Let us assume there is a mother and she has two children, then one day one of her children is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. The mother begins to miss work, then spends a lot of time in doctor’s offices and hospitals. She is walking the floor at night with concern and prayer; she no longer can give both her children equal time. The mother does not love the sick child more than she loves the healthy child.

However, she must spend considerably more time focusing on getting the sick child healthy, for this child is in crisis. If the mother does not make the necessary lifestyle changes to aid the sick child, then society will say the mother is responsible for medical neglect and child endangerment.

Such is the same with the city of Baton Rouge. The southern portion of the city is healthy and the northern part of the city is sick. Its diagnosis is “oppression.”

In the past 10 years and even today, the northern part of Baton Rouge has been systematically subjected to political, economic, cultural or social degradation because its residents are majority black. It is inflicted with several forms of discrimination: economic, recreation, retail, housing, media and infrastructure. It is currently on life support.

The years of city leaders treating healthy Baton Rouge as the favorite child and sick Baton Rouge as the stepchild have precipitated a hopelessness beyond anything I have seen in my life.

“A constant diet of hopelessness will ultimately darken their mental skies and make them believe that their future is bleak and they will, therefore, develop the self-destructive behavior patterns so many of our youth currently exhibit,” Na’im Akbar said.

We need city leaders, particularly a mayor that is not trying to serve ALL the people in Baton Rouge equally. Because all the people and communities in Baton Rouge do not need the special attention during these perilous times.

When I hear speeches where leaders, specifically black leaders, emphasize they are trying to serve all the people, it reminds me of “All Lives Matter.”

Race brings on individual issues for each minority group. Saying “All Lives Matter” causes erasure of the differing disparities addressed in the Black Lives Matter movement. Using the word “all” when there is a very necessary and urgent need to represent the underserved, presents the exact same “whitewash!”

We need a mayor who is intentional in developing a medical treatment plan to heal the people and communities in north Baton Rouge.

Chauna Banks

Metro Council member

Baton Rouge