By Brian Livingston
blivingston@themeridianstar.com
It seems the news is full of tragedy these days.
Psycho gunmen walk into businesses killing anyone they see. Earthquakes decimate entire regions killing or injuring thousands, leaving those who survive homeless and desolate. Wars and other armed conflicts take the lives of young soldiers trying to serve their countries.
With all that happens the general public becomes just a little more apathetic. The victim's faces blur into one and those people affected seem a world away. But it is when tragedy hits home that the realization a life has been lost tends to make people stand up and take notice. And when that life is that of a young, popular man such as Adam Simpson of Stonewall, the ripple effect that encompasses so many is that much more complete.
Tuesday, 22-year-old Simpson died near Westdale, La., when he apparently fell from a bridge he and a crew from Trinidad Oil Company were working on. His drowning in a bayou where his body was recovered the next day garnered only a few short paragraphs in an Associated Press bulletin. The script note, which was probably seen by thousands of people and reported locally is all but forgotten as other bad news, such as five U.S. soldiers dying in Mosul, Iraq from a suicide bomber, grab the latest headlines. To the Simpson family and friends, though, his passing leaves a jagged scar that runs deep.
"He was trying to work hard and get his life prepared so he could give his future wife and his one-year-old daughter a good head start," said Susan Simpson, Adam Simpson's step-mother. "He was the baby in the family and I just never realized how many lives he had touched in such a short time."
Jerry Don Simpson was raising his three sons that included Adam when Susan met him. She described the family as a solid family unit, very close, noting her future husband had done an excellent job of raising the boys on his own. Adam, being the baby, was looked after by his two older brothers and it was the young boy that everyone called "Bo" who would grow up to show extraordinary honesty and compassion.
"Full of energy," said Susan Simpson. "He was all about sports, hunting and fishing and being with his friends. I never really realized just how many people knew him well until this happened."
And when you get nothing but accolades from the county sheriff then you begin to believe what everyone already knows.
"Just a great kid growing up," said Clarke County Sheriff Todd Kemp. "He had a love for life and seemed to enjoy everything he did."
This afternoon Adam Simpson will be laid to rest. He will be surrounded by so many people that if he were alive he might become somewhat embarrassed by the showing. His humble nature would allow him to say he wasn't worth all this attention. But a single young life, that has barely been allowed to flourish, should be mourned. Tragedies don't discriminate between the young and old, the rich and the poor. Sometimes we must remember what might have been.
Local News
Remembering a life cut short
Stonewall man described as honest, hardworking
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Local law enforcement officials honored
State Rep. Greg Snowden said he remembered as a child looking up to those "men in blue."
He said police officers in uniform were larger than life, riding in their patrol cars and carrying guns to protect and serve the population. Today, he said he is still in great admiration of the men and women who put their lives on the line every day so that citizens can feel safe. -
MPD probes vehicle crash
Evidence of a mother's desperate attempt to save her children from harm were spread all over a car lot — and could be seen on her as well in the form of bruises, cuts and scrapes.
Tuesday night, a vehicle with three children inside crashed through a plate glass showroom floor window damaging four new cars and totaling the vehicle the children were in. -
Skeleton found in residence
Members of the forensics team of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) were called to a dilapidated home in Chunky to probe the discovery of a skeleton.
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Police search for robbery suspects
Two men who reportedly robbed a woman at gunpoint in the parking lot of a local bank are still being sought.
Mike Vick, public information officer with the Meridian Police Department, said the two men approached a woman about 8 p.m. Tuesday at the ATM of Regions Bank on North Hills Street. Vick said one of the suspects was armed with a handgun and after taking an undetermined amount of cash and the victim's car keys, the two suspects fled on foot. -
City cuts payment to Watkins
The Meridian City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to cut their monthly payment to David Watkins, project developer of Meridian's new police station, by $9,999 until work resumes on the project.
The order, made during the Meridian City Council meeting Tuesday morning, included a mutual agreement between the councilmen and Watkins to reduce the project developer's monthly consultant fee of $10,000 to $1, effective Tuesday. -
Crews work on gasoline pipeline
If you hear a loud, booming sound early today, between 4 a.m.-10 a.m., there is no cause for alarm.
Workers with Plantation Pipeline will be performing maintenance work on their 30-foot gasoline pipeline in the Meridian area to accommodate the widening of Highway 493. The location of the work activity will be at Highway 493 North and Oak Hill Baptist Church, just inside the city limits. -
Team Spirit
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High Honor
The flowers and balloons Crestwood Elementary School Principal Kimberly Kendrick received at school Monday were not an early Valentines' Day gift.
Kendrick has been named Meridian Public School District's 2012 Administrator of the Year – an announcement that both surprised and wowed the 17-year veteran educator when made by MPSD Superintendent Dr. Alvin Taylor. -
Master Dance Class
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Digital system promises better communication
Hopefully in the near future you won't hear someone in the emergency services ask over the radio, "Can you hear me now?"
A digital communications system, one which is being pushed by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), is a few months away and, in some cases, is already in the testing phase in Lauderdale County. - More Local News Headlines
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