publisher’s note Editor-in-Chief and CEO Donna Ladd Publisher & President Todd Stauffer Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin Creative Director Kristin Brenemen REPORTERS AND WRITERS City Reporter Kayode Crown State Reporter Nick Judin State Intern Julian Mills Contributing Writers Dustin Cardon, Bryan Flynn, Alex Forbes, Jenna Gibson, Tunga Otis Torsheta Jackson, Mike McDonald, Anne B. Mckee, EDITORS AND OPERATIONS Deputy Editor Nate Schumann JFPDaily.com Editor Dustin Cardon Executive Assistant Azia Wiggins Editorial Assistant Shaye Smith Consulting Editor JoAnne Prichard Morris
ONLINE & DIGITAL SERVICES Digital Web Developer Ryan Jones Web Editor Dustin Cardon Social Media Assistant Robin Johnson Web Designer Montroe Headd Let’s Talk Jackson Editor Kourtney Moncure SALES AND MARKETING (601-362-6121 x11) Marketing Writer Andrea Dilworth Marketing Consultant Chris Rudd Advertising Designer Zilpha Young Events Assistant Leslyn Smith DISTRIBUTION Distribution Coordinator Ken Steere Distribution Team Yvonne Champion, Ruby Parks, Eddie Williams TALK TO US: Letters letters@jacksonfreepress.com Editorial editor@jacksonfreepress.com Queries submissions@jacksonfreepress.com Listings events@jacksonfreepress.com Advertising ads@jacksonfreepress.com Publisher todd@jacksonfreepress.com News tips news@jacksonfreepress.com
November 25 - December 8, 2020 • jfp.ms
Jackson Free Press 125 South Congress Street, Suite 1324 Jackson, Mississippi 39201 Editorial and Sales (601) 362-6121 Fax (601) 510-9019 Daily updates at jacksonfreepress.com
6
The Jackson Free Press is the city’s award-winning, locally owned news magazine, reaching more than 35,000 readers per issue via more than 600 distribution locations in the Jackson metro area—and an average of over 35,000 visitors per week at www. jacksonfreepress.com. The Jackson Free Press is free for pick-up by readers; one copy per person, please. First-class subscriptions are available to “gold level” and higher members of the JFP VIP Club (jfp.ms/ vip). The views expressed in this magazine and at jacksonfreepress.com are not necessarily those of the publisher or management of Jackson Free Press Inc. © Copyright 2020 Jackson Free Press Inc.
Email letters and opinion to letters@jacksonfreepress.com, fax to 601-510-9019 or mail to 125 South Congress St., Suite 1324, Jackson, Mississippi 39201. Include daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, as well as factchecked.
I
f there’s one lesson this wretched year has taught us, it’s that denial isn’t an effective governing strategy. For instance, denying that you lost an election— by tens of thousands of votes in swing states and 6 million votes nationally and then crafting bald lies about voter-fraud claims—hasn’t worked. Deniers have flung denial far and wide this election, and the most likely outcome is a further weakening of democracy in America with thanks, as always, to Donald Trump. Denial is also ineffective against COVID-19. Gov. Tate Reeves has done precisely the wrong things to quell this virus. He could have led his party and supporters in Mississippi instead of sheepishly kowtowing to the extremists. He could have listened to science. He could have told people in no uncertain terms to make some sacrifices, stay out of big groups, and wear a damn mask. But Reeves didn’t do any of those things because he refuses to lead. We’re now at nearly record numbers of COVID19 cases here, with hospitals at capacity. Flu season and the holidays are underway. A lack of discipline, courage and leadership squandered any “virus dividend” we may have had after our summer virus peak. This week, Dr. LouAnn Woodward of UMMC called for Reeves to reinstate the mask mandate to combat the crisis our health-care workers are once again facing in the state. I hope to hear he has done it before Thanksgiving. Lead, Tate. And stop licking Trump’s boots. In his executive budget recommendation for this year, according to Nancy Loome of the Parents’ Campaign, Gov. Reeves hasn’t proposed a single cent in pay raises for teachers, despite promising raises in his 2019 campaign. He did propose moving $3 million from public-education funding to create a “Patriotic Education Fund,” which gets a paragraph in his 102page document. He explains that: “Capitalism, democracy, and other uniquely American values have been the victims of a targeted campaign from foreign and domestic influence—aiming to destroy the pillars of our society.” Whether the 3 million bucks will go to programs that talk about sitting presidents offering up wholesale lies to try and overturn a legitimate election—you know, trying to destroy the pillars of American society—isn’t clear. TheHill.com seems to suggest this
// by Todd Stauffer is just another instance of Reeves doing what Trump wants, given that the outgoing president established an “Advisory 1776 Commission” by executive order this year that looks to be a typically Orwellian reaction to the racial reckoning and protests against police brutality this summer. Trump’s order reads that “... many students are now taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but rather villains.” Reeves takes a less circuitous route, calling his proposal the “Patriotic EducacourTeSy Todd STauffer
ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY Senior Designer Zilpha Young Contributing Photographers Seyma Bayram, Acacia Clark, Nick Judin, Imani Khayyam, Ashton Pittman, Brandon Smith
Gov. Reeves, Denial Ain’t a River in Mississippi
Todd Stauffer
tion Fund,” making it clear that the point is to toss $3 million at rank propaganda in the public schools. His budget also proposes to force school districts to return to the classroom to maintain their state funding. Virus be damned, what’s important to Reeves is to make sure he keeps beating the Trumpian drumbeat of returning kids to school no matter who pays the price—teachers,
Lead, Tate. And stop licking Trump’s boots. grandparents or the students themselves. In his budget proposal, Tate Reeves makes clear, once again, that he’s against expanding Medicaid, which according to his own numbers would give an additional 300,000 people in Mississippi basic medical coverage. In March 2020, the Kaiser Family Foundation, or KFF, published a literature review of Medicaid expansion studies in
the 10 years since the ACA passed. They found that “[m]ost research demonstrates that Medicaid expansion has improved access to care, utilization of services, the affordability of care, and financial security among the low-income population.” KFF also found that Medicaid expansion reduces the burden on hospitals and clinics that care for the uninsured. Since the ACA Passed, Medicaid expansion improved needs like access to medications for behavioral health, health-care providers’ financial stability and employment. “Looking back on 10 years since the ACA has been enacted shows that the Medicaid expansion has expanded coverage and led to increases in access and utilization to health care services, improvements in financial security and positive net effects for state budgets and revenues,” the report says. Reeves’ approach? Denial. “I remain adamantly opposed to Medicaid expansion in Mississippi. I firmly believe that it is not good public policy to place 300,000 additional Mississippians on governmentfunded health care,” he stated in his budget. The governor then disingenuously writes that Medicaid expansion could cost Mississippi $220 million per year, which could be used to give “every teacher in the state” an annual $4,330 raise. Note that he didn’t propose raising teacher pay. After all, if he got teacher pay raises passed, he wouldn’t be able to promise—or threaten—teacher pay raises anymore. What Reeves does propose is eliminating Mississippi’s income tax, representing about 34% of our revenues. (I guess that’s where the teacher raises go.) Presumably, Gov. Reeves’ team wrote most of this budget before it was clear Trump had lost the election. Here’s hoping Reeves gets off the Trump denial train, and instead focuses on governing the state as his own man. Mandate masks, work to support workers and small businesses through this next wave of the pandemic, fully fund public schools, and let’s finally fix health care in Mississippi. Take on those very real challenges for Mississippians, Gov. Reeves, and you’ll have a good start on a post-Trump legacy based on decisive action and leadership, not denial. Todd Stauffer is the president and publisher of the Jackson Free Press.
