Jackson Free Press

On a gorgeous Saturday morning recently, I found myself snaking my way into downtown Jackson to teach a writers' workshop in the JFP's new space in Capital Towers at the same time as the Blues Marathon was underway. I ended up on Jefferson Street, passing the construction sites for a Mississippi history and a civil-rights museum.

Then, I had to wait to cross State Street as a wonderfully diverse mix of folks, many of whom I recognized, either ran, jogged or walked with the throng of marathoners who were passing through so many amazing parts of Jackson, including the campus of our urban university.

It was one of those Jackson moments when I just teared up watching evidence of the remarkable change we've witnessed and chronicled in the last 10 years. The Jackson State campus alone—where we're having this year's Best of Jackson party—has undergone a remarkable transformation from just a decade ago. It's a slick reincarnation of its old self, represented well by the new-ish student center where our party-goers will enter next to the school's new Apple store.

Across the street is the upscale Penguin bar and restaurant, Royal Bleau Boutique, Gallery One and EnVision Eyecare. Everywhere you look, you see proud students and professors, led in no small part by a very forward-thinking president, Carolyn Meyers, a role model for all of us, regardless of race or gender.

Dr. Meyers, like our new mayor and so many of the rest of us, believes that Jackson's glory days are ahead of us. We can put aside old divisions, work together and be great—no, the best—if we just will.

It's been fascinating to watch Mayor Lumumba build coalitions, the "team of rivals" that we've bemoaned Jackson's lack of many times in this paper. Now sitting high above downtown Jackson in our new offices, we hear constantly that people of all political stripes admire the new mayor's approach. He is doing what we'd hoped he'd do (but weren't sure enough to endorse him): He's building coalitions of people who don't agree on everything but who are coming together for a common purpose: to help our city grow and overcome problems.

Is Lumumba helped along by the fact that he has such strong voter support? Sure. But he's using his clout to build alliances, from what we can see. And that is a sign of the kinds of intelligence and self-esteem our city needs to march into a shining future.

Remember, though, no leader can get us there alone; the wait-for-a-hero mentality is the old-school thinking in our state that has driven us to the bottom, not the top.

Jackson's success, of course, requires that we all adopt an attitude that greatness is within our reach—if we work hard, stretch and reach far enough. In my business, in which we mentor and train people of all ages who have a fire for good journalism and Jackson, we see so many determined urban warriors here and beyond our walls who will work, and sweat, and create, and collaborate, and agree to disagree, in order to come together for the higher mission of helping their city and their state be great.

And sadly, we see others who are stuck in the old Mississippi mentality that we can't make a difference ourselves, that hard work isn't worth it or that someone else will come along, eventually, and do it for us.

Meh. That won't do. Not if you care about our city's and state's future. It takes hard work and a belief that each of us can be the best if we just bother. I believe that with every bit of my heart and soul. We must communicate that to others in every way possible and hold each other to high standards—and tell them we believe in their ability to attain them. What awaits on the other side is filled with love, pride and a whole lot of shared success. And we get to show the world what Mississippi is really made of—far beyond the hateful yo-yos who get most of the national publicity.

I've just finished Sheryl Sandberg's book, "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead," and I loved it. Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, addresses the sadly enduring problem that women face in the workplace: sexism, double standards, even evidence that men and women judge successful women more harshly than they do men for doing or saying the very same thing (Google "Howard/Heidi study" to read up).

Strong women even get called names more and talked down to about areas we're experts in (often called "mansplaining").

None of this surprised me; I've been in this rodeo a long time and am pretty Teflon at this point. After reading the last page, though, I resolved to "lean in" even more and, especially, to encourage other women to do the same and grow a tougher skin so they can achieve the same levels of greatness as male counterparts.

But upon finishing the book, I realized that Jackson also needs to lean in. In some ways, our city has problems similar to those that we women routinely face.

Jackson is judged unfairly, it is called names and, when we stand up for ourselves to people who want us to shut up and comply (ahem, Legislature), the pushback gets even tougher. How dare we talk back, call them out and aspire for greatness?!?

We must dare and keep daring. We must ignore the naysayers and the folks who want to tear us down because they have such low standards for themselves and, thus, us. We must vow to work hard and support each other, even if we disagree on a thing or two. There is no reason on the planet (other than our own compliance with the status quo and being "good enough") that Jackson cannot claim its place as a remarkable city that has faced its history enough to learn from it, and put in the hard work to aspire to greatness.

And that greatness—the goal to be the best, damn it—comes from doubling down on our support of each other's efforts to excel, and distancing ourselves from negative people and whiners (while hoping that they eventually see the light that the rest of us are working toward for our city and its residents). Stay focused and ignore the criticism. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, follow your heart because you'll be criticized regardless: "You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you do."

I don't know about you, but I'd rather be damned for doing rather than for sitting on my ass. Here's to greatness, Jacktown.

Just don't forget to lean in. A lot.