The festival's Vice President of Programming Jimmie Duhon made a request of The Mammals' Ruth Ungar that they consider not playing a particular song. Ungar stated she would consider not playing the song, but she would make no promises. That was the end of it. There was never any attempt to force nor coerce the band, and there was never any discussion about not letting the band perform. The request was made after the festival received many phone calls expressing objections to the political nature of the lyrics.
The festival is a community sponsored and supported event. Since our community is fortunately a diverse one, we would prefer it if bands stayed away from anything that speaks negatively about the political, as well as the religious and cultural beliefs held by any part of our community. In the words of Ungar, "If this experience encouraged people to think about free speech, that's good, but I'd rather everyone have a good time." That is our sentiment exactly. We just want everyone to have a good time, to come out and experience different cultures and forget their troubles for a while.
As for revising our artist contracts, I will not propose, nor support, any language that attempts to restrict the political content of lyrics or political comments of the artists. Nor do I believe a majority of the festival's 35-member board would support such attempts either. Any such language would have to be so vague that it would exclude just about every band in the world. The very idea of trying to do it is absurd.
The changes we will make in our artist contracts, and to which Executive Director Dana Cañedo was referring, will be to state emphatically that the festival will not tolerate vulgar language, sexually explicit lyrics, hate mongering, nor the advocacy of violence. This festival is free and thereby implicitly invites all members of the community, including children, to come out. We have an obligation to those children and their parents. The festival is also held on publicly owned property, which obligates the festival to make certain that the public standards regarding obscenity and vulgarity are upheld.
I am quite certain that no one will ever call the ACLU, no one other than Scott Jordan that is, expressing concern for the Festival's stand on freedom of speech.
MAY 20 This post by blogger CB Forgotston draws parallels between Gov. Bobby Jindal and two individuals he probably doesn't want to be aligned with: President Obama and former governor Edwin Edwards. CB says Jindal's trying to jack up the debt ceiling (an Obama play, according to CB) and buy votes from GOP leges who normally wouldn't go for that (an Edwards play, CB says).
MAY 20 Here's a post in the Baptist Message from an alumnus of Louisiana College. The author, Larry Burgess, calls on the leadership of the private school to take care of some pressing problems. Physical plant issues are critical and unaddressed, some faculty make so little they need government health care, and there is an atmosphere that does not encourage honest discussion, he writes. It's time to get things back in order, he says.
MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
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