I had a telephone message asking me to refute the falsehood posited by Ms. Agnes Wilkerson Dalton in the June 1st Item that Barack Obama killed Osama Bin Laden. Of course, he didn’t; the brave Navy Seals did. The president has been almost universally commended for authorizing the action; however, it was not a great act of courage on his part, but rather a no-braine. The president is rightly commended for authorizing the taking out of the bad guys.

Now to the gist of Ms. Dalton’s letter: she is dead wrong on all counts. I actually praised the CCC, WPA and other New Deal programs for their effectiveness and economy as compared to Obama’s stimulus programs. It did not, however solve the unemployment problem, but likely mitigated it (13.1% in 1931 – 17.3% in 1939). The Picayune city hall is a fitting monument to the WPA. Acknowledging that, the CCC and WPA did not build Pearl River County; hard-working people built Pearl River County.

As to Social Security, privately managed portfolios would not have had to be invested in the stock market. Risk-averse people could have invested in U. S. Government bonds or other securities, FDIC-insured CD’s and Money Market funds, or generally safer municipal and corporate bonds. Ask millions of us if we would prefer to turn over our 401k and IRA portfolios to the government to manage for us.

Leroy Gilbert, Carriere