As president of the Mississippi Press Association, I had the opportunity recently to host a legislative dinner with Sens. Dean Kirby, Frazier Hillman, Terry Burton and Jack Gordon and Reps. Billy McCoy, Percy Watson, George Flaggs and Steve Holland.
This is an annual event in which members of the press mingle with and get to know legislative leaders.
We went around the table and asked each legislator to say a few words about the state of affairs in Mississippi.
I was enormously impressed at the sincerity and passion of each legislator. You could tell how much each of them dearly loves our state and how much each of them desires progress for the people of our state. Once again, I felt proud of our leaders and lucky to be a Mississippian.
Cecil Brown eloquently recounted growing up watching his father work in a lumber mill. Neither of his parents had a high school education. “They just worked. That’s what you did,” he said. Implicit in Cecil’s remarks was the idea that government has a key role in helping people advance and succeed.
As a conservative, I attribute Cecil’s generational progress to the free enterprise system and personal initiative more than good government. I want to preserve the system that provides such opportunity for advancement.
That being said, it reminds me that both the left and the right must be respectful of one another.
We may disagree on how to get there, but we all want the same progress. Neither conservatives nor liberals have any greater claim for wanting what’s good for our people.
Let’s not forget that. Let’s use our Southern hospitality when we talk politics.
