Editor, The Commercial:
How many years have so many businesses on Main Street in Pine Bluff been boarded up, and what has been done to put merchants back in them?
And why are so many old houses being left to rot away or become targets for fire bugs? Somehow I just can't see how bringing a gambling casino and hotel to house the gamblers for a few nights is ever going to solve those problems.
Pine Bluff was once the most beautiful and friendly little city for a child to grow up in, and I would have chosen no other for myself. The little Sunbeam girl happily swinging at Harding and Main back then seemed to be emblematic of the spirit of the city and of its schools, and I believe that IF the city is ever going to rise to those standards again someone like the Rev. Jesse Turner is going to have to be put in charge.
I have read enough of his letters to the paper to believe that if he were mayor, he has the intelligence to know what is wrong; the vision to know how to correct it and the concern and backbone to get it done, BUT he would need like-minded members on the City Council and a concerned citizenry to back him up.
I would hope that the good people of Pine Bluff might agree with me; encourage him to run for mayor, and put him in office. If they don't, I think the mentality and immorality and sloth that produces thuggery among young men and women will eventually reduce Pine Bluff to a haven for lawlessness where no one will want to live.
Jack Mayberry,
Sheridan