Remember the old saying? Someone got beaten like a “red-headed stepchild?” It meant that if a parent was abusive, a stepchild might get the worst of it. As redheads are traditionally picked on, a redheaded stepchild would get an even worse beating then the biological offspring.

 

In like manner, Louisiana is Washington’s red-headed stepchild. Try to think of a US state that has suffered more under their Federal “parents” than Louisiana has since 2005.

 

For your consideration:

1) Hurricane Katrina blows into New Orleans, a category 3 storm that doesn’t wreak all that much havoc in the city. But then, the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain levees, built by the US Army Corps of Engineers, are breached by flood waters and fail, flooding most of the City of New Orleans.

 

The city’s society crumbles overnight. Hundreds of thousands of people are evacuated. We all saw the nightly videotapes of people being plucked off rooftops and rescued by boats. We also saw the floating bodies. The Superdome became a short-term prison for tens of thousands of people. Looting began almost immediately. Armed troops and law enforcement personnel went house-to-house confiscating firearms from law-abiding citizens, leaving them defenseless against crimes.

 

The city’s large sections of government housing were evacuated and people were evicted…even those whose homes were not flooded. Then they were prevented from coming back, and even some of the projects were bulldozed.

 

Suddenly, the acronym FEMA means “Fix Everything My Ass!” Hundreds of FEMA trailers sit unused in a vast parking lot. FEMA prevents water deliveries, gasoline deliveries, and generally turns the disaster into a FUBAR event (f**ked up beyond all repair).

 

Five years later, thousands of displaced persons are still living in FEMA trailers.

 

2) Fast forward to 2010. The Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, 41 miles off the Louisiana coast, explodes and sinks. Eleven men die in the explosion. Then the worst environmental disaster of human recorded history begins, as the pressurized oil and gas 5,000 feet down blows out of the wellpipe. The first oil slicks hit Louisiana shores.

 

The Obama Administration, just like administrations before, rubber stamped drilling permits for deepwater drilling on mere promises from drillers that the chances of problems were low.

 

But the environmentalist whack-jobs in America have made sure that drilling in shallower water is impossible. Deep water drilling is very risky, and now we all know just how big the risk is. There are tens of thousands of drilling rigs in the Gulf that have been there for decades, quietly producing oil and natural gas and not polluting the waters around them. So a big part of the blame for this disaster lies at the feet of Washington’s regulators and Congress.

 

The Gulf fishing industry is left in tatters. It may take decades before the industry recovers. Generations-old family businesses are wiped out, likely to never return.

 

That leaves thousands of boats idle. They can help with the oil recovery efforts, but only after the Feds inspect them to see if they meet some Federal guidelines. But other boats will never work on the Gulf again…and the market for fishing boats just crashed. Who wants to buy a commercial fishing boat anywhere on the Gulf of Mexico?

 

Now, many of those businesses will fail. Their bankers and lenders will repossess their assets, like houses, boats and automobiles. Their workers will suffer the same deprivation.

 

Spread all that misery to the tourism industry. The same thing is happening for hotels, resorts, sport fishermen, restaurants and all their suppliers.

 

The Mississippi Delta has been radically altered by the Corp of Engineers over the last 75 years. The coastal wetlands served as the first line of defense against big hurricanes and storm surges. But not any more. The Corps saw to that by building dams and channels that decrease natural sediment dispersal.

 

The Obama Administration issued a blanket moratorium on deep water drilling. It was struck down by a judge. Washington issued another one, seemingly airtight.

 

The Louisiana economy is largely sustained by oil and gas exploration in the Gulf. Now, big drilling companies are packing up to leave. Those drilling rigs have got to produce revenue, and they can produce just as easily off some other country’s shoreline as Louisiana’s.

 

Thousand of workers will soon be laid off…adding to the massive layoffs in the fishing industry.

 

Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican, wanted to build sand berms to protect the Delta. Washington stopped him.

 

He wanted to build a rock rip-rap breakwater to slow the wave action and make oil recovery easier. Washington stopped him.

 

But Washington is not offering alternative solutions or helping. They are just studying…fiddling while Rome burns, so to speak.

 

Louisiana, just how many whippings are you going to endure before you grow up? Eventually, even red-headed stepchildren get big enough and brave enough to stop the beatings. But sometimes that means leaving home.

 

Governor Jindal, I’ll bet that a lot of your state citizens would gladly…eagerly…joyously…seditiously like to see you threaten Washington with secession. Then follow through on it and leave the Union.

 

You folks have everything to gain and little to lose.

 

For your consideration:

1. All Federal laws, regulations, taxes, tariffs, and unfunded mandates dissolve when you secede.
2. All Federal courts instantly lose their jurisdiction over the affairs of a New Louisiana.
3. You get to personally throw FEMA , Homeland Security and the Corps of Engineers out of your new nation.
4. No more hat-in-hand “Yes Massa” pleading for help from Washington. Finally, Louisiana charts its own course among the nations of the world.
5. You wrest control away from America of the most important port on the Gulf of Mexico, and you control traffic on the most important inland waterway in the USA…the mighty Mississippi River.
6. You can finally rebuild the Delta they way YOU choose, not the Corps of Engineers.
7. You can finally rebuild the levees like the ones in the Netherlands, which have held back the sea for CENTURIES.
8. No more Departments of Energy, EPA, etc. telling you where offshore drill rigs can be placed. Put them anywhere you wish.
9. You would have a western neighbor…Texas…who is already spoiling to secede, and would gladly support your efforts to get free.
10. You can maintain your crucial culture and French heritage without DC interference.

Now, Governor Jindal…a few words about your place in history.

 

You’ve flirted with the idea of running for President as a Republican. But the USA is so hopelessly broken now that you must certainly be rethinking that possibility. If you were to make it to the White House, you’d be painted with every bad thing that happened in America. That is, if the whole house of cards doesn’t collapse before you could get elected. So, instead of being a footnote in the rise and fall of the American empire…why not lead your state into secession? Then get yourself elected as the New Louisiana’s first President. The history books of the entire world would chronicle your George Washington-style leadership instead of lumping you in with all the other DC criminals. If you have any kind of ego…and ALL politicians do…SERVE YOUR PEOPLE FIRST, and let them sing your praises.

 

Come on, Louisiana! Drop those chains of state slavery that have long held you down…held you back. Stop allowing Washington to tell you what to do. Remember, the United States was created by the STATES as an errand boy to do THEIR bidding, not the other way around. Show this schoolyard bully superior force! Fight back and WIN!!

 

Secession is the Hope for Louisiana. Will THEY be first?

 

DumpDC. Six Letters That Can Change History.

 

© Copyright 2010, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.