My “Rewriting American History” column of a fortnight ago, about the dismantling of Confederate monuments, generated considerable mail. Some argued there should not be statues honoring traitors such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis, who fought against the Union. Victor…
The Mississippi Legislature reduced funding for community colleges, causing an upsurge in the cost of attendance. Lawmakers in Tennessee made community colleges tuition-free, likely to cause an upsurge in attendance.
Sometimes in your career, things don’t always work out the way you plan them. For me, the first time I learned this lesson, I was in college. I went to one of those fancy, private schools to study computer engineering in the late 90s. I knew that an investment in such a great degree would gu…
Here’s my question to you: If an evil person is guaranteed that he can inflict physical pain upon others and guaranteed to never suffer pain himself, what happens to his willingness to inflict pain? You say, “What do you mean, Williams?” OK, I will make my question more concrete. Suppose a y…
I recall from my childhood often times being told by my parents about why America was such a great country, such a wonderful place to grow up and live. A country that we should protect and defend with all of our might from all of those other people who wanted to take away the freedoms our U…
I’ve had a number of conversations recently that convince me our country is divided into two political camps separated by a deep and uncomfortably wide gap. No, I’m not talking about liberals and conservatives, or pro- and anti-Trump voters. I’m talking about people who believe in politics a…
The woman’s voice on the other end of the phone line was cracking — her words trailed off in a torrent of grief.
Antony, foreseeing chaos in the aftermath of the murder of Julius Caesar, intoned, “Cry ‘Havoc!,’ and let slip the dogs of war.” In more contemporary artistry with words, the Baha Men gave us, “Who let the dogs out? Who? Who? Who? Who?”
Greg Caskey is a 27-year-old Abington, Pennsylvania, native who is a social sciences teacher at Delaware Military Academy. The academy is a thriving charter high school in Wilmington, Delaware, that was founded in 2003 by two retired military officers, Charles Baldwin and Jack Wintermantel. …
Interviewing is hard work. If you're currently looking for something new, you know that finding a job is a job. From preparing your favorite suit to revising your resume to networking and rounds of interviews – there are times it feels like it will never end. It can be tough to keep your hea…
One of the unavoidable consequences of youth is the tendency to think behavior we see today has always been. I’d like to dispute that vision, at least as it pertains to black people.
Every summer, as the Fourth of July approaches, I’m struck by how inadequate a label “Independence Day” is. This isn’t to downplay the courage of our founders in declaring independence from Great Britain, or in fighting a war to guarantee it. But if you think about it, what we’re really cele…
People like having roads and highways in good repair and troopers to patrol them. They like having forestry and mental health services, state parks and game management, fire trucks that come when called. People like having enough judges to handle caseloads. People would like nothing better t…
Compared to what it looked like a couple of decades ago, Congress today is a far more representative body. It’s true that, as Congressional Quarterly once pointed out, the House and Senate are still “populated mainly by wealthy white men with advanced degrees and backgrounds in law and busin…
George Orwell said, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” In the former USSR, censorship, rewriting of history and eliminating undesirable people became part of Soviets’ effort to ensure that the correct ideological and…
People like having roads and highways in good repair and troopers to patrol them. They like having forestry and mental health services, state parks and game management, fire trucks that come when called. People like having enough judges to handle caseloads. People would like nothing better t…
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Austin, Texas to meet a number of folks who work at the job website Indeed.com. If you’ve looked for a job in the last ten years, there’s a good chance you’ve visited Indeed. In 2010, they passed Monster to become the highest trafficked job site in…
The decision to send troops overseas requires clear eyes, hard questions and specific answers.
A friend posted on my online timeline recently that upon reaching my 52nd birthday that I wasn’t old but had just been “young for a long time.”
There’s no way to know what former Mississippi Commissioner of Corrections Christopher Epps expected when he walked into court — at last — to hear his sentence, but the nearly 20-year term imposed by U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate must have come as a surprise.
The Economist magazine some time ago published “What’s gone wrong with Democracy ... and what can be done to revive it?” The suggestion is that democracy is some kind of ideal for organizing human conduct. That’s a popular misconception.
Ask any black person which political party has been black people’s political ally. With near unanimity, blacks would answer the Democratic Party. Asked which political party has been hostile to blacks, they’d say the Republican Party with similar unanimity. For better answers, check out Prag…
Sometimes, you just have to get in touch with your member of Congress. Perhaps Congress is taking up an issue — the minimum wage, say, or a bill to promote medical research — that would make a difference in your life. Maybe some matter is embroiling your community, such as growing drug probl…
Typically, this column is targeted toward the job seeker. Today, I’m going to take a slightly different approach. I’ve received the same question from multiple different employers in the past week, “How can I hire better candidates?”
Our nation’s welfare rides on how well political leaders balance the needs of the country against their partisan goals.
Solitary confinement has long been viewed by experts and human rights organizations as a form of torture. As far back as 1890, the United States Supreme Court declared the practice of solitary confinement abandoned, noting the high rates of suicide and insanity among prisoners subjected to i…
Solitary confinement has long been viewed by experts and human rights organizations as a form of torture. As far back as 1890, the United States Supreme Court declared the practice of solitary confinement abandoned, noting the high rates of suicide and insanity among prisoners subjected to i…
For many years, there has been a strong national movement to serve children and families in their homes and communities and not in “institutionalized care.” This is a movement Canopy Children’s Solutions has supported and advanced both nationally and in Mississippi. As the immediate past pre…
Morgan Freeman, celebrated actor and thoughtful person, says forget about it.
In 1798, Thomas Malthus wrote “An Essay on the Principle of Population.” He predicted that mankind’s birthrate would outstrip our ability to grow food and would lead to mass starvation. Malthus’ wrong predictions did not deter Stanford University professor Paul Ehrlich from making a similar …
Politics can be messy, but not because it’s tainted or morally bankrupt. It’s messy because it often reflects deep-seated disagreements that are hard to resolve, with merit on both sides.
Okay, this is going to sound strange. But, bear with me. After having coached hundreds of folks on their job searches, I’ve noticed a pattern. And, it’s not one I would have expected.
What kind of world do we live in when a jihadist maniac straps on a backpack filled with hydrogen peroxide and nails and seeks to murder little 12-year-old girls?
Mississippi’s Legislature took a little-noticed but very important step this session in amending the law to make it easier for our residents to get jobs. With the vision of an independent group headed by Federal District Judge Keith Starrett, and the hard work of Rep. Andy Gipson and Sen. Se…
Every few months we have to contemplate the very real possibility that the government might close its doors. Is this really the best we can do?
Most college students do not belong in college. I am not by myself in this assessment. Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson said, “It’s time to drop the college-for-all crusade,” adding that “the college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness.” Richard Vedder, professor emeritus o…
Most students are out for summer, having finished their final exams. In all probability, there were no easy answers. The quest for better K-12 public schools in Mississippi continues, though. Likewise there are no easy answers.
Millions of people love Apple computers and wouldn’t be caught using a PC. By contrast, there are many millions of PC users who feel the same way about Apple computers. Many men like double-breasted suits, but I wouldn’t be caught dead in one. Some people swear by Cadillac cars, but my favor…
Okay, this is going to sound strange. But, bear with me. After having coached hundreds of folks on their job searches, I’ve noticed a pattern. And, it’s not one I would have expected.
Let’s list major problems affecting black Americans. Topping the list is the breakdown in the black family, where only a third of black children are raised in two-parent households. Actually, the term “breakdown” is incorrect. Families do not form in the first place. Nationally, there is a b…
There was a time in American politics, and more specifically Mississippi politics, in which a Mississippi politician wouldn’t be caught dead walking the halls of the U.S. Justice Department, let alone the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.
A robust, inquisitive congressional oversight process should be capable of revealing what is too often hidden, but it’s not. We need journalists to do it.
“ Don’t trust the media? Most people (according to media reports) don’t. And that’s fine because we all live in a new day. Anyone with internet access can go on endless fact-finding missions all by themselves. News is bountiful.
There was a blank stare from some of the sixth-graders in the Sunday School class that I teach at Broadway Baptist Church in Southaven when I asked what special holiday was coming up at the end of the month.
Parents, taxpayers and donors have little idea of the levels of lunacy, evil and lawlessness that have become features of many of today’s institutions of higher learning. Parents, taxpayers and donors who ignore or are too lazy to find out what goes on in the name of higher education are nea…
Sometimes, getting a job is dependent more on what you ask than what you answer. Let me explain what I mean by this. We spend so much time preparing for how we will answer the hiring manager’s questions, yet very little time thinking about what we want to know.
Every few months we have to contemplate the very real possibility that the government might close its doors. Is this really the best we can do?
Recently, while most Mississippians were busy working, raising families, and just trying to get by, the State of Mississippi held a little noticed hearing to consider imposing taxes on a significantly larger number of our citizens. This occurred after the Mississippi Legislature had already …
Every day, there is yet another statistic that comes across my desk that involves the heroin and opioid addiction epidemic that is not only sweeping the nation but impacting Mississippi’s fastest-growing county of DeSoto.
Constructive criticism can help a president grow more capable.
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann reported low voter turnout in the recent round of state municipal elections. That’s distressing on any number of levels.
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