225BatonRouge.com

Posted on November 21 at 4:33 p.m.

I'm a middle-aged Baton Rouge ex-pat -- born there, raised there, educated there . . . and gone for good since 1988.

I now live in Omaha, Neb., where government generally works and people generally care. This gives an ex-pat a certain perspective on Louisiana (and Baton Rouge).

That perspective is that all of the hopes and dreams of the "movers and shakers" -- those pie-in-the-sky visions Baton Rougeans are subjected to every few years -- will continue to be stillborn until PEOPLE GENERALLY CARE and insist that GOVERNMENT GENERALLY WORK.

Why, oh WHY, would any major corporation ever move into BR and subject its employees, and its bottom line, to Baton Rouge's and Louisiana's broken civic culture, broken public education and crumbling infrastructure?

Every time I go home for a visit, it strikes me how all of my old haunts look just a little bit more like something found in greater Port-au-Prince, as opposed to something in greater Omaha. Omaha is decidedly a First World city; Baton Rouge now strikes me as high-functioning Third World.

And it breaks my heart to see, via the Internet, what has become of my alma mater, Baton Rouge Magnet High. If the crumbling facilities I see is the "flagship" high school of the area, Lord spare me from seeing the rest.

For a view, go to:

http://revolution-21.blogspot.com/2006/1...

Also:

http://www.brhsalumniassoc.org/photos.ht...

Today, it came to me what the difference between living up here and living down there is.

Living up here and looking back on Louisiana is like watching a loved one holding a pistol to his head but not being able to stop him from pulling the trigger. Living in Louisiana is like having your loved one hold the pistol to YOUR head but not being able to stop him from pulling the trigger.

On Portraits of Baton Rouge Now…Love it, Leave it or Change it.