NOT Feeling Like I Made The Right Decision.

My husband and I decided to move to Mississippi in 2006 and we were excited at the prospect of living in the 'beautiful southeast' again where the temps are warm, people are friendly, and life is lived at a slower pace. MS has an affordable cost of living, and then Gov. Haley Barbour was successful in attracting big businesses like Nissan to commit to large capital investment in the state's economy. Even my being a 'senior citizen' was not a significant roadblock to getting a job here. Back then I truly thought that MS, and its capital city, Jackson, were on the cusp of becoming swans after their ugly duckling stage, similar to the boom that happened in Atlanta, GA back in the '80s and '90s. I was wrong. The state has become more conservative and stagnant, and makes poor political, social, and fiscal decisions. The economic disaster of 2008 didn't help but MS still has not 'dug' itself out of the recession while the rest of the country is prospering. Our Tea Party backed governor, Phil Bryant, tells us we are making progress (it's 2014 for goodness sake) but the stats are against him. It doesn't help that we are also #1 in self-identified conservatives so voters don't object to his regressive ideological policies that have not advanced any significant new business or jobs. He is still relying on 'cheap labor' to be the draw without funding or investing in an educated workforce which businesses today demand. Below are stats that have put MS into the 'poor relation' status among all 50 states and the state's voters will probably keep us there indefinitely now that restrictive voter ID laws have disenfranchised many dissenting voices. There is so much potential for MS to break out of this cycle. But first, we have to admit we have a problem and that won't happen in the current political climate. I'm not feeling enthusiastic about Mississippi's future as I once did.

Partial List of Mississippi's (negative) Superlatives

#51 in student achievement (behind DC)
#50 in primary healthcare service
#50 in '2014 State New Economy Index' rankings
#50 in internet usage
#50 in best state to live in US
#50 in percent of population with high-school diploma
#50 in median family income
#49 in personal income per capita
#49 in health index rankings
#31 in land size and population
#6 in highest crime rates (tied with Washington DC)
#3 in teen birth rates
#2 in highest unemployment rates
#1 in child death rate
#1 most religious state
#1 in obesity rates
#1 in people living below the poverty level
#1 in self-identified conservatives
And now Mississippi is...
#1 in the US of the most corrupt states in the union. "It is the poorest state in the U.S. whose corruption most approaches levels in a Third World country."

(Another sad waste of MS resources is the fact that women are practically non-existent in the governance of MS. We're one of only four states who has never elected a woman to the U S Senate or U S Congress. We've also never had a female governor. We've only had two women serve in statewide office. We're ranked 47th in the country in percentage of female legislators. In addition, Mississippi ranks as having the 2nd highest ratio of spending to tax receipts of any state with little to show for it.)