What you want  —   Baby, I got

What you need  —  Do you know I got it?
All I’m askin’
Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit)
Hey baby (just a little bit) when you get home
(just a little bit) mister (just a little bit)

I ain’t gonna do you wrong while you’re gone
Ain’t gonna do you wrong ’cause I don’t wanna
All I’m askin’   —  Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit)
Baby (just a little bit) when you get home (just a little bit)
Yeah (just a little bit)

I’m about to give you all of my money  —  And all I’m askin’ in return, honey
Is to give me my profits  —  When you get home (just a, just a, just a, just a)
Yeah baby (just a, just a, just a, just a)
When you get home (just a little bit)
Yeah (just a little bit)

[instrumental break]

Ooo, your kisses   —  Sweeter than honey
And guess what?   —  So is my money
All I want you to do for me  —  Is give it to me when you get home
Yeah baby
Whip it to me (respect, just a little bit)
When you get home, now (just a little bit)

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB
Aretha Franklin made this song iconic. The power, strength and delivery were high energy and resonant of a woman’s need to be acknowledged for her contribution to her relationship and do no more than get her “profits” for services rendered. Lady Aretha based her demands on long-term participation in the relationship.

Respect is: esteem for a sense of worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of quality or ability. There is the deference to a right, privilege, privileged position, or something considered to have certain rights or privileges; proper acceptance or courtesy; acknowledgement. Then finally, there’s the element of being esteemed or honored.

The problem as noted earlier is Lady Aretha was demanding respect for long-term, past performance and continued excellence in that performance. Some think they automatically deserve respect because they exist. It’s surely a fact we’re all deserving of respect and recognition as individuals and as children of our God; there’s a difference when it comes to performance based jobs: such as being a Mayor or City Council representative.

Some say it’s a matter of paying your dues, earning your bones or some other euphemism gets the message across. NO matter the position, many people think because you walk into a job based on winning a popular vote, you’re immediately deserving of the same respect as those coming immediately before you.

What do we base this expectation on? Are we thinking our performance will immediately be the equivalency of our predecessors? Or, is it because we simply believe our performance automatically should be recognized as being no worse than those same predecessors? Whatever the case, many people feel a new “anybody” in a position should earn the respect of their peers rather than expect they automatic reverence for their presence in local government.

Mayor Slaughter of Port Allen surely deserves the respect any person is entitled to. She’s been elected to office by a majority of popular vote. She’s entitled to a specific amount of deference (admiration) for her political acumen. But in the classical sense embodied in the song, the respect for longevity in office, performance in that office and the display of leadership in piloting the Port Allen Ship of State is lacking at the moment. Instead of extending olive branches to the City Council she’s snapping “switches” (thin, flexible rods meant to discipline or spank) and demanding the respect paid her predecessors: NOW!

Anytime two warring political factions seek to use Federal and State investigative agencies to punish their adversaries the public loses. The region appears dysfunctional. The people involved in government appear incompetent. And because outsiders don’t know the difference between the City Hall address on Court Street from the Parish Council on 8^Th Street; the entire parish suffers.

Obstructionist attitudes demanding compliance and capitulation to any specific party’s administration and policies is counter-productive. It stalls any good an incumbent seeks to do, whether it’s the Office of the Mayor or the City Council.

Both parties need to seek common ground rather than demanding the field be surrendered unconditionally.

This isn’t racist. This is stupid.

Thanks for listening.