Letter to the Editor

City has more to worry about that basketball goals

Friday, June 17, 2011

To the editor:

You know, it's a crying shame that the city of Blytheville doesn't have more on their agenda than to worry about a basketball goal on the street. I may not be the smartest individual on the planet, but I do know if it were me, I would worry more about the drug dealer and the crack ho's walking up and down Rose Street and 21st -- you can't go around the corner without someone trying to sell you something illegal.

I would really like someone to tell me just where these kids are supposed to play, where are they supposed to go, what are they supposed to do? Most of these kids don't have the money to go to a YMCA or anything of this nature. It may not cost to go play, but tell me, how are they supposed to get there? The churches and places that have ball goals are closed 90 percent of the time, so they can't play there. If they're not locked out, they try to play, they usually get told to leave. So where do they go? To the street in front of my house, where they have been playing ball for about eight years!

You know, I don't remember one fight, one argument, not one time any of the neighbors have complained about their games. We've watched 90 percent of these kids grow up on this street to become young men who have never showed me and my wife nothing but respect. So I guess it's time someone takes up for these kids, and time for Blytheville to step up to the plate.

So you don't want them playing ball in the street -- so give them a place to go that's accessible to all kids. You don't want them playing in the street, then put in some courts to play at and don't say we've no place to put it. There is a whole big lot right at the end of Edwards called David Acres. Taxpayers been paying to mow it for years and there isn't a thing in the world on it but grass.

How do I know this? It is my house that is pictured in the paper. I'm not scared to tell it. And I'm proud me and my wife have provided these kids a place where they could go and play and will somehow continue to, for we for one try to support are youth. So it's about time the city of Blytheville put up or shut up.

Jimmie Bogle
Blytheville