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For Louis
Last week, my husband, JP, was leaving our house to go to work when he saw something huddled in the bushes. Just as soon as I had heard his key turn in the door to leave, I heard it again as he re-entered the house frantically.
[Mott] Not One More Victim
The bad economy and shrinking budget is not an excuse for failing to add teeth to laws protecting women.
The Art of Denial
I was a junior in high school when my mom came into my room visibly shaken. "I can't keep doing this. There is going to come a time when we are going to leave, and I need you to help me get your sisters and not say a word," she pleaded.
Lost in Translation
"He is like a prodigal son, pondering whether he should return to his native soil." So wrote now-freelance Clarion-Ledger columnist Eric Stringfellow this week in a hand-wringing column about the future of Jackson.
Real-Life Horror Stories
John Grisham says Haley Barbour should sign a moratorium on executions in Mississippi. "Absolutely. If I had my way, we'd stop all of them," Grisham said.
[Stiggers] I'm Not Black!
Motel Williams: "Welcome to the first B.I.D. (Blacks in Denial) conference. Before I begin my brief speech, I want everyone to know that I'm not black; I'm Scandinavian!
[Stiggers] Same Process, New Taste
Bill "Munchie" Wilson: "Greetings, Crunchie Burga World customers. I'm Crunchie Burga World's head dietician, here to introduce you to our new fall processed-foods menu. The dietary staff and I worked very hard to provide customers processed food with a new taste.
The Truth Can Hurt
A reckoning happened last week in the James O. Eastland Federal Courthouse in Jackson. A lot of truth came out before anyone ever took the stand to testify in the James Ford Seale trial for the kidnapping of Charles Moore and Henry Dee.
[Stiggers] Gotta Bang, Bang the Boogie
Lifetime Sista Gurl Women's Television Network presents the Ghetto Chick Flick of the Week: "The Adventures of Nurse Tootie McBride: Medicine Woman, LPN, certified Tahitian Total Health Elixir distributor and part-time Tai Chi Instructor." In this episode ,Nurse Tootie diagnoses Momma "Too Funky Feets" Tidwell.
[Stiggers] Shafted by the Shift?
Grandpa Pookie: "Greetings, members of the Illumi-Nappy-Headed, Sausage Sandwich Sisters Electric Slide for World Peace and Rent Money, Stop the Ham Hocks and Decrease the Pork Grease Coalition, Women in Church Hats (Union # 297 1/3), and Ghetto Science Homeland Security Team. As a concerned chairperson of the Ghetto Science Team, I've ordered this special meeting because my senses have become quite sensitive. Maybe it's global warming or that Bubba Robinski soy protein sausage biscuit I ate. Nevertheless, I feel a paradigm shift. My concern today is how will people respond when the 'shift' moves to overdrive?
[Stiggers] Public Option Pledge
Smokey "Robinson" McBride: "Welcome to the Ghetto Science Team's Public Option Healthcare Rally, Picnic and Disco. It looks like change has opened Pandora's box of hypocrisy, seasoned with bigotry and intolerance."
Lessons From My Mother
Mothers have a habit of bestowing advice and rules to live by, often perpetuating old wives' tales or insensible teachings like: "Don't read in the dark. You'll go blind." (I really thought I was going to go blind after my mom caught me reading in the moonlight; I was scarred for many years.)
[Greggs] Not That Many Bullets
It used to be that when you wanted to lose it and shoot a bunch of the idiots hanging around you, you would say you were about to "go postal." It seems to me that after the recent uprising in school shootings we almost have to call it "going to school." Is this freaking anyone else out, or is it just me?
Remember Sanity
When I was given the opportunity to go to Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity this past weekend, I jumped at the chance. I went to school in the Washington, D.C., area, and cut my activist teeth on Vietnam War demonstrations in the nation's capital and Equal Rights Amendment marches down Constitution Avenue to the west side of the U.S. Capitol building.
[Balko] Getting Forensics Right
by Radley Balko March 14, 2011 After countless scandals in recent years, the problems with America's forensics system are finally getting some national attention. In December, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced a bill to reform the country's crime labs. In January, ProPublica and Frontline teamed up for a year-long investigation into the ways criminal autopsies are conducted across the country.
[Stiggers] Bus-Driving Deacons
"Even though the cold-heartedness of people brings a chill to my soul, I will do my best to remain warm and sympathetic to the needs of others."
The Path of Least Drama
Everyone who reads me regularly knows that I despise the question "Why does she stay?" when asked about domestic-abuse victims.
[Stiggers] Bum Education, Double-Digit Inflation
Cootie McBride: "About a week ago, I spoke at a law and order conference. After what I thought was a convincing presentation, an affluent member of high society asked me: 'What causes law-abiding people to become so lawless and angry?'
Message For Our Time
Only the family of God can solve the problem of education in Mississippi. The Bible says that "You should train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."
[Viewpoint] My Mississippi Delta
Being born in the Bolivar County hospital on a sweltering day in August is just about my chief claim to credibility as a writer. I was raised in the Mississippi Delta, which seems to produce writers and artists in staggering numbers. I have many ideas as to why this is true, but I've refused to write about the Delta much, because my feelings toward it run deep and very conflicted. There is great disparity in the Delta between the "haves" and the "have nots," although often it's only about who owns the seeds.