Many times I’ve had to be reminded of exactly how an incompetent like Eddie Jordan got to be the District Attorney of New Orleans. If an exact moment had to be culled from time, it would be his conviction of Edwin Edwards, which pushed him in to our collective consciuosness as a Law & Order type of guy.
The reality is that he did this under the guidance of ‘Dollar’ Bill Jefferson, himself a corrupt politician. Has it occurred to anyone else that Jefferson probably knew about every shady deal Edwards was in on and passed selective information, and evidentuary map if you will, on to Jordan? That Jefferson’s own dirty hands allowed him to know and selectively communicate Edwards dirty little deals? We’ll never really know.
Today we have to worry about the criminal justice system of Orleans Parish getting shut down due to the racist policies of Mister Jordan. While William Jefferson cries foul, insists the FBI persecutes him for his race, Jordan has been allowed to walk away from millions of dollars worth of court ordered settlement to those whose careers he ruined out of racial hate. And guess who picks up the bill…
We recently had another peoples victory in the ousting of Charlie Foti, who, rather than destroy the lives of about 70 members of the DA’s office, singled out Dr. Pau as a murderess, arrested her in her home & transported her IN CHAINS to Orleans parish for arraignment, after agreeing to let her present herself the next day. He then went on international TV and announced that she was a killer. Not someone accused of a crime, innocent until proven guilty, but A KILLER.
Now vindicated, of course, but her career is ruined beyond measure. Thanks Charlie.
The point is, we have election run-offs, a temporary DA, and a battle for the deciding swing vote seat on the City Council, all hanging in the balance, and in the not-too-distant future. Whatcha gonna do?
It’s time we stop blaming idiots for being idiots. It’s much harder to get them out of office than it is to prevent them from getting in. Or so it would seem.
These horrors do not visit themselves on us by accident.
These choices do not go away because we ignore them.
If we choose not to be involved, they are made for us. And we have no room to gripe or complain when another idiot takes the money, fires everyone but his friends, crucifies a healthgiver for headlines, makes deals with corporate gambling, etc. We’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.
It’s time to listen carefully, New Orleans. Long have we cried about change, FEMA, what was done to us and so on. Now it’s time to do it for ourselves. Again. The Monsters are getting dragged into the light of day, and the future lies in the balance. Open your ears and hear what is really being said. When Jacqui Clarkson tells you that bringing big business and conventions to New Orleans, rather than helping small business that is already here is the way to go, what does that mean? That more money will go out of state, to the City coffers, and raise real estate prices, a business that she has been in for thirty years? That a ‘better New Orleans’ is one without Tuba Fats, Kermit Ruffins, etc. allowed to play music in Jackson Square? That ‘looking out for you’ means taking all the benches out of Jackson Square without the permission of the Historical Society or the City Council itself?
The Ghost of Eddie Jordan looms large, my fellow New Orleanians. It will change like a Scooby Doo cartoon and rise up again and again, until we finally take back our city. These people do NOT have your best interests at heart. A City Council member with a deciding vote, steeped in the real estate development business? You gots to be kidding, man. Except this is no joke. This is a rich & powerful person, trying to make the City, and those who live here, pawns in her vision of “what New Orleans should be.” I don’t know about you, but I rather like the people here just the way they are. I just wish they’d pay attention the Ghosts Yet To Come.
Before we get screwed again.
-Lord David, Live from The Skull Club
