Jackson Free Press

In the midst of a Presidential election it's easy to get caught up in the event, to fixate on the media coverage and the seemingly infinite analysis and forget about all the other things. Regardless of the latest partisan rifts, elections highlight the fact that America will always endure. Mississippi endures, too. In fact, judging from what I saw this week while traveling around our state, I can tell you that Mississippi is not only enduring, we are prospering.

We're creating good jobs. Like any state, we've lost older jobs. Yet this is a glass not left half empty, but half full and getting fuller. Mississippi is transforming our economy, and we're not forsaking manufacturing for service industry jobs either, as some always suggest.

For instance, I was in Greenville Monday to help officially open the new Textron plant - a 350,000 square-foot facility that will manufacture automotive components. Folks in Greenville are the first to tell you that few communities in America are hungrier for jobs than those in the Mississippi Delta region. Thanks to a cooperative effort between state, local, federal and private sector leaders, Textron chose Greenville as the site for its new $35 million, 500-job facility. This bodes well for the Delta's economic potential and for that of our entire state.

Indeed the presence of Nissan's gigantic car factory in Canton was a catalyst for Textron's coming to Greenville. Yet, automotive jobs aren't the only type of manufacturing activities locating in our state and with potential to grow here. Aerospace jobs are taking root in Mississippi. We're becoming a hub for the manufacture of unmanned or "drone" aircraft, used primarily by the defense industry. Just this week Aurora Flight Services announced that a 300-job, $45 million plant will be constructed at Golden Triangle Airport to build the "Hunter II"unmanned drone designed for various military missions but a craft which also has commercial applications.

This announcement comes less than a week after American Eurocopter officially opened a manned helicopter manufacturing plant at the same airport, and it came less than a year after Northrop Grumman announced it would manufacture at Jackson County's airport, an unmanned drone helicopter, a product also with military and commercial applications. These four major manufacturing facilities, landed by our state within the year - industries providing hundreds of skilled, high-paying jobs - are proof that Mississippi is moving.

In addition to creating jobs, we're creating outstanding people, too. I've met many of our young men and women today, and I truly believe we're seeing another great generation arise. I saw it yet again at Port Gibson's Chamberlain-Hunt Academy last week and at nearby Alcorn State University.

You've heard of Alcorn but maybe not Chamberlain-Hunt, but these two institutions share a common history. Both sprang from a predecessor institution called Oakland College. Alcorn is an outstanding historically African-American university of which our state is very proud. Chamberlain-Hunt is a Presbyterian military academy which just a few years ago was on the verge of closing its doors, ending a history dating back to 1879.

On Wednesday it was my honor to help celebrate this institution's rebirth. I joined the Academy's faculty, alumni and friends to keynote Chamberlain-Hunt's Founders' Day convocation in the old Oakland Chapel at Alcorn State - ground zero for both institutions' beginnings. Here, Alcorn students, faculty and alumni, joined those from Chamberlain-Hunt to celebrate this academy's revitalization and surge of enrollment. Today Chamberlain-Hunt has about 170 cadets, and they're some of the most impressive young people I've ever met. They're going to be impressive leaders in Mississippi's future.

From what I've seen in my travels around our state - the new jobs, the outstanding young people who will help build our new economy - I feel confident that, regardless of the passing political trends that sometimes divide us, this new Mississippi will be a much better place than ever before. As long as Mississippi continues attracting good jobs and raising outstanding people, our future will always be unlimited. (10/29/04)
Senator Lott welcomes any questions or comments about this column. Write to: U.S. Senator Trent Lott, 487 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510 (Attn: Press Office)