Mississippians didn’t pick a new protein

In the ’70s, in a boarding school in Bavaria, Germany, I learned to spell: M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i. We listened to a hit on the radio. We learned the lyrics in English, sang them without fully understanding. Later in class, we translated them into our native language:

Every time I hear this song
Mississippi roll along
Until the end of time
Every time I hear this song
Mississippi roll along
Until the end of time

Decades later, my husband and I moved across the country to Memphis, Tennessee. The only place that had offered us both: a paycheck and a home so we could keep our four dogs. Months later, when we had transportation and a bit of money to spend, we drove over the state line and visited Mississippi. The Deep South. A place I had heard so much about. The place where racism and discrimination walk beside hospitality and kindness.

Rich casino villages like Tunica offer free all-you-can-eat luxurious buffets. They are only a mile away from the poorest towns where people scrape to get by. Poverty has to be experienced; otherwise, you can’t understand it. Just looking at it is like judging a dish on a plate without tasting it.

My husband and I have experienced being poor. We were close to poverty. We were close to homelessness.

We lived for a while at a place we called ‘rock bottom‘. A place where the poor mingle, but we never had to endure or experience this kind of deprivation. Our pay was always more than minimum wage.

Mississippi gave me a lot. Not just $1 curtains and Miss T., but also endless crablegs and lots to think about. (I write about in the sequel to Losing It All.) Beautiful places like Mississippi leave an impression. How can kindness and gentleness, music and rhythm, exist in places that are getting beaten down by white man’s rules and laws? It always puzzled me. I assume it’s a coping mechanism.

In the midterm election, on November 3rd, 2026, Mississippi went blue. Not by much, but by enough. Four thousand+ votes decided the winner. Yesterday, it was called: a Democrat will represent Mississippi in the Senate. It is a milestone win. After 151 years*.

Senator-Elect Scott Colom beat his opponent, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, who blocked his nomination as a federal judge. He then turned around this year and beat her in an election to unseat her as Senator. Karma at its best. **

When asked about the high beef prices, the senator suggested people should pick a new protein.

Mississippi didn’t pick a new protein.

Congratulations to Senator-Elect Colom!

It gives me renewed faith in our country.

A county in Mississippi was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Now Scott Colom won Forrest County, Mississippi. This is huge. This is wonderful. What a victory for Mississippi and America.

PS. Anyone who thinks for a minute that “my one vote isn’t going to make a difference” should remember the tiny margin in this huge race.

*Blanche K. Bruce

• Served: March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1881.
• Party: Republican.
• He was the last Black U.S. senator from Mississippi.
• He was elected by the Mississippi state legislature, not appointed.

Before the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913, state legislatures elected U.S. senators rather than voters electing them directly.

**Here is what happened:

• October 2022: President Joe Biden announced Scott Colom’s nomination to become a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Mississippi.
• April 4, 2023: Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith publicly announced that she would not return the required blue slip, effectively blocking his nomination from advancing.
• Senator Roger Wicker, Mississippi’s other Republican senator, supported Colom’s nomination and returned his blue slip.
• February 2024: Mississippi Today reported that Hyde-Smith was still blocking a confirmation vote.

Hyde-Smith cited concerns about Colom’s record, including his position on transgender athletes and the financial support his earlier district attorney campaign received from a political action committee partly funded by George Soros.