AN OPEN LETTER TO THE VOTERS OF ORLEANS PARISH

Every night there are seniors in New Orleans going to bed hungry. Though hundreds of older adults are fed each week by the New Orleans Council on Aging, 1,300 are on the waiting list to receive a delivered meal. In a city of rising costs, many homebound seniors, already on a fixed income, have described how they ration their plate of food from Meals on Wheels to make it last for the whole day. Hundreds more are on the waiting list for the Homemaker Program, which provides housekeeping and chore assistance, a service that for some is the difference between aging in place and leaving their beloved home. There is an actual solution to this heartbreaking problem. We can close the gap in funding and provide more for the elders who have given New Orleans so much.

On March 30, Orleans Parish will vote on one item: a dedicated millage for senior services. This millage will collect two mills for five years and would provide millions of dollars for desperately needed resources and programming. (One mill is 1/10 of 1% of a home’s assessed value, typically taken after any exemptions have been subtracted.) Older adults represent almost 25% of Orleans Parish, a number that will continue to grow as America’s population rapidly ages. The New Orleans Council on Aging senior centers, Meals on Wheels, and Homemaker Program will all receive increases in much-needed funding if this millage passes. Early voting is March 16-23 (except Sunday March 17) from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Election Day is March 30 and your polling location can be found at sos.la.gov. If you can vote, please take a few minutes to show up and support the people who have laid the foundation on which we move about.

Vote yes on the millage on March 30 (or during early voting) to support seniors in Orleans Parish.

—Katie Hunter-Lowrey, Director of Communications for City Council President Jason Williams

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

One Mardi Gras, a verrry long time ago, when I was but a young punk in high school roaming the streets and surely up to no good, my older brother gave me a piece of paper with a phone number on it and told me to call and ask for him if I got into any trouble I didn’t want mom and dad knowing about. (This was long before everyone had a cell phone.) It was a nice thing to do, a real stand-up-guy kinda gesture. Luckily, I never had to call him. But it was nice to know I had that slip of paper in my wallet. This is a ceremony I’ve tried to bestow on my younger cousins over the years, but they are far smarter than me and would most likely never find themselves in the kind of trouble I used to flirt with back in the day. But it’s always reassuring to know someone you trust has your back. This Mardi Gras, I implore you to do something nice for someone. It’s not easy, because we’re all jostling about and bumping into each other, fighting traffic, and enduring headaches and hangovers for days straight. But please: let someone pass through your claimed parade fiefdom. Give your treasures away to the kids or out-of-towners next to you on the parade route. Offer someone a ride or a drink of water, or a hand up if they’ve fallen.

My only other advice, which is becoming an annual tradition itself in these pages, is to make no plans or obligations or promises over the course of the holiday that can’t be broken immediately and with zero regret. Mardi Gras brings with it so much chaos and traffic (did I mention that already?) that managing expectations is key; crucial to that is knowing you may not make it to that party or parade. You may not find your friends at the designated spot and time. Your party animal may desperately want to hit that late show, but your human meat sack might be crying out for sleep and hydration. Listen to the meat sack! Mardi Gras is best enjoyed when you let it take you where it will—like a mighty, raging river whose current you can’t possibly swim against—whether that’s carousing all night or headed straight home to curl up under the covers. Either way, be safe out there, y’all. See you on the other side. —Dan Fox

March 2019 cover photo of AF The Naysayer by Mike Hartnett

photo this page from ‘tit Rəx by Laura Borealis