If we want to make sure our friends and families have something as important as the water that keeps them alive, we need to vote in leaders who are willing to step up and take care of this sort of infrastructure. A staggering 20% of Mississippians live in poverty. In the city of Jackson, it’s 25% of residents. Julian Miller, the director of the Reuben V. Anderson Institute for Social Justice, sees Jackson’s crime problem as “fundamentally and exclusively a poverty problem.” “Until the scarcity of financial resources and basic human needs is mitigated and people are given the tools necessary to live lives with dignity, there will always be a degree of criminal activity in these communities as a result,” Miller says. There are no easy solutions here, but we can start by voting for leaders who are committed to working hard for these hard solutions. While Mississippi is faring better than most states, the problem is slowly creeping up on us. There’s currently a real estate shortage in Central Mississippi for buyers. And there’s also a lack of about 48,000 affordable homes for extremely low-income renters. We need to send representatives to Washington who can help ease this crisis on the national level and we need to elect local leaders on the state level to help in Mississippi. But if we don’t elect leaders who are willing to work on substantial climate policy, the EPA thinks we’re in for way more floods, way worse hurricanes, and smog that could increase our rate of asthma and the risk of premature death from heart or lung disease. If we want to keep living in our beloved state, we have to take this seriously and elect people who take it seriously too. This should actually make you more eager to vote. If someone’s trying to keep you from having your say, you must have something really interesting to say! So go say it! Go vote! Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8. Find your polling place here and make a plan to get there. Make sure you bring the right kind of photo ID, as well. Polls are open from 7 a.m.–7 p.m. If you’re in line at 7 p.m. you should STAY IN LINE. Anyone in line before 7 p.m. has the right to vote, and everything we talked about today is too important for you to bail out just because it’s getting late.
