THE JOYS OF COUNTRY LIVIN'

^{December 28th}, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

THE JOYS OF COUNTRY LIVIN'

 

After several recent columns about my relationship with Jerry Lee Lewis, several readers have written to ask what I found so appealing about living in Ferriday.  I think it’s more the slower pace of living in a rural area. I enjoyed my time there, particularly in my early years. 

 

I had a yellow Ford pickup truck with a winch on the front and wide mud tires. I was living about 5 miles outside of Ferriday in an old plantation house I was restoring. To get to the house, one had to drive several miles along the Mississippi river levee on a gravel road. Often on my way home in the evening, I would park my car on the levee, pop a cold beer in an ice chest I always kept in the truck, and watch the sunset.

 

My truck’s tape player floated musical sounds through the open windows. Classical music. That’s all I played in the truck. My list of classical masterpieces included melodies from the likes of Jerry Lee, Mickey Gilley, George Jones, and of course Willy Nelson.

 

I met Willy in 1972. I was a Louisiana state senator at the time, and one evening went by the governor’s mansion for a reception. Willie was not that well known back then but was invited to the reception by a local friend. As I waited to order a drink at the outdoor bar, I made small talk with the fellow next in line. He told me his name was Willie Nelson and he was a songwriter. I ask him if I would know any of the songs. He mentioned Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain. I had never heard of it.  A few months later, I was driving in the North Carolina mountains, and Blue Eyes came on the local radio. I was mesmerized by the song and by Willie’s voice.

 

Willie’s songs go well with Louisiana sunsets.

 

I still consider Ferriday a resting place.  Some might think that living a more pastoral life would be to slow a pace with little to do, and a hard place to meet friends that share similar interests. But any number of my close colleagues do not live in Northeast Louisiana. In fact, most of my friends do not. They live everywhere. I stay in touch and talk to them regularly online. Whatever one’s interests, there is a community of people out there they can connect with. 

 

As century before the Internet, Franz Kafka wrote,” It isn’t necessary that you leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don't even listen, just wait. Don't wait, be still and alone. The whole world will offer itself to you.”

 

Most tourists are not that familiar with the Ferriday area. Actually, our part of the Bayou State was settled long before the rest of our tourist-centric state.  Indian tribes roamed the area for centuries, Jim Bowie fought a well-documented knife fight on the banks of the Mississippi, and one of the several transfers of power from France to Louisiana as part of the Louisiana purchase took place on the outskirts of Ferriday.

 

For years when I was living there, we had a country music jamboree at the Delta Music Theatre in downtown Ferriday on Saturday nights. Sunday mornings meant attending church for most of us, with dinner on the grounds (everyone brought potluck) following the service. The mud races were a big thing on Sunday afternoons in the fall and winter. Souped up trucks and go karts would race around a mud filled track.  Fun to watch, and a great place to shake hands and politic. I’m still the highest-ranking public official who has ever been elected from this part of the state. 

 

Now don’t misjudge living in a rural community. Folks will surprise you. They may not be all that fancy. But most of my many friends there are decent, hard-working farmers and merchants. They are not dumb country hicks, but solid salt of the earth locals who enjoy the slower pace of country living.  So that’s about as eloquent as I can get describing my home for a number of years, and a domicile I still like to consider as a good resting place. Who knows? I might even be buried there one day.

 

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.  
 

 

 

THE HOLIDAYS OFFER US A SECOND CHANCE!

Monday, December 19th, 2022

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 Thanksgiving, reached the Christmas milestone and are approaching New Year’s Day, the third in the trilogy of holidays.

Sure, there is a lot of our attention on holiday shopping, football, and social events. But it is also a time to reflect of what the three holidays can mean to all of us.  A second chance, and maybe even a new beginning.

On Thanksgiving Day, we recognized and celebrated the new start 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 were my focus.

Dickens was a major literary 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. We all generally do. 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 everyone.

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.  
 

 

 

 

HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE MAY BECOME UNAFFORDABLE ALONG THE GULF COAST!

Wednesday, December 14^th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE MAY BECOME

UNAFFORDABLE ALONG THE GULF COAST!

 

Just when you thought the insurance crisis along the gulf coast, particularly in Louisiana, could not get any worse, along comes congress to try and really muck up the problems faced by property owners who are trying to protect the value of their homes.  If some members of congress have their way, look for already sky-high insurance coverage costs to leap even higher.

Here’s the clinker that will cause these big premium increases.  Right when congress goes back to work after the holidays, one of the financial proposals is a new income provision with a dull, but important title that few will understand.  It’s called deduction disallowance for excel non-taxed reinsurance premiums paid to affiliates (yawn).  But a little explanation will enlighten us on the negative impact this provision will have on property owners in Louisiana and other states throughout the Gulf South.

The key word here is “reinsurance.”  You and I don’t buy it, but most insurance companies do.  When an insurance company insures property, they often find another company to take part of their risk.  Something like the bookie that lays off part of the bet he takes.  A company like State Farm, Allstate and most other insurers selling property insurance will shop around for someone to partner up with in case there is a major disaster.  The majority of insurance companies looking for reinsurance go to Europe and work with reinsurers like Lloyds of London, Swiss Re, Munich Re and numerous other companies that operate worldwide.

These reinsurers can make money, for they are insuring a wide variety of risks all over the world.  A disaster in Japan may cost such a company a bundle in one year, but profits are being made elsewhere.  Just like an American company operating in my home state of Louisiana who “spreads the risk” across the country, reinsurers “spread the risk” worldwide.

And yes, these foreign companies do pay U.S. taxes.  Offshore companies pay an excise tax that is roughly equivalent to the corporate income tax paid by American insurance companies.   But if this “disallowance “provision is passed into law, guess who ends up paying? The increased tax will be passed along to the American insurance companies who then will pass it on to the property owner.  And your property insurance costs will take a big leap.

So what about trade sanctions?  If the U.S. sticks foreign insurers, look for countries where these reinsurers are located to retaliate in kind. Numerous American companies that have a strong presence in Louisiana for instance, also operate in a number of other countries worldwide.  AIG and Pan American are two such companies.  British giant Lloyds of London sells more insurance in Louisiana than in almost any other state. So here is what will happen.  More taxes at home, retaliation abroad, and the property rates go even higher.

This, unfortunately, is not the only bad news. Two percent deductibles have become the norm, adding thousands of dollars of exposure without adequate insurance coverage for most homeowners along the coast.  So the owner of a $600,000 house has to come out of his or her pocket for the first $12,000.00.

If your rates go up and you are stuck with high mandatory deductibles, just be glad if you don’t live in Louisiana. What if you were to consider moving to The Bayou State, but were told there is a mandatory surcharge that applies in no other state, requiring you to pay the sum of $1100 or more, just for the privilege of living there?  And every other Louisiana citizen who buys a home and owns a car has to pay the same surcharge.  Would you move there?

That is exactly what is happening in Louisiana now.  The surcharges are from the cost of insurance, and if you live in Louisiana, you now have to pay the highest premium costs in the nation.  And not just by a small amount when compared to other states.  Louisiana exists in its own world of escalating insurance costs that are completely out of line with the rest of the country.

Many other states are facing increasing rates, though few of Louisiana’s magnitude.  But with congress dabbling in potential tax increases on reinsurers outside the U.S, the outlook for more affordable rates on homes and commercial property, particularly along the Gulf Coast, becomes increasingly grim.  Our Louisiana congressional delegation needs to take heed.

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.

 

 

 

ILLEGAL GAMBLING HAS INVADED LSU!

Wednesday, December 7th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

ILLEGAL GAMBLING HAS INVADED LSU!

 

Gambling is everywhere in Louisiana. Presently, the state has 15 so called “floating” casinos, a huge land-based casino in downtown New Orleans, four racetrack casinos, 200 truck stop casinos and over 1000 restaurants and bars that have video poker machines. Wow!  So is there anywhere else where the gambling industry can go in the Bayou State to suck out more dollars from gullible locals?

Sure there is.  Go after the college students.  Even though it’s against the law for someone in Louisiana to gamble who is under twenty-one, the state’s flagship LSU is openly soliciting students to sign up for an online account and gamble on any number of sporting events. As the New York Times reported: “LSU in January sent a mass email to, among others, students who were not yet 21, the legal betting age in the state. The email told students of all ages that they could bet “on all the sports you love right from the palm of your hand, and every bet earns more with Caesars Rewards — win or lose.” The company’s website said the rewards include a “monthly free bet” and “an extra free bet” during your birthday month, along with discounted hotel and dining options at Caesars properties.”

 Is this now the mission for universities in Louisiana? Promoting gambling on campus to impressionable young students even though it is illegal? “It just feels gross and tacky for a university to be encouraging people to engage in behavior that is addictive and very harmful,” said Robert Mann, an L.S.U. journalism professor.  “You cannot get away from it.  You take a daily shower in sports betting when you walk around.”

Casino supporters point out that the state is broke and about to fall off this so called “fiscal cliff.” But isn’t it interesting that the more progressive states throughout the south, from Virginia and the Carolinas all the way across to Texas, have developed new economic development prospects that offer their citizens better job opportunities without relying heavily on income from gambling?

It was oil and gas in the Bayou State beginning back in the 1950s, with no concern for the environmental damage or setting aside tax dollars for a rainy-day fund. Gov. Buddy Roemer raised the issue that “the oil and gas for Louisiana’s future was in the minds of our 5th and 6th graders.”  What he meant was that the mineral revenue is fleeting. We have to teach and develop entrepreneurs and people who want to build small businesses. The state should have been focusing on educational reform, with specific emphasis on developing a large tech talent pool.

Even the most basic clerical and mechanical jobs require computer skills. Instead, Louisiana opted to keep its citizens amused with domed stadiums, moviemaker tax credits, and more and more gambling. Since state lawmakers have legalized sports betting, there isn’t really any other forms of gambling to decriminalize.  Hey, let’s bring back cock fighting. “Keep em’ fat, dumb and happy, and we will all get re-elected.”

There are those who will argue that if someone wants to throw away their money, so be it. But study after study has concluded that there are dramatic increases in the social and economic costs, along with the upsurge in crime that can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars in Louisiana.

There are many ways in the Bayou State to “Laissez les bons temps rouler.”  Expanding the present high level of betting, particularly to vulnerable college students, should not one of them. There are just too many other ways to have a good time, without gambling away our already fragile quality of life.

 

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.