Ancient citizens of Jackson can relate to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner. Whether adrift at sea or aground in Jackson, Coleridge’s epic line applies – “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”
An ill-fated albatross did in the mariner. An equally ill-fated figurative albatross did in Jackson’s water. The media just cannot determine which bird(s) to blame.
W. Ralph Eubanks, visiting professor of English and Southern Studies at Ole Miss, blamed the “White Republican supermajority” and raged against these “remnants of Jim Crow” on CNN.
“It is no surprise the state government of Mississippi has ignored the city’s problems with its water system to the point of absolute failure of the system” he said. “How could a state ignore the needs of the residents of its capital city and allow things to deteriorate to this point? The answer as I see it is simple: racism. Jackson is a Black majority city and Mississippi is governed by a White Republican majority that refuses to invest in Jackson because of who lives there and who governs it.”
Wyatt Emmerich, publisher of the Northside Sun newspaper, blamed Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba for “one of the most colossal municipal government failures in the history of our country” and called for his resignation.
“It’s not like this crisis sprang out of nowhere,” he wrote in his biting editorial. “On March 30, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a scathing report of the Jackson water system. It listed dozens of major problems and gross understaffing. That was the time for Mayor Lumumba to take swift and immediate action. But he did not.”
“There is no possible way for Lumumba to blame anyone but himself. He has been in office five years, during which our water plants have been allowed to fall into total disrepair. Complex systems were not maintained. Software wasn’t updated. Automatic systems failed and were replaced by impossible attempts at manual controls by understaffed and untrained staff.”
WLBT TV published commentary blaming city government. “We have shared many times the list of core functions of city government. Providing reliable, safe water is included in that list of priorities. Sadly, Jackson has failed miserably in fulfilling that responsibility due to a lack of leadership, lack of management, and lack of maintenance.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the state’s only Black congressman and chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security appeared to divide the blame. The state bears some of blame for neglecting Jackson for decades, he told Mississippi Today. But if the capital city cannot properly run its water system, “I would not be in favor of the city being given back the authority to run it.”
Fortunately, Gov. Tate Reeves and President Joe Biden declared emergencies to bring in state and federal experts to solve immediate concerns. No doubt a whole rookery of blamed albatrosses will circle Jackson before long-term fixes can be implemented.
“Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He said, ‘I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?’”– Genesis 4:9.
Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.
13 comments:
An Ole Miss professor has blamed d white Republicans? I stop the presses!
The real problem is that we have become so terrified of being labeled racist that we dare not criticize incompetent minorities. This means we also don’t see much praise for competent minorities. Instead the status quo is to assume all minorities are like children who must be sheltered and given participation trophies. The reality of that is that it perpetuates the negative stereotypes because now we can all see the incompetence, but we aren’t allowed to criticize it. So we just whisper and chuckle and make thinly veiled remarks. But we all know we are living in a deception.
No mention of the Siemens fiasco.
I used this obviously applicable metaphor, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", for Jackson's water crises a month ago. Although the mayor has New Afrika as well as something deservedly brown and turbid permanently about his neck, it will never lead him to prayer and salvation as the Mariner was by the neck encircling albatross.
Wyatt Emmerich (Editor NS Sun), btw, tried to salvage some opportunity out of the new mayor's election four-five years ago, gave him a chance to rise above the New Afrika legacy of Lumumba Senior. Now Emmerich has only a pyre for the mayor's destructive tenure.
Note that if the Governor and the State Health Dept had taken control of the mayor's water duties any sooner, cries of anti-black white oppression would have been even louder. Reeves had to bust a move once O.B.Curtis went down.
I suspect Bennie T and Councilman Stokes have been advising Lumumba to resign. After appealing "Veto a No Vote" fairy tale to the MS Supremes, who but Omari could pretend respect for this utterly failed mayor? Well maybe Ralph Eubanks and Bill Crawford if they see a race baiting angle.
Water, water everywhere and the City board should shrink!
I'm a pragmatist.
I'm less than thrilled with an incompetent legislature have much control and I'm not entirely certain they will do better in avoiding competent hirings in favor of "good old boy" hirings.
Nevertheless, it's clear that as long as Jackson's system of city and county government is structured as it currently is, the city will decline and be starved of funding into failure.
I wish any takeover would be audited regularly by an independent auditor. Indeed, my prayer is that the federal auditors coming to Mississippi stay a very long time.
Does the State of Mississippi have a history of bailing cities out of issues like water?
The good mayor was on CBS DeFace the Nation this morning. He was asked if he was a target or concerned about the ongoing federal investigation. He appeared surprised and Scrabbled for strong words to use in his reply. He was not asked about "the dope boys".
If only Jackson had a city government the state could confidently give money to fix the problem. Not even close.
echoing 10:11, nearly $90M siemens settlement - attorney fees and I hope that meter readers have been upgraded to get the city on track for future water / sewer revenue. Absolutely, the Mayor needs to resign!
'Visiting Professor'. Visiting from where? How much is a return trip Greyhound ticket?
I wouldn't be too concerned with the opinion of the 'Visiting Professor', or Mr. Crawfish, I meant Crawford.
Both were leaning so far left, at a very early age, that their brains have fallen out.
It is a well known saying that all young people are liberals, until their brains mature. Then they begin to act more conservative as the responsibilities of life require it.
All those that don't follow this pattern, are mentally deficient, in some capacity. The two I mentioned above are prime examples of this.
The water problems in Jackson isn't just a Mississippi story, it is foreshadowing what is to come for other water systems.
Back when he was mayor of New York City, Ed Koch said that a couple of disruptions to the city's water supply would cripple the city. He said that some of the mechanisms in the NYC water system were more than 100 years old. The mayor noted that parts were no longer being manufactured to replace the screws, bolts, levers, that made the system work. Koch said parts of the system's mechanisms had completely rusted out, but removing them would bring the system to a halt.
Like it or not, the eyes of the nation are on Jackson, Miss.
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