It is late in the game. The calendar was ticking down on the final days of June. The defensive line is stacked with well-dressed, well-groomed teenage boys dressed in white jerseys bearing the Christian cross on their backs. They quietly await the snap while the offense parades, shouting profanities, hissing, and spitting at the defenders. The offensive line comprises a variety of adult women and men (although presuming the correct and specific gender of each may prove difficult). Their form is so flamboyantly covered that it borders on disrespect for the sport they purport to be playing.
As the game clock ticked down to the final second, the ball was finally snapped. In a quick, smooth, and uniform motion, like the overly practiced muscle memory of the Rockettes, the Christian defenders swept aside with a collective chuckle as the Freaks ran into the in-zone. The celebration begins with an official, clothed in rainbow stripes, running forward to signal a touchdown. Amid deafening boos and with a variety of graphic, vulgar motions, the harlequin offense taunts the public gathered in the stands.
But wait. As the stadium empties and the cameras are turned off, the entire officiating staff is gathered at the far end of the field and engrossed in discussion. Is it over? Upon further review, the touchdown is reversed. The call? “False start!” The clock sits at zero. There was no touchdown during official regulation. But the stadium had already cleared out. Flanked by a dozen supporters, the rainbow crowd is already holding their celebratory parade down Jefferson Street! They don’t even know? How embarrassing! Everyone’s been deceived yet again!
They told me to keep quiet
Full disclosure: these people loathe me. They want taxpayers to pay for drag shows for three-year-olds, highly sexualized propaganda interspersed throughout the public library children’s section, public schools, and more. They want their weird flags hoisted atop the mizzenmast of all local, state, and national governments. In short, they can’t seem to survive unless they are constantly bombarded with endless affirmation. And they’ll yell and scream to get it.
If there’s one thing I really can’t stand, though, it’s when the government uses its power and influence to lie to us. I know, it’s probably not a big deal. It’s a little white lie. Well, maybe a rainbow-colored lie. Either way, it’s not what we expect from our elected public servants. After all, if they’re willing to lie about meaningless foolishness, why should we trust them with more important matters?
So, the people “in the know” told me to smile and shut my mouth. Let these mental midgets have their little affirmation. Their simple minds will never realize they’ve been bamboozled once more. It makes them happy. You wouldn’t want to steal their happiness, would you? But it’s not right. Even people we fundamentally disagree with deserve the truth. That’s how we make things better in Louisiana. We make educated decisions based on absolute truth, not what we wish to be true.
Simple Allegory
While that simple allegory can’t completely illustrate what is and has been transpiring, it does paint an accurate picture of the false narrative surrounding the recent “Pride Proclamation” allegedly issued by the Lafayette City Council. That faux document is just another trick, a carefully constructed instrument to appease Lafayette’s tiny leftist woke crowd. And they fell for it… hard.
The so-called Lafayette City Council “Pride Proclamation” was signed on June 21, 2024, by Lafayette City Council Chair Liz Hebert (R 6/10); Councilmen (and full-time ‘public outreach’ employee of Sheriff Mark Garber) Kenneth “Comedy Hour” Boudreaux (D 1/10) who has a long history of scrapes with open meetings violations; Elroy Broussard (D 4/10), as well as Clerk of the Council Veronica Arceneaux. It just so happens that Liz Hebert was out of state on June 21, 2024. So, one may wonder how her signature came to be affixed to the document. However, that’s not the most crucial detail. A better question might be how the signatures of a quorum of an elected body found their way onto an official-ish document.
The signatures of Councilmen Thomas Hooks (R 6/10) and Andy Naquin (R 7/10) were notably absent from the document – which didn’t even have a space for their names. So, just how did it come to be known that Hooks and Naquin were not going to support the proclamation? Was there some communication outside of official channels? A “walking quorum,” perhaps? Maybe even a full-blown open meetings law violation? These are all possibilities, but let there be no doubt about one thing.
Experience Matters
The Left was played like a cheap fiddle, and the individuals who signed that document knew precisely what they were doing. They’ve all been doing “public service” work for years, even decades. It’s ridiculous if they want to feign ignorance and claim that this rookie blunder was unintentional. How can we know this? Aside from private conversation, there are a few publicly available clues.
Liz Hebert has served as a Lafayette City-Parish government councilman since 2016. Although “Comedy Hour” Kenneth Boudreaux resumed his term on the Lafayette City Council in 2024 after a short hiatus, he’s been slinking around as a councilman since 2008. Elroy Broussard also joined the Lafayette City Council in 2024. He’s the “new guy.” However, previously, he served several terms on the Lafayette Parish School Board. Lastly, Veronica Arceneaux has worked for Lafayette Consolidated Government for almost thirty years and has been the Clerk of the Council since 2013. Despite this experience, are we to believe their actions in releasing an unauthorized and false proclamation was unintentional? Please.
Council proclamations aren’t authorized
The powers and authority of the Council are outlined in the Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government charter. The legislative power of the government rests with the City and Parish Councils respectfully. No authority is outlined in the Charter granting the City and Parish Councils the power to issue proclamations. The only time the word proclamation is listed anywhere is in conjunction with the actions and duties of the Mayor-President. Specifically, it appears in the Code of Ordinances, 62-50. It says, “A general public proclamation by the mayor authorizing the festivities shall be equivalent to an application and permit.”
The Charter provides that “the City Council and the Parish Council shall each determine by resolution its own rules and order of business…” Section 2-07(C) Back in January of 2024, the Council passed a joint resolution (JR-02-2024) establishing the rules and order of business. Section 9(g) contains the following language: “All proclamations and monthly recognitions shall be presented outside the Council Meetings.” In previous years, the language stated: “All proclamations, monthly recognitions, and ceremonial presentations shall be issued only from the Mayor-President’s Office.” They stripped it out two years ago (the last time we caught them breaking the rules). However, the Joint Rules Resolution can’t and doesn’t give the City Council any more power or authority than the Charter expressly authorized.
Hebert, Boudreaux, Broussard, and Williams know this. The rules were deliberately changed to give their proclamations a veil of officialness when, in fact, they have no force, value, or legitimacy. They are merely laser-printed political ploys aimed at pacifying (pranking) the rabid Left. The fact that they created this document outside of a public meeting is also legally problematic.
The Will of the Body?
Any Council action must be the will of the body as a whole for it to have legitimacy. As laid out in Louisiana Revised Statute 42:13(A)(2), “Meeting” means the convening of a quorum of a public body. Further, according to LARS 42:14(C), decisions made by a public body “shall be viva voce and shall be recorded in the minutes.” An item must be presented on the agenda, debated, including public comment, and receive a favorable majority vote. None of those things have happened. The closest they came to anything resembling this happened at the June 18th, 2024, meeting of the City Council. The rainbow brigade appeared on “open mic night” to demand that the council affirm their lifestyle choices. One even suggested that the government has a history of “oppressing them” … by not issuing proclamations? There was nothing on the agenda, and there was no vote.
Days later, council clerk Veronica Arceneaux coordinated (convened?) a quorum of City Councilmen outside of a public meeting to sign onto an appeasement document. You are looking at a clear violation of the open meetings law. Even if they were to do this during a public meeting, the power to make proclamations is exclusive to the Mayor-President.
The language of the proclamation reads:
NOW, THEREFORE, WE, CHAIR LIZ W. HEBERT, VICE-CHAIR KENNETH P. BOUDREAUX, AND ELROY BROUSSARD OF THE LAFAYATETE CITY COUNCIL, do hereby proclaim the month of June 2024 in the City of Lafayette, Louisiana…
These three misfits don’t represent the will of the body, which is evident from the proclamation’s language. The Pride Proclamation doesn’t say, “the City of Lafayette proclaims.” It says these three snake oil salesmen proclaim. Although they’ll never admit it in mixed company, this entire exercise was a dirty trick perpetuated by these three pranksters. They’re laughing even now about how dim the pride purveyors have been. Well, Lefties, the joke’s on you… again.
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Too fast, too fast!
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