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Introducing ‘Broke Friday’
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mokey “Robinson� McBride: “A lot of my working-poor constituents were too broke to shop on Black Friday. They spent most of their time negotiating past-due payments with bill collectors and credit-card companies. A recently laid-off constituent stood in a long line at the Department of Labor office. A sheriff and his team of movers evicted a family from their home. An underemployed, underpaid and uninsured deejay with a toothache and bronchitis tried to apply for health-care insurance on the Affordable Healthcare Website. “In 2013, my constituents were discouraged by past government shutdowns, insensitive political decisions, callous corporations and the increased nonsense at their mind’s expense. This holiday season, my constituents know the hand they have been dealt and understand that Black Friday Door Buster sales have become blood-sucking profit ploys for corporations and businesses. One of my financially challenged constituents sarcastically re-named ‘Black Friday’ and now calls it ‘Broke Friday.’ “I have received a plethora of e-mails and letters requesting I organize a ‘Financially Challenged Broke for the Holidays Festival’ at Clubb Chicken Wing’s Multi-Purpose Complex. Not only will I organize the festival but also declare the first Friday in December as ‘Broke Friday.’ “With help from the Ghetto Science Team’s Community Improvement Association, the festival’s objective is to feed the hungry, meet the needs of the poor, provide financial assistance and teach practical lifestyle skills. “The Festival will end with the premiere screening of Kunta ‘Rahsheed X’ Toby’s film titled ‘The Holidays Will Not Be Commercialized.’�
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December 4 - 10, 2013
°2EPUBLICAN ,T 'OV 4ATE 2EEVES ON THE *OINT ,EGISLATIVE "UDGE #OMMITTEE´S PROPOSED BUDGET FOR THE ½ SCAL YEAR
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Why it stinks: Since capturing control of the Mississippi Legislature, and therefore the budgeting process, Republican lawmakers have boasted about putting aside about $100 million per year into reserves, or what is colloquially called the Rainy Day Fund. Republicans such as Reeves like to point out that state law requires following the 98 percent rule, or budgeting all but 2 percent of revenues, to allow for adequate funds incase of emergency. But “adequate� is in the eye of the beholder. What’s most hypocritical about bragging about meeting the statutory requirement for reserves is that under leadership of Reeves and other Republicans, the Legislature has repeatedly failed to fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program funding formula, which lawmakers created in the 1990s to determine public-schools funding. In total, MAEP has been shortchanged more than $1 billion or between $250 million and $350 million per year. Considering the troubled state of Mississippi’s public education, Reeves and his colleagues should realize that it’s raining now.
Rethink ‘Family Values’
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Mississippi judge won’t let Hernando resident Lauren Beth Czekala-Chatham get a divorce from the woman she married in San Francisco in 2008, nor is she getting any help from state officials. As Jim Hood, the state’s Democratic attorney general reasoned, “Mississippi can’t grant a divorce in a marriage it doesn’t recognize,� the Associated Press reported this week. Mississippi seems to relish in not recognizing same-sex marriages. In 1997, the Legislature affirmed that Mississippi would not recognize same-sex marriages from other states and, in 2004, a statewide ballot initiative resulted in a constitutional ban on marriages between members of the same sex. What does it say about our state’s compassion that we would deny this family happiness and the opportunity to create new family bonds than give an inch on the same-sex marriage issue just because a few politicians think it’s icky? Icky is the tradition that we see every election cycle, when our mailboxes overflow with slick direct-mail pieces from political hopefuls exploiting their manicured spouses and smiling children to demonstrate their commitment to traditional family values. Right now, the City of Jackson is taking on the Mississippi Department of Human Services over implementing a controversial finger-scan program at the city’s child-care centers. MDHS is facing legal action to prevent it from requir-
ing the scanners in centers that participate in low-income child-care assistance programs. The agency oversees several government programs that affect families, including SNAP food and child-support collections. For the state, the mandate with the finger scanners is a stopgap against fraud, waste and abuse. The state has, up until now, ignored the pleas of people who have concerns about the privacy implications of the finger scanners. Scanner foes, which now include Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba (See Tyler Cleveland’s story, “No Fingerprinting for City Program?� in this issue), also say that the scanners disrupt poorer families that are networks of biological relatives, friends and neighbors. Under the requirements of the scan program, every individual who picks up or drops off a child at daycare has to have a finger image on file in the government’s database. What happens when people who don’t want to have their fingers scanned choose not to help their neighbors with their family’s child care? The family just might fall apart. And if it’s true that length of devotion to one’s familial unit is a measure of moral character, then it makes little sense to prevent families from forming organically. We should encourage and promote the formation of families even if they don’t fit the mold of what we think of as traditional. The choice should not be between a traditional nuclear family or none at all.
Email letters and opinion to letters@jacksonfreepress.com, fax to 601-510-9019 or mail to 125 South Congress Street, Suite 1324, Jackson, Mississippi 39201. Include daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, as well as factchecked.