Opinion

Work For Our Votes

Reader reactions to a pair of unpaid, uncommissioned polls by political consulting firm Zata|3 have revealed an unsavory aspect of our political system: Attack the messenger, ignore the message.

Boneqweesha Jones: "Recently, Hair Did University's Post-Secondary Education Foundation received needed funding from the Ghetto Stimulus Package. I appreciate this financial gesture from the government who responded like a good friend.

[Hutchinson] Leave Madonna Alone

In 2006, Save the Children UK butted in and denounced Madonna for adopting Malawi orphan David Banda. Now another bunch has jumped into the adoption fray and branded her a "bully" for her plans to adopt another Malawi orphan.

Protect Private Property

During trips to my mother's hometown of Oxford, it was customary for her to point out the areas of land, now heavily developed, that blacks owned when she was growing up.

Do Your Jobs, Legislators

Mississippi lawmakers didn't even pretend to try to get their jobs done within the parameters set by the state Constitution this year. Instead, a week or so before their 90-day session ends, they passed legislation to extend it. How handy.

[Stiggers] Riches To Rags

Miss Doodle Mae: "In these turbulent, traumatic and tense economic times, the staff of Jojo's Discount Dollar Store has seen many sad and empty faces of broken people holding in their tears of shame and frustration.

[Kamikaze] Seizing Jackson's Moment

My daily affirmation is, as taken from the movie "Talladega Nights": "Here's the deal. I'm the best! I wake up in the morning, and I piss excellence. Nobody can hang with my stuff!" Humor notwithstanding, those words speak to a truth that we all can learn from.

[Gregrory] Plight Of A Sports Widow

I hate sports so much that I purposely avoid the sports category any time I play Trivial Pursuit because there is a 90 percent chance that—unless the answer to the question is "David Beckham in his underwear"—I have no idea about the correct response.

Entering Year Seven

The economy has eclipsed almost everything these days, including the fact that last Friday marked the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war, a war this paper opposed since the week it started.

[Stiggers] Reader's Guide to Stiggers

Bright moments, Jackson Free Press readership! This is your resident satirist Ken Stiggers following up on an idea a reader suggested to me Sept. 22, 2005, after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

[Agho] Cover The Uninsured

I recently read a comment by a reader in a local paper that set me back on my heels. The post was in response to an article on the effects of the proposed hospital tax on insured and uninsured patients.

Stimulus Starts At Home

This week we're proudand perhaps a little surprisedto be publishing one of our largest issues of the Jackson Free Press so far in Volume 7; and one of the most ad-packed issues ever.

Law Enforcement Needs to Release Info

Five weeks. That's how long it's been since Dr. Mark Pogue and his fiancée, Dr. Lisa Dedousis, died in flames after the Mercedes driven by Karen Irby crossed into their lane on Old Canton Road Feb. 11, hitting their pickup truck head on.

[Stiggers] Warm Front Of Change

Sista Encouragement: "Live from the Ghetto Science Team radio studio is "Positively News!" I'm your upbeat news anchor providing you with good news you can use!

[Kamikaze] Message To Michael Steele

You blew it. You caved, crumbled, buckled, tucked tail and ate crow.

[Johnson] Project Dribble

On the morning of October 22, 1964, the United States government detonated a nuclear bomb under Mississippi, 28 miles southwest of Hattiesburg.

Note From A Concerned Citizen

When I arrived at the office one recent morning, an e-mail from a "concerned citizen" was awaiting my eyes in my inbox. In that e-mail, a Jackson resident expressed her outrage at an incident she and her husband had witnessed on their way to church the previous day.

Boys & Girls Club to Close?

More than 1,000 Jackson schoolchildren could be left unsupervised after school if a local community organization does not receive donations soon. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Mississippi plans to close three of its six Jackson-area facilities at the end of the school year if it does not raise $500,000 by April 1.

Protect Justice in Mississippi

Gov. Haley Barbour and Mississippi's legislators have several opportunities this session to provide measures of justice to its citizens.

[Stiggers] Too Blessed To Be Stressed

Rev. Cletus: "Blessings to all who endure tough times in an economic recession! This is your car-sales pastor broadcasting on Ghetto Science Satellite Radio. I have a shameless plug in the form of a riddle for my devoted listeners: What has a 5.0 V8 Cleveland engine, a rebuilt transmission and a 1997 Volvo body?

[Lynch] Two-Ton Kill Machines

Traffic light cameras caught a lot of hell this legislative session. The cameras sit not-too-stealthily at about eight intersections throughout Jackson, including spots in West Jackson, the corner of Lakeland Drive and Old Canton Road and the corner of Pearl and State streets.

[Kamikaze] Shut Up and Listen

I went to "The Vagina Monologues" last weekend, and it turns out that it wasn't that bad after all. After I was "told" I would be going, I prepared myself for all of the "controversy" and "profanity" that I was supposed to hear.

For Noella

When Kimberly Griffin told me that the Fondren Theatre Workshop had agreed to direct "The Vagina Monologues" in Jackson, I was happily stunned. Nearly seven years ago when we started the Jackson Free Press, I couldn't have imagined that in the not-far-off future, we would present Eve Ensler's empowering, funny, tragic and eye-opening ode to womanhood.

Ellington