Jackson Free Press

@$$holish! That was the best adjective I could coin on my first impression. A friend/coworker gave me a copy of the JFP to read because he appeared in an article. After reading that article, I flipped through the rest of the issue. My eyes fell on the contributor's photos. For this issue (Vol. 9, Issue 36) the main article featured the story of the Freedom Riders who risked their lives and personal freedoms. So, as what I assume was meant to be a "tribute," the contributors posed in "mugshots" similar to those of the Freedom Riders who were arrested.

Not sure if my first impression was an appropriate one, I shared my opinion with a friend. "Presumptuous," she called it. (By this time, I had also come up with "pompous" and "pretentious.") I asked my friend who gave me the paper. He offered, "Yeah, I saw that," with a shaking of his head, "I don't know what they were thinking." (His father worked with the movement in McComb in the early '60s.)

I was suddenly reminded why I read the JFP at all. It's free and that's about it. I know many people who love to read your paper. I like to read multiple perspectives so I've tried not to let my attitude of the Fondren/north Jackson area taint my perspective. As a south Jackson native and current west Jackson resident this can be difficult, although we do seem to share a mutual distaste for Madison.

It would seem that the JFP sees itself as a kindred spirit of the Freedom Riders. The main lesson that I take from the story of the Riders is to make the effort to put myself in someone else's shoes. So when I attempt to do that, when I try to imagine how the Riders must have felt and then imagine what they must think when they look around at today's society, I see myself 50 years later opening the JFP and seeing a parody of my mugshot.

It brings me back to my first impression: "What a bunch of A-holes!"
—Randy Payne

Editor responds:
Yes, Mr. Payne, the staff mugshots were a heartfelt homage to the courage of the Freedom Riders, without whom we would not be publishing our newspaper. The column the photos framed made that point clearly. We were inspired by the Freedom Rider photo exhibit at the Mississippi Museum of Art where visitors could make and display their own mugshots. The Riders' return to Jackson was wonderful and emotional for everyone involved. Again, God bless them.

Dear Editor,
An otherwise good feature, "Good Ideas, Family," (Vol. 9, Issue 35) is missing the fact that children born are people. Environment is vital, but it is not everything, as the feature seems to indicate. People are born hardwired to some extent, as in homosexuality, and environment doesn't change that. People are born with intellectual abilities, athletic abilities, artistic abilities, etc., and an environment that encourages these abilities will give each person the chance to optimize their ability. But not all ability is the same and it cannot be nurtured to be the same. Would it not be a boring world if there were not differences?

As a parent with three children who could not be more different, I struggled with the implication that nurture was the hands-down only factor in growing a responsible person.
—Jill-Allyn (McCluskey)

Editor responds:
As we stated in "10,000 Hours to Genius," emerging neuroscience disproves status quo thinking regarding children: that they are either born dumb or smart. Nature may provide a baseline; however "80 percent or more" of what we consider intelligence comes from what happens after we're born. These new discoveries were the basis of many of our features regarding children.