Fred Prejean
10-15-06

The recent piece by Scott Jordan in The Independent Weekly is a well written comprehensive study of unfolding events dealing with the Lafayette Parish Government. It is evident from the article that Jordan put a tremendous amount of research into his writing. The article reads well and comes across as very informative.

That being said, when an article of this magnitude is undertaken, it is understandable that there be a minor oversight or two by the author.

One oversight is that Parish Councilmen Bruce Conque and Rob Stevenson have said that they were poised to vote for changing Willow Street to Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. when Parish Councilman Louis Benjamin made the motion to do so. That is, until Parish Councilman Chris Williams amended Benjamin’s motion so that the original Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. be changed to Malcolm X Dr. This amendment by Williams came as a shock to Benjamin for he had no idea that Williams was going to throw such a curve to his motion. That was how Chris Williams came to be such an ardent supporter of the name change of Willow Street to M.L. King Dr. He then began to play the race card which may have been the cause of Conque and Stevenson abandoning their original positions of support for the change. 

Where are the leaders you ask?  They are hidden before you in plain view! In a timely manner, they accepted their leadership role and addressed the street renaming controversy when the controversy began to show signs of dividing our community.  They organized themselves and took the posture of open minded men and women spending time interviewing all but one councilmen.  Although these ministers had no objection to renaming the street to M.L.King, they did not allow this bias to interfere with their mission.  Their mission was to speak with all councilmen in an effort to understand their positions on the street re-naming.  These fair minded individuals may have been naive in believing they could offer their combined wisdom as Christians to a group of angry councilmen pursuing a path of self and community destruction.  On the other hand, perhaps ministers were indeed the appropriate people to intervene in such a contentious battle.  

I wish to introduce to some and offer our gratitude from others to the ministers who walked in Jesus footsteps as they struggled to find a peaceful solution and resolution to the street name change controversy:
Pastor Lloyd Joiner
Pastor Donald Washington
Pastor Carmouche
Associate Pastor Adam Ledet
Rev. Robert Seay
Rev. Ann Sutton
Pastor Larry Lloyd (represented by two church members)
Pastor Ricky Carter and his son
Also, in attendance was Mr. Mervin Harmon

The efforts of these ministers were shunned by all councilmen because the passion of our councilmen was more important. The vindictive behavior of our councilmen was the real enemy.

With respect to Mr. Jordan's query, please be advised that black ministers play a very important leadership role in the African American Community. To Mr. Jordon, the author of the article entitled, “Where is the Leadership?”, I respectfully submit that the leadership you seek is hidden before you in plain view. Learning the culture of people helps to understand them in the broader context of community life.  Visiting the churches of the above named ministers is a good place to start.
   
Other than those two oversights I mentioned, Mr. Jordon's story is a well done as well as informative article.

Fred Prejean

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