The Louisiana statewide publication, Bayou Buzz, a site with about 4 million visitors per year, is currently accepting votes for their "Louisiana Woman of the Year". What, you may ask, does this have to do with us? Our very own Kossack, Gilda Reed, is a nominee. Best yet, no registration is required to cast your vote. (Just scroll down page, click and submit.) Imagine, just simply imagine, a progressive Democrat as a "Woman of the Year" in Louisiana!
Scott Adams
Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.
We can drop our pebble, our vote, in the pond and witness the ripple travel ever outward across Louisiana.
Chinese Proverb
Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
15 months after Katrina rocked NOLA, Gilda decided to run for LA 01.
I remember exactly the moment that I made the life-altering decision to become a non-traditional politician. We were traveling back from our decimated non-home in Pass Christian, MS. (We still have to pay the taxes and maintain the lot.) All of a sudden the broken area of New Orleans East with the remains of trees grotesquely pointing anywhere but skyward moved me. I had witnessed this time and again because this was 15 months after Katrina, and yet the devastated landscape was as if the storm had passed through yesterday. I was suddenly and powerfully moved to DO something. Every semester, I teach my students that if they are not satisfied with something, then they need to get off their duff and act. My decision to join the political fray was only me deciding to practice what I teach. I jumped in without allowing the obstacles that loomed to deter me--much like having 7 babies on purpose, the last 3 of whom were in diapers at once. Had I allowed my common sense to rule, I would be comfortably enjoying my good life of mama, grammy and teacher.
Over an exhausting 18-month campaign, Gilda and her husband Sam logged 45,000 miles on their family van crisscrossing the six parishes of LA 01. On March 8th, she captured 70% of the vote in the Democratic Primary. Though, in the end, she did not prevail in this most conservative Louisiana district. The GOP candidate won the 2008 Special Election with 10% of the registered voters. There were over 310,000 registered voters that did not vote at all. Yes, there were monsoon-like rains on Election Day. Yet, after Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast, after decades of negligent, self-serving GOP representatives - 310,000 did not vote. Gilda received more than double the combined total vote for the two Democratic candidates in 2006. The Democratic candidate after Gilda, with her assistance, raised the Democratic vote by another 12%. Ripple.
Chinese Proverb
If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people
Planner for a lifetime ~ Gilda is an educator. Since 1994 she has shared her passion for teaching Psychology at the University of New Orleans. She teaches 7 different classes either on campus or online. She taught full-time throughout her congressional campaign, she taught her online classes during her Katrina evacuation:
All the while, I had hundreds of college students taking my online classes. Less sleep and plenty of TA help, allowed me to manage.
Gilda returned to the UNO campus, post-Katrina:
Just snaking my way to campus, is gut-wrenching. I have to go through utterly devastated neighborhoods and eerie ugliness. So much debris has been carted away, yet so much more remains. My pre-Katrina auditorium has no walls, and my substitute room has peeling ones. A bad odor that 4 hours later was still offensive, left me and my husband with unexplained headaches on the first day of classes. The problem was promptly resolved.
Amidst devastation, she taught.
6.8 million college students voice their opinion by rating over 1 million professors. In 2007, Gilda was voted #21 out of all professors in the USA by Rate My Professor. No other professor in Louisiana made it to the top 25. Ripple.
Emily Dickinson
I dwell in possibility...
After the Special Election for LA 01, Gilda was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Jefferson Parish Democratic Parish Executive Committee and was appointed to the Democratic Party State Central Committee. There is a changing of the guard afoot in local Louisiana politics.
Maya Angelou
If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.
There are embers about to be fanned into a full-fledged fire in Jefferson Parish. Decisions may soon be made that can jeopardize the safety of the public and firefighters. Shortly after the Jefferson Fire Fighters Association had a "no confidence vote" for those charged with the responsibility "to oversee fire protection for the citizens of East Jefferson", the offended egos of the powers-that-be launched an attack against their Class 1 firefighters. After learning of the controversy, Gilda attended a special meeting to hear the firefighters' side.
Gilda's response to the Jefferson Parish Council: (In total, with writer’s permission)
Dear Jefferson Parish Council,
Alarmed by the controversy between you and the East Bank Consolidated Jefferson Parish Fire Department, my husband and I attended a special meeting tonight. Your side of the issue has been publicized for a hefty sum considering the hired PR firm, a lawyer, and the media buys. We wanted to learn the other side, firsthand, by talking with the actual firefighters who will be affected by the suspiciously-timed amendments to the 28-year-old Red Book Ordinance.
There is no place for revenge and politics when our lives and property are at stake. The laundry list of infractions and unprofessional behavior on the part of Mr. Bonano and Mr. Saunders is glaring. You have the power to put all of this to rest. Please do your job and quit hiding behind self-imposed, non-court-ordered gag orders and refusals to attend public meetings. Surely, you are astute enough to see what is going on here.
To refuse to pay for propane used in food preparation, to refuse to pay for the newspaper or the rat traps ---how petty and irresponsible! To send a class of trainees to Baton Rouge when the department has qualified personnel already salaried and capable of doing the training at our own training center does not make sense. To send our firefighters into danger with non-tested, un-serviced air packs is criminal and ranks up there with sending our military into battle without armored vests. To accuse our brave firefighters of getting paid for non-worked hours is nothing short of libel.
Firefighters' radios are dysfunctional and their on-board computers are useless without wireless communication. We need a universal channel that is compatible across all communication systems of first responders, law officers, and firefighters. 2 major corporations (Motorola and Erikson) control all systems and the P25 compatibility touted as a solution doesn’t cut it. All companies should be regulated to have a universal open channel accessible with all systems without requiring expensive in-house equipment to replace what is already in service. 9-11 and Katrina have dramatically taught us how important immediate communication is.
Last Friday's release online of firefighters' social security numbers and work schedules takes the cake. Any thief or pervert can use the info to steal identities or harm the home alone families. "I’m sorry" does not cut it. These families need credit protection and more.
Please end this nasty stand-off. Leave the salary and scheduled overtime as is. And please get some qualified leaders, with years of fire department experience, to restore competence and accountability.
Sincerely,
Gilda Werner Reed, Ph.D.
Firefighters ~ the courageous souls that run toward fire when the rest of us flee ~ know when they email Gilda, when they knock at her front door, there is one who cares.
The voting for "Louisiana Woman of the Year" will end on December 31, 2008. The winner will be announced the first week of January.
Let's ripple!