Beaumont-Upon-Mississippi


From Oyster, a reminder that my humble berg at times goes to great (gret?) lengths to appraise the world that, deep down, a fair number of us are abject yahoos, and that the city could just as easily be named, if Babel Fish is accurate, Cou Rouge.

After a lengthy and often emotional debate, the Metro Council rejected a resolution Wednesday calling for the acceptance into the community people from all walks of life, including people of all sexual orientations.

The largely symbolic resolution fell one vote short of the seven it needed to pass.

The resolution would have pledged to accept people of "all races, sexes, creed, colors, religions, ages, ancestries, disabilities, sexual orientations, nationalities, marital status, political affiliations and people of all walks of life."

Mayor-President Kip Holden offered the resolution, which was prepared by One Baton Rouge, a group of community leaders formed last year.

"This is a resolution that we feel will make a statement for Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish," Holden told the council.

Kudos to Kip for proposing the resolution...and while I can't say I'm surprised it failed--though of course I'm disappointed--at least the vote was close, falling one short of the seven needed for passage.

So, based on deductive reasoning--for some reason the Advocate only recorded actual "no" votes, an abstention, and those literally not voting for whatever reason (including my representative, Lori Burgess--ugh)...anyway, kudos to Holden, Pat Culbertson, Joe Greco, Charles Kelly, Martha Jane Tassin, Mickey Skyring, and David Boneno. It's nice to know that y'all at least have gone on record in favor of...tolerance, something you'd think would be central to, oh, I don't know, Christian tenets.

And I hope this might help folks get an idea of just who Kip Holden is, what he's about...and who he has to deal with. I realize that some NOLA residents might have a less-than-enthusiastic opinion of our mayor, given a single comment he made in the immediate aftermath of the federal flood (based on erroneous information, by the way).

Now, I can't say I'm a good friend of the mayor's, but I've spoken to him a number of times, and can say without any hesitation that he's an outstanding leader, and someone whom I support wholeheartedly. In my experience, he's easily the best mayor this city has had in recent history (and probably ever, for that matter), and hopefully will remain mayor as long as the job appeals to him (and, for the record, his election was a single bright spot on an otherwise dreary 2004 election evening.)

In the meantime, well...like everywhere else, we have to deal with our mouthbreathers here, too.