GREENVILLE - You would think we would get it right by now, especially in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, which rocked this nation nearly a year ago.
But the realities have not resonated with some of the populace, who are simply too content to wallow in the muck and mire of self-pity and victimization.
For an all-too-brief moment, we did come together as a people as many of us watched in horror the devastation and human carnage at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11.
Now we have sunken back into the mode of "business as usual, as the rich get more, and poor get more of the same" moving along our unmerry way.
In the weeks and months following Sept. 11, we have uncovered wanton corporate greed with the Enron, Arthur Andersen and WorldCom disclosures, the stock market has taken a roll on the wild side, Ted Williams' progeny feud over his frozen remains and overpaid, underachieving major league players threaten to strike the national pastime.
But in Magnolia, we have far more systemic problems and issues rocking our little corner of the Deep South. In case you didn't notice, more people are not working in Mississippi these days - 7.3 percent for June, according to the state Employment Security Commission.
In the Delta, the employment malaise is far more pronounced, where of late, double-digit percentages are the labor rule rather than exception. The adjacent Delta counties of Washington. 13.2 percent; Bolivar, 12.9 percent; and Sunflower, 11.6 percent, reflect a slow, but steady increase in the jobless rate.
While new business opportunities are developing in Delta communities, there remains a problem for people finding work - above minimum wage, and flipping burgers - that puts food on the table and pays the rent and mortgage.
The issue is further exacerbated by a Mississippi Legislature unwilling to grapple with a profound budgetary shortfall - impacting Medicaid and the delivery of other human services programs.
Add this to the apparent entrenched inaction of the trial-lawyer-afflicted state Legislature on fashioning some form of tort reform, you have a real problem brewing in Magnolia.
So with all of these consequential issues buffeting this state - placing us all at risk - it was curiously disturbing that the Confederate battle ensign was once again taking up center stage in the media.
When we have so much more at risk, opponents of the Rebel banner are in a lather over its reappearance on public property at the Eight Flags display on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
In quite a resounding way, voters April, 17, 2001, decided overwhelmingly to retain the state flag with the Rebel ensign in the canton corner - Coast voters were even more emphatic.
As has been their method, the Harrison County Board of Supervisors bowed, swayed and finally performed a political genuflect in June, and returned the Rebel flag to the Eight Flags display - representing the eight governments that presided over the Coast since 1699.
So now we have a college student seeking martyrdom when he should be hard at work in a classroom, and haranguing extremist groups on both sides of the flag issue, all converging on a rendezvous with human infamy.
And for what?
Mississippians are having a tough enough time making it from day to day, eking out a marginal existence, yet a loud minority is engaged in a baneful colloquy over a piece of red cloth from a day long past.
Where is our sense of human values where we give more credence to symbols rather than rescuing souls and enhancing quality of life?
There is no discernible crescendo of protest in Magnolia over the wanton corporate greed that has snatched financial dreams from the unsuspecting, failing public schools, an entire generation at risk, continuing violent crime, and a decaying health care system fueled by a lack of tort reform.
Where are the protests in the streets, demanding that government immediately address the business of the people? Sadly, we are locked into the social flavor of the moment - a red piece of cloth, that has no more influence over our lives than those conducting the protests.
