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To the Editor:

As I prepare to readdress some issues I had spoken on via the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors conference call March 9. On this call when I asked about the building workforce and offering better paying jobs for the citizens, which has been stagnate for the more than 15 years I’ve been back home, my Locket District Supervisor, Robert M. “Bobby” Jones, informed me that I should move if I didn’t like the things I noticed or had issues with.

Though this stunned me, what appalled me even more was the acceptance of this kind of rudeness to be tolerated by all the other board members, with even the board Chair J. David Emert, of Prospect District saying he (Jones) had the right to say what he wanted. Yet the board’s own public protocol rules, admonish and even stifle the same freedom of speech to those of us citizens, they all serve.

To give you some quick background, my family has been in Rice for more than eight generations. My family has worked and toiled on farms, tobacco fields, lumber mills, and many other jobs, putting food on the tables. From hearing of how my great-great grandfather, (Georgianna Hicks’ father) was tarred and feathered, only to now in 2021 we run into the same Jim Crow mentality, and Uncle Tom attitude, that I was told about. (By the way, Jim Crow just didn’t hurt Blacks, but the average and low income whites as well.)

I sincerely hope this upcoming Tuesday, April 13, meeting has more respect and decorum shown than the last. Enclosing I wish to thank Supervisor (Jim) Wilck and  Administrator (Doug) Stanley for their help and respect to take the time to listen and address concerns. I hope Supervisor Bobby Jones can understand not everyone in Prince Edward County are doing as well as him and his friends, and contrary to popular beliefs we do have future generations who deserve better, and an older generation that needs relief from the crushing tax burden it causes.

All I’m asking is to see is our tax dollars at work for us the citizens, not just the privileged few.

Bemeche Hicks

Rice