On Monday, the website, Wallet Hub, released a study ranking the states from highest to lowest in the best states to start a business.

Out of the 50 states, Alabama was ranked 41 out of 50 with 50 being the worst place to start a business.

This is not the only study released by Wallet Hub that has Alabama ranked low on the totem pole.

In another study, this time, ranking the states from safe to fatal, Alabama was ranked 44 out of 50 states with Mississippi being last.

Another study shows that Alabama was ranked 44 when looking at the best to worst school systems in the country.

I was curious to see who the best was, and that was Massachusetts.

Who knew, right?

Louisiana was the worst, which is another left fielder. I would’ve thought Mississippi again, but that is just me being shady.

As someone who was born and raised in Alabama, I think there is definite room for improvement.

No matter what I say, at the end of the day, Alabama is still home. It doesn’t matter where I go or where I travel to, I am always somehow drawn back to this state.

It never fails.

This state has its problems. There is no doubt about that, but a lot of states have their own issues as well.

It could be worse. We are not the most unsafe state, that is our friend and neighbor, Mississippi, so we have that as ammunition to work with.

Even locally, people that are not from here and have never lived here, have a certain stigma about Dallas County, particularly Selma.

I admit even I was hesitant about taking this job when Dennis Palmer called me that fateful night while I was still editing copy in Jackson County.

I thought on paper everything about the job seemed perfect, but then one of my friends said, “But it’s Selma.”

Yes, yes, it is Selma, and I also know how the media works.

Conflict and violence sells, it gets the clicks, and it gets the viewers, but it doesn’t represent the entire story of a community.

That was what fueled me to accept this job, and go on this adventure by moving down here to where nobody knows me.

I knew that I would find the good that this community and county is.

I have to say that now that a month has passed by that I am seeing it.

There are good people here, and I see a lot of potential in this community. So, as an outsider who is now living in the community, let me say that there are some that are working to moving Selma and the county forward. That is something that isn’t acknowledged by the major broadcasting stations and AL.com.

I hope that us here at The Selma Times-Journal have and will continue to cover all parts of Selma and Dallas County. Our job is to tell the stories both good and bad, and to preserve the history of this already historic community.

Will Whaley is the editor of the Selma Times-Journal. He can be reached at will.whaley@selmatimesjournal.com.