COMMENTARY ROLLING FORK NEEDS TO BE BUILT BACK BETTER – NOT SIMPLY REBUILT

By Jesse Jackson, National Political Writer

too many left them even more vulnerable in the wake of the storm.

One thing that we must know: more storms are coming, and they will be more destructive. No one storm can be attributed directly to catastrophic climate change. But this storm was virtually unprecedented in its ferocity. And the southern states have experienced 236 tornadoes in March, a number not seen since the early 1950s. Extreme weather is not a future threat. It is a present danger, as Rolling Fork can testify.

If we don’t take immediate and radical action to address climate change, then Rolling Fork will be repeated – from fires or floods or droughts or hurricanes or cyclones and more – across the country – and across the globe. We reap what we sow, and we have sown the furies.

The population of Rolling Fork is virtually all Black. These are people who have suffered a history of great pain. From slavery to a violent repression of freedom after the Civil War to enforced apartheid, Mississippi’s Blacks still to this day struggle for equality. Ronald Reagan began his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the torture and murder of civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and its fight for recognition was a dramatic step in the Black struggle for political rights. No small number of Blacks came to Chicago and other northern cities in the Great Migration, seeking a better deal in the North. And now they are victims of a calamity, one of far too many that are threatening lives across this country.

In Chicago, we will organize volunteer efforts to aid those displaced by the storm. Benny Goodman, the US congressman from the Delta and the only Democrat on the Mississippi delegation, will lead the effort to drive federal assistance. While we help those in immediate distress, we must do far more to address the roots of the calamity –from poverty to extreme weather.

The great bluesman Muddy Waters, who came out of Rolling Fork, once sang:

Have you ever been walking, walking down that old lonesome road?

Have you ever been walking, walking down that old lonesome road?

No place to go, whee well brown no place to room and board Things look so lonesome, when you ain’t got a shelter over your head Things look so lonesome, when you ain’t got a shelter over your head When you could have been at home, whee well boy sleepin’ in a feather bed.

Let us show the generosity – and the wisdom – to ensure that even in Mississippi, there is shelter over their heads.

You can write to the Rev. Jesse Jackson in care of this Newspaper or by email at: jjackson@rainbowpush.org

Asweeping public education bill that would allow families to use taxpayer money to send their children to private schools and restrict classroom lessons on sexual orientation received initial approval Tuesday and will now go before the Senate for a full vote.

The Senate education committee, led by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, voted 10-2 to advance Senate Bill 8. The vote took place along party lines, with Republican lawmakers favoring the bill and Democrats José Menéndez of San Antonio and Morgan LaMantia of South Padre Island voting against it.

The committee also voted unanimously for an accompanying piece of legislation, Senate Bill 9, which would give pay raises to teachers and increase funding for classrooms, among other measures. The bill will also go to the Senate floor for a vote

The bill would give parents who opt out of the public school system access to a savings account with up to $8,000 in taxpayer money, per student, which could be used to pay for a child’s