Columns & Opinions

Shreveport and Caddo Parish have a fine emergency operations center on Texas Avenue one block from SPD HQ heading to town. We really need it to be tornado-proof, able to absorb a direct strike by an F-5 tornado.

This article isn’t going to be about those voices that say, “We have the answer,” all the while not giving the answer but how can “we” address crime here in our city and in our parish. A solution needed, have one.

However, there is absolutely no excuse for the current “rash” of criminal activities occurring in our neighborhoods on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Or, is there? This article is not about pointing fingers. Enough of this kind of thing has already been done, although there is a dual responsibility and accountability on both our citizens and leaders alike.

Science is good. We need it for fighting pandemics and exploring existential mysteries. Go, science!

The American Jobs Plan and the Covid Relief Bill of 2021 promises to bring truckloads of federal money into Shreveport’s economy. It is going to be an opportunity for us to spend money borrowed from our future to get through some tough times here and now.

We are told that energy matters; the latest science tells us that, fundamentally, “we’re energy.” If that is true, we would then be wise to focus much of our attention and resources upon energy. When we begin that focus, we observe that our world is submerged in an enormous energy crisis.

People in Bossier Parish are hungry for change. You could even make the argument that folks are craving change in the status quo. Because we are living right in the middle of the “Information Age,” there is no better time in history for the changes to take place. Many of the changes are fueled by citizen journalism.

Everybody wants to get paid, and that is understandable. The doctor, the lawyer, the Indian chief, and now the city council and the mayor. Usually, the people who are asking for or getting the raise are not the people who vote to give the raise. In other words, the city council should not have the ability to raise their own salaries. And although the council has said that the raises won’t be given to the current councilmen, the fact is that the current councilmen and women are all likely to be re-elected. So, in essence they will have voted to raise their salaries -- not 10%, not 30%, not 40 or 50%, but 70%. That is a heck of a raise to vote yourself, without any real input from the employers (citizens) whom you are supposed to be working for -- the taxpayers.