Editor’s note: Normally, we do not make a practice of publishing letters from readers as a guest column. But in this case, we make an exception because we were struck by the manner in which this writer expressed his concern for our state. With only minor editing for punctuation, syntax, etc., we offer here an essay written by a retired state employee now living in Pointe Coupee Parish.
By Kerry Phillips (Special to LouisianaVoice)
After reading this article: https://louisianavoice.com/2015/04/24/it-wasnt-the-best-week-for-louisiana-as-state-hit-with-triple-whammy-at-least-no-1-lsu-beat-no-2-tex-am-in-baseball/, and this article: http://bobmannblog.com/2015/04/24/for-jindal-if-the-choice-is-tax-hikes-vs-closing-lsu-its-bye-bye-lsu/, and after watching The Ed Show on April 24 on MSNBC regarding Jindal’s religious freedom bill and how he is truly now a national joke…..and finally, after reading Bobby Jindal’s op-ed in The New York Times, and not hearing anything about any of this in the news with the exception of a small article in The Advocate on the OGB fiasco, I have to say that as much as we love this great state of Louisiana, the heritage, the diversity, the culture, the beauty this state has to offer with many aspects, we will be moving AWAY from this state as soon as we possibly can.
We are at the bottom of every list possible nationwide, and thank God this info is getting out nationwide. We are a laughing stock. And I am sad. Sad for my state. Sad for the people, the young, elderly, poor, government workers, fire fighters, teachers. Should I go on?
I was born here. I was born in Baton Rouge and attended fantastic schools there. I went to college in this state. I worked for over 30 years as a state employee. I was so proud when I first got my voter’s registration card and I have voted in every election. I retired, thinking my state would honor the commitments they made to me throughout my career.
Sadly, it seems I was fooled.
To know that our legislators are basically bought and paid for by lobbyists and special interests groups who truly have no interest in our state that we call paradise is sad. We have always been known nationwide as a “banana republic.” Now I see why.
No one should say that our citizens move away from this state because of a lack of jobs. They now move away because of this cruel joke that has been perpetrated on us by a handful of people within the last decade. None of these people even care about this state, our education, our colleges, our government workers, our healthcare, etc. What we’re seeing is robbery and pilfering by people who only care about one agenda. And that agenda has nothing to do with the welfare of the citizens of Louisiana. Nor does it have anything to do with our hospitals, our children’s education, or the workers of this state.
So when you turn on the local news and see people with arms folded, waiting and complaining about long lines at their Motor Vehicle offices, thank yourselves. When there is no hospital emergency system available for your loved ones, thank yourselves. When LSU does not exist anymore, God forbid, thank yourselves. When you fail to register your outrage when a contract giving away our state hospitals—with 50 blank pages—only to have the deal rejected by the federal government, thank yourselves.
My family and I plan to move to a more progressive state—to a state where citizens actually live in the current year/century and do not want to take us back to 1915, a state where people want to move forward in a way that benefits all citizens, not just the few. And no, it’s not because of my legislator, who has worked to improve the economy and to help state employees where I live. It’s because I am now becoming ashamed of our state and most of our legislators who helped get us in our current predicament.
I lived in Baton Rouge until we moved to the Central/Greenwell Springs area where I lived for more than 27 years. For the past 15 years, we have lived in Pointe Coupee Parish. And while I’d absolutely hate to leave this state (and it’s an extremely hard choice for me), I do think we’ve made our decision. Our state appears to be done, over with….unless…..our legislators decided to truly quit being Jindal’s lapdog. They need to quit being afraid to buck his system because his system has ruined and bankrupted our state. They need to stop allowing him to be a dictator in this state. He is not our God.
And when religious leaders—from north Louisiana, no less—oppose his religious freedom bill, we welcome their voices. We do not live with the Old Testament laws because with Jesus, a new testament was founded. Do we really want to go back? Are we going to go against what Jesus preached? I’m not. Are we going to allow Jindal’s religious freedom bill to become the hot topic offered only to deflect attention from the real issues, the disasters of his creation: the financial issues we now face that are the direct result of his ineptness? Come on.
I pray so very hard that all of our legislators, men and women, will grow some courage and principles and do what is right for the whole of this state. I’m not stupid, though. I know legislators get benefits that no average citizen—or state employee—can get. But, isn’t it time for them to sit back and ask themselves, “Do I really want to sell my soul for some Saints tickets or concert tickets or a fantastic meal at some expensive restaurant? Do I want to sell my soul? Or do I want to do what the citizens of this state want?” “Do I want to do what Jesus would do?”
Heavy, thought-provoking questions to ask, I know. But, I know what I would do.
This is going to be one of the most historic legislative sessions in this state’s history. It is going to make or break our state. And I am afraid the state is going to break. And the poor, the sick, the elderly will be the ones to suffer.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with people prospering and living a great life. What’s wrong is people prospering and living a great life on the backs of other people.
And so I have this one simple plea for our legislators: For once, do what is right for the whole of the state. I pray in earnest for that. My friends and I pray hard that the right things will be done. I would love to live here and pass on the culture and treasures this state has to offer to my grandchildren. But, if things continue on as they have for the last decade, we will have to choose differently.
Louisiana Voice 
Extremely well-said and clearly from the heart. This should be required reading for every legislator in our state.
A wonderful letter. It should be published in every Newspaper and read aloud before every Legislative session. I share the writer’s pain. The people of Louisiana have been betrayed, sold out, by those who were elected in good faith to serve the people..
I am contemplating a move as I near retirement as well. Yes, Jindal et al have taken the state on a vertiginous path to the abyss, but I am afraid it is not over. Apres Jindal, Vitter to finish the job. Mercy!
Great post! I have to admit that sometimes I ponder if Louisiana is where I’ll breathe in my last breath. I’ve lived here all of my 51-year life.
The biggest thing I would miss would be the boiled crawfish, of which I consume 200 – 240 pounds a year (consumed about 6-7 pounds today and 5 pounds on Thursday). I always take comfort, however, that Tony’s has the “We ship nationwide” sign near the front entrance!!
Let’s just hope for the best. Much needs to be done, and we obviously won’t all agree on the best path for making the much-needed changes in the way our state is run by our political leaders. Nevertheless, I know one things we all agree upon is that the manner in which it has been run the last 7 1/2 years has been nothing short of disastrous!
Without using any names of course, I do wish some entity, organization or group would take full pages ads out in the Time-Pic, The Advocate and some other major papers and publish this letter. Then of course there’s the question of whether those papers would run the ad or not.
This is the legacy being left by the current crop of political ideologues and exploiters—“we do not honor our long-term commitments.” I know many good public employees who accepted less-than market rate salaries because those public jobs had a secure long-term future. Shame on politicians and corporate exploiters that would not honor those promises, promises they made on my behalf as a citizen, while spending my money entrusted with them as a taxpayer.
First…I think Jindal is a terrible governor. I honestly thought he would do a good job but I admit I was wrong. The state is in financial ruins. That makes me sad. Mr. Jindal not only kicked the can down the road on fiscal matters, he actually made them worse. The can is full of holes.
As far as the religious freedom bill…I support it. The bill was written by Mike Johnson from Bossier City. If you aren’t familiar with his résumé, he is a badass in legal circles. He has been fighting for religious liberty his entire career on a national level.
No one wants to discriminate against anyone. But if you haven’t noticed, the LGBT community consists of bullies that utilize mafia tactics. If you disagree, they set out to destroy you. Even gay and lesbians that publicly disagree on issues have felt the effects and spoken of the LGBT mafia.
Mr. Cathy of CFA made a comment about supporting traditional family values and marriage to a Baptist newspaper. Mr. Cathy said nothing about gay or lesbian marriage or discrimination against gays or lesbians. The LGBT community set out to destroy him. Americans spoke with their wallets and won on the issue. As a libertarian I could honestly care less what you choose to do in your social circles, until it affects my life. The government should have no role in defining marriage. Someone that refused to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding was just forced to pay $135k because it conflicted with their religious beliefs. That’s wrong and affects my life. Why would you want someone that doesn’t want to make you a cake to make it? It wasn’t about a cake. It was about forcing a conflicting view to comply. It was about bullying.
The government forcing someone to do something that conflicts with religious beliefs is wrong. Please don’t force me to pay for your abortions if it goes against my religious principles. I don’t care if you want to marry a gay man, but I won’t be in attendance or catering. Sorry, it’s just my belief. But we can still play basketball on Tuesday. Bring your new husband.
This religious freedom bill isn’t about discrimination. It’s about forcing the government to mind it’s own business.
Throw away separation of church and state by enacting more laws so “government can mind its own business”? Makes perfect sense.
If you’re truly a libertarian then there are few things, if anything, that I could possibly imagine would be more important than separation of church and state — which we already have and do NOT need to tear down with these “religious liberty” laws, which are nothing more than an indirect way for government to be doing exactly as you say that government should not do, i.e. defining marriage, which is precisely what the conservatives are all set on doing. Back in the day, it was “states’ rights” that the reactionary types claimed were being trampled in the Civil Rights era with legislation requiring an end to such items as separate lunch counters. Now it’s “religious liberty” — and it IS all about a sanctioning of discrimination.
How does the fact that two gays getting “married” weaken your marriage contract with your spouse? If you lived in a country that did not legally recognize the Institute of Marriage, would the promises of fidelity you made to your spouse in front of God be null and void? Of course not! So why then, should we protect an individual from not providing services to gays? No one is asking that individual to “believe” the couple for whom he is providing services is truly married in the eyes of God. We are just telling him there will be legal consequences for refusing services to a couple based on that couple’s race, sex, or religious beliefs!
Why? Why should a business owner face any consequences from the State over refusal to provide goods or services to anyone, for any reason? As free men shouldn’t we have the right to decide who we do and do not chose to do business with? If an entrepreneur choses to run his business in a bigoted manor, the consequences of the free market should be all the consequences he should face. The State needs to get out of the hurt feelings business and let the free market operate as it was designed.
Thanks for sharing this poignant letter, Tom.
Regarding leaving Louisiana: After my house flooded in Hurricane Isaac in 2012 due to being left on the wrong side of the great wall (with a majority of Democrat voters BTW!) in Jindal & company’s Coastal Flood Master Plan, I was so angry at the powers that be in Louisiana that I used my flood insurance money to buy an “evacuation house” in the state of Mississippi. So my antique furniture, carnival costumes, out of season clothes, & everything else that I want to keep dry now live in MS where I visit every weekend & plan to retire. Now I know they always liked to say:”Thank God for Mississippi!” because it used to be a given that LA could at least make 49th on a given list with last place reserved for our even less progressive neighbor. Well, I have found from my current experience that post-Bobby Jindal, Mississippi now has it all over on Louisiana & furthermore MS is trending upward – slowly – while LA descends in a death spiral. McComb, Magnolia, Summit, Brookhaven are lovely little towns well-suited to frugally-minded LA retirees.
Sad but true: In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve. Our dire situation can be traced to an unenlightened electorate. Can you imagine the people of Massachusetts, for example, putting up with the clowns we have running state government?
I don’t look for it to change anytime soon, seeing Vitter as the candidate highly favored to win. He may not be as bad as Jindal, but that’s not saying anything, and, he might be worse.
With all Louisiana’s oil and gas business, it is highly lucrative to have an uninformed electorate guided mainly by religiosity. It becomes easier for politicians to work for donors and special interest parasites who systematically drain the lifeblood from our state. My hope is that there are some good men and women in the legislature who have not sold their souls and who are willing to stand up to our crazy dictator governor.
And Jindal said let there be darkness, and there was darkness throughout the land!
And then he said, “In Grover’s name I prey”
Sriracha – that is the best comment ever! Sad, but true and spot on.
I think tht the problem is “power.” It is not something that I understand or desire, but is what all of our legislators apparently crave. I do not believe that they are in it to “do good work for the people.” They have to spend a crapload of money to get elected to a job that pays no money. Our legislators are in it for the power.
In order to stay in power they have to take money from all of the special interests that only have their own interests in mind, not your interest, not my interest. Is there a repair for this? No. Do I consider moving to a more progressive state? Yes, absolutely. Unfortunately, I love my home and I have a good job (which may not be so good if all of the professors leave town), so I guess that I’m going down with the ship.
I do hope that “diaper boy” is found out for what he really is. Any of the other candidates would be a better choice than him.
Great letter – couldn’t have said it better myself.
The problem is -,when you say that the leges need to quit being afraid to buck Jindal’s system – you have to realize that it’s their system, too. While I attribute lots of blame to Jindal, I cannot let the leges off the hook but justifying their actions as following an inept leader. Many of them carried his water on legislation and selling off our state assets and doing nothing to help the middle and lower class because they actually believe in those ideals. Now that people have begun to wake up to the reality of that type of governance – for and by the elite- the leges are reveling in the fact that people mostly blame Jindal when many of them were leaders in these failed policies.
Please remember that when election time rolls around. And stop voting for someone just because the have a “R” behind their name. That’s how we got in this mess to start with – absolutely no balance of power in this state.
Apparently Jindal can’t wait to leave the state either.
Thank you Tom for posting the heartfelt letter from a Louisiana reader. Governor Jindal and all his cohorts have left so much more than a financial disaster!! They have left our people, including myself feeling hopeless, powerless, disgusted, and embarrassed at the true condition of our state.
What many of us are going through are stages of grief when faced with a loss or death. In our case, the loss of our state as we loved it and the death of the finality in which it can never be what it once was.
There remain many Louisiana people who are still in the early stages of grief. Denial and Isolation,(hard to believe the people who you elected to serve you would sell you and your friends and neighbors out), This stage is a defense mechanism buffering the shock of the grieving people.
Apathy,(feeling like what can one person do and how do you stand up to the powers that be?), This is the Depression stage.
Anger when the reality and the pain becomes undeniable. Leaves a person feeling very vulnerable. Hard to share with others when they may be in a different stage of grief than you such as denial and isolation.
(Jindal’s entire two terms have been spent dismantling our state, equivalent of watching the robber and accomplices steal everything you worked for as they pack it in your van and take off). Fear; feeling real fear of what will happen to you financially, fear of what will become of those you leave behind, and fear of feeling unprotected (can’t report the robbers because the police(attorney general) won’t come and if he does, then you have to hear how they didn’t rob you—you left your door unlocked!!)
Acceptance is the final stage of grief which many people may never reach. Its quite possible for anyone to get stuck in any of the earlier stages.
In the case of the Louisiana people, acceptance may be starting a new life elsewhere in order to feel hope again.
And all of this leaves me feeling very sad. Sad because I share the sentiment with the writer.
Great letter! Every one has good points. However, it saddens me to see how many are planning to leave our State due to this boy we elected the New Kingfish. Yes, I believe he thinks he is the New Kingfish from his own words at the debate before the first election when he said his favorite governor was Huey Long (that is not a direct quote but that is what he said when asked the question). I knew at that point if he won, we the people would be screwed. The New Kingfish has proven me right.
For those retirees who want to leave the state keep this in mind: as a retiree, I understand that you don’t pay state taxes on your retirement check. In another state, however, you probably will pay their state taxes on your retirement check. I am not saying don’t leave; clearly it is your choice but weigh that in to your decision as well. Also if you have state health insurance, check how that will work once you take up residency in another State. I am not retired but I have considered what you are thinking about doing to when my day comes if it ever does. And I, too, have to consider if it is worth it financially.
Tom,
I shared the letter on my facebook page. Below is my comment when I posted the letter.
As a Louisianian living in Texas the past 20 or so years, I’m saddened by what Jindal has done to my beloved Louisiana. I suggest the letter writer avoid Texas. As a retired Texas state employee and a former Louisiana state employee, I can tell him he will find the same mess here. I also suggest he avoid other states with Republican governors.
Tom: thanks for printing the letter. My question would be, “who is the author’s representative?”, since the author acknowledged that his own representative was not the blame. That may or may not be true but that has always been the thinking of voters; my representative is OK, it’s the rest of the Legislature. So the incumbent usually gets re-elected. I’d like to see who his rep is and then check that person’s voting record on Jindal’s shenanigans over these last seven years of “reform”? As a Legislator I have a voting record that proves I have fought most all of this governor’s so-called good-govmt pieces of legislation and I can stand by the many bills I introduced in the name of reform only to be laughed at by those Jijndal supporters in the House. I challenge any voters who read your column to check their legislators voting records when they go to the polls this fall, starting w the legislators’ pay raise back in 2008. I can think of a couple of votes that I do regret but I can support my stance as one who fought for change against an administration that thrives on the good ole boy network. The author is correct about one thing; it’s the Legislature whom has allowed this governor to do the damage that has been done to this state. Why on earth would anyone believe that this Legislature will wave a magic wand and all of a sudden decide to do the “right thing”? dee
Excellent post, Representative Richard. Your colleagues should find their collective conscience and take it to heart. Many of them are smug in holding themselves above attempts to find real and uncomplicated solutions to our problems. They behave as if the legislature is a secret society with goals too lofty to reveal to the masses and so esoteric as to only be understood by the members. They believe we mullets, as C. B. Forgotston calls us, are best left in the dark. I hope readers will take your advice and look closely at their legislators’ records.
The writer’s Senator is Rick Ward, III (Rep.), and the representative is Major Thibaut (Dem.)
I’m sure that everyone’s heart is in their throat because of the ruin that Jindal has brought down on LSU and the state. But I’m not certain how many people outside of Lousiana are even aware of what he’s done.
For example, in looking at his entry in the wiki encyclopedia, I couldn’t find any mention of his broken promises, eliminating taxes on corporations, corporate welfare payouts, continuous massive deficits, massive cuts to social services, absenteeism, higher education bankruptcies, or the scandals among his cronies.
*There was one reference to hospital cuts, but it blamed outside forces.
There just isn’t any balance on the page. It reads like excerpts from an autobiography. It would be nice if someone with extensive knowledge of his failures balanced that page a little. I believe that wiki is open to people who want to provide balanced pictures of the subjects they cover. I hope they do, at least.
Just a thought.
State employees (current and retired) aren’t nearly as important as putting up those pillboxes and security barricades (that love eating the cars of legislators that don’t understand the term “wait your turn”) around the front parking lot of the capitol building. Nothing says government by/of/for the people like un-needed security barricades to keep those pesky voters out.
Mr. Phillips, and those planning to depart Louisiana – you are the very people needed to rebuild the state after this reign of (t)error. We need dedicated, educated people who truly care for the common good to stay, run for public office, work to change voters’ attitudes and apathy, make things better for everyone.
As someone whose adult children live in one of those picturesque high-quality of life states, I can assure you that you can take a person out of Louisiana, but you can’t take Louisiana out of the person. You will always long for home. So, stay, and rage against the machine. Make it better. Together we can do it.