Catching Up and Giving Thanks

BlueCatLicks said...
How's things with DRMC? I understand its realized a $1.6 mill deficit over the last 2 months. Hopefully the citizenry will wake up to the fact that grand visions do not equal competence and ask current leadership to move on. After all, health care had been a decent industry in G'ville. Now its rapidly declining (I just heard that the town's best pediatrician is leaving) as I told Local Reflector would happen after DRMC's power trip was energized by Community Health Systems' forethought in devining local sociopolitical trends. It turns out the grass IS greener on the other side of the hill.

I think that I also pointed out the incompetence of the management at DRMC during the Burn Center debate. The number two priority in Greenville is viable health care. The loss of Kings Daughters dealt a major blow to healthcare in the Delta. People who can afford it travel to Jackson, Memphis, or Little Rock to have their surgeries. These are the people who have insurance and can afford to pay. What's left for DRMC are the non-paying or Medicare and Medicaid cases. Hardly enough to justify three campuses in Greenville.

Anonymous said...
Now that Greenville has recived the grant money for Washington ave. You can bet they're going to use it to create the Blues Quarters. You may also look for the possibly of emient domanin being applied on some of these buildings. Cato didn't help Greenville get this grant for nothing. Mayor Hudson praised him to much in the DDT.Greenville needs to get out of the entertainment business and stick with industry.

Whether Mr. Cato owns two or three blocks of downtown Greenville is immaterial. The Blues Quarters is an overworked tourist trap idea that's on the wane. The important question is Will we all feel like Bill Murray in GroundHog Day and keep replaying the serpentine street saga over and over so that nothing gets done? Gimme a break, $1.5 million doesn't buy much concrete. And all the grand plans for the $3.5 Million are just that, this administration's track record for handing out money that's appropriated for public use is pretty dismal.

BlueCatLicks said...
Industry? You mean like Textron? What Greenville needs is to start with a do-over in public education as Red Dog has written about. Without that there is no hope for future prosperity.

Local Reflector said...
I agree with Bluecatlicks on a "re-do" of public education, namely its current structure in face of the area's falling population. Get that straightened out and then industry will surely follow.How?Well, raising standards, above just graduation rates (because administrators can artificially matriculate students to improve statistics) creates a default local population better prepared than the current population of working adults - by and large.You also create stronger public campuses and begin creating a reputation that means parents can send their kids to public school and justify all the "tuition"...er...taxes they're paying. In my opinion, even current private education is a tax of sorts because parents feel compelled to pay it out of necessity of local education. Education reform is THE number one challenge. Think about what a genuinely lower dropout rate means for the Port City....lower crime, better self esteem and a work force that can handle above-menial work and inspire confidence of corporations seeking maximum producation and minimal expenses.By the way, where are all the intellectuals out there? Red Dog's trying to live life somewhere else besides online right now and some of you could surely get a free blog going just for those that care - not necessarily for the mass public.

A do-over is long over due. LR had the right idea a couple of posts back on consolidating the school districts and closing some campuses to consolidate the educational efforts. This is the number one priority for Greenville to recover. Everyone, including private school parents, needs to be working to get the public education system up to a sustainable high level. When people sober up from the Kool-aid hangover, they will realize a failing public school system is what is dragging and keeping Greenville down. As long as we bury our heads the problem doesn't exist. It's unfortunate but true and sadly it is fixable, but no one wants to take it on.

Now on to second words from Local Reflector and to plea with some of you to take up the pursuit of the truth and the cause for public debate in Greenville and the Delta. I know many of you still read this blog daily looking for info. If some of you hadn't sent in guest commentaries or added comments to old posts, there wouldn't have been any discussion over the past six weeks. I haven't really had time to keep up, but thanks to many of you the discussion has not totally stopped. If one of you would start your own local blog, you could at least have current posting and generate some worthwhile discussions. Local Reflector and I both will help you get started and perhaps give you some ideas. If you want to give it a try, just let me know by e-mailing me. It's easy, I promise. I am just finding it difficult now to find the time. Just think of the withdrawal I am having not being able to bad mouth Dumbya and the Thuglicans. Oh, and Merry Christmas! No one ever accused me of having PCness. And I sure am glad that some reader of the DDT thinks it's Liberal Democrats and not Corrupt Republicans that are dragging the country down the tubes. Just shows what your brain on Kool-aid looks like.

Maybe I'm not ready for the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm.

Later...............