Thanks to the staff at the JFP for energizing the progressive, young adult Jackson population. I never realized until recently the positive impact an alternative newspaper could have on a community. I plan my weekly events around the Lounge List! I moved to Jackson in 2001 and I have seen a huge difference in the way young adults view the city of Jackson. I have truly witnessed a "creative class rising" in just four short years.
Scientific Racisim
"Scientific" racism is a sore point with me ("Bennett and his Bad Black Boys," Oct. 6-12, 2005). My culture hero, Charles Darwin, was a passionate abolitionist who saw slavery in Brazil and never got over his indignation. For years, he agonized about extending his ideas about evolution to humankind. He did so because an Alabama doctor wrote a book claiming that the "races" were separate species, so that slavery was no worse than keeping livestock! The book had a foreword by the great geologist, Agassiz. Outraged, Darwin wrote "The Descent of Men," in which he presented the absolute equality of all human beings because of their common descent. In the same book, he developed his ideas of sexual selection, in which much of evolution is the result of female choice! These were remarkable ideas for a privileged 19th-century European, and have both been thoroughly established through research. Sadly, the Supreme Court read Dr. Nott of Alabama and not Charles Darwin and found "blacks" "beings of an inferior grade." So-called "social Darwinism," the notion that social privileges come from biological superiority, was not the work of Charles Darwin. It is a bitter joke that so many who oppose the fact of biological "Darwinism" are social Darwinists!
— John Davis, Jackson
Quit Puffing
Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 substances, more than 40 of which are known to cause cancer and disease in adults who do not smoke. It's the experience of everyone else that I am wanting to call attention to, not only restaurant patrons, but also food industry employees, wait staff, and hosting staff, many of whom are non-smokers but who are required to breathe in second-hand smoke as part of their daily work environment. I would like to issue a challenge to the JFP to host some polls of its readership and to publish some articles exploring the topic of smoking in the Jackson community. I would also like to issue a challenge to popular night spots to consider holding a weekly or monthly Smoke-Out Night, where smoking would not be allowed inside your establishment. To the Jackson City Council, and the Jackson community at large, I would issue a challenge to consider falling in line with New York City and California in passing a city-wide smoking ban in all enclosed workplaces (which would include the work environment of waitstaff in restaurants).
—Frank MacEowen, Jackson
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