Political Assassins

Now the story you are about to read is fictional and any similarities to any persons dead or alive is purely coincidental. Image there was a group of individuals that devised a plan to take over your city. Little by little, they edged their way into every aspect of government; each move was carefully calculated like a grand game of chess. You try to escape them, but they have recruited people from every walk of life. They have elected officials, attorneys, police officers, office workers and even members of the press. For the sake of this post, let’s refer to them as political assassins. People will probably say that I am being negative, that I am trying to tarnish the already tarnished reputation of a little city south of Hattiesburg. I guess they need someone to blame. Well, blame it on the drugs, blame it on the Goose, blame it on the Henny, blame it on the rain, blame it on whatever. I consider my self a community activist, and I just happen to be black. So when I started this blog I naturally assumed that when members of my community stumbled across my blog the feed back would not be good. That's not a negative, unfair stereotype. It's a reality we've been living with, tolerating and rationalizing for far too long. The city I’m referring to have the potential to be great but we have low expectations because there is a culture that doesn’t expect the best. This group has turned a blind eye to what’s going on in the city, but they were elected to serve the interest of it’s citizens. Whenever someone outside of their circle tries to call them out on their actions, they use or attempt to use their political clout to get their way. They have established a culture that is trying to put the political outsiders in a box or better yet, trying to put us in our place. So imagine for a moment that this type of atmosphere actually existed; that we had a group of elected officials that disregard the authority of the Mayor, the authority of the Chief of Police, disregard the guidelines of the city's comprehensive plan, and disregarded the citizens. But there's only one group of people who can change the rotten anti-growth political culture our city have adopted. We must do it. Unfortunately, politics, racism, and socioeconomic conditions play a major role in contributing to the issues we face in Lumberton, but describing that reality over and over again doesn't do much to change it. We all know the problems and challenges that are hindering Lumberton. Now the question is: "What are we going to do about it?"