Last week on a flight to Chicago, I had the occasion to visitwith a semi-retired gentleman who was returning to the city after avisit with relatives in McComb. An African-American, he leftMississippi in 1958 to find a job in Chicago.

Proud of his accomplishments, he related how after years ofservice to the city of Chicago he now makes $90,000 a year justpunching a clock. He goes to work, punches in and goes home. At theend of the day, he returns and punches out!

Ahh, Chicago, the home of political patronage and power bosses.The city where when the late Mayor Richard Daley said jump,Chicagoans asked how high? Patronage kept the late mayor in powerfor years. That is the life of past big city politics.

Obviously patronage is still alive and kicking in Chicago, butaccording to newspaper reports I read during my three day visit,the current mayor, son of the infamous Mayor Daley, is crackingdown on such political abuse. His interest is in making the cityefficient, clean and safe in an effort to build the Windy City’seconomy. My walking of the streets found just that — a very clean,safe city with a strong, sound economy.

On returning to Brookhaven Friday evening and catching up onlocal news, it was not surprising to find that politics is alsoalive and well in our own city. After first dismissing a politicalpork project three weeks ago, Mayor Bill Godbold has brought backhis inter-modal facility, or train station complex. He is againtrying to throw roadblocks to a new industrial park and, despite anattorney general’s opinion giving permission, he is refusing toallow city workers to spray for mosquitoes in city ditches locatedon private property.

The reasoning behind the flip-flop on the train station projectas I understand it, is the difficulty of giving grant money back toWashington once it has been approved. The logic here is that sincewe received the $4 million grant we had better find a way to useit. Interesting concept. The mayor cancels the project because, byhis own admission, it is unpopular and has little support in thecommunity. Then he decides to go ahead anyway, committing $800,000in matching funds or in-kind service.

On the other hand, there is full community support for funding adesperately needed industrial park. However, the mayor continueshis attempts to derail the project. With less than 10 acres ofusable land, the existing park is almost full but does have anoption on another 40 acres. Fortunately, the aldermen understandthe future need and have voted to support the funding of a newindustrial park.

Then we come to mosquitoes.

Never one in the past to let a legal issue get in his way, it iscurious that when it comes to something as simple as protecting thehealth and welfare of the citizens, all of a sudden the mayor hasbecome concerned about the letter of the law. Concerned that maybea 1989 attorney general’s opinion regarding mosquito spraying inanother city might be outdated, he feels further legal research isnecessary.

In the meantime, he is refusing to allow any spraying in ditchesfor the pesky and potentially life-threatening mosquitoes. As casesof the West Nile virus are tripling across the nation — withMississippi one of the hardest hit states — Brookhaven residentswill just have to deal with the situation.

Put this all together and we have a curious situation. One hasto wonder what is really going on here. How high are we expected tojump?

Write to Bill Jacobs at P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven, Miss.39602, or send e-mail to bjacobs@dailyleader.com.