[StBernard] Letter: We have to begin helping ourselves

[Westley Annis]

Letter: We have to begin helping ourselves


Published: Jan 11, 2007 

With our public officials boo-hooing about Mississippi getting a bigger
award of "cottage" money than Louisiana, it appears that instead of looking
at the root causes, they probably will apply for a separate grant for
handkerchiefs and tissues.

Before we start working on a handkerchief-tissue grant, perhaps we should
consider the possibility that maybe the feds took notice of the pandering,
begging and pleading since the hurricanes.

Then, after all of our whining about needing money, surely the feds noticed
how desperately we tried to spend $1.8 billion in surplus money during the
recent special session.

Maybe the feds also took notice of totally wasteful administration of the
state's Road Home Program by a contractor picked by the Governor's Office.

Maybe the feds read the same Mississippi newspaper that I did in which
Mississippi's Gov. Haley Barbour emphatically stated that he would not allow
spending of the surplus money in his state because the revenue stream would
not continue next year.

State Sen. Walter Boasso, R-Arabi, recently launched an organization called
"Get it Done, Louisiana." Perhaps, we need a companion organization called
"Wake Up, Louisiana." We need to wake up before we can get it done.

We need to wake up to the fact that if we expect others to help us, we need
to start helping ourselves.

Before we stick our hand out, we need to show some calluses. Before we ask
for money, we need to prove that we will spend it wisely, and we need to go
to the table with a significant commitment of our own resources.

We need to wake up to the fact that people in other states have a pretty dim
view of us. If you don't believe it, read online other newspapers in the
country.

I can understand why Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., was adamant in blocking the
wasteful earmarks in the congressional bill. Until it is proven that the
projects are worthwhile, they should not be funded.

We need to wake up to the fact that we are the government. Abraham Lincoln
reminded us in the Gettysburg Address that we are a government "of the
people, by the people, and for the people.

We need to pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps, get our bodies off the
couch, pick up the litter, fix our broken window and help our neighbors fix
theirs.

We are the government, so let's reclaim it and take responsibility for
running it.

Walt Kelly's Pogo said it best, "We have met the enemy, and it is us."

Raymond "LaLa" Lalonde
retired educator; former legislator, 1980-96
Carencro