Thank you, Mr. Hester

The Selma Town Council met this evening, as normal. Despite the earlier policy passed by the council to bow down to the wishes of the ACLU, Mayor Hester opened the meeting with prayer. There was no announcement of a policy reversal by the Council that we don't know about. If the Council did so, then kudos to them. If Charles Hester did it on his own, then bravo for him.

The press was given a copy of letters to/from the ACLU. I would love to read them at some point.

One thing that I was not fond of at the meeting is the town's receipt of a grant from the USDA for small business development. It is not that I have a problem with the town receiving funding. It is that the funding is even being offered to begin with. It is our tax dollars that are being given away. $75,000 was just this one grant for one town in one year. Other towns get larger or smaller grants. Multiply this by thousands of towns across the nation every year and you can see a large pit into which our federal tax dollars are illegally poured.

The idea is that the town will receive the money and then lend it to a local business for capital improvements, start up costs, and general business development at a low interest rate. I understand the benefits of that concept. I understand what small businesses go through to an extent, having owned a couple of them myself. However, I see NOTHING in the U.S. Constitution that allows such programs to even exist. Actually, I see the specific prohibition of such programs.

The sad thing is that these grants will be given anyway, with or without Selma. If some town is going to get the funding, it might as well be our town. I just hate it when our tax dollars are spent like this, though. It is such a shame and the founding fathers would wig out over things like this.

In another act, the Council appointed Eric Sellers to fill Jeff Weaver's open spot on the Council. I do not personally know him, but I understand that he is respected in the community. I wish him well and that he will rise to the occasion.