In Mississippi Home Is Not a Plural Noun

An energetic young woman in the Mississippi delegation is distantly kin to John McCain. However, she is more kin than kind (with apologies to Shakespeare). Maggie Lowery is representing our state as a true Mississippian. How do we know? She knows how many houses she owns, and more importantly, she knows what home means to Mississippians.

When you enter the great state of Mississippi, our welcome sign reads: “Mississippi: It Feels Like Coming Home.” Like Maggie, real Mississippians understand the depth of our sense of place. Our writers celebrate it; our people live it.

However, as we have recently learned, John McCain has a very different view of home. Although he proudly claims Mississippi roots, McCain is no Mississippian! When you own houses across the United States in places like Los Angeles, Aspen, New York, Washington and Coronado and all of those “homes” cost millions of dollars each, you can’t really understand the meaning of home to Mississippians. In Mississippi, average homes cost approximately 200,000 dollars; In Mississippi foreclosures jumped over 91% in 2007 and real estate professionals are expecting it to rise by the end of 2008. How can Mississippians think that John McCain can relate to their struggles?

Explaining how out of touch with real Texans Geroge H. Bush was, the great, late Molly Ivins explained: “In Texas, summer is not a verb.” It’s time for Mississippians to explain to John McCain that “In Mississippi, home is not a plural noun.” We know where home is, and we know how many we have.