Growing up in "The Boot," or Louisiana, people see a lot of things and experience much more than children in other parts of the country. As children, we learn how to cook foods like gumbo and red beans while we learn to chant on the LSU Fighting Tigers using the word "geaux." With this being said, more than half the children know how to say a few simple phrases in French, all the while being able to say almost every city in the state. Our main holiday is Mardi Gras and we prepare weeks in advance for several weekends of pure joy that consist of getting up at 2 a.m. Saturday morning to stay outside all day in the freezing cold. My childhood was filled with all of this, even though I did not live in the state for the majority of this time, but I experienced all this even ten hours away.
But Louisiana is so much more than parades, beads and good food. The state has a culture that dates back to way before it even entered the country, but no one knows that it has one of the oldest bars founded by a famous pirate or that ghost stories fill every bayou and backroad. This state is so much more than what people see, yet all they see is the saying "Laissez les bons temps rouler." How can we do this when we turn on the news every morning while drinking our Community Coffee and eating beignets to see that a person who defends our state has fallen?
Our officers are so precious to the state for the fact that they deal with more than the normal dispatch like abuse or theft, but sometimes they have to go find an alligator sitting way too close to civilization and they have to remove it. These people work every parade and deal with more than the fair share of drunk, stupid people that most encounter in a lifetime. So, why is it that they put so much on the line to be ambushed and have to be scared that it is the last time they will come home? Louisiana is supposed to love every person that walks in because they join the easy feeling of party and grace, yet it seems like now that the state has taken to a more violent side.
The citizens are looking more at revenge than what long-term impact they will dish out, so why are more and more getting upset about the vengeance? These people in the state want so much and deserve so much for everything they have encountered: Katrina, the flooding in Shreveport/Bossier, the shooting in Baton Rouge/Lafayette, etc. and yet it seems like they do not want to be patient for the good things.
At the end of the day, I feel like every single person should put more effort into the state and the enjoyable times than looking at what is going on in the news and the community. We should be a state where people want to come to experience a new culture and love for the food, the majestic oaks swaying in the wind draped in Spanish moss, the plantations that exhibit a bygone era, the music that has people swaying and dancing, the community get-togethers that all are welcome to and the stories that are detrimental to the way life is lived. The state offers so much to people and it seems like people are kissing it away by not taking care of the state. It hurts my heart because it’s coming to me that I would rather be away from the state because the inhabitants simply have no love for it, or anyone, anymore.
