Dear editor,

According to last Sunday&8217;s &8220;Huntsville Times,&8221; more than a third of the legislature are planning

out of state trips in

July. Eighteen House and Senate members will travel to Oklahoma City for the Southern Legislative Conference, and some of the same will go to New Orleans for the National Conference Of State Legislatures.

These trips couldn&8217;t be planned at a more inopportune time. Around the same time our stellar group of

public servants will be lollygagging in the hotels and conference rooms of Oklahoma City and New Orleans, Volkswagen will decide whether or not they will build a manufacturing plant here in Alabama.

Gov. Bob Riley will need to call a special session to increase the amount of incentive money the state can borrow to lure them here, its going to be cutting it close to get this done with them out of town.

All this on the heels of giving themselves a 60 percent raise; a fistfight, which caused the state further embarrassment; and not passing an education budget, among many other things.

All this leads one to wonder if state Sen. Hank Sanders, state Rep. Thomas James,and

state Rep. Yusuf Salaam are among the legislators callous enough to take this trip at such a critical time for this state and its citizens.

Terry Lewis