Nov. 2, 2003

By Staff
Candidates make bad role models
To the editor:
I have to agree with the column concerning the state of the political campaigns lately. Where has the idea gone of letting the public know what you stand for and what you hope to accomplish if elected?
With all of the negativeness in the campaigns lately, the average voter I'm sure finds it hard to want to vote at all let alone have to see such frivolity in the middle of a movie or hear it behind a favorite song.
It's time for the politicians to stop, look and listen to what they are presenting as role models for the politicians of the future (our children).
Not to quote Rodney King but, "Can we just get along?" It's time to put the my-dad-can-whip-your-dad behind, and come out with something serious for the people campaigning. May the best woman/man win. Give the people an opportunity to decide for themselves with an open mind.
Caroline Blanks
Meridian
Memories of Gov. Ronnie Musgrove
To the editor:
Seems to me, I remember Gov. Ronnie Musgrove running his last campaign on a theme of "family values," to include numerous pictures of himself and his family. Where is that family now?
Seems to me, I remember Gov. Ronnie Musgrove stating in his last election that education and teacher pay were part of his platform. Yet, if I remember, it was Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck who took the banner and ran with it.
Seems to me, I have heard Gov. Musgrove say he did not vote for this tax increase or this budget, but as I remember, he as the governor has the power of veto. Did he use it to stop them? No!
Seems to me, I have recently heard many ads touting what Ronnie Musgrove has done for Mississippi, but as I remember these things, Ronnie has again taken credit for the work of other men and women. I have seen little Gov. Musgrove has done.
Seems to me, I remember myself and more than 80 other Mississippi Air Guard officers writing newly elected Gov. Ronnie Musgrove in 2000, telling him something was wrong in the Guard. As I remember, through his spokesman, he said we were "disgruntled employees." Eighty-plus officers disgruntled?
Seems to me, I remember Gov. Ronnie Musgrove saying that if the many charges were proven in the recently completed USAF SAF/IG investigation into the Mississippi Air National Guard, he would act swiftly and harshly. My memory's short, but I am still waiting on his actions, since they were proven. Now, he says, we will wait on the next investigation.
Seems to me, Maj. Gen. George Walker, Gov. Musgrove's first adjutant general, was rejected by a state Senate committee over several questionable activities, one of which was using a Mississippi Guard recall roster to solicit funds for Gov. Ronnie Musgrove's election.
Seems to me, as I was told by a judge in Meridian, and others, a story about Gov. Ronnie Musgrove's staff calling certain people (those being considered for the TAG position) after his election in 1999 and saying, "If you contribute $50,000 to the governor's re-election campaign, he will be able to make a better decision on who the next adjutant general of the Mississippi Guard will be."
Seems to me, after remembering all these facts, I need to vote for someone else. Gov. Musgrove, at best, seems to be a failed leader to me!
Mississippi deserves better!
Ret. Col. Joe H. "Jody" Bryant
Meridian
Keep Key Field in mind as you vote
To the editor:
I am writing regarding the 186th at Key Field … Doesn't it seem strange that they haven't published the report on the wrong-doing at Key Field? Ronnie Musgrove had something to do with that. After the election, they will publicize who was involved. Keep that in mind when you vote.
Mavis Creighton
Meridian
Musgrove to blame for financial crisis
To the editor:
I want to point out that soon after Gov. Ronnie Musgrove was elected governor in 2000, he came to the House and Senate Appropriations and Education Committees to make his proposal to raise Mississippi school teachers' pay to the Southeastern average.
Gov. Musgrove said, in making the pitch, that his staff had already been in touch with "every" secretary (cabinet level) of "every" federal agency in Washington, and that they had been assured Mississippi could get more than $100 million annually in federal funds we had never gotten before to help pay for his teacher pay raise. He said this was "recurring," meaning we'd be getting it from now on.
No one argues that teachers don't deserve more pay. Certainly they do! But, the fact is that this money has never materialized.
It has been reported to me that state fiscal leaders cannot point to a single dime we have received from the federal government that we hadn't received before.
The teachers are getting the badly needed pay increase, but they are not getting it because of any federal funds that Gov. Musgrove has gone to Washington and secured from the federal government. The facts are the facts.
Gov. Musgrove touts his leadership abilities and complains constantly that he is left out of the appropriation process. Is it any wonder why the Legislature turns a deaf ear to his proposals and ideas? He single-handedly is to blame for the financial crisis we now find ourselves in.
State Rep. Eric Robinson
R-District 84
Quitman
Veteran disappointed with Lester Spell
To the editor:
The Lester Spell I see on the TV ads is not the same Lester Spell I saw in 1996, soon after he took office.
He wanted to make a name for himself, and he did this by getting the state Legislature to let him take the Department of Agriculture out from under the protection of the state personnel board. This way, he could get rid of anyone he wanted to.
Some of us veterans found out the hard way that he would not honor the state statute 25-9-303 that gives the state personnel board the authority to grant preference to qualified veterans in hiring and state layoffs.
My own experience of this happened in May 1996, when I was called to the main office in Jackson and was told there was no job for me in the Department of Agriculture anymore. I had worked there for six and a half years and was sent home.
In July 1996, two months later, a young non-veteran with a little over a year's experience in the same division I had worked in was called back and placed in another division to be re-trained.
I am a veteran from the Korean Conflict era, and this tells me veterans' preference in the state of Mississippi is up to whomever gets elected.
Charles Wansley
Decatur