Keep in touch with your representatives

The 2008 session of the Mississippi legislature is in full swing and already several hot-button issues are keeping our representatives busy. From funding of and improving education to approving forms of voter ID, and from modifying the tax structure and methods of taxation to determining the 2009 budget, our legislators must make choices almost daily that will affect the lives of the many thousands of residents in their districts.

After speaking to some of our representatives over the years, the consensus is that they need our feedback, our ideas, our criticisms and our praises so that they can better serve their districts.  Furthermore, our own duties as voters and residents in this representative democracy does not end at the polling place.  In fact, we are like a watchman who never gives up his post, and we must vigilantly hold our representatives to their cause–hear our voice and be our voice.

To find out how to contact your legislators, go to http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/.  Keep in touch with them so they can have a good bead on our wishes while making their choices for us.

Joe Buck Coates