BusinessReport.com

Flight or fantasy

To the editor:

BRAC/BRAF’s airport survey (Daily Report, April 16) seems misguided. It seems foolish to continue pumping money into two airports less than 75 miles of each other. While New Orleans struggles to gain a foothold on anything, Baton Rouge remains selfish in keeping its fledgling metro airport instead of combining the two to create a major hub.

Why can’t we as a state have any vision? Why can’t we build for the future? If I was a Mississippi legislator, I’d go to work on trying to build a major airport hub the second I got wind of this study. While St. Tammany could be the recipient of major commercial infrastructure, major federal tax money could flow into a devastated southeast corridor, and we as a state could build the southern airport hub of the future. It would hurt us just too much for either of us to lose an airport. Baton Rouge/New Orleans could become the biggest airplane hub between Houston and Atlanta. Perhaps now Hattiesburg or some other Mississippi town could reap the benefits we’re too historically slow to possibly realize.

Sam Terito

Baton Rouge

Freeing Edwards

To the editor:

It is easy to find people who know (former Gov. Edwin) Edwards who say how smart he is; nobody says he’s dumb. So I can agree. And, as John Hill of the Shreveport Times says, many people also think he should be free because he’s old and was a good governor. The smarter a crook is, the longer he should serve time—kind of revenge of the dumb ass.† If the president wants to pardon him, fine, start the process. That, however, has nothing to do with the rest of us thinking he’s served enough time; it’s just a presidential thing.†If Edwards’ sentence was too harsh to begin with, well, that’s another matter; address that issue.†If we want to free Edwards because he is old was a good governor, what does that say about our justice system?†How about freeing an old, good plumber, a chef, a journalist?

Greig Olivier

Baton Rouge

More on BREC

To the editor:

Right on! Keep the fire going until someone down there gets burned enough they will straighten up.

I did not vote for the taxes—not because the parks are bad but because I don’t like the way the system works. We should can the whole bunch, re-engineer the way it should be run and implement that before the $70 million is squandered away.

My wife disagrees with me because she is very involved with tennis and says we need the tennis courts and the maintenance of them.

Mickey Christensen

Baton Rouge

To the publisher:

Ditto Rolfe. One way to stop the status quo is to cut government spending at all levels.†Beginning with government on the payroll.†Cut taxes.†Close departments of government. Reduce all levels of government and spending and taxes at all levels. “It’s spending, stupid.”

Where is Reagan when we need him?

Bill Mathews

Baton Rouge