Jackson Free Press

What a bizarre, crazy week. As we've been putting together this special Fly issue, dedicated to the madness that is the Mal's St. Paddy's Parade, not to mention lots of loud women running around with padded boobs and butts, we've also been covering the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. To boot, JFP folks have been interviewed by international media curious about what is really going on in Mississippi politically.

It's as if the competitive Democratic primary has finally told the world that Mississippi is not the rock-solid-buttoned-up-Republican state that the world thinks we are. And guess what? We have the highest proportion of African Americans to whites of any state, and they don't usually vote Republican. And, in 2004, 63 percent of Mississippians under 30 voted for John Kerry—leading the South.

Between telling that to Le Monde (Paris daily) and al Jazeera (the Arab network), I was making weird crowns and puffing baby powder over one of my interns (Jana, from Germany, models the baker's crown on page 18). My new assistant, Sage Carter-Hooey—who, it turns out, is good at everything—was running around looking for fake fruit and acrylic paint, overseeing an impressive ShopTalk (basically cool stuff to shop for, from local businesses), and organizing the JFP's new St. Paddy's parade krewe (we're the first co-ed!).

On top of all that, Stephen Barnette was painting our new reception area aubergine (the way the French guys would say "eggplant") to match the lime-green side rooms.

Welcome to life in Mississippi and the wonderful, wacky people who populate it and help each day come alive in vivid, living color.

I can't help but smile whenever media come through our offices looking for some real live progressives in Mississippi. They leave looking a tad jealous because we live in a world here that is exciting, diverse and feels like we're making a difference every single day. One reporter with an impressive resume stood in my office last week, after looking at every single thing here (like the pink-boa-covered Fly mannequin), and said he was kinda jealous of the journalism we're doing here.

No doubt, we live in a world of possibility. We're not jaded, or overly cynical, or down on Mississippi. We have hope, and the people who are attracted to the JFP mission believe in working very hard to make these hopes become reality in our state. We know you don't have to leave to find an exciting, impressive career that will be noticed in other places: You can build it right here. You don't have to run from the problems; you can fix them.

On Monday afternoon, I was covered with paint and baby powder when Sage came to retrieve me to go hear Obama's speech at Jackson State. We hopped up on the media riser where we had an unencumbered view, surrounded by 8,500 screaming Obama supporters all around us, most of them young people, most of them African American.

As we listened to Obama quote Dr. King's "fierce urgency of now" challenge, I thought of the Ebony cover I'd seen on a newsstand that read: "In Our Lifetime." Those words seemed fiercely urgent as I looked out on a sea of young faces who were perhaps thinking for the first times in their lives that they could grow up to be president of the United States.

I, and many around me, dig Obama because he shares our hope and optimism, and he doesn't believe things have to be done the same way just because they have always been that way. He is a regular man, with a regular wife and two delightful kids, who believes that normal people, like all of us, have to stop waiting for a miracle and step up and do it now.

Change must come from the bottom up; not from the top down, he said Monday night. "You don't just want to be against something; you want to be for something."

He thrilled me when he talked about high standards. This isn't hand-out rhetoric he is spewing. Like our JFP philosophy, he is saying that young people (and older ones) must be inspired and encouraged to be our best, to work hard, to show up, to seek out and respect people who can help us get there.

Here in Mississippi, we know a lot about the bigotry of low expectations—for ourselves and for those around us. Others assume—and thus we follow suit—that we are not the best. That we are not progressive. That we are not thinkers. That we are not creative. That we are too timid to be weird. Or non-conformist.

They assume that we do not have the gumption to bring a new day to our state.

But some Mississippians have long defied our stereotypes. This week, in Jackson, many of them will take to downtown streets to celebrate the weird and wonderful side of our natures. The Mal's St. Paddy's Parade is our Mardi Gras, of sorts, but it's more personal than the huge New Orleans event. Here, so many of us know each other, and the younger among us are inspired by those who brought this wonderful celebration of living to us.

It is safe to say that the Jackson Free Press would not exist—with our aubergine walls and our reporting awards—if it were not for two people who made the St. Paddy's parade all that it is. When Todd and I moved back to Jackson in 2001, we weren't thinking of starting an alternative newsweekly.

But we soon stumbled into Hal & Mal's, and started to get to know people—including the quirky, stubborn souls who have done so much for Jackson from inside the walls where Willie Morris used to hold his round tables; where people plotted (unsuccessfully, so far) to get a non-racist state flag; where gay residents hold events amid love and tolerance; where the Obama campaign kicked off its local primary push in a carnival-like atmosphere.

We met Malcolm White then, back before he started wearing suits every day in his quest to bolster the arts in Mississippi, and we soon met Jill Conner Browne, that funny, crazy writer who managed to make Jackson a Mecca for women in need of a hefty dose of chick power. Jill brought us to Willie's widow, JoAnne Prichard Morris, who from the JFP's launch, has provided humor and credibility to what we suddenly decided to try here, thanks to this sleeping-giant city we stumbled into.

During this wild, wonderful, weird week, we urge you to copy all these fearless leaders: Seize the day. Wear a crown. Or, at the least, go dance on the stripper pole at Hal & Mal's.

Remember to donate your used women's and children's shoes by March 15 for Alecia Edney's senior project to help abused families. Call 601-362-6121 ext. 2 for the drop address.

Previous Comments

ID

76273

Comment

well said, DL. While I think a change in Congress will affect more Americans than one President can, I agree with the rhetoric. I hope the JFP will be looking for me with the best looking almost two-year old on my shoulders Saturday!

Author

GradyGriffin

Date

2008-03-13T09:05:00-06:00

ID

76274

Comment

Great artical! Awesome message of hope and insperation. Cudos.

Author

Senab

Date

2008-03-13T09:53:37-06:00

ID

76275

Comment

You did what you titled this piece, and so so skillfully. Carpe diem!!!

Author

J.T.

Date

2008-03-13T12:23:28-06:00