The latest comes from a Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Matt Entenza.
The Democrat started running an ad last week that used Mississippi as a punchline in criticizing his state’s budget cuts.
“If budget cuts were always the answer, then Mississippi would be a leader in this country,” he said.
Later when questioned about how much he knows about Mississippi, Entenza claimed he “got run out of Greenwood” while working as an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division. Curiously, his bio on his campaign website makes no mention of this Justice Department stint. However, since Entenza didn’t start law school in Minnesota until the late 1980s, he wouldn’t have gotten to Mississippi until sometime after that. It’s questionable that anyone got run out of this city for doing civil rights work in that era.
None of this is to say that Mississippi doesn’t have its share of problems — educationally, economically and racially. We’d be sticking our head in the sand to pretend otherwise.
It’s unnecessary, though, for politicians like Entenza to ridicule our state to make a point. It’s just bad manners.
Mississippians might not lead in a lot of categories that can be put to statistical measurement, but we at least know how to be polite.
~ Greenwood Commonwealth
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