E-mail a friendCleo Fields
airdate March 30, 2006
Louisiana State Senator Cleo Fields began his political career after completing law school, when he was first elected to the State Senate at age 24. The Baton Rouge native was elected to Congress at age 30 and served two terms before deciding not to make a re-election bid due to redistricting. He formed the consulting group Cleo Fields & Associates and, a year later, began his law practice. He also returned to his political origin as a state senator. Fields hosts a weekly interactive radio talk show, Cleo Live.
Cleo Fields
Tavis: On Saturday, in New Orleans, the Rainbow Push Coalition, NAACP, and other organizations are sponsoring the first large scale rally demanding that residents be given the right to return and to rebuild. Among those sharing the stage with the national figures like Jesse Jackson and Bill Cosby in Louisiana is Louisiana State Senate Cleo Fields.
At age 24, he became the youngest person ever elected to the Louisiana State Senate. By the time he was 30, he'd won a seat in the U.S. Congress. Senator Fields joins us tonight from Baton Rouge only because he's back in the State Senate after being redistricted out of his Congressional seat. Senator Fields, as always, nice to talk to you, sir.
Sen. Cleo Fields: It's always good to talk to you and also watch you and listen to you, Tavis.
Tavis: I appreciate it very, very much. Tell me first of all about what this rally means this weekend, what we're talking about here. The right to return, the right to get back into your business, the right to have your property, the right to vote. Tell me about this rally this weekend.
Fields: Well, it's a very important rally and march. As you said, it's the right to return, the right to rebuild, the right to vote. Citizens who've been displaced as a result of Katrina are in 46 states across the country. And they do, indeed, have the right to return to New Orleans, and they have a right to engage in this political process by voting.
They have a right to rebuild. And one of the significance of the march is after the rally, we plan to march across the bridge, remember, that citizens were denied access across during Katrina. Gretna police officers held people at gunpoint, and would not let them leave the city of New Orleans when the waters were rising.
And so one of the symbolic reasons why we're marching across the Crescent City Connection bridge is to dramatize the shameful condition that took place during Katrina.
Tavis: When I suggest, or when you suggest, that these citizens have the right to return, the right to rebuild, we're American citizens. We assume that you have the right to return home, the right to rebuild. That statement suggests that somebody must be standing in the way of that American right.
Fields: Yeah, and that's a good assumption to have. One of the problems is there's so many impediments, let's take the right to vote, for example. The citizens who've been displaced as a result of Katrina, they're still residents of New Orleans, for those who have not decided to relocate. They're still registered to vote in New Orleans.
They pay taxes in New Orleans. And to have all these barriers to prevent them from voting is not only unconscionable, but it's unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the state is moving forward with an election on the twenty-second, when two thirds of the citizens of the parish are displaced across the country.
And we want people to know that they have a right to vote, and they should return to vote, or they should cast their absentee ballot, despite the fact we've been fighting so hard to delay the election until proper infrastructure is in place.
Tavis: I saw earlier this week a federal judge said that is not going to happen, the election will go on April twenty-second, as scheduled. He refused to push the date back even farther. But how do you juxtapose, as a state Senator, the notion that we allowed, in this country, we set up, in fact, satellite voting centers for Iraqis in the U.S. to vote in an election weeks ago in Baghdad, but that the Justice Department would not get involved in setting up satellite voting centers around the country for displaced residents of New Orleans? How does one juxtapose that?
Fields: I don't think it's justifiable, first of all, and Tavis, just the other day I was in committee fighting to, along with Reverend Jackson and others, the NAACP, members of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, fighting to give voters access across the country through satellite voting. The committee voted three-three not to allow citizens to vote by satellite outside of the state of Louisiana, and I don't think it's justifiable.
If you're from Iraq, you can vote in America through satellite voting. But if you're from America, you can't vote in America through satellite voting. I think it's wrong. We got so many men and women who have lost their lives; many are losing their lives in Iraq today, just to enforce democracy. And citizens of Iraq should not have more rights and privileges to vote than the citizens of New Orleans.
Tavis: As the state Senate in Louisiana, where your legislation is concerned, given that particular answer, do you feel like your hands are tied? Do you feel like you are being challenged where your effectiveness is concerned, on behalf of these residents?
Fields: Well, this is the process. Every bill that's drafted can pass or can fail. I'm gonna continue to fight until the session is over with. Just because the bill failed today in committee by three-three, I mean the other day in committee by a three-three vote, I may add, does not mean that this fight is over with. Uh, we're still fighting on a Justice Department level.
Many precincts have not been (unintelligible). The state law clearly provides - RAS18533 provides that you cannot change a precinct once qualifying has ended. All I want in New Orleans is what they have in Iraq. Access to the voting box. And the citizens of New Orleans, many of whom don't even know that an election is taking place.
And when we disenfranchise one citizen, it's just like we've disenfranchised many. And obviously, many citizens who have displaced will not have the right to vote, and many will be disenfranchised. For example, there's a state law right now, today, that if you're registered to vote, if you registered to vote by mail, you cannot vote by mail. You have to actually show up in person.
So you got a person who received a one way ticket to nowhere by the United States military on a military aircraft, he's in Utah now, he decides to register to vote, he has to show up on election day to President vote in person. That's a poll tax. And it's really ridiculous that we don't change those type of draconian laws.
Tavis: Well, I am honored to have you on the program, as always, and delighted that you and others are doing the work you're doing this weekend to raise these issues in New Orleans. Glad to have you on the program, and all the best in the coming days and months on this issue, Senator Fields.
Fields: Thank you, sir.
Tavis: It's my pleasure to have you here. Up next on this program, the inspirational, very inspirational story of author and lawyer Cupcake Brown. Stay with us.
Back to March 30, 2006