A few years ago when I first met Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones, I remember him distinctly saying to me, “The University of Mississippi is a better place because you chose to come here.” I am certain that he has told other students that as well. Frankly, I believe he sincerely means those words when he says them. Those words have stuck with me throughout my last three...
If someone had asked me last week who Kermit Gosnell was, I would have thought a distant, off-brand cousin of the frog Muppet. But now I know that Kermit Gosnell is accused of committing monstrous crimes, and the most terrifying part of his crimes is that the state did nothing to stop him. In a trial that began last month in Philadelphia, details began emerging about crimes...
When it comes to weight, we are a nation of extremes. Childhood obesity has doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Mississippi is the unhealthiest of them all, particularly impoverished African Americans in the state struggling to make ends meet and put dinner on the table. Unfortunately, poverty and healthy groceries do not go hand in hand. Yet...
It’s hard to avoid the gun debate. Whether you turn on the TV or your computer or revert to the dark ages and open up an actual newspaper, it’s there. What has grabbed my attention is not the debate itself but the way it’s being delivered. The two sides could not be more different, both in the statistics and sources they use. The words and phrases used in the...
With Margaret Thatcher’s death on Monday, her incredible legacy has been a hot topic in the international media for the better part of this week. And for good reason. Thatcher not only became the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom in 1979, she also went on to win re-election twice more in 1983 and 1987. The changes and reform that her conservative party...
Last week in my column, I addressed my personal feelings on both the mascot and the title of “Colonel Reb.” It is very difficult to separate the two. After all, it is the same name, even though the two identities moved apart as time passed. In that column, I pointed out that I disagreed with the removal of the mascot due to what the mascot meant to me — it...
The most powerful threat to North Korea is not South Korea. It’s not America or Texas either. Some time ago, Google found concentration camps inside the most secretive country in the world. Estimates of near 200,000 North Koreans were found living in gulag concentration camps, forced to work under punishment of rape, torture and often death according to Shin Dong-hyuk,...
Growing up, most of us can recall our parents admonishing us not to waste food by claiming that there are starving kids around the world who would dream of having that food. Although children rightly roll their eyes when they hear this because the food cannot get to the starving, our parents do have a point. There are starving children around the world who desperately...
In my four years as a student at The University of Mississippi I’ve made it my policy to do the following: try and get along; attend class at least 60 percent of the time; regularly cheer for my Ole Miss Rebel football, basketball, baseball, and even tennis teams; completely ignore any and all campus elections of any kind as well as any kind of decisions made by those...
