Jackson Free Press

In the last week or so, Jackson Free Press editors have been participating in encouraging conversations on social media and the Nextdoor neighborhood sites, and in the office, about preventing crime in the city. Many people, from youth experts to law enforcement to public-school teachers are posting publicly and sending us private messages about what our city needs to do to appeal to our best angels and help those in need, thus avoiding problems—including crime—that can be prevented if we can find the will.

We will do everything in our power to turn these conversations into a larger, more public dialogue, as well as actions. We firmly believe that if each person picks one (more) way you can contribute, life in our city would improve exponentially (and it's pretty dang good already). If our residents can feel empowered to join together and not be divided by negative rhetoric, we can and will do huge things. We have already in the last 10 years.

The conversations didn't start out so positive or holistic, though. Some of the comments that inspired us to get involved clearly grew out of frustration over recent crime that the other local media had helped sensationalize. We saw comments containing a lot of fingerpointing at "the other" and many that seemed ignorant about criminal-justice research—particularly about how a community's perceptions can actually be self-perpetuating. That is, just as a young person who feels devalued and stereotyped is more likely to act out in a negative way, a community that collectively promotes negativity and hopelessness is more likely to end up in an unsafe place.

The good news is how quickly that conversation can be lifted up and reversed into something positive. Especially after teachers started speaking up on Nextdoor threads and telling stories about their remarkable students in Jackson Public Schools and lamenting how hamstringed they are without even adequate public funding, the tone changed. People started brainstorming and discussing, even debating, with respect and humor, and without anger. (And if they felt anger, they pulled it back.)

Suddenly, we had a very adult conversation that can yield progress in the future. The question really is: What can we do now to ensure healthy families, confident kids and safe communities next year, in five years, in 16 years, as one resident framed it? We also started building a shared dialogue, which needs to continue with a lot of deep listening to people with different experiences from ourselves, instead of lecturing and blaming them about everything that's wrong with them.

We don't have to jump people who are being angry and offensive about groups of people, but we do need to steer the conversation in a different, useful direction with good information, and we do that by finding—and using—our voices.

As we celebrate the 13th annual Best of Jackson awards, we call on every Jacksonian to believe in the potential of our city and every single one of our residents. If we start there, Jackson can soar.