Editor, Commonwealth:
In Tuesday’s runoff race for the Mississippi Court of Appeals, I’m delighted to find we have a distinct choice between two very different candidates.
Eric Hawkins went to college at Jackson State University, then to law school at Tulane. Since graduating in 1989, he has practiced law in his hometown of Greenville for about 29 years.
He is the county prosecutor for Washington County. For the city of Greenville, he is the city prosecutor. At the same time, in his private practice, Mr. Hawkins has defended persons accused of criminal offenses.
Of most interest to me is that Mr. Hawkins served as the youth court prosecutor for eight years. The youth court judge kept reappointing him to perform the prosecutorial function in his court.
Exercising the discretion that belongs to a prosecutor’s office, Mr. Hawkins shielded parents from unrealistic social workers when the Department of Human Services (now named Child Protective Services) wanted to call it “child abuse” after a father or mother simply fulfilled their parental duty to apply a moderate spanking to a son or daughter who had been disobedient and disrespectful.
As a father who raised five children, I am eager to vote for Eric Hawkins to become an appellate court judge. During eight years of seeing the system up close, Mr. Hawkins realized that “society” or “the government” typically does a worse job of raising other people’s children than a child’s own father and mother might be doing. In short, Mr. Hawkins believes in parental rights as well as rescuing children from child abuse.
The first time around on Nov. 6, many skipped voting in this race because they knew so little about any of the candidates. On Nov. 27, please don’t pass up the opportunity to vote for Eric Hawkins.
George S. Whitten Sr.
Greenwood
