Recent editorials from Mississippi newspapers:
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Jan. 7
The (Tupelo) Daily Journal on guns being allowed in places of worship:
On Dec. 29, 2019, a shooter walked in and attacked members of the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, a suburb of Fort Worth, and the debate on gun laws again dominated the national spotlight.
Top Texas officials cited the actions of several armed churchgoers who subdued the gunman as a model of how Americans should protect themselves from potential mass shooters. However, Democrats repeated their call for more restrictive gun laws that they say would prevent shootings.
Churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques have all seen attacks by gunmen, showing this violence as no respecter of places of worship.
Northeast Mississippi also is not immune to such tragedies. Less than five months ago, a fatal shooting occurred in a Ripley church on a Sunday morning.
Following the shooting incident in Ripley, Daily Journal staff writer Danny McArthur talked with ministers throughout the area who shared their thoughts on the importance of security teams.
Because it can take police several minutes to respond to a call for help, many area churches are deciding that having security in place may be a necessity rather than an option. In response to the changing nature of the world and these threats, security teams and cameras help make everyone feel more secure.
The Second Amendment, which protects the rights of citizens to “bear arms” or own weapons, has become a controversial amendment. Many people want more laws to prevent people from owning guns to help prevent shootings, while others want to keep this right and not have it limited to allow them to protect themselves.
In 2016, Gov. Phil Bryant signed a law allowing guns in churches, which he said would help protect worshippers from potential attackers. The Church Protection Act allows places of worship to designate members to undergo firearms training so they can provide armed security for their congregations, and gives them legal protections.
We wish we could say that what happens nationally doesn’t happen here, but it does. We can no longer be naive about the need for security. No church, school or business is immune from potential attack.
While there is no doubt this is a political and emotional issue, the threats have to be taken seriously and we must be proactive.
Online: https://www.djournal.com/
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Jan. 7
The (Columbus) Dispatch on cooperation during flood responses:
By Saturday night, the rain has passed and the floor waters had crested and started to recede.
But the work to recover from the flooding continued through the weekend, a reminder that even short-term flooding can put a strain on resources for county and city governments.
And, at the risk of introducing a needly dispute over climate change, the truth is that the flooding incidents have increased and are likely to continue.
In Columbus, especially East Columbus, the impact of flooding is compounded by an earlier era, when areas could be developed with little to no restriction, even in flood plains. The result is that these areas are prone to flooding after heavy rainfalls of even short durations. And with each flooding incident, residents in the affected areas point the finger of blame are current city officials, most often wrongly suggesting that improper maintenance of creeks and storm drains is the primary cause when, in fact, the primary cause of flood is simple topography.
Today, those natural features are factored into development. As an example, when Mark Castleberry built his hotels on 18th Avenue, he was required to raise the elevation of the development by three feet — no small cost.
To suggest that local government is to the problem is unfair. If local government is to be blamed, the government officials who bear that burden have been long in their graves.
During Monday’s supervisors meeting, county road manager Ronnie Burns provided a snapshot of the impact of the heavy rains of Thursday and Friday.
“We had 14 roads closed at one time,” Burns said. “We’ve been working on this all weekend and we’re still working, filling potholes and and fixing the shoulders.”
Burns said the response was a collaborative effort and thanked county emergency services, the sheriff’s department and Columbus Fire & Rescue for working with the county to close roads, redirect traffic and assist in rescues resulting from people driving around barricades.
“It’s really been a team effort,” Burns said.
Unfortunately, these events are no longer rare occurrences.
This summer, when the Starkville Board of Aldermen addressed updates on the city’s codes, there was much discussion over the city’s storm-water requirements. Starkville, like Columbus, requires new development to formulate a plan to mitigate a 10-year storm event. The city engineer suggested a change in the code that would require developers to mitigate water run-off common to a 100-year event — 9.4 inches of rain over a 24-hour period. The city ultimately approved that standard despite pushback from developers who argued that providing that sort of mitigation could be so costly as to discourage growth.
Updating the code to make sure new development is held to a higher standard of mitigation doesn’t eliminate the problems where flooding is already prominent, but it doesn’t exacerbate it, either.
Obviously, a change in code requirements will do little to address flooding problems in those areas where it has been a problem for years. Addressing that problem will be costly — tens, if not hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
There’s simply no painless solution. For those existing developments, continued cooperation between government and non-profit services will be essential.
Online: https://www.cdispatch.com/
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Jan. 7
The Greenwood Commonwealth on people feeling lonely in the social media era:
Here’s a grim report to start the new year from The Washington Post on the social and emotional well-being of Americans:
“According to the health-insurance company Cigna, loneliness and social isolation are rampant in the United States today.
“About half of Americans report sometimes or always feeling alone, Cigna found in a 2018 study of more than 20,000 U.S. adults. Barely more than half say they have meaningful daily in-person social interactions. Studies by the Kaiser Family Foundation and AARP have also reported widespread American loneliness.”
By any measurement, this should not be happening. It truly is easier than ever to contact other people today.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, for example, loves to talk about his mission of connecting the world (as opposed to making gobs of money), but Post columnist Arthur C. Brooks writes that it’s clear social media and its smartphone offspring are great contributors to the problem.
Brooks contends that fewer conversations with strangers also are fueling this isolation: “Not so long ago, strangers talked to each other a great deal in public - in buses, at the airport, in line at the bank. Why? Because there was not much else to do.
“The emergence of smartphone technology, promising to connect the world and end social isolation, has achieved the opposite result.”
Brooks believes that people who are glued to their phones in public are trying to avoid intrusions. He says that stems from a mistaken belief that solitude is more pleasant than talking to a stranger, but he cited research that says the opposite is more often true.
Another factor in reduced contact, he wrote, is the country’s political polarization: “When we politically curate our networks and friendships, most of us have fewer opportunities for new social interactions. If I am unwilling to interact with people who hold … the opposing viewpoint from mine, I have cut way back on the number of people with whom I might make a meaningful human connection.”
To put it another way, a lot of people don’t want to hear opinions that are different from their own. If that is true, this problem has been brewing for a lot longer than smartphones have been around. It’s all but certain, for example, that every person reading this has used their TV remote to change the channel from a political program he or she dislikes.
Brooks said he’s doing two things to reverse this trend. He’s going to try to talk to a stranger every day. He hopes this will show him a number of interesting things “in the real world, not the digitized one.”
Also, he won’t let politics keep him from talking to others, reasoning that, “There is a person under that MAGA hat (or in that Bernie T-shirt) who might be interesting to get to know.”
The bottom line in the battle against loneliness comes down to something our parents suggested: Just get out once in a while. Or, to use 2020 terminology, put down your smartphone.
Online: https://www.gwcommonwealth.com/
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