Something definitely needs to be done to improve education, not only in Mississippi but across our fruited plains as well. I would propose that first all semblance of anything even remotely smacking of politics, or political correctness immediately be banned from classrooms. Teachers can be liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, or what ever they choose, but not while educating children. It’s no secret that liberals have taken over the majority of school systems in America today, and look at where that’s gotten us. Our children lag far behind those in other countries, regarding their education and IQ. Our children are our future, and the better educated they are, the better off this country is. Teach them to think for themselves.
Slim Smith has a wicked and biting sense of humor, but he shines the naked light of truth on something ugly. People, including me, can go bonkers over just about anything. My weakness is the Second Amendment. Anyway, if somebody wants to drive 30 minutes to buy something just to show support for the CEO’s opinion on “gay” marriage, that’s their right. What really is bad is the fact that the national media shouted from the rooftops that he was “wrong” to say, in his opinion, that homosexual marriage is wrong, then completely ignore the hundreds of thousands of people who turned out to buy food from Chick-fil-A, as if it was a non-story. It just didn’t fit the media’s concept of what’s right, so it wasn’t newsworthy.
When KMart hired Rosie O’Donnell to be a spokesperson, I didn’t organize a boycott, I just stopped spending my money there. Apparently I wasn’t the only one, because she didn’t last long. I didn’t go in JC Penny’s much before, but now I sure as God made little green apples won’t now. Ellen DeGeneres is an attractive woman, successful star, and whatever she wants to be, but I don’t support the “alternative” lifestyle she promotes and I don’t have to spend what few dollars I have in an establishment that hires her to be a spokeswoman. It’s my choice. If anybody wants to buy at Penny’s, that’s theirs. Do as you wish, buy don’t try to make me do as you wish instead of what I wish, and I’ll return the favor.
Now, on to the Local Voices letter by Jim Terry. He doesn’t have to honor anybody who fought to gain Southern freedom from an oppressive Northern political situation, and he can believe any version of history he chooses, but the bottom line is none of us were there. Anyone who’s ever investigated a crime or auto wreck can tell you that two people standing side-by-side will give differing details.
He claims Gen. Forrest couldn’t read or write. Really? My research doesn’t support that claim. He was a slave trader, but that was a legal occupation at the time. My research has also shown that there were successful black slave traders in the South as well, but you never read or hear about them.
Lastly, he writes “Sadly, it is well documented that no American has had as many monuments dedicated to their memory as does Forrest.” I beg to differ. Go to any and every one-horse, two-bit town that qualifies as a burg because it has two stores, two whores, and a post office, and you’ll find something dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., some street, road, avenue, school, something. I mean from east to west, from north to south, every town honors Dr, King. No other person, not a Southern hero, not George Washington, nobody, can make that claim. Mr. Terry’s views are colored by his bias, but it is his right to believe what he wishes. I just wish our public schools could give students an honest-to-God education with the facts, all of them, and then let the students decide for themselves what is true or false, right or wrong, spin or fact.
Cameron Triplett
Brooksville
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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