If you squeeze a lemon you get lemon juice and if you squeeze an orange you get orange juice.
So what do you get if you squeeze Clarksdale?
This is called begging the question and I hope it proves my point.
When tough times come you see the mettle of a man. Bad men tend to become meaner and try and force things to happen that benefit them and their selfish ambitions. Good men rise to the occasion and try to implement positive, wise and sensible changes that benefit us all.
Clarksdale and this county have endured a lot over the past few weeks. How we behave in these trying times and how we react to adversity will tell us a lot about ourselves.
Six months from now – a year from now as we head into city elections – we’ll see how this community responded.
My neighborhood
The last two homicides in Clarksdale have been four blocks from my house: two blocks to the south then turn right and two blocks to the east.
I am most puzzled that these two murders are less than 100 yards from each other.
Don’t you think it’s a little obvious something strange and very wrong is happening on this little patch of ground?
I am reminded of that verse in Genesis 4:10 “And the LORD said, ‘What have you done? Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground!”
I hope you will read the rest of that chapter and see how those who spill blood are cursed by this world and must walk the Earth as a wander and fugitive.
I can think of no more heinous crime than to violently take the life of another person in hate and rage.
I spoke with a local judge briefly this week and he assured me that he and his fellow judges send all who commit a violent crime to prison for several years.
And then there is the story on Page 3 of today’s paper of people who want to close Parchman
Press Conference
Mayor Chuck Espy did what he always does when things get hot and controversial in Clarksdale: He called a press conference.
I was told of this press conference and then once I got to City Hall was ushered into a hallway and told to sit there.
The mayor, school leaders, police officers, sheriff’s deputies and of course the chaplain where in there trying to figure things out.
When they opened the doors and turned the camera’s on Chuck said we needed to come together. He said parents need to do something with their children. He called on churches to come together.
He never said one thing about we need to get tough on crime, support local police and sheriff’s deputies, or demand our judges lock up the worst so they never take another person’s life.
The school leaders said they were offering counseling to the kids. I hate to break it to them, but our schools with brick walls and security walking the halls are probably the safest place for them to be in Clarksdale right now.
I asked if we were in the middle of a gang war and was told there are gangs in Clarksdale and they are violent.
I also talked quietly and confidentially to law enforcement.
We can only hope as they do their job, the good people in this town will support them as they set their jaw and respond to the gunfire that is killing children.
Storms of life
I’m tired of writing columns about crime and the murder of children in a town of 14,000 people.
My heart goes out to the mothers of the half-dozen children shot and killed over the past six months.
Did you know there have been 43 children killed in Memphis since the first of this year?
I guess it’s true what our Mayor said not once but twice during his press conference: There is crime everywhere.
As the headlines of your Clarksdale Press Register reveal, that is so true.
But I don’t live in Memphis, or everywhere. I live in Clarksdale!
So what are we going to do?
Last week in this space I offered two solutions:
1.) Hire more police.
2.) Let law enforcement do their job and let judges get tough in court.
Do you know this town only has 23 patrol officers? That means we only have between three or four officers on duty at any time.
Espy told the Clarksdale Rotary Club recently the city is in good financial shape.
So I think it is time for the city’s human resource person to go to work every morning, get on the phone and actively start recruiting law enforcement for our town. And we need to offer more than $40,000 a year!
This town is in a crisis and we need leaders who will work every day to make this town safer and better.
And as these men and women are squeezed by the burden of leadership, their motives and their actions show each of us what is really inside their heart.
Floyd Ingram is Editor of your Clarksdale Press Register and has tried to keep a positive attitude over the past 30 days. Call him a 662-627-2201 and put the squeeze on him!
