I appreciate what you have said in your last post, voiceofreason, but why stay out of it? Do yourself and the citizens of Jones County a favor brimming with integrity….just turn ther proactive tendency you demonstrated you have in your first post a 180 and be proactive for the good of Jones county. Speak to your neighbors, friends, acquaintences by asking them a simple question when you hear gossip: Have you talked to this person, whomever the gossip is about, personally to find out that side of the story? In the case of a newspaper: Give them a call when you see a lack of integrity in their reporting. If you do not see BOTH sides of a story in your local newspaper, call them on it. Demand fairness. Do not allow a local newspaper to continue to be irresponsible, thus becoming a part of the ‘good ole boy’ system in your county. Call people into account when they gossip about which they know nothing. Stop it right there. If enough people do this, in other words turn into lovers of the respect of truth and the respect of people, it will go a long way towards causing change. And, change in this silly and hurtful ‘good ole boy’ system is what this county needs. Yes, it is said almost jokingly, “Every southern town has its ‘good ole boy’ system, we all know it.” Well, it would be funny were it not so serious. This ’system’ is not a joke; it is not funny. It is mean, illegal, corrupt and the result, if continued, is dead serious. Again, thank you for being man/woman enough to admit you were wrong and apologize. Kuddos to you but I hope you will not choose to stay out of it but instead do your little part to change things. Little parts of integrity put together evolve into something good overall that can be a very big and important whole to help bring integrity to your community entities whether they like it or not. They can change or be voted out. They can change or be shamed out. Be a part of something good for individuals and your community as a whole. It is a matter of choice.

voiceofreason: Are you saying by your name that you are the voice of reason on this subject or any other subject concerning Chip? If you can answer the following questions with a “yes” thin your actions justify your name. If you answer “no” to any one of them, you need to change your name to voiceofnothing, gossipwithoutreason or stupiditypersonified

1. Have you formed any opinions about Chip by talking directly to him?
2. Have you listened and believed heresay/gossip/grapevine concerning Chip?
3. Have you made any concentrated effort at all to learn with integrity anything about Chip by any honorable means at all?
4. Have you repeated anything you have heard about Chip, other than what your question brings out (which in itselt is gossipy,therefore hurtful and mean) to anyone without knowing all facts about this subject that you have attained by honorable means?
5. Have you gossiped about Chip?
6. Do you have the idea that you know enough about Chip to form an honest opinion of him?
7. You indicate by your question that you think it would be a good idea for that question to be asked of him…..again I ask, did you bother to do it?
8. Do you think it is a crime to be different?

For all of you out there who think you know everything about a situation from what you read in a newspaper….THINK AGAIN. Get up off your lazy back end, be proactive if you are really interested in something, be it Chip or something else, and LEARN about it instead of gossip about it. Think of it this way: you are proactive in gossip (bet you have learned to do that really well!)….why not channel that desire to learn what is going on into something you can be proud of and experience the feeling of having some integrity. You can learn about and educate yourself if you really want to…..on the other hand if all you enjoy and want to do is gossip and have fun hurting others, I must ask you: did you nail your pets to trees when you were a child….or something equally cruel….because gossiping runs a direct parallel to that sort of thing except that it is worse….there are people involved, not animals.

Chip claims the following citizenship and status: Mississippi citizen; American national; and according to Ephesians, citizen of the Commonwealth of Yisrael.

He is actually very interesting to talk to regarding this stuff.