Gov. Haley Barbour has taken some flack in recent days from ourneighbors and friends in the Mississippi Delta who feel snubbedafter he expressed concerns for the lack of economic development inSouthwest Mississippi.

This will make it twice in the past week the governor has goneto bat for this part of Mississippi. The first was during commentsto newspaper editors and publishers in Biloxi. The second wasduring a political fundraiser in Greenville.

In both instances, Barbour was responding to questions abouteconomic development priorities in the Delta region and commentedthat his priority at the moment was with Southwest Mississippi. OurDelta friends are not very happy about the governor’s comments,with a few newspapers in the region taking the governor to task forhis honesty.

The governor’s comments are encouraging words for us folks downhere in an often forgotten part of the state. While other areashave received attention and economic growth from industrialdevelopment projects in recent years, the counties that make up thesouthwestern part of Mississippi have been left with only theeconomic development crumbs.

Despite great expectations from the opening of the Nissan plantin Canton a few years ago, Southwest Mississippi counties were leftout of the mix as none of the supplier plants located facilitiessouth of I-20. The latest round of plant opening announcements hasleft us empty-handed as the new Toyota plant near Tupelo as well asother plants in the Starkville, Columbus and West Point areas aretoo far away to help us folks in Southwest Mississippi.

Like the Delta, we are hurting and we too need some help. Butwith all due respect to our Delta friends, we are deserving of someattention – for it has been a while since we have seen much!

We are sorry the governor has taken it on the chin for standingup for us, and we appreciate his honesty as well as his concern forthe good folks of this corner of the state.