The public’s right to know.That’s the cornerstone of the American

democracy, the right on which other rightsare based. It is the fundamental right ofevery citizen to know about the actions anddecisions being made by those whom theyhave elected to serve them.

That applies to our governmental enti-ties in Washington, D.C., in Montgomery,in Choctaw County, in Butler or Gilber-town or Lisman, Needham, Pennington, orSilas – or any other town, city, or county inthis country.

But actions may soon be taken inMontgomery that would limit that access,and local citizens would be affected bythose actions.

For the past several years,some legislators and lobbying or-ganizations have been pushing totake away the requirement thatpublic legal notices must be pub-lished in local newspapers. In-stead, your town or county or thestate would only have to placethose notices on some website,set up, maintained, and handledby those towns, or counties, orthe state.

Thus far, the change hasnever made it past the legislativecommittee level. But this yearcould be different. This year, wecould very well see a vote on a

bill that would reduce the Alabamapublic’s ability to know. The Ala-bama League of Municipalities andthe Association of County Commis-sions of Alabama are now promot-ing this, and their lobbying powercould move it forward.

And the ones who will be af-fected most are our senior citizens,our poor, and those in rural areaswithout the availability of reliableinternet service.

Census records show that lessthan 75% of local households evenhave computers, and only about58% have broadband internet serv-ice where they live.

Even if they do have internet service,many residents would simply not knowwhere and when to go and look for anypublished notices. They would have toKNOW that something was being pub-lished in order to KNOW to access it andKNOW anything about it. That means thata significant portion of the public wouldNOT know it at all.

On the other hand, I know for a factthat people read this newspaper cover tocover, and many times the ONLY way theyknow something is happening in their townis because they happened to see it in thelegal section of the newspaper.

Listing public notices in the localnewspaper makes it available and accessi-

Take me out tothe ballgame, Takeme out with thecrowd; Buy me somepeanuts and CrackerJacks; I don’t care ifI ever get back. Letme root, root, rootfor the home team, Ifthey don’t win it’s ashame. For it’s one,two, three strikes,you’re out at the oldball game.

Baseball hasbeen “Americas Fa-vorite Pastime” for well over100 years. Growing up, weplayed baseball in the springand summer. It was almost areligion; we played in the yardand had a commandingknowledge of the game.Everybody collected baseballcards. I still have all of mybaseball cards. I can still tellyou the starting lineup for theAtlanta Braves. I can remem-ber turning on an AM radio toWSB in Atlanta and listeningto Braves Baseball.

In the coming weeks, ourlocal schools will be prepar-ing for their spring sports sea-son and to be honest for someschools it’s a shame how thebaseball and softball teamsare treated and participation inbaseball and softball on thehigh school level is in thetank.

We all know that footballis king around here and I pre-fer the gridiron to the dia-mond but I respect those of

you who play baseball and softball.

It's no secret that on the local levels that baseball and softball has never been given the proper amount of respect or funding. It took 96 years and a group of concerned parents and other citi-zens to make the dream of putting an on-campus baseball and softball facility a reality at Southern

Choctaw.Intermittent work has un-

derway at Choctaw CountyHigh as well. In my estima-tion, there should have beenequal facilities installed forspring sports when the newschools were built not justfootball and basketball. Whatever happened to equality?Oscar Gray Park is well pastits prime and should havebeen bulldozed years ago.

Our kids that play springsports should have on-campusfacilities in which to playbaseball and softball andshouldn’t be relegated to play-ing in city parks and dilapi-dated and obsolete parks thatare falling apart. I am alsoaware that it takes money toplay sports, but you rarely, ifever, see the football teamhaving to rob Peter to payPaul in order to play their re-spective sports. It seems likeif you play baseball or softball

BLONDE AMBITION

Dee AnnCampbellPublisher andManaging Editor

ClintFranksSportsReporter

FROM THE PRESSBOXJP DOODLES

Dee Ann Campbell ………........................................Publisher/Managing Editor choctawsun@millry.net

Tommy Campbell..……..................................................................Co-Publisher Clint Franks...............................................................................................Sports

sports@choctawsun.comAnnie Hutchinson ….......................................................Administrative Assistant

typesetter@choctawsun.comDan Melvin …...........................................…….......…..........................Ad DesignEddie Abston .................. .....................................................Sports BroadcastingRuth Purvis..................................................................Advertising Representative

advertising@choctawsun.comWanda Whigham.......................................................................................Delivery

13440 Choctaw Avenue, Gilbertown, AL 36908Periodical class postage paid at

Gilbertown, AL 36908.Postmaster: Send address changes to:

P.O. Box 269, Gilbertown, AL 36908-0269.Phone 251-843-6397 • Fax 251-843-3233

choctawsun@millry.net www.choctawsun.org

The Choctaw Sun-AdvocateUSPS 022-326

The Sun-Advocate Staff:

Are we going to selldoughnuts or play ball?

Public notices must remain available to all citizens

LETTERS

VIEWPOINTSThe Choctaw Sun-Advocate

Page 5

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

MY VIEWBy Tommy Campbell

The Choctaw Sun-AdvocateRed white and booming.That’s the only way to describe

America’s economy three years intothe presidency of Donald J. Trump.

There are more jobs than thereare people to fill those positions, andthe stock market continues to hitrecord highs. Just last week, themarket hit the unimaginable 29,000mark, with some analysts predictingthat it could hit 30,000 before theend of 2020.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Ifully appreciate that there are someregions of our country that, for onereason or another, may not be fullyfeeling the economic love right now,but if this surging economy contin-ues, with good local leadership,things will improve.

We often feel the sting of thatright here in Choctaw County,mainly due to a lack of infrastruc-ture that would invite business andindustry to locate there ... our airportcannot accommodate even thesmallest of jets, we have no majorrail service, no river port on theTombigee, and not one mile of four-lane highway in the entire county.

Those situations didn’t happenovernight nor will they be solved in

just a handful of years, but, again, ifthe economy continues to do wellnationally, and with good local andstate leadership, that change willeventually come.

The country is doing well rightnow, very well, and much of theresurgence of national pride, secu-rity, and an economy that is goingthrough the roof are due to the poli-cies of President Trump, with nothanks to Democrats or RINOs (Re-publicans in Name Only).

As proof of that, I would submitthe following as some of his moresignificant accomplishments.

• Ordering the drone rocket at-tack by the U.S. Military that killedcold-blooded Iranian terrorist mas-termind, Quds Force Gen. QassemSoleimani, who is believed to besolely responsible for the deaths ofmore than 600 American soldiersduring the war in Iraq, and injuringand maiming for life thousands ofothers.

• Seven million new jobs cre-ated.

• More Americans are now em-ployed than ever before in our na-tion’s history.

• One million new manufactur-ing/construction jobs created, grow-ing at the fastest rate in more thanthree decades.

• New unemployment claimsare at a 50-year low.

• Median household income hashit the highest level ever recorded.

• African-American unemploy-ment -- lowest ever.

• Hispanic-American unem-ployment -- lowest ever.

• Asian-American unemploy-ment -- lowest rate ever.

• Female unemployment -- low-est in 65 years.

• Youth unemployment -- low-est in nearly half a century.

• Lowest unemployment everfor Americans without a high schooldiploma.

• Veterans’ unemployment --lowest in 25 years.

• Seven million Americans havebeen lifted off food stamp rolls sincethe 2016 election.

• 95 percent of U.S. manufac-turers are optimistic about the future— the highest ever.

• Retail sales are surging and or-ders for “durable goods” (autos, ap-pliances, etc.) are through the roof.

• Signed law giving Border Pa-trol agents better drug detectiontools.

• Signed into law new expandedtechnical education bill.

• Signed into law extensive newanti-Sex Trafficking bill.

Thank Trump for booming economy

See VIEW, page 11

See PRESSBOX page 11

See BLONDE, page 10

As we start the New Year,many will be making a reso-lution to start a life of sobri-ety. Whether you are just outof rehab or have been in re-covery for a while, you must-n't feed into skepticism fromfamily and friends. As an ad-diction professional, one ofthe most common excuses Ihear from people who startusing again is that "everyonethought I was using, so I did."People use the accusation ofusing drugs as a justificationfor relapsing and fall victim totheir past.

For those with a long his-tory of drug abuse, it is naturalthat your loved ones are goingto assume you've used some-thing. People operate off pat-terns and past conduct. Even

though realizing that your pastbehavior created these allega-tions is be tough to come toterms with. Doing so will pre-vent you from getting angryand making a mistake. Con-tinuous good practice willchange the skeptics' view-point as long as you don't getcaught in a trap you set foryourself along the way.

It is also important to re-alize that a slip doesn't have tobe a fall. If you feel you aregoing to make a wrong deci-sion or reverted to drug use,get in contact with a counseloror a local support group to getyour recovery back on track.Information on local meetingsand rehabilitation services canbe found on addicted.org.

Marcel Gemme