Leaving Mississippi

I talk to a lot of young people.  I like to talk about what they see as their future because they are the future.  At least once a week, sometimes more, some brilliant young person tells me there isn't anything that would keep them in Mississippi, that they've worked too hard to become whatever they're becoming to waste it here.

It's probably psychologically unhealthy, but I consider that a personal failure.  I didn't do enough to make this a place where they felt like they could apply their best selves.  Some of these young people are pretty dear to me, and I'd be willing to do quite a lot to get them to stay, but I didn't do enough.

When I was sick, I'd sometimes have breakfast with a guy who spent his life really devoted to making health care in Mississippi considerably better.  This was a guy who really cared all his life.  His grandchildren are brilliant, but he can't keep them here.  

That happens a lot.  We invest all this time and money into our young people, and by twenty-five, they've grown too large to fit into the nest we've built for them, and their hearts tell them they have to leave.

I don't actually know how to fix this, but I'm gonna act like I have a plan and try to work on it.  It won't work.  My father tried to do the same thing, and it failed.  His father and his father's father did the same thing, and it failed.  

I think we spent many generations pushing Mississippi down into the hole we're in now, and it'll take many generations of Mississippians throwing their shoulder into the wheel to make it better.  

For those who stay, I love ya.  God loves ya.  We're gonna do our best to make sure you made the right decision.  For those who go, I still love you.  God still loves you.  We really wanted things to be different, but by the time your wings were strong enough to fly, we just didn't have Mississippi ready to keep you.  That's our failure, not yours.  

I was born four days after Medgar Evers was shot.  I have no illusions about what Mississippi is and was.  I might have illusions about what Mississippi can be, but I hope, deeply hope, that maybe they're not illusions but predictions.