You can call the present hard economic times a recession, a depression or whatever else you want. But whatever the terminology you use, the fact is that money is tight! No one has enough money to do all the things they want or need to do, unless perhaps you are Bill Gates and own Microsoft.

Out here in the Piney Woods of Quitman, Mississippi, where the unemployment rate probably hovers between 8 to 10 percent, the problem is not having enough money for necessities, like food, shelter, clothing or medicine and health care. Unfortunately the latter factors of medicine and health care often mean people who are not so fortunate as you or I may have to go without adequate medicine or health care if they want to feed themselves and their families, be able to pay the rent or mortgage, or be able to dress their children with school uniforms made in Bangladesh.

It is a sad situation, indeed, when there are so many people in need and local cities and municipalities will not even help them. I sat in a recent meeting of the Board of Aldermen where an issue regarding cutting of a dangerous overhanging tree limb was discussed. Apparently this overhanging limb was in danger of destroying life or property should it fall. Yet old city ordinances would not permit the cutting of a dangerous limb if the tree was growing upon private property. Given most people in these difficult economic times do not have the resources or the equipment to cut large limbs in high trees, it would seem that the city might be wise to rectify laws to permit the cutting of limbs when there is a danger presented to persons or property and citizens need economic or other assistance in this respect. Yet we continue to live under laws written by previous generations when times were better for everyone.

Recently the Mayor of Quitman, Eddie Fulton, organized a town hall meeting where concerned citizens met to listen to speakers from the MDA and Mississippi State Community Action Team. I attended this town hall meeting and was very impressed at the quality of the presentations and their insight into the nature of the present economic crisis and the need for communities to organize, develop plans, establish new ordinance and update old ordinances if we are going to be able to compete successfully with the booming economies of foreign nations such as China and India. Yet here we are in 2009, our city and Board of Aldermen are not even able to lift a hand to help property owners in need when there is a limb hanging perilously about someone's home or other property!

It seems very ironic that the Mayor of Quitman is trying to do everything he can to organize and stimulate citizens that they may volunteer to help plan for a bright future, yet we are operating under laws which limit our ability to help each other or build a better and more safe community. I therefore suggest that the city make it a priority to review all city laws and to update all ordinances such that they are more applicable to current needs and permit more flexibility when it comes to making critical decisions, especially in such situations where there are dangling limbs or other perilous circumstances.

The Mayor should have the power to issue an executive order to take action when there is a danger to persons or property, than a tree limb may be cut even if the tree is growing on private property. But this authority should extend to all circumstances where there is risk to life, limb or property.

Also one of the first things that the City of Quitman should do is put all its laws and ordinances into a digital format and publish this on-line that all citizens may know what the law is. Currently the laws of Quitman are written in books dating back to the late 1800's and kept in a safe. It is impossible for everyone to know what the law is without consulting an attorney who may be familiar with those old books and/or who has had the time to get his nose into them over the years. This makes for a very ignorant society, living under God only knows what antiquated laws, and inhibiting the progress of development of the community. It results in no one knowing what they can or can not do and it also creates dangerous situations like dangling limbs over homes or yards which could fall and kill men, women and children.

I recommend that the City of Quitman pass an ordinance and require that all city laws be transcribed into digital format and published on-line, that funds be acquired for this purpose and that an on-line database of local ordinances be maintained over time. This process will enable everyone to have access to the law such that then laws which are antiquated, no longer functional or applicable may be repealed, and new laws which are needed for the safety and/or development of the community may be enacted.

This is something City of Quitman should make a priority. Certainly volunteers could help with such a project. It may be of interest to note that the Mississippi State University Community Action Team recommends such keeping up with the times. In their handout "Three Ingredients To Make Your Community Vision A Reality," it is stated:

Plans, ordinances, and building codes are intended to be updated on a regular basis to ensure effectiveness or reflect change. Communities should review their plans approximately every 5 years. As plans change, ordinances should be amended to reflect those changes. Building codes should similarly be amended to reflect changes in community needs and building technology.

This whole process can be made easier if all the old laws that are on the books and hidden away, locked in a safe, where brought out into the light, digitized, put on-line, and made visible to the entire community of citizens which those laws are made to protect and under which everyone lives. By having all the ordinances and codes in a digital format and database they can be easily searched and researched, amended and updated, and maintained more easily and economically over the long haul, saving tax payer money and resulting in a more educated and informed public and representative government.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse when it comes to civil conduct and obeying the law. Also ignorance of the law is no excuse when it comes to our representatives, be they the Mayor of Quitman or the Board of Aldermen, in being able to take effective action based upon well maintained, updated, and amended laws which empower our representatives to provide for the safety, security and well being of all citizens they represent. Yet we are living under a set of antiquated laws, locked away in a safe, hidden from the light, which the average person does not know. This makes for such perilous circumstances as dangling limbs which could come falling down killing or injuring our children, our neighbors or ourselves.

How many other antiquated laws we each are living under no one knows -- or at least the average citizen does not know. So long as the laws are locked away in a safe and not brought out into the light where everyone can see them, God (and those lawyers whose business it is to study and know the law) are the only ones who know what are on those safely kept books in City Hall. For all I know it may be illegal for the Mayor of Quitman to even make an executive order. But if it is not, I urge the Mayor of Quitman to make an executive order and require that all City Ordinances be digitized, copied on hard drives and CDs, backed up and maintained at several secure locations, put on-line, and made available to the general public -- or do whatever else he may be authorized to do to get this done. Then we could begin the process of really taking control of our own lives, updating old laws, amending them to reflect current reality, and moving into the future, making it bright for all citizens who love and cherish this great and beautiful land we are so fortunate to make our homes, here in America and that little piece of Heaven which is Quitman, Mississippi.

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