The Only Certain Thing

Thanksgiving weekend is coming to a close and hopefully we have all had an opportunity to gather around a table at Thanksgiving with family and friends where we have given thanks for the blessings that God has granted us.

For many folks down in our neck of the woods, part of what we count our blessings on fall inro three different categories:  God, politics and college football.  For some, this has been a rough month.

For instance, if you are a Republican and Romney voter, then politically, this was a bad month.  If you are a Mississippi State fan and just watched Ole Miss demolish the Bulldogs in football, this was a bad thing also.   If a person fits in both categories,  then they are in need of prayer to get them out of the depression that has either set in or is about to set in.  Soon, these doubly slammed people will have to read and hear about what bowl game Ole Miss will be attending and then about the second Obama inauguration.  This one, two punch that November has dealt will not go away soon.

I suppose the only certain thing that these people have to count on is God, their faith, their religious beliefs and the goodness of a good healthy church family (even if part of that church family pulled for Ole Miss and voted for Obama).

Today is Christ the King Sunday.  My pastor at Northside Baptist Church, Stan Wilson, preached on how Christ should have dominion over all places and over everything.  He told of a sign he saw in Picayune, MS yesterday that said, "JESUS IS LORD OVER PICAYUNE".  He told of how we should make our best effort to be obedient, to make sure that Jesus is over everything and in everything that we do.

What will be interesting over the next few weeks as we gather again with family and friends at Christmas, will we discuss with one another ways to help those who are without?  Will we talk about helping the widows and the orphans?  Will we help at a local soup kitchen, give a dollar or two to the Salvation Army, take canned goods to our local food pantry?  Will we volunteer to help tutor a student?  Will we discuss how we can promote the Kingdom of Christ in our own community and make Jesus Lord over all that is around us?

I can answer that.  Probably not.  What we most likely will discuss is how in the world Obama got elected again and how stupid some of his policies are.  And while talking about stupidity, who called the plays for Dan Mullen against Ole Miss?  If I know us like I think I know us, that is probably what we will concern ourselves with, down here in the Bible Belt, in the land of religion and politics and college football.

An Independents Advice to the Republicans

Just over two weeks ago, I sat down to watch the presidential election results.  I felt that with the poor economy, high grocery prices, high gasoline prices, increases in health insurance premiums and unemployment at a very high level, that Mitt Romney had a fairly decent chance of unseating President Obama.

First, and some may disagree, but I felt that Mitt Romney was a good candidate for the Republicans.  In fact, he was a much better candidate than John McCain four years ago.  His campaign was well run, his fund raising ability proved to be excellent and he did well in the debates.  

So why didn't he win?  

As an Independent, I would like to give my opinion on what I think are problems that the Republicans must overcome in order to win a national election.  First, from a demographic standpoint, the R's better become a bit more friendly to minority groups, especially Hispanics.  America is not getting any whiter and if a political party wants to stay in power, then they must make an overt play towards issues that might make them more appealing to those minorities.

Second, conservative social issues are killing the Republican Party.  The following are issues that very possibly may have turned off some Independents and destroyed Romney's chances of winning:

ABORTION:  While R's might oppose abortion, abortion will never be outlawed in the United States.   It is the law of the land and no President can overturn that law.  Even some who are against abortion have differing stances.  Some say that there should be no abortion under any circumstances.  Others, like Mitt Romney, say that in cases of incest, rape or health of the mother, that abortion should be allowed.  Each individual will have a different opinion on this issue.  In fact, perhaps the only people who should be able to make policy on this issue should be women... not men.  If an individual wishes to work towards discouraging others from getting abortions then that should be their right and their cause.  

IMMIGRATION:  There are millions of Hispanic workers within our borders.  Many of them serve a valuable service to our economy and for our citizens.  It would be stupid to think that the U.S. government will be able to herd up all of these Hispanic workers and their families and march them across the border into Mexico.  It is simply not going to happen and since it appears that the R's will never get over 15% of the black vote at most, for the survival of the Republicans on a national level, their must be a friendly compromise policy for all involved in this issue.  

GAY RIGHTS:  While many Republicans seem to have some problems with this issue on some level, I think that most Independent voters would have no problem with civil unions between gay couples.  If such couples are already living with one another and share a relationship and perhaps property ownership, then they probably should share financial benefits that other couples share.  In fact, I think that President Obama would have been much more productive had he supported civil unions instead of gay marriage.  I mean, what does the President's support of gay marriage really do?  The support of the President for legislation for civil unions as national legislation would have done so much more for gay couples.

RAPE:  While this is not an issue, it certainly tripped up two Republican candidates and did nothing positive for the Republicans nationally.  Once again, much like abortion, leave this topic as one that women are more qualified to speak on.  No man should answer a question on rape.

EVOLUTION:  From my personal standpoint, I believe in God and have no problem with the theory of evolution.  About twenty years ago, I sat in a Sunday School class with Dr. F.D. Hewitt, a seventy something year old man who had been a Chaplain in the U.S. Navy.  Reading from the book of Genesis as it describes the creation of the earth and man, our teacher asked how everything could have happened/evolved so quickly over a period of seven days.  Dr. Hewitt commented that when we put a Timex on God's wrist and try to make one of God's days a simple twenty four hours, then we have made a very small God.  I agree with Dr. Hewitt.

I would describe myself as an Independent who gave up on the Republicans and Democrats years ago, feeling that both had simply become self-serving.  All of the above is very much my personal opinion.  I feel that If the Republicans cannot transform themselves to be more attractive to minorities, young people and Independents, then I do not know what their long term future as a national party will be.  Once again, this is only my opinion.

A Bleak Thanksgiving: Death of the Twinkie

Just last week, I read about the death of the Twinkie and saw a photo of its funeral. A bankruptcy judge in New York tried to resurrect the Twinkie by bringing Hostess Brands and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) together for mediation, but it was too late.

Evidently, from what I could gather, the judge did not think that the union acted in good faith, having never filed a grievance to Hostess Brands in response to their offer to the union before striking.  To a southern boy who doesn't have that much knowledge about unions and how the whole process works, it's just a shame that Twinkie and his friends, Ding-Dong and Ho-Ho had to be casualties of this strike.

What is even worse is that 18,500 people are without jobs. Casualties of our current economy and perhaps even unrealistic expectations of the worth of their jobs.   

It is too late for Hostess Brands as we have known it for all our lives.  After the Hostess Brands employees gave their eight-two year old employer the finger, Hostess basically told their employees to take a hike.  The company has blamed union wages and pension costs for contributing to its unprofitability. Since last week, there has been a run on their remaining products with many reports of boxes of Twinkies being sold on ebay.com for as much as $300 per box (stupid).  Already, Hostess has received or is receiving bids on the various Hostess products.  I would imagine that whoever purchases Hostess or the rights to their products will not hire the 18,500 disgruntled employees.

Unfortunately, the union was unable to accept the fact that their wages and benefits will probably never equal what they did before.  It is part of life in America these days.  I suppose at least for the time being, the Twinkie has expired.

And for the employees of the 33 bakeries, 553 distribution centers, aproximately  5,500 delivery routes and 527 bakery outlet stores and for junk food consumers around the U.S., it will be a bleak Thanksgiving.  That is a shame.

Mississippi Demographics and the Future

After last week's election, we keep on hearing about a demographic shift within the United States that helped to re-elect President Obama.  Earlier this year on August 2nd, I had written about this shift within the United States and within our own state as it is occuring now.  I would encourage you to read this blog:

 For The U.S., Mississippi and Madison County, Time Will Tell (August 2nd blog)

The following is a breakdown of counties within the state of Mississippi where today's overall white population is greater than it's under age 5 white population.  The generational shift from majority white county to majority black county will most likely occur in all of these counties within the next fifteen to twenty years.

COUNTY	STATE	Population	% White	UnderAge5White/Difference
Amite County	Mississippi	13,064	56.70%	48.80%	-7.9
Attala County	Mississippi	19,466	55.10%	42.90%	-12.3
Calhoun County	Mississippi	14,917	65.50%	48.20%	-17.3
Chickasaw County	Mississippi	17,124	52.70%	42.60%	-10.1
Forrest County	Mississippi	75,842	58.10%	44.20%	-13.9
Grenada County	Mississippi	21,706	56.00%	45.10%	-10.9
Lauderdale County	Mississippi	80,475	53.70%	41.50%	-12.2
Lowndes County	Mississippi	59,671	53.00%	42.50%	-10.5
Madison County	Mississippi	96,941	55.80%	44.90%	-10.9
Montgomery County	Mississippi	10,872	52.30%	38.40%	-13.9
Neshoba County	Mississippi	29,818	59.70%	44.50%	-15.3
Oktibbeha County	Mississippi	47,741	57.80%	45.20%	-12.6
Scott County	Mississippi	28,388	50.40%	37.50%	-13
Walthall County	Mississippi	15,406	52.40%	41.10%	-11.3
Wayne County	Mississippi	20,589	58.80%	47.50%	-11.3
Winston County	Mississippi	19,069	51.50%	36.60%	-14.9

Since our parties in Mississippi and in the U.S. tend to vote along racial lines, I stated the following in my earlier blog:

Hopefully, and to be honest, I don't have a lot of hope, I would love to see two things:  First, a Mississippi Democratic Party that had the ability to truly organize itself and to get over the "we're going to get you back" mentality as it relates to race inside their party.  Second, a Mississippi Republican Party that has the ability to "get over itself" and take a stand that is somewhere right of right of center instead of the extreme far right.  Inclusion is the key word for both parties.

A black Democratic party and a white Republican party will not be good for Mississippi.  Time will tell and time is on the Democrats side. 

I said that then and based on demographics, I believe it now more than ever!

Let's Be Nice

Just this past Thursday, my friend from Mississippi College, Greg Miles, shared a post from a radio station called "Seattle Wolf".  The post was of a note and receipt that someone left on another person's car.  The note is in the picture to the right and is quite simply a very kind gesture.  The note reads as follows:

You do not know me but I saw that you needed some tires for your truck and I wanted to do something nice for a stranger because one day a stranger did the same for me.  The receipt is in the envelope and all you have to do is go by Warehouse Tire on 3rd Street and ask for Steven Hodges and they will be put on for free.  All I ask is that one day you do something nice for a complete stranger.

Later, on Thursday night, I found a posting on my Facebook from Beth Dickinson Campbell.  This posting simply showed an extension cord plugged into an electrical surge outlet in the area that was hard hit by Hurricane Sandy.  The sign posted beside the outlet stated: "We have power.  Please feel free to charge your phone!"

These are two acts of random kindness.  As we approach election day in an election that has not been kind, let's remember that we do not know whether the "giver" in either of these acts of kindness was an Independent, Democrat or Republican.  And further, the "giver" did not care or specify which political affiliation one had to belong to in order to receive their gift of kindness.  I think this is very important.

As we draw to the end of this election, it might be nice if we all just kept our snide remarks to ourselves in relation to the election.  Graciousness and kindness and sometimes simply saying nothing either verbally or on social media seems like the proper response to the outcome of the presidential election.  Words can hurt.  Don't fan the fire of hate and meanness, let's be nice!