To the Editor:
In response to the ongoing debate between Ms. Beverly Johnson and myself, I must say that the opinions expressed are not those of the invisible Attala County GOP.
As an overcompensating recovering liberal, I tend to speak frankly about social issues. My words were characterized as “scarily crawling out of the woodwork”! What I said should be scary, as they draw attention to the actual problems that are responsible for the downward spiral that our county has been in of late.
The entire NFL controversy is just a distraction to avoid the truth. It was alleged that I was “racially disparaging and lacking in sociological insight.”
Disparage; v. to regard or respect as being of little worth.
I never spoke to any one’s individual worth. I addressed the reality of what we have now and how we got here. It is interesting to note that my “unwanted welfare babies” comment struck a nerve, but there is no mention of the fact that massive numbers of black-on-black shootings/murders vastly outnumber those of police-involved incidents.
As Chicago’s YDT murder/shooting rate is on a record-breaking pace, how do you explain the proliferation of ungovernable uncivilized people running rampant in Democrat-controlled urban areas? I assert that these are the unwanted, fatherless urban welfare babies that have grown up in a feral existence. Can you prove me wrong?
The real issues I call out are the result of LBJ’s failed “Great Society” social engineering debacle. It has evolved into a modern incarnation of bondage in a form of “welfare slavery” that crosses racial boundaries.
Again, all of us, black and white, should step up and share responsibility for the horrible situation that our ancestors created when they chose to enslave other people. From the African tribesmen that sold their captive enemies to Europeans, to the white and black early Americans that bought them, both our ethnicities share some responsibility and we should seek to learn from that past and, at the very least, live in peaceful co-existance! I assert that I have an astute logic based on sociological insight.
It is also interesting to note that the fact that i “distorted” was my description of Kaepernicks attire and not any of the core issues I spoke to. My description was an aggregate of the anti-American displays of disrespectful garb that I used for illustrative purposes.
I apologize for the inaccuracies. After reading Ms. Johnsons response to my letter, I am tempted to join the throngs of Mississippians rowing rafts towards that godless communist island paradise of Cuba! I have a feeling that it isn’t really all that great there! The whole Cuba vs. Mississippi diatribe was conflating the national issues with state issues. I am happy to discuss state issues, as I have an idea of what it will take to move Mississippi off the bottom of the “best of” lists and off the top of the “worst of” lists!
The greatest way to improve health care and education is to collect taxes that people line up happily to pay. The low hanging fruit is to legalize lottery.
The more difficult, but much more beneficial way is to legalize cannabis and industrial hemp. States that have ended cannabis prohibition have seen a 25 percent reduction in opiod deaths and a significant reduction in crime. By the way, a lethal dose of cannabis is 15,000 pounds in fifteen minutes! My former home of Washington state has received over $430 million in excise tax in addition to over $185 million in local sales taxes on over a billion dollars in sales! That would go a long to make Mississippi more prosperous state with a much higher quality of living.
“What about the kids?” you ask. Legal regulation is the only chance you have of keeping pot away from kids, as it is known to be harmful to the developing brain. As it is now, cartels and their employees will sell to anyone with a buck. IDs are strictly checked and the products retractable from clone to final consumer with better than black market pricing. I can overcome any objection to legal cannabis with common sense!
These two issues would give Mississippi the ability to fund an education and health care system second to none.
There are a number of issues on a county and city level that could be addressed to make our area more attractive and livable. If this paper allows it, I will line those out in a future communique.
Dana Gwin
Attala County
