Barbour grants more than 200 pardons

Barbour

Out-going Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour issued lots of pardons in his final days in office, including trusties working at the Governor's Mansion convicted of murder. Here's a story about it that I wrote for Reuters that appeared in the Chicago Tribune.
Today, Barbour issued more than 200 pardons for people convicted of many crimes, including murder, rape, robbery, and DUI.
Below, see all pardons, clemencies and suspended sentences Barbour granted while in office.
Barbour Pardons

It's official!

Marcela officially accepted an engagement ring from me at her mother's home in Bogota, Colombia this evening. Here are a few photos. She gave me the ring on my finger months ago, a special souvenir from her field research in Mexico in 2011.

UPDATE (December 24, 2011):
Marcela, her mom and I visited part of Bogota's floral market to select the perfect flowers for our engagement party tomorrow.

Our Poverty and Thanksgiving

My parents filed bankruptcy when I was in the fifth grade. My father did it again with his second wife years later.

My childhood included growing up in a trailer park outside of Meridian, Mississippi, and later living in a single-parent home, attending public school in the Mississippi Delta, one of the most poverty stricken areas in North America.

An early childhood memory, I can still hear the sound of my father slamming the front door of our mobile home and seconds later my mom screamed. I jumped out of my small bunk bed, ran out of my bedroom and saw my dad’s hands wrapped around my mom’s neck, choking her.  

I didn’t know it at the time, but I grew up in poverty. As I’ve grown older, I see that I wasn’t alone. More than money or other material things I wanted, the resources my family lacked the most were love and spiritual well being. The feelings of isolation I felt while steeped in poverty made life almost unbearable.

As statistics show on an annual basis, Mississippi routinely ranks last in the nation in key areas related to poverty, including physical and mental health, education, income and quality of life.  As an adult, I know people growing up in poverty live in a silent epidemic not monitored by the national Centers for Disease Control. Unlike other killers, this problem goes ignored by many people in the middle class, a steadily shrinking group itself.

A year or so ago, I traveled to an Episcopal church in Tupelo to hear a friend give a sermon that changed my life. I sat in the pew next to her husband and heard her talk about poverty. But she didn’t just talk about it during this church service. She took action. 

Here in Starkville, financial adviser Lynn Phillips Gaines organized a workshop for middle class people to see what life is like for people in poverty. She helped about two hundred of us see life without middle class filters. I feel so thankful Lynn allowed me to help facilitate the first class in Starkville related to this, called Getting Ahead in a Just Getting By World.

Through this class, I’ve had the privilege of partnering with about a dozen women who want to make better lives for their children and themselves. They know that to improve their station in life, they can’t wait for someone else to do things for them. They want to change and have what it takes inside of them to do it.

As I’ve gotten to know them, I see my life in their struggles. Even though she died just more than a year ago, I still see my mother struggling through these women. Many of these determined women don’t have husbands. They struggle to make ends meet. Life’s struggles make them feel depressed and sometimes makes them question why they should keep trying.

But they keep working for something better.

As we approach Thanksgiving in the United States, it’s a time for us to appreciate what we have in our lives. Many people continue to struggle with unemployment, finances, relationships, and other areas of life. However, in our poverty, we always have hope as long as we know we can change and make a difference in others’ lives and our own. As long as we live in communities where neighbors haven’t given up on each other, we’ll have hope and opportunity. 

Looking back to that six-year-old version of me running into the living room and seeing my mother choked by my father, I think of my life now and those beautiful women I’ve come to know through this remarkable class.

Redemption

As scary as it makes us feel, to save our country and ourselves, we must attack poverty and pry its grip from those we love. As someone who believes in redemption, I know it’s never too late to help those we love escape poverty. As a 33-year-old marathon runner with a graduate degree, I still struggle to escape the lingering poverty mindset resulting from childhood scars.

Only my closest friends have known about my experiences growing up, the stories of my dad's emotional manipulation, infidelity and painful experiences that have left deep scars on my two sisters and me. Few people know that I spent Father's Day in 2006 at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. On a day when children gathered with their father to show gratitude for nurturing and love, I spent the day acknowledging the severed relationship. I chose to spend time with drunks like my dad, trying to understand how a man could do such awful things to people he "loved." 

About a year ago, my father's older brother told me a story from their childhood that I'll never forget. Their mother--my grandmother--sat in the pickup truck at the stoplight with her husband. Feeling panicked and alone, she saw this as her moment for escape, jumping out of the truck and running into the nearby sheriff's department. "He's killing me," she yelled to the deputies.

During that time, the good old boy system thrived in Mississippi even more than now. Those awful men drove my grandmother home, only telling their buddy, "Ed, you've got to do better." In tears, my nearly 70-year-old uncle also told me about the Christmas morning his father beat his mother, threatening worse if she told anyone who visited during the day.

Years after I left the financial struggles of child in a single-parent household, I've fought emotional and spiritual poverty. Few people have known why the concept of redemption resonated with me enough to create a festival based on it. More than anything in this life, I believe in redemption, especially our own.

After all these years, still smiling.

After many years of self-exploration through writing, therapy and great friends, I keep trying to escape the mental poverty from my childhood. I know a better life exists and try to find it each morning I wake up. While I may not have a functional, biological family, many of my friends have become my family, even if they don't know it.

These days, I live one of the most colorful, interesting worlds that I could ever imagine. I consider myself a storyteller. I hope sharing stories with others helps us better understand the many worlds around us. I love my life story and look forward to each day, experiencing it unfold with unknown opportunities, waiting for the magic in next chapter of my life.  

Without experiencing poverty, I wouldn’t appreciate everything in my world that makes me feel so thankful. Through memories of little boy I see in photographs, I feel even more thankful for the man reflecting back in the mirror and all of the people who made it possible. 

That's why I will never stop trying to make life better.

Mississippi's Democratic Party Mess

After spending time with Democratic candidates for office in recent months and covering electing night returns from Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree's gathering, my post-election analysis appeared in today's issue of the Jackson Free Press, Mississippi's only alternative news weekly.

Here's a taste of it: 

Once again, election night last week revealed a grim reality for Mississippi Democrats and the Mississippi Democratic Party.
Just minutes after polls closed statewide, the Associated Press began delivering dismal news for Democrats, calling the races of state auditor, lieutenant governor and secretary of state for Republicans. In these races, the GOP didn't even have token Democratic opposition. While incumbency often increases a candidate's chances for reelection--the case for secretary of state and state auditor--the Mississippi Democratic Party failed to field a candidate for the open seat of lieutenant governor.

In Hattiesburg, the atmosphere for the city's mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Johnny DuPree made for an evening of defiance until the inevitable loomed.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Democracy in Mississippi

Mississippians vote on Tuesday!

           Whether your political ideology follows televangelist Pat Robertson, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson or someone altogether different, Mississippians have plenty of reasons to vote on Tuesday.

            If you want to remove the government’s grubby hands from yet another opportunity to take your property or defend economic development tools to lure more jobs to the state, you have a reason to vote. Initiative 31 on eminent domain prohibiting government taking private property for private certainly has potential to impact thousands of people.

            If you worry about the sanctity of voting, the integrity of our system or have concerns about adding barriers between voters and their privilege, Tuesday’s general election ballot has something for you, too. Initiative 27 will allow voters to decide whether to require identification before voters can cast their ballots in future elections.

            If you worry about the sanctity of life, the government’s infringement on a woman’s body, gray areas in between, you may want to strongly considering going to vote on Nov.8. Initiative 26 will try to define “personhood” as the moment of fertilization, whenever that means. This has drawn lots of media attention from all over the country and beyond, since many people view this as a strategy toward overturning women’s right to have an abortion in the country.

            If you care about leadership on county and state levels, do your duty and vote. A close friend of mine will spend this election somewhere in Iraq. Supposedly, our government’s actions over there will help that Middle Eastern nation carry out free and impartial elections. It’s a shame so few of us take the minimal effort of voting in our own nation.

Corey

            We complain and grumble most of the year, but Tuesday is one day where our voices can be heard loud and clear. If you don’t believe me, ask Al Gore. Heck, just ask Starkville Alderman Richard Corey, who won his first election by a single vote.

            As a state, we have the opportunity to choose to direction of our state for the next four years. Will we choose three-term Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree or Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant? If we want a governor whose position on immigration makes Haley Barbour look like a fence-sitting liberal, we’ll probably go with GOP and Bryant. If we want a city leader who has supported quality of life issues including education, you may go with Democratic nominee DuPree.

            No matter your ideology or personal decisions for voting, do it. However, I do make one request: Educate yourself on the issues and the candidates before casting ballots next week. Beyond catchphrases and political pandering, most races this year have candidates with genuine differences. Our responsibility as voters involves finding out who will best represent us.

            Remember, voting—or lack of it—has consequences. Leaders we select for the next four years will have wide range of latitude in shaping public policy on county and state government for the next four years. That’s a long time for us to spend under the leadership of someone elected because a few too many of us didn’t do our homework or just stayed home. 


To see a sample ballot used for Tuesday's election, click here. 

            

Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree and Mississippi's Democratic Party

I spent more than a month exploring the current status of Mississippi's Democratic Party, how it got into the shape it's in and what the future may hold for it.

The story, this week's cover of the Jackson Free Press, offers honest reporting and analysis of the state affairs of Mississippi's Democratic Party.

Here's a small exert from the piece:

Rickey Cole, executive director of Mississippi's Democratic Party, spoke candidly about the current state of affairs for his organization. He didn't hide his shame in the party failing to field candidates for three statewide offices and high-quality, viable candidates for each of the eight statewide offices on the ballot in November.  Along with Attorney General Hood and DuPree, other Democratic candidates for statewide elections appearing on the ballot include Ocean Springs Mayor Connie Moran for state treasurer, Pickens Mayor Joel Gill for commissioner of agriculture and commerce, and former Moss Point Mayor Louis Fondren for commissioner of insurance.

"It's embarrassing to not field a candidate for the open seat of lieutenant governor," Cole said. "It's equally as embarrassing to field a candidate who doesn't have a chance."

To read the full story, click here.

Pedophilia, cancer and eminent domain

A lot of people who read this column will feel more ashamed of what I write than usual.

Some things in life seem indefensible. Take pedophilia, for example. I can’t think of a single redeeming quality from this psychiatric disorder. Another indefensible thing in this life is cancer, not just one form of it—all of it.

To many people throughout Mississippi and other parts of the country, I support something worse than pedophilia and cancer. I support government’s limited ability to use eminent domain for private projects.

There, I said it.

I hold this position because unlike testicular cancer and serial rapists, eminent domain for purposes of private development has redeeming value.

           Citizens across the state and in neighboring places can look at Nissan in Canton and Toyota in Blue Springs as types of projects that may have not happened in Mississippi without eminent domain as an option.

While government secured properties for the purpose of securing land for our state’s two automotive plants, few can argue that the thousands of jobs created didn’t benefit the entire state.

I oppose Initiative 31, one of the three initiatives appearing on the Nov. 8 ballot as part of statewide election, and believe it passing will handicap the state while trying to court new businesses and industry during an on-going sluggish economic time.

This effort will prohibit government from using eminent domain as a mechanism for economic development. It prohibits government from using eminent domain for a period of 10 years for purposes of transferring property for non-government use.

While I know the populist position on this initiative should have me holding up a pitchfork in the middle of rural farmland and shouting to the top of my lungs, “Government, stay off my property,” but concern for unintended consequences of this law persuades me toward restraint and reason.

Gov. Barbour

Before you scratch my name from your Christmas card lists, you may want to scratch a few other folks off, too. Another socialist liberal who opposes this ballot initiative, Republican Gov. Haley Barbour sees this necessary tool of government as a way to help create desperately needed economic development projects. Another flaming liberal and anti-business activist, Leland Speed, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, has urged voters to oppose this emotion-driving ballot initiative.

Unable to run for reelection due to term limits, Barbour has gone on record opposing this ballot initiative, saying limiting the bargaining tools used by Mississippi Development Authority and economic development organizations throughout the state could affect recruitment of major projects that can bring literally thousands of jobs.

People who fear government taking their property for purposes of building a mall or other retail space will help to pass this misguided initiative. Political pundits in the state expect this to pass by the highest of margins among the three on the ballot.

No one champions government taking individuals’ property, especially for private interests. However, sometimes this process can be the only roadblock between a major industry locating in a Mississippi community or it going to another state.

DuPree

Bryant

Both candidates for governor—Republican Phil Bryant and Democrat Johnny DuPree—support this initiative. As in many instances, we have politicians missing the boat on what’s good for the state in exchange for what will gain them the most votes.

Nov. 8 won’t be the first time Mississippians have supported legislation that hurts their own self-interests, and it likely won’t be the last.