I believe many of you are old enough to remember the Columbus of not too many years ago. I do! In the 1950-60s Columbus had a population of approximately 19,000-20,000 citizens. We had great schools, good clean streets, little or no gang activity, and overall we had dedicated and efficient leaders in office. During these years Columbus was the envy of northeast Mississippi, but no longer! What happened? In my opinion it was the result of very poor leadership by our elected leaders in recent years!

Today many of our present candidates for office seem to concentrate mostly on the Amphitheater restoration instead of more serious problem areas such as almost weekly shootings, juvenile gangs, dangerous traffic congestion along our busiest shopping area, and the steady immigration of our residents to outlying communities. I agree that the amphitheater is of perhaps

Importance to the overall image of our city, but I dare say that it is not a major concern to most voters.

I’m not asking you to vote for any specific candidate, but I strongly urge voters to listen closely to the candidates and make educated votes. We’ve had ENOUGH officeholders who were sometimes voted into office because they were “good ole boys,” or for other reasons, and were neither capable nor qualified to hold such responsible positions. Vote SMART!

Fred B. Hall

Columbus

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