Mississippi Pride!

Let me say this first: I love my home state of Mississippi. I think it is terribly misunderstood and dogged upon by many people who have never been there. Trust me, stay out of the Delta, eat some catfish, and visit some local Jackson bars and you will have an amazing, true Southern fun.

That being said, I would now like to discuss some of this great state's problems. It has consistently ranked top in the nation in such categories as illiteracy, poverty, and especially teen birth rate. I recently researched just how bad Mississippi's teen birth rate was on the teenpregnancy.org website (http://www.teenpregnancy.org/America/dynamic/stateSummary.asp?stateId=26) and saw some astonishing figures. Turns out that Mississippi's teen births are about as common as the nation's rate. Although Mississippi experienced a decline in teen births from 1992 to 2000 of -16%, the national average was -24%. But it gets much worse. The percentages of teen births in 2002 for girls under fifteen were 2%; for girls fifteen to seventeen, 34%; and for girls eighteen to nineteen, 62%. This is compared to that of the national average in 2002 with percentages of 2%, 32%, and 66%. If this is not crazy enough, the teen birth rate for Mississippi in 2002 was 65, and the national rate was 43! This was computed as the percentages of teens in Mississippi and the U.S., with 82% and 80% of teen births being from unmarried teens in Mississippi and the U.S., respectively.

I heard some disgusting news recently that Mississippi is cutting a large portion of its education budget. It seems as that the people in power in my home state simply are oblivious to their real problems. Social and educational reform is so needed in Mississippi that I feel as though the state will certainly spiral until it is nothing but a corrupt, worthless piece of land. I am sad for these conditions for my home, especially in the alarming rates I viewed for teen pregnancy. Hopefully, smart folks like me will grow up and turn its conditions around.