Sound Off for Nov. 9

A presidential candidate has referred to his appointment to West Point as a scholarship. Many of the media have also repeated this inaccuracy. Let's clarify. There are two types of appointments to West Point, Annapolis, Air Force, and Coast Guard Academies. These appointments are congressional and academic. There is no scholarship as the education is paid by the government with required service time after graduation as a commissioned officer. I still cherish my appointment from North Carolina to West Point in 1951.

Very important

When people talk about how uneducated we are, I tell them about our shipyard (one of the top 3 in the U.S.) that builds the ships that protect the U.S. and built nuclear subs for over 75 years (11,000 employees). Stennis Space Center tests the rockets that go into space and Fred Haise from Biloxi flew on them! Chevron refinery is one of the largest in the U.S. The Delta is rich in agriculture. The recent Nissan plant. The first heart transplant on a human was in Jackson in 1964! The new Grammy Museum is in the Delta because a lot of music originated in Mississippi. Many famous people, authors, actors, and artists are from the state: Elvis, Jimmy Buffett, Robin Roberts and Oprah. Our military bases are some of the best. Mississippi is very important to the rest of the U.S., believe it or not.

Glue

I am very thankful for the citizens of our Coast cities. We're the glue that holds communities together. That's a good thing, because some of those voted back in office can't hold on to anything with all that grease on their palms.

Inconvenience

While I am an avid supporter for our troops and veterans, I have to say that the parade put on by the city of Gulfport was very poorly planned and managed. I and many of my coworkers were made late for work because of the city blocking off U.S. 90 for the parade. There were no signs or notifications that this was going to be done. Having to drive up U.S. 49 to Pass Road, I ran into numerous traffic jams that were being ignored by other officers that were standing around. There was no help to manage congestion as it only got worse as the lights on Pass and 30th were not set to handle that kind of traffic. C'mon Gulfport, you really dropped the ball on what could have been a great celebration for the vets and still made it easy on others trying to get to work.

Complete control

Republicans now are in complete control of this state without any competition. They will now prove that they can bring about their vision to finally turn this state into the third-world backwater they have always wanted it to be. The one that looks like tyranny over of the peasants.

This story was originally published November 9, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Sound Off for Nov. 9 ."