Welcome BACK to Baton Rouge, Mr. Trump.

It’s understandable why you would not be spending too much time in Louisiana as the presidential election will be decided in the usual-suspect places- Florida, Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa, and oh-so-sacred Ohio.

And your visit will be declared self-serving by the media and by our Democratic governor who has yet to raise his voice with the leadership of his own party who are “monitoring” the situation from the golf course on a New England resort island or from a hotel suite.

And you know what, kudos if you do receive a bump in the polls and why shouldn’t you – you’d be doing the job that President Obama and President-want-to-be Hillary obviously don’t want to do: being a leader, ascertaining what’s happening on the ground, consoling those who lost everything.  You know all the stuff that made for such great political theater before the television cameras in New Jersey during the midst of Obama’s re-election in 2012.

But apparently that’s all that was by the president: acting.

Or to levy a Kanye-esque charge, maybe Obama just doesn’t like Red States and their voters.  And as the most devastated parish was the Republican bastion of Livingston, there’s not much of a chance Obama will grace them with his illustrious presence.

We in St. Bernard (the most devastated and interestingly enough also the most recovered from Hurricane Katrina) have been waiting for Obama to literally go that extra mile from the school he has visited in the lower Ninth Ward to say hi to the parish- the federal government’s reconstruction success story.

After all Mr. President, you made such a fuss about the alleged callous manner of your predecessor…who had the decency to show up….many times.

Whatever, Barry.  We don’t so much want you to come here but leave office anyway, so no hard feelings.

So what will the benefits of a Trump visit be?  Well it could be the only way the national media, so enthralled with a bogus Olympic mugging in Rio, might bother to find the Baton Rouge area on a map.

Who knows, Mr. Trump, you could even bait them by saying you will polish off a bottle of tequila before delivering remarks.  They might charter jets to BTR to cover that and while en route actually learn something good.

And why should we want the media here?

Because they owe Louisiana.  Big time.

Their sensationalist and incendiary round the clock coverage of an armed convict being fatally shot by Baton Rouge police smeared Louisiana’s reputation, burdened the capital city with the financial cost and stress of an invasion of professional agitators, and lastly set the stage for the murder of Baton Rouge policemen.

The broadcast and cable networks have an opportunity to set the record straight about our civil servants, our caring people, and Louisiana values, which were most spectacularly represented in the legion of selfless boat owners that have since been christened the Cajun Navy.

These recreational fishermen personify the spirit of ALL LIVES MATTER as they rescued people from flooded homes and sinking automobiles.  Race didn’t matter, only need.

They could also see how private companies stepped up in a big way to fill an immediate need.

They could go to Celtic Studios, where a Hollywood movie production facility transformed into a make-shift refugee camp.

It should be noted that the manager of Celtic knows something about dealing with the aftermath of hurricanes as eleven years ago he had to gut his dying father’s home that was inundated with 5 feet of water from Hurricane Katrina, so he had an appreciation better than most about what the victims of the current flood are experiencing.

That man is my uncle and that house was the one I grew up in.

And maybe the additional attention will inspire others to step up, like Taylor Swift- whose seven figure donation to flood relief was one of the few high profile demonstrations that people on the outside were watching what was happening and that they cared.

So in closing Mr. Trump, I hope you have an informative trip to the Baton Rouge area.

I hope you spend some quality time with the people of our state learning of the tremendous personal loss of the victims and the admirable selfless sacrifice of the heroes.

But before you leave, be sure to shame the media and the current administration, two entities always striving to change the world but who choose not to give proper attention to  what’s actually happening in it.