Monday, June 15^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

                   MAKE LOUISIANA A PROTECTORATE!

 

          Have you heard the cries that Louisiana is unable to take care of its problems and should be treated differently than other states? Some even say, OK, then — make it a protectorate of the federal government.  And you know what?  Maybe that isn’t too bad of an idea.

 

The proposal took legs recently when Froma Harrop, a nationally syndicated columnist, broached the idea in print. “Louisiana has had more than its share of tragedies in recent years, and some, such as hurricane Katrina, could be deemed an act of nature.  But whatever the cause, every calamity that befalls Louisiana is made worse by a corrupt civic nature. A protectorate could provide the structure of government people need.”

 

CNN travel editor Chuck Thompson drove the dagger in deeper in his recently released book, Better Off without ‘Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Succession.”  He summed up his, and purportedly other Yankee feelings, by calling the leadership down here in the deep South “a coalition of bought-and-paid for political swamp scum from the most uneducated, morbidly obese, racist, morally indigent, xenophobic, socially stunted, and generally ass-backwards part of the country.”

 

So if that is a growing northern attitude towards us poor lost souls in the Bayou state, maybe we should consider seceding and let the U.S. make us a protectorate like Harrop and others above the Mason-Dixon Line suggest. Anyone who does a bit of research will find that, right now, Louisiana is contributing more significantly to the national economy than the federal dollars the state is getting back. As a general rule, so-called protectorates receive much more in financial aid from their respective overseers than the country or state being protected contributes.  Not so in Louisiana. Yes, you will read about all the federal dollars that have been flowing into the Bayou State, particularly post Katrina.  But whatever federal sums have been allocated is a drop in the bucket when you add up the massive mineral resources that have been drained from Louisiana.

 

How about this!  Louisiana becomes an independent protectorate of the U.S., with Washington providing all the international protection like they do for Canada and Mexico. Sure the U.S. can continue to use the port of New Orleans (largest port in the nation), as well as Baton Rouge (third largest in tonnage) and Lake Charles (5^th largest in tonnage), but of course there would be fees similar to those charged in other international ports. The oil and gas would continue to flow to the rest of the country, but with adequate severance and processing fees for the quite reasonable sum of $7 billion to $10 billion. This is much less than the importation charges that the U.S. is paying OPEC countries now.  No more groveling for a small share of offshore oil payouts.

 

Mississippi might also want to join in the protectorate effort. The two states might even agree to create a “coastal nation of Louisissippi.”  The French would be appalled, but who cares.

So who is going to run this new protectorate?  The test?  Who knows how to get results. Walking the walk rather than talking the talk.  There really are only two candidates for the job.  One is former Army General Russell Honoré.  He’s the “John Wayne dude” who blew into New Orleans post Katrina and took charge of the disastrous recovery efforts.  He lives in New Roads and seems to be well rested and ready. And right there in contention is the chicken-lickin guy Todd Graves, who took a one horse chicken shack by the gates of LSU into a net worth of $20 billion.

 

The Ambassador to Washington? The “Ragin’ Cajun” James Carville is the man to demand fair respect for the Bayou State in the nation’s capital. And it would have been an easy choice before he died to pick a state treasurer.  New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson would have been, hands down, the best guy to go after the foreign aid.  He was Louisiana’s greatest robber baron, having talked the Louisiana Legislature out of $500 million dollars.  Remember that no other NFL team has received a penny from their respective states. He definitely would have been the man to go after to get the money.

 

The state flag would be a combination of black, purple and gold.  And of course, native-born Randy Newman (Louisiana-They’re Tryin’ to Wash Us Away.”) should write the national anthem.

 

Maybe the columnist is right, and we should give it a try. Let the feds protect Louisiana’s borders, and let us keep all our minerals.  If you look at the numbers, I have a hunch that any redneck or Cajun would jump at such a deal.

 

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

 

 

 

 

BEING POLITICALLY CORRECT!

Monday, June 8^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

 

 BEING POLITICALLY CORRECT!

 

Political correctness continues to be on the march in the Bayou State from Shreveport to New Orleans. Just about everywhere a Civil War commemoration or monument is located, there seems to be some local group calling for a re-writing of history by eliminating such testaments to the past. Poor ole’ Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis can barely draw a pigeon to give them the time of day.

 

And the war on past tributes is not just limited to southern states wanting to hold on to some remnant of antiquity. Recently the faculty at Brown University, an Ivy League school located in Providence, Rhode Island, voted to eliminate any celebration of Columbus Day. The Italian explorer has been commemorated with a federal holiday on the second Monday in October since

 

To the faculty at Brown, Christopher Columbus deserves no special honor in American history because of his enslavement of American Indians. Instead, Columbus Day at Brown will be changed to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day so as to “recognize the contributions of Indigenous People/Native Americans to our community and our culture and foster a more inclusive community,” according to the faculty motion.

 

Fortunately for Brown, America was not named Columbusia, as the designated honor was bestowed on another Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, even though he landed on the American continent seven years after Columbus. The faculty has no problem with Vespucci and the nation being called America. But wait! Wasn’t Vespucci also deeply mired in the slave trade? Weren’t he and Columbus close friends and both involved in capturing and selling American Indians? Should not the Brown University faculty undertake an effort to wipe out any reference to the name America? You can see how absurd all this can become.

 

So what should Louisiana do about Robert E. Lee, the respected Confederate general, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis? Take down their statutes in New Orleans and other locations throughout the state? I have a better idea. We live in a new period in history with the ability to create virtual reality and 3-D memorials. So how about leaving the present guys alone, but add other famous individuals with Louisiana ties?

 

Along with Robert E. Lee, let’s add former Sheriff Harry Lee who would be visited by presidents when they came to New Orleans. Spike Lee’s most famous movie was about the Katrina disaster in the Crescent City. Remember Gypsy Rose Lee who made several movies about New Orleans? So did Bruce Lee before he died. Rocker Jerry Lee Louis and famous Louisiana author James Lee Burke also carry on the Lee legacy.

 

How about Jefferson Davis? Well, we could surround him by former Governor Jimmy Davis along with civil rights leader A.L. Davis. Bette Davis made a number of memorable movies in Louisiana. Remember “Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte?” Emmy and Oscar award winner Viola Davis has filmed and spent a lot of time in Louisiana. Sammy Davis, Jr. loved performing at the Superdome.

 

It’s a tough sell to find any other famous Beauregards. General P.G.T. Beauregard is the only native Louisianan commemorated with a major New Orleans monument at the entrance of City Park. He led the Confederate forces when the first shot of the Civil War was fired at Fort Sumter. But with no other famous Beauregard’s to join his cause, his supporters will have a real fight on their hands to save this famous warrior’s observance.

 

Perhaps I’m being a bit flippant here and a little tongue in cheek. Of course there are monuments involving white supremacy that ought to come down. There is no place for Confederate flags to be flying above state capitols. Parts of American history are unsavory in both the north and the south. Louisiana and the nation are better served by remembering and learning from history. Not trying to rewrite or obliterate it.

 

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

- Marcus Garvey

__________

 

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

 

 

READING A GOOD BOOK!

Monday, June 1st, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

 

READING A GOOD BOOK!

 

     June has always been my special month to read extensively. No how to, general information, politics, or any other type of practical knowledge reading. It’s always been fiction. Off to summer digs at Gulf Shores, with nothing more to do than fishing, swimming in the ocean (before the sharks came), and going through a stack full of novels I had saved  in the previous months.

 

     Americans are reading less and less, and it has become a disturbing trend. The average reader claims to have read only two books this past year. One in four adults say they have read no books at all. Book sales are flat throughout the country, and with some exceptions, independent bookstores are becoming more and more a thing of the past.

 

There was some good news in a new poll released last week. People in the south read a little more than those from other regions, mostly religious books and romance novels. Democrats read a little more than Republicans but not by much. And surprisingly, surveys show that those who say they never attend religious services read now twice as many books as those who attend frequently.

 

I guess you can blame both television and the Internet. But we also do not seem to get away enough. I am surprised at the number of my own friends who don’t take off with their family for several weeks like we traditionally did in the past. And when we do, there are the proverbial companions including our cell phone, iPad, and laptop. Distractions galore that do not lend oneself to curl up with a good book.

 

I will give it my best shot on a number of hot June nights, and hope to  complete my eight novels specifically set aside. Next on my list is James Lee Burke’s, “The Tin Roof Blowdown,” that my friends who have read it say was the first important novel to come out of the ruins of Hurricane Katrina. Burke has always been a reliable witness in the maelstrom of the modern American South.  Most of his works are located in New Orleans and south Louisiana. He says plaintively that “the New Orleans I knew is gone forever, and its destruction is a harbinger of what’s ahead for the nation. If they want to see the future of this country, come visit Louisiana.” Disturbing. Really disturbing. It’s at the top of my list on my nightstand.

.

Another in my stack is “Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis.” I’ve read it before. But it is a book I reread every few years. Author Howell Raines gives his own middle age experiences that will resonate to any guy who is aging, been through a divorce, deals with the growth of his children and the death of friends, mentors and relatives. I’ve lost a number of friends and mentors in the past year. I passed my midlife crisis (on several occasions) but there are lessons remembered here.

 

And finally, “Little Cowboy Poetry.” I used to want to have a ranch with horses and plenty of cows. I never did, but I’ve always enjoyed a number of irreverent cowboy poets like Baxter Black and Ross Knox. Poets who write about cowboys generally focus on the ordinary stuff of life, but there are some genuine truths here with some poems that are primitive and funny that intersperse truths that are no less eternal.

 

The vacation thing has got to be revisited. For me at least, the days spent on the seashore, looking through a box of books have always been as pleasant and fulfilling, if not more so, than most of the better things that I have experienced. And there are more good books to add to my list that seem to come out every week.

 

As an accommodation to making a living, I will always throw a laptop in the car and have a cell phone somewhere around. But I will do my best to make these items secondary to the fiction and other works I’ve enjoyed for so many years in the past and hopefully, for many years to come.  Let me end with a quote from popular science fiction writer Ray Bradbury

 

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture.
Just get people to stop reading them.”

 

_____

 

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

 

 

 

 

TIME TO HUNT AND EAT GATORS!

Monday, May 25th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

TIME TO HUNT AND EAT GATORS!

 Big news from the Louisiana Legislature. A new law has been passed that will allow a season for the recreational hunting of alligators. In the past, you could only get a commercial license. But now, all you hunters can go after a gator just for the fun of it. Now don’t dismiss the opportunity. If it’s cooked right, alligator can be quite tasty. Something like chicken although a little less tender. I have hunted and I’ve cooked alligators for many years.

Alligators were in short supply up until a few years ago. If you go back 50 years, there were fewer than 100,000 alligators in the state. Today the population is upwards of some 3 million. So we must add this scaly critter to our list of game eatables. Alligator stew and alligator sauce piquant are staples in Cajun Country.  And by the way, for my Yankee friends, sauce piquant slight rusty color.

“So how do you catch an alligator?” you might ask. Good question. I’ve gone alligator hunting on a number of occasions, so I know the drill well.  I would always look for a lake or stream where alligators were known to habitat. Then late in the afternoon or evening, I would look for a tree with branches that overhung the water. Then, I would throw a fairly thick rope over the tree limb, but first put a 6-inch grappling hook tied to the rope.  A good size raw chicken was placed on the hook, and the hook with the chicken was hung out over the stream about 2 feet off the water. Then I left for the day, to come back the next morning.

When I returned, if the rope was taut and straight into the water, I knew the alligator had reached out, swallowed the chicken, and had that hook lodged in its stomach.  So how to proceed?  Under Louisiana law, it’s illegal to shoot a female alligator less than 5 feet long.  The reason being that catching alligators is big business, and the law protects the younger female so that she can procreate. “All right,” you say. “But how do you tell?”

It takes two people to run the test. You drag the alligator out of the water and into your boat. Then one person ties the alligator’s mouth shut so that it does not bite. Then the other person reaches down between the alligator’s legs and feels to see whether it’s a male or female.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? But that’s the only way I know as to how you find out whether it’s a male or female, and whether you can take the gator or not. It may sound coarse, but I’ve done it a number of times. Then the person who is doing the checking takes a 22 rifle, dangles the gator over the side of the boat, and shoots it in the head. Wow, what sport, right?

A wild gator that is 7 feet or longer can sell for around $15 a foot. A 10-foot gator, considered to be trophy sized, can bring $40 dollars a foot, or up to $400. That ain’t chump change. The processor who buys the alligator can sell the skin to boot or clothing manufacturers, and the meat to food wholesalers. So catching these gators has turned into quite a big business.

So do I have a special saying in my Gator quest? Of course. How about this.

I was going to cook alligator for dinner

But realized that I only have a crock

………. 

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

 

DON’T BE CIVIL IN POLITICS !

Monday, May 18^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

DON’T BE CIVIL IN POLITICS!

 

 

        Here’s what we learned from the first U.S. Senate primary last week where incumbent Senator Bill Cassidy was defeated.  If you want to be successful, continually attack your opponent.  Make no effort to be at all positive.  And if a candidate is successful  in winning, make no effort to get along with the opposing party.

 

Former Vice President Joe Biden was roasted for talking about trying to find common ground with conservative southern senators when he served in the U.S. Senate. “At least there was some civility” Biden said about working with segregationists like former Mississippi Senator James Eastland. He should not have been so “civil” say a number of other democratic candidates.

 

I’ll tell you this. These out-of-staters have never spent time around the Louisiana legislature. When I was elected to the Louisiana State Senate back in 1972, I sat in the Senate chambers shrouded by older senators who had served in that body for a number of years. They included Harvey Peltier from Thibodaux, Jackson Davis from Shreveport, Jesse Knowles, who survived the Bataan Death March in World War II, and J.E. “Boysie” Jumonville from New Roads.  They all were quite conservative, more so than me.

 

Many of these senators had served through the segregation era and had opposed any legislation involving civil rights. When I took office, we often disagreed and I did my best to bring them around to my point of view.  But we were always civil and we often socialized and shared a meal when the legislative day was done.

 

Should I have scorned those who disagreed with me as Joe Biden is accused of not doing.  Of course not.  The whole focus of a democracy is to confect workable solutions where a consensus can come together.  Failing to confer with those you disagree with is, in my opinion, a dereliction of one’s oath of office.

 

I was affectionately referred to by these elder senators, as “the new kid” and “young Brown.” Boysie Jumonville, who sat right next to me, often called me son or boy.  I never took offense, nor did I think his term of “boy” had any racial connotations.  A far cry from the onslaught of criticism Biden is facing today.

 

Let me tell you how bad the racial tension could have become.  With much humor and gusto, Louisiana’s first black representative, Dutch Morial from New Orleans, relished telling of his first day at the state capitol in Baton Rouge as a new legislator.  Representatives have seat-mates, with their two desks sitting side by side.  As chance would have it, Dutch sat right next to Representative Jesse McLain, who represented an archconservative district in southeast Louisiana that had been a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity.  Now Dutch was from a Creole background and quite light skinned.

 

Dutch told me that when he took his seat, Jesse leaned over and whispered: “Where’s that N…..? (Yes, the N word.)  Dutch said he just smiled, looked around the room for a minute, then leaned over to Jesse, got right up in his face, and said: “You’re looking at him.” Then he burst out laughing.  A flustered McClain excused himself from the legislature for the rest of the day.

 

McClain came back the next day and apologized.  Dutch told me that they became friends, and that he worked on McClain for the next four years to make him more enlightened on several social issues.

 

Of course you have to reach out when you are in public office.  We will never agree on all matters, but there is a middle ground for many social and economic issues that both make sense and serve the public interest. For some current candidates running for federal office to argue otherwise is bad policy and bad governing. 

 

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 POPE AND LOUISIANA!

Monday, May 11^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

THE POPE AND LOUISIANA!

 

Despite his conflict with President Trump, Pope Leo XIV is quite popular worldwide. There is talk of an American visit by the pontiff soon. He should come to Louisiana. More than half the population in South Louisiana is Catholic. There are over 500,000 Catholics in the greater New Orleans area alone. If the pope wanted to visit a state with a Catholic pulse, the Bayou State should be a “must stop.”

Catholic newspaper OSV Newsweekly puts New Orleans at the top of their list to visit a city that reflects Catholic “culture, history, physical landscape and spirituality.” The St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest continuing functioning Cathedral in the country, built in 1789. The first Catholic hospital was founded in the Crescent City, Hotel Dieu, operated by the Daughters of Charity. It would be hard to find a region more quintessentially Catholic since its founding than a large part of Louisiana.

Now I’m about as Catholic as one can get without actually making the conversion. I was married in the Church, and my three daughters were baptized by Bishop Charles Greco, the late and beloved Patriarch of the central and north Louisiana parishes. When my children were quite young, our family spent a number of winter weekends with Bishop Greco at a family hunting and fishing camp on Davis Island, in the middle of the Mississippi River, some 30 miles below Vicksburg.

On many a cold and rainy morning, a handful of us at the camp would rise before dawn for the Bishop to conduct a Sunday or holiday Mass. And even though I was not Catholic, he treated me as one of his own. The Bishop would patiently sit for hours and answer my barrage of questions about the history and the relevancy of the Catholic Church.

During the years I practiced law in Ferriday, Louisiana, Father August Thompson became a mentor and good friend. He urged me to actively become involved in a number of social issues within the community, and his influences eventually led me to run for public office and to being elected a Louisiana State Senator.

Father Chris Nalty, now pastoring in New Orleans, toured our family through the Vatican, even taking us down under St. Peter’s to the historic catacombs, and opened my eyes to the vast history of the Church and to the influence of Catholicism worldwide.  In my hometown of Baton Rouge, Fathers Miles Walsh and Cleo Milano are my sparring partners when I raise questions about the future direction of the Church. Father Cleo pastors at Lady of Mercy, which is close to my home. The Church has a marvelous adoration chapel that is open 24 hours a day.  It’s my resting place for meditation and solitude several times a week.

So why haven’t I become Catholic? I was named after the disciple James, the brother of Jesus Christ. In the New Testament book of James, the disciple conveys a Christian doctrine of simplicity. He offers two premises to be a convert. Believe in a higher being and do good works. That’s it. No involved ritual. No pomp and circumstance. Simply believing and helping others.

This new Pope seems to be in the direction of more simplification, and appears willing to face head on a number of controversies that have divided the Church. Catholics worldwide seem to want more openness, more discussion and better communication. As Billy Joel sang about the Church: “Virginia, they didn’t give you quite enough information.”

Pope Leo will have to confront the issue of a dwindling number of priests to minister to a flock of over one billion Catholics. What about priests being allowed to marry?  Women joining the priesthood, an increasing responsibility for nuns including the offering of the Sacraments, facing up to the sex abuse scandals, allowing for more evangelical services that are not as strong on ritual, all are issues that have a growing constituency that will require attention and reasonable understanding by the new Pope.

Yet, in spite of all the pressures to change and adapt, the Catholic Church should have a moral consistency, and not just modify doctrine and core beliefs based on current popular whim. Shouldn’t the Ten Commandments and the truths of the Sermon on the Mount be perpetual?

Pope Leo, although popular worldwide, has his work cut out to unify a church enmeshed in controversy. Thousands of Louisiana Catholics, who by and large desire a church grounded in moral stability, seem to be giving this Pope good will and the benefit of any doubt. As for this aging but quite interested possible convert, I’ll be watching on the sidelines.

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.

 

LATEST EROSION OF FREEDOMS NOTHING NEW!

Monday, May 4th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

LATEST EROSION OF FREEDOMS NOTHING NEW!

Congress re-authorized the so-called Patriot Act last week. The law has created an invasive federal surveillance system that began with lies that undermined the liberty of millions of Americans.

Did this unconstitutional act begin the movement of the country  towards a “Brave New World?”  Hardly.  This type of deterioration of one’s constitutional rights has been going on for years.  The press turned its back to gross attacks on our individual freedoms , as the Patriot Act “legalized” a litany of personal and private invasions that our constitution was intended to prevent.  Both Democrats and Republicans have stood by and allowed the Patriot Act to sweep individual protections under the rug.

 In an interview with CNN, former FBI counter terrorism agent Tim Clemente said that the FBI could listen to phone conversations between anybody they wanted.  “Welcome to America,” he said. “All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.”

The Guardian’s columnist Glenn Greenwald took it a step further by concluding that all digital communications are recorded and stored by the government, saying: “This revelation, that every single telephone call made by and among Americans is recorded and stored is something which most people undoubtedly do not know, even if a small group of people who focus on surveillance issues believe it to be true.”

Now I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but this is a damning indictment of Big Brother at its worst, illegally invading the privacy of every American.  But is the daily illegal monitoring of the phone calls made by millions of Americans a startling revelation that has just been revealed?  Is recent Administration’s use of the IRS for political purposes unique?  Hardly. In his book, A Law Unto Itself: the IRS and Abuse of Power, author David Burnham describes how presidents going all the way back to Herbert Hoover have misused the Internal Revenue Service for personal vendettas.  Franklin Roosevelt used the IRS to go after a former Senator in my state, Huey Long.  President John Kennedy authorized IRS investigations into the John Birch Society. And who can forget Richard Nixon’s “enemies list?”

So when your congressman or senator starts calling for special prosecutors to investigate the abuses by the Justice Department and the IRS, ask them why they did not stand up in defense of each American citizen and demand protection from invasion of those enumerated individual rights found in the Constitution?  We are all glad some members of congress are jumping to the defense of the press. But what about all of us little guys?

For good reason, there are calls of a tyrannical federal government that intimidates its citizens and puts a chill over freedom of speech.  But all this undermining of basic freedoms did not just begin recently.  Unfortunately, it is part of the darker side of American history.  When the Patriot Act was passed into law back in 2001, the intimidation and spying increased tenfold.  And these very members of congress, who are protesting so loudly now, stood by silently and did nothing.

If this Washington crowd wants to see the real threat to American democracy, they should just take a long, hard look into the mirror.  It was Pogo who said it best.  “We have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us.”

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.