GUEST EDITORIAL
April 27, 2009

Cherokee County lucky to have Richard Lindsey

MONTGOMERY — Dewandee Neyman and I have had the privilege of representing our school board in Montgomery at the Alabama Association of School Boards legislative meeting for the past two years. During these trips, we attended legislative secessions at the State House where we saw the legislators at work. Fortunately for us, and everyone else, Richard Lindsey is a man of the people and a true statesman.

 Cherokee County sent Rep. Lindsey to the Alabama Legislature in 1983. Since, 2001, he has also been chairman of the House Education Appropriations Committee.
As chairman, Rep. Lindsey has the daunting task of working to create an education budget. In his hands rest part of the awesome responsibility for educating the children of Alabama with funds that seem to grow thinner and thinner. Richard Lindsey's hands, though, are capable ones. As a cotton farmer, he has learned how to stretch a thin budget and put each dollar and every cent to its particular best use.

His years of service to the people and his years of farming have provided him a deep knowledge and understanding of the intricacies of fiscal and legal issues. We were thrilled last year to watch him discuss large corporation tax loopholes and deflect corporate attorneys who questioned a bill he supported to close them. It was a long and complicated discussion beyond anything we could imagine, and he did it calmly and with complete authority.

Rep. Lindsey has not forgotten where he comes from, and it sure makes us proud when we go to Montgomery. There were always important people waiting to see him. You can imagine our pleasure when he interrupted his busy day to personally greet us, bring us into his office and listen and talk to us. He had several invitations to various receptions and dinners, but he accepted ours and spent time with us discussing everything from school board business to farming.

In his quiet way, Rep. Lindsey gives each issue his total focus and interest. He listens intently to all sides before he makes a decision and then there is a man of steel under his gentle demeanor. We couldn't ask for a better man to represent us in Montgomery, a completely different world from Cherokee County. We couldn't be prouder of our representative.

Lynn Rochester is a member of the Cherokee County Board of Education.