Jackson Free Press

Jackson city elections are not our city at its best. Inevitably, one or more candidates wage scorched-earth campaigns that make our city look like a hellhole. In order to defeat an incumbent, these "campaigners" stab and stab and stab, constantly pointing out every negative they can find (whether or not they're the fault of the incumbent) and make it sound like nothing has improved in our city for 20 years. What city are they living in?

People who support an incumbent, or who just don't buy that nothing positive has happened in a decade, get treated like the enemy. How dare we not join the dive into the negativity baths for months before the election? How dare we say something good about an incumbent they don't like? How dare we talk back to them?

We've seen this attitude in spades in recent weeks from people who actually talk about their love for Jackson. They claim to be "Jackson warriors" (a phrase the JFP coined for the real ones), but they find every possible problem and challenge and magnify it for the world to see.

And, boy, does the world see it. On social media of late, we've seen person after person who lives outside Jackson jump on this bandwagon and use our own citizens' words against us. Many of those citizens have done good things in the past, but they are willing to split the baby in half as long as it gets their guy elected.

Meantime, the rest of feel like the whole city has been beaten up; it is demoralizing for so many people, inside and outside local government, who have worked so hard to help this city become all she can be.

Not to mention, it's disrespectful to the older public servants who have slogged through racism, corruption and continual politics of division. Maybe they didn't do everything perfectly--you know, like each and every one of us would if in office--but, good golly, do they deserve such an ugly send-off? It's sickening when you take time to really listen to what is said.

The problem is that a handful of negative people with megaphones can sow this kind of division and even set us up to give away our power to the state and the suburbs (which many folks out yonder eagerly await).

Jackson can, and must, be better than this. Yes, there is a serious role for fact-based reporting about would-be and current public servants, and we have taken that job seriously and will continue to through the (presumed) runoffs and beyond.

In fact, the nasty-mill got so dumb and personal of late that we set up a special Factcheck Jackson Facebook page (Factcheck Jackson) to help separate fact from fiction. We will continue it past the elections.

But we also call on all Jacksonians who actually care about this city to set aside the belittlement and rumors and innuendo and demand a kinder, wiser body politic for our city. Play your role by stopping, taking a breath and telling us what's great about your idea or candidate rather than engage in the politics of destruction.