[Desk] So, What IS the Answer Then?
In a Q&A today with Rick Looser, the head of an ad agency promoting a “positive Mississippi” message, The Clarion-Ledger’s Sid Salter passed up an opportunity to ask a vital follow-up question after Looser stated the following:
From the inside out, Mississippi must continue to address those things that make us first on every bad list and last on every good list. Education, health care and other quality-of-life issues have to take priority. Throwing money at these problems is not the answer.
So, the obvious follow-up is, “So how can Mississippi improve education, health care and other quality-of-life issues without spending money?
Odd interview.
Posted by ladd at 09:52 AM in JFP, MS Newspapers, Analysis | Email this entry
Comments:
To say the least, but this also speaks to why I don’t like the “Positive Mississippi” campaign. I can see a new ad in my head right now: “No, we’re not all Klansmen. Some of us even oppose slavery.”
It’s obviously done by someone who does not particularly care if Mississippi improves or not, and this interview is just an exclamation point on that.
“Sure, my car’s steering is shot and the frame is out of alignment, but throwing money at these problems is not the answer.”
“Jackson: City with Soul” is oodles better. If the “Positive Mississippi” people did a Jackson ad...*shiver*...I don’t even want to think about it. “No, we’re not all black. Some of us are even Klansmen.” I mean, come on!
Cheers,
TH
Posted by Tom Head on 01/28 at 04:16 PM | #
Agreed, Tom. We’ve talked about this “campaign” before. They seem to want the world to think better of Mississippi based on PR, rather than real efforts to change the very things that make us look so bad! When I spoke once with Mr. Looser on the phone about this campaign, I mentioned that fact that the state voted to keep the Confederate emblem in the state flag is some of the worst PR possible. And he responded with the old we-shouldn’t-have-to-keep-apologizing-for-the-past line. Of course, just when have “we” (clearly meaning white people) actually apologized for the past!?! (Dick Molpus excepted, and that apology because a campaign weapon against by Kirk Fordicein the governor’s race.)
The problem with his reasoning, which is made very apparent by this “interview” in The Ledger (wonder if this one was done by e-mail, too?), is that it is a view of people who don’t want to really engage in the problems of the state (the “throwing money” comment proves that), but want the rest of the world to believe that everything is just wonderful here now. They want, based on such a campaign as this.
The truth, of course, is that we have come a long way, and have a long way to go. We can be proud of the former, but we also MUST stay vigilant about ways to actually continuing improving the state?and the issues he mentions do cost money, whether he is comfortable with that or not.
I’ve said it before: This defensive campaign is much like those “only positive Mississippi signs spoken here” signs that Fordice erected at the borders of the state?it’s window-dressing that wants us to be positive while glossing over the lingering problems. That is, it’s empty hype. And it rather figures that a corporate newspaper from Virginia would buy into it so easily.
Posted by on 01/28 at 04:35 PM | #
Virginia being one of the few states that may actually have more of an institutional racism problem than Mississippi… I’ve never been to Virginia, but it strikes me as a very interesting state. On the one hand, parts of it are very “northern”; on the other, George Allen did quite well with his Southern Strategy approach for a long time, and of course it’s the current home of Virgil Goode, the most outspoken bigot in Congress.
And I’d want to turn Looser’s remark about apologizing for the past on its head: Why should “we” white Mississippians (who are presumably the only ones that count, in Mr. Looser’s world) keep bragging about the stuff “we’re” doing backflips to avoid apologizing for? It would be like if I had five martinis and then drove home in a Range Rover and caused a horrible traffic accident, then hung a flag outside my house with a Range Rover and five martinis on it. It’s bad enough to say “You people aren’t ‘credible’ enough for me to apologize to” (which is what this non-apology movement really says), but why celebrate our oppression of others? Christ.
And Donna, while we’re on the subject (because I really want your view on this), why the hell did Credell Calhoun and the rest of the Congressional Black Caucus actually vote for that damned Southern Strategy resolution praising Jeff Davis? I think we should celebrate the 200th anniversary of his death by holding a great big press conference where we piss on his grave. He was a mentally ill white supremacist who caused an ill-founded war to defend the institution of slavery, and it killed over a million people, and then he fled like a damn coward when it was over. The man was an embarrassment to the state. Why are we honoring him? Why did the state House vote 113-0, with only 8 abstentions, to honor him and “celebrate” his “achievements”? Why?
Cheers,
TH
Posted by Tom Head on 01/28 at 04:47 PM | #
Er, that’s the 200th anniversary of Jeff Davis’ birth, not his death, but you know what I mean.
Cheers,
TH
Posted by Tom Head on 01/28 at 04:49 PM | #
I assume he’s betting on the power of prayer?
Posted by on 01/28 at 06:24 PM | #
"It would be like if I had five martinis and then drove home in a Range Rover and caused a horrible traffic accident, then hung a flag outside my house with a Range Rover and five martinis on it. “ - Tom
That’s the analogy of the year. 
As far as the Jeff Davis thing goes, I’m feeling kind of 
about that. Don’t get it.
Posted by L.W. on 05/22 at 09:46 AM | #
I’m at a loss at honoring JD’s birth, too. He wasn’t that good a president, as far as that went.
Posted by on 05/22 at 10:37 PM | #
