CenLamar | Est. 2006

Two days after Mardi Gras, newly-elected Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards sobered up the state in a speech televised statewide and, in so doing, dispelled any notion that his predecessor, Bobby Jindal, should ever be considered “one of the best governors in America.” As a direct result of Jindal’s negligence and blind allegiance to Grover Norquist’s draconian anti-taxation platform, the new governor and the state’s dysfunctional and increasingly radicalized legislature must now, somehow, figure out a way to immediately plug a $940 million deficit. Oh and then, they’re going to need to solve an additional $2 billion shortfall projected for…

My father, Lamar White, Sr., passed away fifteen years ago today. I’ve written about him before on these pages, but the fifteenth anniversary seems like a significant enough milestone to revisit his life and to reflect on the ways in which he continues to animate and inspire my own life. Every now and then, one of his friends will find me on Facebook and mistakenly believe they’re connecting with him, and every now and then, I’ll have to break the news to them, even a decade and a half later. We not only share the same name; we also share…

Shortly after I told my friends I’d booked a last-minute plane ticket and a hotel room at the Washington Hilton for this year’s 68th annual Washington Mardi Gras, I realized I’d just admitted to being a crazy person. No one wanted to fly into Washington, D.C. on the eve of the largest snowstorm in the city’s history. Flights were going out, not in. I was almost certain to be trapped there, and I eventually was, along with nearly 3,000 other Louisianians willing to throw caution to the wind (and the snow). It’s pretty easy to criticize the whole charade: Thousands…