By Staff
Good in the midst of evil'
To the editor:
The top stories on the television and in newspapers are predominately focused on wrongdoing. I was glad to find out firsthand that people still care about others, and are willing to help in times of need.
My husband and I were attempting to turn around at a dead-end, but when he backed up, thinking he was still on the street, disaster struck. There was a "ka plunk" and our van wouldn't move either forward or backward. We were in a ditch.
We were stranded and knew no one in the neighborhood. It was getting very chilly outside and the sun was going down. Luckily I had my cell phone, which made me feel less helpless. I called a friend who had a truck, but no one answered.
After a while, the people who lived across the street came over and offered their help. This was truly a blessing. They offered to try and pull us out of the ditch. Even though they had only a small truck, and we have a full-size, high-rise conversion van, their first attempt worked like a charm.
We were truly grateful and repeatedly thanked these caring strangers. Even if they hadn't been able to pull us out, we would still have been grateful for the attempt.
There is such evil in the world today, and much of it right here in our city, that people are hesitant about helping others in distress. You never know if they are genuinely in need or trying to run some type of con. That's why I am so glad to see that, in the midst of such evil there is still good."
Thanks again to our "good Samaritans."
Phyllis Stribling
Meridian
People not hard enough on their elected officials
To the editor:
I feel deeply for the Burlington workers. I have been exactly where they are now. For those of you that do not know, it always starts with upper management pushing the workers for more and better production. They tell this because Americans have been put in competition with countries like China, where wages in yarn and weaving mills are about 20 cents an hour.
Once there was a sewn thread company here in Meridian. That was the company I worked for for the most part of 29 years. I remember other companies that were once in Meridian that gave way to the 807 provision granted by the government causing the loss of many sewn operator jobs.
NAFTA requires the use of American made goods, but it also caused the loss of thousands more sewing jobs. Fabric mills like Burlington can not compete with China for cheap wages. China also has the fabric mills and the sewn operations. China has enough people to supply labor for the world.
Citizens of this country have made many mistakes. One is that we have not been hard enough on our elected officials. A simple way to address the problem is for our government to simply tell retailers, "you can go to any part of the world to source goods for your stores, but you must sell 40 percent American made."
The other fix for this problem is for everyone to stay away from retailers that sell cheap foreign goods and do not have a good mix of American-made goods in their stores. Have these retailers understand Americans need jobs also. Why should Americans buy from any retailer that will not support some American manufacturing jobs. Let parking lots be empty for a few days and it will make a difference in the way retailers think. Retailers think American demand cheap goods from overseas. Trick is, they are cheap to them, but we get charged a good ol' American price.
A short story, then I will sign off. I wrote our governor a letter asking why we have all these textile plants closing, causing a shortfall of tax collections, and not a word of concern from him. I got two envelopes back. The first was empty, just had a stamp and nothing inside. The other envelope was a note thanking me for being involved in government with not one word pertaining to the subject I had written him about. I wrote him a note back advising about the empty envelope and the fact that there was nothing of substance in the other envelope either. Still to this day no concern from the state level.
I have also mailed letters many times to Sen. Lott and Congressman Chip Pickering, five years' worth. To date all my answers have been rubber stamp replies. Pull the plug on the governor, Trent Lott, Thad Cochran and Chip Pickering at the voting booth next election in honor of the 800-plus people who lost their jobs at Burlington, 236 in Quitman and thousands more in other parts of Mississippi, and still more to come.
There are some of you that are friends of mine and you know how I feel, but I wanted you to know that my heart is with you all and that many care.
Ron Posey
Toomsuba