Dear Editor,
In last week’s paper, I was appalled when I read a statement from the editorial page which basically was so offensive in nature that it stood out like a soar thumb. It was in reference to the Carroll County football teams. The author stated that she was proud of, and grateful to, the directors of schools of the county who, in her opinion, are responsible for the meticulous upkeep and top-notch excellence of the facilities and students in said county. She then said that, the area where a local football team from here was playing a playoff game in Memphis, Tennessee, the Orange Mound Community was a place where poverty and crime were the order of the day. In other words, it was an impoverished, aka African-American, neighborhood with chained, barbed-wired fences, an elementary school in dire need of repair, shoddy, outdated bathrooms, and abandoned looking houses.
And on top of that the poor and oppressed people unfortunate enough to live in such conditions, had the gall to break into the law-abiding, affluent citizens of Carroll County’s vehicles who were just visiting to attend a football game. But I mean what would you expect from a place where crime and poverty are customary and common due to redlining, mis-education, and mediocre employment opportunities just to name a few?
My grandmother always told me if I wasn’t helping, I was hindering which meant if I wasn’t doing anything to help solve the problem then I should be quiet. Pride should come from helping others and relishing the gratitude from those people. Or better yet, why not let those needy schools borrow your magical directors of schools who can go and wave their magical, block-grant wands to make everything top-notch for them too? Those directors of schools must truly be something to behold. I wonder if they can make things happen because they are either on or related to someone on the school board, or city council, or county commission, or special school district board, or chamber of commerce, or parks commission, or planning commission, or electric board, or drug control and prevention committee, or the heritage festival commission, watershed authority, downtown beautification council, etc., or all of the above? I wonder.
Trent Hampton
AS, BS Bethel U
Equality Advocate
December 2, 2022
disclaimer: I do not condone crime in any shape, form, or fashion
