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[Stiggers] You'll Never Take Aunt Tee-Tee Alive
"Dear Diary: I'm not happy when I go to my mailbox. I receive lots of bad news in the form of energy bills. I'm retired and live on a fixed income. So what do you get when you have a $674 electric bill and a $559 heating bill? You get ticked off! And if you cannot make the payments, your utilities are cut off.
[Stiggers] Home, Sweet Double-Wide Home
Pookie: "Tonight on the Pookie Economic Report, Brother John-John, property management specialist, building contractor and token Caucasian member of the Ghetto Science Team, shares his vision of housing poor folk affected by Hurricane Katrina."
That Motley Crue Girl
About three months ago, my best friend called me with one of her fabulous ideas. These ideas come at least twice a year and previously involved both a foray into a foreign country and, just once, the purchase of a new cat. This cat would later attempt to kill me in a feline leukemia vaccination-induced fever as I skipped a college class rushing it to the vet. Let's just say that all of these fabulous ideas come with a price.
The Choices Chicks Make
I spoke to a roomful of young chicks recently. We were all packed into the charming old depot in Forest, Miss., some 40 miles from where I grew up in Neshoba County. They've renovated the building into a downtown art gallery and performance space in a small town where such cultural offerings are unusual.
[Stiggers] Have No Fear, Suburbanites!
"High prices have crippled fixed incomes of broke people. Poor folk clench on to the little money they have and remain trapped in the ghetto. Idle minds of the poor and unemployed retaliate with desperate deeds against their own community. No money, no fun, no adventure, no justice, no peace.
The Golden Easter Egg
I stopped attending church years ago. I'll pause for the collective sharp intake of breath and prayer. It really had little to do with my belief in a higher power, but more to do with having absolutely nothing to wear.
[Stiggers] Tricklin' On Down
Brutha Hustle, the Carlton Sheets of the ghetto, introduces Hustle-Nomics 2006, a plan that helps financially challenged individuals supplement their current income within an inflated economy.
Let Me Count The Ways
When my assistant editor, Casey Parks, left the JFP last month to go on to graduate school, she wrote a goodbye editor's note that made me cry. I admit I was touched by what she said about me, the city and the JFP's mission, but more than anything, I cried with pride at the love and maturity such a young person was showing for her community, and herself.
[Stiggers] How to Succeed in Bidness
Rudy McBride: "The staff of the Let Me Hold Five Dollars National Bank (L.M.H.F.D.) recognizes the potential of unemployed individuals in poor neighborhoods. We understand clearly what the good Lord, James Brown and Marva Whitney say about not using your potential: 'If you don't work, you can't eat!'
[Johnson] When Jackson Burned
On May 14, 1863, the Army of Tennessee, under Generals Grant and Sherman, seized Jackson as the Confederate army retreated in disarray. Grant ordered the city's "strategic assets" burned, and in hours, much of Jackson burned to the ground. This is why Jackson has the nickname "Chimneyville," because the fire spared little but brick chimneys, which stood like tombstones after the blaze. This was only the first of three times Jackson burned during the war.
[Mott] Sicko Nation
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, the radio reported a plane flying into the World Trade Center as I was driving to work. The word "terrorists" hadn't yet entered into the picture. Later, settling in at my desk, I received a message from a friend leaving for a business trip. She was afraid to go to the airport, she wrote. She had a bad feeling.
‘Lower Lake': A Good First Step
Frankly, I was a little surprised to hear the news this week that the Rankin-Hinds Pearl Flood and Drainage Control District has selected a new flood-control plan for the Pearl River called the "Lower Lake" plan. The plan is very much a compromise solution in a battle that has waged for nearly 30 years over flood control on the Pearl River. And it's a plan that may be a solid step toward success.
'Racism,' In Context
You've surely heard the heads exploding by now. "She's a racist!" "Maria, er, Sonia Sotomayor said she's smarter than white men!" She made "an unambiguous statement of bigotry."
We Shall Overcome
There is a certain despair spreading among many Jacksonians. Some devoted citizens are even saying they might leave the city because of Mayor Melton's antics and poor leadership. One JFP blogger, "justjess," posted under Adam's last cover story about the administration's apparent lack of a plan for fighting crime: "I try very hard to keep the optimism of 'ladd' that 'the city can and will prosper despite this administration'; however, I have the concern of 'madd' that 'this city is not going to prosper under this administration.'"
Homage to a Shirley Temple
"Don't go far. Mommy won't be long."
[Balko] Criminal Justice Reform Alliance? Doubt It.
Why talk of a left-right alliance to fight the prosecution state seems unlikely.
Facts Matter
I have come to expect this from politicians. It disappoints me, but I no longer expect most politicians to be straightforward. They simplify. They pontificate. They talk in code and refuse to stray from carefully crafted, poll-tested talking points.
[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.
Even a Little 'Involvement' Will Do
Before I was a newspaper publisher, I spent most of my time as a freelance writer and book author, which meant, largely, that I was alone in my office (wherever it happened to be).
Stand By Your Man
This issue is full of men-folk: men we love and those we like, guys we've known for a while and those who are coming through town for the first time, dudes we sometimes question and some others we love to hate.