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July 28, 1937 — April 16, 2025

ERATH — Funeral Services for Mrs. Dorothy Duhon Mergist will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 at Out Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church with Father Clinton Sensat officiating. Interment will follow at Our Lady of Lourdes Mausoleum.
Visitation will be held from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 with the recitation of the rosary at 6 p.m. Visitation will resume on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 at 8 a.m. until the time of service.
Frioux-David Funeral Home of Erath, 209 East Putnam Street, (337) 937-0405 will be handling the arrangements.

KAPLAN - The Kaplan Pirates baseball team has made history this season, and they likely do not even realize it.
The LHSAA recently released the Division III Non-Select Playoffs, and the Pirates (19-12)  are seeded No. 5.
The high seed earned them a first-round bye, and they will play the winner of No. 12 Caldwell and No. 21 Church Point in the second round. 
Being ranked No. 5 is the highest ranking for the baseball program since the LHSAA began ranking teams.
The Pirates are coached by three non-faculty members, who all graduated from Kaplan High.
Jake Faulk is in his first year as the head coach. He spent five years as an Kaplan assistant coach. Teal Richard and Romy David are the assistant coaches.
“I love the five seed,” Faulk said. “It is better than I thought we would be. I will take it.”
When the Pirates went to the semifinals in 2008, they were ranked No. 11; the following year, they were ranked No. 7.
When they reached the semifinals in 2003, the LHSAA did not have a ranking system.
They have won eight out of their last nine games, including six straight. 
The team’s success combines good chemistry and the squad willing to go the extra mile.
“I am not surprised by our success,” Faulk said. “These young men have worked hard. They matured from their freshman and sophomore years and became young men. They have grown up at the end of the season.”
The team consists of four senior players who have played as starters for three years.
The four senior starters are Hayes Mire (pitcher/center fielder), Remy Broussard (catcher), Carter Petry (right field) and Karter Meaux (pitcher/first base).
The junior starters are Aiden Gaspard (shortstop) and third baseman Sabe David.
Owen Marceaux (left field), Gage Guidry (pitcher), and Trent Guidry (outfielder) are the three sophomore starters.
The only freshman starting is Hayden Gaspard at second base. Hayden is the younger brother of Aiden, the starting shortstop.
Kaplan has a .301 team batting average. 
Meaux leads the team with a .438 batting average and has knocked in 31 runs. He has six hits in the last two games.
Petry is hitting .368 with a team-leading 39 runs batted in.
The Pirates have a few arms to use in the playoffs.
Ayden Gaspard is 4-1. He shut down Central Catholic last week. He threw five innings and only allowed one hit, walked one, and struck out eight in Kaplan’s 12-1 win.
Sabe David’s pitching record is 3-2, Karter Meaux’s is 4-2, and Hayden Mire’s is 2-5.
The playoffs will start this week, and it is a three-game series. Faulk said that what day Kaplan plays in the second round will be determined by who wins between Caldwell and Church Point. If it is Caldwell, the first game will likely be played on Friday, followed by a doubleheader on Saturday.
If the Pirates have to play Church Point, it could be a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday if needed.
Faulk said having the first-round bye is positive because Kaplan has a few players dealing with injuries.
Shortstop Aiden Gaspard is nursing a leg injury he injured on a second-base play against Erath. 
Hayden Mire could use the rest to nurse a shoulder injury.
“The extra week off is fine,” Faulk said.  “We are going to rest some players.”

5 Teams in Playoffs

Five Vermilion Parish teams in the LHSAA Baseball Playoffs.

Division II - Non Select

No. 23 Beau Chene at No. 9 North Vermilion
(First Game, Friday, 6 p.m..; Second game, Saturday, Noon: Third game if needed, 3 p.m. Saturday

Division III - Non Select

No. 2 Erath drew a bye first round
No. 5 Kaplan drew a bye first round

Division IV - Non Select

No. 23 at No. 10 Delcambre: Game April 25, 6 p.m. in Delcambre

Division IV - Select

No. 2 VC drew first round bye. The Eagles’ second round playoff game will be on April 29-May 3.

June 23, 1941 — April 11, 2025

KAPLAN — A Funeral Service officiated by Reverend Suresh Mathangi will be held at 1 p.m., Wednesday, April 16, 2025, at Vincent Funeral Home of Kaplan honoring the life of Gordon Paul Bourque, 83, who passed away on April 11, 2025.
A visitation will take place at Vincent Funeral Home of Kaplan on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, from 9 a.m. until service with a rosary being prayed at 10 a.m. Burial will follow at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Pecan Island.
He is survived by his stepchildren, Mona Hebert (husband Geoffrey), Irma White (husband Michael), Bonnie Wainwright (husband Walter), and Kimberly Vincent (wife Sandy); his brother, Jesse Warren Bourque; his sisters, Helen Stanisky, Veronica Touchet (husband Glenn), Ruby Bourque, and Judy Shipperbottom.
He is preceded in death by his wife, Dainty Hardin Bourque; his parents, Murphy J Bourque and Electa Sturlese Bourque; his brothers, Eugene Collins, Norman Wilmer, Donald James, and David Wayne Bourque; his sisters, Catherine Miller and Patricia Harrington.
Gordon served in the Army from 1964 to 1966. He worked for Broussard Brothers and then at Fresh Water Locks for the US Army Corp Engineers for 19 years.
Gordon said when he was a boy and would get off the bus from school, he was handed a sweet potato to eat and then sent to the cotton fields until dark. It took him a long time to eat sweet potatoes again.
Gordon enjoyed gardening and raising ducks and chickens. One day he told me he didn't need any more baby chickens, but they brought him joy, so he bought them anyway. He was so proud when a big hurricane came through and all his ducks and chicken survived. When we visited him, he would be shelling pecans or peas, cutting okra or bell peppers.
After one hurricane he lost 3 freezers full of food. It was hard for us to convince him to downsize because he came from a very large family and food was important to them.
Gordon was a very selfless individual. He physically and financially cared for his siblings and his mother. When he married my mother, Dainty, he accepted me and my siblings as his children. He always remembered birthdays and holidays. He loved all children and enjoyed buying snacks for them.
Pallbearers will be Corey Gaspard, Mike Touchet, Chad Touchet, Norman Bourque, James Hammett, Jimmy Vincent, Joey Bourque, and Chad Bourque.
All funeral arrangements are being conducted by Vincent Funeral Home - Kaplan (337) 643-7276.

As I read a recent flood of articles bemoaning the Trump administration’s stance toward the European Union and the elites that run it, I had an attack of déjà vu. I kept hearing the 1960s band Country Joe and the Fish singing in my memory. The words do apply today. As far as Europe is concerned, “what are we fighting for? Don’t ask me, I don't give a damn.”
True, this could be nothing more than a reverberation of a misspent youth. But the issues raised are real and need to be addressed. Why are we so deeply involved in the affairs and economies of Europe, all to our own detriment? Why so many troops stationed in Europe 80 years after the end of World War II and 35 years after the fall of the Soviet Union? Why do we tolerate their incessant hectoring and their dangerous and threatening authoritarian moves?
Since the beginning of the year, Europe as defined as the European Union (EU), has gone full tyranny. Any thought that the EU shared American values is a dangerous delusion. Just a quick check list shows that the leading candidate for President in Romania was removed from the ballot with virtually no justification other than his opposition to the “European experiment.” The populist party Alternative for Germany was boxed out of any say in government despite scoring a strong second place. In France, the leading candidate for President in the next election, Marie LePen was barred for some contrived charge. In Spain, the leading conservative-populist voice was charged with “hate speech” because he opposes the destruction of his country through mass illegal immigration.
But it isn’t just manipulation of the electoral process to deny true democratic expression. The EU has flexed its thuggish muscles in countless other ways as well. From expelling a 4-year-old from kindergarten for allegedly being “transphobic,” to Britain establishing a two-tiered criminal sentencing scheme that imposes harsher penalties on white men, to the refusal to admit that the so-called “climate crisis” is a lie that is crushing economies throughout the continent, Europe is gone. There was a reason many of our ancestors escaped it and now we can see that all the tendencies and arrogant abuse are part of the DNA of Europe, not of just a few individuals.
The most recent example, coming out of Germany, is a stark reminder of the ultimate expression of fascism, the very definition of it as stated by Benito Mussolini in a 1927 speech in the Italian Parliament when he said, “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State” A German court has imposed a 7-month probation sentence on editor-in-chief of Deutschland Kurier, David Bendels, for publishing a parody of a German federal official. The Bamberg District Court found that a satirical photo montage about Federal Minister Nancy Faeser to be an instance of “defamation against political figures,” under Paragraph 188 of the German Criminal Code (StGB).
Faeser, echoing il Duce, famously is quoted as saying during her term of interior minister: “Those who mock the State must be dealt with by a strong State.” Can’t get any more clear than that.
It is time, way past time, to get out and leave Europe to rot.
The United States was only drawn into the European con-game by Woodrow Wilson who fell for the One World, Globalist vision a little over 100 years ago. It was a huge mistake. Then while there was overwhelming opposition to entering World War II — at least on the European front — conditions and raw propaganda brushed it aside. Was defeating the Nazis a good thing? Of course it was. But the aftermath has been horrible. Why did we rebuild Europe? Why do we continue to subsidize their defense and their entire economies? Why is it our job to keep the Middle East shipping lanes open when it is Europe who gets the goods that pass through them.
And why do we continue to suffer their condescending attacks. Whether it is the threats on U.S. tech companies using the phony scam of “disinformation” as the ruse or the demand that all companies throughout world adhere to the destructive Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards that the EU is proposing as a precondition to doing business in the EU, the attacks are relentless. This is the globalist — World Economic Forum — Atlantic Council agenda. And it and they need to be removed as a clear threat to the United States by any means necessary. They are the enemies of American freedom, not allies.
A big part of the answer to these questions are also found from our hazy friends. Country Joe’s lyrics are as relevant today as they were in 1969. A couple of lines prove the point: “Come on, Wall Street, don’t be slow, why, man, this war’s a go-go. There’s plenty of good money to be made by supplying the army with the tools of trade.” Or: “Come on, Generals, let’s move fast. Your big chance is here at last!”
Money. Advancement. Power. And all at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dead Ukrainians and Russians. The simple truth is that key elements of the establishment in the U.S. thrive as a result of us being chained to the EU. The benefit to the American people does not factor in. And while some make mountains of money from it, the real beneficiaries are the globalist ideologues who work day and night to destroy the United States as a free, sovereign and independent nation and impose their world government schemes. The entire exercise is aimed at nothing less than the elimination of any say by the people who pay the bills and bleed and die.
It is time. Remove all U.S. troops from Europe. Reduce or eliminate our support for and role in NATO. Any nation that refuses to remove trade barriers to American products and services should be hit with a fee or tariff double what is being imposed on Americans. When the crippled, bleeding sore that is the European Union moves to reform and open their systems to the will of the people of their nations including free speech, we should be glad to deal with them. But to continue to play the sucker to the EU has got to end. Freedom from this abusive and destructive relationship is, after all, worth fighting for.

Bill Wilson is the former president of Americans for Limited Government.