As RW and I survey the scene of New Orleans today we see some hope. The beginning of the clearing of land for the new hospitals is one, although we believed and still do that the old Charity Hospital could have been in use while these plans went forward. The attempt to eradicate the blight that has given rise to crime and continuation of drugs sales and additction and the overall decline of the city has begun. Yet the overwhelming sense of dread continues as the blood spills on the streets of this city and on the streets of other communities in southern Louisiana. Some would say that this is limited to the community of people of a certain ancestry. We will disagree on this issue. We can no longer use the excuse of slavery as the cause of the criminal intent that exists today. As we listen to many, we see perhaps the beginning of cooperation among people of all ancestries to report and demand that justice be done. In the Federal court today, twelve people will begin to deliberate and make a judgment based on the evidence presented - the case involving the death of Mr. Glover. However, while this may be the main news, there remain the many other cases in which justice must be determined. We also see disagreement as to which boards will run the schools of this city. The schools were in terrible disarray for decades and the question must be asked "WHY?". We blame the boards and the teachers' unions and the failure of parenting. We see in the Charter School system more involvement of parents and a determination to give their children a viable education. Fifty years ago young girls integrated the public schools of this city. One made history by virtue of the support of federal agents and a famous Saturday Evening Posting painting and cover. However, listen to her and to the three other women of African ancestry and heard the difference in how they speak and how they act. There was something important in their backgrounds - family. The family in all situations is the cause of children seeking to improve themselves. RW and I have seen this in the families with which we have beome friends. The decline of family and moral values is the reason for the disappation of this city, this state, and this nation. Daniel Moynihan was on point in this respecti in his 1965 report - http://www.blackpast.org/?q=primary/moynihan-report-1965. It is time for all of us to read it and also to read the call for unity by Martin Luther King in his famous words: "Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring—when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children—black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" It is time for us to listen to those of the past in order to create a new city, a new state, and a new nation.
RW and I hope to live to see the future change in this city. Katrina and the breaks in the levees may have caused the physical destruction of this city but we the citizens by our own actions have created more damage over the decades by the failure to choose leaders based on their ability and not on their ancestry. It is time for a radical change in attitude among all citizens of this city, this state and this nation.
