Jackson Jambalaya

It has nothing to do with the demographics of the neighborhood or even safety, rather it is about window dressing.

Why would anyone spend money on architects or landscapers if the "look" of a building/area/entryway was irrelevant?

For example, if you pulled up to a neighborhood and the entryway was overgrown, unkempt and the sign had letters falling off, you'd have some questions about the neighbors. I don't care if it's Madison or Jackson, black or white, aesthetics are important.

I love the zoo and I am a long time supporter (personally and financially). My kids love it. It is a good size for small children and there are enough animals to entertain for 2-3 hours (which is more than my kids' attention span anyway). However, I think many people are put off because it is certainly a rough looking place from the outside looking in. If I was from out of town, and was unfamiliar with the zoo, I certainly wouldn't take my kids down there thinking it would be worth my time or money. The road is in terrible condition, there is a creepy, abandoned building ON the property at the entrance. Sure, the cleanliness and upkeep of an area insinuates safety, and that is important too, but to read it as black v. white, is pointing out Kaze's own insecurities.

Ultimately, the Zoo is a product that has to be sold to the consumers. As State and municipal revenues fall off a cliff, the days of government amenities is dead. And sadly, the Zoo has to justify its existence with dollars not good will and warm fuzzy feelings.

If Kaze doesn't understand marketing 101, then there is no use wasting time arguing with him or giving him a soapbox to stand on.

Kingfish, your solution was practical and attractive, I'd just delete Kaze's response, ignore it, and move on.

Kingfish, your solution was practical and attractive, I'd just delete Kaze's response, ignore it, and move on.

Yep.....Kaze crap. Flush it.

Hey, Kaz....Sounds like you have a bias against "white people". If the situation we're in reverse, you would be screaming at the top of your lungs, "RACIST"!! Maybe the "white folks" didn't move because blacks moved in. (Though I'm sure there was some of that). Maybe the predominance of the "white folks" moved out because of the culture of violence, dependence, and victonhood that people like you brought into Jackson. The blight that is prevalent around the Zoo, and all of Jackson didn't get there over night. It occurred because of the many years of neglect of general maintenance, upkeep, and minor repair necessary when you are a homeowner. What about all the trash in the yards; the broken own cars in the yards? Even someone who is poor can be clean.

Kamikaze,
do you know the murder rate per capita is higher in Jackson than in Chicago? Now, whose fault is that?

First of all I grew up in Northeast Jackson, attended McLeod Elementary, Chastain Junior High and Callaway High. I have seen many changes in the past 50+ years and things have definitely gotten worse.

My mother grew up in a home about four blocks from the zoo on Capitol Street. I remember well the many times that my sister and I would walk from my grandparents house to the Dairy Queen when growing up. The neighborhood was vibrant and exciting. The Ladies Club of Jackson had their headquarters across the street from that house.

When my grandmother died in 1983 the family tried to keep the house but one day after her funeral the copper pipes were stripped out the house. The house was sold and three months later it was torched. Now the house is completely gone as are those that were around it.

As for Danks, he gets a bye on any problems because he worked to rebuild the city after the Easter 79 flood. It's a shame that now those neighborhoods in NE Jackson that went through so much are run down themselves.(It was there where someone hanged themselves and then the house was torched just this past week.)

I am white, grew up in Northeast Jackson, and still live there because I am taking care of my aged father. If I could, though, I would move as well. My father has already said he will make me the owner of the house at his death, but I am afraid there will be no value in the house when this happens.

My office is on I-55 and I have to keep the front door locked because of the crime in this area.

The problem with the Jackson Zoo lies in the hearts and attitudes of those who live in the city. Unless the citizens still here in the city get an attitude to get their hands dirty and work for it, the city will continue to fall.

Maybe "Kaze" is correct about Ditto. Anyone who has been Jackson should remember his infamous statement about who he would hire for police chief. City has coasted downhill since then "Kaze"!

Read the front page story in the CL. Wingfield QB fighting uphill against a terrible upbringing. 7 or 8 siblings -NONE by same father. Black, white,whatever, this kind of behavior must not be countenanced any longer -PLEASE

My entire life encompasses racial issues. I am sick to death of people telling me I am a racist if I don't like the way some people live. Damn. Who does like hearing people talk in the street all night? Who does like drug dealer graffiti around your neighborhood? Who does like the broken down van down the street that holds the drugs. Who does like hearing gun shots close by? Who does like building after building being boarded up and sold for taxes?

If some cannot recognize the fact that failing schools and dangerous neighborhoods equal people leaving the city, then they are refusing to look at the root problems. I believe only black people can clean up black neighborhoods. I just don't understand why this has not been done already.

12:09 p.m. said it best. "Even someone who is poor can be clean." AMEN!

Brad, so disappointed in you. Your FB response in all this makes zero sense. Where again did you attend HS? You're a good guy. Get on board with ALL of us to move Jackson forward.

Interesting conversation. I tend to agree that what Kingfish offered was a practical, albeit short-term/cosmetic solution to the challenges the zoo faces. I think Kaze has more passion than plans in his response, but he brings up a good point. The changes that Kingfish suggested do very little to address the blight in the W. Capitol Street Community, which is where Kaze's frustration stems from.

The reality is that the blight in that community stems from white/middle class flight that began with the desegregation of schools in MS in 1970. While it is easy to lament the lack of pride or care of the current people (residents and political leadership) have for the community, the reality is that much of the blight stems from a lack of resources to actually maintain these communities. Jim Crow was more than just about skin color prejudice, but about system mal-distribution of economic and political resources. Jim Crow benefitted whites in a myriad of ways, not the least of which being financial. The economic pie was skewed heavily towards whites during Jim Crow. When these same whites decide to leave communities, they take with them vital fiscal resources that are needed maintain these communities. So, not only do housing values fall as a result of white flight, but the tax base declines, consumer power wanes, and businesses fail. This creates a situation where only the poor can (and do) live in many areas around the city that previously where middle class to affluent. So, what we see today isn't simply the product of some cultural deficiency among the people in these areas, but more attributable to the simple lack of fiscal resources, which in turn characterizes a collective vacuum of civic stability.

So while Kaze's rant maybe shortsighted, it is not without merit. Real, lasting solutions for what ails Jackson can't be merely cosmetic, but have to work toward creating and maintaining systemic wealth distribution that challenges the status quo of wealth segregation in the Jackson Metro area. While yeah, 80% of the people in Jackson are black, 80% of the wealth is still owned by whites, thanks Jim Crow and the slow but sure failure of this state to reconcile and justify its effects.

IMHO, the zoo once had an ardent, dedicated, hardworking and fundraising champion. His two project for Jackson was St. D's and the Jackson Zoo. He put his heart and soul in to these two projects in his daily work and his off time. When he died most of the zoo initiatives died with him. Now St. D's carried on without him but the zoo projects were never the same. I am talking about the late Publisher of The Clarion Ledger Bill Hunsburger. He was tough to work for but he really cared about Jackson.

about 6 years ago, I worked in downtown Jackson and had a home in Clinton. one day I decided to head into Jackson at 7:00 a.m. via Capitol Street. it was a risky move. there were obvious prostitutes still walking the street; drunken males holding paper sacked bottles urinating in the open; and houses that were rotting with the passage of time and being uninhabited. what I didn't see were any normal people. I also didn't see any police officers or cars. I'm sure its much worse now, except that maybe some of those vacant crack houses have made it all the way down now...

Kaze said it - when blacks move in and the whites move out, an area becomes blighted. Why is that do you think?

1:49,

Nowhere do you mention "personal responsibility" on the part of the individual to rectify a problem, regardless of where it may have or may not have stemmed.

@2:10,

Personal responsibility starts with the source of the problem. When will we, as a state, take personal responsibility in the rectification of Jim Crow? When will Black people take "Personal responsibility" in keeping the tragedies of Jim Crow front and center in any discussion about economic development, social justice, and political empowerment, Just as the Jewish people have with the Holocaust? When will the whites that benefitted from Jim Crow take personal responsibility in rectifying those injustices? When will the political leadership of the State take "personal responsibility" in not fully funding education, expanding Medicaid, and "robbing Peter to pay Paul" tax cuts for corporations?

You see, personal responsibility cuts all ways in the current conditions that ail Jackson and the entire state. The so called cultural/moral deficiencies you want the black community to own up to are really responses to the broader realities of the legacies of Jim Crow, the concentration of poverty to the point of political and economic nihilism. I'm all for personal responsibility, for everyone!!!!!

Staying in school and getting a diploma along without marking up your body with visable tatoos and learning to speak English that others can understand will equal a good job and wealth distribution. Forget Jim Crow and the whole history of how we got here. We accept that there were inequities and many lived in abysmal conditions but many have climbed out and others have decided on the easier softer way of dropping out of school and sell or dealing dope or choosing to smoke pot to the point where ambition is destroyed. You cannot get a good job if you cannot communicate with all sorts of people, black and white. You cannot get a good job with saggy britches or tatoos on your hand and neck. Or hair totally out of control. These things along with lack of deodorant and teeth for black, white and brown do not equate to good money. Race is definitely a factor if you cannot speak clearly. Race is not a factor if you smell bad. Race is not a factor if your face is pierced. Race is not a factor if your teeth are bad. There are people who can get you dressed correctly for interviews. No one can help you if you cannot fill out a form.

Why waste time and energy on the likes of this guy? He's an agitator and an opportunist. What he really would like to see is some version of 'big brother' swooping down and making everything right for 'his people' by dropping plane loads of cash over the city and its residents.

Big Brother, as I see it, in his vision, can be the state, the federal government or white people in general....anybody or organization that will pump cash into the pipeline of misuse and waste. You could pump billions of dollars into this guy's notion of reparations and a year later he would say, "That ain't enough; We needs more".

2:44,

By "rectification", you mean what?

"keeping the tragedies of Jim Crow front and center in any discussion" implies to continue playing the victim and coaxing guilt (read: money) out of taxpayers. Nothing constructive; only destructive.

"political empowerment" is what you see in Jackson today, the failed fruits of it litter Capitol Street and elsewhere.

Finally, "social justice" is code for cultural Marxism.


This is the same tired banter from the Left.

1:30, I get your point, but what a story. So admirable for that kid to overcome all that he went through and witnessed. Sports plays such an important role. I hope and pray that he can continue to rise above his horrible childhood experience.

2:44
You hit all the prog talking points! Congrats.
Hey, you even managed to smack the Jews.
Just about everyone that was an adult during the Jim Crow days is dead and gone. Give it a rest.
Democrat policies have made slaves of today's minorities. Willing slaves, but, slaves nonetheless.

Kaze is wrong. I think you should go on local podcasts to tell him he is wrong.

So Kaze is "not ashamed" that that area has gone to pot. He should be ... forget about how the "white people" feel ...It's a thing called personal pride. Pick up trash by the road, don't throw trash out of cars, spend a little money on a residence instead of a tricked out vehicle. He must not know a thing about business or economics. Or care. My elderly parents would still live in south Jackson had they not been robbed twice. Jerk.

All this talk about 'white flight' from Jackson being the source, end-all and be-all of Jackson's problems fail to look at the total truth.

Yes, there was white flight from Jackson. Then there was black flight from downtown Jackson to North Jackson into some very nice houses that were left there in the flight.

But those black folks wanted the same thing those white folks wanted - a safe place to live and raise their family and good schools. These were largely the upper income black professionals.

Next, those black families moved further north to Madison County, looking for the same thing that the earlier white flight had done. Upper middle income families moved in, leaving a bigger whole in middle Jackson.

Next, came a move of black families out of middle and south Jackson to Byram. Middle income families started moving to Clinton. Why? Same reasons - they wanted to get where it was safe to raise their families and send their kids to school.

This isn't just a 'white flight' issue - the black families bailed out of this area just the same. But Kaz and others on here that want to still talk about Jim Crowe and all the problems that are 'whitey's fault' fail to realize that black families have done the same thing for the same reasons - at least the ones that could afford to do so.

Now what is left are the poor black families that couldn't afford to get out, but are disgusted with what surrounds them. And the black folks (not necessarily families) that don't give a damn about their neighborhood, just so long as the hood gives them a place to practice their trades - trades that many times have been referenced here as to the root problems that persist in middle Jackson.

Brad is a racist.

Reparations? They are being paid everyday in the form of welfare, food stamps, and a myriad of government handouts. Personal Responsibility? I pay my ever increasing taxes

My mother's side of the family descended from slaves. For some reason the family did not limit themselves to a life of poverty. They got an education and a job. They worked and saved. They made sure their children got a good education and learned work ethics. Each generation became a little better off than the last. It can be done but not by holding your hand out. Put that hand to work as some job instead of expecting others to make your living. Quit blaming things on 100 years ago and something that happened to your great grand parents. All it takes is a little guts to make it in this world on your own.

7:13 is right.

However the deeper, absolute cause that is changing the culture is the lack of MEN. HUSBANDS, in-home FATHERS, MEN in church, CIVIC leaders (not CIVIL leaders). MEN who stand steady... with a straight backbone, and personal compass, to guide and protect their families, homes, and communities. Seemingly there are NONE. THUGS control the streets and communities. Adult males are too afraid to confront and take on THUG culture to re-gain their families and communties. Women allow and exacerbate this decline by not expecting and/or demanding in-home HUSBANDS and FATHERS to unify, provide and protect them and their children.

This is one of the most open and honest conversations EVER written in Mississippi. I have never heard white people "let it all hang out" like this series of comments. Some of the black (assumed) posts show why there is and will continue to be such a great divide between many. White guilt pushers are numerous and damage the young blacks so much. Individual responsibility and individual self respect will bring more to anyone than all those who insist on looking backward instead of facing today and planning for tomorrow.

All you white millennials who befriended this creep because you thought he was so cool may learn a lesson. He has taken each of you for a fool.

He has invited me to appear on his tv shows several times. He has always been nice and respectful. Trust me, Kaze is a real man who can handle a difference of opinion. He's not someone who can't handle hearing something he doesn't want to hear. I've posted his columns on this site before and he received better treatment than he received in other forums.

7:57pm has hit the nail on the head.

This whole race issue comes down to economic upward mobility and one's willingness to grit it out and go get it. It's there for the taking but requires work. Today all young people expect the Dream to be delivered on a silver platter at age 24.

I was poor and white and now have it OK as do so many (but not all) of my fellow black Mississippians. Neither are all of my poor white friends there yet.

Unfortunately, it is so much easier to whine and call those who challenge you racist.

KF, your opinion of him may be accurate, at least for the relationship you have had with him. But it doesn't overcome the racist attitude that shows up in posts like this one. Don't know if he realized it would make it into the general population and outside of his little small circle.

"Jim Crow benefitted whites in a myriad of ways, not the least of which being financial. The economic pie was skewed heavily towards whites during Jim Crow. When these same whites decide to leave communities, they take with them vital fiscal resources that are needed maintain these communities."

Oh, well, that explains where the water meters went.

9:50 You win the Internet for the day!

For goodness sakes, please don't equate Mayor Dale Danks with the goofy Kane Ditto . . . geez . . . there's no comparison between the two.

Yes.

White people built Jackson.

White people left Jackson.

Black people now total 70% of the city population.

City is run by black people.

Raise taxes on all citizens to try to "rebuild" and see what happens.

Once a financial manager is appointed then reforms of substance can be made to cut city expenses, size, costs, etc.

Until then it's a Mayor Yarber body paint sexual fracas for all to see and pay for.

At which local college is 1:49 on 9/9 working on Wednesday evenings? What a twisted-logic-liberal douche!

He doesn't mention personal responsibility because he really doesn't see that in the equation at all. As long as all that's wrong in the world can be blamed on 'the white man', what's the use of digging deeper into the situation to list other causes?

We could also say that 'the white man' caused the pain and degradation of the Jews, Chinese, Italians, Lebanese, Syrians and Germans that wound up in Mississippi in the 1890-1940 time span......but guess what? They all rose up and rose out and prospered and became respectable leaders and contributors.

So....what's different? Why is that? How do we manage to pluck out this one demographic and label them 'unfortunate and unaccountable'? They have had the same opportunities and, in fact, set-asides and bonus points, as all the rest put together. Yet, there is failure. The answer is that there is no accountability, personal responsibility, goal setting, aspiration or sense of obligation. The 'You All Owe Me' approach will never work.

1:35 pm You are not a racist for saying you dislike bad behavior, but when you paint all the people of a race as having that bad behavior and aren't specific to the person or persons, you're a racist.

9:50 pm The money to pay the water bill went to buy gas and keep a car running to get to your house to clean it and cut your grass until you hired the Mexican and then there was no money. You stopped giving up your cast off as presents too.

7:57pm I applaud you. I did the same as the Depression made my family poor. But, I realize that I am lucky to have inherited good genes and which made it possible to be healthy enough and smart enough to succeed. There was some luck along the way as with good teachers and mentors and no one in my neighborhood terrorizing it. If you'd had an IQ of 80, I doubt you'd have done so well.

3:28 pm Let's don't call it social justice then. You say I'm a liberal and when what I am for is restores some semblance of meritocracy. I'm for everyone being treated fairly and justice meted out even handedly . I'm against criminal behavior, lying, cheating, stealing, gouging , favoritism,and nepotism. I know not everyone is born with equal talents and abilities, but I'm for every child having the same opportunity to make the most of their talents and abilities.
I'm for a society that functions so that oligarchs who own businesses " too big to fail" ( we use to call those monopolies) can't keep a better mouse trap from being invented or steal the one that is. I want the value of a man's contribution to a business or society to be fairly compensated and not the business owner to think the guy is lucky to work for him. I want government to make the playing field for capitalism as level as possible and not favor one capitalist over another. I happen to think that the Wall Street and banking criminals did as much damage to society as someone who sells drugs and should share the same fate when caught!
While you've been caught up in slogans and propaganda that has divided this country, some of us have been noticing the politicians of both parties and the oligarchs stealing our freedoms. I want specifics. I know that Social Security doesn't work because both parties raided the fund to make YOU think they were reducing welfare. I want it to again be ONLY for those who paid into it. I want new laws to involuntary commit those who are dangerous before they hurt themselves or others and protect their rights in the process. You see, this voodoo philosophical and economic extremism has made us ridiculously impractical and blind to the dangers and flaws in whatever theory you embrace! This country was born in the Age of Reason and this Age of Insanity is going to destroy it!

The richest 1% control the wealth of both Russia and the U.S.

Under what definition is that capitalism and not oligarchy in both countries?

I suggest very strongly that all of you have bought into the bastardization of definitions and are still clinging to this liberal vs conservative vs libertarian vs socialism vs communism crap or partisan crap look at the tables of every countries' wealth distribution . You might figure out that there's a difference between government systems and economic systems. And, if you want a capitalistic country, you have to have a form of government and set of laws that makes capitalism and democracy compatible.

You have been arguing and fighting and hating your fellow Americans over emotional nonsense!

8:28 AM, o.k. What should I do, not feal, to implement this campatibility. Today, right now, please suggest a primer for me. Seriously please suggest something with which to begin. Thanks for your assistance, in advance.

If Brad was actually in public office, say the Mayors office, one of the state senators, or one of our congressmen, then I would get the hate the he receives.

But he doesn't run a damn thing. Phil Bryant and Tate Reeves does way more damage than Brad, but yet the red meat hunters come out in droves to spout off on a guy that states his opinion quite often.

Many of you have your eyes locked in on the wrong players.

You can't blame Brad for wanting see Jackson on the rebound, because with that rebound means less crime, better roads, more people working, more people spending money in Jackson, in the metro area, but instead het gets sh*tted on for giving a damn about Mississippi's largest and Capitol city?

What has Phil Bryant and Tate Reeves offered to get Jackson and the Metro area back on track? Not a damn thing!

Whether you like his opinion or not, at least he gives a damn to offer an opinion put an idea out there

7:33 claims that racial generalization is a form of racism. Then he goes on to generalize about the rest of us who hired a Mexican to clean the house and cut the grass, leaving black folk without income. While it is racism for me to generalize about black folk, he's fine with generalizing that they clean houses and cut grass and all of the white folks put them out of their chosen field of work. What bullshit. But Jesse Jackson and Tom Head would applaud his post.

The problem everyone missed what happened in the 1980s and early 1990s. You had a new type of drug that hit Jackson at the time. You had a police dept that wasn't trained on how to deal with this drug that was the down fall to Jackson. This drug was called crack. Go look at the murder rate in Jackson back in 1991 I believe it was over 100. That would scare anyone out of Jackson.

1:42 is exactly right.
Crack changed everything.

No one forces people to use crack.

Regarding the blight on Capitol (and half the city): personal irresponsibility is certainly a factor when a front yard is full of trash and residents or businesses just look at it and move on. But half of the buildings on Capitol are residential rental properties. Unlike many other cities, Jacktown has no ordinances about trash, virtually no law against keeping leans mowed (unless it's over three feet , no street cleaning equipment (HA) etc. There are a few laws concerning dilapidated/unsafe/collapsing houses, but we all know that record.

Landlords are barely held accountable for anything. They are ultimately responsible for keeping property up. There is a code, I BELIEVE, that requires an inspection by code officials before any rental property may be rented, but that seldom happens. Slumlords step on codes, the city looks the other way and Owners rely on managers to take care of all this; many times they live a long way away and don't even know they own a trashed house, or want to know. (Of course there are good landlords too).

But for the bad ones there are few rules, a gutted codes/planning department (two more fired last week) and virtually no means for a tenant to file an official complaint (with who?}. I am not sure but I would guess there is some lobby or lobbies keeping these conditions as is. Pathetic.

Negroes don't like Caucasians and Caucasians don't like Negroes. That may be an over-generalization, but you all get the point, and secretly agree with it. And no cyber blog will change the fact.

Wow! What a great conversation. My humble contribution follows.

1. Everyone, and I mean everyone exhibits prejudices. Everybody pre-judges people, especially strangers, on a daily basis.This includes racial, gender, sexual, etc responses. Why is this? Simply because you don't personally know everyone you see or read about. Therefore you MUST start with a response based upon passed down, myths, stereotypes, rumors, media, statistics (skewed or real), etc. The challenge is for external training, faith, religious beliefs, past personal relationships, etc. to temper the gut negative, or positive responses and actions generated by having "incomplete" or less than truthful information.

2. For the purposes of this post RACISM is meant to describe a situation when racial prejudices are combined with institutional, economic, legislative, personal and police power to generate disproportionately and/or specifically negatively impact a racial person or group.

3. Since I, like everyone else, generally have incomplete knowledge about most of the people I meet or whose blog comments I read I cannot in good faith call them racist until I have information, or blog comments to the contrary.

4. However, I can most certainly, and with an almost a 100 percent degree of correctness identify Racist institutions, policies, legislation, police, etc.

5. Why is Jackson declining economically and socially? I can categorically say due to the racist actions of the entities mentioned 4. above. In fact what I am about to say was described in the Kerner Commission Report that was issued after the riots and destruction in Cleveland, LA, Detroit and other urban centers in the 60's.

http://www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/docs/kerner.pdf (Actual Kerner text)
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6545/ (excerpts from Kerner Report)

6. Current evidence of continuing problems impacting the Black community higfhlighted in the Kerner report.

a) CRACK COCAINE _ According to Oliver North in his unlimited immunity testimony before a Congressional hearing, crack was imported into the Black community by the CIA to get cash to buy weapons denied funding by Congress in the "Iran-Contra" scandal during the Raaen administration. Now heroine is being imported and meth is being manufactured into White Communities with similar societal and economic results.

b) American national financial firms (Wells Fargo-2012) and Mississippi financial firms (Bancorp South) financial CONTINUE to red line" and discriminate against Black communities and customers. These practices were highlighted in the Kerner Commission report. If you can't get legitimate, and not "subprime loans to purchase, maintain and improve your property- the result is inevitable. Discrimination is lending is denying or increasing the cost of loans to Black borrowers when cn compared to White borrowers with practically the same income and credit history.

c) Urban school districts are continually saddled with a disproportionate share of low income, impoverished students/citizens (both Black and White from working class families), as well as inherited crumbling infrastructure. These schools under stress, with government intentional starvation budgets, are manufacturing, on an industrial scale, both Black and White students, graduates or not, who are not prepared for jobs, community college or university continuing education. How do we know that both Whites and Blacks are getting inadequate public education in MS. Just read the recent articles on the 30-60 million dollars being spent by community colleges and universities for remediation to get new students up to speed. For some unimaginable reason state legislators don't understand why this is necessary. DUH!

ATTENTION 4:08. Your black helicoptor is awaiting outside. Please don't forget your tinfoil hat. There are plenty more stories waiting for you to read on the internet, so you will not need to bring along anything to read during your travels. Of course, there will be plenty of government supplied crack, heroin, and - just for you - some LSD left over from the 60's for your continued enjoyment.

So that's the solution?

In my opinion on a national, Federal level,

1) raise the minimum wage to a living wage,

2) Provide universal health care (people don't need health insurance they need health care. Just as we don't buy individual national defense insurance policies. If we must pay off the insurance companies, pay them to administer the program, in the beginning.
3) FLASH the insurance companies see this coming so they are quietly buying health clinics and hospitals.

4) Funnel Federal dollars into education so teaching assistants, security guards, internet access, laptops, transportation, etc. can be hired to create living wage jobs. Similar to the millions spent during the Red Sputnik scare in going to the moon, National Defense Fund educational scholarships, infrastructure grants, etc.

5) Jobs, jobs jobs with, living wages using Federal (yes Feds can deficit spend, like they did bailing out the banks and financial company thieves) dollars on replacing our crumbling infrastructure Massive re-creation of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System Investment. Repeat the massive investment in the

On a local level.

1) Sell the Zoo to the state. We gave Riverside Park to the state under the Ditto administration relieving Jackson of the burden of subsidizing a regional asset, with a museum being built, and other amenities,

2) Let the State manage and maintain the Capital Complex in downtown Jackson, as originally proposed and agreed. Forming a regional board, not such a good idea. But remember the impasse of the last legislative session on this issue was only round one. Considerate this contributions in lieu of taxes. Also maintain minority contract participation goals in this action as a jobs program. Black companies hire folks of color that White companies refuse to take a chance on.

White women owned companies have been the run away top winners in these MBE/DBE/WBE programs nationwide. White prime contractors nation wide generally have come to love these programs after a period of initial resistance. It increased the number of qualified subcontractors they can rely on, if for nothing else competitive and competent "check" bids.

3) COJ and JPS must find a way to share resources. School buildings, buses and other equipment sit idle for months.

4) I generally agree with most of Kingfish's brainstorming list of other ways to save Jackson from subsidizing the state and region, while improving the quality of specific assets.

DAMN, there are some long-winded sum-bitches out there.

Not only long winded, hot winded also.

Mickens is helpless and loves to prattle on as the elocutionist he has been for years, saying nothing of substance, hoping to gain a following in the Brothah-Community.

And who cares that this racist, black-klanner, Kaz has invited Kingfish to 'appear on his program'? Is that some sort of bragging right? He knows you are a soft-baller and will bow and scrape if you appear on his 'show'. People like you-two always show up in the street in front of the Long Branch and agree to a draw, never firing a shot.

F mickins - so your theory is to turn everything over to the government and the further away the government is the better. Federal where possible, otherwise the state. (Our local leaders obviously don't get any respect) Education, health care, zoos etc. And when you do, forget anything about having a capitalistic society - more set-asides, screw the economy with your minimum wage proposal, jobs programs.......

Appears that 6:13 knows you and has you pegged - trust that this post should ensure your position in the Bro community.

All: I “prattle” or provide a somewhat more comprehensive view on issues, only because I perceive the contributors on this blog to be better educated, involved than most bloggers, say than on the CL site. I also give them more credit for being critical thinkers.
029/11 @ 6:13and 6:58 PM

I never said turn everything over to the Feds. In fact, I provided possible solutions at both the Fed and local level. National problems and opportunities need Federal, or all of us contributing, responses.

I’m not looking for a following, opening a church, running for office or promoting a scam. I have to much to do around the house like painting the exterior, finishing the kitchen, etc. It’s just that I have gained so much respect for the fair, honest, hardworking, generous core of most Mississippians, I’m just trying to provide some sunlight in some blind spots I see. I’m sure that we all can agree that We all have our social blind spots, including me (just ask my wife for a list).

In fact, I have so much respect for the critical thinkers among you, I’s sure that with a little prodding can surely see that the unfettered “capitalists” have used and are continuing to use, the Black community to perfect their techniques of economic subjugation so they can use them on the White population as well.

When I say corporations I’m not referring to the nameless paper organization their millions of common stock holders or their subjugated minion employees. I’m talking about the 1%, the preferred stock holders, etc.
Examples
1) Mechanization of farming eliminated jobs for Black workers and no provisions were provided to provide substitute work, additional education or job training. For you White folks, the corporations not only mechanized formerly good paying jobs for primarily the White community, these corporation exported jobs overseas, throwing millions of White workers out of jobs, again without providing alternate employment. Of course it’s not the corporations job to make work. That responsibility is best borne as a societal shared responsibility, through our Federal government.
2) Corporations and the Federal government (say USDAS) refused to provide viable lending, the Black communities by, among other techniques, redlining, burial insurance policies, and predatory lending practices. These corporate and governmental policies have been foisted upon the Black population since Reconstruction. The corporations expanded their perfected policies of economic subjugation to the White community. These same techniques used in the Black Community Junk bond, Dot Com Bubble, Savings and Loan, Housing Bubble. Subprime Loan and finally the 2008 Recession. In all of the aforementioned crisis and bubble the primary losers were WHITE communities. In the most recent, the in the Subprime loan disaster, the resulting 2008 Recession, the theft of Federal dollars (those are our dollars, not the capitalists’ dollars) affected mostly, I dare say, were 95 percent White.

3) Black communities have been so negatively impacted by the lawlessness and callousness practices of corporations since Reconstruction, a whole new genre of law, called Environmental Justice, was created. Now we see the results of similar practices descend on White communities. For example, the ongoing release of methane gas over affluent communities in California, the polluting of the water system of an entire city in Charleston, West Virginia, and of course the pollution of MS beaches from the” Horizon Oil Well” drilling leak and spill.

Oh yes, the Federal government is failing in its job to protect us because the Congress has been effectively bought and or frightened into submission by the lobbyist minions of the 1%.
Oh oh! More prattle. Hey dust off your degrees and intelligence. You can take it.

So, now we learn that 'black communities' fail because of corporations. And predatory lending and the housing bubble were both formulated in order to hasten the failure of black folks. This guy Mickens has bought in to some radical conspiracy theories. But, that's typically what we get when there are those who have no idea how to change things in their own community but are self-appointed experts at casting blame and going through the contortionistic-gyrations of weaving bizarre theories to make themselves and their people appear less guilty.

But, let me take just ONE of his outlandish claims and shoot it down. Here it is: "Mechanization of farming eliminated jobs for Black workers and no provisions were provided to provide substitute work, additional education or job training."

Here is the truth, countering Mr. Mickins' assertion:

This is not a copy and paste. It is written from my personal knowledge and involvement. Beginning in the mid 1960s, the Mississippi Delta was infused with millions upon millions upon millions of training and redevelopment dollars aimed strictly as the economically disadvantaged (Po Folks). The early Manpower Development and Training Act (MDTA) saturated Delta communities with training programs: Welding, Aircraft Maintenance, Auto Body Repair and Painting, Plumbing, Electrical Trades, Clerical Skills, GED programs and many, many others. They were operated through and with the assistance of 40 or so Mississippi State Employment Service Offices and numerous community and state agencies.

The Delta Concentrated Employment Program (CEP) headquartered in Greenwood had offices located from Vicksburg to Clarksdale, Greenwood to Greenville and all points in between, Cleveland, Yazoo City, Indianola, Hernando. Millions were spent on locating and transporting displaced farm workers and economically disadvantaged residents. Stipends and weekly meal allowances were paid to trainees. Thousands were enrolled, hundreds dropped out, many were recycled through three or more programs without learning a trade. Some succeeded. Then along came the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) that lasted another twenty years with the same purposes and quadruple the funding.

Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC) and Operation Mainstream programs were operated by Community Action Agencies (CAP) in thirteen larger cities all across the Delta - Designed to provide a safety net for teens who dropped out and displaced farm workers and others who lacked training and opportunity. Far from Mr. Mickens' claim that no alternatives to farm labor existed.

I could go on with this proof for days. The programs were numerous. The funds spent reached the billion dollar level. Communities were saturated with training opportunities and skills assessment programs designed to lift people out of poverty. Some program operators got wealthy. Many scammed the programs and skimmed the federal dollars. Black Mercedes autos suddenly drove the streets of Greenville, Greenwood and Clarksdale, driven by program operators and grant recipients. Medical centers suddenly had telephone systems with video screens and something called speaker-phones. Community Action Agencies received millions of dollars and hired hundreds of friends and relatives. Meanwhile, people languished in poverty.

Many (of us) contributed their/our time and years in the trenches trying to make all of this work. Editors from the north came down to eat ribs and steaks (some were allowed to enter club-restaurants in Greenwood) and write an article and return northward. The liberal hangover created by the Carter family at the Delta Democrat Times hung over the Delta for years like a low, dark cloud, accomplishing nothing but division and sloth. Black mayors got themselves elected and spent a lot of time begging in the offices of Ted Kennedy and the Ford Foundation. Billions. Billions. We are now what we were then. Nothing much has changed.

Maybe Mr. "I'm REALLY a Rapper" Franklin should refuse to stand during the national anthem at the next Jackson State football game because of all the white racism that forced those living around the Zoo to inhabit a blighted area.

Maybe Mickens is regrouping or Googling something else to copy and paste.

8:26

Great presentation.

I agree with your conclusions.

So, in your opinion, why have all of these efforts failed?

What is so different about the Mississippi Delta region?

So, Mr. Mickens; I spent a good number of keystrokes debunking your claim that when mechanization occurred, the 'state' did nothing to provide alternatives or training. And you come back by simply asking rhetorical questions.

In my opinion, you lost credibility when you made your claim. I shredded your claim and you have no retort?

But, as to your final question, the Delta region was most notably the epicenter of agriculture in the state and the region for many decades. That's the difference and that's why the government concentrated a billion or two in funding training opportunities there. There was a nominal number of successes, but largely all of these programs over 50 years have failed. We can each draw our own conclusions regarding failure.

Anon @8:26

Sorry for the delay in response. Health issues come first

Did you pick up on the main point (I thought) of my post; that the same techniques used by the 1% to disadvantages Blacks are now being used on working class and middle class Whites?

Working Class and Middle Class Whites share the same enemy. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" ?

Traditionally Whites have acted against their own self interests just to make sure that Blacks (10% of the population), have as hard a time as possible to making progress.

Also, again, why have the programs in the MS Delta failed in your learned opinion?