Politics – NOLAmotion Blog

The Most Predictable Crime — And How We Stop It Together

(Originally posted December 12, 2025. Updated Dec. 27)

NOTE: Thank you to the Opelousas Police Department for releasing a statement of warning and guidance for the public on their Facebook page that was shared as an online story by KLFY TV in Lafayette. The St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office responded to my email and prepared a Crimestoppers video admonishing people not to shoot guns in celebration and to report occurrences. Kudos to both agencies, but they need to create shareable links on their main webpages. The Sheriff’s page has no News or Press Release option in its menus, and OPD is similarly lacking in easy-to-find, shareable press releases.

Meanwhile, stupid people firing guns know no bounds. I’ll update this section with this year’s stories as I find them. See more information and stories at the end of this post under For more information.
December 26: Oklahoma man doing target practice in his backyard accused of fatally shooting woman blocks away

For 35 years, I’ve been doing a job I hate, a job I shouldn’t be doing, a job that rightfully belongs to someone else—one that, because it deals with the most predictable crime of the year, should be part of our public health, safety, and justice systems: warning the offenders, appealing to the public, monitoring the responses, and tallying the bullets fired in celebration on New Year’s Eve. Here we are again, on the brink of another New Year, and the public safety systems of Acadiana are not fully engaged.

I really don’t want to do this job; it’s sad to know that every holiday season, I’ll spend time popping everyone’s happy holiday bubble by explaining how one shot fired in celebration can destroy an innocent life, miles away. But that’s exactly how it happens.

In the first minutes of 1994 in New Orleans, as fireworks lit the sky over the river, a bullet fired in celebration from who knows where smashed through the top of the skull of Amy Silberman, a young publishing professional from Boston, killing her instantly. Here is her friend’s eyewitness account.

How happy she must’ve been, celebrating the New Year in the City of Dreams. For her friends and family, that moment of joy was instantly transformed into a nightmare because of a stupid fool firing a gun for fun. It’s sickening to reimagine the horror of her friends, the shock and pain of her family, and how their trauma resurfaced every New Year for the rest of their lives. But every year, that’s what I think about and why I’m writing. It doesn’t assuage my trauma to do this.

For two years prior, I warned that such a horrible thing would happen, and my pleas fell on mostly deaf ears. I tried to get local media to recognize that a story needed telling. I called the popular radio talk show, the local news media, the police. Until Amy died, nobody took me seriously.

That morning, when I woke up to the news (and the media that had ignored me in the prior weeks flocked to my doorstep with microphones and cameras), it was one of the worst days of my life. I cannot describe the helplessness and shame that washed over me as I felt responsible for failing to raise awareness and spark action. That feeling haunts me as I write this and see the same thing happening here.

I’ve spent half of my adult life warning that falling bullets kill. And I have seen in New Orleans how consistent public messaging, civic leadership, and community reporting can reduce this most predictable crime. In the years after Amy’s death, we lowered the gunfire rate by more than 70 percent. By 2000, the effort was so effective that I stopped recording shots altogether because so few were happening. It took a coalition of families, faith leaders, police, media, and citizens to make that happen.

Since 2023, I’ve lived in Opelousas, and I’m hearing the same chaos I experienced in New Orleans decades ago, compressed into a smaller city with far fewer people, yet with a much higher rate of gunfire per capita than in some of America’s largest cities.

Because so few people believed me and treated me like Chicken Little, in 1991, I began counting gunshots. That first year, I counted more than 1,500. I counted more than 3,300 shots in an hour and a half the night Amy Silberman died. I heard more in some of the years before.

Last New Year’s Eve, from my home near South City Park, I counted nearly 400 shots in only thirty minutes, with 300 fired in a ten-minute window between 11:58 p.m. and 12:08 a.m. That is a rate of 30 shots per minute — the equivalent of a small town turning into a free-fire zone every New Year’s.

For perspective, consider this: New Orleans, a city 23 times larger, now averages under 500 shots across the whole city on New Year’s Eve. Adjusted for population, Opelousas now experiences nearly 20 times more celebratory gunfire per resident than New Orleans ever did, even at its worst. Per square mile of audible area, Opelousas’ gunfire density is more intense than Kansas City, Washington D.C., or Oakland.

This is not a little problem in a small town. This is one of the highest per-capita rates of celebratory gunfire in America — and it is happening right here, in Opelousas neighborhoods, above Opelousas homes, and over Opelousas children.

It only takes one bullet to kill. I have said that line countless times, and I mean it literally. One shot. One angle. One moment of stupidity. We don’t get a second chance.

Why This Keeps Happening

Celebratory gunfire is not a “gun control issue.” It is a self-control issue. It is also one of the most predictable crimes in the world. Midnight. Every time zone. Every year. And yet, we still treat it as though nothing can be done. That is false — dangerously false.

What We Learned in New Orleans

New Orleans didn’t change because people magically became responsible. It changed because the community mobilized: civic leaders, the mayor, the NOPD, regional media, churches, neighborhood groups, and most importantly, ordinary citizens

We flooded the city each December with a simple message: Falling Bullets Kill! Citizens were urged to call it in. Report what you hear. Do not let this pass as “tradition.” People listened. The numbers fell; lives were saved. Here’s a link to a poster we created that told stories of people impacted by celebratory gunfire.

What Opelousas Must Do Now

If citizens do not report gunfire, there is little that the government and law enforcement can do. Opelousas cannot wait for the sheriff or the police department to solve this on their own. Every one of us must participate.

Here is what you can do — starting this year:

1. Call 911 when you hear gunfire.

Don’t assume someone else will do it. Don’t wait until it’s over. If you know the street, address, or the general direction, say so.

2. Talk to your neighbors before New Year’s Eve.

Let them know you’re calling in any shots you hear. Let the word spread that Opelousas is not looking the other way.

3. Share the message:

Falling Bullets Kill! One shot can end a life. Every bullet fired has an innocent destination.

4. Demand that our civic, religious, and neighborhood leaders speak up and take a stand.

This is not political. This is not controversial. This is basic public safety. (The sheriff of Caddo Parish stepped up in 2024.)

5. Demand that city and parish officials treat this as a real, annual public safety event.

It is predictable. It is preventable. And the plan should be announced every year, well before December 31.

What We Cannot Do

We cannot wait for tragedy. We cannot pretend this is normal. We cannot let another community bury a child, a visitor, or a passerby because someone wanted a few seconds of thrill and noise.

A Community Resolution

Let’s make a resolution — as a city, as a parish, and as neighbors:

This year, Opelousas will not accept a rain of bullets as the price of celebrating the New Year. We can fix this. And with enough voices, enough reporting, enough public pressure, and enough community resolve, we can make sure that Opelousas begins 2026 with something it has not had in years:

A truly safe and happy New Year.

Screenshot of a logo we created in 1994 for the New Year Coalition, an organization I co-founded in New Orleans that significantly reduced celebratory gunfire after the death of Amy Silberman. This image appeared on billboards around town.

For more information:

A Bullet and the Story of New Orleans’s Dangerous New Year’s Celebrations: A bullet found in an HNOC couryard sheds light on a Nwe Year’s Eve tradition with a deadly history (Historic New Orleans Collection, December 30, 2019

Falling bullet goes through boy’s face on New Year’s Eve (WWL TV, New Orleans, January 2, 2022)

A dangerous tradition: retrospective analysis of celebratory gunfire-related injuries in three tertiary hospitals (NIH, research in Turkey) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11065979/

Past incidents show falling bullets can still kill or injure someone (South Bend Tribune, July 2, 2025)

What goes up, must come down: The dangers of celebratory gunfire (Baylor College of Medicine, December 31, 2019)

Virginia boy’s death from falling bullet prompts search for culprit, scrutiny of celebratory gunfire (AL.com, Aug. 10, 2013. July 4 incident, shows how the problem is not limited to one holiday season.)

A City Run from Afar: Why Opelousas Needs Leaders Who Live Here

Opelousas is a once grand old city rooted in grit, creativity, decay, and resilience. However, our potential is limited by a pattern too few confront: the people in city government making many of the most important decisions and earning the highest salaries don’t actually live here.

Our city attorney’s office is located in Lafayette. And, according to my sources, the Chief Administrative Officer, Public Works Director, Fire Chief (and his top assistant), as well as the head of parish economic development, all live outside the city and parish.

Exactly how many Opelousas public servants live elsewhere is yet to be fully disclosed. At the most recent Special City Council meeting, questions were raised, and answers are slowly leaking out. Comprehensive transparency remains elusive.

Some of these administrative leaders take home city vehicles. Some have special monthly car allowances. Some have both. All of them take home city or parish-funded paychecks. What they drive away from is a commitment to a fully vested stake in the well-being of Opelousas.

This is what you might call “administrative colonization”: a model in which public leaders extract salaries from a struggling, poor city while investing their lives and dollars elsewhere in a wealthier, better-run community. It’s not just problematic, it’s corrosive.

These are essential jobs, and we need the best people for them. But when those individuals don’t live in Opelousas, it disrupts the feedback loop that keeps local government accountable. They don’t commute on our streets every day. Their children aren’t enrolled in our schools. Their property taxes don’t support our parish or community. Their lawn signs aren’t visible during local elections.

That distance signifies a disinvestment in the community they serve. It represents a lack of faith in the people whose hard work and taxes fund their paychecks.

This isn’t about punishing individuals. It’s about exposing a system that rewards disconnection and undermines our progress. The fact that some of our highest-paid public servants don’t live here isn’t just a staffing problem; it’s a crisis of confidence and trust.

Would Lafayette tolerate this? Would any self-respecting city allow its leadership to be so externally rooted?

There are ways to change this. We can prioritize local residency in our hiring practices. We can offer assistance in helping city staff relocate. We can invest in leadership pipelines that lift up local talent. But first, we have to admit that it’s a problem.

We say we want Opelousas to grow, but growth doesn’t happen when we outsource belief. It occurs when people who love this place step up and make a commitment to living in the city they’re paid to lead.

If the highest-salaried positions in city and parish government are held by people who live, pay taxes, vote, and send their children to schools elsewhere, Opelousas taxpayers are unknowingly double-burdened and on the hook for supporting another community and parish. That kind of leadership results in fiscal and moral slippage, regardless of the qualifications of the people involved.

It is often said that if you want others to love you, you must first love yourself. Opelousas is the same way. If we want people to love our city, we need to love living here, and so do our highest-paid leaders. As we face an increasingly daunting future, this situation represents yet another investment that falls short of what is needed in the moment. We can and must do better.

We are all in this together, at least those of us who live here!

City of Opelousas, August 28, 2025, Special Council Meeting to discuss the budget. Screenshot from Historic Opelousas Facebook webcast.

My Response to the May 10 “Statement from State Representative Dustin Miller (District 40)”

Yesterday, Rep. Dustin MIller released a statement on his Facebook page regarding funding for South City Park and other projects in Opelousas. The following is my reply.

We wish the South Park plans only cost the million dollars allocated from COVID relief funds. That would be reasonable and responsible. However, this is only a token of the full cost of this extravagant plan that you and a small group of insiders have developed without proper public input.

You state, “No local city government tax dollars are tied to the Donald Gardner Stadium improvements, the Community Center, or library renovations.” That’s misleading. Every dollar beyond the COVID funds comes from sales taxes paid by people who live, shop, and work in Opelousas. That is public money administered by local government. And if transparency is your goal, where is the full accounting of South Park spending—past, present, or proposed? To date, none has been provided.

The stadium renovation alone is projected to exceed $10 million, primarily funded by the Opelousas Downtown Development District (ODDD) through an additional one-cent sales tax collected at big-box stores. The ODDD issued municipal bonds to finance this, locking us into 15 years of debt, plus nearly $2 million in interest and fees, costs that are omitted from public statements. And if transparency matters, why are these decisions being made without the legally required oversight of a Parks and Recreation Commission, which the mayor has failed to appoint since 2019?

Then there’s the choice of location. The community center is planned for the site of the WPA-era pool—an area that requires destroying popular greenspace, major construction demolition, and subsequent fill that must meet engineering standards, all costly and unnecessary when vacant land is available nearby at a fraction of the cost.

Here’s an idea: Why not build the community center in the center of the community, where it could anchor downtown revitalization and support library programming? That’s the kind of impactful investment the ODDD is supposed to be making.

Meanwhile, the project lacks even the most basic financial planning. No published operations or maintenance budgets exist for the stadium or the proposed community center. Who will pay for utilities, insurance, staffing, janitorial services, or long-term upkeep? Artificial turf fields require specialized maintenance equipment and must be replaced every 6–10 years, at over $1 million per replacement cycle. Where is that money coming from?

Other communities have learned the hard way: these facilities are expensive and rarely break even. The original private funder walked away from nearby Pelican Park because annual costs were too high. That should be a cautionary tale, not a model.

All this unfolds while the city teeters on the edge of a fiscal cliff. On May 31, Opelousas will lose the source of 29% of its annual revenue due to the overlooked expiration of a long-standing one-cent sales tax. At the same time, our core infrastructure is in crisis. After this week’s rains, raw sewage is spewing from manholes, flowing onto residential streets, and into waterways that empty into the Vermilion River. Brown water continues to pour from our taps. Experts estimate that repairing our water systems alone will take $20–30 million. Securing funding for those repairs should be everyone’s top priority, because we are one incident away from a significant public health crisis.

Yet, your focus—and the ODDD’s—has remained fixed on a flashy, limited-use stadium and recreation complex, not the urgent needs of a city with crumbling infrastructure, an aging population, and one of the highest poverty rates in the nation.

This isn’t just poor fiscal management—it’s misfeasance.

If you want the public’s trust, stop issuing misleading statements that justify these lavish and poorly researched plans. Opelousas needs investment in water, streets, housing, and jobs, not in distractions dressed up as progress.

Lavish Dreams, Empty Coffers: A Reckoning in Opelousas

By Stephen C. Picou (May 1, 2025) For over a generation, Opelousas has relied on a one-cent sales tax to fund nearly a third of its annual operating budget. That tax expires on May 31, 2025, and reinstatement requires a yet-to-be-scheduled public vote. This week, the mayor called for a special meeting of the City Council to continue public notice in support of a ballot initiative to renew the tax. But it’s a classic scenario of too little, too late to stop the cut, because this situation should have been addressed years ago.

How did we end up in this position? It’s not complicated. All city leaders had to do was read the Legislative Auditor’s annual financial report, which plainly states that the tax will expire in 2025. However, those entrusted to plan responsibly repeatedly overlooked this fact.

Over the past fifteen years, under the heading of Sales and Use Tax, the audit shared the following: “Proceeds of the 1% sales and use tax was initially levied by authority of a special election held on April 5, 1975, and was extended through May 31, 2025.” This statement does not hide in footnotes or small print; it is part of the main body of the report. Yet, until March of this year, no one at City Hall flagged it as an urgent concern.

One glaring reason for this oversight is clear: for the past three years, city leaders have been consumed by an ambitious and costly plan to transform serene and bucolic South City Park into a busy, commercially supported, paved-over, high-end sports complex. Fueled by city funds and special sales tax revenue from the Opelousas Downtown Development District (ODDD), this project became their fixation, while more pressing fiscal responsibilities were neglected.

Some of us expressed serious concerns early on, warning that the plan was overpriced, poorly justified, and pushed forward with little transparency or public input. Instead of addressing our concerns, officials dismissed them—and us.

In November, as it became clear that substantial cuts to federal funding for social safety nets were imminent and could devastate Opelousas, the mayor rejected calls to prepare the city by reducing costs on South Park initiatives. He insisted on “staying the course” with the extravagant park development plans, the most expensive non-infrastructure project in the 300-year history of Opelousas.

In the days leading up to Mardi Gras, someone—whose identity remains unknown—must have finally reviewed the annual Louisiana Legislative Auditor report on the city’s finances and discovered the impending May 31 fiscal cliff. It wasn’t until April that the council could initiate the required public notice period.

When the tax expires on May 31, potentially severe cuts will soon follow. Who and what might be on the chopping block are issues that have yet to be discussed publicly.

Though I, too, was unaware of the looming expiration, my advocacy for fiscal prudence during these trying times was timely but insufficient. My analysis, rooted in extensive experience in government, community planning and outreach, economic development, and support for public parks and the environment, was that the city could not afford the costly plans for South Park, and that expenses to improve Gardner Stadium could easily be reduced by more than half while still meeting the needs of the schools.

For more than a year, I politely and professionally presented my questions and observations to the ODDD month after month. Initially, I was ignored. However, in recent months, as I uncovered and revealed details they kept from the public, I have faced scorn and derision. Last month, during an outdoor public event, a board member yelled at me, calling me negative, a liar, and an asshole, in front of city managers who chuckled like schoolyard bullies. I found the incident disheartening and unacceptable. That board member should resign or be removed.

Louisiana has the second-worst poverty rate in the continental US, exceeding eighteen percent. Nearly a million residents live below the poverty line. In Opelousas, the poverty rate is thirty-four percent, and in one Census Tract, home to more than 4000 people, the rate surpasses fifty percent. South Park is not in that tract; the much-neglected North Park is.

Due to special taxing districts like the ODDD, Opelousas has one of the highest sales tax rates in the country. The ODDD is mismanaging this revenue along with its responsibilities. They meet far from downtown at a location outside their district and operate with insufficient transparency and inadequate public input. Millions are being funneled into South Park without the legally mandated guidance of the still-unappointed Parks and Recreation Commission. What has transpired over the past few years, while they and the mayor were distracted by their envy and ambitions for a high-end sports complex like the one in much wealthier and fast-growing Youngsville, is nothing short of a travesty.

In his second term, the mayor is responsible for this situation and for failing to read the annual reports that clearly outline the pending sales tax expiration. Unfortunately, the phrase “the buck stops here” has taken on a new and painful meaning in his case. The bucks are stopping. What happens next is unclear, but we will all suffer due to the failure to prioritize investment in the basic functions of this needy, crumbling town.

People in Opelousas are not clamoring for pickleball; they need food, affordable housing, clean water, good schools, healthcare, and job opportunities. Building state-of-the-art, limited-use sports facilities in a poor town with crumbling infrastructure, rather than investing in infrastructure and business development, is like putting a fur coat on a starving person dying of heat stroke.

Opelousas is a unique and special place. Our history, cultural mix, and location make it a desirable place to live. With the right infrastructure investment and leadership mix, this city can be a great place. However, this can only be achieved when the people elect city (and parish) leaders who strive for greater transparency, are guided by science and data, follow the law, read the audits, and incorporate the public’s voice. It’s up to all of us to do better!

March 21, 2025, meeting of the Opelousas Downtown Development District. Held on the last Friday of the month at 9 am, outside the ODDD boundaries in the offices of the St. Landry Economic Development District (SLEDD), in the old Daily World building on the I-49 service road, nearly three miles by car from downtown.

Artificial Turf Sports Fields are Unhealthy for Children and Other Living Things

A thinly researched, more than eight-million-dollar plan to significantly modify Gardner Stadium in Opelousas, Louisiana, calls for artificial turf, a product developed for indoor fields that, when installed outdoors, creates a potentially deadly mix of heat, impact injuries, and toxic chemical exposures that threaten the health of players, coaches, fans, and the environment.

Construction bids exceeded eight million dollars, so the Mayor’s office is working to lower costs. Natural turf is a good place to start since it is more affordable and, in the long run, produces a healthier facility that is less likely to cause injury, heat stroke, and future legal liability for the city, the Opelousas Downtown Development District (ODDD), and the school district.

An artificial turf field is basically an asphalt parking lot overlaid with thin layers of plastic carpet. Initially developed for the world’s first large indoor stadium, the Astrodome, “astroturf” was created out of convenience, not scientifically designed to improve the game but to make sports possible on an indoor, paved surface. It was not crafted (and has not successfully been improved) to reduce injuries or enhance performance; it was designed to endure.

A natural turf field is a living surface of soil and plants that cushions athletes and exposes children to a healthy mix of microbes, moisture, and oxygen. The grass and soil of a natural field absorb and filter rainfall; when it lands on paved, plastic grass landscapes, it becomes a poisonous soup that contaminates streams and groundwater.

Artificial turf exposes players to impact injuries, extreme heat, and toxic chemicals that outgas into the air and are directly absorbed by their bodies via inhalation and scrapes and scratches known as “turf burn.” This abrasiveness is why many professional football players wear fabric tape over their elbows.

Globally, the deadliest weather phenomenon is heat, which kills more people annually than storms, floods, or cold. In a rapidly warming world, artificial turf fields put children, coaches, and fans at greater risk for heat stroke that can permanently damage brains and other vital organs. These fields can easily reach deadly temperatures of 130 to 150 degrees or higher on a ninety-degree day, creating a potentially fatal scenario. Last August, there were thirty-five emergency calls for heat stroke at a single UL-Lafayette football game.

It should come as no surprise that heat-related deaths of high school football players are happening, with five fatalities in just three southern states since July 2024. Those teenage boys died simply because they wanted to play football; they were failed by adults who had the responsibility to protect them.

Adding to heat risk is the fact that because the plastic turf is underlaid by asphalt, injuries like concussions, blown knees, and shattered ankles occur at a much higher rate than on natural grass. This rate of injuries is the primary reason why ninety-two percent of the members of the NFL Players Association voted last year to demand that all thirty NFL stadiums install real grass. Professional soccer players agree, and the World Cup is played on natural turf.

The health threats of synthetic turf fields are myriad. Plastic grass is flammable and impregnated with fire retardant, often a “forever chemical” proven to cause cancer. Shredded tires are spread over the turf to keep the “blades” up and add additional cushion. This infill also contributes to airborne microplastic pollution and yet more potential for cancer, lung and liver damage, and other developmental problems.

Because these harms are now more commonly known, the city could face future lawsuits by parents whose children become permanently impaired because artificial turf was chosen as a convenience even though professional footballers reject it as dangerous.

The decision by the mayor and the ODDD to stick with the current plans is guaranteed to end the careers of high school athletes randomly for decades and add the potential for cancer and other diseases later in life. In the years to come, those teenagers who suffer concussions, blown knees, shattered ankles, and failing health will find that their suffering might have been prevented if the city and ODDD had done their research and listened to the science and the professionals.

Sports like football, baseball, and soccer were invented outdoors, where weather and field conditions add their wildcard impacts to the game. Children need contact with grass and soil to build their immune systems, and they deserve to play in as much safety as science, budgets, and our loving care allow. Keeping the grass in Gardner Stadium is a simple way to save money and protect future generations, and that’s what we should all expect from our public leaders.

Workers removing fencing as construction begins on Gardner Stadium in Opelousas, LA, Feb. 17, 2025.

The first step always means loss of greenery. A stand of mature trees being destroyed by the construction at Gardner Stadium on Feb. 18, 2025.

DA Refuses to Press Criminal Charges in Killing of Cayne Miceli

The Lens is reporting that the Office of the District Attorney has chosen not to press any criminal charges against the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office in the torture and killing of Cayne Miceli in January 2009. I’ve blogged extensively about this horrible crime. And I’m not surprised that professional courtesy appears to have won over justice in Orleans Parish.

There is no doubt in the minds of all who loved Cayne that she was murdered by a chain of incompetence, negligence, ignorance and insensitivity that coalesced that fateful night. She turned to the system and it failed her. Today, the totality of that failure was punctuated by the parish’s arbiter of law. It is no surprise to most of us.

Justice cannot repair this murder. Justice did not exist that night and it does not exist today for Cayne Miceli or her family. This is a bitter Christmas present from the District Attorney. But it does not absolve the staff and leadership of the institutions into which Cayne entrusted her body and which, via negligence and abusive treatment, released her soul. Those who participated in every step of this tragedy know what their roles were in this crime. Their consciences must deal with this while they live. For now, the lawsuit filed by the family is the only vehicle for extracting truth and some semblance of justice from this community.

We all share in the shame of today’s hand-washing of responsibility, for these are our elected officials. We put them in power and we pay their salaries. They betrayed our trust and our faith. But at least we are here to say that.

Cayne Miceli was murdered. And I will say that until I no longer breathe.

Louisiana Music Commission to be Euthanized

flatline — Heartbeat of the LMC from 2005 to Present

After 4 years of lifeless existence under the direction of Chairwoman Maggie Warwick, the Louisiana Music Commission (LMC) is finally being put out of its misery. As reported in newspapers a few weeks ago, after July 1 the LMC will disappear. The articles quoted Ms. Warwick as saying she “supports eliminating it.” That’s like quoting Nero during the burning of Rome.

I would like to congratulate Ms. Warwick for her vision and talent in destroying the state’s (and nation’s) first agency dedicated exclusively to music. And thanks also to Lynn Ourso, the ostensible “director” of the LMC for directing it right into oblivion.

Though there were 15+ people appointed to serve on the LMC over the past 4 years, evidently none of them had the ability or power to grasp the controls and pull the LMC out of the dive it entered when it was eviscerated by (convicted and jailed former film office director) Mark Smith, then relocated and de-funded during the Blanco years (with the assistance of former Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development Mike Olivier). To those members who tried, really tried to represent the best interests of musicians, I say thank you. To those who colluded with and bought-in to the tired and ineffective leadership of Ms. Warwick and Mr. Ourso–and you know who you are–I say that the proof is in the pudding. And yours turned out to be a runny, smelly failure.

Since 2006, when they finally wrested control of the remnants of the LMC that had been systematically weakened by their team, observing the Warwick-Ourso tenure was like watching an elderly nursing home patient slowly, painfully gasp for breath–for month after month after month. It was a pathetic and absurd situation. And now it’s finally over.

The coroner has declared the patient dead but did not cite the cause. I say it was starvation, deprivation, and neglect compounded by malpractice and out-of-touch stewardship. And there will be no investigations, no funeral, no accurate recapitulation or memorial. This will likely be my last blog on that subject. And for that, I’m sure some will be grateful.

I’m proud of the work Ellis Marsalis, Bernie Cyrus and I did, but we were far from alone. From 1992 to 2006 literally hundreds of people helped us achieve unprecedented levels of support for Louisiana music. Because of our work, thousands of Louisiana musicians appeared on radio and television; tens of thousands of elementary school students statewide experienced living jazz history lessons; sites were saved (though many were lost); and attention to the health and welfare of working musicians was raised to new levels not surpassed until the tragedies of the failed levees of Katrina. You can read about what we did here: LMC Summary Report 1992-2003.

The LMC is dead. And though I spent 25+ years in music, it was always with a focus on environmental and social justice issues, on reducing our impact and helping the needy. Today, that’s what I do full time. I love music. I hope to play again some day. But I have a great job and a mission to bring positive change to the way we live. I am blessed to be where I am today.

Music is vital to our quality of life in Louisiana. Perhaps one day it will benefit from dedicated resources and support equal to what we give other industries such as agriculture, petrochemicals and film. One day. But not today.

Dear America,

20 million barrels of oil. 20 million. That’s what the USA uses every day. And nearly 50% of that oil is being burned each day as motor fuel. As of Monday, June 7, the BP Macondo well has spewed in the vicinity of 2,000,000 barrels with no end in sight. That’s the equivalent of 10% of one day’s oil use in the US.

“That’s what we need to get through the day!” exclaimed John Hofmeister (German for “yard master” to you etymological folks) the former head of Shell on a recent Larry King Show. In prior media appearances Hofmeister promoted his oil skimming ideas, his experiences in keeping a culture of safety at Shell, and his book. On King’s show he reverted to the Company Man and showed his Chamber of Commerce side, indulging in a couple too many Gripes on Behalf of the Oil Companies. He evaded James Carville’s challenge to explain and justify the cozy relationships Big Oil cultivated with government, including regulatory agencies and personnel, which will prove to be a major factor in the chain of events.

Then came T. Boone Pickens. He was visibly stressed. But he was clear as a bell. His overriding message, “It’s not time to panic.” He emphasized that we need to focus on stopping the well and dealing with the humanitarian and environmental response. When we get ahead of these demanding issues, then we can focus on inquiries and blame. But he knows it’s bad. “This event is like a 100 Year Storm.” He emphasized a military-like focus.

Which brings us to that ugly and horrible act of humanity: War.

For nearly 10 years we, our families, friends and neighbors have been paying the ultimate cost for our military actions around the world. The United States has been at war longer than World War ll, and as of June 7, longer than in Viet Nam, our longest war. We are paying the price in lives, money, energy and resources. Yet we blithely go about our days worrying more about phony celebrities, useless trends and pop culture than we do about being at war in foreign countries. We are sacrificing so much–lives, resources, energy, money, time–and we are so spoiled by all the power we wield with our smart phones, fast cars, fast cards and fast food–that we are oblivious, like slowly cooking frogs, to our impending doom.

Whether is it our diet and diabetes, or our vapid, mobile lifestyles and growing environmental crises, we are in a massive state of denial that only a large-scale psychological and spiritual transformation effort can least-painfully change. But it appears we’re incapable of changing without very painful and tragic impetus.

Hell, if even the increasingly unnecessary maiming and death of our best and brightest in military service isn’t compelling us to act, then perhaps Nature will. Or will it?

The root cause of this situation is our demand for oil and our addiction to dirty fossil fuels. Though we built our consumer society on what appears to be “cheap” fossil fuels, the true cost has never been fully factored or equitably distributed.

For 150 years, modern civilization has depended upon exploitation, extraction, manufacturing and distribution of natural resources, usually directed from the less powerful to the more powerful.

And now this. The BP oil disaster is well on its way to being the worst singular petroleum catastrophe in world history, impacting far more than just Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico.

The site of the BP Deepwater Horizon and areas impacted by the catastrophe are the uterus and placenta of the Gulf Stream. And a breathtaking array of biology upon which humans on multiple continents depend is threatened. We cannot determine how long it will take to recover, even after the well is stopped. Years? Decades? In whose lifetime will these land and water ecosystems return to the diversity and volume of April 2010?

Some 30% of the USA’s seafood comes from these estuaries. But, that’s only measuring it in the USA. Many of the species most seriously affected by this spill migrate between continents. There could be shortages of fish products around the world.

But let us not lose sight of the biggest tragedy–us. This is a growing humanitarian crisis.

In Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas, hundreds of thousands of jobs are threatened and tens of thousands of jobs are at a standstill or waiting to be told to stop. This means that thousands of families and households are not receiving income.

Second Harvest has been overwhelmed trying to bring food to families in Louisiana. With the assistance of Catholic Charities, the New Orleans Food & Farm Network and others, a growing number of volunteers are participating in distributing food to the hardworking, diverse patchwork of celebrated cultures of people who define the character of Louisiana to the world but who are not emotionally prepared to be dependent upon charities.

As efforts mount, words get stronger. Beth Galante calls us to action in the May 2010 Global Green newsletter, “The humanitarian crisis is the first priority – every single coastal resident has had their job destroyed or damaged for the foreseeable future, from the fishermen to the local restaurant staff to the hotel maids, and it is imperative that aggressive action ensures that they can keep food on their families’ tables, make mortgage and credit card payments, and get rapid access to comprehensive mental health care services.”

Why are these things happening? Why is this how we are going to spend the 5th Anniversary of the tragedy of the failed levees after Katrina? Fundamentally because a perfect storm of stupidity has swept this country for the past few decades. We’ve had all the information, all the warnings we needed to make changes. We are lost in consumerism. We are not saving energy. We are not taking the steps needed to reduce our impact. We are indeed living in The Age of Stupid. We are at war on two fronts, sacrificing our friends, families and economy to the mighty Oil God. And we won’t change our ways. We are ultimately at war with ourselves.

Will this event change us? There is no doubt that Louisiana is now forever changed, perhaps for generations. But will the USA change its ways and reduce our dependence upon dirty fossil fuels? 11 dead in the Gulf and 15 dead in the mines in 2010 don’t seem to matter much. More than 5000 of our finest sacrificed in Iraq and Afghanistan seems to make no difference. We blithely drive, shop and waste and waste and waste. We gossip about pop “stars” ruining their lives while our own are ruined by ignorance, inactivity, bad food and the resulting obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The fact that the current generation is the first in modern times to be expected to live shorter lives than their parents doesn’t even seem to be changing people’s attitudes much. We are speeding pedal to the metal into a dead end.

So I have a request to the USA: pray. No, I’m not a religious person. But I am desperate. And in desperation, most folks suddenly find God. Besides, other than cutting your driving by at least 20% and pledging to do better, there’s not much you can do.

So, Dear America, pray. And pray hard and for a long, long time. It might not slow the oil. But at least it will slow you down.

Louisiana Tax Structure Fails Our Education Systems and Threatens Our Economic Future

The repeal of the Stelly Plan that removed certain sales taxes on food and other items and created a more balanced income tax structure is causing a much-predicted crisis in Louisiana. We are facing the worst funding shortage in memory. And cuts announced this week to higher education are going to devastate our universities.

When the Stelly Plan, which voters approved, was ceremoniously repealed, we ended up with two tax cuts. And these cuts are not stimulating our economy, they are causing layoffs, higher tuition and myriad problems that will harm the reputation of Louisiana and that threaten our economic future.

When the Stelly Plan was repealed, we didn’t return to the status quo–we just gave a tax cut to the upper brackets and didn’t replace the funds from the removal of the sales taxes.

Stelly was a fair plan. The sales taxes that hurt poor and middle class residents were lightened and we all paid a few dollars more (at least those of us at average income levels, in my case it added less than $100) in income tax. It worked. Now we’re in a pickle. And it’s not even because of some lousy Friedman-esque economic theory–it’s because of political grandstanding and misrepresentation of how taxes work.

Those who want Louisiana to prosper, to have a solid education system, to have better roads, safe and secure drinking water, fair and honest police, fire and emergency service systems, courts that dispense justice and are able to put people in facilities that securely and effectively incarcerate without breeding more crime (or being complete hellholes where you may die within hours whether guilty or not) must pay for these things. That’s what taxes are for. And with federal prosecutors hot on the tails of corruption (thanks in no small way to the fact that all contracts now end up on computers and leave multiple electronic trails), things ARE changing for the better.

But we have to demand vision and leadership from our elected officials, not platitudes and phony political philosophy. And we have to do our parts to participate, to go to meetings, to be watchdogs, to volunteer to help our city halls and parish services, and to vote.

These problems are not going to be solved by name-calling rallies or by shouting down political discourse when our elected officials have public meetings or by calling fellow citizens socialists because we disagree with them. Democracy is hard work. And we in New Orleans have gotten better at it than most of the country. But now we need the rest of Louisiana, the average citizens (not just business and political leaders), to get on the ball and participate.

It took a massive (and man-made) disaster to make us in NOLA get involved. Is that what it’s going to take for the rest of the state to get with it?