An Interesting Article from Bob

The author of the book, “Collapse,” Jared Diamond, succinctly described the conditions that determine a society’s response to any given challenge.  “A society’s response (to challenges) depends on the societies political, economic, and societal institutions and its values.”

Tunica County has had more than a century to develop and settle into its political, economic, and societal institutions and its values.  The advent of the casinos in this county did not change those four elements of Tunica society.  Rather, it substantiated them.  It rewarded the keepers of those four elements of our society.  The creation of the airport, event center, recreation center, museum, golf and tennis facility, and river park are little more than monuments to their belief that their political, economic, and social institutions and values, that for more than a century dominated the county, were correct and justified.  I hope we now know better.

About a decade ago, Tunica County leaders were strongly advised against building a dependency on income from the casino industry by well experienced experts during a hearing in Washington, DC.  That sage and learned advice could not change the entrenched belief that the political, economic and social leaders of Tunica County were the keepers of the holy grail of decision making.  In short, that they knew best what was good for Tunica County.  This is why property taxes were almost abolished, why services were performed at no expense to the county residents, why the monuments were constructed, and why the county is now deeply in debt.

Instead of creating a method for developing the young people of the county for careers at all levels in the economy of our country, instead of creating an environment friendly to and supportive of diverse economic growth, they built monuments to their political, economic and societal institutions and to their values.  You and I will be paying for those monuments for a long, long time.

Now that the money has (not so suddenly) decreased, the people of Tunica County are faced with difficult times.  Changes must be made to how the money is allocated to all aspects of the operation of the county, the Town of Tunica, and to the Tunica County School District.  What stands in the way?  It is the keepers of the political, economic, societal institutions, and their values.  If we fail to escape the bondage of those deeply entrenched beliefs, we will make poor decisions leading to failures that are far more destructive than we can tolerate.

This county has more resources and more opportunity than were available to us prior to the casino tax revenue.  It is not as much as we had in our recent past but with careful adjustments to our expenditures, we can become financially sound.  Will there be pain? Yes!  We have been living in a false economy.  It has not collapsed but is shrinking and is predicted to continue shrinking.  It is time to put on our “big boy drawers” and make the requisite changes to our political, economic, and societal institutions, and our values which led us to this destructive situation. 

So, where do we begin rebuilding?  We do so by putting in place persons who have the knowledge, the experience, and the courage to squarely face the challenge and who will make well considered change.

The people of Tunica County must vote for candidates who are well versed in the condition of our County and in the opportunities that remain available to us.  These persons must be leaders with compassion and strength.  They must see the broad scope of needs of the people of Tunica County.

Single issue candidates are destructive to our economic health.  Uninformed candidates are equally destructive.  Self serving candidates, by definition, fail to serve the public.  The challenge to you and to me is to put in the time to determine the candidate’s knowledge and experience.  Ask yourself, does this candidate want the job because of a desire to serve, a desire to put us back into financial stability?  Do we want the problem fixed or are we going to put in place persons whose only qualification is their relationship to family and friends, or to those who offer us jobs or some other advantage? 

Time is growing short.  You are urged to vote and to vote for the candidates who will provide policy and direction that will lead us to financial stability. 

No more monuments to our indebtedness.