Louisiana Legislative Session Latest & French Quarter Trash Pickup Fight

Hy and Christopher take on the legislative session, discussing Gov. Jeff Landry losing influence as the deficit picture changes and several pieces of legislation under consideration.

We also spent some time looking at the trash situation in the French Quarter, and a proposed legislative solution. This is Christopher‘s editorial on the subject:

Trash Bill: the first step at empowering neighborhoods

It’s curious that Mayor LaToya Cantrell reacts with such opposition to French Quarter residents demanding to choose their own preferred trash contract.  She predicated her entire pre-Councilmanic career upon the idea of empowering neighborhoods. She first proposed the taxing authority, ultimately passed by the legislature, that allowed neighborhoods to levy a mileage upon homeowners for anything from parks to community enrichments.  As long as it passed by democratic vote, Cantrell once believed neighborhoods should be able to take their own destiny into their hands—except, apparently, trash collection.

Louisiana legislators advanced a bill on Wednesday, April 30 which aims to wrest authority from the city's mayor by letting a state-created board in the French Quarter enter sanitation contracts. Sponsored by state Sen. Jimmy Harris, D-New Orleans, and drafted with support from New Orleans City Council members, Senate Bill 195 would allow the 13-member French Quarter Management District to secure "emergency contracts" for sanitation services (ostensibly when New Orleans' city government fails to provide those services in the neighborhood). The city would have to repay the board for the work. The bill moved unanimously from the Senate's Local and Municipal Affairs Committee that afternoon, advancing to the full Senate.

The current controversy centers upon the Mayor’s determination that Henry Consulting will take over the garbage contract in the Vieux Carre’ on Aug. 1 over the highly popular IV Waste, the firm currently performing that work across the city's downtown.  Critics, including Councilman At-Large JP Morrell cited to the legislative committee how Henry Consulting had been allowed by the Cantrell Administration to sidestep many provisions of the RFP process, including being granted a 50% reduction and the surety bond needed to win the contract.

The basic truth, though, remains that French Quarter locals trust Sidney Torres’ IV Waste and its “DisneyWorld-level” street cleaners over Henry’s politically-connected firm.  If this legislation is passed and signed into law, however, the change will do more than fix a bad contract.  It will create the precedent that neighborhoods should be able to control the quality of life elements of their existence at the most local of levels.

Too often, parish governments (and frequently state government) concentrate power far too much in too few hands too far away from the average citizen. Governance often works best when it stands closest to the people.  Equally, many minority neighborhoods have suffered at the whims of politicians deciding their fate from afar, deaf to the individual concerns on the level of the streets.
Every neighborhood should have a deciding say in their garbage contracts, as the collection of refuse and the cleaning of the streets often ranks first as the number one quality of life issue, after crime.

In this case, it’s a Black mayor versus a non-minority neighborhood, but control at the household-level would benefit far more minority neighborhoods across Louisiana than the current practice of keeping everything decided by the typically old white male politicians of too many Parish governments.

Overcoming the opposition of New Orleans’ first woman Black mayor in order to return power to a neighborhood over trash will eventually benefit African-Americans homeowners across Louisiana in the long-term (ironically enough) when the first step is taken to empower

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Battles, the politicians, the dressed, the digitators and magicians. Who's
to see the money? Then you don't, there's nothing to
fill the holes while then are filling their pockets biles,
the politicians bouncing down the road. Every body'sition to no moment,

(00:25):
corruption and dysfunction. It's gonna take me, divide it evention.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
The sheriff's millage election lead to discontented New Orleans elections,
and the Legislative session is showing how discontented the legislature
is with Governor Jeff Landry. All this and more in
this edition of The Founder's.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Show, and God bless you all out there. You are
now listening to the founders. So the voice of the
founding fathers, you're Founding Fathers coming to you deep within
the bowels of those mystic and cryptic alligator swamps of
the big easy old Crescent City, New Orleans, Louisiana. And
high up on top of that old Liberty cypress tree

(01:06):
draped in Spanish moss, way out on the Eagles Branch,
it is none other. Then you have Spen Gary Baba
of the Republic, Chaplain Hi mcnry.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
With Christopher Tidmore, You roving reporter, Resident Radical Moderate and
associate editor of the Louisiana Weekly newspaper at Louisiana Weekly,
dot net and HI. On Saturday, May third, a sheriff's
election for a sheriff's millage went to the polls and
as we tape this, we don't know the result. But
here's what we do now. Never has a low turnout

(01:35):
election generated the opposition that you saw in this particular election.
In this understand this was not a new millage, This
wasn't a new tax. This is just the standard tax
that the that operates the sheriff's office. But it was
kind of an indication. Sheriff Susan Hudson, who's had a
very at the very least, we talked about this a
little last week troubled term in office. She herself ran

(02:00):
to stop the building of a jail, was ordered by
the federal consent degree in the courts to keep building
the jail. The contracts were let and basically decided to
build a jail that she would not use and then
turn around has had a massive reaction, and I'm hoping
that the reaction from the Saturday election was such that
we will stop, We'll actually get the message, stop putting

(02:21):
these millages on the ballot on low turnout elections. But
what I actually saw out of this election is a
a major frustration with the elected officials in Orleans Parish.
So Susan Hudson has major opposition coming up this fall.
Do you know Michelle Woodford? You know her, Her uncle

(02:42):
had been superintended. She was interim superintendent of NPD. She
was passed over for not the permanent position, but she
left with like very high marks and she's running for sheriff.
And the sheriff for those that don't know, sheriff in
Orleans Parish is responsible for the jail but doesn't have
to be.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
And this is all they do.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Well, that's that's the whole thing. They do a lot
of Marty gar work at a lot of special events. But
there have been times, and this happened under Charlie Foty
when the last time we had major crime problems in
the nineteen nineties, he actually used his extra jail space.
So this is the sheriffs in Louisiana have a little
bit of a scam going on. But they can take

(03:22):
prisoners from other parishes, state prisoners, and they get paid
a certain amount each day. They can make a profit
in jailing people, but he used that profit to actually
do rehab programs, the art program. But he also put
sheriff's officers on the street, and so he actually, for
a while was very popular. He got an elected attorney general.

(03:43):
He had some problems when he was attorney general and
he didn't keep that job, but he left the Sheriff's
office in Orleans very very popular because it actually can
do police work and Susan Hudson has not tried to
do it. But this election teaches me and something bigger
at the frustration level that's going on in Orleans, and frankly,

(04:04):
in all the parishes is a lot higher than people
think that. Frankly, there is a reaction coming about throw
the bums out. You know what I usually call the
the rent's too damn high party, because it's unaffordable to
live in New Orleans. It's dangerous to live. The tax
rates have been going through. I mean, why do you
think there's been so much support organically for Matthew Willard's

(04:28):
bill to raise the homestead exemption because right now there
are very few cowses that are untaxed in Orleans or
frankly anywhere in the metropolitan New Orleans area. And so
the reason I'm saying all of this is right now,
there's not many mayorial candidates. If you've looked at the field,
and I think the ones you see Helena Moreno, who's
running sort of the front runner. She's gonna have plenty

(04:49):
of money in the banks if she doesn't raise it.
She's got it from her husband, Christopher Meeks. And she's
running as Oliver Thomas, who doesn't hiss about one hundred
and fifty in the bank. But Oliver Thomas is in
an interesting position. Helene Moreo's a white candidate, and she'll
tell you she's Hispanic. But no disrespect to her. You know,
she doesn't come off that way.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
I'll put it that way as an accident or whatever.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, I mean, she was a former Hillary Clinton age.
She's jared. She just she doesn't and she will. I'm
sure I will get calls. I'm telling her campaign manager,
Renee Laparollery, who's one of the best in the business.
I apologize. I'm just telling you that it doesn't come
across well, no matter how authentic it may be. So
she doesn't have it. Oliver Thomas. But here's what she

(05:34):
also doesn't have as a white candidate. In order to
win in Orleans Parish, you got to get forty percent
of the black vote, and you have to have ubiquitous
white vote, and that means you have to get the
nineteen to twenty percent of the vote that are Republicans
and who are a small amount and they will never
elect a Republican mayor in New Orleans. But at the
same time, they can be the swing vote between two

(05:56):
black candidates. And right now, the interesting thing is the
republic vote seems to be going to Oliver Thomas. It's
not really going anywhere, but right now people are more
likely to support Oliver Thomas, who I'm sure some of
you know was a councilman at large that went to prison.
But he seems more authentic to people than Helena Moreno.
Does you've got judge author hunter.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
He's going on policies.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Well, he's actually a lot more centrist. Yeah, I mean
that's what I just said, what you said, but it's
the same thing. Oliver Thomas. He promotes the policy, he
knows the policy's policy. He's a policy wonk wonk, he's
a policy wonks. I would call it. Actually, he probably
take a policy geeks as a high compliment, to be
honest with you, because he really is. He doesn't just
come in and say we have a plan. He says, well,

(06:40):
in nineteen ninety eight, this amount appropriation went to this
for this government redevelopment. And he knows how to say
it in such a way that it's not like glazing
over the eyes boring. But he has this encyclopedic acknowledge.
But he did go to prison. I mean, let's stop
for a second and say that this may be a
political difficulty even in a New Orleans a lie. He

(07:00):
went there because he took nineteen hundred dollars as a
payoff on a contract that had to do with parking
space z owning anyway, But he got back, got re
elected from New Orleans East. He does have a challenge.
Some of his New Orleansis constituents aren't really pleased with
the fact that he's running for mayor right now. It's
some of the people that supported.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Him before going That sheep cost him a huge He'll
tell you, he said, and you should have stolen you know,
nineteen million, and them they.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Never here's the thing, they never the really big corruption
because it's done legally as law in his contracts rarely
is caught. The ones that go to jail are the
ones that take a little bit because they're thinking, I can't,
I can't make my mortgage this month. I'm only you know,
they only make councilmen only make like thirty nine to
forty thousand dollars a year, and so they were like,

(07:49):
I can't. Maybe if I just take this one time
just just to make everything done and I'm just trying
to stay above and that's when they that's when it
falls apart. It's that's we don't and this is popular
thing to say in today's world, but we honestly many
of our elected officials are prone to the to that
kind of pressure corruption because we don't pay them a lot.

(08:10):
A legislature gets paid sixteen thousand dollars a year. That's ridiculous,
a sixteenth though micro Sys six eight hundred dollars a year.
Mike Baham would correct me, but the fact is our
counselmen aren't much better. You can't you've got to pay
a person. You don't have to pay them a lot,
but you've got to pay a per if you're paying
an elected official less than you're paying a teacher, and
we way underpay our teachers and our cops ron and

(08:34):
you get what you're telling you, Well, I mean, the
greatest idea in the state is and I've made it
very clear if all the talk about educational funding essentially
if the state took over all teacher pay. But basically said, teacher,
fire and police pay is a uniform standard, and legislators

(08:54):
only get a pay raise if they get a pay raise,
And it's it's you want to talk about how we'll
get the best teaches in the country, the best baid
cops of the country, the best bad It's a very
simple process. It just got to connect that. But anyway,
you got a lot of Thomas and so he's got
a real problem. He would be a very favorite candidate,
except he's you know, as he called it, he had
his little he had his little vacation. That's what he

(09:15):
refers to it as a little vacation. And so that
you got Judge author Hunter. Author Hunter was a pretty
well known, relatively liberal judge. But he's got he's very
good on dollars and cents issues he comes across, but
he has no money, no presence, and of course you
got the guy who's that was head of the a
nine to one one, who's got like maybe one thousand
dollars and was fired from the position asn't. And the

(09:37):
reason I'm saying all of this is people are saying, well,
the field is locked, folks. What happened this weekend with
this millage election and the fact that on the streets
that you had no new tax you know, vote against taxes,
and you had this big fight over something that would
never have been an issue previously. This is a renewal
of an existing tax. This is the operating funds of

(09:59):
the sheriff's office. People wouldn't even paid attention. They placed
it the weekend of jazz Fed, the second weekend of
jazz Fest, so nobody would pay attention, and guess what,
it backfired. And this is the point I'm getting at high.
People are fundamentally angry in a way that they aren't
everybody thinks the anger is on the right. People are
getting angry about the quality and conditions of life, and

(10:19):
you're finding it in places that you don't expect.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Interesting. You see, now you mentioned the sheriff that was
building a jail that she won't even use you. So
that's the current explain that. Explain that, all right? If
that means I didn't quite understand what, well it means
she's not going to be bringing it outside prisoners or what.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Well, actually she could do that. That's not the reason
it was being built. So the New Orleans Parish Sheriffs
Jail was was under It's been under what's called a
consent decree. So is NPD and other reason that means the.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
Fed's consent degree. A lot of people don't know what
that means. They believe that the NPD messed up so
badly the Feds had to step in and put all
kinds of rules and regulations on them that it's basically
handcuffed and made it almost impossible for them to do
their jobs, very difficult. They could be a crime on
the street. Cops sees it. Before he can act on it,
he's got to call his supervisor. He may have to

(11:08):
wait ten, fifteen to twenty minutes. Of course, in the
meantime the crime's done and over.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well I wouldn't.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
That's just so wrong, Listen.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
I'm not a fan of the consent degree either, but
I'm also going to point out that we did have
things after Katrina. Cops were killing people and I don't
mean like, I don't mean like they were killing somebody
in the course of a crime. We hit We sent
several cops to the death row for executions. I mean
there was a real problem high.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
No, that's not ideological close to the police department. I
know about the bad cops. Yeah. So my point is
two wrongs don't make a right.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
This is not but this wasn't a consent degree on
an OPDE. This was a consent degree in the sheriff's office.
There's two separate things Orleans. We have a Metropolitan Police
and a sheriff's office. And it dates back to reconstruction
as to why this happened. They were the reconstruction officials
were the NPD, the Metropolitan Police, and the you know,
the loyalists were the Sheriff's office and.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
The Battle Liberty Metropolitan Police. That was the private army.
I didn't know. No, No, it was a public No,
that that's that's it.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
No, it was I didn't know that there it was.
That was the that was the public. No, it was
it's the NPT. It's literally the same organization. Yeah, it's
the New Orleans Police Department was the Metropolitan Police. It's
the same exact group. Anyway, long story short, and all
of this, folks, is the Sheriff's office also had a
consent degree, and it was because they had mentally ill

(12:26):
people that were in general population. So if you were
arrested for drugs or mental illness like this, you're being
thrown in with with with murderers and rapists and so
on and so forth. And one of the things the
court said is you can't put misdemeanor offenders in the
same place that had mental health problems in the same
place with violent offenders, because it ultimately this is this

(12:50):
is of course you're you're you're you're infringing on somebody's rights.
A felony is a different thing than a misdemeanor, if
anybody knows that the legal difference. So they were required
to build jail that would deal with mental health problems
and treatment. And Marlon Gussman got the money, put the
things to build a jail. Susan Hudson comes in and
she said, we don't need to build more jails. We
need to need to release these people because they are

(13:11):
they're misdemeanors. They shouldn't be in jailed at all. And
she said, we're not gonna build jailable release him. She
gets elected. It's a big upset. It's one of the
last of the big progressive elections that's happened with a
law enforcement DA's all over. Happened in New Orleans with
Jason Williams. Jason Williams tacked to the right after he
was elected, so he was elected on the far left

(13:31):
and he didn't stay there. But Susan Hudson.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Wasn't he even support and drop no.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
No, no, it's not supporting. But what he did would do
was he supported the governor the Attorney General's office taking
over prosecuting violent crime cases that are arrested by the
state police, which was a very controversial thing, saying he
didn't have the resources, but why would he fight that.
That was not popular on the left at all, to
say the least. But Susan Hudson came in and she said,

(13:57):
I'm not going to do the jail. Well, the problem
is the courts ordered her said no, you have to
do this. The money's been allocated, you got to build it.
So she was building a jail that she didn't want
to use. And she could have said, Okay, we're not
going to use it for this, I'm filing to use
it for another class of violent criminals. I can bring
people in. But she didn't want to bring in any
of the state prisoners because she said, and this is

(14:19):
a principal stand, she said, look, our job is not
to house state prisoners. Our job is to house prisoners
that are arresting Orleans Parish. I am a parish sheriff.
And she's right about that. It is just allowed on
the law. So it's put a situation where we're building
this massive complex right next to the interstate that wouldn't
be used. And when you factor that, that alone would

(14:42):
have been difficult. But the fact that when she was
providing police officers for Marty Grass a year and a
half ago, they were getting hotel rooms that they weren't using.
There was costing a lot to the state their appropriation.
She's had all this rollover and a staff. It's been
one thing after another. She's unpopular. And if this were
just Hudson, I'd be like, well, maybe she's a pad

(15:02):
a politician. Except what I'm reading high though, is this
unpopularity is going much further you've got council members that
are unpopular, you've got the mayorial candidates. I think if
somebody's smart right now, and it's dangerous because it's case
you'd have to sell funded and there are just not
many people who can write it to themselves a check
for a million dollars. In New Orleans, we're not a

(15:23):
rich city. But there's there's an opportunity for somebody, probably
a wealthy African American candidate, to come into this race
and blow it open. I don't know what's going to happen.
I do know that it was a very similar set
of circumstances that had Mitch Landrew come in after you
said he wasn't going to run from mayor run for mayor,

(15:44):
and he lost the first time and then eventually won.
But it was it was it's this kind of frustration
that people are just tired.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
There it's thanks to keep getting worse. There's a breaking
point for any group.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
In every group, you made it, you made a joke.
We have one of our regular listeners who knows Shushi
is who made it, say, but I'll get you know. Ultimately,
I made a quip and about three years ago, and uh,
this quip was basically, to live in New Orleans is
to is to pay the prices of Connecticut with the
economy of Bogata, and that that gets a little old

(16:21):
after a while. You know.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
It's like, yeah, and so you said I made a
joke about.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
It, Well, no, last week about Congress and press progress, right,
and we've got some mail about it.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yeah, I got a lot of positive comments on that.
People like a few those.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
But anyway, lad is this that, folks, we are in
a position as a city where you may see real
change in this election, but we are We're we're basically
qualifying happens this fall, and we're going to see what
happens at the end of the summer. But I'm I
think this is going to be a hot summer of
political discontent in the city of New Orleans. And we're
going to see what happens. Because all of this is

(16:56):
happening in an economy love or hate Trump, believe in
her or not. Right now, the economy is heading towards
a recession. This is not you know, it probably would
have anyway. And the fact is, as people go into summer,
as prices are contribute increasing and the economy is getting
worse that when you factor that and you factor everything else,

(17:17):
that is the price of living in New Orleans. People
are angry, and we'll see what happens. Yeah, all right,
we got to take a break.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Wait before we do it, I think we should tell
the joke again. Oh, for those who missed it, Christopher,
there are a lot of people who didn't get it.
To hear it very it's very clever. I didn't invent it,
but I actually embarrassed it a little. Anyway, you all
have heard about how there's the pros and the cons
on any topic issue, and pros and cons means something
for or something against, and you look at the pros

(17:43):
and the cons to figure out what you want to do.
It helps you make an evaluation. So in other words,
it means that if you're pro or con, you're in opposition.
So let's take that just a little further. Just just
everything to do with the fact that con griss it
comes from the con side. Con gris is in opposition
to progress, the ConfL.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
That joke is up there high with it says, you know,
I was looking. I was looking.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
It's very insightful. I was looking at the.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Meaning of pologics.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
It means a lot.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
This is an old joke. I was looking at the
meaning of politics, and I said, I don't know what.
So my wife says, why don't you, Why don't you,
Why don't you, Why don't you look at the Greeks.
The Greek, Well, Polly means many many, six means bloodsuckers.
So many bloodsuckers ticks politics. Anyway, on that note, folks,
we're going to come back. We'll continue this political discussion
after these important messages. Eighteen more of the Founded show
right after this. The intersection of piety and desire. Yes,

(18:38):
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(18:59):
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Speaker 3 (19:10):
And folks, it's Chaplin Hih mcchenry. It's not time for
me to tell you about our ministry, LAMB Ministries. We're
in inner city ministry with an inter cityfarmulae focus for
inner city folks. Please check us out, go to our
website Lambanola dot com, and or just call me Chaplain
High mcinry at area code five zero four seven two
three nine three six nine. This is very challenging ministry, folks.

(19:35):
We have seen hundreds of kids go on to live
really productive, good lives that they would have never had before.
They're the short terms of our society they call themselves
at and what that means is by the time they're
in their mid twenties, they know they're either going to
be in jail for life, living at the homeless mission
or at the Morgue Dead. They all think that's a

(19:56):
normal life, and that's one of the great tragedies. They
don't know they can have a better life. We show
him them the better way. Close to five thousand of
our kids have come to Christ now are born again,
going to Heaven when they die. So, folks, this is
a very challenging but a very wonderful ministry. We need
all the help we can get. We need volunteers, we
need financial support, and we need prayer warriors. Again. If

(20:18):
you have any interests, please call me Chaplin Hi mc
henry at Eric code five zero four seven two three
nine three six nine and thank you so very very much.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
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(20:50):
heard it here on The Founder's Show.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
Well, folks, we're back and you are listening to the
Founders Show, the voice of the Founding Fathers, and I
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(21:16):
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again this is Chaplin High Mcinry with.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Christopher Tidmore And if I can do a shameless plug
for next week show, Hi, we're gonna be We're gonna
be talking about the eleventh Gonzo Fest in vote it's
not the Muppet. I've got news for you. It's with
the muppet is named after, which is Hunter S. Thompson.
So we're having all the Hunter Thompson enthusiast come to

(22:20):
New Orleans and coming to the Garden District Bookshop May
fifteenth or eighteenth. You and I are broadcasting from there
live and next week we're actually playing an excerpt from
the other I do three or four other podcast as
some people know, and this one is from Hunter Gatherers,
the podcast of Hunter S. Thompson's stories that's on Zundclo. Well,
you'll get a kick out of this. So we posted

(22:41):
what we're going to play on the air next week
vendor form, this interview with Kent Fielding. We posted it.
It got almost two hundred and fifty thousand listeners, and
it was It was followed and voted up by three
people that you would not expect to be in the
same sentence, and it shows you kind of how we
bring people together. It was voted up by the Weekend,

(23:05):
Eminem and Post Malone. All three who heard.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
The show, wow and so congratulates.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
And those are three people. They're all rappers, but they
all have three very different Worldview, and it was a
Trump bite, you know, Weekends and Arden it was it
was an ardent Biden night, Cameellas and you know, post
Malone is kind of in the middle. He's a friend
close friend of Taylor Sweat. Where's emm where's eminem? I
mean Spectrum, No, I mean he's he was a Trump
supporters spoken about it. Yeah, so so Martin, Yeah, it's

(23:35):
he's so. But I mean all three are well known.
You know, story is very interesting too, but that'll be
a next week's show. But actually we encourage people to
come because it's folks. It's a great price to come
to Gonzo Fest eleven at the Garden District Bookshop and
at the rink and all these with a thirty nine
different panels and all this stuff. It's the lower price
of free. It's free ninety nine. It's uh. You can

(23:57):
find out more at Gonzo Fest dot net.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
Of course, where did they get the name gonzo?

Speaker 2 (24:01):
So it's gonzo Journalism's that's what Hunter Thompson invented. Gonzo
Journalism is when you are in the middle of the story,
you make yourself essentially a first person observed.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
He was listed by the History Channel is one of
the toughest men in America. They have this toughest Man
contest and they have about thirty forty people in the
history and he's one of them. And they tell the
story about being in the middle of his stories, he
decided to take on the Hell's Angels. Oh no, so
they went and ran with him and everything, had a
brawl with him, and they beat the daylight.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Up, so his and they thought, and the reason they
beat him up is they thought they deserve royalties from
the book. And his editor from Random House, Margaret Harrell,
who I've had on the podcast, is coming. She's ninety
one years old. She's coming. She's speaking at this She
wasn't just his editor at Random House. She was actually
his mistress. And she'll tell you about this. And she

(24:55):
and a very very I'm actually moderating a panel called
the Women of Gonzo. These are basically the wind of
Hunter and so I'm trying to figure out what armor
I need to wear for this thing. But the point
is Hunter Thompson, most people don't realize. They think of
the Vegas book as in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,
as a seminal. Hunter Thompson was a political reporter. For

(25:19):
he was also a sports reporter early in his career
and then later with the ESPN, but for most of
his career he was the political writer for Rolling Stone,
and his for me, he's written, and we'll have all
of his books, just the great Shark Hunt Rum Diaries
and all this. But his greatest book was Fear and
Loathing on the Campaign Trail nineteen seventy two, which is
the greatest campaign biography. It's of the seventy two campaign

(25:40):
that it has ever been written, ever better than Theodore H.
White and making the president better than any of them.
It is a seminal book, and it's in the parallels
to what is going on right now, and our politics
is just the way Hunter is u but speaking in
parallels right now, we got actually shift gears here for
a second. The Louisiana Legislature is about to reached, has

(26:02):
reached its midpoint of the twenty twenty five fiscal regular session,
and the budget measure has passed the Louisiana House of Representatives.
And what's interesting is almost all the governor's priorities. Remember
the governor owned the special session. He got everything he wanted,
almost all the governor's priorities has not gotten into the

(26:23):
budget package. I'll give you an example when the constitutional
amendment failed number two. When it went down, one of
the things in that constitutional amendment was the various parishes
were incentivized to give up the inventory tax credit, so inventory,
so parishes tax you on your inventory. And what we

(26:43):
had happened in the state was the state would then
turn around and reimburse the company for the tax. So
basically it was a transfer of money from the states
the parishes by taxing inventory. But we're one of the
only states in the country that tax inventory. I mean
that that's not stuff you sell. It's just if I
have stuff in a warehouse, I'm getting taxed. It's not
a very effective tax. So he tried to say, yeah,
the state's taken away, but we're incentivizing this various ways

(27:06):
by giving access to trust funds to convince parishes to
get rid of the tax. It failed in the constitutional moment,
so he's trying to get things in the session that
would have the state turn around and make up for
this money. But the fact is he's using one time
dollars to do this. In conservatives, it's not the left

(27:26):
it's the right are stopping and limiting the amount of
money that he could access because we're running a deficit.
So the tax package is in limbo, the June tenth
and German you know approaches, and it's not that far away.
And the tax centralization proposal that were this is the
center of all this, trying to bring all sales taxes

(27:49):
under one banner, trying to bring all this together. It's
failing miserably. In fact, the interesting part is the success
of the sales tax proposal. And I know all over
this this is that when we raise sales taxes to
cover the deficit in the last legislative session, the special session,
that success has led a lot of local parish leaders

(28:10):
to basically say, we're not going to change anything governor
on our local level. And because they had a pretty
good thing, they got this. They got a huge amount
of tax revenue. In Orleans, this was a little bit.
But in Jefferson where with all those warehouses, industrial plants, Yeah,
this is true of Saint Tammany as well. They were
making so much money on the inventory tax credit and

(28:31):
are making so much money. So that's the past tense.
They don't want to give it up, and so their
argument is the incentives you're offering us, Governor, you know,
are not very valid. You have that going against the
fact that, as we pointed out, when he raised those
sales taxes, which in fairness to the man to Governor
Jeff Landry, I know I'm tough on him sometimes, he

(28:52):
didn't go into this session wanting to raise sales taxes.
That wasn't his original objective. He accepted it because his
plan to put taxes on everything else on life from
boat storage, which goes really well in the sportsman's paradise. Yeah,
if everything flopped that he just readied sales taxes. The
problem is it's not just the Black Caucus who think

(29:12):
raising sales taxes poor people. Ray Garofalo, who is one
of the most conservative members of the Senate, is like, no,
my constituents are pretty poor and you've already raised taxes
on him. Do you really want to make taxes now?
All of this is happening in this fiscal session in
the shadow of what's happening in Mississippi. For those that
have not paid attention, we mentioned it on a previous show.

(29:33):
Mississippi passed a bill to phase out their income tax
by twenty thirty five.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Isn't that amazing?

Speaker 2 (29:40):
It will? And actually they were supposed to do it
with all these restrictions. That was, if revenues weren't eighty
five percent increased over a year after year and all this,
so it could go slower. And then there was a
misprint in the bill. I swear, folks, I'm not making
this up. Somebody when they passed the bill did not

(30:00):
look at the fact that when they said eighty five
percent increase, which is a high threshold to reach, that
means you got to more than double your revenues every
two years, they put point eight five percent. So, in
other words, if you raised your revenue by one percent
per year, you have to cut you have to eliminate
the income tax. And so Mississippi could very well get

(30:22):
rid of its income tax, not by twenty thirty five,
by twenty thirty It may have a fiscal crisis, but
it can do so. So now we're in a situation
where the governor, who had made so much success raised
in lowering the state income tax to three point five
percent and raising Louisiana's competitiveness from I think it was
forty seven to potentially thirty six now is looking at

(30:44):
Mississippi having Lapptis Tennessee. Of course, Texas and Florida has
no income tax, so all of this is happening simultaneously, folks,
And the legislative session is this unsure area. I'll give
you an area that I'm personally unsure about. The live
performance tax credits have been cut to one million dollars
for the entire state. That means every performance of anything

(31:06):
in the state is now at one point, it's actually
one point four to five million in tax credits. That
means fourteen percent of every performance of over three hundred
thousand dollars is pretty much every major arts performance. There's
a very very small pot of money, and the governor
didn't want any. But there's some question as to whether
that will remain. But it's the governor is not. The

(31:28):
governor's expended so much political influence in the last legislative
special session that frankly, with the fact that there was
a deficit and all this has gone on, he doesn't
have a whole lot left. Jeff Landry is now in
a dangerous political place because he can't dictate to the legislature,
and that is not that usually is a very bad

(31:50):
sign for pretty much any governor anywhere. Really, Yeah, I mean,
that's that's usually the beginning that you're you're enter Bruddy
Romer territory, where you're basically the legislature doesn't care, they're
not afraid of you. And you know, legislatures in Louisiana
usually are rubber stamp organizations. But the fact is the
leadership of legislature, Philip de Villiers in the House and

(32:12):
Cameron Henry in the Senate, are very much they're aligned
with the governor, but they're very much themselves on a
different political basis. You know, they have enough of a
political constituency. I mean, the big fight, as you've probably seen,
has been over insurance. The big subtext has been the
fact this is one of the reasons the governor's week
not weak as a person, but has a weakened position

(32:34):
the legislature that the governor, the Louisiana Association of Business
and Industry, the business lobby, and the particularly the insurance
Commissioner Tim Temple are pushing an insurance reform package that
would get rid of punitive damages. Now, I have mixed feelings.
I was involved in a major insurance case is high
nose and a riverboat, and without Peenia damage, I would

(32:56):
and I never would have had a lawyer willing to
represent us over something that was an egregious case. So
I'm sympathetic to where Jeff Landry is. Jeff Landry is
a trial lawyer, and he doesn't want to misc trial lawyers.
There are very few Republican pro trial lawyer governors or
at all in the country that tends to be a
constituency that supports Democrats. So his proposal to lower insurance

(33:17):
rates has essentially he says, I want to balance both sides.
It's a much more pro trial lawyer. Whether lower's insurance
rates or not. I have no idea. I don't think
it makes much change to it. It's had some good
ideas in it, but it's not really far. Ultimately, one
of the reasons why insurance rates are so high is
the fact that the insurance that the judgments against people

(33:41):
are so high. But the fact of the matter is
people are really angry about insurance. I'll give you a
perfect example. So everybody in my life, I'm an insurance agent,
so and all these houses are doubling in insurance premiums.
I mean a lot of people are having trouble getting
in insurance on their houses. I'm talking houses that never flooded,

(34:02):
never have damage. And you think, well, it must be
a good time to be an insurance agent, right because
you're making commissions and all this, right, this is great.
So your people are paying through the nose, but you're benefiting, right,
my eras and omissions and insurance. This is what It's
higher than my profit.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
It more than doubled. And it's not because I did
anything wrong, nothing changed. It more than doubled.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Source to the.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Point where I have to ask whether it's worthwhile keeping
my agency going because it's it's it's keeping a lot
of the insurance. Now I may keep betef, I can
break even. I'm you know, for this year, I'm pappossed.
But the fact is, if the rates that are paid
by the insurance agencies are too high to stay in business,
and that's happening, it gives you an idea of how
really messed up our insurance business is. They're the ones

(34:51):
who can call up this insurance commission and the rating
commission and get a phone call back, and that's not happening.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
So you know, anyway, Wow, Christopher, what really is It's
Country's then affix man.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
Well, I will. I'm making a prediction that when the
legislative session ends June tenth, we're going to see a
lot of last minute legislation, but it's not going to
end pleasantly, and we're going to go into the summer
with the governor and the legislature at odds because the
governor's main priorities he's not getting through right now and
he did not have a good budget season. And we'll
see what happens next, but it is not a positive

(35:25):
few months for Governor Jeff Landry. I believe the legislature
high Have you been watching the smoke and mirrors that
have to do with the battle on cigarette taxes?

Speaker 3 (35:34):
No, tell us about it.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
It's been really funny. So imagine in the same committee
at the same time that the committee members the House
Ways and Means Committee, or as I like to call
the House Ways to be Mean Committee, but this is
the tax writing committee of the House approved a tax
increase on vaping and rejected a tax hike on cigarettes.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
Let me repeat that. They put a tax hike on
vaping and a tax and rejected a tax increase cigarettes. Now,
the person who was testifying for both of that is
a doctor by the name of doctor Stephen Cartno, and
he was trying to get a across the board tax increase,
and a lot of tobacco lobbyists were against increasing the

(36:15):
tax on cigarettes, but they didn't really care about vaping
because that's not their client. The governor supported a tax
on vaping, and the reason is, I don't know if
he likes or hates vaping, but the first twenty two
million collected by the vape tax would raise the salary
of state troopers, and the next six million would go
to the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the State Fire Marshal,

(36:37):
and the Public Defender Fund. And so these two so
basically where the money was going was popular. And so
we're taxing on vaping and not on cigarettes. Now, you
gotta understand that we've got a We haven't raised taxes
on cigarette since twenty fifteen. At that time, there was
a state rep by the name of Harold Ritchie put
a dollar eighteen per packed tax on it and it

(36:58):
got a lot of national attention. Significantly raised cigarette tax
the legislature. That's what he proposed at least. The legislature
ultimately ended up putting a fifty cent per tax increase
in twenty fifteen and a twenty two cent twenty sixteen,
so he, you know, he basically got, you know, roughly
sixty percent of what he wanted. It was part of
a deal with John Bell Edwards. The national average on taxes,

(37:20):
just so anybody knows we put it in is a
dollar ninety seven, So we basically tax about a third
of the rest of the nation. So Representative ken a brass,
he's a Democratic bactory brought up to raise the cigarette
tax fifteen cents per milli leader of consumable liquid. This
is the vape tax, the thirty three percent of the
vapes wholesale price. Because you don't have actual cigarettes. You

(37:44):
got the liquid that you put in the Mischian and
raised it and so were taxing vaping. But what amuses
me about this entire conversation is it's a tax on age.
Very few people under the age of thirty five vote
spoke cigarette. They vape. It's not that they don't smoke,
they just vape. Those that smoke, almost cigarette smokers tend

(38:07):
to be over the age of thirty five. Now, this
is the part they don't. They didn't. They didn't report
in any of the text. If you're over thirty five,
you're more likely to vote. So this was a way
of raising taxes on cigarettes on people who don't who
vote less. And now here's another one. Cigarettes. While it
used to be pretty ubiquitous if you're white, black didn't matter,

(38:28):
smoking cigarettes is pretty much across the board. Yeah, you're
more likely to vote cigarettes if you're black than you
feel white. However, if you're under the age of thirty five,
it's pretty much both black and white. It comes in.
So in other words, there's this this kind of like tax.
By by taxing vaping, you're affecting everybody, but the Black caucus,

(38:52):
who would normally be enthusiastic about a cigarette tax, was
not because that tended to affect African America can voters
more than the white voters. And remember, you can't pass
the tax in Louisiana without a two thirds majority of
both houses. So it's one of those things. I've just
been kind of amused in watching this back and forth
between the different communities of how it's coming down in

(39:14):
the legislative session. Now, part of the reason I brought
up this disparity on taxes is you know, sometimes tax
dollars benefit political constituencies. And I really bring this up
on it is the sports gambling tax. Now, I know
you as a religious as a pastor personally, I didn't
like gambling coming in Louisiana. But you're kind of ambivalent
about it because we gamble about everything else. I remember

(39:35):
when the whole thing came through it.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
But you know it's actually in the Bible where the
Bible says the lot is cast into the lap, but
the whole disposing there of is of the Lord. Some words,
you can gamble and I'd be breaking God's laws. However,
the problem with gambling is it attracts so much corruption
and everything. The way it's done, now, that would be
why I'm against it, not just the basic function of gambling.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
So let me so, I'll ask you this question. Would
you say that college sports is a little corrupt these
days with the amount of probably yeah, I would say,
so this is a prime example of what you just said.
So right now, the tax on sports gambling in Louisiana
is fifteen percent. The legislature House Bill six point thirty
nine by Representative Neil Riser of Columbia would raise that

(40:21):
the thirty two point five percent, basically a third of
whatever you're in whatever the profits of sports gambling would
go to the state. Now it actually may sail through.
There's two arguments. One this is about what casinos pay.
But there's another reason, and it has to do with
the fact that the sports gambling would go into It's

(40:42):
called and I love this acronym, supporting programs, opportunities, resources
and teams or the sport program. It would benefit student
athletes at Louisiana Public Universities and NCAA Division IE And
essentially it would help fund university sports programs. By gambling
on the athletes, you would be supporting college sports, which

(41:05):
does make one wonder is the purpose of universities to
have college sports?

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Somebody asked for some people, it's a career. I mean,
they go to college for the career of sports. They're
not there to get well and now develop academic standing
or any kind of resume and how their intellectual accomplishments.
They care less about that. And you know, I say,
that's okay. If you want to make sports your career, fine,
that's a good career. Well, and they are just lay
it out like that, and the athletes who don't want
to take academics seriously, they ought to give them some

(41:34):
really easy program to go through.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
Well they do. It's called Rocks for Jocks, and all
the different wonderful programs that exist, Rocks, rocks and geology, geology,
Rocks for jocks, and you know there's each one. There
was a whole set of programs at l s U
that was.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
They're they're there for a sports career. They're not there.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Well, in fact, what makes a roaring this is if
you with the endorsement, with the endorsement deals they'd got.
I mean, honestly, it's amazing. Arch Manning when he started
the University of Texas got twenty five million dollars as
a as a freshman red shirt for football.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
And this is like Peyton's son.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
This is this is Cooper's couper. Oh Cooper, Okay, yeah,
so this is Cooper's son.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
Now that's named after the great Archie man Yes, it's
his grandfather from my generation. But my point play Atli
he's played against he's old miss against Livy Done, the
the the he lived right around the corner from it,
you know, Yeah, Archie the father.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Well, and he lived in the Garden district, right they
still they still did no no.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
But when he first moved there, it was I'm in
the I was in the garden, but he was oler.
That was over on Seventh Street. But now he lives
over on I played First Street.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
Well, my my ass is is it okay folks to
tax something to support uh college programs that now have
to pay athletes to go to college. So let me
just explain this. Right now, college programs are paying athletes,
not just endorsement deals, but they're actually getting paid to
be college athletes. So we have now have to on

(43:00):
these programs with a tax on sports gambling, which admittedly
is probably gambling on them to fund the athletes. They
just seem to be a little bit of a cycle,
a circle going on here, Like this treadmill we're on,
it's getting worse and worse and worse. On that note,
speaking worse and worse and worse, it's time to actually
do something better and better, and let's go the patriotic
and spiritual moment after these important messages, Stay tuned more

(43:21):
of the Founder Show right after.

Speaker 4 (43:22):
This rescue, recovery, re engagement. These are not just words.
These are the action steps we at the New Orleans
Mission take to make a positive impact on the homeless
problem facing the greater New Orleans area. Through the process
of recovery, these individuals have the opportunity to take time out,

(43:47):
assess their life, and begin to make new decisions to
live out their God given purpose. After the healing process
has begun and lives are back on track, we walk
each individual as they re engage back into the community
to be healthy, thriving, and living a life of purpose.
No one is meant to live under a bridge. No

(44:09):
one should endure abuse, No one should be stuck in addiction.
The New Orleans Mission is a stepping stone out of
that life of destruction and into a life of hope
and purpose. Partner with us today go to www dot
New Orleansmission dot org or make a difference by texting

(44:31):
to seven seven nine four eight.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
Well, folks were back and you were listening to the founders.
So the voice of the founding fathers. You're Founding fathers,
and this is none other than your chaplain bah bah
Hi Mcinry, your chaplain Babbah the Republic. It's no time
for us to go into our biblical origins of America,
our Judeo Christian jurisprudence, our patriotic moment. We'll just take

(44:59):
a sh while to give you a little history lesson
on the biblical foundations of our country. You know, there
have been a lot of stuff abou judges in the
news recently. The Supreme Court. I figured it was fitting
to do a little Scotist study. That's the Supreme Court
of the United States. So here's some quotes by some
famous justices, early justices. Here is runcle versus wine Miller
in seventeen ninety nine. That was at the very beginning

(45:22):
of our republic. By our form of government, the Christian
religion is the established religion in all sects and denominations
of Christians are placed on the same equal footing. Huh,
our former government. Christianity is the established religion I mean,
and that meant all denominations, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, whatever, independence

(45:46):
you name it, all the different types of churches and Christians. Okay,
And then here's another one. Why may not the Bible
and especially the New Testament be read and taught as
a divine revelation in the schools. It's general precepts expounded
and its glorious principles of morality inculcated. Where where can
the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or

(46:09):
so perfectly as from the New Testament That was in
eighteen forty four Vidal versus Gerard. And now we're going
to have a couple of quotes from Justice Story, who
in his day was considered to be perhaps the greatest
of all legal minds. He's certainly one of them. He
was a Harvard Law School professor from eighteen twenty one
to eighteen forty five. He was a Supreme Court justice

(46:30):
from eighteen twelve to eighteen forty five. He was a
congressman before that. He had quite a career, quite a
good career in government and of course in the legal system,
and especially as one of the top Supreme Court justices.
This is what he said, We are not to attribute
this prohibition of a national religious establishment in the First
Amendment to an indifference to religion in general, and especially

(46:53):
to Christianity, which none could hold in more reverence than
the framers of the Constitution at the time of the
adoption of the Constitution of the Amendment to it. Now
in the consideration the First Amendment, The general, if not
the universal sentiment in America was that Christiana to receive
encouragement from the state so far as was not incompatible

(47:14):
with the private rights of conscience in the freedom of
religious worship in whichs don't meddle with people's different religions.
Any attempt to level all religions and to make it
a matter of state policy tild All in utter indifference
would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation from
the people. And what he recognized that we the people

(47:37):
wanted to have God in the middle of our government.
He goes on to say. Justice. Story goes on to
say the real objective of the First Amendment was not
to contidence, much less to advance Mohammedism or Judaism or
infidelity by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among
Christian sex denominations and to prevent any national ecclesiastical patronage

(47:58):
of the national government. Infidels and pagans were banished from
the halls of justice as unworthy of credit. Now we
don't do that today, but I guarantee you that's where
they were back then, So don't tell me the Finding
Fathers didn't want to have God in government. That's the
most absurd thing anybody could ever say. And this is
to help you understand this better. The idea was to
separate institutionally religion from government, but never philosophically. In the words,

(48:24):
they wanted the Bible to be the main textbook in
the schools. When they picked the dictionary, they needed to
have a good diction Nick dictionary is a brand new
back then, and they need to have one because they're
making laws. So they want to be all same sheet
of music for spelling and for definitions. So they picked

(48:45):
no Webster and now they are about three or four choices.
You know why they pick no Websters because on every
word he had he had a Bible verse to help
explain the word. That's why they picked it. These guys
were heavy duty into God. Folks. I promise you, what
about you? Are you heavy duty to God? Will you
better be? Because if you don't, you're gonna meet your
maker one day and you're either going to heaven or hell.
God wants you in heaven, not hell. Bible says he

(49:06):
made heaven for you, He made hell for devils, he
made hell for sin. He made hell for death. But folks,
one day when God throws all the sins into hell
and all the devils, if your sins are still attached
to you because they haven't been watched away with the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going into hell forever.
Don't do that, folks. The Bible says that God loves

(49:27):
you with an everlasting love, and he loved you so much.
Scripture says, for God so loved the world. That's you,
that's everybody, that he gave his only begotten son, that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, we are now
in the chaplain by by and gospel woman. He gave
his only begotten son, Jesus, perfect God and perfect man,
all the way God and all the way man. He
gave his only begotten son. That whosoever that's you again
believeth in him. Well, what do you believe? The Bible

(49:50):
is very clear. The script says, a gospel is the
power of God into salvation. It tells what the gospel is.
It says, a gospel is that Jesus died for all
of our sins on the cross. I mean, from the
day you're born the day you die, your times to
your greatest sins. Jesus died for all. This is First
Corinthians fifteen, died for all your sins, was buried and
rose from the dead, according to the scripture. And it's
when you believe in this with all your heart. The

(50:12):
scripture says, you're going to heaven. So when he says
that who's server believer in him, it means believe in
the Gospel, believe in Jesus and his great gift of
the Gospel to save us from hell and guarantee us heaven.
That who's server believing in him shall not perish but
have everlasting life. Do you have that everlasting life? Do
you want it? Then? Right now with all your heart? Now,

(50:32):
how do you do this with all your heart? Quit
trusting anything else, Quit trusting your money, your religious ways.
Let's say how holy you think you are. Perhaps you
think you're quite the nonsenter whatever you think's going on
to help God out or help you get into heaven,
or whatever you're thinking. Forget it. You're never going to
be good. Other Bible says, all of your righteousness it's

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filthy riks, So give it up. You're not going to
make it on your own. You can't. It's impossible. When
you come to that point where you know you're damned
to hell, hopeless and help us without God, you have
just repented. It is a condition of the heart. It
is a part of your faith. And then the other
part of your faith is the positive part. But faith
alone and Christ alone really believed that Jesus died for

(51:14):
our sins, was buried in rosemand dead. So folks, now
it's time for us to go into our chaplain by
by testimony time. We just took a brief moment to
tell you a wonderful story about someone living today or
someone from the past. And right now I want to
take go back about one hundred and fifty years ago
to a guy named Watchman Nie. Truly one of the
greatest preachers, evangelists and everything of the twentieth century. This

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man was so amazing. He was a Chinaman born in
South China, a big tall fellow. Down there in South China,
they have very tall people, and he was raised as
a pagan. But he found Jesus as a young man
and he became a zealous evangelist and preacher. He wrote
some of the greatest works ever written in Christendom from

(51:59):
the greatest theology. He could fill up her shelf with
all his writings. He preached all over China, and he
had a world tour. People came by the thousands to
hear him preaching. He was just such an amazing man,
such a good man. And when the Japanese came in,
he did everything he could to help the flock, you know,
protect his people and keep him safe from the Japanese
and at great risk to himself. And then when the

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Communists took over, he got everybody, well, he got many out,
but he stayed because he said he needed to stay
with the rest. They got watched them benear of the Communis.
They put him in jail. They tortured him for the
rest of his life. When they found out that he
was preaching to the jailers and they were getting saved,
they cut his tongue on. When they found out that
he was writing books, they cut his hands off, when

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they found out he was reading the Bible, they poked
his eyes out. And finally, after years of this terrible
suffering and abuse. Truly one of the greatest men of
the twentieth century, greatest Christians of the twentieth century, greatest preachers,
at the end of his life, his wife was contacted.
She could come fetch up her husband. They were going
to let him go, and when she arrived, oh, just
by accident. He had died the day before. We know

(53:02):
they killed him. That was Watchman d n A great martyr,
a great testament to christen them into the church. Folks,
you need to think about Watchman Knee and how you
could emulate him, and how you could have his savior
which meant so much to him. Well, now, folks, it's
time for us to go. As we close with a
mind Saint Martin singing a creole goodbye, and God blets

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all out there.

Speaker 5 (53:31):
You call him cel goodbye. Please think we just pleasted time.
Put me all three sabon. There's time for a creo goodbye.