Posted on 12/05/2006 5:42:24 AM PST by WKB
ACKSON, Miss. (Dec. 5) - For Mississippian Rick Looser, the last straw came on an airline flight a couple of years ago when a 12-year-old Connecticut boy sitting next to him asked: "Do you still see the KKK on the streets every day?"
That prompted the advertising executive to spend his own money on a campaign to dispel Mississippi's image as a forlorn state of poor, illiterate, racist good ole boys.
"Mississippi has more black elected officials than any other state in the country," Looser said. "The old stereotype of the short, fat, white, bald men in suits smoking cigars just doesn't carry weight."
Looser's campaign - "Mississippi, Believe It!" - doesn't shy from the fact that the state has a segregationist past, or that national studies consistently put it near the bottom in education and near the top in poverty and obesity. But through a Web site, posters, T-shirts and other merchandise, it seeks to show another side.
One of the slogans - "No Black. No White. Just the Blues."
points out that the state is the birthplace of the blues and home to such greats as B.B. King, Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters.
Another says, "In Mississippi, We Always Have Our Hand Out. But It's Usually to Give, Not Receive," pointing out that for eight years in a row Mississippians have given more per capita to charity in relation to income than residents of any other state.
The debate over exactly what Mississippi has to offer came to the forefront last month when Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. said to The New York Times: "Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?" Rangel apologized days later.
Looser plans to send Rangel a shirt with the slogan: "Yes, we can read and a few of us can even write," which is part of a campaign to highlight the state's literary giants such as William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams and John Grisham.
"If he is truly sorry, we want his staff to take a picture of him in the shirt and send it to us," Looser said. "That will close the chapter on his apology."
Looser has spent about $300,000 overall on the year-old campaign.
Looser, president of The Cirlot Agency in suburban Jackson, said the biggest stumbling block remains Mississippi's turbulent racial history. Several of his ads meet this head-on, including one that touts the state's status in electing blacks. The slogan? "Meet a Few of Our New `Good Ole Boys."'
Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which monitors hate groups, agreed that Mississippi doesn't always deserve such a bad rap.
"People think that the Klan and white supremacist groups in general are Southern artifacts, but that simply is not the truth," he said. "We see as many hate groups, and certainly as many hate crimes, in Northern and even coastal states. It's a cliche that has some residual truth, but essentially doesn't describe the situation as it is anymore."
But even Potok couldn't help taking a fun jab at Mississippi: "Over here in Alabama, we say, `Thank God for Mississippi' or else we'd be last in everything."
Looser has also sent his "Mississippi, Believe It!" posters to every school in the state, seeking to instill a sense of pride in youngsters by showing others who have made it from the state.
Such as world-class entertainers Elvis Presley, Morgan Freeman, Faith Hill and Leontyne Price, sports greats Brett Favre and Walter Payton, and Dr. James Hardy, who performed the world's first lung transplant and the first transplant of a chimpanzee heart into a human.
"I have kids in school and I want them to see those wonderful people and know that being raised in Mississippi is not a disadvantage," Looser said. "It's an advantage and they can be anything they want to be."
Philly, then Boston would probably be a close second and third.
Hey, there, dc! I'm doing fine, hope you are, too. Good to "see" you again.
Welcome to the Missippy ping list, bamabaseballmom!
I lived in Montgomery twice.
Once when I was a babe, and the other as a mother.
I, also, spent time as I was growing up visiting friends in Troy.
That's not even mentioning all of the time I spent as Gulf Shores.
I love Alabama almost as much as I love Mississippi. ;o)
I'm having a 666 moment in my replies.
This post will take care of that. ;o)
Anyone who expects people like you to stop being smug "holier than thou" jerks and embrace your AMERICAN hertiage is a fool.
Since you (simular to America-hating European socialists and third world dictators) dislike so-called "yankees", so much, I think I'll play this loud and proud the next time I'm in the south:
YANKEE doodle went to town
A'Riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his hat
And called it macaroni.
YANKEE doodle, keep it up
YANKEE doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.
There was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion
A-giving orders to his men
I guess there was a million.
I'm a YANKEE Doodle Dandy
A YANKEE Doodle, do or die
A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam
Born on the Fourth of July
I've got a YANKEE Doodle sweetheart
She's my YANKEE Doodle joy
YANKEE Doodle came to London
Just to ride the ponies
I am the YANKEE Doodle Boy
From "The Yankee Doodle Boy", a patriotic song from the Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones written by George M. Cohan. The play concerns the trials and tribulations of a fictional American jockey, Johnny Jones, who rides a horse named Yankee Doodle in the English Derby. Cohan incorporates snippets of several popular traditional American songs into his lyrics of this song, as he often did with his songs.
Any town that has their football fans boo Santa Claus, and has a jail inside their stadium, is not some place I'd wish to congregate. That being said, I can't take a trip down south without stopping at Pat's King of Steaks on 9th and Wharton in S. Philly. I do see a lot of fights break out across the street from there, so it makes for good viewing.
and on top of that he is a democrat
http://www.newsmeat.com/celebrity_political_donations/John_Grisham.php
Gaaaah. Like I needed another reason to dislike him. :)
I knew it wasn't spelled correctly, stop taking yourself so seriously and get a sense of humor
I don't know how many years ago you went to college in Cleveland, but lemme tell ya, it's gotten SO much worse.
Good for them.
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