Vision or Transparency?

Note: This letter was sent to both newspapers this morning.

This letter is being written in response to the “On the Doorstep” column that appeared in the 21 Sep 2012 issue of the Tunica Times.

While agreement can be made about most of the article, one paragraph jumped out at me and I have another opinion about the following statement: “Unlike others, I don’t fault former county officials for trying to make Tunica County better, for trying to give our people amenities that they had never had, for dreaming that Tunica County could reach beyond its ‘poorest county in the nation’ reputation.”

When I talk about former county officials and what they left behind, I’m not talking about their vision. I’m talking about their transparency.

Since 2008, the Transparency Committee has spent untold hours just trying to make sense of why so many government business transactions were set-up the way they were. For instance, why is the Battle Arena a 501c3? Why do we need a Healthcare Authority to run our Clinics? Why are there so many “commissions” standing in the way of the public’s right to know? Why, why, why? And why, when we started to ask questions did our former government officials act like we were an intrusion into their private business?

And as for the economy both nationally and locally, we should have known. We just weren’t paying attention. We trusted our elected officials and they let us down. Nationally, we had two wars that were not “on the books”; two tax cuts that were not paid for; and a Medicare prescription bill that was not paid for.

Let’s look at the facts. The first national tax cut was passed in Jun of 2001. Then 9-11 happened. The second tax cut was in May of 2003. We invaded Iraq on 19 Mar 2003. When has the United States of America simultaneously cut taxes and fought a war? Isn’t this sort of what happened here in Tunica County? When we had money flowing in from gaming revenues, why did we borrow so much money?

This is just a very short list of “whys”. It isn’t about the vision; it’s about the transparency. Ultimately, it is the people’s fault for not paying closer attention and the government’s fault for not being more open to our questions.