeral, I thought readers would like to know how the Killer was laid to rest. Ferriday, Louisiana is normally quiet on a Saturday morning. But this past week, it was a buzz of activity as friends and fans of Jerry Lee came from all over the world to witness his memorial.

I personally talked to fans from Scotland, England, and Germany. Hundreds of people waited in line for over an hour to sign a guestbook and pass by the Killer’s coffin. The small chapel at Young’s funeral home held 160 people, so hundreds of other mourners stood outside under tents in the pouring rain, and watched the service on monitors.

Ferriday was my home for almost 20 years, so it was old home week and a reunion with so many friends that I have not seen in quite a while. The same could be said for Reverend Jimmy Swaggart, who gave the eulogy for his first cousin, and who greeted friends and relatives who had grown up with one of the world’s best-known evangelists.

Jerry Lee and his wife Judith have lived for many years in their home south of Memphis. Many folks felt he would be buried there. But he told his wife, no, he wanted to come back home and be buried at a small family cemetery off the beaten path some 10 miles north of Ferriday.

Brother Swaggart relished in sharing stories of growing up in Ferriday with his cousin and sneaking into Haney’s Big House, a well-known local nightclub that was the musical stop for numerous black entertainers including Louis Armstrong and Fats Domino.  “We would hide under one of the tables and listen to the music on weekends as we grew up,” Reverend Swaggart told the crowd.  “Jerry Lee’s father mortgaged their home to buy him a piano, and we both started playing from about age eight on.”

Rev. Swaggart went on to tell the crowd that Jerry Lee found the Lord in his final years, and that the two of them ever recorded a gospel album called “The boys from Ferriday.”  It was the last album Jerry Lee ever recorded.

Jerry Lee was married seven times, and I asked his widow Judith why he got married so often. She didn’t hesitate in telling me that “he kept doing it until he got it right with me.”  She was quite affectionate with the crowd, and let many at the gathering join her and take pictures that lasted all afternoon.

I shared my stories of Jerry Lee being my first legal client, and how he had called me off and on to help some family member for many years before his death. One of the advantages of being Jerry Lee’s local attorney was that I never wanted for great seats at any of the number of concerts I attended.

Many of his fans in attendance were quite vocal in saying there will never be anyone ever again like Jerry Lee Lewis. And the Killer raised the same question in one of his songs recorded some 10 years ago titled “Who is Going to Play this old Piano?”  The lyrics to the song pretty much sum up the uniqueness of Jerry Lee. See if you don’t agree.

 Who’s gonna keep these ivories talking
Like Jerry Lee’s doin’ now?
Who’s gonna play this ol’ piano
After my last bow?

Who’s gonna touch these keys with feeling?
That really gets to you
Who’s gonna play this ol’ piano
When my time is through

Who’s gonna keep this music going?
Who will carry on?
Who’s gonna play this ol’ piano
After the Killer’s gone?!

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the South and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also look over a list of books he has published at www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

 

 

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TWO CHEERS FOR THE FRENCH- ESPECIALLY IN LOUISIANA!

Monday, October 23^rd, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 TWO CHEERS FOR THE FRENCH-

ESPECIALLY IN LOUISIANA!

As the Ukrainian War drags on, some of America’s strongest allies are becoming less than supportive, in spite of strong urging by the Biden Administration.  India has failed to offer any help, and the British support is becoming shaky due to their own financial and political problems at home.  Italy’s new prime minister had some positive things to say about Vladimir Putin during her recent successful campaign. The strongest allied supporter out of the Europe Union has become France.

France?  Are you kidding? Wasn’t it the French, under then-President Jacques Chirac, who strongly opposed invading Iraq?  And if you go back to the 1960s, those of us who are a little older will remember French President Charles De Gaulle’s strong opposition to America entering Vietnam.  Since we have little to show for the billions spent and the lives lost in both invasions, maybe the French opposition wasn’t all that bad an idea.

 However, the French have received little appreciation or even a few good words from American military leaders.  Who can forget General Norman Schwarzkopf’s comment that, “Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion.”  And then there was General George Patton in World War II who said, “I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me.”

 And boy, have we gotten mad at the lack of French support.  In the congressional cafeteria at the nation’s capital, they changed the menu from French fries to freedom fries.  That really showed them.  And for the record, I don’t remember reading of any politician advocating the probation of French kissing.

I remember a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, where groundskeeper, Willie, is directed to become a French teacher at the local elementary school.  “The French?” he hollers, “They’re nothin’ but a bunch of cheese-eating surrender monkeys.”

But that was then.  Although we’ve had conflicts and disagreements with the French, if you take a history lesson in Franco-American relations, you will see that when it’s crunch time, we can generally count on them.  France has come out strongly in support of America’s tenuous situation in the Middle East, and the U.S. seems eager to let bygones be bygones.

Without the support of the French, America could well have lost the Revolutionary War.  Founding Father Thomas Jefferson contemplated joint democratic values while serving as US Ambassador to France living in Paris.  Many regard Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” as the best book written on the unique and exceptional American new form of government, that was later adopted by the French.

Many of us were close to speaking French as our native language.  Napoleon’s agreement with Thomas Jefferson and Robert Livingston allowed for the creation of 15 new states, doubling the size of the United States.  To give thanks to the French dictator, my home state of Louisiana agreed to hide him at what is now called The Napoleon House in the center of the New Orleans French Quarter.  Unfortunately, before he could get to the Crescent City, he was captured and sentenced to exile on the Isle of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

There is a little Yankee bad taste from Napoleon’s involvement in the Civil War.  France was avowed to be neutral, but it was common knowledge that Napoleon III was pulling for South.  Oh well!

And don’t come down here in South Louisiana and make any derogatory comments about France.  Thanks to die hard Frenchmen, who immigrated first to Canada, and then migrated down the Mississippi as Acadians, the French tradition, language, culture and bon appétit is alive and well, and growing throughout Cajun country.  In Abbeville, a small community just south of Lafayette, many of the signs outside retail stores are written in French.  Several radio stations play only Cajun music with a daily rendition of the Cajun national anthem Jolie Blond, often played by my old friend, fiddler Doug Kershaw.

If the Good Lord told me I have one more trip to make to another country before I pass on, I would choose Paris, and a ramble through southern France for the food, the ambience, the architecture, the Shakespeare Bookstore, a walk along the Seine.  And the pretty girls.  Ah, to be 25 again, in 1963, when I spent months in Paris experiencing the special ambiance that is rarely found elsewhere. If you want to relive that Franco jolie vie, take a friend or loved one to see Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.”

Certainly the French have their own national interests at heart. But they have also made it clear that what America says matters.  Over time, there are historical allies and there are strong allies. Right now, France and the U.S. can claim to have both — a solid past, and a present relationship that would seem to be in the best interests of both countries.  We in Louisiana certainly hope so. 

 So pass the French bread.  And for breakfast tomorrow, let’s have French toast and French roast coffee with French chicory, Louisiana style.  And please, don’t shy away from an occasional French kiss.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the South and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also look over a list of books he has published at www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

 

 

 

ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY IN LOUISIANA?

Monday, October 17^th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY IN LOUISIANA?

 A jury last week in Parkland, Florida recommended Nikolas Cruz get life in prison for killing 17 people, sparing Cruz from a death sentence after his lawyers argued he had a troubled upbringing.  I read a great deal about this case and I wasn’t impressed with his “upbringing” argument.  Hey, life growing up can be tough, but one isn’t excused for such unspeakable, horrific brutality that took place.  I would have voted for the death penalty.

Down here in the Bayou State, there’s a clamor for more executions. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry makes no bones about his feelings. More executions — including nitrogen gas, hangings, firing squads, electrocution, and lethal injection. But a federal judge has put all executions in Louisiana on hold for another year.

There is a reason the death penalty is rarely enforced anymore, particularly in the federal judicial system. Too many innocent victims are being convicted, based on cover-ups and the withholding of exculpatory evidence by some federal and state prosecutors. A recent study published in the National Academy of Sciences concludes that some 4.1 percent of inmates on death row are innocent. More than 4 percent! If that were the rate of airplanes crashing, would you fly?

My alma mater, the University of North Carolina, completed a death penalty study in 2016, and found that in Louisiana, 127 of 155 death penalty cases over the past 40 years ended in reversal, some 10 points above the national average.

Since 2000, there have been only two executions while seven people in Louisiana, about to be put to death, were found to be innocent. The main reason? Prosecutorial misconduct.
Louisiana has taken on the dubious title of having case after case of death row inmates being convicted based on the withholding of evidence that would prove their innocence.

New Orleans has become the cesspool for the innocent being convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death. One of the most egregious is the case of New Orleanian John Thompson, who was convicted back in 1982 of first-degree murder and given the death sentence.? He came within days of being executed after spending 14 years on death row and 18 years total in prison. Five different prosecutors were involved in the case and all knew that a blood test, and other key evidence that showed Thompson was innocent, had been withheld by the prosecution.

On his deathbed and dying of cancer, one of the prosecutors confessed to a colleague that he had hidden the exculpatory blood sample. The colleague waited five more years before admitting that he too knew of the hidden evidence. Thompson, after 18 years, received a new trial, and his lawyers were finally able to produce pieces of evidence that had been kept from Thompson’s defense attorneys, that overwhelming showed he was innocent. The new jury took less than 35 minutes to find him not guilty.  The prosecutors involved all should have been disbarred and had to serve jail time themselves.

Hiding evidence that can find the accused innocent is nothing new for prosecutors in New Orleans, both in state and federal court as well as with the FBI. The Innocence Project of New Orleans reviewed a number of convictions over the past 25 years in the city and concluded that prosecutors have a “legacy” of suppressing evidence.

Then there is the chilling case of Dan Bright, convicted and put on death row for a murder he did not commit. Evidence came out years after his conviction that the FBI, thanks to a credible informant, had been in possession of the name of the actual killer all along. Luckily for Bright, because of the unconstitutional withholding of key evidence by the prosecution and the FBI, his conviction was thrown out, and he now is a free man.

Questionable conduct by rogue prosecutors who withhold information that could prove the innocence of an accused is far too prevalent. Whether one is for or against the death penalty, there is ample evidence that convictions of a capital crime can be a crapshoot based on the whims of some prosecutors who too often withhold evidence that shows the accused is innocent.

In the movie “Shooter”, Bobby Lee Swagger sums up how the death penalty is often enforced. In Louisiana.  “This is the world we live in, and justice is not always fulfilled!”

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the South and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also look over a list of books he has published at www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

 

 

LIVING AND DYING IN LOUISIANA!

Monday, October 10^th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

LIVING AND DYING IN LOUISIANA!

Eighteen years ago this week, Derrick Todd Lee received the death penalty in Louisiana. He was the state’s most notorious and prolific serial killer. I was there in the courtroom when the verdict was handed down.

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 wrestled and won a separate confrontation with cancer, and a number of Billy’s friends all 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 estate, often run several million dollars. It’s much cheaper to lock 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 were, that one day Lee would die. John McKeithen, Edwin Edwards and Buddy Romer 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 eighteen years ago, it was obvious that one succeeded and one failed.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the South and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also look over a list of books he has published at www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

THE END OF ONE OF ROCK AND ROLL’S ALL TIME GREATS!

Wednesday, November 2^nd, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

THE END OF ONE OF ROCK AND ROLL’S ALL TIME GREATS!

 

Sad news for us rock and rollers all over America, and for that matter, all over the world. The Killer passed away last week after living a full 87 years of life.  Although he lived in a number of venues, and seem to constantly travel all over the world, he always called Ferriday, Louisiana his home. This little town in Northeast Louisiana produced a number of famous people. But no one was bigger and more well-known than Jerry Lee Lewis.

 

Jerry Lee had two famous and celebrated cousins.  Mickey Gilley won the award of the country singer of the year. And cousin Jimmy Swaggart became and still is one of the best-known evangelical ministers in the country. Newscaster Howard K. Smith came from Ferriday as well as General Claire Chennault of the fighting tigers fame in World War II.  My daughter Campbell had a nationwide following as host of the Today Show on NBC and primetime news anchor on CNN.  Yes, I’m a Ferriday guy, having practiced law and being the state senator from this little town for many years. But nobody, and I mean nobody, was as well-known and controversial as Jerry Lee.

 

As I’ve written before, Jerry Lee was my first client when I opened my law practice in Ferriday back in 1967.   I had just put up my shingle and couldn’t even afford a secretary. I just hung out in my office hoping that someone would come in needing a lawyer, and I was always anxious when the door opened. One afternoon, in walks “The Killer” himself. I recognized him immediately with that long wavy hair and pointed chin.  He didn’t need a lawyer but had a family member that was in a bit of trouble with the local game wardens. I was glad to help and that forged a long relationship with the king of rock and roll.

 

In 1957, there was no doubt that Jerry Lee was the king of rock ‘n’ roll. The Beatles John Lennon even said that Jerry Lee was the representation of a whole new genre of music. Nobody played a boogie-woogie piano better than the Killer. He played with both his hands and even his feet, and the piano keys seem to take a life of their own with the maestro, Jerry Lee, directing them to play faster and louder. I saw him at one performance kick over the piano stool and even dance on top of the piano.

 

In the late 1950s and early 60s, Jerry Lee was at the top of his musical game. He was bigger than Elvis or any other performer, both in the U.S. and numerous other countries in Europe.  But his star lost some of its luster with personal problems, including his marriage to his 14-year-old cousin. He was married seven times with a number of highs at lows.

 

Then his luck turned and Jerry Lee reinvented himself, following the path of Cousin Mickey Gilley, and he began performing country music ballads.  His top country hits included"Middle-Age Crazy" (1977), What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)" (1968), and "Chantilly Lace" (1972). But whatever else he recorded, nothing then and in the future will ever come close to “Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On" (1957) and “Great Balls of Fire.” (1957).

 

I attended a dinner in New York a few years back for a relative, and a wealthy hedge fund CEO came to my table and introduced himself. He had heard I was from Ferriday. All he wanted to talk about was Jerry Lee Lewis. “My musical idol,” he told me. “I even have a piano in my office, so to unwind, I play The Killer’s music.” This guy has billions, travels the world in his own private jet, and to relax, he plays the music of a Ferriday boy who cut his musical teeth hanging out with the likes of Mickey Gilley and Rev. Jimmy Swaggart.  

 

As the song says, “Rock and Roll will never die.”  And years from now, when they make a list of the all-time greats, included at the top of the list will be the Killer himself, Jerry Lee Lewis.

 

Peace and Justice

 

Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the South and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also look over a list of books he has published at www.thelisburnpress.com.