Louisiana Voice

So, now Jeff Landry wants Mike the Tiger present at LSU home football games.

It’s good to know he’s so concerned about monumental issues such as having a mascot attend a football game.

• Never mind the fact that Louisiana’s violent crime rate is 65 percent higher than the national average.

Jeff Landry is insistent that LSU athletic teams be present on the sidelines or courtside for the playing of the National Anthem before games.

• Never mind that Louisiana’s preventable hospital admissions are 27 percent higher than the national average and that 40 percent of our population is considered obese.

Jeff Landry is so concerned about education that he issued an executive order banning all critical race theory (CRT) from public schools – neglecting for the moment that it isn’t even taught, never was taught, below the college graduate level.

• Never mind the fact that Louisiana ranks 48^th in education or that at one time New Orleans had the biggest slave market in the U.S.

Jeff Landry pushed for – and got – a law making the posting of the Ten Commandments mandatory in all public-school classrooms.

• Never mind the fact that Landry could not see the need to feed hungry school children when he can feed them scripture.

Jeff Landry wanted – and got – elimination of a requirement that certain employment requirements be met before a corporate entity could qualify for generous tax exemptions.

• Never mind the fact that Louisiana factories release more than three times (3,134 pounds) the amount of industrial toxins per square mile compared to the national average (937 pounds).

Jeff Landry insisted on – and got – new legislation that made it practically impossible for a wrongfully convicted individual to petition for a new trial.

• Never mind the fact that there are more than 100 persons wrongfully incarcerated for crimes they did not commit who have been exonerated and that state payments and awards from lawsuits by those falsely imprisoned – some for decades – total in the tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. And never mind that Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the civilized world.

Jeff Landry, like so many like-minded Republicans, wants to control women’s bodies.

• Never mind the fact that in Louisiana, a 12-year-old who is impregnated by rape by a relative will be forced to carry the pregnancy to term.

Louisiana ranked No. 21 in healthcare access (but not in healthcare itself), thanks largely to the Medicaid expansion with only 10.3% of the population uninsured compared to the national average of 11.3%.

About one in five Louisianians live in poverty.

The WalletHub study ranked Louisiana 50th among states and the District of Columbia as best places for women, ahead of only Oklahoma.

Last spring Louisiana ranked as the worst state in America for working mothers, with moms coming up shortchanged on everything from pay to childcare.

And last year Louisiana 49th for child well-being.

Utah was ranked as the top state. Texas was No. 29 as Louisiana’s highest-ranking contiguous neighbor, while Mississippi ranked No. 48 and Arkansas No. 47.

The U.S. News report ranked Louisiana 50^th in crime/corrections, 49^th in economy, 47^th in education and fiscal stability, 46^th in healthcare, 49^th in infrastructure and natural environment, and 44^th in opportunity.

But Jeff Landry wants Mike the Tiger present and accounted for at LSU football games.