Please do duty

Dear Editor:

Almost every time I read the paper I see that jobs are being lost and our firefighters and police are continuously having to use dwindling monetary recourses to do their job.

In addition, our cities and the county report economic distress citing tax revenue shortfalls. As with the rest of our country, it seems that our local economy is in a downward spiral.

Since government revenues come primarily from tax sources, where will our local government revenues come from if folks do not have jobs to provide those revenues? Let’s be very frank. Companies do not pay taxes: people do! Since this is the case, what are our local elected officials doing to provide those jobs?

The number of jobs that have been lost and not replaced will become a very difficult burden over time. The federal government should not be looked to for primary source revenues. Folks it’s real simple: When folks cannot work, they move away. When they move away, tax revenues are lost and government revenues fall. When government revenues fall, the services they provide suffer. As revenues decline, the governmental infrastructure will collapse accordingly. The point is: its serious!

I would like to see The Journal report on what our local elected officials are doing to remedy our dilemma. All I see lately are “trivial pursuit” matters. Things like banning smoking, pulling up your britches and fighting over the meager resources available are important, but so is providing economic relief for the electorate.

And, where are our state folks in this matter? Providing a nature walk with a water effect for scenic beauty is important, but again, so is providing more economic relief.

Let me challenge our elected officials to “get with the program” and start searching out ways to provide jobs for the electorate. Temporary relief is helpful, but long term relief would be better. Folks should believe me when I say that Wal-Mart is not going to sustain our local economy for very long and neither is Washington!

Sure, we understand that other governmental duties have to be performed. Tough economic times force the general populace to prioritize and government has every obligation to do the same! After all, we elected them to carry our best interest close to their heart!

In the book, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Atticus Finch said it best when he admonished folks to “please do their duty.” It was sound moral advice that is applicable today.

James Alderman

Excel