folo

Of all the installments in the “Mississippi: The Secret State” series, the one generating the most specific and intriguing comment-thread here (so far, anyhow) seems to have been Day Five, Part 1, heavily focused on Tupelo’s “Community Development Foundation.” It prompted this comment from “a friend of the law”:

Yes, on the surface, the CDF is not using "tax dollars " per se. In reality, it works like this. If you open a new business within Tupelo, MS, whether CDF knew about it in advance or not, and whether it helped in any way or not, the opening will be noted by it and it will appear to take some credit for it. Thereafter, you will be approached by a friendly CDF fundraising member with hat in hand, who will solicit your contribution to CDF based upon the size of your business.

IF you balk on this, you will come under increasing and ever more increasing pressure to join. And you cannot just pick your $$ amount to join –it must be the dollar amount they access, which I always thought was too much for my little small business. And if you fail to join, you will be ostracized to some degree, and perhaps even discriminated against.

The CDF is basically a legalized GOB club, that does not require membership, but "strongly encourages " it. And if you fail to join, you do so at your own peril, as its members sit in leadership positions all over the City and within and at the top of most major businesses.

I never felt really comfortable with the hard sell they used, nor the amounts they set for you in order to join. And I never was comfortable feeling like I had to contribute to an organization that I had zero influence over with respect to its leadership, how it is run, and with which I had no way to know how they were using my money. There was no public accountability, even to its members.

Sort of like an unofficial union.

Then op99 added, “Sort of like the mafia.”

Exactly, op. And when the mafia is in charge, you get such advanced societies as Sicily’s, Russia’s — and Mississippi’s. For reasons I’ve not studied well enough to grasp, most people there seem to prefer leaving it to them. So contemporary Mississippi remains a politically-reactionary, GoodOlBoy- and preacher-ridden, race-troubled, backward state.

My doctor/friend (another ex-pat) and I were bemoaning this just the other day. As a black woman with gifts and ambition, she had to get out. That she did turned out to my personal benefit, ending an frustrating 20-year search for a GP who makes me feel medically well-tended-to and socially comfortable-with, both. But Mississippi sure did lose itself a fine practitioner and excellent woman when she left.

How many thousands or millions of other daughters and sons — of all colors and stations — the state has forfeited to the rule of the GOBs, I can’t guess. Certainly it’s a high number. But that seems to be fine with most who stay — I sure don’t see much in the way of pushback going on, anyway.

I guess most Mississippians prefer the authoritarian model of social organization, the Daddy State that says to its people, “Don’t worry your pretty little head, everything is just fine the way I’ve got it fixed now, you go on and play.” Daddy must know best, cause he’s got all the money and the say-so. Why lift your head or your hand to protest, let alone stir up to demand some change, right? You don’t have to. It could turn uncomfortable.

If you wonder why Mississippi perennially leads the nation in lagging behind, there’s your answer.