Earl Blackmon says he’s willing to work to turn around impoverished Holmes, Leflore and Tallahatchie counties.
“I believe that God put us on this earth for a purpose, and I don’t believe the purpose was to be broke, living off handouts and expecting from others,” he said Thursday to the Voters League of Itta Bena.
Blackmon, 58, a Lexington insurance agent, is running for Mississippi Senate District 24, which includes large parts of the three counties.
He’ll face incumbent David Jordan, who’s held the office since 1993, in the Aug. 2 Democratic primary.
Blackmon said that it’s OK to disagree but that people must stop fighting and find a common goal. A major problem is that the leadership is not leading, he said.
Blackmon said Holmes County has the lowest life expectancy of any county in the nation, lower even than some Third World countries.
“That’s totally unacceptable in 2011 in the richest country in the world,” he said. “We can say, ‘Oh, Holmes County’s great.’ I hear it pretty regularly, but statistics does not lie. As my grandfather would say, the truth don’t lie.”
Blackmon called it “mind-boggling” that Holmes County has a $3 million mental health center but the doctor comes only one day per month. He also said Holmes County has a 19.7 percent unemployment rate, second highest in Mississippi.
The 24th District should promote its transportation resources, including U.S. 49 and 82, I-55 and a major railroad, he said.
“These are the things we should be trying to sell to bring jobs,” he said. “Once people get jobs, they feel better about themselves. ... A lot of our problems would go away if we could get people back to work and being able to provide.”
Another big problem is how violent and angry young people are, Blackmon said. He said it is important to find out why and said he would pull experts to find out what he can do to make things better.
But he said he knows already that one issue is that they have nothing to do.
“They just lay around, like playing games, don’t want to do anything. This is the first generation I know that enjoys and celebrates failure,” Blackmon said. “It’s OK to get kicked out of school. That’s cool. It’s OK to get in trouble. It’s OK to go to jail. It’s not OK. We’ve got to stop and think we’ve got some moral problems that we need to deal with. Our churches need to get involved.”
Blackmon is a Carroll County native who grew up in a sharecropping family in Black Hawk. He spent six years in the Army after graduating high school in 1971 and then graduated from Mississippi Valley State University.
That led to a long career with General Motors.
“Over a course of 30 years I had probably some of the most magnificent job assignments that took me to some of the most magnificent places in the world,” he said. “Without that preparation from Mississippi Valley State, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did.”
Blackmon is married to Circuit Judge Jannie Lewis.
Viola Williams, who’s running for superintendent of education, was also among the speakers Thursday. She’s president of the Voters League of Itta Bena.
The former Ruleville Middle School principal said she would plan to build two new high schools at Amanda Elzy High in Greenwood and Leflore County High in Itta Bena if elected.
She said that it might not happen within a couple of years but that she has the vision to turn the plan into a reality.
“Decades come and go, and dreams of rebuilding our schools have come and gone. But we all know that nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream,” Williams said. “It’s time now for us to wake up and realize that 50 more years will come and go, and we will have what we have now if we do not act.”
Other candidates who spoke at the forum included Elmus Stockstill, circuit clerk candidate; District 4 Supervisor Wayne Self; Demetrice Bedell, sheriff candidate; Christopher Glass, constable candidate; Larry “Blue” Neal, circuit clerk candidate; and state Rep. Linda Whittington.
• Contact Charlie Smith at csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
