Plantations and Chocolate

What did New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin mean when he said the rebuilt city will be “chocolate?”

Maybe he meant just what he said. The 2000 census recorded 484,674 people in New Orleans. Of that number, 325,947 (over 67%) were black or African-American. Only 135,956 classified themselves as white, making New Orleans a city populated by a majority of people we should certainly not call “vanilla.” Too bad some of us never noticed this city’s black population and other “minorities” until they washed up on our TV screens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Now they're just waiting to come home.


What did New York’s Senator Hillary Clinton mean when she said the House of Representatives was run “like a plantation?”

Let’s see… A big white building below the Mason-Dixon line, sitting on a hill, filled with a majority of well-to-do white men, exchanging money for favors, and making rules for people who, at the very least, feel they are disenfranchised…. Hmmmm… All of Congress is like a plantation, when you think about it.


No matter how you look at it, too many of us are still waiting for our 40 acres and a mule while other people get rich.

About the Wal-Mart Bill

Poor Governor Ehrlich. When asked yesterday on CNBC whether he had received support from Wal-Mart, first he denied it, then he said “I suspect I have.” Ultimately, he said “I can’t tell you whether I have or not.” Did this man really go to Gilman? Or did he just forget our alma mater’s honor code?

It took a spokesperson for the Governor to clear things up... Of course, they simply said that he may have misspoken….

May have misspoken?!?! Did this spokesperson see and hear ALL of his answers?

I guess I should be glad that we live in a country where an elected official has the freedom to answer a question several different ways in one interview.

I am also glad we live in a land where we can openly debate the issue of whether companies should provide affordable health care for its employees, especially if those companies help sponsor $1,000 per person events for an elected official who will help them keep more of their money in their own pockets instead of paying for lower cost medical care for their employees. After all, we’re still allowed to debate whether the government should provide adequate health care, public transportation or civil rights to its citizens, so why not this?

Do they forget these lower to middle income workers are the same people upon whose aching backs their huge company is built?

The so-called “Wal-Mart” bill in Annapolis would require companies that employ at least 10,000 Marylanders to spend at least 8 percent of payroll on health care, or pay the difference to the state Medicaid program. Wal-Mart is currently the only company to fall into this category, and Wal-Mart reportedly has annual profits of about $10 billion. Gov. Bob Ehrlich had vetoed the bill, but it is up for debate and a possible override in the current legislative session in Annapolis.

I admit that I have shopped at Wal-Mart. They have good prices. But I have noticed that, at least at the Wal-Mart I frequent, the clerks who work there don’t seem to be as happy as I remember. One was downright unhelpful and abrupt with me recently at the checkout counter when I questioned a price. And they all certainly don’t seem as friendly or as animated as the ones in the commercial or those anthropomorphic characters… Then there is that stigma from a few years ago of being accused of using illegal workers… And the VCR/DVD unit I bought at a Wal-Mart just a few years back is now malfunctioning. It’s as if it is mocking me now, constantly jutting its DVD door in and out like a spitting tongue.

Support for business here in Maryland, or anywhere, is one thing…. However, when such support potentially endangers the health and happiness of 10,000 fellow residents something is askew.

On This Day

On This Day will now appear in the BDL Newsroom. It can be found in a link above the Media Headlines in the right column.

Provided by Reference.com, On This Day is a great source of facts and information about people and events that you, if you're a news junkie or frustrated librarian like me, will find both fun and informative. It's also another way to get you to visit my blogs every day. Ha! Ha! Ha! Yes, my New Year's resolution is world domination of the internet!!! (Just wait 'til you see what I'm working on next... More details to come.)