Letter to The First Lady on the Occasion of Her Visit to the Gulf States

Dear First Lady of the United States:

Thank you for planning to visit the third world part of the country. No doubt, while you are here, you will be shielded from the less savory parts, the sharecropper farms that still exist in Georgia and Alabama, the parts of Louisiana where there are regular daily power failures (Orleans parish). Bring a flashlight, and extra batteries.

Perhaps Ms. Sherrod will be available to sneak you away for a few hours, so that you can see how we really live down here. If you can slip the Secret Service, you will have the opportunity to experience what it's like to be a “person of color” in the South.( I know what I'm talking about. I am a black woman, who grew up in Chicago. I went to Lab School like your daughters. I'm college educated, and working only 10 hours a week). If you get caught, make sure you have your passport and White House credentials on you, or you could end up in jailed as a “street-walker”.

No doubt the satraps in charge will grovel obsequiously in your presence. remember however that behind your back they will be plotting ways to demean ad belittle any good work you will try to do. It'll be just like visiting South Africa in the 1960's. You will treated like an “honorary white person”. Make sure you are well-vaccinated. bring your mosquito repellent, first aide kit and malaria tablets. Do not drink the water. Do not get sick in Louisiana! If you do, fly home immediately. Health care in Louisiana is wholly inadequate, as in the entire South. Bobby Jindal, Richard Shelby and Haley Barbour have worked very long and diligently to keep us ill and unemployed, so we may be too weak to greet you if you come.

Enjoy your stay!

It's That Time

It's time:Time to step away from the oil and the coal. Wanting something real bad doesn't make it right. Yeah, we use the oil. We think we need the oil. But let's face it. We use too much. We've over done it. And now we're sick because of it. So we're gonna have to change. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Change is good. Life is about change. Be more energy efficient. What does that mean? It means it's time to take responsibility for what you use.

Well, for starters, drive less. If you live in an area with public transportation, use it. If it's not readily available, holler for it. Make it happen in your community. If you take the bus or the train to work, you can get stuff done, without having to hang on to the steering wheel. And, insurance rates will go down, because we won't need to drive everywhere. There will be less fender-benders. Drunks will be able to barf in taxis, and chat with you on the subway. Isn't that better than side-swiping your car, or killing you? See, and you won't be getting tickets for running the red light, either.

Walk there and back. That's a two-fer, right there. You'll accidentally get some exercise. That'll increase the circulation, maybe increase the metabolism, lose a little weight. Your doctor will be so proud. He/She will think you're following their advice. Ya might even get “lucky”, because you feel better, and look better, eh? And your dog won't look so much like a barking pig, because you're walking him/her. (Pick it up! That's what those plastic grocery bags are good for)

Ride a bike as part of your transportation system. Get one with a good sturdy frame, and nice fat tires. Get one of those nice cushy seats, not an butt-killer like they put on racing bikes. Hell, it's your bike: detail it like you wanna. Get streamers, paint it, put some good baskets on it so you can carry stuff. Get a really loud horn. Put all kinds of reflectors on it. And good breaks. Really. (Your reflexes ain't what they used to be) And a good sturdy lock and chain/cable!

Turn off some of those lights. Get dimmer switches. Don't waste electricity. Don't forget, someone probably died in a mine, for that coal that's used by your local power plant. Put solar panels on the roof. Look into tank-less water heaters, or the ones that run under solar panels. Put everything on a surge protectors, and when you leave the house, turn everything off, except the fridge. Window units are more efficient that central heat and air. Use screens on the windows on nice days and get some fresh air in there. Get that film for the windows. Honestly, it works, and it's neat stuff! Hang the laundry outside to dry. Saves energy; the clothes will be fresher. If you're shy, hang the undies inside.

Let's invest in wind energy. We should be manufacturing our own turbines for them. Let's not sub-contract everything out to the Chinese. It's stressing them out. They're not used to having to treat their workers like human beings.( It's freaking them out at the Fox Comm Factory!)So let's take advantage of the situation, and get back into making things ourselves for our selves.

Or else, we're gonna kill ourselves. It's a national gut-check time

Dude! Save yer ass, save the planet
.

Remembering the Wetlands

I love the wetlands. I used to love going out in the bayous and estuaries in my perouge, and trawling motor. I’d set trot lines for catfish, go crabbing, go crawfishing. I found oysters. I could never get enough of watching the graceful blue herons, gliding over the water. I would be at peace there, one with nature. I remember when I flew to New Orleans from Chicago, in 1977. We circled over the wetlands. It was mesmerizing.You used to be able to drive out to where Jean Lafitte’s fort used to be. We saw some of the other forts that were there. Within two years of my moving here, they were covered with water. I was grateful to have seen and walked across a piece of Ameican history, when I could.

But you can’t see them now. The Gulf has washed over them, as the wetlands have been destroyed, in favor of the oil companies with their barges. I live closer now than I did thirty years ago, to the Gulf, because of the erosion. I wanted to come back to see the beauty again first hand, and to show Wes how beautiful Louisiana really is

And now, BP has gone and ruined it. You evil, sorry rotten bastards, I hope you go bankrupt, and die in prison, you dirty rotten money grubbing life-hating, nature-abhorring bastards. I hope you rot in hell.

An Open Letter to Our Federal Legislators from South Louisiana

You don't get it. We were not made whole after Katrina. And now we've been struck down again. Now it's the oil corporations at war with the people, with the legislators blessings. And here in Louisiana, we have no representation. We only have Mary Landrieu, who is more concerned about the oil corporations than the people who are being exploited and destroyed by the industry she so adores. BP has told fishermen, hired to help save their wetlands and their way of life, that if they wear respirators, they'll be fired. Now they are demanding no less than our lives.

And for what?! Hasn't BP killed enough of us already? Why do they need to kill more of us? This is our water, this is our oil, these are our people, these are our wetlands and fisheries that are being murdered for their greed! We have David Vitter, and Steve Scaliese, who have never seen a federal regulation they haven't been against if it meant less profit for business, particularly if it could protect our rights as citizens. We have Bobby Jindal, a Governor that doesn't see us as living breathing human beings he was elected to lead. All he sees is numbers on a piece of paper, to step on as he endeavors to make his way back to Washington, where he can really injure and maim humanity.

The planes that are dropping Corexit 9500, a poison, on the water are also spilling it on houses of people on land in Mississippi when they return to land. We have Haley Barbour, who has done nothing to help his fishermen. Why are we so hated by you? We are the ones that elected you. We trusted you to lead us, to look out for America's best interests. And you've sold us out. You don't care. You are great all great pimps and panderers, prostituting America!