I’m a little confused with the handling of the bailout by our knowledgeable officials. (Knowledge is a great attribute, but common sense is an even greater attribute).

Obviously wisdom is lacking and greed is rampant. My thinking would have the billions and billions of dollars put directly in the hands of every American citizen over the age of 21 years with no strings attached whatsoever! ($80,000 plus or minus by my calculations). The money would be spent, invested and used to pay on debts to lending and banking institutions. And if those institutions can’t hang on until the money systematically works its way to them, so be it.

If we don’t handle this debauchery correctly, Mother Nature will. And Mother Nature works by the survival of the fittest rule. Our emotional health will instantly be improved. Happy Americans will make a happy and healthy economy!

We don’t need our money in the hands of greedy people who are clueless, and without common sense and wisdom.

Mac Ferris

Vicksburg

A matter of efficiency

This is in regard to the previous letters about school bus drivers.

I am a driver. I agree that we should not be allowed to drive around (on personal errands) in school buses. What I do not agree with is the singling out the gentlemen who wrote the first letter did. I am sure that bus drivers are not the only ones wasting his tax dollars driving around in company vehicles while off-duty.

It is true that a lot of us have two jobs. We are hard-working people who are trying to make a living. We are often not appreciated or noticed by the public for the good works that we do. So, yes, speak up if it really bothers you, but also speak up about the misuse of other company vehicles and not just school buses.  It takes a very patient, special person to drive a bus. I live 25 miles out Oak Ridge and choose not to drive home every day. I park my bus in town at a church which I have permission to do. So I figure I am saving the taxpayers a good bit of diesel by not coming home.

The next time someone needs to speak up about something how about speaking up about the morons who go around a bus when it is stopped for loading or unloading. Speak up about the cars pulling out in front of the buses because we can’t always go as fast as they would like for us to go.

I love my job; it provides me time to spend with my children and still make a living. So speak out against something like  the drugs and crimes being committed instead of just trying to get someone in trouble.

Hope Raney

Vicksburg

Discretion has vanished

As more and more people are becoming totally befuddled by the economic news highlighting bailouts and bonuses paid by companies receiving bailouts and doom and gloom and frustrating days and nights, I wish one of my old friends, the late Harry T. Goldman Jr., were still alive.

His life was a testament to frugality, and the rewards it brought, not only to himself, but to his clients and to the economy in general.

He was the owner-operator-salesman-everything-else when, after his return in the late 1940s from serving his country in World War II, he started what is now a proud and growing concern, Goldman Equipment Company.

As a banker in the area from 1960 to the time he died, I can hardly remember how many of his clients would tell me, “Mr. Bill, I probably would have gone broke if Mr. Harry hadn’t kept me from buying more tractor than I needed. I’d try to buy the finest bragging-rights rig available, and even though I know he would have made more money had he sold it to me, he would say, ‘Well, I know you really want that fine-looking machine, but you don’t really need that much horsepower to farm the acreage you’ve got.’”

Harry Goldman knew that a customer would continue to be a customer unless the customer went broke. Therefore, helping him to be successful was obviously self-serving, but also serving the customer and, as we know too well today, the nation.

This country would be so far better off had there been more Harry Goldmans.

Bank lenders also once upon a time could give this sort of advice to borrowers. But the political winds blew, women’s rights became omnipotent, race cards were played and bankers no longer could simply deliver honest, thoughtful, sound and caring advice to their clients, black and white, women and men.  Why? Governmental intervention outlawed any advice, since it might “discourage” the loan applicant.

So here we are.

The bottom line is so obvious: No real hope of continuing economic growth can depend on relentless abuse of the credit system supported by government fiat. 

William W. Watson

St Joseph

40 years documented

Great good news. A stunning movie, “The Cross,” is to arrive across the United States beginning Friday. It is the miraculous story of Arthur Blessitt’s 40-year walk with a 12-foot cross over his shoulder into every country in the world.

I have followed Arthur’s walk with a thankful heart for years, yet is was only last week that I learned he was born in Greenville and his early school years were in Mississippi and Louisiana.

This film could be one tool our Lord may use to rehabilitate America. Spread the tidings and watch for which theatres will be so blessed.

Meta N. Hogue

Jackson