Most Calcasieu Parish School Board meetings are mundane and predictable not only in activity but also in the general attitude of elected officials.

The feeling of wheels turning, minds ready to think, hearts willing to change is absent. The air is often stale with bland lighting to match attitudes that are set on their own mission, long decided before the first opening prayer.

We live in a democratic republic. We elect officials to represent us, to echo our sentiments and then act with the greatest good of all humanity at the forefront.

But one or two things seem to happen. Elected officials corral like cows to the troth to mindlessly do the bidding of paid, public employees or if they do act on their volition, it is only for that which benefits their zip code’s greatest good.

What good is a full board when officials only spring to action for their address and their neighbors?

There is a painfully apparent lack of interest in the needs of all represented. And an even more obvious closing of eyes, ears and hearts to the pleas of voices who dare to speak out.

On Tuesday night multiple tax-paying citizens referenced the breath George Floyd eeked out of him at the hands of racism and asked to be given a fair shake at democracy over the financial bottom line. Yet dollars and cents, apathy and tradition won out.

Was it fair? Perhaps. Was it necessary? Perhaps. But were people’s voices listened to, valued and taken into deep, thoughtful consideration? No, as most anyone can read a room.

When we only represent ourselves, the masses do not win as true democracy was never intended to benefit one but all citizens.

We wonder why people protest, why people don’t “say something sooner,” why an eruption of anger and volatility takes center stage? It’s not so foreign after all and it’s not so far removed from the marches of the 1960s.

Perhaps our national crisis has been festering locally, but more quietly, in response to the simple “ay” and “nays” of officials too short-sighted to see, listen and empathize with their fellow man across the river?