Men: Start Now, Not Never
A few weeks ago, I went to visit my dad, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. It's a cancer that most men "die with, not from," but to have a doctor tell you that you have cancer must surely be a jarring experience.
[Head] Immigrants vs. Profit
There is a story that U.S. citizens often hear about undocumented Latino workers. It is fiction.
[Balko] You Can Have Sex With Them; Just Don't Photograph Them
In the spring and summer of 2006, Eric Rinehart, at the time a 34-year-old police officer in the small town of Middletown, Ind., began consensual sexual relationships with two young women, ages 16 and 17. Rinehart was going through a divorce at the time. The relationships came to the attention of local authorities, and then federal authorities, when one of the girls mentioned it to a guidance counselor.
Barbour's Cross to Bear
In 1968 in Yazoo City, Police Chief Ardis Russell Sr. arrested a black mother, LeBertha Owens, for trying to take her young daughter, Gloria, to the public library for materials to complete her school assignments. Her daughter was left behind, as she watched the sheriff take her mother to jail for trying to help her get a decent education.
Improve Jackson for Jacksonians
Jackson shares a perception problem with the rest of the nation, and media are manipulating that perception with the recent Census data. Why is it taking so long for the perception to match reality?
[Stiggers] ‘Face the Music'
I guess we all have to face the tune of change and learn how to adjust to things like cold-hearted people, global warming, price gouging, selfishness, greed and the trickle down economic theory.
[Kamikaze] Spring Cleaning Jackson
Babies change you. They change the way you think, the way you act, even your outlook on life. It's funny how something so small can loom so large when you're deciding even your next step.
[Gregory] Ready, Boots? Start Marching!
History proves that no matter the legality of abortion, someone will perform them. Let me say that one more time for the men sitting in the cheap seats: "No matter the legality of abortion, they will be done." It truly comes down to people understanding that if they are a woman, love a woman, or came out of a woman's vagina, they should protect a woman's access to basic reproductive health care.
Come Together
I once had a client who considered himself completely uncreative. An entrepreneur with a thriving small business, Mr. Jones (not his real name) had a peculiar stance about artists: He couldn't understand why they were necessary, couldn't see why anyone would give them the time of day and considered their "sensitive" natures a bunch of malarkey. It is merely social habit, he said, that allows artists to get away with being thin-skinned and quirky.
To Stop Flight, Be Consistent
There is a serious disconnect right now in Jackson. Since hysterical media reports of recent weeks about continuing "white flight" out of Jackson caused, well, a degree of hysteria among some city residents, it's been interesting, and encouraging, to watch many scramble to action to try to counter the loss of residents to the suburbs and beyond.
[Stiggers] ‘My People, My People'
"Remember, Momma Church Hat: Those who endure to the end shall be saved. At least folk can ride off with a blessing by purchasing a reliable and inexpensive hybrid hoopty from Rev. Cletus Car Sales Church."
[West] More Than A Figment
Communities that don't have vibrant arts scenes aren't healthy communities. Arts are essential.
[Balko] Sticklers for Procedure
It would be difficult to cite a more shameful episode in the history of America's criminal justice system than the pedophilia panic of the 1980s and '90s. Hysteria overcame police, prosecutors and social workers all over the country who were concerned about the supposed proliferation of ritual sex abuse, a fear fed by a new movement of Christian fundamentalist quack psychologists.
Lest Ye Be Judged
I ran into a woman Sunday at Broadmeadow United Methodist Church who remembered that my mother used to sell Avon. Apparently, Mama had gone to her family's house in Neshoba County and took me along. Somehow, she remembered.
Of Contracts, Broken
Over the past few weeks, the Mississippi Legislature has bandied about a few anemic attempts at strengthening laws protecting victims of domestic violence. Among them is an addition to the state's divorce laws that would allow judges to grant a divorce if a couple has not been cohabiting for at least five years.
[Stiggers] It's Electric!
Mo'tel Williams: "Greetings, peace-loving people. It's your non-black ambassador here to promote a special peace tour by the Sausage Sandwich Sisters: electric-slide line-dance ambassadors for world peace and rent money."
[Kamikaze] A Jackson Reality Check
It's time for some hard truth. Some Jackson detractors may have taken my ProJack stance as blind love for our fair city. Some have accused me of selling hype over substance. I've refuted crime stats, championed development and screamed "Buy Jackson" at the top of my lungs.
[Head] Smaller, Blacker, Stronger
We all have the opportunity to stand together as a multicultural Jackson that represents everything that is good.
On Feb. 15, Vote Ice for Ward 1
The Jackson Free Press' readership is diverse in many ways, and we get criticized from the left and right for editorial stances and endorsements. Our editorial board believes in groups of people with varying opinions getting together to debate and discuss and, thus, find a better solution due to diversity of opinion.
Facing the Truth
On Friday night, I made the road trip to my aunt and uncle's Flowood home to finally see "Mississippi ReMixed," a documentary by Jackson native Myra Ottewell who examines her personal beliefs about relationships between blacks and whites in Mississippi. Ottewell, who is a teacher in British Columbia, had set out to show how far the state has come in race relations since the 1960s. Her quest, however, revealed aspects of history of which she was unaware.
[Stiggers] ‘There is a Season'
Brother Hustle: "Another season is here, and it makes me reflect on the words wise ol' King Solomon wrote thousands of years ago: ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose, under heaven: A time to gain, a time to lose; a time to rend, a time to sew.'
The Secession Bandwagon
It seems Mississippi Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, is out to prove an election-year point by appealing to the most extreme fringe of the far right.
[Head] Hazardous Civility
In 2009, I spent 48 minutes on Paul Gallo's SuperTalk radio show. I wanted to persuade Gallo to help me expose the mainstream resurgence of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a segregationist group patterned after the 1960s-era white Citizen's Councils that had recently received public support from a state senator.
[Balko] The Anti-Cop Trend That Isn't
Between Jan. 20 and Jan. 25, 13 police officers were shot in the U.S., five of them fatally. Two officers in St. Petersburg, Fla., were killed while trying to arrest a suspect accused of aggravated battery. Two more were killed in Miami while trying to arrest a suspected murderer. An officer in Oregon was seriously wounded, and another in Indiana was killed after they were shot during routine traffic stops. The Indiana assailant had a long and violent criminal record. The suspect in Oregon is still at large. In another incident, four officers were injured in Detroit when a man about to be charged in a murder investigation walked into a police station and opened fire.
Of Truth and the Shortest Month
I admit it: I've never been Black History Month's biggest fan. Let me put that another way: I don't like how media tend to treat Black History Month. Too often, it is a vehicle for selling ads on a special page to commemorate black history, usually with predictable images or talk of little-lady Rosa Parks suddenly getting tired and refusing to get up out of her seat. (No. She was a trained activist; the historic moment was planned.)
Turn Down the Politics
With nearly two weeks before the Jackson City Council special election to replace former Ward 1 Councilman Jeff Weill (who left to serve as a Hinds County judge), candidate Quentin Whitwell was just as surprised as we were to find out attorney and activist L. Patricia Ice had jumped into the race.
[Stiggers] Thriving in the Ghetto
Welcome to the Ghetto Science Team's Super Bowl XLV Tailgate Viewing Party and Disco Business Strategy meeting. I hope my fellow business associates are ready to provide lots of entertainment, fun, food and souvenir products for residents of the Ghetto Science community.
[Kamikaze] Jackson Schools in Crisis
I am a proud product of Jackson Public Schools. I spent nine years in that system. My mother was a long-time educator in JPS. My brother currently teaches in JPS. And I count several friends, classmates and colleagues who are either in the classroom or in administrative roles in Jackson Public Schools.
[Parshall] Firestorm Misses the Point
The blood libel remains a potent bogeyman in anti-Semitic rhetoric around the world.
[Balko] Cops Beat Unarmed Future Cop
A year ago this month, Jordan Miles, an 18-year-old music student at Pittsburgh's Creative and Performing Arts High School, was walking to his grandmother's home in the city's Homewood neighborhood when three undercover police officers in an unmarked white car decided he looked "suspicious." Officers Richard Ewing, Michael Saldutte and David Sisak, all white, would later say in police reports that Miles, who is black, seemed to be "sneaking around" and had a bulky object protruding from his coat that appeared to be a gun. It turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew--which, curiously, was never taken into evidence.