HOUR ONE:
Boyd Professor J. Gerald Kennedy joins us in studio to discuss LSU and Flannery O'Connor and his works on Edgar Allen Poe.
"He is a writer who continues to be very contemporary," Kennedy says, "I think today he would be diagnosed as bipolar." Poe was not a lifelong drug and alcohol abuser as commonly believed.
Dr. Kennedy says he feels that after Flannery O'Connor was diagnosed with lupus her writing improved tremendously. "It really crystalized the urgency for her work." He continues, "You can't read Flannery O'Connor without cracking up." LSU will celebrate her 90th birthday at Barnes and Nobles at 3 pm on March 22nd.
Editor in Chief of the Reveille Chandler Rome and graduate student Joseph Hollands comment on the SAE fraternity scandal and the article in the Reveille about how this relates to LSU Greek Life.
Hollands says, "You were going to either be a black Greek or nothing at all... and even if you were accepted by the white Greeks, would you still be accepted by your own people in general?"
"It was mandated that they had to take a certain amount <of minorities>," Rome says as he tells a story of a sorority alumni board rejecting a qualified girl because she was African American.
"People are labeled Greek or non Greek," Hollands says, "When running for student government positions, you start counting votes on whose Greek or not."
"I don't see much <hostility and division> between Greeks and non Greeks," Rome says, "it's an unspoken division."
HOUR TWO:
Republican councilman Buddy Amoroso and former councilmanDarrell Ourso join the show to debate their views before the District 66 election on March 28th.
"I will not raise taxes on the hardworking taxes of Louisiana, I will not expand Obamacare," Amoroso begins, "Education is a yes to competition and a no to Common Core."
"The BESE board is our constitutionally charged office to deal with Common Core," Ourso says, asserting that it is not the governor's issue. "We need to amend our state constitutions to allow for independent school districts."
They both support St. George.
"I have never said that I am for expanding Obamacare," Ourso says. He continues, "No, I'm not signing the pledge<Grover Norquist>. I'm not saying I'm for taxes, but we have to look at all options."
"I give the Governor an A+ when he's in the state," Amoroso says.
"We don't have a revenue problem," Amoroso says, "We have a spending problem. I'm opposed to raising new taxes."
"You don't have the right to have a nondisclosure as a public official," Amoroso says.
They comment on the Fairness Ordinance.
"We need to give autonomy to universities to have control over their tuitions," Ourso says.
"We need to protect LSU as our flagship school," Amoroso says.
