First,  Thanksgiving always occurs on a Thursday.  That means that most businesses, except for those involved in that Black Friday madness, shut down for Thursday and Friday.  Ah, a four-day weekend.

Second, Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday.  It has an American history.  Even though most of us think about Pilgrims and Native Americans and the Mayflower, there is much more to the story of the holiday.  Check out some Thanksgiving history and debunk some myths on the History Channel’s Web site.

Third,  Thanksgiving is about gathering with family.  Perhaps that is becoming less so, but for many people this is a time for getting most of the family together in the same place at the same time.  Consequently, the busiest travel day of the year for airlines in the United States is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Fourth, Thanksgiving is in autumn, the time of year when leaves are colorful and the season is changing.  The air is cooler and there is a crispness about.  Activities abound in autumn.  Football, elections, school plays, theater, and much more.  It is a busy time of the year.  There is a lot to talk about at those family gatherings.  Autumn is also harvest time, which is one of the main reasons for Thanksgiving in the first place.  The food is changing to cold weather food.

Fifth, Thanksgiving is the kickoff to the Christmas season.

When I talk to people from other states I always learn something about their states.  Likewise I try to share something about Mississippi that is surprising or myth-dispelling.  Last week I had the opportunity to be with a group that found it incredible that the U.S. Grant Presidental Collection is now located in Mississippi.  That’s right.  It’s at the Mitchell Library at Mississippi State University.  Click here to see what I refer them to.  Warning:  you will be impressed.

From Sunday, Novemeber 8, though Wednesday the 11th I’ll be in the West Virginia and Ohio area of rural Appalachia.  The purpose of my trip is to learn how several high schools in such a region have achieved very high college-going rates.  I’ll be on a bus tour with others who are part of an Appalachian Regional Commission project to reduce dropouts and increase the percentage of students who go to college.  If you would like to follow my journey and what I learn you can do so on my Stennis Institute of Government blog.  Scroll down the page and you’ll find the link to my journey blog.  For more information about this project check out the project’s Web site.

I’ll be back here on this blog early Thursday.

NOV. 4, 2009 — More than three dozen thinkers from across the South will gather this weekend for a two-day conference to develop an “Agenda for a Better South” that seeks to inspire Southern leaders to move the region forward. (Read the news release)

“In our increasingly partisan and media-saturated world of small soundbites for big problems, it’s often hard for elected and appointed officials, and other leaders to make serious inquiries and give thoughtful consideration to big problems facing the South,” said Andy Brack, president of the Center for a Better South. “Instead, they often have to put out the fires of immediate problems rather than finding solutions for decades-old challenges.

“By crafting this new Agenda for a Better South, we will highlight for our leaders that public policy matters … and that they can make significant progress for the future by focusing on the big picture for each state.”

Knox Ross of Pelahatachie exemplifies the new breed of mayor in Mississippi. Ross is a CPA by profession, and is a part-time mayor. He is progressive, up-to-date, educated and has a strong bias for action. He understands the value of the Internet. For example, he’s brought free wireless Internet access to his downtown, he’s made sure that his town’s Web site is top notch and he blogs. And talk about downtown revitalization. The town is remodeling its Town Hall and renovating an old hardware store into the town’s first community center. Additionally, the town is redoing its sidewalks along U.S. 80, making them more pedestrian-friendly and brushing them up with some landscaping.

Click on these Web sites for more:
The City of Pelahatchie
The Mayor’s blog
City Works on First Community Center

Do you trust your neighbor?  Are there different levels of trust by state?

These are questions the Gallup polling organization delved into through a survey of over 170,000 Americans in the first six months of 2009.  What they found was that most people do indeed trust their neighbor, but that the level of trust varied by state.  One question used to measure trust was about whether the respondents felt that a neighbor would return a lost wallet.  The lost wallet question has been validated as a measure of trust.

According to the survey, the level of trust was highest in the Midwest and Northwest, while the lowest levels were found in the South.  The top five states for trust were Utah, South Dakota, Vermont, Idaho and Montana, while the bottom five were Nevada, Mississippi, California, South Carolina and Louisiana.  Click here for the complete results and the Gallup article.

From an article in the Washington Times -

In a race testing racial harmony in Georgia’s largest city, some veteran black power brokers say their hold on power is being undercut by their past successes running the city.

“We haven’t always gotten the credit for that, no,” said former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who oversaw the early days of the city’s rebirth during the 1980s. “I brought in 1,100 companies from around the world – $70 billion in private investment – and generated more than a million new jobs.

“But most people think that’s automatic, that that would have happened anyway,” he said with a laugh.

Black mayors have occupied City Hall since 1973, but this year, a white City Council member is leading in the polls, even though two black civic leaders urged black voters to unite against her.

Phil’s Person of the Week is a salute to someone making a positive contribution to the community.  This week I salute LaVerne Edney and the law firm of Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC for their efforts in helping low-income Mississippians with legal representation.

La’Verne Edney is going from A to Z in the state bar roll looking for attorneys willing to represent poor people in need of civil legal services.

Since she joined the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project as general counsel on Sept. 1, Edney has signed up 60 additional lawyers who have agreed to take a case for free. She’s gotten through the B’s in her alphabetical recruitment. There are more than 6,700 practicing lawyers in Mississippi. Read more…

Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC, has accepted La’Verne Edney’s withdrawal from the firm to enable her to accept the position of General Counsel of the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project. Although Ms. Edney’s employment by MVLP is expected to last for two years, after which she is expected to return to the Brunini law firm. Brunini has agreed to make a significant financial contribution to MVLP during Ms. Edney’s tenure as General Counsel to support her work. Ms. Edney’s focus during her employment by MVLP will be on significantly expanding the pro bono delivery system in Mississippi.  Read more…

At least that’s what Nancy Lublin, CEO of Do Something, says in an article in Fast Company magazine. She also says that good mission statements have a goal.

Good advice, but what I liked about the article was that it had four mission statements, two of which were created by the Dilbert mission statement generator (no longer online) and two were from real organizations. Below are the mission statements. I’ll go ahead and tell you that the two organizations are Enron and the United Way. Can you guess which two are not real and which two belong to the organizations?

1. It is our job to continually foster world-class infrastructures as well as to quickly create principle-centered sources to meet our customer’s needs.

2. Our challenge is to assertively network economically sound methods of empowerment so that we may continually negotiate performance-based infrastructures.

3. To improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities.

4. Respect, integrity, communication, and excellence.

And the answer is: (scroll down)

1 and 2 were created by Dilbert. Number 3 is United Way, and number 4 is Enron.

This following is a guest blog from Kesha Perry, on of my colleagues at the Stennis Institute of Government (reprinted with permission) -

Morehouse College. History. Tradition. Martin Luther King, Jr., Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Maynard Jackson, and countless others have roamed the halls and grounds of this private, all-male, historically black institution. Recently, Morehouse has instituted a dress code policy in efforts to “get back to the legacy,” according to Dr. William Bynum the school’s Vice President of the Office of Student Services. He continued, “We expect our young men to be Renaissance men.” This policy was not only driven by the powers-that-be at Morehouse, but also by student leaders. Cameron Thomas-Shah, student government’s co-chief of staff, believes “the image of a strong black man needs to be upheld. And if anyone sees this policy as something that is restrictive then maybe Morehouse is not the place for you.”

Morehouse is not the only historically black college or university (HBCU) to institute a dress code. Hampton University has instituted one, which also encourages its graduate business students with locs or braids to cut their hair. Bennett College in North Carolina has adopted a comparable policy as Morehouse’s.

Included in the new dress code policy:

–no caps, do-rags and/or hoods in classrooms, the cafeteria, or other indoor venues

–no sun glasses worn in class or at formal programs

–no jeans at major programs, as well as no sagging pants on campus

–no clothing with derogatory or lewd messages either in words or pictures

–no wearing of clothing usually worn by women (dresses, tops, tunics, purses, pumps, etc.) on the Morehouse campus or at college-sponsored events.

Those found in violation will not be allowed to attend class until they abide by the new policy. However, repeat offenders could be subject to suspension.

The one restriction that has many students upset is the no wearing of women clothing. Co-president of Safe Space, a gay-straight student alliance, Daniel Edwards believes the policy unfairly targets gays. “Some believe that this restriction is what the entire policy is correlated around. It is all an issue of perception and what manner of image you want to prescribe to.”
Click here to read a CNN article regarding this restriction of the policy.

Dr. Bynum believes this policy “is necessary, this is needed according to the students. We know the challenges that young African-American men face. We know that how a student dresses has nothing to do with what is in their head, but first impressions mean everything.”

(Interviews courtesy of Mashaun D. Simon of the Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Published in: The Black Man on October 20, 2009 at 8:00 pm Comments (1)
Tags: Atlanta Journal Constitiution, Bennett College, CNN, Dr. William Bynum, Hampton University, HBCU, Jr., Martin Luther King, Mashaun D. Simon, Maynard Jackson, Morehouse College, North Carolina, Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee