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Hello, I'm David Oles and welcome to Mississippi Happenings.

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Joining me is my co-host, Jim Newman.

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Jim, how are you, my friend?

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Much better than I have been the last week, I tell you.

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You've been fighting COVID for a while, haven't you?

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Between COVID and a cold, yes.

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Well, it's good to see your smiling face and it's good to know that you are feeling
better.

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Today, our topic we want to discuss is juvenile crime and education in Mississippi.

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Joining us today is Scott Colum.

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Scott was elected as the district attorney

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And he was the youngest and the first African American justice court judge in Lowndes
County.

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2015, he was elected as a district attorney for the District 16, which is made up of, and
Scott, you may have to help me out on these counties.

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are Clay County.

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Lowndes County, Oktibbeha County.

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Thank you.

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the home of Mississippi State Bulldogs.

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uh Gotcha.

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uh It also Noxubee, Noxubee?

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Okay.

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Great.

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Well, as you say, I'm from North Mississippi, so I don't know any of these, but he is a
native of uh Columbus, Mississippi.

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County.

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I'm

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I can't even get to Lee County.

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Jim won't even let me come there.

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He is a native of uh Columbus, Mississippi.

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He is a graduate of uh Millsaps College, go majors.

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uh And then he also, then he continued his education at the University of Wisconsin Law
School.

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uh He took uh internships.

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with the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and Tanzania.

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He earned one of just 24 coveted summer internships with the U.S.

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Department of Justice.

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After law school, he was also awarded a prestigious national fellowship and also worked
for the Mississippi Center of Justice.

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welcome.

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We're so glad to have you with us.

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Thank you so much for having me.

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I'm honored to talk about my work as district attorney and talk about how education and
employments are the key to prevent crime.

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Absolutely.

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Thank you.

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Thank you for that.

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You have reading over your resume, you have such a service heart and such a commitment to
public service throughout your career.

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ah Let's talk about, let's start with, and this is something that all of our subscribers
want to talk to because talk about.

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is what's going on in Mississippi in our public schools.

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In looking at the history of public education in Mississippi, ah it seems that it's always
been a challenge uh for lawmakers to come up with a plan.

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And Mississippi still remains

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one of the has one of the lowest ratings in public education.

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And now with the budget cuts and what the uh Department of Education is doing in
Mississippi, it seems like public education in Mississippi is under fire.

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Scott, talk to us about that.

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Well, if you don't mind, can I give a long answer?

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Because I think to understand why I care about that, it's important to understand why it's
personal to me.

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And I appreciate David saying that I've had a career service and that's result of my
parents putting the right values in me, the community around Columbus and Starkville and

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West Point and Noxubee County.

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investing me as a young person.

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I know that uh places like the YMCA are key for young people to have safe environments.

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uh Public school, public education was so important to me in preparing me for college and
then law school.

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And it was just good to have a community of people that cared about me.

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And so when I decided to practice law, I truly got into it not to make money, but

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to give back to a community that I felt like had given me so much.

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And moved back to Mississippi and I was blessed again through uh just support from the
community to get several positions, David, as you pointed out.

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I've been, I've got a lot of firsts on my resume, but the thing that I care the most about
is making sure that I'm not the last.

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And so I've always spent time investing in young people.

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uh

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And so let me talk a little bit.

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That's a kind of a get to why education matters.

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And so I've been district attorney 10 years now.

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And one of the things I've learned since I've been district attorney is that

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The keys to actually preventing crime are education and employment.

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As a district attorney, I can prevent someone from committing a crime again.

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The police can arrest and investigate and prevent somebody else from committing a crime
again, but they can't prevent it from happening in the first place unless the person's

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already got in trouble, right?

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So the best way to actually prevent crime is education and employment.

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And what I mean by education is so many of our young people that find themselves caught up
in a criminal justice system, it's a result of maybe they don't have the right role models

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around them.

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Maybe they have a negative peer pressure, something I call negative peer pressure, where
you have people that are leading you in the wrong direction.

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You drop out of school at a young age and the school doesn't identify the barriers to
learning that you need.

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And so for me at DA, I always try to focus in on what can I do to support education
because that's a key component in the long term of preventing crime and keeping the

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community safe.

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So when I read about the freezing of the federal funds that were promised to our school
district of Mississippi, I was very frustrated by that because I know what that's gonna

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mean.

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I think the number I saw in Mississippi today was $137 million that

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they were that the federal government had agreed to give to our school district and that
they had allocated that money towards mental health counselors, towards infrastructure of

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school districts, towards things that are gonna make our schools better.

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And now those money is frozen.

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That's gonna have a real life impact on so many of our young people in our school
districts.

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And if we don't focus on that and advocate that that money is released, then we're
risking.

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more young people falling into negative traps.

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We had a talk yesterday with former governor Ronnie Musgrove and um he brought up the same
issue and he talked about the fact that we got maybe half a dozen cities that do well

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enough that they can actually have additional taxes to support their school systems.

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The rest of the state doesn't.

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So whereas I believe he said Tupelo could offer 140 different classes, another county
might only be able to offer 80 or 90.

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So the education is not equal.

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How do we go about getting that equality?

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mean, David always brings up the diversity, equity and inclusion.

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That's part of it.

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But Mississippi doesn't seem to ever want to get to that point of making all of our
schools at the same level so that all of our kids get the same good.

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potential education.

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Yeah, Jim, that's a great question.

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think that for me, one thing I would say is I do think there's a disconnect between
sometimes the policymaker and the people, because I just don't think that a lot of the

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public understands the uh how the public schools are funded and how much of a partner the
federal government is to those funds.

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And that's why it's important that you and David

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former governor talk about it because I never underestimate, you know, I have two young
kids, six and eight.

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And I always have been someone to follow the news and follow the politics.

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But once you get married and have kids, it gets a lot tougher.

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And I understand that probably a lot of people, they're not following the news and we're
in a new news environment.

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So that's the one thing I say is I think there is a bit of a disconnect.

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The second thing I would say is part of the solution is we have to be as citizens of
Mississippi,

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advocate for our state first.

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We can't have this viewpoint that we're going to tell the federal government, no, we don't
want money to come to our state for reasons that don't make sense.

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So you look at the $137 million.

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Why in the world would everybody in our state not be united and fighting to get those
funds?

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That's money that's going to help our economy, help our schools, and help our students.

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But sometimes we get in this world where we're in denial about the partnership that we
need from the federal government.

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And it makes me think about senators like Thad Cochran.

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oh You look at him, his record as a senator.

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He understood that Mississippi and our interests had to be more important than DC
politics.

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And that's one thing that's very frustrating to me.

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Where are our leaders talking?

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People who have power could do something about this.

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Why aren't they talking about the fact that we are suffering as a result of DC politics
that are going to hurt our students?

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We do want to point out, hang on a second, Jim.

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We do want to point out that Philip Birchfield and Lance Evans, they did, one of them, and
I forget which one, did contact Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, and asked for that

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money back, or asked for that money to be released.

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so we do applaud them for taking that position.

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Uh, and we have invited them to join us for a podcast about that, but we haven't, uh,
heard back from them, but they have the invitation to come join us about that.

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Jim.

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Well, I find it very, very frustrating that our legislators, both state as well as
national, and we've interviewed a number of state legislators, it seems to me that

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Most of them have a, let's just go along to get along type attitude.

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And that's fine for the six or so cities that have got the money in the industry, like
Golden Triangle continues to develop.

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But for the other 75 counties in this state that are rural.

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It's a tragedy.

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And these kids don't have a chance.

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unless somebody like you come along.

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And Eddie Glowd, who's a professor at Princeton, has written a book and he says, you are
the leaders we've been looking for.

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And people need to adopt that.

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We are the leaders.

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Every one of us need to take that individual responsibility.

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And I'm glad to see you willing to come out and

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make these statements.

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ah I hope the legislators listen to it and quit being like milk toast.

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Jim's what's what is milk toast?

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Hahaha!

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Well, if you ever

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be serious, I don't know what milk toast is.

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Well, if you put a piece of bread in a toaster and then you put it in a bowl of milk,
you've got milk toast.

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Thank you, thank you.

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Honestly.

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a child.

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Okay, I'm sorry, I didn't know.

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Thank you.

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Now I do.

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Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

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I grew up with ketchup sandwiches, but go ahead.

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Well, I loved your comment about juvenile crime and the answer to it is jobs and
education.

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It's difficult for a high school graduate or a senior to uh work at McDonald's and see his
buddy out there on the street selling drugs and driving a Mercedes.

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Yeah.

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How do we get around that?

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What do we do?

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Well, I think we've got to show them that working at, first of all, any work is dignity.

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If you work in McDonald's, God bless you, you have dignity.

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We have to put dignity back at work.

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And part of that means work has to pay.

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You we need to make sure people are making a salary in a way that they can afford to live.

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And sometimes, you know, we don't have, we don't support policies that do that.

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But the other thing is we have to give that person hope.

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beyond their short-term circumstance.

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And if you work at McDonald's, don't think of yourself as a person that is just gonna flip
burgers.

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Think of yourself as the eventual manager.

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Think of yourself as a person that can own McDonald's.

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And that may seem impossible, but there are people that do it.

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There's people, I know people that have done it.

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But it does take long-term thinking.

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And some of the peer pressure, Jim, is not even about economics, it's about culture.

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If people don't see a person or a pathway that they believe is achievable to them, then
they're more tempted to be persuaded by what I would call the streets.

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I mean, can tell you a great story about it.

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It's a case I prosecuted with a guy named, a young kid named Harvey Johnson.

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He was 15 years old and he was out of school one day.

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hanging out with an older guy, guy in his late 20s named Tommy Flowers.

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And Tommy got him drunk, got him high, all day drinking and smoking with him.

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And later that night, he took Harvey to a house uh to shoot at some guys that he had beef
with, that Tommy had beef with.

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He gave Harvey a gun, he had a gun, he went to the house.

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And so the guys that they shot at were ready to protect their castle because they...

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that had prior conflict with Mr.

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Flowers.

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So they shot back outside the house and they killed Harvey Johnson, the 15 year old.

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And so we prosecuted Tommy Flowers under accomplished liability.

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The theory that although he wasn't the person that pulled the trigger that killed Harvey
Johnson, he took them to the bullets that killed him by getting them high, getting them

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drunk all day and then taking them to shoot at some people that he knew were dangerous.

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And after we got a guilty verdict, I had a chance to talk to Harvey's mom.

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And she was happy with the verdict.

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She was glad that we got justice for the loss.

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But you could tell that she still had the pain of losing her son and wondering what she
could have done to prevent him from being with Tommy Flowers at 15 years old, drinking and

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smoking all day.

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What could she have done to prevent him from having a gun and shooting at somebody?

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And so...

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When we talk about young people, we have to recognize there are a group of people that are
vulnerable to the streets.

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And if we let the streets win, that not only is a bad indictment of us on us, but it's
also bad for Mississippi's economy.

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Those are people that are not gonna be taxpayers, they're gonna be tax burdeners, their
productivity's gonna go away because they're gonna be dead.

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are they're going to go to prison and that's going to be a tax burden for the taxpayers in
the long term.

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And, you know, so there's something that we've got to think long term about that.

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And we got to provide opportunities for those kids.

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And a lot of times school is the best option.

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That's where they can get positive peer pressure.

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That's where they can get others examples of leadership and other examples of a future.

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That's where we can educate them about.

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the long-term consequences of bad decisions.

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That's where we can save so many of our young people.

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So when I read that the federal government has promised money to our school districts, and
then all of sudden says, we're going to freeze those funds, which means there's going to

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be less mental health counselors, I can't help but think about what that means for Harvey
Johnson and more people like him.

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I can't help worry that we're going to make more Harvey Johnsons.

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and we're going to stop Mississippi from reaching its potential.

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Because that's what our focus has to be for our young people.

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We have to want them to reach their potential because if they reach their potential,
Mississippi will reach its potential and we can stop losing so many young people.

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So many young people are leaving the state because they cannot, they do not think they can
reach their potential here.

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Thank you for the story about Harvey Johnson.

215
00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:27,533
We know that there's thousands of Harvey Johnsons out there.

216
00:20:27,533 --> 00:20:29,305
So thank you for that story.

217
00:20:30,925 --> 00:20:31,691
Yeah, I appreciate it.

218
00:20:31,691 --> 00:20:32,094
Thank you.

219
00:20:32,094 --> 00:20:33,975
eh

220
00:20:33,975 --> 00:20:38,762
you were talking about that, I remembered.

221
00:20:40,330 --> 00:20:44,891
a saying that or story that somebody told me years and years and years ago.

222
00:20:44,891 --> 00:20:54,604
This fellow was walking along the street and he came across a guy that had a shovel and
was digging and he asked the guy, he said, what are you doing?

223
00:20:54,604 --> 00:20:56,444
He said, I'm digging a ditch.

224
00:20:57,865 --> 00:21:04,337
So the guy walked on another 30 or 40 feet came across another guy doing the same thing.

225
00:21:04,337 --> 00:21:06,347
And he said, what are you doing?

226
00:21:06,448 --> 00:21:08,618
He said, I'm building a cathedral.

227
00:21:10,570 --> 00:21:12,455
And we need to get that attitude.

228
00:21:12,455 --> 00:21:16,713
And we need to get that attitude in schools.

229
00:21:17,717 --> 00:21:18,599
That attitude.

230
00:21:18,599 --> 00:21:20,773
ah

231
00:21:20,773 --> 00:21:31,013
Yeah, I mean, and I've got young kids that are in the public education system, so I don't
have to speak about it from a theoretical point of view.

232
00:21:31,013 --> 00:21:40,613
I can tell you our teachers are working hard, our principals are working hard, but my
youngest is Brooklyn Madison Columbus, I call her Maddie.

233
00:21:40,953 --> 00:21:44,093
Just 25 students in her class, one teacher.

234
00:21:44,093 --> 00:21:46,473
And she says an assistant with another teacher.

235
00:21:46,473 --> 00:21:49,833
Well, any parent out there, any grandparent out there,

236
00:21:49,953 --> 00:21:54,496
Imagine what energy it takes for you to just be with one child.

237
00:21:54,496 --> 00:22:00,170
Imagine not only just, you know, I you're not just, they're not just there, right?

238
00:22:00,170 --> 00:22:02,562
There's one thing you just have there, but you gotta teach them.

239
00:22:02,562 --> 00:22:03,903
You gotta teach them how to read.

240
00:22:03,903 --> 00:22:07,805
You gotta teach them how to, the basic numerical concepts.

241
00:22:07,866 --> 00:22:11,248
I mean, and so, man, God bless our teachers.

242
00:22:11,248 --> 00:22:12,399
God bless our teachers.

243
00:22:12,399 --> 00:22:18,593
And oh that's one thing that, again, we, we, sometimes I get frustrated because

244
00:22:18,991 --> 00:22:20,462
We spite ourselves.

245
00:22:20,462 --> 00:22:27,506
We need the federal government to be as much of a partner as possible in supporting our
state.

246
00:22:27,506 --> 00:22:31,808
mean, most people don't know a big percent of our budget comes from the federal
government.

247
00:22:31,808 --> 00:22:36,270
And let's be clear, because people think federal government, they think that's some thing
in DC.

248
00:22:36,311 --> 00:22:43,755
That's money that's coming from California, New York, Boston, DC.

249
00:22:43,755 --> 00:22:48,617
That's money that's coming to that government that's being given to us in Mississippi.

250
00:22:48,861 --> 00:22:52,012
And I don't know about you, but I love Mississippi enough.

251
00:22:52,012 --> 00:22:55,903
I'll take money from anywhere if it's going to help our young people.

252
00:22:56,723 --> 00:23:04,606
I think that we just have to be frank with our sense and say, we don't need to say no to
money coming from other places that's going to help our young people.

253
00:23:04,606 --> 00:23:15,179
Because if we can get 15 students in the class versus 25, I don't know a teacher out there
that wouldn't say that wouldn't make a big difference.

254
00:23:15,672 --> 00:23:24,798
Is the adequate education formula for funding our schools, particularly in rural areas,
sufficient to do the job?

255
00:23:26,563 --> 00:23:33,777
Well, I think it's important to acknowledge that there has been progress made on reading
and I'm very proud of that.

256
00:23:33,777 --> 00:23:39,440
uh And I think, you know, there was some reforms that were important to make that happen.

257
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:54,308
oh What I think about the formula is we need to focus in as much as possible to get money
in teachers' hands and we have to have accountability that, because the testing is all

258
00:23:54,308 --> 00:23:54,988
about accountability.

259
00:23:54,988 --> 00:23:56,829
That's what it is, it's about accountability.

260
00:23:57,017 --> 00:24:03,242
But we need to make sure that the teachers have the freedom to teach success.

261
00:24:03,923 --> 00:24:15,992
Sometimes the barriers to success are not whether you can read or write, but it's whether
you have food in your belly, whether you feel safe at school.

262
00:24:16,093 --> 00:24:21,897
And so much of our focus now is on testing that we need to balance that out.

263
00:24:22,278 --> 00:24:25,260
And so I will focus on that as much as I will focus on formula.

264
00:24:25,260 --> 00:24:26,469
And we also...

265
00:24:26,469 --> 00:24:29,669
Too often, Jim, I don't think we listen to the teachers.

266
00:24:30,849 --> 00:24:35,949
Teachers need to be front and center as to what are the solutions to these problems.

267
00:24:36,449 --> 00:24:38,689
Nobody gets a teacher to make a bunch of money.

268
00:24:38,689 --> 00:24:40,829
I'm sure it's not surprising you guys.

269
00:24:40,829 --> 00:24:42,548
Nobody's like, you know I wanna do?

270
00:24:42,548 --> 00:24:45,149
I wanna be rich, I wanna be a teacher.

271
00:24:45,149 --> 00:24:46,469
That's not what you do.

272
00:24:46,469 --> 00:24:56,169
So knowing that these people are getting into it with a sermon's heart, we've got to let
them tell us what are the best ways to...

273
00:24:56,461 --> 00:25:01,547
support the students and also we need to pay them as professionals.

274
00:25:01,948 --> 00:25:06,473
So the way the formula needs to pay teachers more, that's for sure.

275
00:25:06,917 --> 00:25:20,366
One of the things that I saw this morning and I was just trying to get the article and we
love and we appreciate everything that Mississippi today is doing and I could not find the

276
00:25:20,366 --> 00:25:36,307
article, but uh it talked about uh the progress that we have made in Mississippi,
especially with the teachers and increasing their pay.

277
00:25:36,687 --> 00:25:39,128
is being diminished.

278
00:25:39,189 --> 00:25:51,516
And also when you talk about PERS, uh which is the retirement fund for the teachers and
public employees, oh how that is affecting this as well.

279
00:25:51,516 --> 00:25:59,480
One other thing, uh we talk about this money, the 137 million that we've lost.

280
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:04,913
uh I'm in DeSoto County, DeSoto County.

281
00:26:05,471 --> 00:26:07,452
It's lost nothing.

282
00:26:07,993 --> 00:26:09,714
Nothing was taken away.

283
00:26:10,174 --> 00:26:25,365
County lost very little, but you look at the poor, poorer counties, the rural counties,
and they were the hardest hit and the most needed.

284
00:26:25,385 --> 00:26:27,727
And that's where they, did that money.

285
00:26:27,727 --> 00:26:28,497
So.

286
00:26:28,677 --> 00:26:31,497
Yeah, and we have to advocate for those students.

287
00:26:34,357 --> 00:26:40,509
as a Christian, it's kind of instilled in me the idea that...

288
00:26:42,149 --> 00:26:46,489
If the school is not good enough for my child, it's really shouldn't be good enough for
any child.

289
00:26:46,489 --> 00:26:54,449
And then I can't, as a Christian, not love somebody else's child just because we don't
share the same DNA.

290
00:26:56,409 --> 00:27:01,309
But we also have to think of, it's gonna affect us.

291
00:27:01,309 --> 00:27:02,769
It's gonna affect us.

292
00:27:02,769 --> 00:27:11,257
mean, those people that are not educated, the outcomes for them are gonna be a lot.

293
00:27:11,257 --> 00:27:12,718
worse than if they are educated.

294
00:27:12,718 --> 00:27:15,641
I don't think that's a controversial uh opinion.

295
00:27:15,641 --> 00:27:20,174
So when we talk about schools, and this is federal money, right?

296
00:27:20,174 --> 00:27:21,706
This is federal money.

297
00:27:21,706 --> 00:27:24,828
So this is money coming from, can we say federal money?

298
00:27:24,828 --> 00:27:25,709
I don't think people understand.

299
00:27:25,709 --> 00:27:30,493
That's money that people in California, New York, but I can't say that enough.

300
00:27:30,493 --> 00:27:36,878
Those taxpayers have decided they care enough about Mississippi, that they want to support
our students.

301
00:27:36,878 --> 00:27:40,611
And all we need to do is to care enough about those students to fight.

302
00:27:40,611 --> 00:27:43,003
to keep the money.

303
00:27:43,264 --> 00:27:47,869
so everybody, this should be something that everybody's on the same page about.

304
00:27:47,869 --> 00:27:58,920
And I really feel like our federal partners need to be sounding the alarm and using their
leverage to get the money released and to get more money, uh more federal money to our

305
00:27:58,920 --> 00:27:59,841
schools.

306
00:28:00,824 --> 00:28:06,884
Let me ask you a question since you've been a district attorney for a number of years now.

307
00:28:07,604 --> 00:28:14,224
Have you ever prosecuted somebody for a...

308
00:28:15,874 --> 00:28:22,314
violent felony that had a PhD or a bachelor's degree.

309
00:28:24,222 --> 00:28:27,056
Isn't that the proof of what you're talking about?

310
00:28:28,339 --> 00:28:29,325
Education.

311
00:28:29,325 --> 00:28:32,005
I've had, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

312
00:28:32,005 --> 00:28:38,825
know, typically the violence is between, is people between the age 16 and 25.

313
00:28:38,825 --> 00:28:45,385
And outside of 16 and 25, almost all of them are people that dropped out of high school by
the 10th grade.

314
00:28:46,285 --> 00:28:53,185
The only exception to that is when people, is really domestic violence, is men killing
women.

315
00:28:53,525 --> 00:28:57,765
That doesn't really have an educational component to it or.

316
00:28:57,969 --> 00:29:02,613
Well, it does have education component to it, but it's a different type of education.

317
00:29:03,654 --> 00:29:05,816
yeah, so absolutely you're right, Jim.

318
00:29:05,816 --> 00:29:11,360
I mean, when we invest in education, we're investing in Mississippi's success.

319
00:29:11,481 --> 00:29:19,178
And that's something that we just have to, we have to be very clear about and we have to
fight for those students like they were, you know, like they were our students.

320
00:29:19,178 --> 00:29:21,099
That's what our Christian faith teaches us.

321
00:29:21,442 --> 00:29:38,612
I often wondered when I turned 16, well in Kansas you got to drive when you were 14, but
my dad wouldn't let me ah drive the family car by myself until I was 16.

322
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:47,303
And when I was 16, he was a doctor and he took me down to the University of Kansas Medical
Center.

323
00:29:47,303 --> 00:29:49,194
I grew up in Kansas City.

324
00:29:49,878 --> 00:29:57,771
And I sat there Friday night and Saturday night and I watched all the car accidents come
in and the knife and gun clubs.

325
00:29:58,352 --> 00:30:06,734
And I learned a lot in those 24 hours of sitting in that emergency room.

326
00:30:07,756 --> 00:30:11,697
And I came to the conclusion that I didn't ever want to be there.

327
00:30:12,618 --> 00:30:14,979
Just not ever wanted to be there.

328
00:30:14,979 --> 00:30:18,460
Whatever it took, that wasn't for me.

329
00:30:19,436 --> 00:30:33,927
And I wonder if maybe that's not a lesson that our high school kids ought to get ah with a
visit to some prisons as a one or two hour requirement for graduation.

330
00:30:34,208 --> 00:30:36,009
Let them see what it's like.

331
00:30:36,910 --> 00:30:39,852
Maybe some of them will decide never to come back.

332
00:30:41,059 --> 00:30:45,332
Yeah, I mean, I think that that will work for some kids.

333
00:30:45,332 --> 00:30:49,894
I think the you got to balance it out with also showing kids.

334
00:30:51,115 --> 00:31:01,361
You know, pathways to success because the dangers of of what could happen need to be also
balanced out with like you could be a doctor, you could be a lawyer, you could be an

335
00:31:01,361 --> 00:31:05,813
accountant, you could be a basketball coach, you can be an agent.

336
00:31:05,813 --> 00:31:08,579
I mean, there's so many things that are.

337
00:31:08,579 --> 00:31:12,731
And it's just we have to expose our kids to more opportunities.

338
00:31:12,731 --> 00:31:18,573
And that's why, in my term as district attorney, I've been really focused on also
mentoring young people.

339
00:31:18,573 --> 00:31:22,085
We have MSMS in my district.

340
00:31:22,085 --> 00:31:24,756
It's in Columbus, Mississippi School for Math and Science.

341
00:31:24,836 --> 00:31:36,211
And for a long period of time, I taught mock trial to the juniors and seniors there, the
ones that want to be lawyers, and went out of my way to mentor them uh to show that,

342
00:31:36,211 --> 00:31:37,431
listen, this is

343
00:31:37,439 --> 00:31:42,753
One, you can be a lawyer because I am a lawyer and if I can do it, anybody can do it.

344
00:31:42,753 --> 00:31:47,016
And then also, I mean, it's true.

345
00:31:47,016 --> 00:31:56,443
And then also, just what it takes to be successful in the courtroom and expose them to
other lawyers, expose them to judges.

346
00:31:56,443 --> 00:32:00,165
And a lot of those students ended up becoming successful lawyers.

347
00:32:00,165 --> 00:32:04,248
One of them is, I'm about to go to her graduation, Ariel Hudson.

348
00:32:04,248 --> 00:32:06,269
She's about to graduate from Yale Law.

349
00:32:06,273 --> 00:32:20,519
And she's from Pumica, Mississippi, know, came from a good background and a great mom, but
you know, she wasn't born with a silver spoon in mouth and she had a dream and Yale off,

350
00:32:20,519 --> 00:32:21,627
she's a Rhodes Scholar.

351
00:32:21,627 --> 00:32:24,870
She's one of the ones that, she wants to come back to Mississippi.

352
00:32:24,870 --> 00:32:28,585
That's the other thing that I would often tell her, go back to Mississippi.

353
00:32:28,585 --> 00:32:29,660
great.

354
00:32:30,309 --> 00:32:31,309
And that's what we need.

355
00:32:31,309 --> 00:32:36,829
We need our students to get that education, come back, invest in their community.

356
00:32:36,829 --> 00:32:38,649
And there's a lot of rewarding that.

357
00:32:38,649 --> 00:32:40,349
I I couldn't be DA.

358
00:32:40,349 --> 00:32:42,069
I got elected DA at 32.

359
00:32:42,629 --> 00:32:46,249
That probably doesn't happen anywhere else in the country except for my hometown.

360
00:32:46,249 --> 00:32:59,989
A place where people knew me, a place where my parents had respect in the community, a
place where I could, you know, build my ideas and have people willing to hear them.

361
00:32:59,989 --> 00:33:01,520
And I'm very proud of that.

362
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:04,733
I'm very proud to be from this area.

363
00:33:04,733 --> 00:33:06,975
I'm one of these people, I love Mississippi.

364
00:33:06,975 --> 00:33:09,077
To me, Mississippi is a negative route.

365
00:33:09,077 --> 00:33:12,660
And our people are just as good as everywhere else.

366
00:33:12,660 --> 00:33:22,088
Certainly, oh we need leadership that can be truthful about what the problems are and
truthful about what the solutions are.

367
00:33:22,088 --> 00:33:27,913
And that's where we've always struggled to me is we've had people mislead the public as to
what the problems are.

368
00:33:28,109 --> 00:33:30,507
and mislead the public as to what's going to suffer.

369
00:33:31,404 --> 00:33:41,044
Why do you think it is that the number one House bill every session is never about
education?

370
00:33:41,962 --> 00:33:47,965
And that is the key to absolutely everything succeeding in Mississippi.

371
00:33:49,165 --> 00:33:53,157
Yeah, Jim, I think our politics has become too nationalized.

372
00:33:53,457 --> 00:34:07,739
I think that's one of the core problems is that you have people who I know that I'm
friends with that I know are Republicans and they know that the policies that will

373
00:34:07,739 --> 00:34:10,065
actually help Mississippi and the ones that won't.

374
00:34:10,065 --> 00:34:15,867
But because they're so concerned about national politics and

375
00:34:16,025 --> 00:34:28,519
how that's gonna play out nationally and national politics is such a uh factor in local
politics now that that misaligns voting and policy perspectives.

376
00:34:28,739 --> 00:34:35,361
So one of the things that I feel like we as citizens have to talk about is we've got to
make our politics local again.

377
00:34:35,361 --> 00:34:42,573
We can't fall into the trap of thinking that these DC public, these DC issues,

378
00:34:42,615 --> 00:34:47,018
are actually gonna make our lives better in Mississippi, because most of the time they
don't.

379
00:34:47,498 --> 00:34:58,775
We gotta have local officials, state officials that are focused on Mississippi, not
focused on a problem in Texas, not focused on a problem in New York.

380
00:34:58,775 --> 00:35:07,932
I mean, for example, the migrant crisis and how that affected states across the country
over the last few years.

381
00:35:07,932 --> 00:35:10,333
Well, that wasn't a big issue in Mississippi.

382
00:35:10,334 --> 00:35:11,245
I we can just be honest.

383
00:35:11,245 --> 00:35:12,111
We don't have...

384
00:35:12,111 --> 00:35:14,751
a significant migrant population in Mississippi.

385
00:35:14,751 --> 00:35:25,111
So we need to have leaders that understand that may be a problem in that another area, but
we've got to be focused on a problem that we are facing, which is we need employment.

386
00:35:25,111 --> 00:35:28,091
We've got to find ways to attract industry.

387
00:35:28,490 --> 00:35:34,831
We've got to find ways to get our young people to stay in Mississippi and grow our
economy.

388
00:35:34,831 --> 00:35:36,671
That's what's going be important for us.

389
00:35:36,671 --> 00:35:41,569
And to the extent that the federal government is a partner in that, we have to be willing
to put

390
00:35:41,569 --> 00:35:44,874
our local interests above national and political interests.

391
00:35:46,146 --> 00:35:52,246
I was reading Jack Reed Sr.'s book about the speeches he gave.

392
00:35:52,706 --> 00:36:04,166
And one of the things that he said is, the things that happen in, and this is quote,
things that happen in my house are more important than what happens in the White House.

393
00:36:05,888 --> 00:36:07,847
And think that's what you're saying.

394
00:36:08,409 --> 00:36:09,298
I'm gonna steal that quote.

395
00:36:09,298 --> 00:36:10,710
That's a great quote.

396
00:36:11,031 --> 00:36:12,512
That is a great quote.

397
00:36:12,512 --> 00:36:16,235
Well, the things that happened in my house are more important than what's happening in the
White House.

398
00:36:16,235 --> 00:36:18,397
And we have to have that mentality.

399
00:36:19,078 --> 00:36:20,929
And Mississippi is our house.

400
00:36:21,307 --> 00:36:22,828
it is our house.

401
00:36:23,209 --> 00:36:33,234
And as long as we're talking about it, ah I happen to be a political nut.

402
00:36:33,674 --> 00:36:39,757
Why do we have so many people that vote against their own interests?

403
00:36:40,258 --> 00:36:47,502
And even worse, in our municipal elections here ah in Tupelo,

404
00:36:49,342 --> 00:36:54,044
with 29,000 potential voters.

405
00:36:55,970 --> 00:37:01,630
The mayor's race was decided with a total of 4,000 plus votes.

406
00:37:03,542 --> 00:37:07,444
That's that apathy is just unbelievable.

407
00:37:10,083 --> 00:37:15,207
How do we, is there something our schools aren't doing?

408
00:37:15,889 --> 00:37:18,531
We don't have good candidates.

409
00:37:20,413 --> 00:37:21,814
What do you think?

410
00:37:23,085 --> 00:37:26,982
Yeah, think so I think a lot about that.

411
00:37:27,444 --> 00:37:33,095
So the issue of how people vote, I think that we have to be.

412
00:37:34,703 --> 00:37:42,624
One of the big issues is in Mississippi, usually the Republican has all the money and
they're only getting Republican messaging, right?

413
00:37:42,624 --> 00:37:48,307
So, I mean, there's a reason why Coke outsends RC Cola and it ain't always the taste.

414
00:37:48,307 --> 00:37:53,648
They Coke spends 10 more times advertising their product than RC Cola does.

415
00:37:53,943 --> 00:38:04,495
And so uh that's one thing we typically don't have competitive elections, especially
statewide elections, because the Democrat isn't able to raise the money necessary to even.

416
00:38:04,495 --> 00:38:06,196
penetrate a message.

417
00:38:06,416 --> 00:38:14,742
when the candidate can't penetrate the message, then the reality is it defaults back into
national politics.

418
00:38:14,742 --> 00:38:22,488
So they think about what some national Democrat views on the issue because they don't know
what this particular issue, this particular candidate said.

419
00:38:22,488 --> 00:38:25,440
When we do have funded candidates, they do relatively well.

420
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:27,131
You look at Brandon Predeci's race.

421
00:38:27,131 --> 00:38:31,924
He did a very strong race going against an incumbent governor because he was able to raise
the money.

422
00:38:31,924 --> 00:38:33,007
He also

423
00:38:33,007 --> 00:38:37,168
which is going to my second part, Jim, he found issues that people care about.

424
00:38:37,168 --> 00:38:41,089
When you run for office, you have to find issues that people care about.

425
00:38:41,229 --> 00:38:44,950
And that's something that some of our candidates struggle with.

426
00:38:44,950 --> 00:38:47,221
And so that's the next thing.

427
00:38:47,221 --> 00:38:51,862
Now, the municipal elections, Jim, it was true in Columbus.

428
00:38:51,862 --> 00:38:53,083
Our turnout was very, very low.

429
00:38:53,083 --> 00:38:58,134
We had a very competitive primary with two candidates that were all both in elected
office.

430
00:38:58,134 --> 00:39:01,695
And then we had, we got a general election coming up in June that...

431
00:39:02,072 --> 00:39:07,635
I hope is well, hopefully there's high turnout, but I have my doubts.

432
00:39:07,996 --> 00:39:13,050
That's a question that is harder to solve.

433
00:39:13,050 --> 00:39:31,329
really, you know, it's been a trend for a while and part of me thinks that in some ways I
blame some of the elected officials and some people that have influence.

434
00:39:31,329 --> 00:39:38,324
not being clear about what benefits that you get from good governance.

435
00:39:38,324 --> 00:39:41,607
know, like let's take Medicaid, for example.

436
00:39:41,607 --> 00:39:44,809
When you say, listen, I want to protect Medicaid.

437
00:39:45,710 --> 00:39:53,696
A lot of people, if you're not on Medicaid or if you don't know someone on Medicaid, you
may not think about how that affects Mississippi.

438
00:39:53,696 --> 00:39:58,269
Well, we need to make sure that we break that down in a way.

439
00:39:58,659 --> 00:40:02,241
Medicaid pays for a lot of the people that are in our nursing homes.

440
00:40:02,241 --> 00:40:14,666
So there's a lot of elderly people that are receiving federal money, again, coming from
outside of Mississippi, that helps our elderly people have the care and support they need

441
00:40:14,685 --> 00:40:20,888
at a time where it's necessary for us to be there for them.

442
00:40:21,009 --> 00:40:27,371
It also helps the businesses because those nursing homes, they are able to provide that
care.

443
00:40:27,833 --> 00:40:38,763
So if you take that money away, that's going to affect not only those elders, not only
those businesses, that's gonna hurt communities, because there's gonna be anti-growth.

444
00:40:38,763 --> 00:40:39,946
All so we have to break that down.

445
00:40:39,946 --> 00:40:41,887
You talk about hospitals.

446
00:40:41,967 --> 00:40:54,251
So many of our children that are born in Mississippi are on Medicaid, and the federal
government is helping to reimburse the hospital, pay the hospitals for that care.

447
00:40:54,251 --> 00:40:55,983
If you take that money away,

448
00:40:55,983 --> 00:41:06,763
That's not only gonna make our births more dangerous, it's going to make the hospitals,
because the hospitals are gonna be there for the mothers.

449
00:41:06,763 --> 00:41:14,103
They're gonna have to, not like, can't imagine, I don't think it's not legal to do it, but
you're not gonna turn away a pregnant person and say, listen, I'm not gonna let you have a

450
00:41:14,103 --> 00:41:14,643
child.

451
00:41:14,643 --> 00:41:15,883
That's not gonna happen.

452
00:41:15,883 --> 00:41:18,643
The question is, are you gonna get paid for it?

453
00:41:18,643 --> 00:41:23,223
And we need our hospitals.

454
00:41:23,643 --> 00:41:24,723
Jim, I don't wanna talk too long.

455
00:41:24,723 --> 00:41:26,183
Do have another question you wanna ask?

456
00:41:26,914 --> 00:41:27,585
Well, that's fine.

457
00:41:27,585 --> 00:41:30,697
mean, you're on a roll and I'm right there with you.

458
00:41:30,697 --> 00:41:44,888
ah My wife was a healthcare lawyer and I'm very familiar with the hospital situation and
talk about the nursing homes.

459
00:41:45,750 --> 00:41:56,278
One of the interesting things that I found out in talking to former governor Musgrove is
that the majority of people that are in the nursing homes

460
00:41:56,714 --> 00:41:57,815
are white.

461
00:41:59,137 --> 00:42:05,465
And you would think that the majority of the state is white Republicans.

462
00:42:06,007 --> 00:42:11,904
And why wouldn't they want to look out for their grandparents or their parents?

463
00:42:13,824 --> 00:42:15,471
Are they just gonna let them die?

464
00:42:15,471 --> 00:42:19,563
I'm sorry, go ahead.

465
00:42:19,563 --> 00:42:20,243
think they do.

466
00:42:20,243 --> 00:42:21,663
I think people, you know, I think they do.

467
00:42:21,663 --> 00:42:22,963
I think they're just a disconnect.

468
00:42:22,963 --> 00:42:29,763
When you say Medicaid, there's been marketing and branding that makes them think that
that's a democratic thing.

469
00:42:29,763 --> 00:42:31,563
That only helps Democrats.

470
00:42:31,563 --> 00:42:36,163
Well, the reality is, you know, the hospital don't care if you're a Democrat or
Republican.

471
00:42:36,163 --> 00:42:38,803
The nursing home don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican.

472
00:42:38,983 --> 00:42:42,823
And our mothers don't care if they're Democrat or Republican when they're having a child.

473
00:42:43,651 --> 00:42:48,234
We, but we've got, we just have to, we have to message that and we have to be aggressive.

474
00:42:48,234 --> 00:42:52,076
We have to take advantage of platforms like you all created.

475
00:42:52,276 --> 00:42:54,597
Like you said at the beginning, Jim, we are the solution.

476
00:42:54,597 --> 00:42:56,458
Nobody's coming to save us.

477
00:42:56,599 --> 00:42:57,979
Nobody's coming to save us.

478
00:42:57,979 --> 00:43:08,965
We're going to have to fight for the state we love ourselves and doing things like you all
are doing, just doing a podcast, putting it out there, forcing the public to actually hear

479
00:43:09,266 --> 00:43:11,619
another point of view because

480
00:43:11,619 --> 00:43:15,410
The one thing I've learned from being DA in 10 years is I do a bunch of grand juries,
right?

481
00:43:15,410 --> 00:43:19,881
So big part of being DA is you impede on grand juries.

482
00:43:19,881 --> 00:43:26,383
Grand juries are made up of 25 random citizens selected for that term of court.

483
00:43:26,503 --> 00:43:30,444
So it's going to be Democrats, going to be Republicans, it's going to be all ages.

484
00:43:30,524 --> 00:43:39,917
And through that experience, I have just learned how much Mississippians have in common,
how much they care about their schools, how much they care about their communities, how

485
00:43:39,917 --> 00:43:41,847
much they care about their hospitals.

486
00:43:41,915 --> 00:43:49,400
But there's a disconnect between what they view and what their politicians, too many of
our politicians are delivering.

487
00:43:49,720 --> 00:44:00,929
And we're not doing, particularly the people such as myself that care about our state,
we're not doing enough of a job of telling the stories that matter to people and

488
00:44:00,929 --> 00:44:08,194
explaining why these policies, connecting the stories, the nursing homes and the policies.

489
00:44:08,194 --> 00:44:10,295
We got to connect the stories and the policies.

490
00:44:10,295 --> 00:44:12,200
in a way that resonate with people.

491
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:18,515
And we got to be able to raise money to get it out because, know, the current politics,
you got to money.

492
00:44:19,104 --> 00:44:23,221
In, down in your district, do you have a drug court?

493
00:44:23,221 --> 00:44:25,444
Judge Acock up here does.

494
00:44:25,445 --> 00:44:26,906
Do you have one?

495
00:44:28,510 --> 00:44:31,294
Does it, does it work well for you?

496
00:44:31,315 --> 00:44:32,676
Oh, absolutely.

497
00:44:32,676 --> 00:44:37,439
So, I mean, the reality is anybody that's dealt with drug addiction knows it's a public
health crisis.

498
00:44:37,439 --> 00:44:43,693
I mean, it's, you know, it's not something that going to jail is going to fix or prison is
going to fix for the most part.

499
00:44:43,693 --> 00:44:48,587
There's some people that might go for six months and they say, listen, I'm going to stop
using drugs.

500
00:44:48,587 --> 00:44:50,688
Those typically aren't your addicts.

501
00:44:50,988 --> 00:44:56,332
For addicts, you're going to have to have, you're have to treat it like a public health
issue.

502
00:44:56,332 --> 00:44:57,993
And that's what drug court does.

503
00:44:57,993 --> 00:44:59,584
It focuses on rehabilitation.

504
00:44:59,584 --> 00:45:01,315
It focuses on rehab.

505
00:45:01,471 --> 00:45:15,202
on AA, NA, it puts you around people that are also suffered from drug addiction or alcohol
addiction in a way that reinforces the possibility of you getting over it.

506
00:45:15,583 --> 00:45:18,705
so it's been very successful in our area.

507
00:45:18,705 --> 00:45:24,820
But it's one of those things, David and Jim, that it's kind of tricky because you don't
hear about success stories, right?

508
00:45:24,820 --> 00:45:27,532
Let's imagine 10 people do drug court.

509
00:45:27,873 --> 00:45:30,979
Nine of them are very, very successful.

510
00:45:30,979 --> 00:45:42,772
move on and have great lives and know, taxpayers, fathers, mothers to their kids, you
know, help their parents like just the model citizens that we need for our state to

511
00:45:42,772 --> 00:45:43,522
progress.

512
00:45:43,522 --> 00:45:50,144
But one person re-offends, commits another crime and you know, does something bad.

513
00:45:50,144 --> 00:46:00,271
From a criminal justice system, that one person is probably gonna make the news, they're
probably gonna be profiled, it could be easy just to focus on that one person.

514
00:46:00,271 --> 00:46:04,891
and not remember the nine people that you didn't hear about because it's their stories,
you're not gonna hear about them.

515
00:46:04,891 --> 00:46:11,771
They're gonna move on and they're not gonna wanna go, you know, do a big rally, you know,
how was success for a drug court?

516
00:46:11,771 --> 00:46:14,691
Let me tell you about the worst time of my life and how I got over it.

517
00:46:14,691 --> 00:46:16,051
They're not gonna really wanna do that.

518
00:46:16,051 --> 00:46:18,951
They're gonna wanna to be thinking about the future.

519
00:46:18,951 --> 00:46:27,831
And so as a DA, I always keep in mind, can't, from a public policy perspective, I can't
think about things from the worst outcome.

520
00:46:27,831 --> 00:46:29,639
I also have to consider the best outcome.

521
00:46:30,594 --> 00:46:44,711
Yeah, we've got a city attorney up here, Keith Babs, that does a wonderful job,
particularly with the youth that get in trouble, trying to find a way to get them out of

522
00:46:44,711 --> 00:46:48,302
trouble and back on road to success.

523
00:46:48,743 --> 00:46:55,956
And it seems like you have that same opportunity ah when you get youth in front of you.

524
00:46:56,737 --> 00:47:01,241
Absolutely, it's a beautiful opportunity and I look and I love helping young people.

525
00:47:01,241 --> 00:47:05,155
We're getting too many of them too late.

526
00:47:05,155 --> 00:47:17,837
That's why I'm focused more downstream, more focused on prevention and talking about
prevention because I don't, like I told the story of Harvey Johnson, it's my obligation, I

527
00:47:17,837 --> 00:47:22,861
feel like as a Christian, as a public servant, as a father.

528
00:47:22,945 --> 00:47:29,685
to try to prevent us from losing as many young people as we currently are.

529
00:47:30,918 --> 00:47:36,663
We live up here in North Mississippi in the so-called Bible Belt.

530
00:47:37,064 --> 00:47:40,227
You would think there would be more people think that way.

531
00:47:40,528 --> 00:47:42,883
And take action.

532
00:47:42,883 --> 00:47:44,151
you

533
00:47:45,344 --> 00:47:48,551
but sometimes it just, I don't know.

534
00:47:48,551 --> 00:47:50,138
ah

535
00:47:54,858 --> 00:47:57,405
Sunday sometimes just comes and goes.

536
00:47:58,989 --> 00:48:15,998
I want to uh back up just a little bit and ah earlier you talked about immigrations and
immigrants ah in DeSoto County and I'm not going to use his name, but he is a district

537
00:48:15,998 --> 00:48:18,229
attorney in DeSoto County.

538
00:48:18,510 --> 00:48:21,111
You know who I'm talking about.

539
00:48:21,251 --> 00:48:29,195
And also one of our representatives, you know, they had proposed a bounty

540
00:48:29,833 --> 00:48:30,923
law.

541
00:48:31,925 --> 00:48:39,591
And we talk about Christian values and love in our neighbor.

542
00:48:39,812 --> 00:48:55,605
And here we had two people willing to pay Mississippians a thousand dollars if they would
go out and find an illegal immigrant.

543
00:48:55,605 --> 00:48:58,827
Now that's that's sad.

544
00:48:58,827 --> 00:49:04,221
And that's a sad state of affairs ah for our state and for our country.

545
00:49:04,221 --> 00:49:05,427
I just wanted to throw up.

546
00:49:05,427 --> 00:49:12,194
you because there is no such thing as an illegal immigrant.

547
00:49:12,555 --> 00:49:19,962
There are undocumented immigrants, but there's no illegal immigrant.

548
00:49:20,103 --> 00:49:23,606
They're just undocumented immigrants.

549
00:49:24,299 --> 00:49:29,912
And the way I would think about that, David and Jim, is again, always focused on the
actual problems.

550
00:49:29,912 --> 00:49:35,765
Now I can imagine the Soto County that there is, I'm sure that there's some crime in the
Soto, David.

551
00:49:35,765 --> 00:49:39,597
I mean, I know you probably feel safe, but I can imagine.

552
00:49:39,597 --> 00:49:41,321
of jail last night.

553
00:49:44,874 --> 00:49:55,638
I can imagine that you feel safe and I know your district wants you to feel safe, but I'm
sure there's some crime, there's some violence.

554
00:49:55,739 --> 00:50:02,041
And so for me, as public officials, we have to be focused on the actual problem.

555
00:50:02,041 --> 00:50:11,715
I just can't imagine that, I mean, there's so many practical problems with that proposal,
but from a moral and ethical standpoint,

556
00:50:11,715 --> 00:50:23,769
You also have to go back to, we want to encourage our citizens to be, I mean, just the
idea that they will be trying, like how are they gonna know whether the person here is

557
00:50:23,769 --> 00:50:24,989
here legally or not?

558
00:50:24,989 --> 00:50:33,225
And that's what, and so, yeah, I mean, it's a, I don't think that got anywhere.

559
00:50:33,225 --> 00:50:39,293
I remember having conversations with other district attorneys and it was not well
supported within our organization.

560
00:50:40,416 --> 00:50:42,545
I didn't have any support to be honest with you.

561
00:50:42,989 --> 00:50:43,853
Good.

562
00:50:45,358 --> 00:50:56,548
It seems like our legislators tend to pick on small issues and make them sound like
mountains.

563
00:50:58,302 --> 00:51:06,436
And then they spend the entire legislative session trying to figure out ah what they're
going to do with it.

564
00:51:07,037 --> 00:51:10,619
And then they end up like this one with no budget.

565
00:51:12,020 --> 00:51:14,001
We still don't have a budget.

566
00:51:14,301 --> 00:51:18,543
And June or July 1st coming up pretty fast.

567
00:51:19,164 --> 00:51:25,427
And the governor's made it very clear that if they don't present a budget, he can run the
government without them.

568
00:51:28,295 --> 00:51:28,914
I'm not...

569
00:51:28,914 --> 00:51:39,399
way, Jim, ah excuse me, by the way, Jim, the district attorney in DeSoto County used the
term illegal.

570
00:51:39,830 --> 00:51:41,083
Well, he's wrong.

571
00:51:41,126 --> 00:51:43,895
It's undocumented immigrant.

572
00:51:45,709 --> 00:51:47,329
I'm just telling you what I read.

573
00:51:47,329 --> 00:51:48,072
Okay.

574
00:51:48,072 --> 00:51:48,672
him.

575
00:51:48,672 --> 00:51:50,712
You can correct him publicly.

576
00:51:53,298 --> 00:52:00,522
I have no intention to have any conversations, any correspondence with that man, just so
you know.

577
00:52:00,522 --> 00:52:06,316
your birth certificate, in which case you might be undocumented.

578
00:52:06,773 --> 00:52:07,995
I could be.

579
00:52:08,113 --> 00:52:09,280
I could be.

580
00:52:10,157 --> 00:52:14,206
Well, I'm sure you guys keep y'all birth certificates very close and near to your heart.

581
00:52:14,252 --> 00:52:15,268
Uh-uh.

582
00:52:18,977 --> 00:52:21,674
Hell, I don't even know where mine is, sorry.

583
00:52:22,019 --> 00:52:26,007
Well, my mom has mine to be honest with you, but she's got somewhere else, so.

584
00:52:26,440 --> 00:52:28,313
yeah, you're in good shape.

585
00:52:28,313 --> 00:52:29,201
Yeah.

586
00:52:29,559 --> 00:52:34,871
What's the, of the things we've talked about today?

587
00:52:36,628 --> 00:52:39,332
and all the things that we've left out.

588
00:52:40,534 --> 00:52:48,938
What are maybe the top two or three items that you would like to see the next legislature
focus on?

589
00:52:50,925 --> 00:52:59,435
Well, employment is when we haven't talked as much about, you you pointed out Jim that our
area has done well with industries.

590
00:52:59,435 --> 00:53:02,005
uh And that's very true.

591
00:53:02,005 --> 00:53:10,348
I we now have a aluminum plant that uh is being built in Lowndes County next to our steel
plant.

592
00:53:10,348 --> 00:53:12,089
And that's...

593
00:53:12,321 --> 00:53:23,600
transformative because I know young people that work at those plants that are able to have
a salary where they have filled dignity in their employment and they can take care of

594
00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:24,491
their family.

595
00:53:24,491 --> 00:53:28,440
They can, you know, maybe afford a vacation every now and then.

596
00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:33,618
oh Things that I feel like Mississippians deserve.

597
00:53:33,618 --> 00:53:39,883
And so I think we've got to figure out ways to spread that throughout the state.

598
00:53:39,883 --> 00:53:41,624
And we've got to think about

599
00:53:42,537 --> 00:53:48,839
employment opportunities that are realistic for where the future is going with
manufacturing.

600
00:53:48,839 --> 00:53:51,981
I don't think textile plants are coming back to Mississippi.

601
00:53:51,981 --> 00:53:58,863
It's just the competition for that labor is too much of a race to the bottom.

602
00:53:58,863 --> 00:54:03,785
And it's also going to be probably soon enough replaced by machines.

603
00:54:04,425 --> 00:54:17,468
How can we be, so the one thing I would be thinking about if I was a state legislator is
how can we be proactive in trying to find the manufacturing and the economies of the

604
00:54:17,468 --> 00:54:18,379
future?

605
00:54:18,379 --> 00:54:26,065
Because the future is always won by the people that can see it coming first.

606
00:54:26,266 --> 00:54:29,549
And Mississippi needs to have leaders that are not.

607
00:54:29,945 --> 00:54:33,065
at the bottom of that, or at the top of it.

608
00:54:33,225 --> 00:54:47,985
And there's some opportunities with software, with AI, with modern manufacturing where we
can be ahead of the scale that could make a big difference for our young people.

609
00:54:47,985 --> 00:54:49,585
And that was going to be better for us.

610
00:54:49,585 --> 00:54:51,385
It's going to keep young people here.

611
00:54:51,385 --> 00:54:54,205
It's going to reduce crime.

612
00:54:54,205 --> 00:54:55,985
It's going to build communities.

613
00:54:56,045 --> 00:54:57,665
It's going to build cities.

614
00:54:57,665 --> 00:54:59,525
It's going to build our state.

615
00:54:59,865 --> 00:55:02,517
oh And we need to make sure it's spread out.

616
00:55:02,517 --> 00:55:03,901
We can't have it all in one area.

617
00:55:03,901 --> 00:55:05,213
We've got to spread it out.

618
00:55:06,336 --> 00:55:14,834
Do we have the employment in our rural counties to do something like that?

619
00:55:16,033 --> 00:55:19,054
I think that we do, especially if we open up opportunities.

620
00:55:19,054 --> 00:55:31,317
uh One of the things that I feel very strongly about is people that have been convicted of
crimes and have served their time, we've got to figure out ways to open up opportunity for

621
00:55:31,317 --> 00:55:32,518
them for employment.

622
00:55:32,518 --> 00:55:43,600
I mean, I feel like that's a untapped labor market in Mississippi that we've got to
encourage and we've got to support and we've got to...

623
00:55:45,101 --> 00:55:53,145
think about as potential employees, when you think about, people think about workforce
training, but we gotta make sure that we're including a population of people that find it

624
00:55:53,145 --> 00:55:57,747
difficult to find employment when we think about our rural communities.

625
00:55:57,747 --> 00:56:00,644
And so, you know, there's no easy fixes here.

626
00:56:00,644 --> 00:56:03,245
I'm not gonna be, you know, I'm not gonna be.

627
00:56:03,245 --> 00:56:05,396
disingenuous, there's no easy fixes.

628
00:56:05,396 --> 00:56:19,312
But if someone really cares and loves Mississippi, I think that we got to be very, very
honest about with ourselves and with the population about what we need to be successful.

629
00:56:19,312 --> 00:56:22,531
And that is we need a federal government as a partner.

630
00:56:22,531 --> 00:56:26,052
We don't need to be fighting the federal government saying we don't want money.

631
00:56:26,052 --> 00:56:26,902
That's okay.

632
00:56:26,902 --> 00:56:29,243
Don't give us $137 million.

633
00:56:29,243 --> 00:56:29,853
That's okay.

634
00:56:29,853 --> 00:56:31,844
We don't need the money for our nursing homes.

635
00:56:31,844 --> 00:56:34,105
We don't need the money for our hospitals.

636
00:56:34,105 --> 00:56:35,875
We don't need the money for our roads.

637
00:56:35,875 --> 00:56:37,966
We don't need the money for our water infrastructure.

638
00:56:37,966 --> 00:56:39,586
We'll do it ourselves.

639
00:56:39,586 --> 00:56:43,267
I think that mentality is not serving the citizens of Mississippi well.

640
00:56:43,267 --> 00:56:48,409
We need more uh Mississippi in DC, unless DC ain't Mississippi.

641
00:56:49,036 --> 00:56:51,325
I've often thought that...

642
00:56:54,646 --> 00:57:00,980
Companies look to see if there's sufficient employment or employees.

643
00:57:01,381 --> 00:57:22,815
And I've often wondered why the state has not created ah several four county areas ah and
called them enterprise zones because if a company like uh New Core Steel uh were to locate

644
00:57:22,815 --> 00:57:24,626
in Oktibbeha County.

645
00:57:25,367 --> 00:57:27,150
Yeah, they were in there.

646
00:57:28,086 --> 00:57:34,111
draw employees from the three or four counties around County.

647
00:57:34,512 --> 00:57:37,434
And that would be such a boost.

648
00:57:37,434 --> 00:57:44,760
And then they could spread the wealth between the school systems and start building the
rural areas.

649
00:57:45,301 --> 00:57:49,874
And I've often wondered if something like that should not be looked at.

650
00:57:50,777 --> 00:57:53,197
Well, that's basically what we've done in our area.

651
00:57:53,377 --> 00:58:06,377
I you know, we have a guy named Joe Max Higgins that basically does economic development
for three of our four counties, Ottawa, Iowes, and Clay.

652
00:58:07,277 --> 00:58:13,117
you know, it hasn't been a problem.

653
00:58:13,117 --> 00:58:19,725
And so I think that that's a good way for our rural communities to be successful.

654
00:58:19,725 --> 00:58:23,791
Because you're right, they're gonna have to draw employees from the surrounding counties.

655
00:58:23,791 --> 00:58:27,926
mean, so it's not, we can't have a mentality of competition.

656
00:58:27,926 --> 00:58:34,675
We have to have a mentality of That's exactly what you said, not competition,
collaboration.

657
00:58:36,810 --> 00:58:39,448
David, you're awfully quiet.

658
00:58:40,414 --> 00:58:41,498
What do you think?

659
00:58:41,498 --> 00:58:43,601
You're contemplative?

660
00:58:43,601 --> 00:58:46,570
that I beg your pardon.

661
00:58:46,570 --> 00:58:48,602
Are you being contemplative?

662
00:58:49,084 --> 00:58:51,268
that's a big word you wouldn't understand.

663
00:58:51,268 --> 00:58:53,270
Are you thinking about something?

664
00:58:54,844 --> 00:59:01,608
I'm thinking that Scott, it's great to meet you.

665
00:59:01,608 --> 00:59:03,930
We appreciate you being here.

666
00:59:03,930 --> 00:59:05,731
We appreciate your passion.

667
00:59:05,731 --> 00:59:18,320
ah We ah like, we love your enthusiasm and ah so happy that uh you follow your servant's
heart.

668
00:59:18,320 --> 00:59:20,378
ah

669
00:59:20,378 --> 00:59:23,897
and we do appreciate you being here with us today.

670
00:59:23,897 --> 00:59:26,863
This apple didn't fall far from the tree.

671
00:59:29,135 --> 00:59:31,158
That's true, that's true.

672
00:59:31,158 --> 00:59:37,204
He's referring to my parents, Wilbur Cologne and Dorothy Cologne, they're the role models.

673
00:59:39,715 --> 00:59:42,853
So listen, David and Jim, thank you all so much for having me.

674
00:59:42,853 --> 00:59:44,276
I hope I didn't bore you to death.

675
00:59:44,276 --> 00:59:46,641
uh

676
00:59:46,908 --> 00:59:48,589
Great conversation.

677
00:59:48,609 --> 00:59:52,574
This is who we are as Mississippians.

678
00:59:52,574 --> 00:59:53,747
more people.

679
00:59:54,293 --> 00:59:54,815
Absolutely.

680
00:59:54,815 --> 00:59:58,452
Well, I'm happy to be a part of it and hopefully we can do it again sometime.

681
00:59:58,452 --> 00:59:59,349
I hope so.

682
00:59:59,349 --> 01:00:00,893
open invitation.

683
01:00:01,017 --> 01:00:03,264
Jim, any final words from you?

684
01:00:03,916 --> 01:00:06,879
ah It's a sunny day here.

685
01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:14,879
And when I've been looking out the window, I know it's gotta be spring because I've seen
my first hummingbird.

686
01:00:14,879 --> 01:00:15,899
Great.

687
01:00:16,260 --> 01:00:18,969
We haven't seen ours here yet, but hopefully we will.

688
01:00:18,969 --> 01:00:24,453
ah We do want to continue to thank our supporters and our subscribers.

689
01:00:25,114 --> 01:00:37,445
Any questions, comments that you have, please reach out to us at Mississippihappeningsthe1
at Gmail, which is mshappeningsthe1 at gmail.com.

690
01:00:37,445 --> 01:00:39,637
ah Please let us know.

691
01:00:39,637 --> 01:00:40,888
Please subscribe.

692
01:00:40,888 --> 01:00:42,619
Please tell your friends.

693
01:00:42,839 --> 01:00:51,820
And we do, as usual, this, you know, ah may we never become indifferent to the suffering
of others.

694
01:00:52,202 --> 01:00:53,069
Thanks, guys.

695
01:00:53,069 --> 01:00:54,284
A lot of fun.

696
01:00:54,525 --> 01:00:55,465
Yes.

697
01:00:56,307 --> 01:00:57,158
Let's hear it.

698
01:00:57,158 --> 01:00:58,069
Go for it.

699
01:00:59,009 --> 01:01:00,089
pair.

700
01:01:02,031 --> 01:01:11,657
to be very honest with you, it's been very hard to find any Republicans that want to come
on board and have a conversation.

701
01:01:12,118 --> 01:01:20,163
I don't know what the issues are, but unless we can start talking to each other, nothing
is going to improve.

702
01:01:20,663 --> 01:01:21,624
So to

703
01:01:21,624 --> 01:01:34,970
any Republican out there that wants to come on board and have a good conversation, not a
hatchet job, but a good conversation about issues, we welcome your invitation.

704
01:01:34,970 --> 01:01:37,611
We extend an invitation rather.

705
01:01:37,732 --> 01:01:39,513
Please get in touch with us.

706
01:01:39,513 --> 01:01:45,975
We would be more than happy to give you our time to air your opinions and let's have a
discussion.

707
01:01:46,236 --> 01:01:47,266
Thank you.

708
01:01:48,234 --> 01:01:49,056
Thanks guys.

709
01:01:49,056 --> 01:01:50,077
Thank you.

710
01:01:50,522 --> 01:01:51,786
Have a good day.