U.S. hopes residents of Delta, with help, overcome poverty

CLARKSDALE, Miss. - In the Mississippi Delta, the land is so flat it's hard to believe the world is round, and the sun-scorched desolation seems to go on forever. No matter how prosperous the nation has become, the Delta is still stuck in the Depression.

Billions of federal dollars have spilled over the levees and flooded the Delta over the years without leaving a trace. At a time when unemployment nationally hovers between 5 percent and 6 percent, it can top 20 in some Delta counties, and the region badly lags behind in education and health.

What made the marshall plan work was industrious Germans, French, and Italian who had known better times and were willing to work to restore their nations.

The key to the Marshall Plan was RESTORE not start from scratch.

If you hand money to an industrialist empoverished by war, he will build a factory. If money is invested in an aspiring Henry Ford, he will build you the world's biggest car company and employ hundreds of thousands. If money is invested inan aspiring Bill Gates, he will build you the world's biggest software company. When money is handed to a typical delta welfare boy, he will say, "I jus got me a life time sue ply of Are ah C and Moon Pies."

If lawyers knew how to create wealth they would. They only settle disputes.. This man is a lawyer. Lawyers are the exact opposite of success.

Lawyers make their bucks out of law suits placed against success on behalf of failure.

That ain't sarcasm, sarcasm ... That is a FACT!

Buy a bus ticket, hitch-hike, bicycle, or walk, north to where to you can get a decent job. If you are an illiterate moron, seek out a program that can help you - in New Orleans or somewhere.

Over the past 15 years I have moved all over this country in seeking gainful employment. It has been a great experience - really. I have learned ALL about my country. Just tonight I was talking to folks about things all over the country - people who have moved all around (like me) AND LIVED THE AMERICAN LIFE!

This is the 21st century. You can be on the other side of the globe in 24 hours IF YOU CHOOSE TOO BE.

Do you want to know about the crab cakes in a restaurant 1200 miles away from you - or do you want to sit in your little dumphole and know NOTHING?

THE LIBERAL MARXIST DEMONS HAVE BRAINWASHED YOU!
THE WHOLE WORLD IS OUT THERE WAITING FOR YOU!
-->SEIZE IT!<--

Get a grip, and get with the program.
THIS IS AMERICA!

If you can't make a decent life for yourself HERE, then you ain't gonna do it anywhere on earth - and you are a stupid MORON - and I AM NOT GOING TO PAY FOR YOUR STUPIDITY.

The era of whining is over. YOUR life is what YOU make it - and it ain't MY problem!

Now, HOP TO IT!

I'm an ol' Mississippi country boy who is living and working in Osaka, Japan. I ain't from the Delta, I was raised in a small town in south MS. But, if I can do it, ANYONE can do it...

I went back to MS once about 1995. Friends that I had there were still sitting around in the same office, doing the same jobs, in almost the EXACT same positions as they had been when I left the last time in 1988. Most of them cannot even stand the thought of moving far out of the state, much less out of the country.

Don't get me wrong here, Mississippi is God's Country as far as I am concerned and I love being from there. It was a great place to grow up as a kid. It raised me, fed me, educated me, and made me the man I am today.

But, I knew from early on that I was going to have to go somewhere else if I was going to make anything out of my life. Sad maybe, but that is pretty much the reality. Someday I hope to go back; but, for now at least, I think I will try to see a little more of this little ol' ball of rock we live on.

Take care,

Ruck

Yo, Ruck,
I Love Ya' man.

You went out and DID IT.
I've been doin' here in the States.

I say: God Bless You for taking charge of your own life.
(No one else was gonna - except those we don't wanna talk about...)

If we ever meet, I'll buy you a beer, Dude.

Weren't we discussing Moon Pies a while ago?

Yeah - R ah C Colas and Moon Pies. Shades of Brother Dave Gardner. I grew up listening to Rusty Warren and old Brother Dave's party albums.

I was stationed at Keesler AFB in Biloxi back in the late 50's and Biloxi was nice. They had gambling in Biloxi then. You could walk into just about any bar and place a bet at any race track in the States. That ended when Robert Kennedy (I think it was him) was the US Attorney General and he shut it down because they were using the telephone lines for interstate gambling.

I was in Tunica, MS. once back in 1990. It was a quaint little town. I went there to pick up a load of soap going to Brownsville. I told the dock foreman that I was pulling a 48 foot trailer. (You have to tell them the length of your trailer so they know how to load you.) Well, they loaded the trailer wrong and the trailer doors wouldn't shut. They had to unload me and in the process the guy driving the fork lift drove it off the dock. It took them about 8 hours to free the fork lift and figure out a way to get it back on the dock and load me properly. To make a long story short, instead of leaving Tunica around mid-morning, I didn't get out of there until 9 PM. I remember Tunica well.

As I have told you before, I was raised in a small country town here in Texas and I had to leave because I was in electronics at the time. You have to go where the jobs and the money is. I have worked for Honeywell Military Products Group in St. Petersburg, Florida. I did contract work for Boeing in Seattle, WA., also Edwards AFB in California. These people are just going to have to get off their butts and go where the money and jobs are.

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