Hurricane Rita ravaged Southwest LA about a month after Hurricane Katrina ravaged Southeast LA. Secretary of State Al Ater says we cannot have elections in Orleans Parish until possibly at the earliest next fall. He offers a lot of reasons, but none that cannot be remedied with a little effort. Effort is something that is sorely lacking.

On Friday, Governor Blanco issued an Executive Order for an election in St. Bernard Parish for April 1, 2006 with the run-off scheduled for April 29. This despite the fact that St. Bernard Parish was almost wiped off the state map and virtually all of its citizens were displaced and most of the houses and businesses destroyed. No, as some of you asked when I first noted this contradiction, it is not an April Fool’s joke.

By contrast, Calcasieu Parish (that includes the city of Lake Charles that was slammed by Rita) held elections on November 12, 2005 and the runoff was held on Saturday for an all-important District Attorney’s election among others.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Apparently, elections officials in Calcasieu Parish and at the state level made an effort and succeeded in protecting the right to vote of their citizens. By contrast in Orleans Parish, rather than even try, we get nothing but excuses for denying us our constitutional right to vote.

Either the election officials at the state and local level are incompetent or there is another reason for not holding elections in New Orleans on February 4, 2006. Failing to hold the elections as scheduled forces us to live under a government which created the mess that keeps us from voting. That’s not only ironic — IT’S WRONG!

As Ernest Hemingway said: “Never mistake motion for action.”

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 9:57 am