Editorials
Shipyard assistance a questionable priority
U.S. Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, both R-Miss., in the face of intense opposition from colleagues in their own party, have made principled stands on behalf of the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast.
Mississippi’s senators should avoid overreaching, however, as the Senate completes work this week on a $106.5 billion emergency spending bill to cover storm relief and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Curiously, critics of out-of-control federal spending have chosen Hurricane Katrina recovery to make their case against pork-barrel politics. We can think of hundreds of better examples within the federal government, but midterm elections are approaching, and re-election-minded senators are looking to prove their mettle as fiscal conservatives. Mississippi and Louisiana are easy targets for senators from other regions in search of pork poster children.
For that reason, Cochran and Lott should pick their battles carefully in the spending bill currently pending in the Senate. They won — just barely — a principled fight on behalf of $700 million for relocation of the CSX rail line. If the railroad, located about three city blocks inland, is moved to existing tracks further north, the current CSX right-of-way could be used for construction of a critical east-west thoroughfare that would take pressure off the current U.S. 90, which runs along the beach. The new highway would allow for quicker, safer evacuations of coastal residents during hurricanes. More important, it would push commercial development — except for casinos and other massive structures — off the beach. The further inland a building, the less damage it incurs during a storm. And the fewer the buildings damaged or destroyed, the lighter the federal government’s recovery tab after a storm. An amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., to strip the CSX funding from the bill failed by one vote.
Less credible — and possibly harmful to the overall cause of hurricane recovery — is the $500 million that Lott and Cochran are seeking for defense giant Northrop Grumman, which has a shipyard in Pascagoula. Corporate welfare, as critics are labeling the shipyard aid, should be a low priority, given the more urgent needs of the coastal region. An amendment to strip the Northrop Grumman funding failed Tuesday but almost certainly will be a point of contention when Senate and House negotiators begin hammering out a compromise bill.
Lott and Cochran shouldn’t jeopardize the overall bill by insisting on the Northrop Grumman aid.
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Meridian welcomes the Sesquicentennial Celebration
Sesquicentennial Celebration, you ask? I admit this is a mighty BIG word and very difficult to pronounce, but for Meridian, the meaning of this word points to our strength and endurance – as a city and as a people.
Allow me to explain.
Meridian will celebrate our 150th birthday on February 10, 2010, thus this year we rightly celebrate our sesquicentennial. I'm certain that many of you remember the Centennial Celebration of 1960. Although I was VERY young (oh, humor me), I remember that wonderful time. All or most of the Meridian men grew beards and the women wore the long dresses of the 1860 style. My mother made a dress with matching hat for me. I still have an old photo of that dressy ensemble as I sat demurely on the side arm of a sofa with my hands folded in my lap – real ladylike. It was a time of parades, school projects, community events, and a city that came together to celebrate 100 years of existence.
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My Mississippi
A decade ago, I wrote a short, stream-of-consciousness piece disputing the negative and stereotypical views the South. It quickly spread across the World Wide Web, spawned a couple of books, and a regional broadcast network’s imaging and branding campaign. Actually, it’s still making its way around the Internet.
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