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[Stiggers] Join the Electric Slide for Medicaid Protest

…indicate precisely what you mean to say/yours sincerely wasting away/Give me your answer/fill in a form/mine forever more/Will you still need me/Will you still feed me/When I'm sixty-four." — The Beatles

Letter from Sweden

This came today from a filmmaker we know—a Mississippi native who divides his time between Oxford (Miss.) and Sweden. His message is important:

[Irby] Trouble in Mind

I set foot back in Jackson on Feb. 10, 2004, after a year and a half of moving around. I had traveled to what I considered the most liberal parts of the country, California and New York. I left in search of something different, a place of new ideas and open minds, where I could feel free.

Barbour: Heed The Will of The People

We feel it's important to ask a serious question of Gov. Haley Barbour—has he returned to Mississippi to govern the state, or just to test his pet ideological theories about what wins elections?

[Sawyer] The Arc of Justice

One of the great crimes of our generation is not the cries of suffering throughout our world, but rather that we maintain the ability to heal such suffering, and yet we remain silent. We still have the blood of Rwanda's genocide on our hands, and Sudan is nothing but an afterthought. Millions are dying from starvation across the globe, and there seems to be a greater moral imperative to build monuments dedicated to the Ten Commandments.

Chokwe Lumumba Is Getting A Raw Deal

There is a pattern in America's ill treatment of those who have something to say, particularly those who are perceived as having "too much" to say. This pattern is made evident in America's treatment of activists ranging from politicians to attorneys, educators to unionists. Activists stand out and apart from the passive, the silent, the voiceless, the fearful because they are at once active demanding attention in the face of oppression. From divine resources, they draw energy and strength to push toward and forward in the name of freedom and justice.

[Stiggers] No Food In The Fridgidaire?

Pookie Peterz and the Ghetto Economic Development Association present the Let Me Hold Five Dollars National Bank.

The Elephant In The Classroom

The governor and his loyal cabal of "Stepford senators" seem to believe that Mississippians are stupid. And they sure want to keep us that way.

The Mayor's Race That Wasn't

The JFP started out the election season in January determined to learn as much as possible about both the character and the specific plans of the candidates for mayor of Jackson. Because of the nature of the job of mayor—part business booster, part labor negotiator, part city planner, part "top cop," part statesman—we think that the labels Republican or Democrat are secondary to the mayor being a trustworthy power-broker, a champion against poverty and for education, a proponent of smarter government, and a progressive when it comes to exploring and promoting creative ideas to fuel the cultural renaissance of a city's urban core.

[Ladd] Ask the $34,000-A-Day Questions

In January, I wrote an editor's note about the governor that miffed some Democrats around the city. They told me I went too easy on Barbour. I wrote then that although his wink-wink, race-tinged, nationally financed campaign tactics had really turned me off, I still hoped that he really wanted to come in and bridge gaps, not widen chasms. I wrote: "It's up to Barbour. This wasn't our game; the new governor needs to convince me, and other Mississippians, that he deserves the benefit of our doubt. Can he do that? Sure, if he will."

[Stiggers] Tale of Two Criminals

From the producers of the Sci-Fi horror film "Very High Unemployment in America" ... This is a story about two women who escaped their wrong decisions. Martha was a rich, powerful, intelligent and popular celebrity who owned her own corporation. Bone-Qweesha was an aspiring hair stylist and on-the-scene reporter who worked three jobs just to make ends meet for herself and her son Junior. These women seemed to live productive lives until they made the wrong decisions.

[Hutchinson] What is ‘the Truth,' Mr. Cosby?

Comedian Bill Cosby's partial recant that his knock of allegedly bad behaving blacks was a call for action and not a broad brush stroke indictment of all poor blacks, came too little, too late. Rightwing shock jocks, conservative black apologists and op-ed columnists have giddily embraced him as their darling, and many blacks cheer him for supposedly daring to speak what they call "the truth."

[Mimi] Last of the Red-Hot Sugar Mamas

Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night—she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question —"Is this all?" — Betty Friedan

[Morris] The Mule Packer

Being married to Willie Morris was never dull. I never knew who might turn up at our house. One day he announced, "An old friend from California is coming to Jackson for the wedding of someone who goes on his mule-packing treks with him. He'll be staying with us for a few days. Great guy. You'll like him."

[Chick] Can Men Measure Up To Chick Flicks?

My friend Cowboy and I watched "Hitch" by accident, which is OK because I burned some calories laughing, but I honestly thought it was going to be a boy movie, along the lines of "Lethal Weapon." Nope. I made Cowboy see a chick flick. Oops.

[Kamikaze] I Am Hip-Hop

Looks like I'm going to have to get on my soapbox, yet again. Folks around here should know by now that if you say anything derogatory about hip-hop, I'm going to come after you hard. Especially when your comments are not stemmed in fact, but based on outdated stereotypes and profiling, you are sure to read about yourself in my next column.

[Stiggers] Something in the Meat Ain't Clean

In the wake of the current United States beef problem, the Lacto-Vegetarian Church International invites the public to attend an alternative nutrition, lifestyle and spiritual conference: "Something In The Meat Ain't Clean: Living the Non-Carnivorous Life." Hear the Rev. Bean Sprout of the Lacto-Vegetarian Church International deliver a profound, spiritual message titled "Soy Protein: The Fiber Of Our Lives." Listen to the Rev. Dr. Thomas Vegan III speak on the topic of "Prophetic Advertising: Cows Convince Masses To Eat More Chicken." Dr. Peanut of the George Washington Carver Holistic Health Commission of Tuskegee, Ala., will share information from his new book "Tofu as Soul Food.''

[Fleming] Learn From Our Mistakes

In sports, it is all about follow-through. Whether it is a pitching motion in baseball or a swing motion in golf, if you don't follow through, you lose power. The same can apply to government.

[Kamikaze] Two Steps Forward, Two Back

"If you don't learn from the past, you're doomed to repeat it." Well, don't be surprised if the drama that is the real world has started looking like a rerun. Too often, when Mississippi appears to be discarding the vestiges of racism that has crippled it for decades, someone here does or says something, well, stupid. Needless to say, it's kind of embarrassing how we've yet again given a platform for ignorance to rear its ugly head.

[Chick] Screw Miss America

Screw Miss America. I apologize for my bluntness, but I think I have an abusive relationship with the Miss America Pageant. When my college roommate was a pageant girl, I supported her and clapped for her and sent her flowers, but deep down I wished she would just shut up and eat something. I thought Samantha was pretty fabulous all on her own—with or without swimsuit glue—but she just lived for pageants.