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Saturday, December 18, 2010
The Vicksburg Post
THE VICKSBURG POST
EDITORIAL
Founded by John G. Cashman in 1883 Louis P. Cashman III, Editor & Publisher • Issued by Vicksburg Printing & Publishing Inc., Louis P. Cashman III, President Karen Gamble, managing editor | E-mail: kgamble@vicksburgpost.com | Tel: 601.636.4545 ext 123 | Letters to the editor: letters@vicksburgpost.com or The Vicksburg Post, P.O. Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182
JACK VIX SAYS: By this afternoon, Mississippi might have a national champion football team. Go Statesmen.
OTHER OPINIONS
Jobs Young adults getting shut out From other Mississippi newspapers: • The Natchez Democrat: “The youth these days just aren’t willing to work like we had to in our day.” When mature adults get together and start talking about the younger generation, that’s a common saying overheard. That same thing was probably said about the youth of the 1970s, 1950s and 1930s, too. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that level of “they don’t know how good they’ve got it” may be a universal cliché that crosses generations in America.
But today’s youth are finding working more difficult and in many cases it’s not for a lack of gumption or desire. Economic uncertainties have caused many adults who would have already retired by now to hold on to their jobs just a little longer. Who can blame them when they saw their nest egg shrivel up when the economy went sour? If that’s not enough, worries over health care in the future have caused many older Americans to stay employed longer or, in some cases, reenter the work force. That trend also is causing more adults
to fill entry-level jobs that historically have been available to our nation’s youth. The result is that a growing number of our youth, who want to work and learn the responsibilities of being a part of our nation’s work force, are finding their opportunities limited. As our nation’s economy improves, this will change, but until it does the new generation of workers will continue to face steep odds in finding employment and will start off their careers at a disadvantage.
Early childhood education can’t be ignored The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson: While Mississippi struggles with budget issues and tries to keep up with funding the basics in education, it still cannot ignore a longtime pressing need — early childhood education. A group appointed by Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant to examine early childhood education programs met to hear from an education expert on the issue. The lieutenant governor’s Working Group for Early Childhood Learning heard from Steve Suitts, vice president of the Southern Education Foundation. Such discussions are going on in various education and political circles, which is an important development for making progress in this critical area of need. Research is clear that early childhood education is one of the keys for educational success and improvement because children’s brains undergo most
development in the first five years. Those formative early years provide a foundation that allows a child to arrive at school ready and able to learn and stay on a path of success in the early years. Investment in early childhood learning also can save tremendous costs incurred in later grades for remediation, in addition to the costs of children who fail and ultimately drop out of school. Yet, Mississippi is the only state in the South and one of the few in the nation without a state-funded early childhood education program. Only about 25 percent of 3-year-olds in Mississippi and 38 percent of 4-year-olds in the state attend publicly funded early education programs such as pre-K and Head Start. Mississippi Building Blocks, a privately funded early childhood develop-
ment program, has completed a year of operation and will continue for another three years, supplying educational and business resources to child care centers statewide. It hopefully can help in providing a statewide model. It is encouraging that there appears to be developing bipartisan consensus on the need for a statewide early childhood education program. State business leaders with the Mississippi Economic Council see early childhood education as one of the keys for education success and, ultimately, economic success for the state. In addition, early childhood education has become a topic for state political leaders of both parties as the political season approaches. It is important that Mississippi turn the talk and good intentions into concrete action.
Jackson TSA used poor judgment with pat-down The Greenwood Commonwealth: Obviously someone used poor judgment in singling out India’s ambassador to the United States for a pat-down at Jackson-Evers International Airport. Ambassador Meera Shankar was in Jackson as a guest of Mississippi State University. She had met with the Mississippi Development Authority and Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, who has joined a chorus of those criticizing the Transportation Safety Administration for the incident. One of the apparent reasons the TSA selected the ambassador for an
enhanced search was her garb. Shankar was wearing a sari, a traditional Indian robe that drapes across the body. TSA guidelines allow for additional screenings when airline passengers wear bulky clothes. And diplomats are not necessarily exempt from screenings, although sometimes they no doubt are. Let’s face it. The average American about to board an airplane would have no problem with a Middle Eastern-looking person wearing a sari being singled out for extra screenings. In fact, the TSA in the past has been criticized for
not profiling enough. But in this case, reports are that the ambassador was escorted to the airport by an airport security officer and a representative of the MDA who vouched for her. Like we said, the Jackson TSA agents used poor judgment. But unfortunately, screening passengers before they get on airliners is necessary these days. Being subjected to an occasional foulup apparently is just one of the inconveniences of flying on public transportation, even if you’re a diplomat.
OLD POST FILES 120 YEARS AGO: 1890 John W. Condon dies. • N.C. Kline dies.
110 YEARS AGO: 1900
MODERATELY CONFUSED by Bill Stahler
Florence, little daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Miller, dies. • Capt. Hugh Morgan, levee contractor, is in the city.
Martin A. Mendrop, son of Madeline B. Davis of Vicksburg, is promoted in the U.S. Air Force to the rank of senior airman. He is a material facilities specialist at Clark Air Force Base, Philippines.
Jesse Jones says Christmas trade was excellent. • John Piazza is mentioned as a likely candidate for justice of the peace.
90 YEARS AGO: 1920
20 YEARS AGO: 1990
Ashby Woodson is home from college at Oxford.
The home of Randy Chapin, his wife and three children is burned to the ground while the family is out of town for the Christmas holiday. • A federal official is in Vicksburg to complete meetings with Hamilton Heights homeowners who have the opportunity to sell their flood-prone houses. • Services are held for Benjamin A. Ponder.
80 YEARS AGO: 1930 Henry Rollison dies. • Clarence W. Fortner, member of a well-known Warren County family, dies.
70 YEARS AGO: 1940
60 YEARS AGO: 1950 An early morning fire destroys the Top Trim Shop on South Washington Street and leaves most of the city in darkness when power lines are melted. • James Albert
Carroll Baker stars in “Paranoia” at the Joy Theatre. • Arthur Lee Evans dies. • Mr. and Mrs. Robert Haner announce the birth of a son, Randy, on Dec. 4.
30 YEARS AGO: 1980
100 YEARS AGO: 1910
Carr Central Cagers win two in Natchez. • Emma Monteith is at the sanitarium for treatment.
40 YEARS AGO: 1970
Stewart, former resident, is reported missing in action in Korea.
50 YEARS AGO: 1960 Burkett Martin is appointed to the Vicksburg School Board. • Services are held for A.J. Moore. • Dave Strotter dies. • Mr. and Mrs. R.T. Lee announce the birth of a son, Rodney, on Dec. 22.
10 YEARS AGO: 2000 The city’s sewage treatment plant receives the George W. Burke Facility Safety Award from the Mississippi Water Environment Association. • More than 850 gifts are prepared for Salvation Army Angel Tree recipients. • Fire destroys a storage unit behind Price’s Glass and Mirror Co.
Now the U.S. illustrates that working hard, if work is to be had, might not mean a living wage, much less a small brick house with three bedrooms and a bath and a half.
Divide between rich and poor growing wider ’Tis the season for such stories. A front-page piece in The Washington Post declares Christmas “a great divide” for the rich and the poor in our country. I believe. At Tiffany’s, the story said, sales of the store’s most expensive items have grown by double digits. At Walmart, “executives point to shoppers flooding the stores at midnight every two weeks to buy baby formula the minute their unemployment checks hit their accounts.” And Family Dollar is making more shelf room for groceries, its most reliable inventory. I didn’t have to read it in the paper. It’s a divide apparent among my friends, acquaintances, even my family. Some are thriving; some are struggling. A few of us, fewer of us, fall in the middle. I grew up in a middle-class world. We measured differences with a teaspoon, not a shovel. The Joneses might have had a revolving spotlight on RHETA their aluminum tree, gRIMSLEY something to envy, and the Smiths might have just bought a brand-new Ford. But nobody I knew — not even our maid, who arrived by bus every other week — was living on credit and hungry. By the same token, nobody I knew got a mink coat or a Mercedes for Christmas. The number of presents under our middle-class trees in our middle-class houses might vary, but not by much. There were poor people and rich people out there, for certain, but we in the middle far outnumbered them. Not so any more. It’s hard to pinpoint when we, as a society, lost footing on the middle ground. Was it in the 1980s when the middle class decided to act rich — buying houses it could not afford, leasing cars out of its league, running up charge cards like there’s no tomorrow — that so many slipped into poverty? Was it when corporate America exported our jobs, closing mills and factories and abandoning work forces and entire towns? Is that when the middle class disappeared? Or was it a combination of unbridled capitalistic greed and personal irresponsibility that sucked away the large American middle class, leaving those in charge with more and the rest with less? I leave that conundrum to economists who, as in every other field, seem irreconcilably biased toward one “side” or the other. There are always those ready to swear that the rich are deserving and the poor lazy and unworthy. This country was built on the democratic notion that working hard could result in a comfortable existence. Now the U.S. illustrates that working hard, if work is to be had, might not mean a living wage, much less a small brick house with three bedrooms and a bath and a half. Statistically, you are more likely to win the lottery than to become a millionaire. Many would settle for less. After the grand self-delusion of recent years, middle-class turf is looking better and better. We’ve proved that average U.S. citizens are more apt to vote against their own self-interest than voters in other industrialized countries. We rally against changes in an obscenely unfair health care system. We reject policies that would help the unemployed, the underpaid, the uninsured. We tacitly reject living in the middle, sleeping on clean percale not satin, because we’ve been told there is no inbetween. We buy it, along with our baby formula at midnight.
JOHNSON
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Rheta Grimsley Johnson writes for King Features Syndicate.