Pubdate: Sun, 02 Mar 2003 Source: Clarion-Ledger, The (MS) Copyright: 2003 The Clarion-Ledger Contact: http://www.clarionledger.com/about/letters.html Website: http://www.clarionledger.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/805 Author: Eric Stringfellow, interviewer SUNDAY MORNING WITH FRANK MELTON There have been a number of experiences that have prepared me over the years. First, growing up in the inner city of Houston, Texas. Next developing a good work ethic at an early age. Getting a quality education and starting a management career at a very early age. In Mississippi with the help of many people I have grown as a person over the past 18 years. Without their help and support I would still be at first base. The difficult challenges that we face today are also great opportunities for progress. These challenges include the economy, which is a national issue. Next, we must have safe schools and safe neighborhoods. Next we must develop the ability to do what is right without regard to politics, race, or other influences. This is critical. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line was a commentary and it originated from a tough time I experienced. A kid in Jackson was killed - shot four times. When I buried that kid nobody attended his funeral. He was 14. That is when I put up the billboards going after the bad guys. That kid had just left my office at WLBT and something told me that I needed to take that kid into my custody. I made a mistake and I will have to live with that mistake for the rest of my life. This is a very painful issue because I made a mistake in judgment and this kid died. Instead of taking the kid home I had a boring speech to make. Two hours later he was dead. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first director of the Bureau of Narcotics worked at The Clarion- Ledger, but that seems to have been forgotten. He was a great director. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The governor was frustrated about our drug problem in the state and made it clear that he wanted to do something different. He is focused and resolved about this problem. He has children and he is, as any parent, deeply concerned. He has given me the support and the latitude to get the job done. On that note the people of Mississippi need to know that the Legislature, the agency heads, and other elected officials have been extremely supportive. Both Republicans and Democrats have helped in every way possible. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My vision for the agency? First, to do what is right. No politics, no race, no influences. Next we must separate the users from the dealers. Get the users help - put the dealers in jail for a long time. We want all of the assets that the dealers have accumulated selling drugs down to their tennis shoes. These assets will be used to rebuild the neighborhoods that they have destroyed. One neighborhood at a time, one family at a time. The violators will lose their right to live in the neighborhoods that they have destroyed. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The people at the agency are great people who have reacted to a culture that has existed for 20 years. That culture is now changing. We have made major arrests. Our job is to do the cases, arrest the violators, put them in jail. Our job is not to embarrass their families and their children. My worst nightmare in this new job is for a child to go to school with his/her head hanging down because of something that his/her daddy did. Our front-line agents are the real heroes and I care a great deal about them and their families. Their safety is my top priority. I would love for everybody to meet these people, some who are very young. Because of the nature of their work that is not possible. I work for them, I admire them, and I believe in them. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mississippi has been much more than I ever expected. If it all ends today, the people of Mississippi have given me a great deal of significance as a person. This is where I belong. I have a choice of living anywhere in the world. I have made that choice and that choice is the great state of Mississippi. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First, for a long time I paid the key managers at WLBT more than I made. While I was learning the market they were making a greater contribution to the business and deserved higher pay. Today I face the same thing at the Bureau of Narcotics. There are key people who are paid more than me. As I continue to learn they deserve to be paid a higher salary. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since by law I must take a salary, I plan to use the salary to fund an MBN public foundation to provide college scholarships for drug free Mississippi students. This will end up being a great memory. I will always be grateful to the people at TV-3, Inc., and our other stations for allowing me to get my feet on the ground, run the company, and then do what I really wanted to do and that was to help develop the program at the Farish Street YMCA. While there have been many proud moments, my greatest memory will be the fact that through a program that we established, many of our key personnel became multi-millionaires, and they deserved every penny of it. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before coming to Jackson I was in Tyler, Texas, serving as the president of the Broadcast Division for Buford Television, Inc. My wife Ellen had just graduated from medical school and we were setting up her practice, making ends meet. I was also teaching college and volunteering at the Tyler YMCA. For the record, I got fired as a college teacher because I flunked the captain of the basketball team. He did not come to a class so he got an F. He got the message and went on to a great NBA career. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For most of my childhood and to some extent most of young adulthood, I feared my father. He did not play! My mother was my fourth-grade teacher and as in the case today I was super hyperactive. My mom, whom I had to refer to as Mrs. Melton in the classroom, would report me to my daddy. That was a nightmare for me. I was never controlled by medicine - I was controlled by my father's left hand in full motion. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today that is considered cruel and unusual punishment. In my day it was getting the message on your rear end. Ellen and I were in Washington when my mom died suddenly. I never had a chance to say goodbye. I watched as my dad went downhill after my mother's death. On that note I must say that this man that I feared all of my life gave me the greatest compliment that I have ever received the night before he died. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My parents were very concerned when I came to Mississippi. When I got involved with the juvenile gangs trying to help and when I became a target of so much controversy that my parents were deeply concerned. The night before my father died he congratulated me for doing the right thing with my life. I had buried so many kids in Jackson between my parent's death that I was almost immune to death. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens