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Archive for March, 2011

Mar 29

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Joel Chaisson Carves Up Rapides Parish In Order To Protect Two Incumbent Republicans

Seriously (bold mine):

Chaisson said he designed the new minority district that splits up McPherson’s district in a skinny, curving shape through North and Central Louisiana in order to avoid putting Sen. Bob Kostelka, R-Monroe, and Sen. Gerald Long, R-Winnfield, in the same district.

As I mentioned before, how does this look logical at all?

No one doubts the importance of ensuring minority representation in the Louisiana State Senate, but Senator Joel Chaisson should be ashamed. As others, including State Senator Lydia Jackson, have noted, there are many other ways of creating another majority-minority Senate district that is more compact and cohesive. Under the plan adopted by the Louisiana State Senate, District 29 snakes through six different parishes; it’s nearly 160 miles long and, for the most part, less than twenty miles wide (often, less than five miles wide). Quoting again from Senator Chaisson:

“I like to make everybody happy, and I tried my best, but this is just one time when I couldn’t do it,” Chaisson said.

No, he tried his best to ensure that Bob Kostelka wouldn’t be challenged by an incumbent Republican, which, I suppose, could be best accomplished by creating a torturously-designed “majority-minority” district that bisects the center of the State and splinters the Alexandria-Pineville Metro area.

Lydia Jackson is a Harvard-educated, African-American woman from North Louisiana, and thank God she’s in the Louisiana State Senate. (One day, I hope she will consider running for higher office). From The Advocate:

State Sen. Lydia Jackson, D-Shreveport, led the opposition by the eight black members of the Senate, all of whom voted against the measure. She argued SB1 likely would fail the federal approval process because the new black majority district was not compact. The new black majority districts in SB1 were bizarrely drawn in order to protect incumbents from having to run against each other, Jackson said.

Call or e-mail Governor Jindal’s office. If he decides to sign this into law, then it will likely be challenged. Hopefully, our Governor won’t allow blatant political appeasement to interfere with fair representation.

Mar 27

2 Comments

Meditations on My Grandmother’s Life (Part Three of Six)

Part Three: Lamar White, Sr.

When I was a kid, I loved learning about the Kennedy family. I first read Profiles in Courage when I was in the fourth grade, and by the sixth grade, I considered myself as somewhat of an expert on JFK assassination conspiracy theories. Part of my fascination, I think, was because my mother’s family is from Dallas. Before I was born, my mother had worked in the hospital where President Kennedy died.

One sunny afternoon, while visiting our family in Dallas, my parents took us downtown to see John Neely Bryan’s cabin. John Neely Bryan is my great-great-great-great-great uncle and the founder of Dallas, Texas. The cabin is actually a replica, but it stands as a monument to him. After visiting the cabin, I asked if we could see the Texas School Book Depository Building, which is only a couple of blocks away. We walked toward the building and into Dealey Plaza, and we all witnessed something surreal.

Traffic had been cordoned off; the museum at the Texas School Book Depository Building was closed. A production crew had taken over. They were filming the assassination scene for a television mini-series about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. And for nearly an hour, I stood with my family, mesmerized, as we watched take after take of a stretched, convertible limousine bending around the curve, shots ringing out, and an actress in pink attempting to climb onto the back of the car. I was eleven, scrawny and short, and my father hoisted me over his shoulders so I could witness the whole spectacle.

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Mar 26

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Louisiana College’s Intellectual Property Policy

H/t to the newly-relaunched Save Our LC forum for calling attention to Louisiana College’s recently published Intellectual Property Policy, which is now prominently posted near the very top of its page on Academics. (The policy is mentioned in the fifth sentence).

The commenter on Save Our LC suggests that the policy is a direct reaction to the recent “leaks” of information that have beleaguered and frustrated the college’s current administration. I have no way of knowing or confirming this, and to be sure, most colleges and universities have well-defined intellectual property policies. That said, it is unusual for a college or university to mention this policy at the top of their Academics webpage, and by doing so, LC is purposely drawing attention to the policy.

Read the policy here (pdf).

I’m interested to hear from others, but to me, Louisiana College’s policy seems overly broad, poorly defined, and hastily assembled. At one point in the three page policy, the word “personal” appears, even though it’s obvious the author intended to use the word “personnel.” It’s a minor error, but it suggests the policy had not been thoroughly scrutinized and edited before it was published and prominently displayed. (It happens; I know).

The vast majority of colleges and universities adopt intellectual property policies to protect their interests in the event that a sponsored invention can be patented and potentially monetized. Notably, LC is not a research university; it’s a small, Baptist, “liberal arts” college in a small town in Louisiana, which makes its desire to publicize such a policy seem somewhat strange.

Because it is so vague, Louisiana College seems to go well beyond the scope of the standard intellectual property policy. Rather than fostering the free and open exchange of ideas or championing the public dissemination of research, LC  suggests that practically anything that could become copyrighted or patented produced or created by faculty, staff members, and students with the “significant use” of LC’s resources, even an idea or a work of art, should be considered LC’s property. By the way, it’s left at the discretion of LC’s President to determine what, exactly, constitutes “significant use;” the policy defines “significant use” as “greater than normal,” and it doesn’t define the term “incidental use.”

The policy also states that if you’re a professor at LC, then all of your work will be considered “work for hire,” unless you can somehow negotiate an agreement that states otherwise.

These provisions are not normal. It’s highly unusual for any college or university to even attempt to assert ownership of someone else’s artwork, for example, particularly a student’s artwork. LC’s treatment of (even potentially) “copyrightable” material is also suspect. They’re not simply referring to copyrightable technology or software; “copyrightable,” by the way, is a matter of opinion. A copyright does not protect an “idea;” it assigns certain rights and privileges to protect one’s ability to “express” that idea.

Louisiana College’s policy defines “intellectual property” in the most expansive way possible; it provides complete discretion and oversight of the policy to a single individual; it fails to properly define “significant use,” allowing the LC President to make such determinations (oversight is notably weak and unspecific); and, in so doing, it provides LC’s President with the ability to claim, if he so chooses, that almost anything produced by LC faculty, staff, and students could be (and in the case of faculty members, should be) considered subject to LC ownership and control.

Someone else already said this isn’t an “intellectual property” policy; it’s an “anti-intellectual property” policy. It’s a good play on words, but we shouldn’t miss the point: It’s perfectly appropriate and understandable for Louisiana College to adopt a policy on intellectual property, and as a private college, they can adopt almost any policy they want. At least they’re being upfront, though maybe a little too upfront.

The real problem is: Their policy conflicts with their mission of “academic excellence.” This has very little to do with LC’s desire to protect its own interests in patented or patentable inventions; it seems primarily concerned with staking out ownership of content. It’s an awfully bad and embarrassing default position, at least in my opinion.

I’ll spare any critics the time and energy: I am, in no way, asserting LC’s policy is illegal; I just don’t think it’s right.

Mar 25

2 Comments

The New Zorro

Forgive my frustration here, but, c’mon Joel Chaisson, this is absurd:

I’ve highlighted the new boundaries of Louisiana State Senate District 29, which, as of today, is (essentially) coterminous with Rapides Parish. Here’s what the district looks like currently (zooming in on Rapides Parish, in pink):

Under the plan adopted by Mr. Chaisson and his committee, Senate District 29 will become a plume of smoke, diluting local representation by marrying the Alexandria inner-city with rural interests in Northern Louisiana. Though on a smaller scale, it reminds me of the so-called Zorro district, which was proposed by the Louisiana Legislature and subsequently rejected by the Department of Justice in 1991:

Kudos to Louisiana Progress for the image.

Under the plan approved by Chaisson and his committee, Alexandria and Rapides Parish would be gutted, ostensibly to create a serpentine-shaped “majority-minority” district. It’s absurdly unfair, blatantly political, and against the spirit of a representative democracy.

Rapides Parish should not be gutted. There is no compelling reason, for example, to split representation between England Air Park and the City of Alexandria, and there’s absolutely no reason to reshape Senate District 29 into order to create a poorly-drawn “majority minority” district, particularly considering the exponential growth of minority populations within the boundaries of the current district (97% increase in Hispanics, 10% increase in African-Americans, and 1% decrease in caucasians).

It’s the latest incarnation of the Zorro district, an attempt to carve out a population center and disingenuously dilute representation under the guise of fair representation.

What is occurring right now is anything but fair.

Monroe has been outspoken: they won’t be carved like a Thanksgiving turkey; they won’t give up their position as a “population center” for a seat in the United States Congress; if anything, they should be allowed to increase their representation. Of course, it helps that Bob Kostelka, the former judge turned State Senator, is from Monroe. Senator Kostelka has attempted to set the tone with his redistricting plans, and despite Governor Jindal’s recent pandering on the Kostelka Plan, Monroe is somehow protected.

Central Louisiana experienced a surge in population during the last ten years. Aside from Bossier City, Alexandria has been the fastest-growing city in northern and central Louisiana.

Monroe and the Greater Monroe area, however, have experienced significant population decreases, approaching percentiles in the double digits. Today, for the first time in decades, Alexandria is nearly equal in population with Monroe, and without any doubt, Alexandria serves a much larger area than Monroe. Yet Alexandria is somehow on the chopping block, and before any plan even hits his desk, Governor Jindal has already made it clear that he supports vertical and not horizontal Congressional districts in Northern Louisiana.

No one really minds the notion of an I-20 Congressional district, except for entrenched Republicans.

We can split up the state evenly and geographically, and we can still adhere to the Voting Rights Act. We have the opportunity to become a more representative democracy.

There is no reason for anyone, in any part of Louisiana, to believe in Zorro districts. We’re better than that. If, for some reason, the Governor signs this plan into law, it will surely be the subject of inquiry by the Department of Justice and could also likely be the subject of protracted litigation, which would expose Louisiana taxpayers to financial liability.

Can we just get it right the first time? Is that too much to ask?

Mar 25

1 Comment

Louisiana Bar Cart

Because the blog needs a little levity:

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine, Chris, purchased a stretched golf cart on eBay, the kind of golf cart they use in college and professional football games, complete with the requisite stretcher. It seemed like a strange and random purchase. Chris isn’t a football coach; he’s an artist, a painter. But he and one of his friends had a plan: They’d convert the stretched golf cart into a wrap-around, wood-paneled bar, a party on wheels, which they’d debut at Mardi Gras in New Orleans (Not to serve or sell anything, mind you; just to parade the thing around).


A sight to behold.

Chris asked if I’d link to the Louisiana Bar Cart Facebook page on my new (as yet unfinished and unpublished) blog roll, which I will. (They’re currently building the website www.TheBarCart.com). Until then, check them out here, here, or e-mail them at info@thebarcart.com. They’ll rent it out, I hear, for private parties.

Mar 22

10 Comments

Enabled.

Updated.

In response to this, this, and this:

When I was a kid, I didn’t like the word “disabled.” I don’t use the word often. If you search this website for the word, you’ll find only 39 posts that even contain it, many of which were written by others. During the last 5 years, I have published nearly 1,400 posts; I’ve specifically mentioned my disability in less than two dozen of them, and the vast majority of those posts were concerned with a larger story. All told, less than 1% of everything I have ever posted on this website even mentions my disability. Indeed, I have only published one post that is specifically about my experience living with a disability.

There is a big difference between allowing something to define your identity and something simply informing it.

Again, search the archives. I’ve written about my disability, primarily, as a response to those who believe it’s appropriate to attack, satirize, or lampoon me on the basis of my disability. I’ve remained steadfast: I believe it’s outrageous and hateful. It’s not civil. It’s purposely hurtful.

Frankly, I don’t mind when critics attack, satirize, or lampoon me for my opinions, but when criticism against me is framed or presented in the context of my physical disability, it loses all credibility.

To me, it’s always fair game to call those people out for their simple-minded bigotry, particularly when they couch their bigoted comments by attempting to draw attention to their own physical or mental challenges.

It’s okay for me to call someone else a “gimp” or to claim they’ve only coasted by in life by playing on the sympathies and the pity of others, because, you see, I had a stroke a few years ago, which makes me qualified to make such accusations and exempt from any criticism. It’s playing the Disability Card in order to accuse someone else of playing the Disability Card. It doesn’t work; it’s bogus and hypocritical.

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Mar 18

24 Comments

Hyperbole and Distortions: Fact-Checking LC President Aguillard

In May 2009, Louisiana College President Joe Aguillard penned an editorial to The Baptist Message about the need for like-minded Baptists to engage in a type of warfare “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world.” It wasn’t merely a rhetorical flourish. Aguillard directly accused President Barack Obama of being a “murderer,” claiming that the President was responsible for “carrying the banner” of allowing the murder of “21 babies per second.” Quoting (bold mine):

The enemy is attacking the Christian’s territory and he is doing so at an exponential pace.

The murder of our unborn is occurring at a rate of 21 babies per second!

The President of the United States is carrying the banner to continue these murders at an even faster pace and to also use our tax dollars to expand the murder overseas.

If we use Biblical truth to define our president and those in Congress as murderers – and that is what they are, murderers – as those who have perpetuated this murderous plot, will they imprison us?

That threat will not silence us!  Will you stand and fight?

Here is a link to the full editorial, which was, at some point, migrated to a different page.

In the editorial, Aguillard also compared a hate crimes bill that punishes criminals who inflict physical violence against a person because of their sexual orientation as a direct attack on Christians who only seek to express God’s Word. Quoting again:

The enemy is attacking the Christian’s territory by convincing our nation that marriage is really not a sacred bond between a man, a woman and God.  Rather, we are told that it is a choice between persons of the same or the opposite sex.  Both choices, many maintain, are to be viewed as legitimate. . . .

Encouraged by the President, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a Hate Crimes Bill that could make it illegal for Christians to declare that what the Word of Almighty God says about the practice of homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

If the aforementioned legislation ultimately becomes law, many believe that a Christian could be thrown in jail for proclaiming God’s law. Well, consider me and our faculty at LC ready for jail, for we will not bow to the lies of satan.

I only mention this because today, it was brought to my attention that he continues to preach the same message to those in the LC community, including the ridiculous line about Christians being persecuted by a bill that specifically addresses punishing violent criminals, using this bill, either ignorantly or insidiously, as a reason to “fight against the enemy.”

I’ve never met anyone who is “pro-abortion,” but it is an absolute lie to proclaim as fact, particularly from the pulpit, that “21 babies are aborted every second.” Aguillard repeated this egregiously exaggerated lie only a couple of months ago, in an address in front of the Louisiana College student body (jump to the 45 minute mark on the video). Michael D. Smith explains:

21 babies per second. That is 1,260 babies per minute, 75,600 babies per hour, 1,814,400 babies per day, and 662,256,000 per year.

The population of the United States is less than half that number. The world-wide population of women is 3,386,509,865 (www.geohive.com). The global population of childbearing women (aged 15-50) is 1,755,000,000 (www.census.gov). Therefore, if Mr. Aguillard is correct (assuming that he is talking about the number of abortions in the world, rather than just in the USA), that would mean that every year, no less than one third of all child bearing women have an abortion. However, if he is talking about women in the United States, that would mean that on average every woman in the United States would have about 9 abortions per year.

The actual number of abortions worldwide is less than 7% of what Aguillard claims, and abortions, worldwide and here in the United States, have been on the decline since 1993.

I was reared in the First United Methodist Church in Alexandria. As a teenager, I occasionally taught a small Bible Study class, and when I was in college, I double-majored in English and Religious Studies. I am not and have never been a conservative Southern Baptist and would never claim to be an expert in the Southern Baptist tradition.

I decided to post about this for a few reasons: Professor Reynoso’s letter reminded me of the importance of championing honesty above loyalty. As I said in the previous post about Louisiana College, I want nothing more than to see it succeed and excel. Many of my family members and close friends are proud graduates of Louisiana College. It’s a vitally important institution in Central Louisiana.

It’s never easy to speak truth to power, particularly when those in power believe that any criticism is evil or the result of Satan’s influence. You either agree with us, or you’re doing the work of the devil.

A few weeks ago, The Town Talk published an article about a study conducted in 2010 by Aramark that suggested Louisiana College needs to spend more than $35 million on repairing its existing infrastructure, simply to address deferred maintenance. I have no way of knowing how the paper obtained the study, but once they did, they reported on it. Quoting from Billy Gunn of The Town Talk:

Louisiana College is pursuing $10 million to produce a movie based on the 1960s sitcom “Green Acres,” adding to the tens, or hundreds, of millions of dollars the 104-year-old Baptist college is seeking in aggressive expansion beyond the Pineville campus.

All the while, buildings on campus sit needing millions of dollars in repairs, according to a study done for LC by Aramark Higher Education in a report commissioned in 2010.

The response from leaders at Louisiana College: The Town Talk received a stolen report that was still in draft form. Aguillard told The Baptist Faith that he was considering legal action against the paper and said there was a “spiritual battle” between Louisiana College and the so-called “liberal media.” If you’ve ever read The Town Talk, then you probably would agree: They are not members of the “liberal media,” and they are not interested in waging a spiritual battle against Louisiana College. Louisiana College Trustee Heath Veuleman (allegedly) wrote that The Town Talk‘s entire goal is “to challenge Louisiana College’s credibility and integrity” and implied the newspaper was staffed by the “sycophants and acolytes” who oppose their current administration. According to former LC Professor Reynoso, President Aguillard allegedly also decried The Town Talk‘s coverage as “evil” and “attacks from Satan.”

In December 2010, The Town Talk reported on Louisiana College’s attempt to secure $70 million in funding from the governments of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to build a medical school right here in Central Louisiana. The paper had received a “draft report,” which was posted on the now-defunct SaveOurLC forum, and shortly thereafter, photos emerged of LC President Aguillard meeting with diplomats from Kuwait while visiting Washington, D.C. Aguillard and his administration had seriously considered attempting to capture a sizable portion of the money pledged by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for disaster relief after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in order to fund a medical school. Shortly after the news broke, Aguillard explained his intentions to The Baptist Message:

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Mar 17

2 Comments

Meditations On My Grandmother’s Life (Part Two of Six)

Part Two: Shiloh

Four years ago, the building that formerly housed Shiloh Baptist Church, one of the oldest African-American congregations in Central Louisiana, was threatened by the prospect of demolition, and shortly thereafter, it was named one of the top ten most endangered properties in the State by the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation.

It’s not only a good-looking, historic building; it’s also the very first thing one sees when exiting northbound from Interstate 49 and into Downtown Alexandria.

One afternoon, I called my grandmother at home to pitch the Shiloh project to her. I told her I wanted to find an innovative re-use plan, a plan that did not involve the City government or any type of direct, taxpayer-funded subsidization. She listened to everything I had to say and then replied (paraphrasing here and throughout), “Let me think about it, angel, and I’ll call you back.” (I’m not being hyperbolic; she routinely referred to all thirteen of her grandchildren as “angel,” something I most assuredly am not).

A few days later, she called me back with an idea.

“We should convert the church into a music conservatory that celebrates Negro spirituals,” she said. “Many of those songs are becoming extinct. Many of them were only passed on through oral tradition.”

“The government could never fund anything like that, Mawmaw,” I said. “We can’t buy a church and turn it into a religious music conservatory.”

Of course, my grandmother already understood all of that; she was almost always four steps ahead of me. “No,” she said, “our local churches must share this mission together. If it is to become a conservatory, it must be donated, not sold, to an ecumenical non-profit.”

Although she was always a loyal member of the United Methodist Church, my grandmother believed in the powerful effects of ecumenicalism.

It was possible, she thought, to save an historic house of worship, while, at the same time, preserving a critically important part of American history, a part of our history that was also threatened to be forgotten. It hasn’t happened yet, and it may not happen any time soon. Brilliant ideas are often the most challenging to realize and appreciate, and maybe I’m biased: But her idea was brilliant.

Mar 16

6 Comments

Louisiana College Professor: “Many See LC As A Place of Academic Mediocrity and Spiritual Cancer”

Update: Professor Reynoso contacted me via e-mail today. Although this letter was distributed to numerous people and published online with permission, it should be made clear: As I stated in the beginning of this post, Bill Stubbs provided me and others with this letter; Professor Reynoso did not send this letter to “several local bloggers,” as was suggested by one local blogger. Professor Reynoso expressed to me his strong hope that his letter will be handled by those to whom it was addressed, the Louisiana Baptist Convention, not by those in the media. I also hope that people will respect his and his family’s privacy.

On March 7, 2011, Louisiana College Professor of Art, Rondall Reynoso, wrote a five-page letter to the Louisiana Baptist Convention, outlining his concerns about the academic, financial, and spiritual health of the Louisiana College community. Professor Reynoso was informed on February 14th that Louisiana College would not be renewing his contract, and allegedly, as of today, Professor Reynoso is no longer welcome on campus.

I should make it clear: I have no dog in this hunt. I have never met Professor Reynoso, and I fully understand that some may simply dismiss his letter as merely the grievances of a former employee. Like many, I only want to see Louisiana College succeed and excel; it is one of Central Louisiana’s most important institutions, part of the fabric of our community.

This afternoon, LC graduate and outspoken critic of LC’s current administration, Bill Stubbs, sent me, at least one other local blogger, and several others a copy of Professor Reynoso’s letter, and I believe it warrants all of our attention. Here it is, in full:

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Mar 14

5 Comments

Meditations On My Grandmother’s Life (Part One of Six)

Part One: Spoiled versus Spoiled Rotten

When I was an infant, only a few months old, my grandmother Joanne noticed that I couldn’t roll over in my crib. She was often my babysitter while my parents worked, and on one particular afternoon, while watching me sleep, she thought that something wasn’t quite right. She called a friend of hers who lived down the street and asked her to come over immediately. Of course, I have no memory of any of this, but it’s always the story I’ve been told.

Two days ago, at the reception following her funeral, an elderly lady walked up to me, grabbed me by both of my hands, and said, “I was the one Joanne called when she thought you were having trouble rolling over.” My grandmother wanted a second opinion before sounding any alarms, and her friend concurred with her. A few weeks later, doctors diagnosed me with cerebral palsy.

I should say, from the onset, that throughout my life, no one has cared for me more and fought for me harder than my mother Carol. But I also know, without any doubt, that I will always owe a tremendous debt to my grandmother. In standing up for me, she taught me how to stand up for myself.

When I was growing up, our home shared a backyard with my grandparent’s home. They moved out to Kincaid Lake when I was around eight or nine years old, and their home became my second home. I lived with them for almost an entire year; they gave me a room, right next to theirs. In the mornings, when I lived with them, my grandfather would wake me up by gingerly planting a hot towel to my forehead, singing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from the musical Oklahoma, while my grandmother worked up elaborate and delicious breakfasts. Most mornings, she’d ask me what I wanted for dinner, which, back then, was usually one of only three things: roast, rice, and gravy, crawfish etoufee, or fried chicken. Gumbo was a special occasion, something that she would prepare over the course of two or three days; her gumbo is the reason I will always believe that a brown rue is inferior to a dark rue. At night, while they watched their television in the den, they let me curl up in their bed and watch Nick at Nite and The Cosby Show. She treated me like a prince, for sure, but she had her ways of ensuring that I knew the difference between being “spoiled” and being “spoiled rotten.”

She was a rare and exceptional person: a powerhouse, effusively dedicated, a woman brimming with kinetic energy, and an amazing grandmother.

She often quoted Matthew 6:3, “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” That was her modus operandi.

My grandmother Joanne did many great things for our community and the State of Louisiana, but nothing she did was about her. She could be stubborn and bull-headed. She never shied away from controversy or confrontation. She loved telling it as she saw it, one of the many reasons I will always love and respect her.

Stay tuned.

Mar 14

3 Comments

The Town Talk Names Mike Huckabee Governor of Alabama

Congratulations to Mike Huckabee, whose resume just became much more impressive:

Mar 10

13 Comments

My Grandmother, Joanne Lyles White (1929-2011)

In the next few days, I know I will want to share a few more things about my grandmother, but for now, I just wanted to share her obituary, the most challenging and most humbling thing I have ever had the honor of writing in my entire life:

“I slept and dreamed that life was happiness. I awoke and saw that life was service. I served and found that in service happiness is found.”

- Rabindranath Tagore

Prominent Louisiana humanitarian, philanthropist, educator, and social justice pioneer Joanne Lyles White of Alexandria died peacefully in her home, surrounded by her family, on March 9, 2011.

Mrs. White was a dedicated and loving wife, mother and grandmother; a tenacious and passionate advocate for the poor, the dispossessed, single mothers, orphaned children, and the disabled; and an active leader in the United Methodist Church on the local, district, and conference levels.

Mrs. White was first inspired to service and charity as a young girl, after reading Pearl Buck’s accounts of peasant life in rural China. She gave her time, talent, and energy unselfishly and exhaustively because she felt compelled by her deep faith in Christ.

Mrs. White was a founding member of the Shepherd Center, a founder and first President of the Louisiana High School Speech League and Tournament of Champions, a founding member of Hope House, Christmas Cheer for Children, the Care for Share Tutoring Program, Angel Care, the Wally White Lecture Series, Rapides Parish Chapter of the Habitat for Humanity, past President of the Louisiana Speech Association, an Executive Committeewoman of the Job Training Partnership Act State Council, the Chair of the State Committee on Illiteracy and Education, the Chair of the Rapides Parish Workforce Investment Board, and a founding member of the Central Louisiana Food Bank.

Mrs. White was pleased when the Hope House was selected by President George H.W. Bush for the 1,000 Points of Light award. Among her many honors and awards, Mrs. White was the recipient of the National Association of Social Worker’s Public Citizen of the Year Award, the Lions Club’s Outstanding Citizen Award, the Louisiana Methodist Church’s Children and Families Service Award, the Young Women’s Christian Association’s Outstanding Community Leader Award, the Zeta Phi Beta’s Outstanding Community Leadership Award, the Sojourner Truth Award, the Central Louisiana Professional Women’s Network’s Visionary Award, and Cenla Focus’s Cenla-ian of the Year.

Mrs. White’s work was also commended by the Louisiana Department of Safety and Corrections, the Louisiana Department of Education and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Rapides Parish Police Jury, and the Alexandria Human Relations Commission.

Mrs. White worked with the Governor’s Office and the Department of Corrections, spearheading and chairing a task force that investigated disparities in the treatment of incarcerated women and juveniles.

Mrs. White also championed the creation of Aiken Optional School in Rapides Parish, and she helped create the Kuumba Center, an inner-city educational and recreational institution.

Throughout her life, Mrs. White was a leader of the United Methodist Church.  At her beloved First United Methodist Church of Alexandria, Mrs. White taught Bible Study and sang in the church choir for nearly sixty years. She was the District Lay Leader and the District Chairperson for the Committee on Missions and Church Expansion, the Committee on Special Events, and the Committee on Lay Speaking. She was also the Conference Chairperson for the Hunger Task Force and the Bishop’s Task Force for Children and Poverty. Mrs. White served as a Louisiana delegate to numerous Global United Methodist General Conferences, and she traveled throughout the world to support and contribute to Methodist charities and missionary programs.

Mrs. White graduated from Lecompte High School, and at the age of sixteen, she enrolled in Louisiana State University, earning a Bachelors of Science degree in Speech and Social Studies in 1950.

While in college, Mrs. White was a founding member and President of the LSU chapter of the Delta Gamma Sorority.

In 1999, Mrs. White earned a certification from the Summer Leadership Institute at Harvard University’s School of Divinity.

Lillian Joanne Lyles White was born on September 12, 1929 in Lecompte, Louisiana to Samuel Pickles Lyles and Marie Myrtle Guy Lyles. She was the eighth of twelve children. She and her siblings were raised on Compromise Plantation in Lloyd’s Bridge, Louisiana. Her parents were sharecroppers for many years, but eventually, they leased and operated a farm of over 800 acres.

On April 30, 1951, she married the love of her life, Paul Donald White, Sr. Together, they had six children: Paul Donald Jr., Charles Nathan II, Frederick Lamar, Paula Elizabeth, Martha Anne, and Wallace Mark.

In December of 1951, American Magazine named the Lyles family its “Family of the Month.” Although, at one point, the Lyles family operated one of the most productive cotton farms in the American South, they never owned their own home or land. Mrs. White’s parents believed the most important inheritance they could leave their children was the opportunity for a college education.

As a child, Mrs. White worked with her siblings on the family farm and was actively involved in the local 4-H club, serving as its President when she was in high school. In an era of Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan, many of Mrs. White’s closest friends and playmates were the sons and daughters of African-American sharecroppers. At a very early age, Mrs. White became a champion for civil rights, a cause she publicly and vigorously supported throughout her entire life.

Mrs. White possessed a preternatural gift of language. As a teenager, she wrote a poem about her mother, which was read on a national radio program by famed broadcaster Bert Parks on Mother’s Day. As an adult, she was a frequent keynote speaker and lecturer at numerous regional and statewide conferences.

After graduating college, Mrs. White became a teacher at Bolton High School, a position she held from 1950 to 1963. She taught World History, American History, Government and Economics, and Speech, and she was particularly honored and proud to serve as the coach of Bolton High School’s Speech and Debate team. Mrs. White was instrumental in creating a statewide forensics circuit. She cherished every one of her students, and she always considered them to be an extension of her own family.

In 1978, a few years after she lost her son Wally, a toddler, Mrs. White with her husband created the Wally White Lecture Series in his honor. For nearly two decades, Mrs. White recruited some of the world’s most prominent theologians, thinkers, politicians, and writers to share their wisdom and their perspective with the people of Central Louisiana.

In 1983, she was one of the founding members the Shepherd Center, an ecumenical ministry that assists the poor and the dispossessed, by uniting twenty-nine different church congregations around a common cause: helping people in need. She not only provided the vision and the driving force for its creation, she purchased and then donated a building to house the center. As a part of her work with the Shepherd Center, Mrs. White also created the Christmas Cheer for Children program, which provided computerized cooperative aid to over 4,000 children annually.

In 1989, she was one of the founding members of the Hope House, a homeless shelter for women, mothers, and their children. Mrs. White arranged for the donation of a large, historic home on Bolton Avenue and raised both private and public funds to renovate and operate the facility. Since its creation, the Hope House has provided thousands of women and children a new beginning.

After her second grandchild, Lamar Jr., was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Mrs. White created Angel Care, an early childhood development center that paired atypical and typical infants and provided networking opportunities and resources for families with mentally or physically challenged children.

During her life, Mrs. White cared for thousands of families and championed dozens of causes and charities, but she loved and relished her thirteen grandchildren more than anything else.

Mrs. White is predeceased by two of her children, Frederick Lamar and Wallace Mark; her parents, Samuel Pickles Lyles and Marie Myrtle Guy Lyles; and six of her siblings, Charles, Sue, Sarah, Samuel Jr., Bill, and Sammy.

She is survived by her husband of fifty-nine years, Paul Donald White, Sr., and her children and their spouses: Paul Donald White, Jr. and his wife Kathy of Alexandria; Charles Nathan White II and his wife K.K. of Alexandria, Carol Rhodes White (widow of her son Frederick Lamar) of Dallas, Texas; Paula Elizabeth White Hayes and her husband Jeffrey of Dallas, Texas; and Martha Anne White Johnston and her husband Mark of Dallas, Texas.

She is survived by five of her sisters: Betty, Manie, Grace, Nancy, and Kitty.

She is also survived by her thirteen grandchildren: Paul Donald White, III of New Orleans and his girlfriend Jennifer Erwin; Frederick Lamar White, Jr. of Alexandria; Martha Elizabeth White Vasquez, and her husband Jeremy Vasquez of Baton Rouge; Mark Edward White and his fiancé Michelle Cuevas of Alexandria; David Lawrence White and his wife Gina McClure White, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Emily Marie White Corbin and her husband Scott Corbin of Dallas, Texas; Leigh Anne White of Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Allison Anne Hayes of Durham, North Carolina; Kirk Joseph Hayes of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Natalie Elizabeth Johnston, Jennifer Joanne Hayes, Samuel Mark Johnston, and Joseph Paul Johnston, all of Dallas, Texas; and a great-grandson Nathan Lawrence White.

The family asks that all memorials in honor of Joanne Lyles White be sent to the First United Methodist Church of Alexandria, 2727 Jackson Street, Alexandria, Louisiana 71301.

Mar 2

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“It Creates The Appearance That He (Jindal) Is Being Bribed.”

From The New York Times, this is a must-read.

The Gold Standard, really?

Louisiana’s biggest corporate players, many with long agendas before the state government, are restricted in making campaign contributions to Gov. Bobby Jindal. But they can give whatever they like to the foundation set up by his wife months after he took office.

AT&T, which needed Mr. Jindal, a Republican, to sign off on legislation allowing the company to sell cable television services without having to negotiate with individual parishes, has pledged at least $250,000 to theSupriya Jindal Foundation for Louisiana’s Children.

Marathon Oil, which last year won approval from the Jindal administration to increase the amount of oil it can refine at its Louisiana plant, also committed to a $250,000 donation. And the military contractor Northrop Grumman, which got state officials to help set up an airplane maintenance facility at a former Air Force base, promised $10,000 to the charity.

The foundation has collected nearly $1 million in previously unreported pledges from major oil companies, insurers and other corporations in Louisiana with high-stakes regulatory issues, according to a review by The New York Times.

…

While the charity is named and led by Mrs. Jindal, the governor has not entirely distanced himself from it: a photo of him standing alongside his wife appears on a corporate solicitation page on the foundation Web site, and his chief fund-raiser is listed as the charity’s treasurer on its most recent tax return. A state employee from the governor’s office who serves as an aide to Mrs. Jindal manages the foundation’s books.

Kyle Plotkin, the Governor’s spokesman, believes that anyone who thinks this may be cause for concern or, at the very least, a little suspicious is just “living in a fantasy land,” that the entire thing is being “dreamed up by partisan hacks.” To me, when you push back with this type of hyperbole, you’re just drawing inadvertent attention to the story. But then again, no matter what the Governor’s spokesman said, it’s still an interesting story: hundreds of thousands of dollars from corporations with direct, financial interests in state government given to a foundation whose books are managed by a member of the Governor’s staff.

Without a doubt, Mrs. Jindal’s foundation does good work. According to reports, almost all of the money the foundation collects is spent on purchasing whiteboards for public school classrooms, but the report raises several red flags:

Why would a employee of the Governor’s office be responsible for managing the “books” of a foundation that has already raised at least $1 million, particularly a foundation that belongs to the First Lady? Even if this employee is not directly compensated for this work, it certainly suggests a conflation between the Governor’s Office and the fundraising conducted for the First Lady’s foundation.

What was the exact timing of AT&T’s enormous donation? AT&T is one of the largest corporations on the planet; if they wanted to donate $250,000 for whiteboards in Louisiana public schools, they could have done so directly, not through the Governor’s wife’s foundation.

I ask because in late June of 2008, Governor Jindal signed the Orwellian-named Consumer Choice for Television Act, a pernicious piece of legislation that stripped local and parish governments of their power and responsibility to negotiate cable franchise agreements with companies that relied, in large part, on locally-owned public infrastructure. Despite the outspoken opposition of the Louisiana Municipal Association and the State Police Jury Association, Jindal signed the act into law. And then, presumably later, AT&T gave the Supriya Jindal Foundation its single largest corporate donation.

So, it may seem like a pithy punch for the Governor’s spokesman to merely reject the narrative as “fantasy.” As a friend of mine likes to say, “Fine. I won’t let your opinions get in the way of the facts.” In this case, partisan name-calling may seem effective, but it’d be far more effective if the Governor and his office simply discussed the facts: Who? What? Where? When? And most importantly, why?