Jackson Free Press

Jacksonian Martha Bergmark, who runs the Mississippi Center for Justice here, has an inspiring call to action (especially for social-justice attorneys) printed at MSNBC.com/Newsweek today, in honor of Dr. King's birthday today:

On the Mississippi coast today, 92,000 people are still living in FEMA trailers. Meanwhile, statewide, there is the disaster before the disaster, measured by the indicators of crushed dreams--our persistent highest-in-the-nation percents of child poverty, low-birthweight babies and high- school dropouts, our lowest-in-the-nation per-pupil expenditures on public education, and our racial disparities in access to health care. Now is the time to commit to that new direction.

Our justice community is setting a new direction, and before 2007 is over we will move the needle on the indicator that puts Mississippi in last place on access to civil justice. In doing so, we will be meeting the individual needs, promoting the policy changes, and modeling the leadership, the political will and the campaign mode necessary to begin to move all those other needles.

I'm already looking forward to celebrating with y'all at that great camp meeting in the promised land of freedom and justice, when Mississippi has earned a new tagline--the social justice state.

Previous Comments

ID

90853

Comment

What I don't quite get is how Haley Barbour is going to stand up tonight and say that things are great in the "state of the state"—even as 92,000 peope are still living in FEMA trailers this long after Katrina and workers don't have decent enough housing on the Coast to keep our industry there. That fact alone should tarnish his legacy forever. There is nothing he can say to mitigate that fact.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-01-15T13:20:35-06:00

ID

90854

Comment

Bump. I just posted this on JackBlog; I took advantage of the "Disable Comments" option there for the first time because I didn't want that thread to become one of those discussions where someone says something provocative and offensive and we spend 250 posts arguing with it, but if anyone wants to talk about a case where Dr. King would have raised hell, here's a good example. Can anyone look at how our public officials responded to Hurricane Katrina, or the poverty that created that situation to begin with, and think that Dr. King would have smiled on it? Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2007-01-15T13:27:18-06:00

ID

90855

Comment

I think our Public Officials have done fine, compared to other places. What Dr King would have thought, I'm not sure.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2007-01-15T14:51:09-06:00

ID

90856

Comment

He certainly would have been horrified after Katrina, and now, considering that people are all goo-goo eyes over Barbour with so many people still living in FEMA trailers and his buddies racking up the contracts on the Coast. It's a travesty, and history will record it.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-01-15T15:01:12-06:00

ID

90857

Comment

This day can't pass without noting the "leaders" who are out doing marches in the rain ( http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/NEWS/70115017 ) who never spoke up when Evans Welch was illegally dragged from his home and assaulted under the color of authority to please a racist, WHITE voting block. What little this man owned was destroyed or stolen. The same day the manager from The Upper Level was treated the same way. Where were these "leaders"? Playing politics; that's where. Leaders indeed. I hope the JFP remembers this when it comes time for endorsing canidates at election time.

Author

Cliff Cargill

Date

2007-01-15T15:03:21-06:00

ID

90858

Comment

If anyone's stunned Barbour's buds are racking up contracts on the coast, I'd suggest they haven't lived here long enough. ;) You also don't simply wave a wand and rebuild enough homes for all those people. I mean, Barbour is very defeatable but are we going to get any actual change?

Author

Ironghost

Date

2007-01-15T15:37:19-06:00

ID

90859

Comment

I just blogged about King Day again, this time on my civil liberties site. And Cliff, agreed. Anyone who claims Dr. King would have smiled on abuse of the poor and vulnerable is desecrating the man. Simply desecrating him. Nobody would have been more disgusted about Melton's behavior. One need only look at what his spiritual heirs in the NAACP thought of Melton's horrors to recognize that. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2007-01-15T15:47:26-06:00

ID

90860

Comment

IG, I'm not sure you're right about Barbour being beatable. Jim Barksdale might be able to pull it off, but unless he or John Grisham makes a run at it, I think Barbour will win an easy second term. Shouldn't, but will. We should remember, though, that Mississippi has a long history of governors like Barbour. In fact, I'd say the only governor we've ever had who wasn't at least somewhat Barbouresque was William Winter, and it's a miracle he got elected. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2007-01-15T15:49:14-06:00

ID

90861

Comment

If anyone's stunned Barbour's buds are racking up contracts on the coast, I'd suggest they haven't lived here long enough. ;) There's a difference between "stunned" and "disgusted," Iron, and it has nothing to do with how long anyone has lived anywhere. You also don't simply wave a wand and rebuild enough homes for all those people. Who's talking about waving frackin' wands?

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-01-15T16:08:34-06:00

ID

90862

Comment

That was how Guice's family made it. My understanding is after Camille, his father was in charge of the recovery effort on the Coast and the family did quite well.

Author

Kingfish

Date

2007-01-15T16:12:55-06:00

ID

90863

Comment

Barbour is beatable, but not if people don't think he is. Of course therein lies the key to our future—believing that we are better than the sum of our past, and our old bad habits and insecurities.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-01-15T16:16:02-06:00

ID

90864

Comment

Oh, I do believe we're better than that, Donna. But we were better than Barbour the first time around, much better than the damned rebel flag, better than to reelect Trent Lott, better than to put up a LaRouche-endorsing abstinence educator as his most serious opposition, better than to let the Mississippi Democratic Party make the minimum wage into a meaningless election-year gimmicks, and so forth. Just because we're better than something doesn't mean it won't happen. Mississippi politics sucks, and until really great candidates come out of the woodwork and run unapologetically progressive campaigns, it will probably continue to suck. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2007-01-15T16:35:34-06:00

ID

90865

Comment

I agree: the Mississippi Democratic Party is the real weak link. And I'm learning how that works more every day, and I'm not impressed. It strikes me as about as much good-ole-boy-back-slapism as anything else. I'd had hopes when Dowdy took over that the party might find its soul, but I'm not confident at this point.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-01-15T16:45:56-06:00

ID

90866

Comment

And I agree with you: Barbour will likely be re-elected because (a) no mainstream media in the state will tell the real story about him and (b) Democrats are too afraid to challenge him. Sigh. Welcome to the status quo, ladies and gents.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-01-15T16:46:51-06:00

ID

90867

Comment

Agreed on all fronts. The two biggest problems facing the state right now are a Mississippi Democratic Party that is still unwilling to give up its ambiguous participation in the Southern Strategy--that would rather be seen as white and lose than be seen as black and win--and a mainstream media that is interested in appealing exclusively to insulated upper-class whites. The best thing the current leadership of the Mississippi Democratic Party could do right now is hand over the keys to the YDA leadership and step aside. Why the hell are we segregating our under-35 activists, anyway? That's where some of our best people are. I mean, MLK was dead before he was 40, and at the same age he led the March on Washington and won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Mississippi Democratic Party would have patted him on the head and put him in a special youth organization. COME ON, people--lead, follow, or get out of the way. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2007-01-15T17:16:51-06:00

ID

90868

Comment

And this recent controversy over the minimum wage is one more case, BTW, that demonstrates why the party needs to be put in the hands of the YDA now, and not in 20 years. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2007-01-15T17:36:07-06:00

ID

90869

Comment

Had King awakened in MS in 2007 he would have known for sure that we have not actualized his dream: We have actualized his worse NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!!

Author

justjess

Date

2007-01-16T12:08:58-06:00

ID

90870

Comment

what would that be?

Author

Kingfish

Date

2007-01-16T12:27:37-06:00