Contrary to current views “The American Dream” is not dead but is in jeopardy of being destroyed.
This conclusion is the main reason I am running for commissioner of district 4.
As I reflect back on my 55 years on this earth, just like everyone else I can see all aspects of life and am truly thankful of where I am and the blessings I have received, knowing that the things I went through during the rough years made me who I am today.
Always present was opportunity to learn and improve myself. I graduated from Handley high school in 1987 and at that time college tuition was more than my family could afford so I enlisted in the Marine Corps and served my country for 4 years.
That was my first experience in giving back to my community in a major way was when I was stationed in South Carolina during hurricane Huge. I was able to go out and help clean up Charlotte and surrounding cities. Seeing how people came together made an impression on me at a young age.
We all were working together for a common goal and there was not that division along party lines like it is today and that is what I would like to see us as a state get back to. Politics seemed more like being a football fan and Election Day was the game—but no matter who won, everyone got along.
After getting out if the Marine Corps and returning home I began working at a company called Plantation Patterns. This was the beginning of me reaching my American Dream. I started out working in shipping and was able to work my way up the ladder to become production manager over two buildings and over 300 people. I am proud of my time there because I was able to touch a lot of lives in a positive way. At one time we employed a thousand people and brought a lot of revenue into the county, people were able to support their families and live a good life.
Due to greedy people in our corporate office doing shady things we had to close our doors and a lot of people were without jobs. I ended up working for the Walmart distribution center in Lagrange Georgia. Many of us ended up driving to Georgia to find a job with a livable wage to maintain the quality of life we had become accustomed to working at Plantation Patterns. There were no employers in Randolph County that were willing to compensate workers with realistic wages.
I have been at my current job for 16 years. It is my wish that our county gets it together and do what it takes to attract businesses to build in our county so our residents do not have to drive to Georgia to support their families. Looking at the census numbers our county’s population is shrinking every year.
I do not have to look further than my family to see why this is happening. I have three grown children and all of them work in Lagrange while two of them live there. Once our kids graduate whether it be from high school or college there is nowhere in our county to work and make a competitive wage. If we can correct this we will be able to retain the strong work force that gets up early every morning and drive to Georgia. This is the first part of a plan to make our county grow instead of slowly dying. Looking back at my time at Plantation what stands out is not only the people who worked there but the small businesses that was able to thrive by having a strong employer is a town as small as Wadley.
The commissioners have the ability to advocate for employers to build in the county but this does not happen. If you look at the problems that the country is having from housing to low wage jobs we cannot wait for Washington DC to fix them we have to do what we are able to do locally to make sure our people have that opportunity I spoke of earlier that opportunity is the basis of the American dream and that can be provided by our county leaders only if it is made a priority and until we as a people hold our leaders accountable for results for lack of results we will watch our county continue to shrink in population.