Thank you, thank you, thank you! for this message. Some of my roots are in Itawamba County, Mississippi and I think Mississippi is wonderful! Marie Evans Davis-McQueen ----- Original Message ----- From: <MissyD714@aol.com> To: <MSITAWAM-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 12:29 AM Subject: [MSITAWAM-L] My home state -- Mississippi > > Although I no longer live in the South, I am very proud of my Mississippi > heritage and, as most of you know, never miss an opportunity to say so! The > following is a wonderful tribute to our state. To those of you with roots in > Mississippi but who have never been there, I hope you will > plan a visit. Some folks visit and never leave! > Missy > > MISSISSIPPI STILL BURNING > > > > PAUL HARVEY > > > > Mississippi is still burning. Times have changed, but the incendiaries > won't quit. Mississippi, statistically, could shame most of our states with > its minimal per-capita crime, its cultural maturity and its distinguished > alumni. But Mississippi has enough residual gentility of the Old South not > to rub our noses in our own comparative inadequacy. The pac-media could not > wait to remake the movie MISSISSIPPI BURNING into a TV version called MURDER > IN MISSISSIPPI. Thus yet another generation of Americans is being > indoctrinated with indelible snapshots which are half a century out of date. > The very idea that anybody from New York, DC, Chicago or LA could launch > stones from those shabby glass houses toward anybody else in patently absurd. > Lilliputians have psychological need to make everybody else appear small and > Mississippi, too nice to fight back, is such an easy target. The > International Ballet Competition regularly rotates among four citadels where > there is a sufficiency of sophisticated art appreciation: Varna, Bulgaria, > Helsinki, Finland, Moscow, USSR, and JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI. Only Mississippi > has a satellite art program in which the state Museum of Art sends exhibits > around the state for the enjoyment of smaller communities. No state can > point to a richer per capita contribution to arts and letters. William > Faulkner, Richard Wright, Walker Percy, Ellen Douglas, Willie Morris, > Margaret Walker Alexander, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Harris > (Silence of the Lambs) and John Grisham are Mississippians. As are Leontyne > Price, Elvis Presley, Tammy Wynette, B.B. King, Jimmy Rogers, Oprah Winfrey > and Jimmy Buffett. Scenery? The Natchez Trace is the second most traveled > parkway in our nation. With magnolia and dogwood, stately pines and > moss-draped oaks, Mississippi is in bloom all year 'round. And the state > stays busy-manufacturing more upholstered furniture than any state...testing > space shuttle engines for NASA...building rocket motors. Much of our > nation's most monumental medical progress has roots in Mississippi. The > first heart transplant in 1964. The first lung transplant in 1963. The most > widely used medical textbook in the world, THE TEXTBOOK OF MEDICAL > PHYSIOLOGY, reprinted in ten languages, was authored by Dr. Arthur Guyton of > the University of Mississippi. The Case Method of practicing law, the basis > of the United States legal system, was developed at the University of > Mississippi. Nationally, educators are chewing their fingernails up past the > second knuckle anxious about the disgraceful rate of dropouts and illiterate > graduates...In Mississippi, the state government and two philanthropic > organizations have teamed up to put a computer-based literacy program in > every elementary school in the state. Maybe Mississippi is right to downplay > it's opportunities, advantages and refinement. The ill-mannered rest of us, > converging, would surely mess it up. GOOD DAY. > Reprinted from Mississippi WebPal > > > > > > > </center> > </td> > >> >