A Fox in the Hen House

Although the official holiday is Monday, January 19, 2015, today is the actual birthdate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King was assassinated almost 47 years ago and his death shows how far we've come and how much farther we have to go. Dr. King was a Baptist minister with a powerful message that united people from all walks of life whose goals were equality and justice for all. Here we are, 47 years later, and the City of Lumberton has a former Baptist minister serving as mayor. Unfortunately, his purpose is not to unite but to divide the city. Dr. King said,

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. "

This is something we experience day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year; a board full of sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. However, for the past two years, this parade against progress is being hosted by the grand marshall, Mayor Ben Winston. He does not have the best interest of the City of Lumberton at heart; his goal is self gratification and it is evident at every board meeting. According to the last census report, theres 2,180 residents in Lumberton but at every board meeting, Ben Winston's goal is to convince three aldermen to vote in his favor. In essence, he does not care about the thousands of residents, he's only concerned about three and as long as they vote in his favor, he could care less about the fallout. By focusing his goal on three votes, the City of Lumberton no longer has a fully staffed police department, there's no longer a planning and zoning committee, we don't have an accurate account of what's in the budget, break ins are increasing daily, fines are uncollected and families are unprotected but none of that matters to Winston because he has three votes. Ben Winston is willing to sink the City of Lumberton in order to fulfill his quest to establish Lake Lumberton. To make matters worse, he has the gall to run for the Lamar County District 2 Supervisor position. You haven't added anything to Lumberton but now you want to do the same thing on the County level? I don't think so.

At the last board meeting, Winston said my blog is the reason tne City of Lumberton is not progressing. That statement just shows his total ignorance. If I was an elected official and there's a blog outlining the problems of the city I represent, I would see if I could bring that person on board as a social media coordinator and work with that person, get a report on citizen feedback and see if my board could devise a plan of action to address tne concerns. Perhaps I'm asking too much of Winston, but that's what a marginally intelligent person would do. Winston and his three stooges are more than willing to jump through rings of fire to hire an embattled, former city administrator from Diamondhead and they're fighting tooth and nail to keep an inept city clerk on payroll despite her inability to calculate a budget and use essential BBI software. But this is what happens when your concerns are about three and not the entire city. When will he get it? When will all the citizens matter? I wonder why he's running for supervisor. This is Ben Winston's 10th year serving as an elected official and he still has no comprehension of Mississippi's Open Meeting Laws or the laws governing a code charter municipality. It takes four years to get a college degree. If a person is still clueless after ten years, they either lack the ability to retain knowledge or have no intentions of abiding by the laws that are in place for a reason. Either way, this is not someone that should be serving as mayor and definitely not someone that should be serving as District Supervisor. Ben Winston can't manage the 1.2 million dollar budget for Lumberton; how in the world can he possibly manage a 40 million dollar budget at the County level? Luke 16:10 (NIV) says,

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can be trusted with much..."

Winston has yet to show us he can be trusted with our small budget, so why would anyone vote to send him to represent us on the County level? Also, Lamar County is one of tbe fastest growing regions in the state and they have a very active planning and zoning committee; something Winston and his cohorts are opposed to having. One board member said planning and zoning committees are "speed bumps to progress." Would someone alert those businesses and families moving and opening business in Lamar County of this little known fact. In actuality, the only people that don't want regulations in place are those that want to cut corners and make secret agreements. The fact that Winston didn't veto the motion to disband the planning and zoning committee shows he's not in favor of progress.

There's more I could say about Winston but I'm going to let his actions speak. Currently, I'm expanding the blog in an effort to target Lamar County District 2 voters. Winston said my blog has convinced a grant writer to withdraw support for an oil spill grant application and I'm going to see if it's powerful enough to convince voters that he's not the right choice in the upcoming elevtion. I have never cast a vote for Ben Winston and the chances of me voting for him at this juncture is not looking good. I know there's going to those in the black community that's going to call me a sell out or Uncle Tom for not supporting the black candidate but I don't care. Lumberton is in such bad shape because too many candidates were put into office based on the color of their skin, friendship and/or church affiliation. Enough is enough. Am I pleased with the way things are being handled on the County level? No. As a matter of fact, I am rather disturbed by the lack of diversity within the William J. Gamble III Chancery Building but if memory serves me correctly, Ben Winston didn't do anything to address that matter when he was a County official. The only person from Lumberton that received a job during his tenure as District 2 Supervisor was Paul Ockmond and ironically, he was on the planning and zoning committee. For now, my support is going towards tbe incumbent supervisor, Warren Byrd, but I am looking forward to sitting down with him to get some insight on his vision for the next four years. I will also extend the invitation to Winston and give him the opportunity to explain his actions over tbe course of the past two years. In the meantime, my offer still stands. If Winston resigns as Mayor of Lumberton at the January 20, 2015 board meeting, I will stop blogging. Again, the ball is in his court and I have yet to receive a response. Merlene, since you're constantly reading this blog, would you print a copy for Mayor Winston so he can be aware of the offer I've extended. I probably won't post again until next week. Until then, govern yourselves accordingly.