Your Turn: Can America Go Broke?

Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

I don’t know anybody who believes America could go broke a la Iceland, Greece, or the former USSR. But, a lot of conservative economists – whom I don’t know personally – continue to say if Washington continues to spend trillions of dollars more than we raise in revenue annually, America will go broke. Nobody wants to think about what that may mean for our society.

Can America go broke? Nobody believes that. We’re America, the most powerful nation on earth! We have more resources than any nation in history! We are too big to fail!

But, what if we could go broke? What does that mean?

When a person goes broke, he loses everything…his home, car, and assets; anything of value is taken away from him through bankruptcy.

When a business goes broke, banks and creditors sell assets, close doors, and all workers go looking for other jobs.

When an international company with hundreds of billions of dollars goes broke, Washington pumps huge sums of taxpayer dollars into the business to bail it out, and CEOs and upper level management get hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses.

This is America! Capitalistic opportunities abound for those with connections in Washington.

What is ‘broke’ anyway? Is that when one owes more than one owns? Or, is ‘broke’ when one owes more than one could ever reasonably repay?

Consider the following current fiscal year numbers:
National Debt - $12.5 trillion
National Deficit - $1.4 trillion
Medicaid/Medicare Spending - $762 billion
Social Security Spending - $682 billion
Defense/War Spending - $662 billion
Interest on Debt - $190 billion
Federal Tax Revenue - $2.1 trillion

(Note I’ve spelled out billion and trillion because newspaper columns aren’t wide enough to incorporate whole numbers.)

Washington has spent $3.5 trillion dollars so far this fiscal year. We have already spent $1.4 trillion dollars more than we have brought in. If Washington were an American household making $50,000 per year, we would have made nearly $21,000 to-date, and we would have already spent $35,000.

While we’re looking at our credit card bill of $14,000 not counting interest, our spouse suggests we could save money by buying more health insurance now to offset costs we expect to have in 20 years.

They say money disputes are the leading causes of divorce in America.

America has unfunded liabilities of $108 trillion: we have taken money from taxpayers to pay for Medicare, Social Security, and Prescription Drugs, and we owe $108 trillion more than we have collected so far for just these three entitlements.

If America were broke, Washington could not send checks to pay for Medicaid/Medicare, Social Security, Unemployment, Food Stamps, Welfare, or any other entitlements. Washington could not pay federal employees – including military – or retirees.

America is broke. We are bankrupt. We can’t save money by spending more money. If Washington collected 100 percent of every paycheck in America, we could not put a dent in the debts we owe.

President Obama wants to spend $1 trillion on healthcare reform, creating nearly 200 new bureaucracies in Washington ‘to save money.’ Taxpayers will have to pay higher taxes to pay for this new spending.

Every paycheck in America will see larger deductions for Federal Income Tax, Social Security, and Medicare, not to mention state and local taxes. Plus, taxes will go up on everything we buy.

Washington should cut spending now and balance the budget.

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.com.

Your Turn: History Too?

Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

Textbooks, curricula, and educational resources have become essential tools of political ideologues. What are our children learning these day? Mississippi parents may be surprised!

“Why don’t they just teach what happened?” my friend asked. At our weekly meeting with the guys, I told about attending a workshop for secondary history teachers in northeast Mississippi. During the morning session, specialists from “Teaching for Change” – a politically progressive, DC-based resource for Kindergarten through 12th grade – regaled participants with a host of activities and methodologies (pedagogy, for those academically inclined) proven to increase students’ interest in history.

I told the men about some of the resources the specialists had touted, including a video clip of Howard Zinn performing a monologue depicting our Founding Fathers as the bad ‘white men’ who got what they wanted while giving nothing they had promised to thousands of soldiers who had fought beside them. Zinn accurately pointed out desertions among Continental troops during the Revolutionary War, and rebellions afterward in communities throughout our young republic when citizens felt slighted by powerful ‘white men’ in government who didn’t share spoils of war with ‘ordinary’ citizens. Who was Howard Zinn? Zinn died this past January, and the New York Times included in his obituary comments about “A People’s History of the United States,” probably his best-known work published in 1980. “To describe it as a revisionist account is to risk understatement. A conventional historical account held no allure; he [Zinn] concentrated on what he saw as the genocidal depredations of Christopher Columbus, the blood lust of Theodore Roosevelt and the racial failings of Abraham Lincoln. He also shined an insistent light on the revolutionary struggles of impoverished farmers, feminists, laborers and resisters of slavery and war.” Zinn’s take on criticism of his book? “It’s not an unbiased account; so what? If you look at history from the perspective of the slaughtered and mutilated, it’s a different story.”

I suppose all accounts of history are biased, some like Zinn’s on purpose, the rest merely tainted with biases of their authors. Even tomorrow’s history, today’s news covers the spectrum of ideological philosophies and biases.  With today’s information overload, most Americans glean little bits of current events from favored sources. Each of us tends to read, listen, or view what we already agree with. “Just teaching what happened,” or reporting what happened for that matter, is complicated at best.

In my own K-12 days, most of my teachers taught me what we were supposed to learn. I was also fortunate to have teachers who taught me how to think, something Zinn and his ideological colleagues and counterparts have abandoned.  The most vulnerable among us are our children. What are they learning in school? Whatever they’re learning will pre-determine which facts and sources they will believe and trust as they grow into adults.

Adults who participated in the healthcare summit in Washington could not agree on ‘the facts.’ Nobody won. School children and adults will likely learn only one side of ‘the facts.’  In history as in news or life, what happened is always skewed by ‘who said’ what happened. As the song says, “Teach your children well.”

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.com.

Your Turn: Constitutional Government

Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

America is approaching a stand off between people who believe in Constitutional government and those who believe Washington holds sovereign power. Hopefully, this stand off will be adjudicated through elections. More hopefully, those elected will lead us back into Constitutional governance.

CNN polling shows 86 percent of Americans believe “Government is broken.” President Obama’s approval numbers are diving into the 40s, and only Congress is seeing any improvement – moving from single digit approval ratings up into the teens. These and other similar polls are hardly partisan.

History teaches those who listen: centralized authoritarian government is the problem.

Our Founding Fathers knew this, and sculpted the Constitution to give minimum power to the federal government, moderate power to the states, and the majority of governing authority to the people. The last 110 years of progressive politics have turned this governing formula on its head.

Consider the ninth and tenth amendments:
“Amendment IX. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

“Amendment X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Notice these amendments limit federal powers to those enumerated in the Constitution while allocating all other powers to the States or to the people.

Progressives believe federal government has power over all things. Conservatives believe federal government has grown well beyond limits set by the Constitution.

Thomas Jefferson said, “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. “
Out of all the problems America faces today, the annual deficit ($1 Trillion/year) and the national debt ($13 Trillion) are the biggest threats to individual liberties and our national sovereignty.

What is Washington’s response? Spend more money on healthcare reform, environment, and education; regulate more of our ‘free market’ businesses and industries, and keep raising taxes to pay for all these benefits.

Jefferson also said, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” Americans are not happy with Washington today.

Does anyone believe Washington spends money wisely, efficiently, or effectively? What if all federal programs and bureaucracies not specifically listed in the Constitution were shut down?

Looking only at the E’s, we could save hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Shut down the Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Department of Energy.

Education could be more effectively and efficiently administered if all dollars going to education (federal, state, local) were invested in efforts overseen by local teachers, parents and administrators.

EPA has cost taxpayers hundreds-of-billions of dollars, not to mention has impeded business and industry’s profitability.

How many hundreds-of-billions of taxpayer dollars have we wasted through the Department of Energy, and for what? Don’t we still have an energy crisis?

Washington has indebted all foreseeable generations of Americans to unpayable liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid alone. No one in Washington has the wherewithal or backbone to reel in these liabilities.

Failure to stop deficit spending will lead us into a totalitarian Marxist state or anarchy. Washington must return to Constitutional government.

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.com

Your Turn: History Lessons?

Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

History records many of the great nations and empires of the world have fallen from within. The key to maintaining a strong republic appears to be passing on founding values and principles to succeeding generations.  What’s going on with K – 12 social science curricula?

The older I get, the more excited I become about history – of course I’m tempted to follow this with some witty saying….

The past few weeks I’ve been researching trends in history education among K – 12 students in public schools. What are our children learning? What kind of government will we have 25 years from now?

Abraham Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” Or, to steal a thought from P.J. O’Rourke, “If you think government is socialistic today, just wait until the next generation takes over.”

Across the South culture warriors, ideologues, and those who write and re-write history are battling over Civil Rights history. North Carolina made national news when education officials proposed expanding U.S. History education in elementary and middle school grades, but limiting course work in the 11th grade to 1877-present.

Mississippi Department of Education has cultivated similar plans during the past year – in association with The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation – through training sessions for history teachers. Interestingly, Teaching for Change, a politically progressive organization, has enjoyed a leading role in this training as a recommended resource for teachers and students.

I hated history in high school – probably why I’ve repeated so many historical mistakes in my life. However, over the past few years I’ve been fascinated with the founding of our nation, the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution.

While many in Washington have tried to transform our nation into something like Socialist Europe West, ‘ordinary’ citizens – Obama/Biden’s favorite adjective for us – have awakened to find America is radically different from how we began.

IF the Constitution does not support Washington’s moves to regulate and control healthcare, energy, education, environment, even the right to bear arms, AND lawmakers, bureaucrats and presidents have usurped that authority, THEN how would we know?

How would we know whether Washington is committing crimes against the Constitution if we don’t know what the Constitution says? Will grade school studies produce citizens sufficiently knowledgeable about the Constitution to know?

In the 1920s Harvard Law School shifted from teaching pure Constitutional law to teaching (my words) precedent law, i.e. how case law interprets and modernizes Constitutional law and creates new laws. This remarkable transition in educational jurisprudence has reduced our Constitution to an historical relic.

Reminds me of the story about a young man called to the ministry. Local pastors gathered Bible commentaries for the aspiring pastor to help him understand difficult Bible passages. Months later one of the older pastors asked the young man how his studies were going. The youngster, with wisdom beyond his years, replied the commentaries were certainly helpful, but he still had to go back to the Bible sometimes to really understand what it was saying.

Imagine what the next generation of citizens and government might look like if K – 12 students studied and understood our founding documents. How might that educational initiative reinvigorate America? Who will decide the future… today?

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.com

Your Turn: TEA Party Befriended

Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have joined the MS TEA Party via website, and I have attended Starkville TEA Party events, though I’m not and don’t want to be a leader in this movement. I’m really not a ‘joiner.’ But, I support the principles and values the TEA Party movement espouses.  That being said, this week’s column attempts to clarify for the bewildered just what the TEA Party movement is and is not.

Why is the TEA Party movement such an enigma for those with progressive-elitist points of view? Progressive elitists are similar to biblical Pharisees and Sadducees who didn’t get Jesus’ parables.  In Jesus’ case the prophets had long ago foretold His critics would not get ‘it.’ Fair and Balanced: Jesus (New Testament) quotes Isaiah (Old Testament), “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull….”  In the vernacular we say, “none so blind as one who will not see.”

The TEA Party movement is not a religious movement, though many in the movement are faithful believers.  The TEA Party movement is not a political party or even prelude to becoming a political party. TEA Partiers are fed up with political parties! That’s the point progressive-elitists fail to grasp.  Even after the inaugural national convention, the TEA Party movement still has no recognized central person, authority, or office. No one to blame or vilify! That’s what’s driving the progressive-elitists crazy.  Of course, the lame-stream media (Sarah Palin’s characterization) continues to tell half the TEA Party story, reiterating what TEA Partiers are ‘against’ and highlighting the most politically incorrect within the movement. Who would have thought the lame-stream media would have a political perspective or agenda?  FOX News certainly has a political perspective. It just happens to be diametrically different from the other broadcast/cable news lockstep perspective. If one wants the whole picture, one has to gather news from differing perspectives, otherwise one is deceiving him or her self. Same is true of newspapers and other news sources.

Back to the TEA Party movement: TEA Partiers are fiscal conservatives who are fed up with big government, particularly in Washington. TEA Partiers recognize both Republicans and Democrats are to blame.  TEA Partiers believe Washington not only doesn’t have answers to problems like healthcare reform and the economy, but Washington IS the problem in many cases.  Progressive-elitists believe Washington can defy laws of economics and spend its way out of debt. TEA Partiers say, “STOP SPENDING US INTO TERMINAL DEBT!”  TEA Partiers are not campaigning for reducing government. They are actually working to reduce the size of government. Big difference between campaigning and working (see “difference between campaigning and governing” for further details).  TEA Partiers believe businesses, particularly small and medium size businesses are the backbone and drivers of the American economy. Based on this belief, Partiers believe American businesses can bring us out of these poor economic times IF Washington will just get out of the way, i.e. lowering taxes (vs. progressive-elites’ ideas of raising taxes in a recession), allowing poor business practices to fail (no more bailouts – try bankruptcy), and restoring confidence in the Dollar by stopping wasteful spending on bottomless bureaucratic money pits.  The TEA Party movement sprung up spontaneously and autonomously in thousands of communities across America when Chicago thugs and Beltway bullies defied the Constitution. In conservative America, “them’s fightin’ words!”

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.com

Your Turn: Mixed Signals - Mixed Results

Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

President Obama says he wants to lower the deficit and reduce the debt. His 2011 budget raises spending and projects a $1.3 Trillion deficit. The White House predicts another trillion-dollar plus deficit in FY 2012.

In “Intellectuals and Society,” Thomas Sowell traces the effects elitist intellectuals have had on American economics and politics. He says, in effect, elitists’ attitudes and ideologies commandeer their thinking.

To paraphrase Sowell, elite intellectuals have been “unduly impressed” with themselves in comparison with the population at large. Due to this impression of superiority, elitists make the logical leap they are more qualified to govern and control things like the economy.

Sowell goes on to say these elitists overlook the crucial fact the rest of us combined have “vastly more total knowledge” than all of the elite.

Masses of ‘ordinary’ people have “vastly more total knowledge” than elitist intellectuals?

Take our current economic crisis with trillion-dollar deficits and double-digit unemployment. Washington elites have been pushing federal spending to restart the economy and reduce unemployment. (Coincidently, this is the same strategy FDR and his administration of elites pushed throughout the 1930s.)

Conservatives, independents, and TEA Partiers have all been telling Washington to stop spending, reduce the size of federal government, and let our free-market economy work.

While many progressive re-writers of history blame the Great Depression on the stock market crash of 1929, data paint notably different historical scenarios. Did FDR’s New Deal create the Great Depression?

Sowell writes, unemployment “never went as high as 10 percent for any month during the 12 months following that crash in October 1929. But the unemployment rate in the wake of subsequent government interventions in the economy [FDR’s New Deal] never fell below 20 percent for any month over a period of 35 consecutive months.”

Sowell compares Roosevelt (and his band of elite intellectuals who pushed for government interventions to correct the economy) with Reagan (and his more pragmatic, free-market advisors in their handling of economy after the 1987 crash).

“FDR presided over an economy with seven consecutive years of double-digit unemployment, while Reagan’s policy of letting the market recover on its own, far from leading to another Great Depression, led instead to one of the country‘s longest periods of sustained economic growth, low unemployment and low inflation, lasting twenty years.”

In other words, Reagan’s strategy allowed the economy to correct itself, while Roosevelt imposed governmental policies to manage the economy… which didn’t work. We’re still laboring under many of FDR’s interventions.

Of course, elite progressive economists/academics/intellectuals will discount any comparison between stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987, much less any comparisons between either of these two and today’s crisis.

Elitist progressives’ attitudes and ideologies have commandeered economic policies in Washington. Growing numbers of ordinary Americans with “vastly more total knowledge” are asking Washington to stop meddling.

Believing Washington’s intervention will prevent our economy from burning down is like believing arsonists will willingly hose down a fire. Any move they make is much more likely to exacerbate the conflagration.

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com

His column doesn’t affect the views of Starkville-Now.com.

Your Turn: State of the Union

Daniel L. Gardner
Guest Columnist

How does one measure progress, effectiveness, or meaningful success? Take major issues in Washington this past year: healthcare reform, cap and trade, unemployment, deficit, debt, or man-caused disasters (formerly the war on terror).

Last year Americans gave all our federal dollars and resources to supermajorities of leftwing elite Democrats in both houses of Congress, crowned with a leftwing elitist president and his leftwing elitist administration, including leftwing elitist secretaries heading up federal departments and bureaucracies. Far leftwing radical elitist czars iced the Democratic cake.

How’s that working? Not so good. Even leftwing elitist pundits are saying Washington failed in many ways this past year because of – brace yourself – Bush, Cheney, and the Republicans! It’s not the Democrats’ fault.

Take healthcare reform: twelve months and more than 4,000 pages of legislative hoopla later, Massachusetts elects one Republican senator and Nancy Pelosi says none of the bills can pass in the House. It’s the Republicans’ fault!

Pelosi managed to squeeze cap and trade through the House like a fat woman squeezing into leotards too small. Even though Democrats enjoyed a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate, cap and trade flopped.

President Obama preached the unemployment crisis gospel, promising passage of the $787,000,000,000 stimulus bill immediately for shovel-ready projects would keep unemployment below 8-percent and ‘save’ millions of jobs. Unemployment exploded by more than 25-percent to double-digit numbers not seen since Reagan inherited the economic mess Carter left behind.

President Obama has said if he can get his agenda passed, America will see deficits of $1,000,000,000,000 every year for the next ten years. Washington wants to raise the debt limit by $1,900,000,000,000 to $14,290,000,000,000 because failure to do so will limit spending in Washington.

An Islamic terrorist commits a man-caused disaster, gunning down an Army recruiter in Arkansas; another Islamic terrorist commits a man-caused disaster, infiltrating Army ranks, murdering 13 soldiers, and wounding 30 more people; and another Islamic terrorist commits a man-caused disaster, setting fire to his underwear while trying to murder nearly 300 people on flight 253, after which the Secretary of Homeland Security and a White House spokesman both say the system worked and protected Americans from a man-caused disaster.

The Obama Justice Department tried to prosecute CIA operatives and Bush officials for their roles in ‘torturing’ admitted Islamic terrorists. The same Justice Department is moving five Guantanamo detainees – including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, self-confessed mastermind of 9/11 man-caused disaster – to face federal charges in lower Manhattan, giving them all the rights of citizens who have survived conception and birth.

On a positive note, President Obama won a Nobel Prize for his potential, and successfully appointed the first Latina Justice to the Supreme Court, a juror who said she could make better decisions than white men.

Based on past performance, Washington will continue pushing stimulus spending to save jobs, will raise taxes on selfish rich people and banks to offset deficits, and will continue to create and fight crises for the American people.

How does one measure progress, effectiveness, or meaningful success?

Daniel L. Gardner is a Starkville, MS based-columnist. He can be by emailed at PJandMe2@hotmail.com. His column doesn’t affect the views of Starkville-Now.com.

Your Turn: Letter from Mike Allen

The past few months were an exciting mix of energy and hard work. During the course of my campaign for alderman, I enjoyed making many new friends and visiting with hundreds of residents all over Ward 5. It was a rewarding experience that I’m convinced will bring life-long personal benefits.

I thank everyone for their support — giving time, offering encouragement and making campaign contributions. It was humbling to see so many invest in me. I also thank those who voted on my behalf.

While the outcome was not what I had hoped for, Ward 5 will be in capable hands with Jeremiah Dumas as alderman. I appreciate the civil campaign he ran and I look forward to working with him as a friend and advocate for Starkville.

Again, as a candidate, I thank the voters of Ward 5 for the chance to directly participate in the political process. As Americans, let us never forget that blessing of liberty or take it for granted.

Sincerely,
Mike Allen

Your Turn: Letter from John Gaskin

Dear supporters, friends and residents of Ward III-

The past few months have been among the most rewarding of my life. I am proud to say I have made many new friends during the course of this campaign and I am grateful for your help, encouragement, contributions and support.

In the end, we fell just a few votes shy of victory, but I take pride in having run an honest and factual campaign that was supported by virtually half the voters of Ward III.

I would like to congratulate Mr. Parker on his election to the Board. As I have said the entire campaign, he and I do agree on several things. I ask you each to support our new Mayor and Board of Aldermen as they take over the governing of our city in July. I am excited about the next few years and hope we see many great things happen to the city we love and call home.

As for me, I will not be slipping into the shadows. I intend to stay involved in our community and I will continue to voice my opinion and stand up with our homeowners when the need arises. We must ensure our city plans for the future in a way that protects our neighborhoods, property values and quality of life. I am optimistic that Mayor Wiseman and our Board of Aldermen will do just that.

Sincerely,

John Gaskin

Your turn: A few thoughts on the mayoral candidates

In this election season, as in most, there has been plenty of talk about candidates but little analysis and comparison. With only two candidates left for the citizens of Starkville to choose from it is past time we take a closer look at these individuals and the skills they have to lead this city.

The authors of this letter have no connection to either candidate personally or professionally. Our views are crafted only from information that is public knowledge. We have spoken to both candidates about their views individually and attended the forums sponsored by Starkville Daily News and Starkville Young Professionals.

Experience:
Parker Wiseman has practical experience in city government. He has worked with cities in North Carolina and Mississippi as a graduate student, intern, and consultant. His life has been devoted to the study of city government and has continually sought opportunities to hone his skills in this area. He has also grown up in a home that “bleeds” city government and politics so he learned that language at a very young age.
Marnita Henderson has lived in Starkville for a very long time and has been a part of “everyday life” in Starkville for years. Her claim to fame is her long time attendance at Planning and Zoning meetings and Board of Alderman meetings. This is definitely admirable and more citizens should follow her lead to be more active at the meetings.
In addition to BoA and P&Z meetings Mrs. Henderson also may have attended almost every MSU home football game since 1950, but that doesn’t mean that she is ready to coach. Only one candidate has experience of actually dealing with local government issues. Only one candidate has shown to have the necessary tools to lead a city government. That candidate is Parker Wiseman.

Leadership:
Parker Wiseman obviously has some tremendous leadership skills. That he has made it to this point in the election as a perceived newcomer speaks to his leadership ability. His campaign also shows his ability to plan, organize, and execute. Some have made the argument that his experience as student body President and/or Vice President does not relate to the mayoral position. Being elected student body President is no easy task, even at his hometown university. For Mr. Wiseman to reach that position multiple times and at three different universities is amazing. Just think, how easy could it have been for a Bulldog to become president of his law school class at Ole Miss? How easy was it for a small town Mississippian to be elected Vice President of the Graduate Student Body at the University of North Carolina? Obviously he has ability to lead and build consensus.

Some have argued that he is seeking the position of mayor only as a stepping stone for greater future endeavors. I do not know Mr. Wisemanyt well enough to speak on subject. I do know two things are true if this is the case, first he will only receive the opportunity to seek higher office if he first performs well as mayor, second if he is to attain higher office then having a hometown boy serve in our state or federal government will likely prove beneficial to the city.

(This space reserved for Marnita Henderson’s leadership record)

Mrs. Henderson has long been involved in Starkville, and yet we have seen no indication that she has lead anything other than her election campaign. Mrs. Henderson should be commended for taking action in her community. Frustrated with how our community has been led over the past few years, she has decided to have her voice heard. However, it is well known that her attendance at various city meeting, which she cites as experience, has been largely to voice opposition at every turn to plans and progress put forth by previous administrations. She claims she wants to bring change and unity to city hall, yet has continually been the voice of dissension. This is not a mind-set that will be capable of building consensus. It certainly sounds more like the same small minded governance we have been saddled with to date. Mr. Wiseman, on the other hand, has well documented examples of leadership and he has tremendous passion for his hometown. He has a vested interest in the success of our community and he too has taken action to enhance the great qualities of Starkville. Parker Wiseman’s prior experience has borne fruit consistent with the type of leadership we need to move Starkville forward.

Knowledge:
Unquestionably, knowledge of how to run city government is one of Parker Wiseman’s greatest strengths. Mr. Wiseman has had more training and formal education in city government than any of the mayoral or alderman candidates combined. City government has obviously been his passion for a very long time and he has been working towards this goal for years. He knows and understands how a city should work and he knows the elements that create a successful city. He understands the nuts and bolts of government and has strong opinions about Starkville’s strengths and shortfalls. He understands the importance of having a plan and governing based on that plan rather than managing by crisis or the will of certain individuals. He is willing to examine other successful cities and try to learn from their successes and mistakes. He has a vision for this community, and he has the training to move it forward. His understanding of long range planning and the city budgeting process will result in better use of our tax dollars and increase economic development. This in turn will produce a higher quality of life for all citizens and help reduce our individual tax burden.

Marnita Henderson has a nursing background and has no formal training in city government. She sees a slice of community issues at the grassroots level, but lacks training and experience in city management. Mrs. Henderson has only peripheral knowledge of past issues that have been before the Board of Aldermen and the Planning and Zoning Commission through her attendance at the meetings. She has proven herself after multiple opportunities to be ignorant of the issues and opportunities faced by the mayor. She has no training in long range planning or our budgeting process. As a result, an administration led by Mrs. Henderson will continue to promote policies that produce wasteful spending and management by crisis. This will lead to stifling growth and either higher taxes or continued deterioration of our neglected infrastructure.

Only one candidate has the knowledge and experience to understand the role of the mayor in our form of city government and how that office can best be used to direct policy and build consensus to move Starkville forward. That candidate is Parker Wiseman. Mrs. Henderson’s public position for not needing a Chief Administrative Officer is by itself telling enough that she has no understanding of the duties of Mayor and/or those of the CAO. It will not matter the number of impossible hours Mrs. Henderson actually spends, as she has promised, working as mayor if she does not understand her job. Further, it is disturbing that so many citizens downplay Mr. Wiseman’s education. If Starkville needed to build a bridge, would we hire a recently-graduated civil engineer or simply someone that has driven across many bridges in their long life?

Both candidates have campaigned very hard. Both have strengths, but based on experience, leadership, and knowledge; Parker Wiseman is the only qualified candidate to lead Starkville.

Jeremy Murdock - Starkville
Jim Gafford - Starkville

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