April 16, 2001
I received the following email the other morning:
Dear Editor,
I notice that the Progressive seems not to have posted any articles since Jan 27--the same articles are there now that have been for nearly three months--are you only publishing on a quarterly basis? I particularly miss new columns by Mokhiber and Weissman.
I hope your publication continues to flourish.
Since the date of the previous edition of the Jackson Progressive was indeed January 27, I believe I owe my readers an explanation for the hiatus.
I started the JP in May, 1999 as an alternative on-line journal. Its purpose was to present different viewpoints on a variety of subjects to interested readers. During the year and a half that I actively published the JP, the readership expanded to a respectable size and I received numerous complements.
As you may realize, however, the JP is a one-man operation, and doing all the research and writing for the journal was a time-consuming task, albeit a labor of love. Last June (2000) I returned to law practice after a 7-year hiatus, and found that the energy that I had previously spent working on the JP was instead being spent on practicing law. I received virtually no offers of help in getting out the JP. A few friends contributed articles, stores and poetry, for which I am grateful, but the vast bulk of writing and posting stories, updating the cultural calendar, and checking links was left to me.
There are also deeper problems. While I am deeply grateful to Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Manning Marable and Jim Richards for generously donating their columns, I yearn for positive political commentary. Those of us who believe that our nation was not established for the sole purpose of satisfying the whims of a few wealthy and powerful corporations and individuals have ample evidence before us to plunge us deep into despair for our future. The U.S. is being led by an utter fool, abetted by cynical plutocrats and kowtowed to by parasitic media types that resemble nothing so much as courtiers at the court of Louis XIV. It is enough to nauseate decent persons.
While it is indeed important to point out the shortcomings and weaknesses of the present regime it is not sufficient. As corrupt as our government and polity have become, they will not be reformed by naysayers, even though they are essential to the process. There must be powerful, believable and practical ideas for a better nation and world injected into the universe of discourse in order to displace the established religion of Chicago-school economics which serves the power elite almost as well as the medieval church served the power elite of its time. People do not give up what they have, no matter how odious, decadent and corrupt it may be, unless they can find a superior alternative. Thusfar, the left and the greens have failed to supply that alternative, or if they have indeed supplied an alternative, they have failed to do so in a way that convinces more than a small minority of the American public to abandon the unsustainable path upon which they now proceed.
The present signs are not good. Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam points out that social capital, the glue that holds civil society together, has been diminishing since the '50s, although he has failed to draw the conclusion that the social capital deficit has immensely benefited the kleptocracy, who profit from the peoples' lack of solidarity in the face of anti-labor, anti-minimum wage, and pro free trade assaults on their economic and social well-being. People who do not trust one another are easily manipulated. We should be well-aware of that here in Mississippi, where social capital is at a minimum and our history one of poverty and exploitation.
I am now in a quandary as to how I should continue. The domain name, jacksonprogressive.com, is up for renewal and I am wondering whether I should continue. Virtually everything that has appeared in the JP up to now is still accessible on the site. So much of its contents is negative, however.
Suggestions would be appreciated. Thoughtful ones will be published.
Tom Lowe, Editor
A Thoughtful reply from Hugh McGuire (4/18/01)
Another Thoughtful reply from Jim Richards, "The Village Idiot" (5/5/01)