This column was responsible for my first two death threats. Yep, when it was published, I received my first two within two days, each one coming via email, and each one telling me how I was going to die and for what reasons (the usual - anti-American, unpatriotic, liberal, and so on...) Upon reflection, I think they mistook the term "hate mail" at the bottom of my blurb for "death threats." At the time, people hated everything I wrote (not the columns - just my opinions), and were happy to send in four or five pieces of hate mail a week. I decided to mention hate mail that week. The results were death threats. I never again mentioned hate mail; it seemed a bit short-sighted to do so. But I never backed off my anti-war position and I never toned it down. I also didn't live in fear. I turned over the death threats to the sheriff's department. I received four or five more (I honestly can't remember how many it was) and didn't worry about it. None of these twerps ever killed me, so I got that going for me, which is nice.
The US people can feel proud. We’ve put one in the “Dubya” column, against a third-world enemy with antiquated weaponry and an army made largely of non-soldiers. Dozens of American and British soldiers have lost their lives in this illegal war, but hey! That’s okay, since it means cheaper gas for all of us, right? Now, all that’s left to do is to send our POWs home, install our own puppet government, and make sweeping trade agreements for millions of barrels of cheap oil.
Oh, yes. And find those pesky chemical weapons. These weapons are important to the White House, more important than some people realize. These weapons, which were labeled “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” are the reason for this war. These weapons, not yet found, are the justification that the Governor of the United States used to attack Iraq. And nobody’s found a single one yet.
Right now, most of the world’s population hates us, because of this insane war we’ve undertaken. But there are some who are waiting, giving us the benefit of the doubt, wondering where the chemical weapons are. If we don’t produce any, we will have been proven wrong; and we will find it harder to hold onto allies.
At this point, the White House is so desperate to uncover chemical weapons that any substance in Baghdad which cannot be readily recognized as sugar, salt, or Tabasco sauce is being sent off to be tested for chemical content. They have to. If we are unable to find any chemicals, then we have to admit that the reason we went to war is bullshit. This will not go over well with the Europeans, Arabs, Asians, or in fact with our allies – the few we have – who genuinely believed our intelligence.
I find it highly unlikely that there are any chemical weapons of any sort in Iraq. As many Iraqi POWs as we have taken, and as much information as we have gained, we have not uncovered a single shred of evidence, not a single vial of sarin gas. Just recently, our military managed to find a group of trailers buried in the sand, miles out from the nearest city, in which were found elements of a laboratory. Of course, the White House proudly announced that they had found the proof they were seeking. That is, until US military scientists admitted on CNN that there was no way that these were used to make chemical weapons of any kind. Munitions, yes. Chemicals, no.
Let’s look at it this way. If you were an Iraqi who knew about the chemicals, and you were captured, wouldn’t you offer up the location and contents of these chemical weapons stores for any better treatment you might get? So far, captured Iraqis have spilled the beans about quite a few things, including the buried laboratory equipment. Is it possible to believe that not a single captured Iraqi knows where these Weapons of Mass Destruction are? It is possible, but it is not likely.
Next time, class, we will be discussing Syria. Avoid the rush! Send your hate mail to: yahoo.com.
Showing posts with label planet weekly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planet weekly. Show all posts
Sunday, June 7, 2009
"Santa Claus's Political Affiliations (with Footnotes)"
There is no reason for this, but this is one of my favorite columns of all time, bar none.
I always wondered what Santa Claus’ political beliefs are, and yes, I know that’s weird. I figured it to be easy to work out what he believes by what he does. It wasn’t. It wasn’t even easy figuring out where he originally came from, but I did a little research and I think I may be a little closer to the answers.
Some say Santa Claus began as St. Nicholas, a Turkish priest and saint, who gave toys and candy to the yard apes of Asia Minor 1700 years ago. He was canonized and became very popular, becoming the patron saint of children, sailors, and several countries. When the Reformation swept Europe, those pesky Protestants made any celebration involving St. Nick illegal. As usual, the Dutch did their own thing and kept Sint Nikolass part of their festivities. When they came to America and snagged the last remaining parking spots in New Amsterdam, they brought a devotion to Sinterklass, as they called him here. When the Dutch were evicted in the 17th Century, their English landlords turned Sinterklass to Santa Claus.
Let’s see: Santa is Catholic, at least partly Dutch, and he settled in New York. He believes in giving gifts to everyone and he works with (ahem) a small minority. By golly, he’s a Blue Stater!
But, honestly, it’s not that simple. Mr. S. Claus is also a shining example of conservatism. He is pro-business and –industry* and it’s a no-brainer that the elves are not unionized. His current look – red-and-white suit, black boots and belt, sack full of toys – was actually created by a Southern corporation (Coca-Cola hired artist Haddon Sundblom to create Santas for advertisements from 1931 to 1964 – it’s his design that children today know). And Santa Claus is in a long-term heterosexual relationship with Mrs. Claus. He is a family value.
He could be an autocrat, the mythical “benevolent dictator” that has so long been debated. We don’t hear about a parliament of elves or that reindeer get to vote. In the same vein, the North Pole could be a theocracy. He is a saint after all, and the Vatican only has a pope.
But this only works if his Catholic origins are correct, which they almost certainly aren’t. No single piece of evidence exists to back the claim of St. Nicholas as a living person. What most folklorists believe is that St. Nicholas was a pagan god ‘christianized’ by the church and given some of the aspects of other pagan gods, like the Greek Poseidon and the Teutonic Hold Nickar. The Church commonly took pagan beliefs and folded them into Christianity, a habit they swiped from the pre-Christian Romans**. He’s not a real saint, so theocracy must be out.
He also can’t be a communist. True communists don’t believe in individual ownership and Comrade Claus certainly does. He can’t be a fascist or imperialist, either. Both require a tough military and a drive to expand. Any military that can use faster-than-light sleighs would have at least invaded Canada by now. I also doubt he’s a monarchist. He’d have to be a king or an emperor, and those types don’t let pee-soaked youngsters squat on their lap.
The North Pole could actually be socialist. Assuming that Santa is the government, he would own the factories (toyshop), means of transportation (reindeer), and the produce (goodies). He would also handle negotiating prices (free to good tots). Further backing a socialist claim is the fact that he lives in an extreme environment**** and must take care of his elves’ needs himself, since no medical insurers have yet opened up North Pole branches. There is also at least a hint of the redistribution of wealth in his ways. But it’s only a hint.
No, Santa is a capitalist. No one affects a fiscal year like old Kris Kringle. He is great for the economy and he puts money in the pockets of retailers, wholesalers, and producers. With the amount of money that changes hands because of him, his belief system cannot be denied. And he is a benevolent capitalist, a strong supporter of charities, and a believer in taking care of those who need help. He is a representation of everything good, not just economically but spiritually. True, he misses the homes of some Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist homes, but not all. Santa Claus has allowed Christmas to come into non-Christian homes and he himself does not insist on a particular belief to be held, to believe in him.
He is appreciated by those of a religious or spiritual nature, and by those who aren’t. He is a benevolent capitalist, doing what he can for those who need it, and for those who simply want it. He has some conservative elements, and some liberal elements. He is complex, nuanced, and not easy to categorize.
Just like a Planet Weekly reader. Merry Christmas to Mr. Claus and to the rest of our complex, nuanced, and hard-to-categorize readers.
--------------------------------------------------
* Of course, he’s also outsourced some of his work to Mattel, Hasbro, and Nintendo, but I suppose that’s part of his bottom-line conservatism.
** Yes, the Church swiped pagan beliefs, but pagan Romans swiped their entire pantheon of gods from the Greeks and renamed them, adding some lame deities like Janus, the God of Doors and Beginnings***, and Flora, the Goddess of Flowers.
*** But Janus is where we get “January,” so he is by default the God of New Year’s Eve. Let’s hoist a glass to mighty Janus!
****. Living in the extreme north means he is no vegan, either. Santa Claus is a meat eater. He and the elves must have much protein to survive. He also uses an endangered species as beasts of burden. This will bother none but the vegeterrorists of PETA. Santa snickers at your Tofurkey.
Next time, the Bipolar Santa will offer up his annual list of who’s been naughty and nice. I’ll take nominations at http://www.writersownwords.com/fckeditor/editor/%22http://www.planetweekly.com/%22.
I always wondered what Santa Claus’ political beliefs are, and yes, I know that’s weird. I figured it to be easy to work out what he believes by what he does. It wasn’t. It wasn’t even easy figuring out where he originally came from, but I did a little research and I think I may be a little closer to the answers.
Some say Santa Claus began as St. Nicholas, a Turkish priest and saint, who gave toys and candy to the yard apes of Asia Minor 1700 years ago. He was canonized and became very popular, becoming the patron saint of children, sailors, and several countries. When the Reformation swept Europe, those pesky Protestants made any celebration involving St. Nick illegal. As usual, the Dutch did their own thing and kept Sint Nikolass part of their festivities. When they came to America and snagged the last remaining parking spots in New Amsterdam, they brought a devotion to Sinterklass, as they called him here. When the Dutch were evicted in the 17th Century, their English landlords turned Sinterklass to Santa Claus.
Let’s see: Santa is Catholic, at least partly Dutch, and he settled in New York. He believes in giving gifts to everyone and he works with (ahem) a small minority. By golly, he’s a Blue Stater!
But, honestly, it’s not that simple. Mr. S. Claus is also a shining example of conservatism. He is pro-business and –industry* and it’s a no-brainer that the elves are not unionized. His current look – red-and-white suit, black boots and belt, sack full of toys – was actually created by a Southern corporation (Coca-Cola hired artist Haddon Sundblom to create Santas for advertisements from 1931 to 1964 – it’s his design that children today know). And Santa Claus is in a long-term heterosexual relationship with Mrs. Claus. He is a family value.
He could be an autocrat, the mythical “benevolent dictator” that has so long been debated. We don’t hear about a parliament of elves or that reindeer get to vote. In the same vein, the North Pole could be a theocracy. He is a saint after all, and the Vatican only has a pope.
But this only works if his Catholic origins are correct, which they almost certainly aren’t. No single piece of evidence exists to back the claim of St. Nicholas as a living person. What most folklorists believe is that St. Nicholas was a pagan god ‘christianized’ by the church and given some of the aspects of other pagan gods, like the Greek Poseidon and the Teutonic Hold Nickar. The Church commonly took pagan beliefs and folded them into Christianity, a habit they swiped from the pre-Christian Romans**. He’s not a real saint, so theocracy must be out.
He also can’t be a communist. True communists don’t believe in individual ownership and Comrade Claus certainly does. He can’t be a fascist or imperialist, either. Both require a tough military and a drive to expand. Any military that can use faster-than-light sleighs would have at least invaded Canada by now. I also doubt he’s a monarchist. He’d have to be a king or an emperor, and those types don’t let pee-soaked youngsters squat on their lap.
The North Pole could actually be socialist. Assuming that Santa is the government, he would own the factories (toyshop), means of transportation (reindeer), and the produce (goodies). He would also handle negotiating prices (free to good tots). Further backing a socialist claim is the fact that he lives in an extreme environment**** and must take care of his elves’ needs himself, since no medical insurers have yet opened up North Pole branches. There is also at least a hint of the redistribution of wealth in his ways. But it’s only a hint.
No, Santa is a capitalist. No one affects a fiscal year like old Kris Kringle. He is great for the economy and he puts money in the pockets of retailers, wholesalers, and producers. With the amount of money that changes hands because of him, his belief system cannot be denied. And he is a benevolent capitalist, a strong supporter of charities, and a believer in taking care of those who need help. He is a representation of everything good, not just economically but spiritually. True, he misses the homes of some Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist homes, but not all. Santa Claus has allowed Christmas to come into non-Christian homes and he himself does not insist on a particular belief to be held, to believe in him.
He is appreciated by those of a religious or spiritual nature, and by those who aren’t. He is a benevolent capitalist, doing what he can for those who need it, and for those who simply want it. He has some conservative elements, and some liberal elements. He is complex, nuanced, and not easy to categorize.
Just like a Planet Weekly reader. Merry Christmas to Mr. Claus and to the rest of our complex, nuanced, and hard-to-categorize readers.
--------------------------------------------------
* Of course, he’s also outsourced some of his work to Mattel, Hasbro, and Nintendo, but I suppose that’s part of his bottom-line conservatism.
** Yes, the Church swiped pagan beliefs, but pagan Romans swiped their entire pantheon of gods from the Greeks and renamed them, adding some lame deities like Janus, the God of Doors and Beginnings***, and Flora, the Goddess of Flowers.
*** But Janus is where we get “January,” so he is by default the God of New Year’s Eve. Let’s hoist a glass to mighty Janus!
****. Living in the extreme north means he is no vegan, either. Santa Claus is a meat eater. He and the elves must have much protein to survive. He also uses an endangered species as beasts of burden. This will bother none but the vegeterrorists of PETA. Santa snickers at your Tofurkey.
Next time, the Bipolar Santa will offer up his annual list of who’s been naughty and nice. I’ll take nominations at http://www.writersownwords.com/fckeditor/editor/%22http://www.planetweekly.com/%22.
"Run, Rudolph, Run!"
This was one of my 'angry' political columns that attracted me attention from a certain fringe group I'll call neo-conservatives. They're the ones that sent in letters, demanding I be 1) fired or 2) killed. They went online and bravely called me anti-American, communist, and all that noise. At this point, I'd had half a dozen death threats, and I was enjoying pissing them off every week. I will say, though, that when this story broke, it infuriated me like little else had since the war started.
“People around here, they take care of their own. You can't put a price on a man's head, and I don't know anybody who would have given him up, even for a million dollars.''*
This person is speaking of whom? Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, you might say? You would be wrong. This person, Sarah Greenfield of Marble, North Carolina, is referring to Eric Robert Rudolph, the alleged Olympic Park bomber. Rudolph is suspected in four bombings between July 1996 and January 1998. He also is reported to belong to the fringe religion, Christian Identity, which is outspokenly opposed to abortion and homosexuality and is vehemently anti-Semitic.
The Christian Identity religion stresses that northern Europeans are the “true” Israelites and that all other races are “mud people.” They also espouse the idea that the Holocaust never happened.
Rudolph has been in hiding since the end of January 1998 in the Appalachian Mountains, avoiding any and all attempts by federal agents to bring him in. In western North Carolina, he has become a mythic figure, featured famously on the “Run Rudolph Run” t-shirts and supported outwardly by some of the region’s fundamentalist conservatives.
When Rudolph was found and arrested by a rookie police officer in Murphy, North Carolina, he was dressed casually, in clean clothes, and was by all accounts presentable and neat. The overwhelming belief in the area is that he has been given support by some of the residents. Signs in front yards profess outward support for the man who has killed two and wounded nearly one hundred and fifty individuals.
Let us recap. Eric Rudolph is a terrorist, a man who detonated explosives and has killed people who did not agree with his personal beliefs. He belongs to a fringe fundamentalist religion that embraces hateful ideals. He has received support from the people who live near him and agree with his “crusade.” He has hidden in the mountains and avoided capture by U.S. government forces.
Does this sound familiar yet? It should.
The only real difference between Eric Robert Rudolph and Arab terrorists is the color of their God. Both sides think that they are justified in taking lives to further their own causes. Both sides’ beliefs are grounded in conservative religions; one Christianity, one Islam. Both sides have been given support by people who agree.
President Bush has pounded the podium and announced to the world that the United States would go after any country that harbored terrorism. By his broad standards, this means that the United States could go after any nation that had individuals who harbored terrorists. Which includes us. The signs in the front yards of Murphy, North Carolina are proof. The statement of the woman in Marble is further proof. The fact that Rudolph has survived five years in hiding – in nice clothing – is plenty. Is it possible that the man bought groceries, gear, and clothing in a region where his face is peppered across t-shirts, and no one noticed? It is possible, but it is not likely.
*Quoted from a Tim Whitmire AP story of 6/1/03.
----------------------------------------------------
Will the 101st Airborne drop into North Carolina? Will the feds find Weapons of Mass Destruction outside of Asheville? E-mail me at: yahoo.com to make your opinion known.
“People around here, they take care of their own. You can't put a price on a man's head, and I don't know anybody who would have given him up, even for a million dollars.''*
This person is speaking of whom? Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, you might say? You would be wrong. This person, Sarah Greenfield of Marble, North Carolina, is referring to Eric Robert Rudolph, the alleged Olympic Park bomber. Rudolph is suspected in four bombings between July 1996 and January 1998. He also is reported to belong to the fringe religion, Christian Identity, which is outspokenly opposed to abortion and homosexuality and is vehemently anti-Semitic.
The Christian Identity religion stresses that northern Europeans are the “true” Israelites and that all other races are “mud people.” They also espouse the idea that the Holocaust never happened.
Rudolph has been in hiding since the end of January 1998 in the Appalachian Mountains, avoiding any and all attempts by federal agents to bring him in. In western North Carolina, he has become a mythic figure, featured famously on the “Run Rudolph Run” t-shirts and supported outwardly by some of the region’s fundamentalist conservatives.
When Rudolph was found and arrested by a rookie police officer in Murphy, North Carolina, he was dressed casually, in clean clothes, and was by all accounts presentable and neat. The overwhelming belief in the area is that he has been given support by some of the residents. Signs in front yards profess outward support for the man who has killed two and wounded nearly one hundred and fifty individuals.
Let us recap. Eric Rudolph is a terrorist, a man who detonated explosives and has killed people who did not agree with his personal beliefs. He belongs to a fringe fundamentalist religion that embraces hateful ideals. He has received support from the people who live near him and agree with his “crusade.” He has hidden in the mountains and avoided capture by U.S. government forces.
Does this sound familiar yet? It should.
The only real difference between Eric Robert Rudolph and Arab terrorists is the color of their God. Both sides think that they are justified in taking lives to further their own causes. Both sides’ beliefs are grounded in conservative religions; one Christianity, one Islam. Both sides have been given support by people who agree.
President Bush has pounded the podium and announced to the world that the United States would go after any country that harbored terrorism. By his broad standards, this means that the United States could go after any nation that had individuals who harbored terrorists. Which includes us. The signs in the front yards of Murphy, North Carolina are proof. The statement of the woman in Marble is further proof. The fact that Rudolph has survived five years in hiding – in nice clothing – is plenty. Is it possible that the man bought groceries, gear, and clothing in a region where his face is peppered across t-shirts, and no one noticed? It is possible, but it is not likely.
*Quoted from a Tim Whitmire AP story of 6/1/03.
----------------------------------------------------
Will the 101st Airborne drop into North Carolina? Will the feds find Weapons of Mass Destruction outside of Asheville? E-mail me at: yahoo.com to make your opinion known.
'Rugby Gets in Your Blood'
This was undoubtably the hardest story I ever had to write - and I blame them. You see, the only way they would be interviewed is if I would come join them at a house party and drink with them. Now I am a drinker, so I said I would. But I brought my micro-cassette recorder and three tapes, and the last two tapes were useless. I couldn't tell what I was asking, let alone what any of them were answering. Though, in moments of some lucidity, I could tell we were discussing Iraq, the tax base, Canadian girls, and the NFL. But, as God as my witness, everything in the story had to come off the first tape (and most of that was off the first side of the first tape). These guys say they've never lost a party. They're not lying.
It has been said that soccer is a gentlemen’s game played by hooligans, but that rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen. It is a violent game, fast moving and dangerous, immortalized by the bumper sticker that reads, “Give Blood. Play Rugby.” In Jackson, those gentlemen who participate in the hooligan’s game are known as the Jackson Rugby Football Club.
Though the majority of local sports fans are not even aware that the club exists, the Jackson Rugby FC began in 1974 and has been active since. The club competes nationally with 365 different teams in their division. Currently the team plays their matches at Chastain School, at 4650 Manhattan Road.
Locally, the men of the club number between twenty-five and thirty, depending on who is asked. The fluid numbers are accounted for easily. These are not professional players. These are men that practice twice a week, play games every Saturday, and have to foot their own bills on road trips during the seasons. Some men are not able to make games or practices with any regularity, some are on leaves of absence, and some are limited to only being available at certain times. But most of them are die-hards, adjusting their work and home schedules to allow them to fully participate in rugby and all of its aspects.
Rugby is one of the oldest team sports in existence. Early variants of the game were played several hundred years ago, but its current form has been around since 1823, when William Webb Ellis, a monitor at the Rugby School in the midlands of England, overhauled some of the then-current rules of the game and made it his own. The rules have been changed and modified numerous times in the one hundred and eighty one years since, but the game is substantially the same.
Both American-style football and Australian Rules football sprang from rugby. Many of the terms are used in both sports: forward pass, fullback, halfback, punt, place kick, and offsides are all used. Rugby is played on a 100-meter-long field – the “pitch” – as opposed to a 100-yard long field. Goalposts stand at each end of the pitch and kicking the ball between the forks results in points on the board. Even the post-touchdown extra point in football comes from rugby’s conversion kick.
But unlike football, rugby is a game of constant motion and speed. During a match, players must play both offense and defense and only minimal substitutions are allowed. Players must be prepared to be on their feet, running and tackling, for most of the game.
The match consists of two forty-minute halves. The clock runs continually, stopping only for injuries. Players are penalized for unnecessarily delaying the game in any way.
This kind of hard play demands a certain level of fitness. These men have it, but these are not the typical athletes. Toughness is more important to a rugby player than physique. As such, potbellies abound, and a six-pack is more likely to refer to cold beer than to abs.
“The majority of guys who are really good athletes aren’t chiseled,” says Blair Lobrano, a prop. “I have a background in Olympic weightlifting. You can be fit and not have the physique of a Greek god. The athletes we see on TV are being marketed, sold to you. They need to look good.” He believes that rugby players need something more important than a chiseled physique.
“It’s a sort of mental and physical toughness. It’s that desire to keep going, because the guy standing next to you is also still going.”
Lock forward Ray Wiltshire, known as “Mouth of the South,” agrees. “Rugby is controlled violence. You can’t be a wallflower, as far as worrying about being hurt. You’re going to get stepped on. You’re going to get scraped, scratched, bruised, and beat up. You have to be tough and a little rough around the edges. I’ve learned to recruit anybody of any size. Look at little Jason over there. He’s tough as woodpecker lips.”
Wiltshire has been playing rugby since 1990, when he graduated from Millsaps College. A four-year football player there, he was brought to rugby by a friend. He says there are many different ways that guys stumble into the rugby scene.
“I happened to walk into the Dutch Bar wearing, unbeknownst to me at the time, a rugby jersey,” says Jason “Booger” Guillot, who plays outside center. “I proceeded to get ragged by the players who were there. They did it hard enough that I finally came out and practiced with them. I started playing in 1999 and never stopped.”
“I met the guys in the Dutch Bar,” says Bradley “Opie” Barnes, a wing forward. When I first met them, I thought, I don’t need to be playing rugby. These guys are entirely too big. But I kind of had a little crush on this girl who said that she knew a bunch of the guys who played. She said she was always there. So I said, ‘I’m going to start playing.’”
To a man, the players all agree that the camaraderie they share is one of the reasons they stay with the club.
“You’re looking at a lot of likeminded, loudmouthed, very opinionated, very strong personalities,” Wiltshire says, which brings laughter from most of his teammates.
“We don’t play because anybody pays us – or whether or not anybody watches us, for that matter,” says Guillot. “We play for the parties after the game, and for the camaraderie. We don’t play for glory. God knows there’s not too much of that. We’ve approached a lot of groups for sponsorships and been turned down. I’m telling you, girls’ soccer teams get more financial support than we do.”
Except from former players. Recently, a group of former (and a few current) players formed OBIG, the Old Boys’ Investment Group. They purchased a piece of land off Medgar Evers Boulevard and are turning it into a rugby playing field.
Club President Mitch Holland, and proud OBIG member, says:
“We’re going to have two rugby pitches there. We’ve leveled the fields and planted the grass. We hope to play on them in September or October this year. In the long term, we need to add a good road and parking. We have a dirt road, but if it rains, you can’t get in at all. In the very long term, we want the two fields to become practice and secondary fields. The premiere field will go in when we have the funds. We plan to have a clubhouse and a video tower, so we can tape our matches.”
OBIG, like the club, is made up primarily of white-collar workers. Several doctors, lawyers, and engineers have regular places on the team.
“Everyone has a degree,” Wiltshire says. “Most of these guys have post-graduate degrees. Well, Opie doesn’t have a degree, since he’s still in college. He’s the baby of the team.”
The social aspect of the club is important to the members. Carlo Bagliane came from Capetown, South Africa, to play baseball for Belhaven College. Bagliane, known as “Bags,” the team’s flyhalf, describes his need for the team.
“I got married. I met my wife. She wouldn’t go back, so I stayed here.” His teammates chant, “Green card! Green card!” while he tells the story.
“I needed some sport to play. There’s no other sport here that’s a club. There’s no soccer in Jackson that’s a club. There’s no baseball in Jackson that’s a club. But there was a rugby club.”
To many of the members, the social aspect is a chance for relaxing and having a few – or several – drinks with friends. The team practices on Tuesday and Thursday during the season and has regular Saturday games. Games invariably end with both teams going to a bar or club together to do a bit of bilateral celebrating. But the celebrating also tends to occur during the week, too.
“To keep in practice,” Bagliane says. Apparently it pays off.
“I can honestly say that we may have lost games, but we’ve never lost a party,” Wiltshire says. “There’s been many places where if we win, the other team gets pissy. They drink a few beers and leave. We’ll kill their keg and drink at their bar until the last guy is ready to leave.”
“Or get kicked out,” Guillot says.
“In Pensacola we did get thrown out,” Wiltshire admits. He says that their combination of hard playing and hard partying brings them an unusual mix of fans.
“We get some fans of extreme sports. We get the oddly curious, the people who just want to see a train wreck out there. But believe it or not, there are a lot of women that rugby appears to attract. I don’t want to toot our horns too much. We’re not the prettiest guys, but a lot of us have very nice looking girlfriends.”
They also have many close friendships.
“The best thing about rugby to me is that the most important person on the field is the man standing next to me,” says teammate John Suyes, who recently returned to the team. Several others nod and agree.
“I’ve been with the club since 1980,” Holland says. “But I got away from it a bit during the 90’s. I’m back now. The guys who are here now remind me of my old teammates. They have that team spirit. They get along well. They remind me of how the team was when I played many years ago.”
“We’re from a smaller municipality,” says James Charbonneau, who plays both lock and wing forward. “So we’re always recruiting new players. We take young, old, whatever. We want people to know we’re here. We’ve been here a long time.”
“We’re just around the corner,” Guillot agrees. “Chastain School is just off the interstate.”
Charbonneau invites those interested in playing to, “Come out and play with us. We’ll train anyone. You didn’t have to play in college or in high school.” But be warned, you might become devoted.
“As long as my body can take it, I’m going to play,” Bagliane states.
“I’m here for the haul,” Barnes says. “As long as I’m able to go, I’m going to play. When I’m not able to go, if I have any money, I’m going to put a little in to support.”
“Rugby gets in your blood,” says Wiltshire. “You will love it.”
It has been said that soccer is a gentlemen’s game played by hooligans, but that rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen. It is a violent game, fast moving and dangerous, immortalized by the bumper sticker that reads, “Give Blood. Play Rugby.” In Jackson, those gentlemen who participate in the hooligan’s game are known as the Jackson Rugby Football Club.
Though the majority of local sports fans are not even aware that the club exists, the Jackson Rugby FC began in 1974 and has been active since. The club competes nationally with 365 different teams in their division. Currently the team plays their matches at Chastain School, at 4650 Manhattan Road.
Locally, the men of the club number between twenty-five and thirty, depending on who is asked. The fluid numbers are accounted for easily. These are not professional players. These are men that practice twice a week, play games every Saturday, and have to foot their own bills on road trips during the seasons. Some men are not able to make games or practices with any regularity, some are on leaves of absence, and some are limited to only being available at certain times. But most of them are die-hards, adjusting their work and home schedules to allow them to fully participate in rugby and all of its aspects.
Rugby is one of the oldest team sports in existence. Early variants of the game were played several hundred years ago, but its current form has been around since 1823, when William Webb Ellis, a monitor at the Rugby School in the midlands of England, overhauled some of the then-current rules of the game and made it his own. The rules have been changed and modified numerous times in the one hundred and eighty one years since, but the game is substantially the same.
Both American-style football and Australian Rules football sprang from rugby. Many of the terms are used in both sports: forward pass, fullback, halfback, punt, place kick, and offsides are all used. Rugby is played on a 100-meter-long field – the “pitch” – as opposed to a 100-yard long field. Goalposts stand at each end of the pitch and kicking the ball between the forks results in points on the board. Even the post-touchdown extra point in football comes from rugby’s conversion kick.
But unlike football, rugby is a game of constant motion and speed. During a match, players must play both offense and defense and only minimal substitutions are allowed. Players must be prepared to be on their feet, running and tackling, for most of the game.
The match consists of two forty-minute halves. The clock runs continually, stopping only for injuries. Players are penalized for unnecessarily delaying the game in any way.
This kind of hard play demands a certain level of fitness. These men have it, but these are not the typical athletes. Toughness is more important to a rugby player than physique. As such, potbellies abound, and a six-pack is more likely to refer to cold beer than to abs.
“The majority of guys who are really good athletes aren’t chiseled,” says Blair Lobrano, a prop. “I have a background in Olympic weightlifting. You can be fit and not have the physique of a Greek god. The athletes we see on TV are being marketed, sold to you. They need to look good.” He believes that rugby players need something more important than a chiseled physique.
“It’s a sort of mental and physical toughness. It’s that desire to keep going, because the guy standing next to you is also still going.”
Lock forward Ray Wiltshire, known as “Mouth of the South,” agrees. “Rugby is controlled violence. You can’t be a wallflower, as far as worrying about being hurt. You’re going to get stepped on. You’re going to get scraped, scratched, bruised, and beat up. You have to be tough and a little rough around the edges. I’ve learned to recruit anybody of any size. Look at little Jason over there. He’s tough as woodpecker lips.”
Wiltshire has been playing rugby since 1990, when he graduated from Millsaps College. A four-year football player there, he was brought to rugby by a friend. He says there are many different ways that guys stumble into the rugby scene.
“I happened to walk into the Dutch Bar wearing, unbeknownst to me at the time, a rugby jersey,” says Jason “Booger” Guillot, who plays outside center. “I proceeded to get ragged by the players who were there. They did it hard enough that I finally came out and practiced with them. I started playing in 1999 and never stopped.”
“I met the guys in the Dutch Bar,” says Bradley “Opie” Barnes, a wing forward. When I first met them, I thought, I don’t need to be playing rugby. These guys are entirely too big. But I kind of had a little crush on this girl who said that she knew a bunch of the guys who played. She said she was always there. So I said, ‘I’m going to start playing.’”
To a man, the players all agree that the camaraderie they share is one of the reasons they stay with the club.
“You’re looking at a lot of likeminded, loudmouthed, very opinionated, very strong personalities,” Wiltshire says, which brings laughter from most of his teammates.
“We don’t play because anybody pays us – or whether or not anybody watches us, for that matter,” says Guillot. “We play for the parties after the game, and for the camaraderie. We don’t play for glory. God knows there’s not too much of that. We’ve approached a lot of groups for sponsorships and been turned down. I’m telling you, girls’ soccer teams get more financial support than we do.”
Except from former players. Recently, a group of former (and a few current) players formed OBIG, the Old Boys’ Investment Group. They purchased a piece of land off Medgar Evers Boulevard and are turning it into a rugby playing field.
Club President Mitch Holland, and proud OBIG member, says:
“We’re going to have two rugby pitches there. We’ve leveled the fields and planted the grass. We hope to play on them in September or October this year. In the long term, we need to add a good road and parking. We have a dirt road, but if it rains, you can’t get in at all. In the very long term, we want the two fields to become practice and secondary fields. The premiere field will go in when we have the funds. We plan to have a clubhouse and a video tower, so we can tape our matches.”
OBIG, like the club, is made up primarily of white-collar workers. Several doctors, lawyers, and engineers have regular places on the team.
“Everyone has a degree,” Wiltshire says. “Most of these guys have post-graduate degrees. Well, Opie doesn’t have a degree, since he’s still in college. He’s the baby of the team.”
The social aspect of the club is important to the members. Carlo Bagliane came from Capetown, South Africa, to play baseball for Belhaven College. Bagliane, known as “Bags,” the team’s flyhalf, describes his need for the team.
“I got married. I met my wife. She wouldn’t go back, so I stayed here.” His teammates chant, “Green card! Green card!” while he tells the story.
“I needed some sport to play. There’s no other sport here that’s a club. There’s no soccer in Jackson that’s a club. There’s no baseball in Jackson that’s a club. But there was a rugby club.”
To many of the members, the social aspect is a chance for relaxing and having a few – or several – drinks with friends. The team practices on Tuesday and Thursday during the season and has regular Saturday games. Games invariably end with both teams going to a bar or club together to do a bit of bilateral celebrating. But the celebrating also tends to occur during the week, too.
“To keep in practice,” Bagliane says. Apparently it pays off.
“I can honestly say that we may have lost games, but we’ve never lost a party,” Wiltshire says. “There’s been many places where if we win, the other team gets pissy. They drink a few beers and leave. We’ll kill their keg and drink at their bar until the last guy is ready to leave.”
“Or get kicked out,” Guillot says.
“In Pensacola we did get thrown out,” Wiltshire admits. He says that their combination of hard playing and hard partying brings them an unusual mix of fans.
“We get some fans of extreme sports. We get the oddly curious, the people who just want to see a train wreck out there. But believe it or not, there are a lot of women that rugby appears to attract. I don’t want to toot our horns too much. We’re not the prettiest guys, but a lot of us have very nice looking girlfriends.”
They also have many close friendships.
“The best thing about rugby to me is that the most important person on the field is the man standing next to me,” says teammate John Suyes, who recently returned to the team. Several others nod and agree.
“I’ve been with the club since 1980,” Holland says. “But I got away from it a bit during the 90’s. I’m back now. The guys who are here now remind me of my old teammates. They have that team spirit. They get along well. They remind me of how the team was when I played many years ago.”
“We’re from a smaller municipality,” says James Charbonneau, who plays both lock and wing forward. “So we’re always recruiting new players. We take young, old, whatever. We want people to know we’re here. We’ve been here a long time.”
“We’re just around the corner,” Guillot agrees. “Chastain School is just off the interstate.”
Charbonneau invites those interested in playing to, “Come out and play with us. We’ll train anyone. You didn’t have to play in college or in high school.” But be warned, you might become devoted.
“As long as my body can take it, I’m going to play,” Bagliane states.
“I’m here for the haul,” Barnes says. “As long as I’m able to go, I’m going to play. When I’m not able to go, if I have any money, I’m going to put a little in to support.”
“Rugby gets in your blood,” says Wiltshire. “You will love it.”
"A Random Bit of Twaddle, Geeks, and Frank Melton & the Maytals"
Every now and then, I'd run a column of just random thoughts and wanderings. This one was one of my favorites, because it wasn't really that at all. It was more an illustration of my frustration with the election and my inability to do anything about it. I also included it, because it had an in-column follow up to "Geek Flag Ideologies" that I liked.
When it occurred to me that this column was going to run in our ‘election’ issue – regardless of the fact that Frank Melton has already been anointed emperor by some of our local TV stations; thank God the print media still believes in waiting until after the election to do so – I thought I’d write about why I thought one candidate was better than the other.
Oddly enough, the editors insisted that they wouldn’t print half a page of white space.
Honestly, the problem is that I just don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever not known whom I would vote for this close to an election. This is a problem for me, since it’s in my nature to talk, and write about it.
A week ago, I didn’t know. Four days ago, I decided to switch sides and cast my lot with Rick Whitlow. Two days ago, I’d given up and decided to insist on a paper ballot at the polls, just so I could write in “Incumbent Mayor Harvey Johnson.” Now, I’m back to not knowing. (Really, it goes without saying that I shan’t cast a vote for Frank Melton.)
I don’t believe either Melton or Whitlow are qualified for this type of office. I don’t believe that either has the ability to lead a city of this size. I do believe that Rick Whitlow is forthright, honest, and genuinely believes in what he is doing. He has a base of supporters that believe he is truly the right man for the job and they may be right; I just don’t know.
As for Melton…well, my opinions about him are already on record. Suffice it to say, I can’t say anything about him that I said about Whitlow.
A conservative chum of mine commented that he believes four years from now, people will be screaming at each other, “what did you do? Why did you elect Frank Melton?” I think he’s right. I also think it’ll be conservatives shrieking at liberals and liberals howling right back. What is for certain is that the next four years will be interesting.
And to quote Forest Gump (and it seems somewhat appropriate to do so, hm?), “that’s all I have to say about that.”
I’ve had a few random bits rattling around in my cluttered attic of a brain for weeks – none of them worthy of a column, but I thought I’d share them here and clear my head, leaving room for more useless clutter to appear.
I’ve been playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for weeks now (insert your own silly Jackson crime comment here), and I’ve come to one definite conclusion: the Maytals’ “Pressure Drop” is one of the best songs ever recorded. I love the covers by the Clash and the Specials, but Toots’ original is one for the books.
Two weeks ago, my “Geek Flag Ideologies” column was posted online. Frankly, I didn’t expect any comments and I didn’t see them until the following Monday, when I discovered that many, many folks unleashed their inner geek and immediately began sharing anecdotes and terrible trivia questions (even ones by my Dr. Who homey, Trey Mangum). The reason this struck me as hard as it did is that these people, mostly bright folks and mostly regulars on our site, opened up so quickly to share their love of Red Dwarf, Lord of the Rings, the X-Men and X-Files. When I was a wee lad, being a geek was bad. Now it seems to have cachet – very cool.
Until a friend offered to take the Beast for a walk, I hadn’t actually realized how much I loved taking him out to wander the neighborhood. It has just been something we do. It suddenly hit me how much I actually look forward to going with him. This is remarkable; I’m a certified Idaho couch potato. I guess I have the woofbeastie to thank for my mighty thews and lowered blood pressure.
American Idol: proof that the R&B-loving blue staters and the country-lovin’ red staters can come together to celebrate tedium and mediocrity at its finest. God bless the U.S.A.
As of this morning (Tuesday), Deep Throat appears to be uncovered. W. Mark Felt, the former second-in-command of the FBI during the early ‘70s has claimed to be the long-anonymous source who leaked Nixon’s Watergate secretes to The Washington Post’s Woodward and Bernstein, and whose existence was announced in their book, All the President’s Men. Vanity Fair, which has the story, believes Felt. His family believes him. Woodward and Bernstein aren’t saying. I think it’s true and I feel more than a little disappointed that one of this country’s greatest political mysteries has now ended. Now all we need to know is who whacked Jimmy Hoffa.
And what the next four years in Jackson will look like.
--------------------------------------------------------
“I said a pressure drop, oh pressure, oh yeah, pressure’s gonna drop on you.” Favorite songs, geeks? Probably a lot of Rush. Comments, as always, are enjoyed at planetweekly.
When it occurred to me that this column was going to run in our ‘election’ issue – regardless of the fact that Frank Melton has already been anointed emperor by some of our local TV stations; thank God the print media still believes in waiting until after the election to do so – I thought I’d write about why I thought one candidate was better than the other.
Oddly enough, the editors insisted that they wouldn’t print half a page of white space.
Honestly, the problem is that I just don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever not known whom I would vote for this close to an election. This is a problem for me, since it’s in my nature to talk, and write about it.
A week ago, I didn’t know. Four days ago, I decided to switch sides and cast my lot with Rick Whitlow. Two days ago, I’d given up and decided to insist on a paper ballot at the polls, just so I could write in “Incumbent Mayor Harvey Johnson.” Now, I’m back to not knowing. (Really, it goes without saying that I shan’t cast a vote for Frank Melton.)
I don’t believe either Melton or Whitlow are qualified for this type of office. I don’t believe that either has the ability to lead a city of this size. I do believe that Rick Whitlow is forthright, honest, and genuinely believes in what he is doing. He has a base of supporters that believe he is truly the right man for the job and they may be right; I just don’t know.
As for Melton…well, my opinions about him are already on record. Suffice it to say, I can’t say anything about him that I said about Whitlow.
A conservative chum of mine commented that he believes four years from now, people will be screaming at each other, “what did you do? Why did you elect Frank Melton?” I think he’s right. I also think it’ll be conservatives shrieking at liberals and liberals howling right back. What is for certain is that the next four years will be interesting.
And to quote Forest Gump (and it seems somewhat appropriate to do so, hm?), “that’s all I have to say about that.”
I’ve had a few random bits rattling around in my cluttered attic of a brain for weeks – none of them worthy of a column, but I thought I’d share them here and clear my head, leaving room for more useless clutter to appear.
I’ve been playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for weeks now (insert your own silly Jackson crime comment here), and I’ve come to one definite conclusion: the Maytals’ “Pressure Drop” is one of the best songs ever recorded. I love the covers by the Clash and the Specials, but Toots’ original is one for the books.
Two weeks ago, my “Geek Flag Ideologies” column was posted online. Frankly, I didn’t expect any comments and I didn’t see them until the following Monday, when I discovered that many, many folks unleashed their inner geek and immediately began sharing anecdotes and terrible trivia questions (even ones by my Dr. Who homey, Trey Mangum). The reason this struck me as hard as it did is that these people, mostly bright folks and mostly regulars on our site, opened up so quickly to share their love of Red Dwarf, Lord of the Rings, the X-Men and X-Files. When I was a wee lad, being a geek was bad. Now it seems to have cachet – very cool.
Until a friend offered to take the Beast for a walk, I hadn’t actually realized how much I loved taking him out to wander the neighborhood. It has just been something we do. It suddenly hit me how much I actually look forward to going with him. This is remarkable; I’m a certified Idaho couch potato. I guess I have the woofbeastie to thank for my mighty thews and lowered blood pressure.
American Idol: proof that the R&B-loving blue staters and the country-lovin’ red staters can come together to celebrate tedium and mediocrity at its finest. God bless the U.S.A.
As of this morning (Tuesday), Deep Throat appears to be uncovered. W. Mark Felt, the former second-in-command of the FBI during the early ‘70s has claimed to be the long-anonymous source who leaked Nixon’s Watergate secretes to The Washington Post’s Woodward and Bernstein, and whose existence was announced in their book, All the President’s Men. Vanity Fair, which has the story, believes Felt. His family believes him. Woodward and Bernstein aren’t saying. I think it’s true and I feel more than a little disappointed that one of this country’s greatest political mysteries has now ended. Now all we need to know is who whacked Jimmy Hoffa.
And what the next four years in Jackson will look like.
--------------------------------------------------------
“I said a pressure drop, oh pressure, oh yeah, pressure’s gonna drop on you.” Favorite songs, geeks? Probably a lot of Rush. Comments, as always, are enjoyed at planetweekly.
Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer
Mississippians love their books. They have to, what with being the state known for Faulkner, Welty, Tennessee Williams, John Grisham, and others. Planet readers were astonishingly literate and one of our constants was our book section. We did small book reviews and had lists of regular book signings, and every now and then I'd do a book review (we had an editor and several freelancers who loved to do them). This was just one of my favorites.
I’m sitting on the couch, watching Olympic event after Olympic event and nearly drooling at the opportunity to watch my Chiefs smack around the Rams on preseason Monday Night Football (by the time this sees print, I’ll find out if I was right). I’ve made no secret of my love of sports, or of the fact that Kansas City football and baseball are imprinted on my soul. I’m also a New England Patriots fan – many moons in Maine caused me to adopt them, but they are a distant second compared to my beloved Arrowhead Stadium roughnecks. I’m a half-assed Ole Miss fan, simply because I went to a cow college in a neighboring state, one in which the football team found mediocrity something to strive for. I once screamed so loud and so long – at a high school football game – that I broke my voice.
Put simply, I’m a sports fan.
So when I had a chance to review Warren St. John’s Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer I jumped at it. St. John, a New York Times writer and crimson-blooded Bama fan, has written one of the funniest and most insightful books on sports-based psychology ever written. Partly a guided tour of the SEC, partly a history of Alabama football and the legacy of “Bear” Bryant, partly a season-long memoir by a very skilled sports writer, and partly a handbook of RV etiquette, Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer is simply the most entertaining nonfiction book I’ve read in years.
Named after one of Alabama’s crowd chants, St. John’s first book begins with an honest description of his own fan obsessions, such as paying for three hours’ long distance while in college to listen to an Alabama-Auburn ball game over the phone. But it kicks into gear when St. John decides what his mission is:
“I wanted to understand how and why something so removed from our lives – something that doesn’t affect our jobs, our relationships, or our health (hangovers notwithstanding) – affects us so much emotionally,” St. John writes. To do that, he chooses to immerse himself in the RV subculture of sports fandom, following those mobile fans from game to game around the South. On the way, he meets numerous other football fans – most, but not all, Bama supporters. Most are portrayed with some great affection, like Chris and Paula Bice, a South Carolina couple who are the only people to invite him to travel in their RV, and John Ed (“John AY-ud”) Belvin, a ticket broker from Tuscaloosa (and Kenny Rogers look-alike) of whom St. John writes:
“I’m beginning to develop an appreciation for John Ed’s strange personal lexicon. If he doesn’t like someone, that person is likely a “mullet-head,” or else a “fruit loop.” (Sometimes when his cell phone doesn’t work, it too can qualify as a mullet-head.) Someone who is socially awkward is a “weird piece of cheese.” John Ed is also fond of citing himself as an authority on a wide range of topics. The setup is always the same: “I made the statement one time that…” followed by a prediction that has proven abundantly true in the interim.”
St. John’s ability to turn a phrase puts me in mind of an amiable Tom Wolfe. Unlike most journalists, he is totally free from the name-date-this happened-that happened style that passes for quality writing. In fact, he comes across as part pop psychologist, part Southern storyteller, and part stand-up comedian. He writes:
“At big games, motor homes are so tightly packed that a person could nearly circle the entire stadium by walking along their rooftops, although as I learned firsthand, you should never walk along the rooftop of a stranger’s motor home because there’s a decent chance he will shoot you.”
St. John is not only amusing, but insightful. He has done his research, quoting from sources as diverse as Gustave Le Bon’s 1895 treatise on the mentality of crowds, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, to historian Allen Guttman, who is cited for his history of the tailgate party. It’s not dull and dry, but it is research.
Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer is a remarkably evenhanded piece of work, one that is able to humanize a group of people often unfairly dismissed as uneducated, lazy louts. And yet, St. John does not shy away from describing the seamier sides of fandom in the South: the obsessive-compulsive behavior, the occasional racism, the threats of violence, and some of the smarmy acts of the Old Boy network.
Rare is the tome whose back cover praise matters. For this one, praise by Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Tony Horwitz (author of Confederates in the Attic), and H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger (author of Friday Night Lights – arguably the best book ever written about high school sports) is well deserved and demonstrable of the skill St. John possesses.
This is a good book. For any sports fan, it should be required reading.
I’m sitting on the couch, watching Olympic event after Olympic event and nearly drooling at the opportunity to watch my Chiefs smack around the Rams on preseason Monday Night Football (by the time this sees print, I’ll find out if I was right). I’ve made no secret of my love of sports, or of the fact that Kansas City football and baseball are imprinted on my soul. I’m also a New England Patriots fan – many moons in Maine caused me to adopt them, but they are a distant second compared to my beloved Arrowhead Stadium roughnecks. I’m a half-assed Ole Miss fan, simply because I went to a cow college in a neighboring state, one in which the football team found mediocrity something to strive for. I once screamed so loud and so long – at a high school football game – that I broke my voice.
Put simply, I’m a sports fan.
So when I had a chance to review Warren St. John’s Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer I jumped at it. St. John, a New York Times writer and crimson-blooded Bama fan, has written one of the funniest and most insightful books on sports-based psychology ever written. Partly a guided tour of the SEC, partly a history of Alabama football and the legacy of “Bear” Bryant, partly a season-long memoir by a very skilled sports writer, and partly a handbook of RV etiquette, Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer is simply the most entertaining nonfiction book I’ve read in years.
Named after one of Alabama’s crowd chants, St. John’s first book begins with an honest description of his own fan obsessions, such as paying for three hours’ long distance while in college to listen to an Alabama-Auburn ball game over the phone. But it kicks into gear when St. John decides what his mission is:
“I wanted to understand how and why something so removed from our lives – something that doesn’t affect our jobs, our relationships, or our health (hangovers notwithstanding) – affects us so much emotionally,” St. John writes. To do that, he chooses to immerse himself in the RV subculture of sports fandom, following those mobile fans from game to game around the South. On the way, he meets numerous other football fans – most, but not all, Bama supporters. Most are portrayed with some great affection, like Chris and Paula Bice, a South Carolina couple who are the only people to invite him to travel in their RV, and John Ed (“John AY-ud”) Belvin, a ticket broker from Tuscaloosa (and Kenny Rogers look-alike) of whom St. John writes:
“I’m beginning to develop an appreciation for John Ed’s strange personal lexicon. If he doesn’t like someone, that person is likely a “mullet-head,” or else a “fruit loop.” (Sometimes when his cell phone doesn’t work, it too can qualify as a mullet-head.) Someone who is socially awkward is a “weird piece of cheese.” John Ed is also fond of citing himself as an authority on a wide range of topics. The setup is always the same: “I made the statement one time that…” followed by a prediction that has proven abundantly true in the interim.”
St. John’s ability to turn a phrase puts me in mind of an amiable Tom Wolfe. Unlike most journalists, he is totally free from the name-date-this happened-that happened style that passes for quality writing. In fact, he comes across as part pop psychologist, part Southern storyteller, and part stand-up comedian. He writes:
“At big games, motor homes are so tightly packed that a person could nearly circle the entire stadium by walking along their rooftops, although as I learned firsthand, you should never walk along the rooftop of a stranger’s motor home because there’s a decent chance he will shoot you.”
St. John is not only amusing, but insightful. He has done his research, quoting from sources as diverse as Gustave Le Bon’s 1895 treatise on the mentality of crowds, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, to historian Allen Guttman, who is cited for his history of the tailgate party. It’s not dull and dry, but it is research.
Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer is a remarkably evenhanded piece of work, one that is able to humanize a group of people often unfairly dismissed as uneducated, lazy louts. And yet, St. John does not shy away from describing the seamier sides of fandom in the South: the obsessive-compulsive behavior, the occasional racism, the threats of violence, and some of the smarmy acts of the Old Boy network.
Rare is the tome whose back cover praise matters. For this one, praise by Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Tony Horwitz (author of Confederates in the Attic), and H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger (author of Friday Night Lights – arguably the best book ever written about high school sports) is well deserved and demonstrable of the skill St. John possesses.
This is a good book. For any sports fan, it should be required reading.
"The Predator Connection"
For the record, this appeared in print, five days before Saturday Night Live went over much of the same ground (of course, they didn't have the Sonny Landham connection, so I've got them there). Unlike the blogger who ripped off my Iggy Pop reference, I'm not fussing at SNL. It takes a week to set up and rehearse their sketches. I'm saying I'm happy that we came up with these ideas about the same time. It's just that mine saw print before theirs saw air. Don't nobody go saying I ripped off the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time-Players. Great (and sick) minds really do think alike.
With the bread-and-circuses election in California recently, the Left Coast proved once and for all that the liberals out there are not the state’s only wackadoos. The fruits-and-nuts Republicans lined up to throw away their dignity and common sense to cast votes for an aging action star best known for playing a robot. Insert your own Al Gore joke here.
The cable news channels decided that everyone in the country actually gave a damn about who ran that yahoo state, and forced hundreds of mind-numbing hours of coverage on us. It was during some of the hypnotic, droning coverage that I stumbled onto the Predator Connection.
Predator, the 1987 sci-fi actioner, concerned a group of soldiers who ran afoul of a creature whose armor camouflaged itself, allowing him to vanish into the background and attack primarily through ambush – a lot like Gray Davis, but with a less abrasive personality.
Believe it or not, with a credited cast of only ten, Predator has spat out three actors who have run for governor in their home states. Jesse Ventura was first in Minnesota four years ago and this year brought us the Arnold Era. Even Sonny Landham, who played the psycho Indian, Billy, ran for governor of Kentucky in 2002, first as a Republican then as an Independent. He dropped out after a few months, but he ran.*
This means that 30% of the cast of Predator has run in gubernatorial races and 20% has won. I found myself wondering about the other 70%.
Of the remaining seven, I threw out two immediately. Bill Duke, the bad ass sergeant, is also a film director. This makes him overqualified to be governor. Shane Black, who dies early, is actually a scriptwriter, which means he can’t afford to run for office. Since he specializes in spinning tales of bogus heroes, he’d make a great White House Press Secretary.
Kevin Peter Hall, who played the Predator, has been dead twelve years, which eliminates him from running in any state but Missouri. Elpidia Carrillo, the Mexican babe, has two strikes against her: she’s a Mexican babe. R.G. Armstrong, the dignified Alabama character actor, has retired, effectively eliminating him from running. And Richard Chaves, who almost survives until the end of the movie, is a nobody, which seems to suggest that he’d be better off running for President on the Democratic ticket instead.
This leaves Carl Weathers. He’s a Southerner, born in New Orleans. Besides being an actor, he possesses another one of the qualifications it takes to be a politico in this country: he was a professional athlete, a football player. And as Apollo Creed, the man responsible for smacking around Stallone in Rocky, he is a personal hero to most moviegoers.
Given those qualifications, I think it’s time that Weathers start his campaign soon. He should strike while the Predator iron is hot. Chances are good he’d get support from a governor or two.
Now, if only Morgan Freeman had been in the movie…
-------------------------------------------------
*Landham also performed in several 70’s porno movies, including one called, They’re All Sluts, which somewhat puts Arnie’s alleged nipple tweaking in perspective.
Recall whoever! Freeman for Gov! Send campaign checks to: ed@planetweekly.
With the bread-and-circuses election in California recently, the Left Coast proved once and for all that the liberals out there are not the state’s only wackadoos. The fruits-and-nuts Republicans lined up to throw away their dignity and common sense to cast votes for an aging action star best known for playing a robot. Insert your own Al Gore joke here.
The cable news channels decided that everyone in the country actually gave a damn about who ran that yahoo state, and forced hundreds of mind-numbing hours of coverage on us. It was during some of the hypnotic, droning coverage that I stumbled onto the Predator Connection.
Predator, the 1987 sci-fi actioner, concerned a group of soldiers who ran afoul of a creature whose armor camouflaged itself, allowing him to vanish into the background and attack primarily through ambush – a lot like Gray Davis, but with a less abrasive personality.
Believe it or not, with a credited cast of only ten, Predator has spat out three actors who have run for governor in their home states. Jesse Ventura was first in Minnesota four years ago and this year brought us the Arnold Era. Even Sonny Landham, who played the psycho Indian, Billy, ran for governor of Kentucky in 2002, first as a Republican then as an Independent. He dropped out after a few months, but he ran.*
This means that 30% of the cast of Predator has run in gubernatorial races and 20% has won. I found myself wondering about the other 70%.
Of the remaining seven, I threw out two immediately. Bill Duke, the bad ass sergeant, is also a film director. This makes him overqualified to be governor. Shane Black, who dies early, is actually a scriptwriter, which means he can’t afford to run for office. Since he specializes in spinning tales of bogus heroes, he’d make a great White House Press Secretary.
Kevin Peter Hall, who played the Predator, has been dead twelve years, which eliminates him from running in any state but Missouri. Elpidia Carrillo, the Mexican babe, has two strikes against her: she’s a Mexican babe. R.G. Armstrong, the dignified Alabama character actor, has retired, effectively eliminating him from running. And Richard Chaves, who almost survives until the end of the movie, is a nobody, which seems to suggest that he’d be better off running for President on the Democratic ticket instead.
This leaves Carl Weathers. He’s a Southerner, born in New Orleans. Besides being an actor, he possesses another one of the qualifications it takes to be a politico in this country: he was a professional athlete, a football player. And as Apollo Creed, the man responsible for smacking around Stallone in Rocky, he is a personal hero to most moviegoers.
Given those qualifications, I think it’s time that Weathers start his campaign soon. He should strike while the Predator iron is hot. Chances are good he’d get support from a governor or two.
Now, if only Morgan Freeman had been in the movie…
-------------------------------------------------
*Landham also performed in several 70’s porno movies, including one called, They’re All Sluts, which somewhat puts Arnie’s alleged nipple tweaking in perspective.
Recall whoever! Freeman for Gov! Send campaign checks to: ed@planetweekly.
Interview with Rebekah Potter (Artist)
This was unquestionably my most informal interview - and it seemed perfect for the subject. We met in her kitchen while she made pizza dough, and I questioned her with off-hand comments. I considered it an interview version of her work - "not a rectangle." She liked it well enough that gifted me with a 5' x 4' piece of art that I had admired in her studio. It's vaguely rectangular, has no real corners, is folded in places, stitched, battered, taped (and all this the way she made it), and goes everywhere with me. Like all great art, wherever I hang it, it's perfect.
Rebekah Potter does not believe in rectangles. Instead, she prefers to let the borders of her art become part of the art itself. Using scrap wood – complete with gashes, tears, and protrusions – she creates pieces that purposefully reach beyond the boundaries our minds impose. Many of her paper and cardboard collage pieces have no shape, reaching out and folding back in on themselves, helping turn the medium into the message. She sews stitches into many of her pieces, adding texture and drawing your eyes to places they would not necessarily go. And yes, she does have some rectangular pieces, but only because it suits her to do so.
Potter has been called an intrepid wanderer, living alone around the world, yet always touching base in Jackson, where she lived for six years. Perhaps because of her infrequent visits home, she has remained near the edges of Jackson’s vibrant art scene, yet she has many devotees and numerous individuals collect her work. She often reaches inside herself to find her subject matter, which vividly reflects her state of mind at the time.
On Thursday, June 2nd, Potter will return to Fondren Traders, inside the Rainbow Whole Foods building, for a show of her newest work, called Vis.Queen.Wonder.Land. (See The Art Scene for details.) When I first spoke with her in early May about doing this piece, she was simply in Jackson for a visit. By the time of the interview, she had decided to return to Jackson permanently – or as permanently as she ever is.
As is her wont, our interview was extremely informal. PW sat in a kitchen while she prepared her own pizza crust for a dinner party; we discussed her travels, her work, and her belief in “art for no reason.”
Planet Weekly: How would you define your art?
Rebekah Potter: I’m a mixed media artist. I do 2-dimensional work with paint, but I also do collages with found material – everyday life objects; things you maybe should take out of context in order to better appreciate.
PW: What brought you to that style of work?
RP: When you first start out, you want to try to be a painter’s painter, to paint things classically. For me, it got to where that just wasn’t enough. Robert Rauschenberg was taking painting beyond just paint and I liked that.
PW: Your art reflects who you are?
RP: A lot of it has been really autobiographical; in a sense, I’d say selfish. Now I feel like I’m trying to bridge – the word bridge and the word bound; those two words I’ve been thinking about – with the viewer and maybe start addressing issues larger than myself. When I was in school, I thought it was cliché; I thought it was what you were supposed to do. Now, it’s a matter of following my curiosity, following my interests.
PW: You mention found objects. What do you use?
RP: Mainly for me it’s recycled paper, cardboard – things you take for granted. In San Francisco, when you walk around, you can see tons of valet stickers on the ground. I collect them because I was always walking around. I was really into them.
PW: How long did you live and work in San Francisco?
RP: For six years. I went to school at Arizona State, I went to San Francisco, went to Japan, then Los Angeles. Now I’m coming back here.
PW: Are you from Mississippi?
RP: I was born in Mobile, Alabama. My family moved around. I remember we lived in West Virginia. I remember some of South Carolina; we lived in Charleston. I remember Atlanta. We lived in Oklahoma City for a couple of years. By the time I reached the sixth grade, we were here. I graduated high school here.
PW: Why come back?
RP: It’s gotten big enough that I can handle it. Before, it was so small; I couldn’t. It wasn’t enough for me. You have to go out there and find yourself and discover who you are. I think you have to go out of your comfort zone and that’s what I did.
But here, the cost of living is so much cheaper. It’s more interesting than it used to be. Jackson has interesting characters.
PW: I suppose you don’t know that, population-wise, Jackson is actually a little smaller.
RP: I didn’t know that. How come it seems so much bigger?
PW: That’s what I’m asking you.
RP: I guess there is more here, as far as shopping, performance venues, and people from other places. There are a lot more people from other places. Jackson has become more cosmopolitan.
PW: I’m assuming you find that more appealing.
RP: Yeah. There are certain things; I can’t get over the fact that there isn’t a Trader Joe’s here. There are those little things that can make a city great. You can go to all these different little places and get all kinds of interesting food, wine, clothes. You can see independent films you can’t see here. There’s a lot more going on in L.A. than in Jackson.
PW: Then, was there something in particular that drew you back here?
RP: People. There are people who have been a consistent inspiration: my friend the glass blower, my friend the writer, and my friend the architect. There are good people here doing interesting things. Besides the glass blower, the others have left Jackson and experienced other things and places, and they’ve been brought back here for some reason. You wonder what’s wrong with you; why do you come back here? But there is something about Jackson. I don’t know what it is. I feel different here.
PW: Is that a positive different?
RP: Yeah. It’s interesting to me. In L.A., I wake up and drink Yerba Maté – Brazilian rainforest tea that tastes like bark – with rice milk. I have something soy; an overly L.A. kind of breakfast. Here I have coffee, maybe an egg with hormones. I really can’t quite imagine drinking Yerba Maté here. But in L.A., I’m not a drinker. Here, I like a drink at night. I like to watch the rain. The other night I told [the architect] I hadn’t seen a thunderstorm since I can’t remember. It’s been forever. I sat outside and watched it. We didn’t have the weather out there. There are no trees to make that noise when the leaves are blowing. I love that. The South is more sensual.
PW: How does that affect your work?
RP: It makes it more tactile. You’re not supposed to touch a painting, you know. But I’m avid about doing that. With the process I’m using, I like the way they feel. I like people touching them; it feels like skin. My work is more 3-dimensional here. I’ve incorporated the sewing; the sense of lighting is different. L.A. is very bright, but it lacks depth – it’s flat, shiny, hard.
I’m here for the life. There’s more soul here. I’m an oddball. I don’t look like Jackson, but I feel comfortable here, and I feel that no one would harass me about it.
PW: What kind of work will you be showing?
RP: A few different styles. They’re bridging together. Some of them I started before I got here; they’re autobiographical, reflecting what I was going through in L.A. That whole series brought me here. I finished a couple of pieces here, so they’re half-and-half, and there are pieces that I’ve started here – equines. For me, horses are passion.
PW: That’s a female thing.
RP: It is. That fine with me, because I like being a girl.
PW: She says while kneading dough.
RP: I know. That’s been a shift in me. I see a shift in my work, too. I can’t sew and suddenly I’m obsessed with sewing. I want to learn to sew. Now I’m sewing in my work. For me, I’ve been such a tomboy, but now I’m starting to feel more okay with womanly things, domestic traits. I don’t see it as being a bad thing; it’s something that adds strength and balance.
PW: How active were you artistically in these other locations?
RP: In San Francisco, I was the most active; I was part of a studio group, the Blue Studio. Now it’s on Mission Street, but it used to be near PacBell Park [home of the San Francisco Giants]. It was a work-only space and I lived there. My friend built me a Murphy bed and I joined the gym up the street [for bathing facilities]. There, we would go to the Art Walks, participate in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts shows. That’s when things started to click for me. I did a lot of auctions and benefits. It’s weird: I don’t know why, but for a year, I quit painting and took a corporate job selling furniture. Then I lost it and went to Japan.
PW: Lost your job?
RP: Lost my mind.
PW: What did you do in Japan?
RP: I taught English. It was exciting; Japan is beautiful in every way. I wouldn’t want to live there forever, but I liked it. It was visual splendor.
PW: How did this affect your work?
RP: I was unaware of how much I liked everything Japanese until I got there. I like the food; I had Japanese prints. I had started to collect wooden Japanese carpenter tools.
I’d say Western art is 3-dimensional; it wants to create space, volume. Japanese prints are very flat. I liked that. I started recognizing that in my own work. When I got back from Japan, I had my first show at Fondren Traders and it was all very Asian looking. It gave me a good experience at documenting a place and a feeling. That series I would like to own myself; it was natural and fluid. It came out of me. It had all the elements: it was personal, but it could match your couch. I had to tell myself to get off the Asian theme.
PW: There is still some Japanese influence in your current work. The layout hints at it. In one, there is an Oriental-looking fish…
RP: And a pagoda. It’s hard for me to shake. You’ll catch me on the Internet, looking at scenes from Japan.
PW: You took imagery and concepts from Japan. What did you take artistically from San Francisco?
RP: There, I was influenced by a good group of peers, some amazing painters. One guy had a very established style by the time he finished school – very Basquiat-influenced. I used to watch him paint a couple hours a day. He was very free with me and I learned a lot from that. Another friend was a hyperrealist painter. He thought about art very formally, about what school taught you to do. All those things influenced me. I pick, choose, borrow, and steal whatever I want. I was a sponge.
It’s more intuitive that way. I don’t like formula. It’s shallow and small-minded. You want to have an experience. Have the guts to make art for no reason – for no reason. I think who you are and what you appreciate translates less literally than people think.
PW: What did you take away from L.A.?
RP: Ruins. When I got there, I loved it for the first year and a half; the industrial look, the interesting colors. But then I felt like I’d never experienced the reality out there. If you’re not in the film industry, everyone seems crazy to you. They’re obsessed with these people, and these people are jerks, in this industry where everyone gets all this money and notoriety. I was just struggling to survive. I couch-surfed the first year I was out there, and there were a lot of nights in the car. I will say I met one friend who was a photographer there with a lot of heart and soul
I have to say, L.A. is known for the second-best art scene, next to New York. As far as painting, I didn’t see much that impressed me. I feel like L.A. set me up to move here. It stripped away the fluff and brought me down to the essentials.
Jackson is very real. I can live my life my way. I want to create my own world. I want my place, my paintings. I want to take them anywhere and everywhere. That’s what I want.
Rebekah Potter does not believe in rectangles. Instead, she prefers to let the borders of her art become part of the art itself. Using scrap wood – complete with gashes, tears, and protrusions – she creates pieces that purposefully reach beyond the boundaries our minds impose. Many of her paper and cardboard collage pieces have no shape, reaching out and folding back in on themselves, helping turn the medium into the message. She sews stitches into many of her pieces, adding texture and drawing your eyes to places they would not necessarily go. And yes, she does have some rectangular pieces, but only because it suits her to do so.
Potter has been called an intrepid wanderer, living alone around the world, yet always touching base in Jackson, where she lived for six years. Perhaps because of her infrequent visits home, she has remained near the edges of Jackson’s vibrant art scene, yet she has many devotees and numerous individuals collect her work. She often reaches inside herself to find her subject matter, which vividly reflects her state of mind at the time.
On Thursday, June 2nd, Potter will return to Fondren Traders, inside the Rainbow Whole Foods building, for a show of her newest work, called Vis.Queen.Wonder.Land. (See The Art Scene for details.) When I first spoke with her in early May about doing this piece, she was simply in Jackson for a visit. By the time of the interview, she had decided to return to Jackson permanently – or as permanently as she ever is.
As is her wont, our interview was extremely informal. PW sat in a kitchen while she prepared her own pizza crust for a dinner party; we discussed her travels, her work, and her belief in “art for no reason.”
Planet Weekly: How would you define your art?
Rebekah Potter: I’m a mixed media artist. I do 2-dimensional work with paint, but I also do collages with found material – everyday life objects; things you maybe should take out of context in order to better appreciate.
PW: What brought you to that style of work?
RP: When you first start out, you want to try to be a painter’s painter, to paint things classically. For me, it got to where that just wasn’t enough. Robert Rauschenberg was taking painting beyond just paint and I liked that.
PW: Your art reflects who you are?
RP: A lot of it has been really autobiographical; in a sense, I’d say selfish. Now I feel like I’m trying to bridge – the word bridge and the word bound; those two words I’ve been thinking about – with the viewer and maybe start addressing issues larger than myself. When I was in school, I thought it was cliché; I thought it was what you were supposed to do. Now, it’s a matter of following my curiosity, following my interests.
PW: You mention found objects. What do you use?
RP: Mainly for me it’s recycled paper, cardboard – things you take for granted. In San Francisco, when you walk around, you can see tons of valet stickers on the ground. I collect them because I was always walking around. I was really into them.
PW: How long did you live and work in San Francisco?
RP: For six years. I went to school at Arizona State, I went to San Francisco, went to Japan, then Los Angeles. Now I’m coming back here.
PW: Are you from Mississippi?
RP: I was born in Mobile, Alabama. My family moved around. I remember we lived in West Virginia. I remember some of South Carolina; we lived in Charleston. I remember Atlanta. We lived in Oklahoma City for a couple of years. By the time I reached the sixth grade, we were here. I graduated high school here.
PW: Why come back?
RP: It’s gotten big enough that I can handle it. Before, it was so small; I couldn’t. It wasn’t enough for me. You have to go out there and find yourself and discover who you are. I think you have to go out of your comfort zone and that’s what I did.
But here, the cost of living is so much cheaper. It’s more interesting than it used to be. Jackson has interesting characters.
PW: I suppose you don’t know that, population-wise, Jackson is actually a little smaller.
RP: I didn’t know that. How come it seems so much bigger?
PW: That’s what I’m asking you.
RP: I guess there is more here, as far as shopping, performance venues, and people from other places. There are a lot more people from other places. Jackson has become more cosmopolitan.
PW: I’m assuming you find that more appealing.
RP: Yeah. There are certain things; I can’t get over the fact that there isn’t a Trader Joe’s here. There are those little things that can make a city great. You can go to all these different little places and get all kinds of interesting food, wine, clothes. You can see independent films you can’t see here. There’s a lot more going on in L.A. than in Jackson.
PW: Then, was there something in particular that drew you back here?
RP: People. There are people who have been a consistent inspiration: my friend the glass blower, my friend the writer, and my friend the architect. There are good people here doing interesting things. Besides the glass blower, the others have left Jackson and experienced other things and places, and they’ve been brought back here for some reason. You wonder what’s wrong with you; why do you come back here? But there is something about Jackson. I don’t know what it is. I feel different here.
PW: Is that a positive different?
RP: Yeah. It’s interesting to me. In L.A., I wake up and drink Yerba Maté – Brazilian rainforest tea that tastes like bark – with rice milk. I have something soy; an overly L.A. kind of breakfast. Here I have coffee, maybe an egg with hormones. I really can’t quite imagine drinking Yerba Maté here. But in L.A., I’m not a drinker. Here, I like a drink at night. I like to watch the rain. The other night I told [the architect] I hadn’t seen a thunderstorm since I can’t remember. It’s been forever. I sat outside and watched it. We didn’t have the weather out there. There are no trees to make that noise when the leaves are blowing. I love that. The South is more sensual.
PW: How does that affect your work?
RP: It makes it more tactile. You’re not supposed to touch a painting, you know. But I’m avid about doing that. With the process I’m using, I like the way they feel. I like people touching them; it feels like skin. My work is more 3-dimensional here. I’ve incorporated the sewing; the sense of lighting is different. L.A. is very bright, but it lacks depth – it’s flat, shiny, hard.
I’m here for the life. There’s more soul here. I’m an oddball. I don’t look like Jackson, but I feel comfortable here, and I feel that no one would harass me about it.
PW: What kind of work will you be showing?
RP: A few different styles. They’re bridging together. Some of them I started before I got here; they’re autobiographical, reflecting what I was going through in L.A. That whole series brought me here. I finished a couple of pieces here, so they’re half-and-half, and there are pieces that I’ve started here – equines. For me, horses are passion.
PW: That’s a female thing.
RP: It is. That fine with me, because I like being a girl.
PW: She says while kneading dough.
RP: I know. That’s been a shift in me. I see a shift in my work, too. I can’t sew and suddenly I’m obsessed with sewing. I want to learn to sew. Now I’m sewing in my work. For me, I’ve been such a tomboy, but now I’m starting to feel more okay with womanly things, domestic traits. I don’t see it as being a bad thing; it’s something that adds strength and balance.
PW: How active were you artistically in these other locations?
RP: In San Francisco, I was the most active; I was part of a studio group, the Blue Studio. Now it’s on Mission Street, but it used to be near PacBell Park [home of the San Francisco Giants]. It was a work-only space and I lived there. My friend built me a Murphy bed and I joined the gym up the street [for bathing facilities]. There, we would go to the Art Walks, participate in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts shows. That’s when things started to click for me. I did a lot of auctions and benefits. It’s weird: I don’t know why, but for a year, I quit painting and took a corporate job selling furniture. Then I lost it and went to Japan.
PW: Lost your job?
RP: Lost my mind.
PW: What did you do in Japan?
RP: I taught English. It was exciting; Japan is beautiful in every way. I wouldn’t want to live there forever, but I liked it. It was visual splendor.
PW: How did this affect your work?
RP: I was unaware of how much I liked everything Japanese until I got there. I like the food; I had Japanese prints. I had started to collect wooden Japanese carpenter tools.
I’d say Western art is 3-dimensional; it wants to create space, volume. Japanese prints are very flat. I liked that. I started recognizing that in my own work. When I got back from Japan, I had my first show at Fondren Traders and it was all very Asian looking. It gave me a good experience at documenting a place and a feeling. That series I would like to own myself; it was natural and fluid. It came out of me. It had all the elements: it was personal, but it could match your couch. I had to tell myself to get off the Asian theme.
PW: There is still some Japanese influence in your current work. The layout hints at it. In one, there is an Oriental-looking fish…
RP: And a pagoda. It’s hard for me to shake. You’ll catch me on the Internet, looking at scenes from Japan.
PW: You took imagery and concepts from Japan. What did you take artistically from San Francisco?
RP: There, I was influenced by a good group of peers, some amazing painters. One guy had a very established style by the time he finished school – very Basquiat-influenced. I used to watch him paint a couple hours a day. He was very free with me and I learned a lot from that. Another friend was a hyperrealist painter. He thought about art very formally, about what school taught you to do. All those things influenced me. I pick, choose, borrow, and steal whatever I want. I was a sponge.
It’s more intuitive that way. I don’t like formula. It’s shallow and small-minded. You want to have an experience. Have the guts to make art for no reason – for no reason. I think who you are and what you appreciate translates less literally than people think.
PW: What did you take away from L.A.?
RP: Ruins. When I got there, I loved it for the first year and a half; the industrial look, the interesting colors. But then I felt like I’d never experienced the reality out there. If you’re not in the film industry, everyone seems crazy to you. They’re obsessed with these people, and these people are jerks, in this industry where everyone gets all this money and notoriety. I was just struggling to survive. I couch-surfed the first year I was out there, and there were a lot of nights in the car. I will say I met one friend who was a photographer there with a lot of heart and soul
I have to say, L.A. is known for the second-best art scene, next to New York. As far as painting, I didn’t see much that impressed me. I feel like L.A. set me up to move here. It stripped away the fluff and brought me down to the essentials.
Jackson is very real. I can live my life my way. I want to create my own world. I want my place, my paintings. I want to take them anywhere and everywhere. That’s what I want.
"The Politics of Death"
There are no punchlines with this one.
Death is one of only two things that all persons are guaranteed to experience once in their life, along with birth. Sex isn’t a given, love isn’t a given; pride, hope, joy, happiness, sadness, faith or friendship offer no guarantees that one will ever experience them. Only birth and death are promises always met.
Birth is the overture of life, full of the promise of what has yet come. But death, which comes at the very end, signifies the finality of years or decades of living, turning a once-vital person into memories shared by those around her. Death is the final note of life’s symphony and is, by nature, the more dramatic of the two. And as the most dramatic guarantee life has to offer, it has become arguably the most contentious subject in politics; capital punishment, assisted suicide, abortion, and euthanasia are discussed at every political level and numerous other subjects – stem cell research, disease, drunk-driving laws, and drug addiction all have the idea of death as part of the vast discussions that accompany them.
On very few of those issues do conservatives and liberals agree. Certainly no one in their right mind thinks that drunk driving is a good idea and most everyone supports the government and private industry’s work to eradicate diseases as best they can. But the hot-button issues continue to divide the country and sadly, both sides seem to be rooted in inconsistent thinking.
At first glance, the conservative position is remarkably inconsistent: pro-life, pro-death penalty, and anti-assisted suicide. They claim that their moral values support human life, and they do – some of the time. According to pro-life thought, the moment that one little sperm wins the Great Race and one little cell divides inside a woman’s womb, that is a human life, by definition an “innocent.” Conservative thought says that that life must be protected, regardless of what the mother believes. Also apparently “innocent” are those sick and elderly who wish to die – usually because of inescapable pain, but those people, conservatives believe, must be allowed to live their lives fully – no matter how much pain they are in and how much they wish to die. The belief is that life is precious, regardless of how sick a person is.
However, if a person is convicted of a capital crime – regardless of actual innocence or guilt – that person is no longer given the same rights as others. Most conservatives, but not all, support capital punishment, even though study after study after study has demonstrated that not all those convicted of a capital crime are actually guilty. Capital punishment is final; there is no reprieve for those who are killed.
In essence, a pair of cells in a womb is an innocent, a great-grandmother writhing in constant pain is an innocent, but a black man falsely convicted is no longer an innocent, and deserves to die. It is a judgment call at best, given proper spin by the conservatives: sweet little Baby Johnny and dear old Aunt Petunia should live, but that nasty fellow in Cell Block E must die.
Unfortunately, the liberals are no better and are as inconsistent. Their position is generally pro-abortion (I refuse to call it pro-choice; those that tend to use that term are often the ones who prefer that others don’t get to make choices of their own), pro-assisted suicide, and anti-death penalty. In other words, killing a fetus is good. Killing a sad old woman is good. But killing a man who killed thirteen people at a dinner party is a bad idea. Even if the man was found with a bloody axe, a head in his hand, and confessed his crime in great detail, they still believe it’s bad to kill him. It’s all in the spin, and the liberals do not spin this as well as the conservatives do, and their position takes on a more negative light. They come across as savage, willing to kill innocents for selfish reasons, but also as “light on crime,” willing to house criminals for decades who probably do deserve to die.
There is no way to make these belief systems consistent in and of themselves and frankly, I’m not sure there should be. What these discrete systems of beliefs demonstrate is how vastly different in thinking we all are. Neither all conservatives nor all liberals believe everything that their groups seem to espouse, but many do. This to me says that perhaps death – and the subjects that touch heavily on death – should be given more respect by both sides. Instead of calling the pro-abortion types “baby killers” or calling the pro-capital punishment supporters “murderers,” maybe at some point our society will evolve to the point where our beliefs on death can be respected, not only by those who agree with us, but more importantly, by those we disagree with. I’d like to think that, as a people, this is one thing we are all capable of doing.
Death is one of only two things that all persons are guaranteed to experience once in their life, along with birth. Sex isn’t a given, love isn’t a given; pride, hope, joy, happiness, sadness, faith or friendship offer no guarantees that one will ever experience them. Only birth and death are promises always met.
Birth is the overture of life, full of the promise of what has yet come. But death, which comes at the very end, signifies the finality of years or decades of living, turning a once-vital person into memories shared by those around her. Death is the final note of life’s symphony and is, by nature, the more dramatic of the two. And as the most dramatic guarantee life has to offer, it has become arguably the most contentious subject in politics; capital punishment, assisted suicide, abortion, and euthanasia are discussed at every political level and numerous other subjects – stem cell research, disease, drunk-driving laws, and drug addiction all have the idea of death as part of the vast discussions that accompany them.
On very few of those issues do conservatives and liberals agree. Certainly no one in their right mind thinks that drunk driving is a good idea and most everyone supports the government and private industry’s work to eradicate diseases as best they can. But the hot-button issues continue to divide the country and sadly, both sides seem to be rooted in inconsistent thinking.
At first glance, the conservative position is remarkably inconsistent: pro-life, pro-death penalty, and anti-assisted suicide. They claim that their moral values support human life, and they do – some of the time. According to pro-life thought, the moment that one little sperm wins the Great Race and one little cell divides inside a woman’s womb, that is a human life, by definition an “innocent.” Conservative thought says that that life must be protected, regardless of what the mother believes. Also apparently “innocent” are those sick and elderly who wish to die – usually because of inescapable pain, but those people, conservatives believe, must be allowed to live their lives fully – no matter how much pain they are in and how much they wish to die. The belief is that life is precious, regardless of how sick a person is.
However, if a person is convicted of a capital crime – regardless of actual innocence or guilt – that person is no longer given the same rights as others. Most conservatives, but not all, support capital punishment, even though study after study after study has demonstrated that not all those convicted of a capital crime are actually guilty. Capital punishment is final; there is no reprieve for those who are killed.
In essence, a pair of cells in a womb is an innocent, a great-grandmother writhing in constant pain is an innocent, but a black man falsely convicted is no longer an innocent, and deserves to die. It is a judgment call at best, given proper spin by the conservatives: sweet little Baby Johnny and dear old Aunt Petunia should live, but that nasty fellow in Cell Block E must die.
Unfortunately, the liberals are no better and are as inconsistent. Their position is generally pro-abortion (I refuse to call it pro-choice; those that tend to use that term are often the ones who prefer that others don’t get to make choices of their own), pro-assisted suicide, and anti-death penalty. In other words, killing a fetus is good. Killing a sad old woman is good. But killing a man who killed thirteen people at a dinner party is a bad idea. Even if the man was found with a bloody axe, a head in his hand, and confessed his crime in great detail, they still believe it’s bad to kill him. It’s all in the spin, and the liberals do not spin this as well as the conservatives do, and their position takes on a more negative light. They come across as savage, willing to kill innocents for selfish reasons, but also as “light on crime,” willing to house criminals for decades who probably do deserve to die.
There is no way to make these belief systems consistent in and of themselves and frankly, I’m not sure there should be. What these discrete systems of beliefs demonstrate is how vastly different in thinking we all are. Neither all conservatives nor all liberals believe everything that their groups seem to espouse, but many do. This to me says that perhaps death – and the subjects that touch heavily on death – should be given more respect by both sides. Instead of calling the pro-abortion types “baby killers” or calling the pro-capital punishment supporters “murderers,” maybe at some point our society will evolve to the point where our beliefs on death can be respected, not only by those who agree with us, but more importantly, by those we disagree with. I’d like to think that, as a people, this is one thing we are all capable of doing.
"People Are Afraid"
Couple of things about this one: Kane Ditto was the mayor of Jackson during its gunfights-in-the-streets early '90s days; yes, it's stat-heavy; yes, my stats are correct; and yes, I supported Harvey Johnson. In fact, only Planet Weekly and the Jackson Free Press didn't support Frank Melton. The daily paper, the television stations, the radio stations, and the pundits all supported Frank Melton. Melton won in a landslide and is now considered one of the laughingstocks of the political world. Jacksonians got the mayor they deserved. Fear and stupidity are a powerful mix.
Four years after Melton was voted into office, he collapsed on the evening of the Democratic mayoral primary - where he ran against Harvey Johnson. He passed on sometime later. I managed to avoid most "God voted" jokes, but not all.
You hear it everywhere; a constant refrain from Frank Melton, from the Melton campaign, and from Melton’s followers – “people are afraid.” You hear it in conversations, you see it campaign material, you hear it on newscasts (particularly on WAPT, which long ago jettisoned any attempts to maintain non-biased reporting), and you hear it from the candidate himself – people are afraid. Do you know what you rarely hear?
“I’m afraid.”
It’s much, much harder to find someone who says this than it is to find someone who says, “people are afraid.” Certainly, there are those who are afraid to live in Jackson. WAPT manages to run useless segments on the topic frequently, even though they exist to do nothing except reinforce Melton’s assertion. I was a crime victim two years ago. I’m not afraid, and I think that most people are not afraid. What has happened, though, is that Melton supporters have taken up this chant, in an effort to fool people into thinking it’s true, even though it’s not. A repetitious spurious ideology does not become a fact; it is simply a spurious ideology shoved down the throats of voters. I suggest the next time someone says, “People are afraid,” we respond:
“No, they’re not.”
Another quote that has become a constant rallying point comes in the form of a question – “Do you feel safer now than you did 8 years ago?” Amazingly, the Melton folks think that most people will answer no. Even more amazingly, some of them believe it. Is crime a problem in Jackson? Yes. But crime is a problem in every city in the country, and Jackson is no longer a small town; it is a city, with all that entails – good and bad.
I’d like to answer the question, but I can’t. Eight years ago, I had relocated to New England, so I can’t answer that specifically. But I can tell you, ten years ago, in the mid-‘90s Kane Ditto heyday, I lived in Belhaven Heights – oddly enough, exactly one block from where I now live. My roommates and I would spend evenings on the back porch, listening to the frequent sound of gunfire in the neighborhood. That was unsafe. Jefferson Street had a fully staffed crack house, Christo’s (where Fenian’s was before Fenian’s, youngsters) front door was shot out, and it was not safe to walk the streets at night. Now, the same neighborhood is a place where people walk their dogs safely and happily, the crack house is no more, and I haven’t heard a gunshot in over a year. Do I feel safer now than I did 10 years ago? Absolutely.
Do you feel safer now than you did two years ago? You should. The statistics are there for all to see. From 2003 to 2004, every type of crime (except homicides) went down in number. In 2003, Jacksonians were victims of 17,203 different crimes. In 2004, there were only 13,600. That’s a drop of 21 percent; a remarkable number. In 1997, when Mayor Johnson took office, there were 20,176 crimes. 1998 saw the only growth in crime in Jackson under Johnson’s leadership – 20,674 crimes. So from 1997 to 2004, the number of crimes in Jackson fell by a total of 6,576. That is a drop of 32.6 percent.
Do you feel safer now than you did 8 years ago? Again, you should. Crime is down 32.6 percent since Harvey Johnson took over. In fact, 2004 had the lowest crime rate in 24 years. Whether you know it or not, and whether you feel safer or not, you actually are safer now.
But this, too, is an attempt by the Melton camp to obfuscate the facts with a repetitious rhetoric. They prefer that you don’t know these facts; they want to scare you with their lack of them. Melton knows these facts; he has the same statistics to which everyone else has access. With one hand, he dismisses them as “artificial” in his campaign platform; with the other, he uses the same ones to tout the fact that homicides are up. (In 2003, there were 45; in 2004, 52. That’s true. And 10 years ago, there were 97. You are safer.)
Personally, I’m concerned with what I see as an upcoming crime. I see it coming, and so should you. In Mississippi, you don’t have to register as a Republican or Democrat when you register to vote (or an Independent, which is my preference). As such, at primary election time, a person can vote for either. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. Democrats would vote for Democrats, and Republicans would vote for Republicans. With Rick Whitlow running unopposed in the primary, it is a certainty that many of the city’s Republicans will instead vote Democrat and cast their votes for Frank Melton, one of their own, in an attempt to oust the mayor before the election proper.
I see this as something more than a callow action on their part; it’s an attempt to steal the election. Add this to the constant, repetitious flow of misinformation and you have a candidate not worth voting for.
I urge you to get out and cast your vote in the primary election for the man who has brought crime to a 24-year low and made the city safer: Mayor Harvey Johnson.
And remember, just because they say people are afraid, it doesn’t mean they are.
Four years after Melton was voted into office, he collapsed on the evening of the Democratic mayoral primary - where he ran against Harvey Johnson. He passed on sometime later. I managed to avoid most "God voted" jokes, but not all.
You hear it everywhere; a constant refrain from Frank Melton, from the Melton campaign, and from Melton’s followers – “people are afraid.” You hear it in conversations, you see it campaign material, you hear it on newscasts (particularly on WAPT, which long ago jettisoned any attempts to maintain non-biased reporting), and you hear it from the candidate himself – people are afraid. Do you know what you rarely hear?
“I’m afraid.”
It’s much, much harder to find someone who says this than it is to find someone who says, “people are afraid.” Certainly, there are those who are afraid to live in Jackson. WAPT manages to run useless segments on the topic frequently, even though they exist to do nothing except reinforce Melton’s assertion. I was a crime victim two years ago. I’m not afraid, and I think that most people are not afraid. What has happened, though, is that Melton supporters have taken up this chant, in an effort to fool people into thinking it’s true, even though it’s not. A repetitious spurious ideology does not become a fact; it is simply a spurious ideology shoved down the throats of voters. I suggest the next time someone says, “People are afraid,” we respond:
“No, they’re not.”
Another quote that has become a constant rallying point comes in the form of a question – “Do you feel safer now than you did 8 years ago?” Amazingly, the Melton folks think that most people will answer no. Even more amazingly, some of them believe it. Is crime a problem in Jackson? Yes. But crime is a problem in every city in the country, and Jackson is no longer a small town; it is a city, with all that entails – good and bad.
I’d like to answer the question, but I can’t. Eight years ago, I had relocated to New England, so I can’t answer that specifically. But I can tell you, ten years ago, in the mid-‘90s Kane Ditto heyday, I lived in Belhaven Heights – oddly enough, exactly one block from where I now live. My roommates and I would spend evenings on the back porch, listening to the frequent sound of gunfire in the neighborhood. That was unsafe. Jefferson Street had a fully staffed crack house, Christo’s (where Fenian’s was before Fenian’s, youngsters) front door was shot out, and it was not safe to walk the streets at night. Now, the same neighborhood is a place where people walk their dogs safely and happily, the crack house is no more, and I haven’t heard a gunshot in over a year. Do I feel safer now than I did 10 years ago? Absolutely.
Do you feel safer now than you did two years ago? You should. The statistics are there for all to see. From 2003 to 2004, every type of crime (except homicides) went down in number. In 2003, Jacksonians were victims of 17,203 different crimes. In 2004, there were only 13,600. That’s a drop of 21 percent; a remarkable number. In 1997, when Mayor Johnson took office, there were 20,176 crimes. 1998 saw the only growth in crime in Jackson under Johnson’s leadership – 20,674 crimes. So from 1997 to 2004, the number of crimes in Jackson fell by a total of 6,576. That is a drop of 32.6 percent.
Do you feel safer now than you did 8 years ago? Again, you should. Crime is down 32.6 percent since Harvey Johnson took over. In fact, 2004 had the lowest crime rate in 24 years. Whether you know it or not, and whether you feel safer or not, you actually are safer now.
But this, too, is an attempt by the Melton camp to obfuscate the facts with a repetitious rhetoric. They prefer that you don’t know these facts; they want to scare you with their lack of them. Melton knows these facts; he has the same statistics to which everyone else has access. With one hand, he dismisses them as “artificial” in his campaign platform; with the other, he uses the same ones to tout the fact that homicides are up. (In 2003, there were 45; in 2004, 52. That’s true. And 10 years ago, there were 97. You are safer.)
Personally, I’m concerned with what I see as an upcoming crime. I see it coming, and so should you. In Mississippi, you don’t have to register as a Republican or Democrat when you register to vote (or an Independent, which is my preference). As such, at primary election time, a person can vote for either. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. Democrats would vote for Democrats, and Republicans would vote for Republicans. With Rick Whitlow running unopposed in the primary, it is a certainty that many of the city’s Republicans will instead vote Democrat and cast their votes for Frank Melton, one of their own, in an attempt to oust the mayor before the election proper.
I see this as something more than a callow action on their part; it’s an attempt to steal the election. Add this to the constant, repetitious flow of misinformation and you have a candidate not worth voting for.
I urge you to get out and cast your vote in the primary election for the man who has brought crime to a 24-year low and made the city safer: Mayor Harvey Johnson.
And remember, just because they say people are afraid, it doesn’t mean they are.
New Vibrations - Feature
This one's here because, for no reason whatsoever, this is one of my favorite short pieces - and Karen Parker is one of my favorite Jacksonians. If you're ever there, go see her.
New Vibrations owner Karen Parker describes the idea behind her store:
“We call this a store of spiritual and cultural diversity. I wanted to bring things from around the world to Jackson. I wanted to bring things of a spiritual nature to Jackson. It was really important to me to bring the tools and things that people use in different religions.”
New Vibrations opened two months ago on State Street in Fondren. Its bright purple exterior and its location between the Fondren Corner building and Treehouse have brought considerable traffic to the business. Some came following positive word of mouth, some came during Arts, Eats, and Beats, and some simply found it.
“People are beginning to search these days, stepping away from their basic religions, and beginning to open themselves up,” Parker said. “The world is a smaller place than it ever was before. I’ve always felt that we all call God different names, and he or she had different faces in different religions, but that we all pray to the same God and that it’s really important for us to see ourselves talking to – and about – one God and one Creator.”
“I think each person should be allowed their own path to God.” Parker, who was born and raised in Jackson, wanted to let the people of Jackson have some of the same opportunities that she had in determining her own life’s path.
“For us to understand that our diversity and religion is to be celebrated, and not used as a division, I wanted to bring that to Jackson. I found it in my own life really early and I enjoyed reading and studying comparative religion. It’s just always been a fascination to me.”
Parker came from a Christian family, attending both Methodist and Baptist churches while she was growing up. As she grew, she began to attend churches of different denominations, experimenting to find the place where she thought she would be the most content. Now, she says:
“I consider myself an extremely spiritual person, but I don’t put myself in any one religious category.” Her customers do not fit into any one category either.
“Most of the people that come in here consider themselves to be Christian, but they are very interested in other ways of thinking. We have quite a large pagan community here in Jackson and they are huge supporters of mine. They love the things that I have.” What she has is a collection of eclectic items, music, and books.
“I try to make sure I keep things that speak to your spirit or that may be of a religious nature, such as statues of Buddha or Hindu goddesses, or prayer beads. I don’t carry a lot of Christian things, because there are other companies that [do that] and do it very well.”
Instead, New Vibrations carries things like decorative masks, chakra jewelry, crystal balls, Egyptian statuary, karma flags, antique Tibetan singing bowls, natural soap, American Indian jewelry, intention candles, and items to help Feng Shui your home.
“I have things to make you happy and things to give you a spark in your life. I have some Celtic things, I have some things from Bali and Africa, I have some things from different parts of the world.”
“I want to have things that make you happy,” Parker said. “Or make you curious, and intrigue you, and make you question things.” She insists that her store is spiritual, and isn’t representative of what is often called “New Age.”
“I hate the words, ‘New Age.’ I hate them. Everything you don’t understand gets lumped under that heading, and I hate that. I don’t consider myself New Age because I don’t like the words, and I don’t like the connotations those words have. If you’re New Age, then you must be worshipping the devil or something like that, which is ridiculous. Some people may call my store New Age, but I prefer the word, “Metaphysical” – something beyond the physical.”
New Vibrations is Parker’s first business, but she says it is also something more than just that.
“I wanted to have a space – my back room – where people are invited to sit, have a cup of tea or coffee, and talk to each other. Read books about other religions and other beliefs that will open up some conversation between people with different beliefs, so that our intolerance is lessened by communication. I want people of a like mind to gather and talk.” But, she says she knows that conversation and a cup of tea may not be everybody’s cup of tea.
“I understand there are people that aren’t going to be happy with my kind of store. That’s okay. I understand that. If people don’t want to patronize the store, I understand.” But she considers herself fortunate that the business is located in the arts neighborhood.
“I always wanted to be in the Fondren area,” she said. “When I thought about my business, I always conceptualized it here. I wanted the energy here. I wanted the feel of it. This is like a gift from God.”
New Vibrations owner Karen Parker describes the idea behind her store:
“We call this a store of spiritual and cultural diversity. I wanted to bring things from around the world to Jackson. I wanted to bring things of a spiritual nature to Jackson. It was really important to me to bring the tools and things that people use in different religions.”
New Vibrations opened two months ago on State Street in Fondren. Its bright purple exterior and its location between the Fondren Corner building and Treehouse have brought considerable traffic to the business. Some came following positive word of mouth, some came during Arts, Eats, and Beats, and some simply found it.
“People are beginning to search these days, stepping away from their basic religions, and beginning to open themselves up,” Parker said. “The world is a smaller place than it ever was before. I’ve always felt that we all call God different names, and he or she had different faces in different religions, but that we all pray to the same God and that it’s really important for us to see ourselves talking to – and about – one God and one Creator.”
“I think each person should be allowed their own path to God.” Parker, who was born and raised in Jackson, wanted to let the people of Jackson have some of the same opportunities that she had in determining her own life’s path.
“For us to understand that our diversity and religion is to be celebrated, and not used as a division, I wanted to bring that to Jackson. I found it in my own life really early and I enjoyed reading and studying comparative religion. It’s just always been a fascination to me.”
Parker came from a Christian family, attending both Methodist and Baptist churches while she was growing up. As she grew, she began to attend churches of different denominations, experimenting to find the place where she thought she would be the most content. Now, she says:
“I consider myself an extremely spiritual person, but I don’t put myself in any one religious category.” Her customers do not fit into any one category either.
“Most of the people that come in here consider themselves to be Christian, but they are very interested in other ways of thinking. We have quite a large pagan community here in Jackson and they are huge supporters of mine. They love the things that I have.” What she has is a collection of eclectic items, music, and books.
“I try to make sure I keep things that speak to your spirit or that may be of a religious nature, such as statues of Buddha or Hindu goddesses, or prayer beads. I don’t carry a lot of Christian things, because there are other companies that [do that] and do it very well.”
Instead, New Vibrations carries things like decorative masks, chakra jewelry, crystal balls, Egyptian statuary, karma flags, antique Tibetan singing bowls, natural soap, American Indian jewelry, intention candles, and items to help Feng Shui your home.
“I have things to make you happy and things to give you a spark in your life. I have some Celtic things, I have some things from Bali and Africa, I have some things from different parts of the world.”
“I want to have things that make you happy,” Parker said. “Or make you curious, and intrigue you, and make you question things.” She insists that her store is spiritual, and isn’t representative of what is often called “New Age.”
“I hate the words, ‘New Age.’ I hate them. Everything you don’t understand gets lumped under that heading, and I hate that. I don’t consider myself New Age because I don’t like the words, and I don’t like the connotations those words have. If you’re New Age, then you must be worshipping the devil or something like that, which is ridiculous. Some people may call my store New Age, but I prefer the word, “Metaphysical” – something beyond the physical.”
New Vibrations is Parker’s first business, but she says it is also something more than just that.
“I wanted to have a space – my back room – where people are invited to sit, have a cup of tea or coffee, and talk to each other. Read books about other religions and other beliefs that will open up some conversation between people with different beliefs, so that our intolerance is lessened by communication. I want people of a like mind to gather and talk.” But, she says she knows that conversation and a cup of tea may not be everybody’s cup of tea.
“I understand there are people that aren’t going to be happy with my kind of store. That’s okay. I understand that. If people don’t want to patronize the store, I understand.” But she considers herself fortunate that the business is located in the arts neighborhood.
“I always wanted to be in the Fondren area,” she said. “When I thought about my business, I always conceptualized it here. I wanted the energy here. I wanted the feel of it. This is like a gift from God.”
New Life for Women - Feature
I won't say much about this one, except that New Life for Women is one of the worthiest causes I've ever seen. It was brought to my attention by my friend and neighbor, Debbie Parks, who introduced me to the people who run it. Debbie graduated from New Life several years ago, but not before the damage was done. She had cirrhosis, which turned to cancer, which killed her last year. But she was clean and sober from the time she left New Life until the end. They're not just good people; they're the best. Miss you, Debbie.
Planet Weekly originally published this with all the women's real names, but enough time has passed, and I think it likely that some of them may not want their names bandied about on the Interwebs. As such, I've changed their names - out of respect for who they are, and where they may be at this time in their lives.
New Life for Women was founded in 1988 as a secondary treatment program for homeless, chemically dependent women. According to co-founder and current executive director Melanie Parks, women who complete primary treatment for chemical dependency – which consists of detoxification and about 30-45 days of treatment in places like Harbor House – typically return to their same places, people, and situations that caused the dependency, and are successful in maintaining long-term sobriety only about one time out of ten. Secondary treatment helps the women maintain sobriety at a much greater rate. Parks estimates that after 90 days’ treatment at her facility, or one like it, their chances rise to six out of ten, but she does admit:
“I don’t think there’s been any empirical data put together about that, but it would be interesting to know what the numbers are with the support systems established through an agency like this one.”
New Life for Women is a 20-bed facility in Jackson that specializes in helping women with a drive to free themselves from dependency on drugs and alcohol. It is only one of a couple of these kinds of programs specifically designed for women, and it is the only one in the metro area that is not part of an attached primary treatment center. Parks says that there are probably four times as many beds available to men as there are to women in the Jackson area.
“Alcoholics Anonymous numbers say that 50 percent of all alcoholics are women,” she said. “But here in the South, we don’t want to see our mama, our sister, our aunt, or our niece be labeled as an alcoholic or an addict.” She says that insistence on believing that women aren’t addicts is complicated further.
“Women take longer to get addicted and they take longer to get sober. It’s a physiological fact. It takes seven and a half to eight months for the brain to be chemically free from the last time an addict takes any mood-altering substance. And women have more baggage. We have abortions, rapes, molestation, and incest. Women often fall back on what they know and that’s not always healthy. We give them a place to learn new skills.”
Women who stay at New Life get a job during the day and stay in the controlled environment at night, taking part in individual and group therapy, learning coping and living skills like budgeting, taking part in spirituality groups, and earning their GEDs, if they need it. Many of the women have lost their children to DHS or to other family members, and courses are also given on parenting.
“Women are the hidden homeless,” said Parks. “If you can clean or babysit or take care of chores, people will put up with you for a period of time. They’ll put up with your disease until you start stealing from them, lying to them, and then they’re through with you.” To help keep them off the street, or from staying with someone who may prove destructive, New Life offers not only the 90 days at the main facility, but also a chance to live in a structured, more independent setting for a year or more.
“We have transitional apartments for the graduates through a HUD grant,” she said. “Once they complete their 90 days, they are eligible to go into the HUD program. This gives them time to get a job, get settled, and let the fog begin to lift.” Women in the HUD program have an apartment with a roommate. They have to save 30% of their gross income and pay their utilities. The grant pays their rent, buys furniture, and ultimately lets them get on their feet financially. They continue to receive aftercare at the center and have a strong support network. Parks estimates that women who go this far increase their chances of success to eight out of ten.
Currently, [Janice Bruer] is one of eight women taking part in this program. [Bruer] left an abusive marriage and joined AA several years ago. She relapsed, starting drinking again, and ended up in a second destructive marriage. When that one ended, she found herself in a series of bad relationships and was jailed seven times in one year. She says she drank dozens of beers every day.
“My old AA sponsor worked for the Department of Mental Health,” she said. “She called me and told me to go to a meeting that night. I told her I was drunk and not coming. She told me something had come across her desk and she needed me to see if I wanted to do it. I went to the meeting and she had information on New Life. I didn’t go through treatment; I’d done that before. But I sobered up and showed them that the alcohol was out of my system. Ten days after that phone call, I came here.” [Bruer] has been sober for the 8½ months since, went through the 90-day program, and joined the HUD program. She had been a homeless, jobless alcoholic for years, but now:
“I’ve got a job at a hotel. I’m in college full-time and learning to be a hotel manager. Sometimes on the weekends, I manage the one where I work. I’m getting experience, I’ve had my driver’s license reinstated, and I’ve got a car. All these things have happened since I’ve been here.” When asked, [Bruer], who says she once was addicted to “high drama,” insists that she is not yet ready to leave the support of New Life.
“I’ve got another eight months to go. I need the time to stay stable. I hope I’ll be ready; I’m doing everything I can to get ready. This is all part of the process to me.”
[Sara Mitchell] came to New Life in 1989 following 60 days in Harbor House. She ran with a motorcycle club, was an alcoholic and an IV crystal meth user. She had two small children; her mother and sister were raising them. She participated in the 90-day program.
“I needed to get out there and take care of my children,” [Mitchell] said. “I had acquired a job and I was ready to go. I’ve gone back to college. I’m a paralegal; I work for a law firm downtown. I’ve worked there for five years and I’ve been sober from October 1989 until today.” [Mitchell] credits Parks with helping her set long-term goals after she had left the 90-day program.
“You want to know what the program did for me? It took a practicing addict who dragged two little children through hell for years and turned her into a woman with a second chance.” [Mitchell] remains close to New Life, has remarried, and is raising two more young children. She is, quite honestly, happy.
“[Sarah] was one of the first women that went through our program,” Parks said. “We treated 450 women in the first five years I was involved.” Most of them have remained sober since. Parks says the idea for New Life came when she needed the program herself.
“I went through primary and secondary treatment in 1987. There was nothing for women in the city of Jackson – nothing. I stayed at a men’s facility with another gal. After I got out, I knew something had to happen regarding a women’s facility. That’s when New Life was birthed.”
Women at New Life receive a minimum of one hour individual counseling a week and six hours of group therapy every week. Alice Dorman is a counselor and runs a “hardcore” 12-step program.
“I got sober through AA on May 17, 1989,” she said. “I grew up in the ‘70s and tried all the other stuff, but alcohol is what got me. I really love being sober and that’s my deal. I want everyone to have it and I know they can.”
Althea Lewis is another counselor, one who says her strength lies in individual counseling:
“There is a uniqueness about every woman that comes through here, and she has other needs, and sometimes you have to get through self-esteem issues or behavioral issues. There is a reason why we act a certain way and when we can pinpoint why, we can work with that.”
“We’re finding that women and men are using chemicals now younger and younger,” said Parks. “We’ve treated more than one woman who has been a fetal alcohol syndrome baby, that their mother put booze in their thermos to keep them from going through the DTs at school. I’ve had at least two that I know of right now that their first time ever in their life being sober was in this building – ever.”
Unfortunately the work that New Life does has fallen into jeopardy.
“We were that close to going under,” Parks said, holding finger and thumb a quarter inch apart. “We were close to not being able to make payroll a couple of weeks ago, but Althea and Alice were both willing to keep working.” New Life is a United Way agency and they’re funded through the Department of Mental Health, but the money received is barely enough to pay salaries. In addition, the building has fallen into disrepair in the years since it opened, because of the agency’s lack of funds. In fact, the main house itself is currently unoccupied; due to the building’s state, the twenty beds are not used.
“St. Dominic Hospital had donated $20,000 to help rehab the building. They’re to be commended; they’re the only agency so far to have done that. I’ve also called [Hines County] Sheriff McMillin and he is sending his carpentry and painting crews the first of January to build us fire escapes and upgrade the building to where we think it’s habitable.” That’s not all that New Life needs. They need new carpet, improved plumbing, bedspreads, vacuum cleaners, some appliances, and even a new bathroom.
“We have a plan to do one large bathroom, but it would run about $6000. That would take care of it. St. James Episcopal Church is thinking about doing part of it.” Parks says they need many things, but she has one major Christmas wish.
“I’d like to see someone do an extreme makeover, like on TV. Rather than taking one unfortunate family, they can help 20 people at any given time, which works out to over 1000 people a year that they can help.” But New Life isn’t waiting for all the improvements to get back to work.
“We’ve got six beds ready to go and we’ve already got a waiting list. We get calls every day, from all over the state. They haven’t stopped. We fill a need.”
New Life for Women is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. Anyone wishing to donate money to the program, and anyone wishing to donate needed services for the building can reach them at 601-355-2195.
Planet Weekly originally published this with all the women's real names, but enough time has passed, and I think it likely that some of them may not want their names bandied about on the Interwebs. As such, I've changed their names - out of respect for who they are, and where they may be at this time in their lives.
New Life for Women was founded in 1988 as a secondary treatment program for homeless, chemically dependent women. According to co-founder and current executive director Melanie Parks, women who complete primary treatment for chemical dependency – which consists of detoxification and about 30-45 days of treatment in places like Harbor House – typically return to their same places, people, and situations that caused the dependency, and are successful in maintaining long-term sobriety only about one time out of ten. Secondary treatment helps the women maintain sobriety at a much greater rate. Parks estimates that after 90 days’ treatment at her facility, or one like it, their chances rise to six out of ten, but she does admit:
“I don’t think there’s been any empirical data put together about that, but it would be interesting to know what the numbers are with the support systems established through an agency like this one.”
New Life for Women is a 20-bed facility in Jackson that specializes in helping women with a drive to free themselves from dependency on drugs and alcohol. It is only one of a couple of these kinds of programs specifically designed for women, and it is the only one in the metro area that is not part of an attached primary treatment center. Parks says that there are probably four times as many beds available to men as there are to women in the Jackson area.
“Alcoholics Anonymous numbers say that 50 percent of all alcoholics are women,” she said. “But here in the South, we don’t want to see our mama, our sister, our aunt, or our niece be labeled as an alcoholic or an addict.” She says that insistence on believing that women aren’t addicts is complicated further.
“Women take longer to get addicted and they take longer to get sober. It’s a physiological fact. It takes seven and a half to eight months for the brain to be chemically free from the last time an addict takes any mood-altering substance. And women have more baggage. We have abortions, rapes, molestation, and incest. Women often fall back on what they know and that’s not always healthy. We give them a place to learn new skills.”
Women who stay at New Life get a job during the day and stay in the controlled environment at night, taking part in individual and group therapy, learning coping and living skills like budgeting, taking part in spirituality groups, and earning their GEDs, if they need it. Many of the women have lost their children to DHS or to other family members, and courses are also given on parenting.
“Women are the hidden homeless,” said Parks. “If you can clean or babysit or take care of chores, people will put up with you for a period of time. They’ll put up with your disease until you start stealing from them, lying to them, and then they’re through with you.” To help keep them off the street, or from staying with someone who may prove destructive, New Life offers not only the 90 days at the main facility, but also a chance to live in a structured, more independent setting for a year or more.
“We have transitional apartments for the graduates through a HUD grant,” she said. “Once they complete their 90 days, they are eligible to go into the HUD program. This gives them time to get a job, get settled, and let the fog begin to lift.” Women in the HUD program have an apartment with a roommate. They have to save 30% of their gross income and pay their utilities. The grant pays their rent, buys furniture, and ultimately lets them get on their feet financially. They continue to receive aftercare at the center and have a strong support network. Parks estimates that women who go this far increase their chances of success to eight out of ten.
Currently, [Janice Bruer] is one of eight women taking part in this program. [Bruer] left an abusive marriage and joined AA several years ago. She relapsed, starting drinking again, and ended up in a second destructive marriage. When that one ended, she found herself in a series of bad relationships and was jailed seven times in one year. She says she drank dozens of beers every day.
“My old AA sponsor worked for the Department of Mental Health,” she said. “She called me and told me to go to a meeting that night. I told her I was drunk and not coming. She told me something had come across her desk and she needed me to see if I wanted to do it. I went to the meeting and she had information on New Life. I didn’t go through treatment; I’d done that before. But I sobered up and showed them that the alcohol was out of my system. Ten days after that phone call, I came here.” [Bruer] has been sober for the 8½ months since, went through the 90-day program, and joined the HUD program. She had been a homeless, jobless alcoholic for years, but now:
“I’ve got a job at a hotel. I’m in college full-time and learning to be a hotel manager. Sometimes on the weekends, I manage the one where I work. I’m getting experience, I’ve had my driver’s license reinstated, and I’ve got a car. All these things have happened since I’ve been here.” When asked, [Bruer], who says she once was addicted to “high drama,” insists that she is not yet ready to leave the support of New Life.
“I’ve got another eight months to go. I need the time to stay stable. I hope I’ll be ready; I’m doing everything I can to get ready. This is all part of the process to me.”
[Sara Mitchell] came to New Life in 1989 following 60 days in Harbor House. She ran with a motorcycle club, was an alcoholic and an IV crystal meth user. She had two small children; her mother and sister were raising them. She participated in the 90-day program.
“I needed to get out there and take care of my children,” [Mitchell] said. “I had acquired a job and I was ready to go. I’ve gone back to college. I’m a paralegal; I work for a law firm downtown. I’ve worked there for five years and I’ve been sober from October 1989 until today.” [Mitchell] credits Parks with helping her set long-term goals after she had left the 90-day program.
“You want to know what the program did for me? It took a practicing addict who dragged two little children through hell for years and turned her into a woman with a second chance.” [Mitchell] remains close to New Life, has remarried, and is raising two more young children. She is, quite honestly, happy.
“[Sarah] was one of the first women that went through our program,” Parks said. “We treated 450 women in the first five years I was involved.” Most of them have remained sober since. Parks says the idea for New Life came when she needed the program herself.
“I went through primary and secondary treatment in 1987. There was nothing for women in the city of Jackson – nothing. I stayed at a men’s facility with another gal. After I got out, I knew something had to happen regarding a women’s facility. That’s when New Life was birthed.”
Women at New Life receive a minimum of one hour individual counseling a week and six hours of group therapy every week. Alice Dorman is a counselor and runs a “hardcore” 12-step program.
“I got sober through AA on May 17, 1989,” she said. “I grew up in the ‘70s and tried all the other stuff, but alcohol is what got me. I really love being sober and that’s my deal. I want everyone to have it and I know they can.”
Althea Lewis is another counselor, one who says her strength lies in individual counseling:
“There is a uniqueness about every woman that comes through here, and she has other needs, and sometimes you have to get through self-esteem issues or behavioral issues. There is a reason why we act a certain way and when we can pinpoint why, we can work with that.”
“We’re finding that women and men are using chemicals now younger and younger,” said Parks. “We’ve treated more than one woman who has been a fetal alcohol syndrome baby, that their mother put booze in their thermos to keep them from going through the DTs at school. I’ve had at least two that I know of right now that their first time ever in their life being sober was in this building – ever.”
Unfortunately the work that New Life does has fallen into jeopardy.
“We were that close to going under,” Parks said, holding finger and thumb a quarter inch apart. “We were close to not being able to make payroll a couple of weeks ago, but Althea and Alice were both willing to keep working.” New Life is a United Way agency and they’re funded through the Department of Mental Health, but the money received is barely enough to pay salaries. In addition, the building has fallen into disrepair in the years since it opened, because of the agency’s lack of funds. In fact, the main house itself is currently unoccupied; due to the building’s state, the twenty beds are not used.
“St. Dominic Hospital had donated $20,000 to help rehab the building. They’re to be commended; they’re the only agency so far to have done that. I’ve also called [Hines County] Sheriff McMillin and he is sending his carpentry and painting crews the first of January to build us fire escapes and upgrade the building to where we think it’s habitable.” That’s not all that New Life needs. They need new carpet, improved plumbing, bedspreads, vacuum cleaners, some appliances, and even a new bathroom.
“We have a plan to do one large bathroom, but it would run about $6000. That would take care of it. St. James Episcopal Church is thinking about doing part of it.” Parks says they need many things, but she has one major Christmas wish.
“I’d like to see someone do an extreme makeover, like on TV. Rather than taking one unfortunate family, they can help 20 people at any given time, which works out to over 1000 people a year that they can help.” But New Life isn’t waiting for all the improvements to get back to work.
“We’ve got six beds ready to go and we’ve already got a waiting list. We get calls every day, from all over the state. They haven’t stopped. We fill a need.”
New Life for Women is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. Anyone wishing to donate money to the program, and anyone wishing to donate needed services for the building can reach them at 601-355-2195.
Interview with Dr. Ronald Mason, Jr. (President of Jackson State University)
Over about a year, Planet Weekly was doing a series of interviews with the presidents of the local colleges and universities: Belhaven College, Millsaps College, Hines County Community College, Tougaloo College, and Jackson State University. Each school was done by a different writer (which turned out well), and I was assigned Dr. Mason of JSU. It is my belief that he has the most dangerous intellect I've ever seen. He is brilliant and knows exactly what he's saying and doing. I still remain in awe of his brain.
Dr. Ronald Mason, Jr. became the President of Jackson State University on February 1, 2000. In his five years, he has led the school into a period of growth, economic development, and heightened reputation and respect. In this time, Jackson State has reorganized many of its schools and colleges, reached into the community to create a Jackson State-based technology cluster, and begun sweeping programs to increase economic and community development. The student body continues to grow and more and more alumni of this historic institution are making names for themselves in the world of business, public service, and the arts.
Dr. Mason’s inaugural address was “Rivers of History, Rivers of Hope,” in which he spoke of two rivers that came together in Mississippi, one of white history, one of black history. He compared the conflicts and meshing of two vastly different societies as a confluence of rivers that could drown a people or could lead them to a broader, unified river. The confluence was Jackson State University and the state of Mississippi and the one river – our future together. It was a clarion call to all that he was a man with ideas to implement, and that he believed Jackson State was more than just a place; it had a purpose, one that it must achieve.
Before coming to Jackson State, Mason worked and studied extensively in the fields of higher education, community development, and law. He earned his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Columbia and was a graduate of the Harvard Institute of Educational Management. He worked for 18 years at Tulane University, as Vice President of Finance and Operations, and as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. During his time at Tulane, he established the Tulane-Xavier-Loyola-Dillard universities Martin Luther King Week for Peace and brought the school the Amistad Research Center – one of the largest collections of original documents and artwork on the minority experience in the U.S.
In 1996, Mason created the Tulane-Xavier National Center for Urban Community. The center took over New Orleans’ housing authority and the students, staff, and faculty developed model programs to assist the residents through several means, including a Ford Foundation public school reform planning initiative, an Annie E. Casey neighborhood development and family strengthening initiative, and a welfare-to-work initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Planet Weekly met with Dr. Mason at his office, high atop the Administration Tower on the JSU campus, to talk about his five years in office and future plans for the university. Mason proved to be dynamic, passionate, and forthright, with a deadpan delivery and sense of humor.
Planet Weekly: When you first came on five years ago, you spoke about a five-year strategic plan for Jackson State. Has that come to fruition?
Dr. Ronald Mason, Jr.: We did a strategic plan in 2002. It was called “Beyond Survival: the Millennium Agenda for Jackson State University.” It had five broad strategies: Remodel the Learning System, Fully Integrate Technology, Enhance Management and Resources, Tell the Jackson State Story, and Create a Model Living and Learning Environment. We took those strategies, broke them into 24 programs, and broke those up into about 200 action steps. That’s how we’ve been moving forward; we follow the plan.
PW: Are you setting your sights for another strategic plan?
RM: We’re actually in the process of updating the strategic plan now. About every two or three years you have to reexamine one. As far as implementing our plan, I’d give us a good solid “B.”
PW: Will these updates stay the current course or expand in new directions?”
RM: I think the plan did anticipate what needed to be done at Jackson State to transform it into a model urban university, which is what the task was. I think we’ve narrowed the problem down to one now – money. I tell folks we don’t have any problems that money wouldn’t solve. The key for us is to be able to do something never done before at Jackson State, and that’s to raise private funds. The trick for us is that we’ve always been given the job to educate, basically, poor people and public servants and most of those poor people are African-Americans. There’s just not a lot of wealth among our alumni, so I have a tricky task: I have to raise money for Jackson State from people who graduated from Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
PW: We know this has been problematic, but are you seeing any increases in funding?
RM: We are and we aren’t. The biggest capital campaign Jackson State had was about $10 million several years ago. Allstate abandoned a processing center on Raymond Road. It’s a 200,000-square foot facility on 30 acres of land. It was worth almost $21 million and we got them to sell it to us for $3 million, which made it about a $17 million dollar donation. This, plus the other cash we’ve raised – we’ve raised about $25 million since we started. We’ve had some successes and what we’ve been selling is the truth: there’s only one university in the largest metropolitan area and capital city in the state of Mississippi – and that’s Jackson State University. Central Mississippi isn’t going to go anywhere until Jackson State rises to the occasion to be what it needs to be for this area. That’s in everyone’s interest, whether you’re white, black, from Mississippi State, Ole Miss, or wherever else.
PW: And what does Jackson State need to be?
RM: We need to be what everyone says they want it to be. The theme of the strategic planning process was “Clarity and Consensus.” Everybody said they wanted Jackson State to be the premiere urban university or Mississippi’s urban university. What that means is that we have to be a bona fide, high-quality institute of higher learning for central Mississippi. For us, it’s a sort of special balancing act we have to play: we’re a historically black institution that needs to serve a mostly-white business community in this area. When I first got here, I thought the disconnect between the business community and Jackson State was that they didn’t like Jackson State. But after while I realized that it wasn’t that they didn’t like it, it’s that they didn’t see it at all. It wasn’t a part of their Mississippi. So part of our job has been to help them see Jackson State, and when you see it, there’s a lot to be said for what is going on here.
PW: So part of the problem is that JSU is a sort of invisible university?
RM: It has been that. The other challenge we’ve had is that they’re not quite sure how to make Jackson State right without making it white. It’s not in their realm of reality that an urban university for Mississippi would also be a historically black institution. But I think we’ve made some progress. I was at a speech the governor made. He said we have two goals for Jackson State. One was to make it the number one historically black college or university in America and the seconds was to make it the premiere urban university – and there is no contradiction between the two. So at least intellectually we’re making progress.
We have some very, very bright students here. They can go to school anywhere. Many of them come from large urban areas; Jackson is probably the smallest. If you go up the railroad tracks to Detroit, through Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago – that’s where our kids come from. They come from these broken K-12 systems and we’ve had to take them where they are and give them what they need to be successful. That’s the mission we embrace and will always stay true to. We don’t judge by who comes in the door as much as by who walks out.
PW: You have expressed some concerns about Jackson’s K-12 system. Do you feel that the problems are in the curriculum, faculty, administration, student body, or is it pandemic?
RM: Even with the challenges that Jackson Public Schools has, it’s nothing close to what I saw in New Orleans. I did a lot of work in the public school system there. We had kids taking classes in bathrooms; that’s how bad it was.
It’s what you said and more. It has a lot to do with money and the tax base, and the fact that in 1954, all the white folks started these private academies and a lot of their kids aren’t in the system now. That ends up being a challenge for us. What we did was put together our own K-12 academy. We partnered with JPS and created the Mississippi Learning Academy, which is two elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school, all within about half a mile of here. We got some money from the federal government and we got some private money. To attract some bright students to the College of Education, we give them a free ride in exchange for teaching in the Mississippi Learning Academy when they graduate. We rolled it out last year in the elementary schools. We started with 114 kids on the at-risk list and ended up with 7. They raised their test scores by about 25 points on average.
PW: And this goes along with Jackson State’s e-City. What is the e-City?
RM: It’s basically our neighborhood; a five square mile area around Jackson State we call the e-City – the Electronic City. We’ve got some money to do a master plan for it. The short name for the school system we’re putting together is e-City Schools. Our thought is that if you fix the schools, the rest will take care of itself – the housing, the business development. Everybody wants to send their kids to good schools.
RM: Is part of that creating a technology cluster in the area?
PW: We already did it. The e-Center – the abandoned Allstate facility – is the western anchor. If you go out there now, what was an abandoned building is now full of all sorts of high-tech stuff. We have research labs, a digital television station. We have the only tier one commercial data center in Mississippi renting space out there. We’ve got the Mississippi Technology Alliance, a high-tech business incubator. There are 18 businesses incubating out there. On the east is the new TelComm Center and Convention Center. We’re planning a single-family subdivision to our northeast, between here and downtown. Going west, the hope is we’ll incubate the businesses in the e-Center, and they’ll start to locate permanently along Lynch Street. What was once a viable community can become a new viable community, a university neighborhood. We have plans for Lynch Street with restaurants, new student apartments. We just finished one over here. This sounded crazy five years ago, but it’s actually happening as we speak.
PW: Does this give Jackson State an identity as a research and technical school?
RM: Absolutely. There were a lot of surprises I found at Jackson State, and they were all pleasant surprises. I knew the problems before I got here. One thing I saw here was a twist of history. Because of the lack of funding by Mississippi over the years, [JSU] had to go out and get a lot of federal money to build the place. When I got here and saw the stuff funded by the state, like the Public Relations office, it had one person in it. Which is why people never knew anything about Jackson State. But they had all these neat federal centers, all well funded. Among the seven research-intensive historically black institutions in the country – that’s the second level of research universities; the first is research-extensive – for federally funded grants and contracts, Jackson State is number one. We’re not far behind Howard University, which is the only research-extensive school. We’re the fastest growing producer of African-American Ph.D.’s, number two overall behind Howard in Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and number seven nationally, of all white and black schools.
PW: JSU isn’t just a technical school, though. Can you get a good liberal arts education here?
RM: Yes. Two years ago, we opened up the new School of Liberal Arts; we reorganized. Now we have a College of Liberal Arts with a School of Performing Arts and a School of Life and Natural Sciences. That’s our biggest school. But when you talk about research and federal dollars, most of that comes out of the College of Science, Engineering, and Technology. We just opened our School of Engineering three years ago. Now it’s got almost 300 students.
PW: What is your opinion of No Child Left Behind?
RM: If you talk to educators – and remember, the Secretary of Education who just resigned was a Jackson State graduate, which is how we were able to get funding to get this thing started over here – in concept it’s hard to argue with. There is more accountability, competency-based training for teachers. The problem really is the funds for implementation. We were able to pull it off in the schools we’re working in, because we had the money. We had money to train teachers, to redevelop curriculum, and to buy handheld computerized assessment tools, but everyone doesn’t have that. That’s really the complaint from the education community. I don’t think they mind the concept, the accountability, or the subject-based competency for teachers. The problem is how you do it. How do you get every math teacher with a specialty in math and every English teacher with a specialty in English when you’re trying desperately just to find teachers, period. If you’re a teacher from a School of Education, how could you possibly agree with someone who gets a Bachelor’s and a six-week certification course and goes straight into the classroom, when you’ve spent three years just learning how to teach? And you have to learn how to teach; that’s what separates the good teachers from the bad ones. The devil is in the details. As a broad concept it’s hard to argue with, but in the classroom, struggling to find paper and pencils, to also have to stretch to meet these other requirements, so your school doesn’t end up as Level 3 or Level 2, it’s a real challenge. Whether the system will adjust to meet the realities of the situation, it’s hard to say.
PW: What about merit-based pay?
RM: It’s kind of like merit-based hiring. What’s merit, and are the people deciding qualified enough to determine if someone is meritorious enough in the first place? It’s a tough one. Politicians can throw out words that sound great, but it’s the people doing the work every day who have to live the reality of those words, and sometimes there’s a disconnect between the two – like No New Taxes.
PW: What is the current status of Historically Black Colleges and Universities?
RM: As an industry, we’re stronger than we’ve ever been. The leadership across the board is as strong as it has ever been. On the other hand, we have some that have fallen by the wayside, and I think we may see some more, especially among the private schools. It’s very difficult for the privates to survive, just because of the lack of wealth among our alumni. But I think there’s a growing recognition, especially since 9/11, that people we produce for America is a vast, untapped resource. People are struggling to find Americans just to get the work of America done. Out of necessity, they’ll have to look at us. We enroll something like 13 percent of all African-American students, but we graduate something like 30-40 percent. We get them ready to work and that’s what America is looking for right now – workers at all levels. We won’t all make it, but I think the ones that will, will be strong.
PW: Does the fact that JSU is a historically black university keep white students away?
RM: I don’t think that in and of itself. We have these white-only scholarships that come out of the Ayers desegregation case and we can’t keep them away. They line up as long as we give them the scholarships. Apparently it’s not theological why they don’t want to come. What the facilities are like because of underfunding, the quality of life because of underfunding, the availability of scholarships because of underfunding; the more we fix those things, the less and less people will want to drive three hours to go to school when they have the convenience right here.
PW: Why do think JSU is seeing a boom in the nontraditional students?
RM: It’s place-based. Most of them are losing a job, lost a job, or are in transition from one job to another. Our fastest-growing school is our College of Lifelong Learning, which is nontraditional – online courses, certificates instead of degrees, non-credit training courses, those kinds of things. We have a facility off Ridgewood Road. A lot of the white students go there and don’t actually ever see the campus. My sons have two friends, white twins who are at the house all the time. They all like to play basketball. We wanted to come here and play basketball, but they wouldn’t drive here. They assumed if they parked their car here it would get stolen. A lot of people think that; they’ve never been to the campus. They come out here and are shocked. The more people who come here, the less think their car will be stolen, but it’ll take some time. I think we’ve gone from 1.5 to 3 percent white. With other races, we have about 9 percent. Every year, there’ll be more and more. That’s pretty clear.
PW: What is JSU’s enrollment this year?
RM: 8300 total. We jumped 500 this year.
PW: Growth here has been consistent, correct?
RM: Part of it is just demographics; part of it is that we’re just kind of hot.
PW: You’re staying ahead of population growth.
RM: Even with tuition going up. About a third of our tuition goes back into scholarships.
PW: What is tuition currently?
RM: Tuition is $3612 per year. Out of state students pay $4000 [extra]. The dormitory is $2700 and the meal plan is $2000. It’s a good value.
PW: During the past year, we’ve talked to numerous people in the city about development and redevelopment in Jackson. One thing everyone talks about is work at Jackson State. But it’s generally mentioned as ‘work to be done’ or ‘work we hope to see done.’ What doesn’t get mentioned as often is ‘work that is happening.’ Is the work actually happening?
RM: If you don’t see the work, you’re missing it. Right here, we had this old cottonseed oil factory that had been there for 50 years or so – two big, ugly, white storage tanks. We set out a goal of getting rid of the tanks and ended up with a new apartment complex. This was the first new construction in Washington addition in years. West Jackson CDC is building houses along Pearl as we speak. They’ve just announced a new 400-unit single-family subdivision on Raymond Road. We’re putting up a new student apartment facility on campus, with one, two, and three bedrooms. We’re about to build a new campus union right here on the corner of Lynch and Dalton. It’ll have a really great bookstore, convenience store, food court, and bowling alley. A lot of these empty lots around here are ours and we’ll be filling them in as we go. Given the fact that nothing was built here over the last three decades, this is a construction boom. When they finish the parkway from downtown, that’ll take you straight from the central business district right into campus.
Whether I would have done it that way if I had been there back then is another question, but the answer then to urban blight was to buy it up and tear it down – move the people out. Philosophically, I probably would have been against it, but fortunately the question was answered before I got here.
PW: Why aren’t these developments better known? Is it because Jackson State is often seen only from the outside, and the projects are seen as individual ones only?
RM: Certainly if you see it, and you add up all the news stories that have trickled out, the campus has changed dramatically; there’s no question about that. Clearly the part of the city between the campus and the railroad tracks has changed dramatically; there’s nothing there anymore – it’s open land. People would see that if they’d bother to cross the railroad tracks. I think the parkway will take care of some of that. I think as word gets out, which it is, that’ll take care of some of it. Our goal is to make Jackson State a destination, and Jackson needs destinations. By the time we’re done, when Farish Street is there, when the Convention Center is there, when the Civil Rights Corridor or Freedom Corridor – whatever they’re going to call it – from Terry into the campus is there, and there is a new campus union, a pedestrian mall, and we stretch from the campus to the e-Center on Lynch Street, I think Jackson will have exactly what it has asked for: a premiere urban university that is a destination that attracts people to Jackson; not a teachers’ college, not an underfunded challenge that makes successes out of America’s failures. I think we will be the urban university for Mississippi that happens to be black. We can pull that off.
In my inaugural speech, I said this is where the two rivers meet. We’re not going to come out of the confluence of rivers unless we all get together and make it happen. If it happens, it’ll be because we all made it happen.
PW: And you believe it can happen?
RM: I think it’s happening now. Though I’m not sure I believed it when I said it.
PW: So you pleasantly surprised yourself?
RM: I did. In some cases I shocked myself. Some of it is just timing, some of it is initiative, and some of it is hard work. If we just do what I know will in fact happen, we’ll go a long way toward getting us where we need to go. It won’t lock it down; we still have to raise some money. If we can’t do that, all this is a waste of time.
PW: Why did you leave the Tulane-Xavier Center to come to Jackson State?
RM: I’ll give you the short version. I was at Tulane for 18 years. I was Senior Vice President and General Counsel. By 1996, I had run out of things to do three times. I had been there too long.
PW: You were bored?
RM: Yes. I had even asked for Affirmative Action to report to me. I wanted to do something. We came up with this idea of doing some work in the neighborhood. In a conversation with the Secretary of HUD [Henry Cisneros], we ended up actually taking over the Housing Authority in New Orleans. Tulane got $10 million over five years to do university-based programs in the public housing projects. Half of me went to public housing for that. I was basically working two full time jobs for four years. It was out of that project that the center started – the Tulane-Xavier National Center for Urban Community. Candidly, a lot the things we’re doing at Jackson State we tried to do through that center in New Orleans.
PW: You tried?
RM: We tried. The difference is that I wasn’t the president of Tulane; I don’t have anybody to argue with here. It’s still hard work, but there we were institutionally constrained. We’re less constrained here, partly because of who the president is, partly because it’s just a different kind of institution. We are more community-oriented, and we are more part of what goes on around us. Everybody that lives around us went to, or works at, Jackson State.
PW: Is it easier or more difficult working at Jackson State than it was in New Orleans?
RM: It’s more manageable. People in Jackson think they have a lot of problems. We had 750 blighted houses when I got here. In New Orleans, we were dealing with 37,000. It’s a different scale of challenge.
PW: There is a sort of ‘sky is falling’ attitude about Jackson.
RM: And a lot of badmouthing about the city from people who want to make money off of selling property in the suburbs. I think Jackson can be a quality small city. I don’t think I’d like it to be anything else. I go to New Orleans now; it’s crowded, dirty, and traffic-infested. I can’t wait to get back to Jackson.
PW: How did you get to Jackson State?
RM: I was running the center. I had my life set up like I wanted; I was going to work in polo shirts and we had bought a little house and were running the center out of that house. It was good. The new president of Tulane came to me – Scott Cowen; we’re good friends. He called me to his office and said, “Ron, you have to choose. You have to be either the Senior Vice President and General Counsel or the Executive Director of the center.” I said I really wanted to run the center. He said, “I really want you to be the Senior Vice President and General Counsel.” Just about that time, somebody called me about this job. I wasn’t even thinking about [taking a new job]. In fact, I had just turned down a presidency six months before at Chicago State. The weather was a problem.
PW: Did you have any worries about taking the position here?
RM: Not really. I studied it pretty thoroughly; I knew what I was getting into. I was really surprised by the potential this school had that no one knew about – pleasantly surprised. It’s good work here. It’s a labor of love, but it’s a labor. I’ve never worked as hard in my life, but I whistle when I come to work every morning.
Dr. Ronald Mason, Jr. became the President of Jackson State University on February 1, 2000. In his five years, he has led the school into a period of growth, economic development, and heightened reputation and respect. In this time, Jackson State has reorganized many of its schools and colleges, reached into the community to create a Jackson State-based technology cluster, and begun sweeping programs to increase economic and community development. The student body continues to grow and more and more alumni of this historic institution are making names for themselves in the world of business, public service, and the arts.
Dr. Mason’s inaugural address was “Rivers of History, Rivers of Hope,” in which he spoke of two rivers that came together in Mississippi, one of white history, one of black history. He compared the conflicts and meshing of two vastly different societies as a confluence of rivers that could drown a people or could lead them to a broader, unified river. The confluence was Jackson State University and the state of Mississippi and the one river – our future together. It was a clarion call to all that he was a man with ideas to implement, and that he believed Jackson State was more than just a place; it had a purpose, one that it must achieve.
Before coming to Jackson State, Mason worked and studied extensively in the fields of higher education, community development, and law. He earned his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Columbia and was a graduate of the Harvard Institute of Educational Management. He worked for 18 years at Tulane University, as Vice President of Finance and Operations, and as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. During his time at Tulane, he established the Tulane-Xavier-Loyola-Dillard universities Martin Luther King Week for Peace and brought the school the Amistad Research Center – one of the largest collections of original documents and artwork on the minority experience in the U.S.
In 1996, Mason created the Tulane-Xavier National Center for Urban Community. The center took over New Orleans’ housing authority and the students, staff, and faculty developed model programs to assist the residents through several means, including a Ford Foundation public school reform planning initiative, an Annie E. Casey neighborhood development and family strengthening initiative, and a welfare-to-work initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Planet Weekly met with Dr. Mason at his office, high atop the Administration Tower on the JSU campus, to talk about his five years in office and future plans for the university. Mason proved to be dynamic, passionate, and forthright, with a deadpan delivery and sense of humor.
Planet Weekly: When you first came on five years ago, you spoke about a five-year strategic plan for Jackson State. Has that come to fruition?
Dr. Ronald Mason, Jr.: We did a strategic plan in 2002. It was called “Beyond Survival: the Millennium Agenda for Jackson State University.” It had five broad strategies: Remodel the Learning System, Fully Integrate Technology, Enhance Management and Resources, Tell the Jackson State Story, and Create a Model Living and Learning Environment. We took those strategies, broke them into 24 programs, and broke those up into about 200 action steps. That’s how we’ve been moving forward; we follow the plan.
PW: Are you setting your sights for another strategic plan?
RM: We’re actually in the process of updating the strategic plan now. About every two or three years you have to reexamine one. As far as implementing our plan, I’d give us a good solid “B.”
PW: Will these updates stay the current course or expand in new directions?”
RM: I think the plan did anticipate what needed to be done at Jackson State to transform it into a model urban university, which is what the task was. I think we’ve narrowed the problem down to one now – money. I tell folks we don’t have any problems that money wouldn’t solve. The key for us is to be able to do something never done before at Jackson State, and that’s to raise private funds. The trick for us is that we’ve always been given the job to educate, basically, poor people and public servants and most of those poor people are African-Americans. There’s just not a lot of wealth among our alumni, so I have a tricky task: I have to raise money for Jackson State from people who graduated from Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
PW: We know this has been problematic, but are you seeing any increases in funding?
RM: We are and we aren’t. The biggest capital campaign Jackson State had was about $10 million several years ago. Allstate abandoned a processing center on Raymond Road. It’s a 200,000-square foot facility on 30 acres of land. It was worth almost $21 million and we got them to sell it to us for $3 million, which made it about a $17 million dollar donation. This, plus the other cash we’ve raised – we’ve raised about $25 million since we started. We’ve had some successes and what we’ve been selling is the truth: there’s only one university in the largest metropolitan area and capital city in the state of Mississippi – and that’s Jackson State University. Central Mississippi isn’t going to go anywhere until Jackson State rises to the occasion to be what it needs to be for this area. That’s in everyone’s interest, whether you’re white, black, from Mississippi State, Ole Miss, or wherever else.
PW: And what does Jackson State need to be?
RM: We need to be what everyone says they want it to be. The theme of the strategic planning process was “Clarity and Consensus.” Everybody said they wanted Jackson State to be the premiere urban university or Mississippi’s urban university. What that means is that we have to be a bona fide, high-quality institute of higher learning for central Mississippi. For us, it’s a sort of special balancing act we have to play: we’re a historically black institution that needs to serve a mostly-white business community in this area. When I first got here, I thought the disconnect between the business community and Jackson State was that they didn’t like Jackson State. But after while I realized that it wasn’t that they didn’t like it, it’s that they didn’t see it at all. It wasn’t a part of their Mississippi. So part of our job has been to help them see Jackson State, and when you see it, there’s a lot to be said for what is going on here.
PW: So part of the problem is that JSU is a sort of invisible university?
RM: It has been that. The other challenge we’ve had is that they’re not quite sure how to make Jackson State right without making it white. It’s not in their realm of reality that an urban university for Mississippi would also be a historically black institution. But I think we’ve made some progress. I was at a speech the governor made. He said we have two goals for Jackson State. One was to make it the number one historically black college or university in America and the seconds was to make it the premiere urban university – and there is no contradiction between the two. So at least intellectually we’re making progress.
We have some very, very bright students here. They can go to school anywhere. Many of them come from large urban areas; Jackson is probably the smallest. If you go up the railroad tracks to Detroit, through Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago – that’s where our kids come from. They come from these broken K-12 systems and we’ve had to take them where they are and give them what they need to be successful. That’s the mission we embrace and will always stay true to. We don’t judge by who comes in the door as much as by who walks out.
PW: You have expressed some concerns about Jackson’s K-12 system. Do you feel that the problems are in the curriculum, faculty, administration, student body, or is it pandemic?
RM: Even with the challenges that Jackson Public Schools has, it’s nothing close to what I saw in New Orleans. I did a lot of work in the public school system there. We had kids taking classes in bathrooms; that’s how bad it was.
It’s what you said and more. It has a lot to do with money and the tax base, and the fact that in 1954, all the white folks started these private academies and a lot of their kids aren’t in the system now. That ends up being a challenge for us. What we did was put together our own K-12 academy. We partnered with JPS and created the Mississippi Learning Academy, which is two elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school, all within about half a mile of here. We got some money from the federal government and we got some private money. To attract some bright students to the College of Education, we give them a free ride in exchange for teaching in the Mississippi Learning Academy when they graduate. We rolled it out last year in the elementary schools. We started with 114 kids on the at-risk list and ended up with 7. They raised their test scores by about 25 points on average.
PW: And this goes along with Jackson State’s e-City. What is the e-City?
RM: It’s basically our neighborhood; a five square mile area around Jackson State we call the e-City – the Electronic City. We’ve got some money to do a master plan for it. The short name for the school system we’re putting together is e-City Schools. Our thought is that if you fix the schools, the rest will take care of itself – the housing, the business development. Everybody wants to send their kids to good schools.
RM: Is part of that creating a technology cluster in the area?
PW: We already did it. The e-Center – the abandoned Allstate facility – is the western anchor. If you go out there now, what was an abandoned building is now full of all sorts of high-tech stuff. We have research labs, a digital television station. We have the only tier one commercial data center in Mississippi renting space out there. We’ve got the Mississippi Technology Alliance, a high-tech business incubator. There are 18 businesses incubating out there. On the east is the new TelComm Center and Convention Center. We’re planning a single-family subdivision to our northeast, between here and downtown. Going west, the hope is we’ll incubate the businesses in the e-Center, and they’ll start to locate permanently along Lynch Street. What was once a viable community can become a new viable community, a university neighborhood. We have plans for Lynch Street with restaurants, new student apartments. We just finished one over here. This sounded crazy five years ago, but it’s actually happening as we speak.
PW: Does this give Jackson State an identity as a research and technical school?
RM: Absolutely. There were a lot of surprises I found at Jackson State, and they were all pleasant surprises. I knew the problems before I got here. One thing I saw here was a twist of history. Because of the lack of funding by Mississippi over the years, [JSU] had to go out and get a lot of federal money to build the place. When I got here and saw the stuff funded by the state, like the Public Relations office, it had one person in it. Which is why people never knew anything about Jackson State. But they had all these neat federal centers, all well funded. Among the seven research-intensive historically black institutions in the country – that’s the second level of research universities; the first is research-extensive – for federally funded grants and contracts, Jackson State is number one. We’re not far behind Howard University, which is the only research-extensive school. We’re the fastest growing producer of African-American Ph.D.’s, number two overall behind Howard in Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and number seven nationally, of all white and black schools.
PW: JSU isn’t just a technical school, though. Can you get a good liberal arts education here?
RM: Yes. Two years ago, we opened up the new School of Liberal Arts; we reorganized. Now we have a College of Liberal Arts with a School of Performing Arts and a School of Life and Natural Sciences. That’s our biggest school. But when you talk about research and federal dollars, most of that comes out of the College of Science, Engineering, and Technology. We just opened our School of Engineering three years ago. Now it’s got almost 300 students.
PW: What is your opinion of No Child Left Behind?
RM: If you talk to educators – and remember, the Secretary of Education who just resigned was a Jackson State graduate, which is how we were able to get funding to get this thing started over here – in concept it’s hard to argue with. There is more accountability, competency-based training for teachers. The problem really is the funds for implementation. We were able to pull it off in the schools we’re working in, because we had the money. We had money to train teachers, to redevelop curriculum, and to buy handheld computerized assessment tools, but everyone doesn’t have that. That’s really the complaint from the education community. I don’t think they mind the concept, the accountability, or the subject-based competency for teachers. The problem is how you do it. How do you get every math teacher with a specialty in math and every English teacher with a specialty in English when you’re trying desperately just to find teachers, period. If you’re a teacher from a School of Education, how could you possibly agree with someone who gets a Bachelor’s and a six-week certification course and goes straight into the classroom, when you’ve spent three years just learning how to teach? And you have to learn how to teach; that’s what separates the good teachers from the bad ones. The devil is in the details. As a broad concept it’s hard to argue with, but in the classroom, struggling to find paper and pencils, to also have to stretch to meet these other requirements, so your school doesn’t end up as Level 3 or Level 2, it’s a real challenge. Whether the system will adjust to meet the realities of the situation, it’s hard to say.
PW: What about merit-based pay?
RM: It’s kind of like merit-based hiring. What’s merit, and are the people deciding qualified enough to determine if someone is meritorious enough in the first place? It’s a tough one. Politicians can throw out words that sound great, but it’s the people doing the work every day who have to live the reality of those words, and sometimes there’s a disconnect between the two – like No New Taxes.
PW: What is the current status of Historically Black Colleges and Universities?
RM: As an industry, we’re stronger than we’ve ever been. The leadership across the board is as strong as it has ever been. On the other hand, we have some that have fallen by the wayside, and I think we may see some more, especially among the private schools. It’s very difficult for the privates to survive, just because of the lack of wealth among our alumni. But I think there’s a growing recognition, especially since 9/11, that people we produce for America is a vast, untapped resource. People are struggling to find Americans just to get the work of America done. Out of necessity, they’ll have to look at us. We enroll something like 13 percent of all African-American students, but we graduate something like 30-40 percent. We get them ready to work and that’s what America is looking for right now – workers at all levels. We won’t all make it, but I think the ones that will, will be strong.
PW: Does the fact that JSU is a historically black university keep white students away?
RM: I don’t think that in and of itself. We have these white-only scholarships that come out of the Ayers desegregation case and we can’t keep them away. They line up as long as we give them the scholarships. Apparently it’s not theological why they don’t want to come. What the facilities are like because of underfunding, the quality of life because of underfunding, the availability of scholarships because of underfunding; the more we fix those things, the less and less people will want to drive three hours to go to school when they have the convenience right here.
PW: Why do think JSU is seeing a boom in the nontraditional students?
RM: It’s place-based. Most of them are losing a job, lost a job, or are in transition from one job to another. Our fastest-growing school is our College of Lifelong Learning, which is nontraditional – online courses, certificates instead of degrees, non-credit training courses, those kinds of things. We have a facility off Ridgewood Road. A lot of the white students go there and don’t actually ever see the campus. My sons have two friends, white twins who are at the house all the time. They all like to play basketball. We wanted to come here and play basketball, but they wouldn’t drive here. They assumed if they parked their car here it would get stolen. A lot of people think that; they’ve never been to the campus. They come out here and are shocked. The more people who come here, the less think their car will be stolen, but it’ll take some time. I think we’ve gone from 1.5 to 3 percent white. With other races, we have about 9 percent. Every year, there’ll be more and more. That’s pretty clear.
PW: What is JSU’s enrollment this year?
RM: 8300 total. We jumped 500 this year.
PW: Growth here has been consistent, correct?
RM: Part of it is just demographics; part of it is that we’re just kind of hot.
PW: You’re staying ahead of population growth.
RM: Even with tuition going up. About a third of our tuition goes back into scholarships.
PW: What is tuition currently?
RM: Tuition is $3612 per year. Out of state students pay $4000 [extra]. The dormitory is $2700 and the meal plan is $2000. It’s a good value.
PW: During the past year, we’ve talked to numerous people in the city about development and redevelopment in Jackson. One thing everyone talks about is work at Jackson State. But it’s generally mentioned as ‘work to be done’ or ‘work we hope to see done.’ What doesn’t get mentioned as often is ‘work that is happening.’ Is the work actually happening?
RM: If you don’t see the work, you’re missing it. Right here, we had this old cottonseed oil factory that had been there for 50 years or so – two big, ugly, white storage tanks. We set out a goal of getting rid of the tanks and ended up with a new apartment complex. This was the first new construction in Washington addition in years. West Jackson CDC is building houses along Pearl as we speak. They’ve just announced a new 400-unit single-family subdivision on Raymond Road. We’re putting up a new student apartment facility on campus, with one, two, and three bedrooms. We’re about to build a new campus union right here on the corner of Lynch and Dalton. It’ll have a really great bookstore, convenience store, food court, and bowling alley. A lot of these empty lots around here are ours and we’ll be filling them in as we go. Given the fact that nothing was built here over the last three decades, this is a construction boom. When they finish the parkway from downtown, that’ll take you straight from the central business district right into campus.
Whether I would have done it that way if I had been there back then is another question, but the answer then to urban blight was to buy it up and tear it down – move the people out. Philosophically, I probably would have been against it, but fortunately the question was answered before I got here.
PW: Why aren’t these developments better known? Is it because Jackson State is often seen only from the outside, and the projects are seen as individual ones only?
RM: Certainly if you see it, and you add up all the news stories that have trickled out, the campus has changed dramatically; there’s no question about that. Clearly the part of the city between the campus and the railroad tracks has changed dramatically; there’s nothing there anymore – it’s open land. People would see that if they’d bother to cross the railroad tracks. I think the parkway will take care of some of that. I think as word gets out, which it is, that’ll take care of some of it. Our goal is to make Jackson State a destination, and Jackson needs destinations. By the time we’re done, when Farish Street is there, when the Convention Center is there, when the Civil Rights Corridor or Freedom Corridor – whatever they’re going to call it – from Terry into the campus is there, and there is a new campus union, a pedestrian mall, and we stretch from the campus to the e-Center on Lynch Street, I think Jackson will have exactly what it has asked for: a premiere urban university that is a destination that attracts people to Jackson; not a teachers’ college, not an underfunded challenge that makes successes out of America’s failures. I think we will be the urban university for Mississippi that happens to be black. We can pull that off.
In my inaugural speech, I said this is where the two rivers meet. We’re not going to come out of the confluence of rivers unless we all get together and make it happen. If it happens, it’ll be because we all made it happen.
PW: And you believe it can happen?
RM: I think it’s happening now. Though I’m not sure I believed it when I said it.
PW: So you pleasantly surprised yourself?
RM: I did. In some cases I shocked myself. Some of it is just timing, some of it is initiative, and some of it is hard work. If we just do what I know will in fact happen, we’ll go a long way toward getting us where we need to go. It won’t lock it down; we still have to raise some money. If we can’t do that, all this is a waste of time.
PW: Why did you leave the Tulane-Xavier Center to come to Jackson State?
RM: I’ll give you the short version. I was at Tulane for 18 years. I was Senior Vice President and General Counsel. By 1996, I had run out of things to do three times. I had been there too long.
PW: You were bored?
RM: Yes. I had even asked for Affirmative Action to report to me. I wanted to do something. We came up with this idea of doing some work in the neighborhood. In a conversation with the Secretary of HUD [Henry Cisneros], we ended up actually taking over the Housing Authority in New Orleans. Tulane got $10 million over five years to do university-based programs in the public housing projects. Half of me went to public housing for that. I was basically working two full time jobs for four years. It was out of that project that the center started – the Tulane-Xavier National Center for Urban Community. Candidly, a lot the things we’re doing at Jackson State we tried to do through that center in New Orleans.
PW: You tried?
RM: We tried. The difference is that I wasn’t the president of Tulane; I don’t have anybody to argue with here. It’s still hard work, but there we were institutionally constrained. We’re less constrained here, partly because of who the president is, partly because it’s just a different kind of institution. We are more community-oriented, and we are more part of what goes on around us. Everybody that lives around us went to, or works at, Jackson State.
PW: Is it easier or more difficult working at Jackson State than it was in New Orleans?
RM: It’s more manageable. People in Jackson think they have a lot of problems. We had 750 blighted houses when I got here. In New Orleans, we were dealing with 37,000. It’s a different scale of challenge.
PW: There is a sort of ‘sky is falling’ attitude about Jackson.
RM: And a lot of badmouthing about the city from people who want to make money off of selling property in the suburbs. I think Jackson can be a quality small city. I don’t think I’d like it to be anything else. I go to New Orleans now; it’s crowded, dirty, and traffic-infested. I can’t wait to get back to Jackson.
PW: How did you get to Jackson State?
RM: I was running the center. I had my life set up like I wanted; I was going to work in polo shirts and we had bought a little house and were running the center out of that house. It was good. The new president of Tulane came to me – Scott Cowen; we’re good friends. He called me to his office and said, “Ron, you have to choose. You have to be either the Senior Vice President and General Counsel or the Executive Director of the center.” I said I really wanted to run the center. He said, “I really want you to be the Senior Vice President and General Counsel.” Just about that time, somebody called me about this job. I wasn’t even thinking about [taking a new job]. In fact, I had just turned down a presidency six months before at Chicago State. The weather was a problem.
PW: Did you have any worries about taking the position here?
RM: Not really. I studied it pretty thoroughly; I knew what I was getting into. I was really surprised by the potential this school had that no one knew about – pleasantly surprised. It’s good work here. It’s a labor of love, but it’s a labor. I’ve never worked as hard in my life, but I whistle when I come to work every morning.
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