Jackson Free Press

OK, if you're over 30, stop reading. This column is not for you. Go away. Shoo. Skedaddle.

However, if you're a Mississippian between the ages of 18 and 29, you are part of a powerful new voting constituency in the state—in this election, you turned out, and as a group, you made choices independent of the fogies in your lives. You thought independently and, according to CNN exit polls, you led the South and much of the U.S. in the percentage of you who voted for Kerry over Bush. Most of you also voted for the gay-marriage amendment.

You made a difference Nov. 2, even if the presidential pick of 63 percent of young Mississippians did not win. But, lest you think you rallied, got out the vote, motivated friends and waited in the damn rain for nothing, check this out. You provided 20 percent of the overall vote in the state (higher than the national average), and you swung outcomes, and got folks' attention in others. (They won't admit it, though.)

If it weren't for you, right here in Jackson the Convention Center tax wouldn't have passed. Young Democrat Sean Perkins wouldn't be a new rising star who almost upset the Republican incumbent elections commissioner. Green Party elections commissioner candidate Jan Hillegas might not have made a respectable showing in South Jackson. District 2 congressional challenger Clinton B. LeSueur might have done better against progressive incumbent Bennie Thompson, rather than worse.

So toast yourself. Reach around right now and pat yourself on the back for making a grand statement that young people in Mississippi are not to be taken for granted. And be sure you e-mail all your yuck-yuck friends in the blue states and tell them to stop blaming us for the outcome of this election. We're doing the heavy lifting here.

Then get your butt back to work. Do your art, build your community, find your voice, speak for yourself, move our state off the bottom. Consider your turn-out in this election a "mandate" to keep building Mississippi into a more progressive, artistic, inviting place. People everywhere are starting to hear that Mississippi is at the heart of the "hip new South" as young Jackson entrepreneur Nathan Glenn called it last issue. We may be a bit of an underdog with our tough past, but people like rooting for the underdog—if the underdog is trying to fix his own doghouse, so to speak.

This doghouse is in good hands now. All you have to do is keep up the momentum. We'll do our part over here to spotlight and promote your efforts, but everybody's got to pitch in. The energy is already there for rebuilding Jackson: Farish, the King Edward, Fondren, now the Convention Center and resort status for downtown nightlife. But keep looking forward. Help us convince the city, and owners of buildings downtown, to help you get cheap boutique, artistic and living space. A cool downtown can't just be for those who can afford high rents. That's dull. Hip downtowns have the well-to-do living and working with starving artists—and buying their art.

Keep the focus on local businesses. The King Edward ought not have a Starbuck's—which will kill local coffeehouses—it needs a cooler-than-thou Cups or other locally owned coffee joint. This holiday season, Think Global, Shop Local like never before.

And don't forget that strong cities are infused with tolerance. Go back and read that Creative Class story Todd wrote for our preview issue in 2002. "Creative Class" author Richard Florida warns that the city and its residents must be tolerant: of youth culture, of weird clothes and piercings and baggy pants, of diverse religions and ethnicities—and, yes, of homosexuals. In fact, hip gay culture exists at the heart of every city's creative movements to reinvent themselves. This doesn't mean that you're supposed to approve of what other people do in their personal lives, or even that you can't believe that what they do is a sin—that's your right. But we must be very careful about creating environments in which gays and lesbians feel like victims of hate and discrimination.

The gay-marriage amendment in Mississippi—and the state's support of it—hurt people. Since the election, I've talked to gay couples and singles here in Jackson who are working every day to help make this city a better place—some stalwarts of the community already, others sure to be. They had tears in their eyes and pain on their faces because, they say, now they look around them and don't know who really hates them or not. Such intolerance is shameful. And, yes, the question of homosexuality is a different kind of civil rights issue than faced by people of color—but the pain that hate and intolerance causes is exactly the same. (By the way, Clarion-Ledger, this is one major reason "why not" to vote for this amendment—because real Mississippians we love were hurt by it. Shame on your cheap endorsement of hate and intolerance.)

As Casey points out to me, though, the silver lining of the gay-marriage outcome is that it has opened dialogue on this issue, just as the outcome of the Confederate flag referendum in 2001 opened up discussion of race issues. And that's a good thing. (Don't miss Casey's column on this topic. It's a keeper.)

Meantime, many other issues are on your plate, young Mississippians, and you have the power and the voting bloc to make a difference. Please think hard about public education: our state is simply going to remain the domain of the haves and the have-nots if we do not adequately fund and support public education. You can pick good, energetic candidates (like Sean Perkins) among yourselves and run them for office. You can find someone to run against Rep. Chip Pickering next time because no one should run virtually unopposed for such an important seat. You can choose to send Haley Barbour back to D.C. in a couple years if he keeps pandering to industry outside the state over the needs of everyday Mississippians. And if he insists on lobbying against your mama's Medicaid, you won't be the only ones.

You can do all that, and more. You got the power. You own this doghouse.