News - Editorial - Letters

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

Oct. 25 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

If your neighborhood needs revitalizing, get to work

It is easy to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that participation in our neighborhood associations does not matter. The same attitude exists with voting in our local elections. If you think the people at City Hall are “going to do whatever they want to do anyway,” you may be right. Your decision to remain uninvolved and disinterested provides them permission to do just that.

If you don’t agree with the way things are being handled, don’t waste your energy making your neighbors miserable. Who needs neighbors grumbling to each other and not where it counts? Everyone has a responsibility to support their community, not just a few neighbors. When the few are burned out by carrying the “dead weight” of the community, things really fall apart.

It is not that easy to just pack up and move to a better neighborhood. Besides, whatever you contributed to your old neighborhood, your new neighborhood can expect the same. (I can hear Dr. Phil saying, “How’s that working for you?”) Take care of your home, your neighborhood, your city and they will take care of you.

Do you know your alderman? Do you know what an alderman is? If either answer was “no,” you are not involved.

If you have at least three of the following in your neighborhood it is time to scream for help: speeders, drug houses, vandalism, unkept yards, junk cars in yards, junk on lawns, trash along your streets, dog/cat poop in your yard, more cars in a driveway and/or on the lawn than drivers in a home, abandoned houses, “For Rent” signs on several lawns, “For Sale” signs on lawns for more than two months. All of this can be very disturbing, especially when you wake up one morning and find that you now live in the ghetto and are not able to move.

Don’t lose heart; get involved; improve your little corner of the neighborhood and watch it spread. You can do it. Together, we can do it.

C.C. JONES

Volunteer community organizer Ocean Springs

Cochran and Wicker failed to protect workers against abuse

Sen. Al Franken introduced an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies that restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault and discrimination cases to court.

The Senate approved the amendment, 68-30, after hearing the story of Jamie Leigh Jones, a 20-year-old who in 2005 was gang-raped by seven U.S. contractors while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. After her rape was confirmed by the Army Support Hospital, she was held in a packing crate with no bed, food or water while KBR awaited instructions from higher ups.