Louisiana Voice

TYLER PERRY is a black writer, actor, producer and director who is a native of St. Helena Parish, just up LA. 16 a few miles from my home in Denham Springs.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the name, perhaps you may know him as the actor who plays three characters, including the lead character in the Madea movie series.

Perry, 50, who now lives in Atlanta, also developed several television series, most notably Tyler Perry’s House of Payne. In 2011, Forbes magazine named him as the highest-paid man in entertainment, raking in $130 million between May 2010 and May 2011.

Tony Spell is pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central, also a short drive from my home.

Life Tabernacle is a sprawling edifice that boasts more than a thousand members and a fleet of 26 buses to transport the faithful to services.

Jerry Falwell, Jr., is president of Liberty University, an evangelical school

In July 2009, Perry sponsored 65 children from a Philadelphia day camp to visit Walt Disney World after learning that a Pennsylvania swim club had shunned them. He wrote on his website, “I want them to know that for every act of evil that a few people will throw at you, there are millions more who will do something kind for them.”

Spell, on the other hand, has defied Louisiana’s ban on large public gatherings as he continues to hold services in his church, exposing members to the spread of the coronavirus.

Last week, Perry gave a $500 tip to every out-of-work server at Houston’s Restaurant in Atlanta. There were 42 servers who were idled by the pandemic. That amounted to a $21,000 tip by Perry.

Snell, meanwhile, was soliciting donations from attendees at his church.

Falwell brought students back to the campus even as the virus was spreading across the U.S.

This week, Perry upped his game when he PURCHASED THE GROCERIES for elderly and immune-compromised shoppers at 26 Winn-Dixie stores in Louisiana and 44 Kroger stores in Atlanta.

Snell, meanwhile, was gearing up for a legal fight against Louisiana authorities, even bringing in former Alabama Supreme Court justice and unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore to lead the fight for the right to expose parishioners. Even U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins has weighed in on the right to stare down COVID-19.

Falwell said on Wednesday that ARREST WARRANTS had been issued for reporters for The New York Times and ProPublica after the publications published articles critical of his decision to resume classes.

Winn-Dixie and Kroger are currently designating an hour or so exclusively to high-risk shoppers and this week, as they entered the stores, they were given vouchers. They had no idea what the vouchers were for until they checked out. Needless to say, the scene at the checkouts was pretty emotional.

While Perry did not comment on his gesture, Winn-Dixie and Kroger certainly did. “We would like to join our customers in thanking Mr. Perry for his kindness and generosity during this unprecedented pandemic. It was truly a pleasure to see our customers fill with joy and gratitude as the news spread throughout 44 stores across Metro Atlanta,” Felix Turner, manager of corporate affairs for Kroger’s Atlanta division said.

Winn-Dixie tweeted a statement thanking Perry for “paying it forward by purchasing groceries for elderly and high-risk customers shopping at Louisiana stories this morning. Winn-Dixie applauds your love for community and sincere generosity.”

Snell, at the same time, was IMPLYING that Christians didn’t mind dying from coronavirus as long as they contracted the illness at church. “Like any zealot or like any pure religious person, death looks to them like a welcome friend,” he said. “True Christians do not mind dying. They fear living in fear.” Of those who have already died from the virus, he said, “They died like free people, fighting for their convictions.”

Matthew 25:40 says, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the lest of these my brethren, you did it to me.”

Taking that one verse into consideration, which of the three men—Snell, Falwell or Perry—best exemplifies true Christian values here?

“Did you know I was No. 1 on Facebook? I just found out I was No. 1 on Facebook. I thought that was very nice for whatever it means.”

–Donald Trump, in an April 1, 2020 news briefing on the coronavirus. [proving once again that it’s all about him.]

Here is a link to a web page for JOHN SCHRODER STATE TREASURER.

It certainly looks official enough, complete with the state seal and a photo of State Treasurer John Schroder and links to click on for information on:

• A way to check on unclaimed property owed individuals and businesses by the state;
• SBA Business loan program under the federal stimulus plan;
• A resource toolkit for dealing with the coronavirus.
• A paycheck protection program.

All in all, a very thoughtful, considerate way a public servant is expected to perform his duties.

Except…except when you click on either of the links, you are taken not to unclaimed property, information on coronavirus, SBA loans or paycheck protection, but to Treasurer John Schroder’s CAMPAIGN PAGE where you are hit up for campaign contributions.

All in all, a pretty sleazy tactic by just another politician trying to get into your pocket.

Like I said, it looks official. It has all the bells and whistles you’d normally expect to find on a state agency web page. But it’s not a state-designed page. But neither is there any information identifying it as paid for by his political campaign.

So, if you want information about whether or not you’re owed money by the state, or need information on COVID-19, an SBA loan or paycheck protection, you’re out of luck.

But if you want to contribute to Schroder’s campaign, you’ve come to the right spot.

But to most people, this smacks of bait and switch tactics and is certainly not the type behavior we should expect of our elected officials.

But then this is Louisiana…so maybe it is the type behavior we’ve come to expect—and deserve.

“I don’t take responsibility at all.” 

–Donald Trump, response to a question on March 13 about a lack of widespread access to testing for the coronavirus.

“I’d rate it a 10. I think we’ve done a great job, and it started with the fact that we kept a very highly infected country, despite all of the, even the professionals saying it’s too early to do that,”

—Donald Trump, on March 16 in rating his administration’s reaction to the coronavirus pandemic.

Check out this cartoon:

WHIPLASH

“Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart —you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it’s true!—but when you’re a conservative Republican they try—oh, do they do a number—that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune—you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged—but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me—it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right—who would have thought?), but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners—now it used to be three, now it’s four—but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years—but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us.”

—Donald Trump, at campaign event in South Carolina, July 21, 2015 [for the Trump supporters who keep insisting that Joe Biden is losing it].