Editor:

In the article, dated this Wednesday (Oct. 9), titled “Vote Tommy Potter for Sheriff on Nov. 5,” [it] suggests that other candidates are not worthy for consideration, since Tommy Potter is the best and right person for the job. But when we consider the opening statement of the article from a person who has lived in the county for 75 years, that drives me to the year of 1944. The country in 1944 was engaged in WWII. Dedicated persons, similar to Josh Wyche, were being denied full citizenship. The civil rights era that challenged Jim Crowism had not begun, and the police and the Sheriff’s office showed bias toward people like Josh Wyche.

I am also concerned with the direction our community is heading — seems we are heading backwards. Should we go back to the 1944 time frame where the social norms were pitted against people like Josh, or should we go forward to a period of real change? Should we go back to a time when people like Josh couldn’t go in the front door of Fred’s Restaurant or Parkers Drugs or any other establishment in the city or in the county, or should we embrace a man who has ‘stayed the course’ with the real hope of instituting real change for all of the county and city of Franklin? Even the new chief of Franklin [Police] would agree that policing the area does require full participation and full commitment from and by all of our citizens. Without that, change for the better will stagnate like the smelly, pungent Blackwater River.

We need a person who has stayed the course, a person who has learned his trade well, a person who has been trained and educated in criminology. Vote, yes by all means, vote, but vote for the right person who will, by his presence, bring that needed change.

Dr. William Scott

Franklin