Citizens, officials should heed state constitution

To the editor:

Your editorial on the U.S. Constitution was very interesting. You made one comment pertaining to "It's inherent that citizens of a country know about the land they call home. And in the United States, that knowledge starts with the Constitution."

How wonderful it would be for the citizens of Blytheville to refer to this statement and include "Arkansas State Constitution."

Blytheville city leadership has wasted approximately $20 to $25 million of taxpayers' money over the past 10 to 15 years and still continues, which appears to totally violate the state constitution and very few if any words have been said about these facts by the Blytheville Courier newspaper.

The Arkansas constitution also states that the government shall be by the people, for the people and of the people, and this fact makes one laugh pertaining to the Blytheville City Government. Blytheville government motto is by the good ole boys, for the good ole boys and of the good ole boys.

The 34.57 percent (a low estimate) of citizens living in poverty that can't pay their water bills and facing a proposed $7 million expansion to the existing water system, the county proposing another 2-cent sales tax pertaining to the hospital and the courthouse, and who knows what other taxes are in the background is pathetic. Where are there any indications that city government is operating in accordance with the state constitution?

Where has Brotherly Love gone?

Ray Clouse
Blytheville

EDITOR'S NOTES:
The phrase "by the people, for the people and of the people" is not in the Arkansas constitution. That phrase originates from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

A half-cent sales tax has been proposed by the Mississippi County Hospital System to pay for hospital improvements. That measure will be on the ballot on Oct. 14. No specific tax has been proposed for the county courthouse(s).