Louisiana Voice

By William Khan, guest columnist

New Orleans business owner

Republicans and conservatives, especially in Louisiana, generally claim to support and rally around three principles: self-sufficiency, fiscal responsibility, and local decision-making—as opposed to edicts from detached levels of government, bench legislators, or bureaucrats. When it comes to Orleans Parish’s fight to fix its infrastructure and pull itself up by its bootstraps, support for Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s initiative should come from all corners of the state and across the political spectrum in the Louisiana legislature.

Louisiana can do tremendous things when people look past party labels and work toward the common good. Our state should not underestimate what we can accomplish when we work together. In fact, Louisiana must work together to tackle massive challenges like restoring our coastline and protecting vulnerable communities.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, our state worked hard to bounce back. If we want to preserve what we have painstakingly recovered and continue moving forward, Louisiana lawmakers should support communities trying to address their flooding and water risks with modern infrastructure and smart funding policies.

Louisiana and the Who Dat Nation got the attention of the entertainment, media, and sports world when they unified, spoke up, and convinced the NFL to revise its rules for the upcoming football season. Officials who are usually polar opposites like Steve Scalise, Cedric Richmond, Bill Cassidy, and Helena Moreno found common cause, mobilized, and achieved results. If our state’s diverse and proud representatives can come together to demand action after a sports gaffe, surely they can put aside labels to address a growing, tangible, and existential danger to Louisiana’s largest city and its economic engine.

When New Orleans and Louisiana landed a new office from DXC Technology despite intense competition, the company ranked Louisiana high on a number of metrics but it suggested that the state could improve on regional cooperation, multi-parish collaboration, and a reputation for self-centered political thinking. In the past, Louisiana has struggled with a perception of politicians asking companies, “What’s in it for me?”

To those companies, families, and investors thinking of relocating to Louisiana, our state can send them a powerful message. By voting in favor of smart, sustainable solutions for infrastructure improvement in New Orleans, Baton Rouge legislators can make a strong statement about Louisiana’s potential for regional—even statewide—cooperation, its openness to innovative public policy, and its ability to set aside special interests for the long-term common good.

By Stephen Winham

Guest Columnist

Inspired by U. S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and introspection, I have decided it is time for my daily bashing of the current POTUS to end.  His life and his almost 2 ½ years in office speak for themselves.

A recipient’s request to be removed from my email blast list this week made me see something I had obviously repressed – I would ask to be removed from a list of daily email blasts supporting the actions of the POTUS and would not have read them anyhow. The request made perfect sense.

I believe 2 immutable (and often mutually-exclusive) things explain the current support of the POTUS by 30-40% of our population:

1. The belief that any means justifies the end – MAGA – and that he is the secular messiah who will fundamentally change our country in the direction reflected by his words and deeds. The wealthy and powerful in his base see this one way, the underachievers quite another.
2. Ignorance, or selective dismissal of daily headlines, radio and television stories, easily verifiable facts about his life and his own direct statements and actions – and a general ignorance of history – blind faith.

These two things are apparently not going to change and there is little point in trying.  All I have really been doing so far with my blasts and conversations is simply preaching to the choir – nobody else is paying attention.

Active protests, letters to Congress, diatribes detailing facts readily accessible via other means, and even impeachment are not the answers, but protection of the free press is essential and must be preserved at all cost.

At this point, the only thing that makes sense is to begin now to find an acceptable 2020 candidate and get fully behind her or him.  Party does not matter.  Among the things that should matter are:

1. Demonstrated deliberation, altruism and honesty
2. A belief in basic human dignity
3. A background that includes enough relevant leadership experience in the public sector to enable immediate effectiveness
4.  A belief that international diplomacy is critically important and that both sides must win for lasting results – coupled with the recognition that the leaders of some countries are despots who cannot be trusted and whose actions cannot be condoned
5. Fair tax policies – i. e., those that adequately fund a stable government and do not benefit the wealthy to the detriment of everybody else
6. Recognition that strong environmental regulations are important not just to our personal well-being, but to our long-term economic health

Many other things, like a much-needed transportation infrastructure plan, can be added to this list, all with a positive rather than negative outlook.  A national infrastructure plan, for example, would provide tremendous economic benefits.

Most 2020 candidates will find it necessary to attack the current POTUS.  I now believe that to be unnecessary.  What is necessary is to limit criticism of their fellow candidates.  To the extent the reputations of each of these people are destroyed, we will move toward an election like the last one.  That happens all too often of late and it must stop.  The focus should be on what positive actions can lead to a positive future.

I am asking the 60+% of our people who believe we need new leadership to vote and encourage like-minded people to vote in 2020 in record numbers to prove it so we can move toward uniting this country again.  Hopefully, a good candidate will emerge and be successful, once elected, due to a solid, incontrovertible victory.  In the meantime, we will have one thing in our favor – hope.

FYI:  BELOW ARE THE MAIN TEXTS OF MY LAST 2 EMAIL BLASTS.  I STILL BELIEVE THESE THINGS, BUT NO SENSE BEATING A DEAD HORSE. I AM PROVIDING THEM HERE FOR CONTEXT, BUT FEEL FREE TO IGNORE THEM:

Swinham Blasts:

4/22

I agree 100% with Nancy Pelosi that impeachment is a no-win scenario.  I’m beginning to accept that Trump will not go crazy enough or do enough crazy things for the 25th amendment to work and, though my best outcome would be him resigning and issuing a totally childish rant endearing him to his base in perpetuity – the same rant he will make when he is not re-elected which we have to do EVERYTHING possible to prevent and the only thing I know to do in that regard is get out every vote of like-minded people I can.  

1. S.  I thought the newspaper article about Admiral Mike Rogers’ phone call from Trump reported in the Mueller report was among the most damning things in there, but I realized it would have NO impact on Trump’s base, or if it did, it would be positive since they seem to love everything he does.  Meanwhile, this and everything else in the report, or that Trump says and does, is becoming for the rest of America, “Ho Hum, nothing to see here” – and there’s the rub.  If his behavior is accepted as the norm will enough people wearing our jerseys get out there and vote for his opponent or will this, combined with the Democratic candidates’ attacks on one another as they vie for the nomination, make it impossible for the rest of us to aggressively support the ultimate nominee, poisoned as s/he will have been by her own party members?  In other words, will we again face 2 candidates we don’t like?

4/23

The most significant thing Trump said after the release of the Mueller report, when told his own people had to refuse his orders, was, “Nobody disobeys my orders.”  Putting aside the obvious reflection of his innate persona, the clause “…and gets away with it” is implied and reflected in the number of resignations and firings during his tenure.  Therefore, the people working for him (clearly including the Attorney General) can only remain if they are willing to agree with him on everything and follow his every order without question.  What an unhealthy environment for the rest of us – and what a picture this paints of how people in powerful positions in our government can either lack  moral fiber, or put it completely aside for their own benefit – and that includes Congress and all but one member of our own delegation – maybe 2 if we count Garret Graves – so let’s say 1 1/3.  Whether Trump has violated the U. S. Constitution may be debatable.  The fact Congress is refusing to exercise its own powers to provide checks and balances is not.

Public Service Commission (PSC) member Foster Campbell of Elm Grove has issued a press release announcing he has will ask telephone companies what they are doing to help customers deal with the latest plague: robo calls.

All I can is good for Campbell and good luck tilting at windmills.

Campbell’s intentions are good, but, being the realist that I am, I’m afraid he’s fighting a losing battle.

The damned robo callers have too much technology going for them when they can hijack your personal telephone number to initiate calls so that recipients looking at caller ID understandably but mistakenly assume the call is from someone they know.

I’ve even received calls on my cell phone with the caller ID showing that the call is coming from my own telephone number. At 75 years of age, I was beginning to think I had finally gone over the precipice of Mt. Senility.

It’s a nuisance that I’ve been unable to stop and I’m certain the same applies to all of us. For a while, I tried to have a little fun with them, especially with Heather who keeps calling to offer me a reduced interest rate on my credit card. At the prompt, I would press “1” to talk to a rep. If it was a male, I’d blow a referee’s whistle in his ear. If a female, I’d breathe heavy and ask in a whisper, “What’re you wearing?” But my playful mood soon turned to boredom and then to fury at the incessant flood of calls.

“The new generation of robo-callers is breaking the law by using internet technology to avoid detection,” Campbell said, adding that Louisiana has “a strong ‘Do Not Call’ law,” which he said has been on the book for 20 years. “It prevents law-abiding companies from calling people who don’t want sales calls at home.”

And therein lies the problem. Yes, there are tough laws but these people don’t give a rat’s patootie about the law. “We need help from the telephone industry to defeat these outlaws,” Campbell said.

Again, good luck with that.

Campbell said the PSC will hear from phone companies at its meeting tomorrow (April 26) in Baton Rouge.

At least he is responsive to the concerns of his constituents on this issue. That’s more than can be said about most of our legislators who seem more concerned about combating the governor than looking out for the interest of the citizens of Louisiana.

(I received three robo-calls as I wrote this relatively short post.)