South Mississippi could be a formidable voting bloc

In 2000, Hub Council, a group of young businesspeople was formed to get for South Mississippi its fair share of the state's economic pie. High on the agenda was the goal of encouraging this area's legislators to stand together and speak as one voice.

In January the council sent a letter to the 41 legislators representing districts south of Interstate 20, requesting that they pledge to support a candidate from South Mississippi in the upcoming speaker's race.

Upon receiving this letter, many became indignant that they had been put in such a spot, some because they had already committed themselves to Billy McCoy, a candidate from Prentiss County in North Mississippi. One legitimately might ask why a legislator from this area would stick his neck out this early when probably 40 percent of the legislators will not return for the next session.

In the 122-member House there are two strong voting blocs, each representing about one-third of the votes. The first is composed of the major committee chairmen, their lieutenants, and their hangers-on, all from North Mississippi. Several South Mississippi legislators regularly vote with this bloc. The second is the 36-member Black Caucus. At the beginning of every session they elect a leader, develop an agenda, and fight for this agenda for the duration of the session.

The 41 legislators from South Mississippi have never voted as a bloc. Evidently not believing that in strength there is unity, each scurries around trying to get himself or his district a bigger piece of the cheese. Usually they wind up with barely a whiff.

Until our legislators unite to speak as one voice, South Mississippi will have little, if any, influence in the budget process, redistricting, or taxation formula.

It may be that there is no leader among our 41 legislators confident and capable enough to lead the charge to wrest power from the hands of North Mississippi, which has held it for so long. If so, we need to consider turning them all out of office and starting over. We could not do worse.

GENE SAUCIER
Hattiesburg

There's plenty of work for other nations to do

Some members of the United Nations are now saying they want a more important role in rebuilding Iraq than "humanitarian services."

I'd like to suggest that they also be involved in the following: France can perform all garbage pickups weekly; Germany can pick up and haul away all concrete rubble from streets and building sites as they have assisted in the design and of these facilities. Russia can remove all bombed-out tanks and burned vehicles from the streets and highways throughout Iraq.

I am sure that this will give all the countries that did not assist us something to do in the rebuilding of this nation.

DON BOUDREAUX
Ocean Springs
donb426@juno.com

We're entitled to our views of what is anti-American

You anti-war protesters have your right to protest. So why are you so angry when I practice my right to call you anti-American? All Democrats' ideas for higher taxes and buying votes with those tax dollars in forms of handouts (i.e.. college grants, welfare, Medicaid, WIC, CHIP and so on) are, without a doubt, anti-American.

Rep. Gene Taylor is against tax cuts. You guessed it, I call that anti-American. Where is my right to support myself and my family without Taylor and the Democrats holding a gun to my head and forcing me to support people I don't even know in the form of taxes?

One excuse they use is, "It's for the children." I do my part by supporting my children. Maybe, "The war is expensive." It's costing only 1 percent of the GNP. Korea cost 15 percent; World War I cost 24 percent; and World War II, 130 percent.

How about saving money by holding the American people responsible for taking care of themselves?

DAVID ZWICK
Gautier

Protesters have no clue how they hurt our military

Frankly, sometimes I am shocked by what I read coming from mouths of some of the people who live in this country. Having been a Marine in Desert Storm, I know first-hand what it is like.

For example, the gentlemen whose son was killed in action when the conflict first began was blaming the president for his son's death. It wasn't the president who killed his son; it was the Iraqi Army. Does he think his son didn't know the day might come when he would be asked to go to into harm's way for a reason that made sense to some people but not to others?

War is ugly, and there is nothing we can do about it.

Few of the protesters, especially those in college, know the feeling of war or of what their protests mean to the members of our armed services. They only know the feeling of lying safe under the blanket of security that our men and women in uniform provide for them.

TONY MALLINI
Waveland

Quaking in their clay boots

As we watch the Iraqi people celebrate their new-found freedom, symbolized by the toppling of a towering statue of Saddam Hussein, the world can only wonder at the elation and envy of the neighboring Iranian people - as their rulers flinch.

ARMOND 'SI' SIMMONS
Pell City, Ala.