J.L. Bailey is an unclassified graduate student. He can be contacted at [email protected].The word “progress” appears frequently these days; it takes many forms.
We read about giant corporations moving to the Golden Triangle, bringing in potentially thousands of jobs, boosting the economy and providing significant opportunities for economic development.
Toyota decided to locate in Tupelo: Another step forward in progress.
Happy, prosperous days are right around the corner.
This fall Jackson State, Alcorn State and MSU boast of increased enrollments. MSU now has 17,039 students, up 833 from last fall. Strangely enough, there exists a mindset that equates larger enrollments with progress.
Recently, plans for a new shopping mall between Columbus and Starkville were unveiled; more construction, more places to shop, more revenue and again, more progress.
This fall, state and local political candidates talk about progress. Incumbents tout accomplishments made during their term and implore voters to reelect them so more progress will occur. First-time candidates downplay progress claimed by incumbents and attempt to outline their own plans for real progress.
Gov. Haley Barbour sometimes equates progress with devastation. He says in commercials that Katrina made people take notice of Mississippi. Does devastation and destruction of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and its ongoing restoration give someone bragging rights about progress?
In economic development, does pouring cement to construct new shopping venues within fifteen miles of older, once thriving malls amount to progress? Can a person envision the entire terrain of northeast Mississippi as one big slab of concrete supporting buildings and parking lots?
Will we no longer be able to inhabit this geographic area or even find a place on this planet because of all the progress? Perhaps future life will require space stations for all inhabitants of Earth.
And how will all this pervasive progress affect our university? Since a student population of 17,039 for the fall of 2007 is such progress, then how about when the enrollment hits 25,000? Can such progress be handled? Will adequate preparation be in place so that facilities will not be bursting at the seams? I don’t think anyone would want classes to have a teacher-student ratio of 1 to 500.
Progress seems very quantifiable. Shouldn’t we focus on how many students enrolled at MSU, Southern Miss or Ole Miss as freshmen actually excel in classes, graduate and secure decent jobs? Let’s take a look at that statistic as a gauge for progress.
Perhaps our candidates should also look at the quality of jobs for which they claim responsibility. Are they jobs with full benefits and retirement packages? Do those individuals who fill vacant positions still hover around the poverty level?
Finally, should slabs of concrete used to construct parking lots for new malls, new developments that keep spreading out and extending city limits, just keep going and going and going? Will trees, streams, wildlife, farms and scenic views along highways disappear because of all the progress?
There are so many issues that have long-term consequences and whose short-term effect is labeled as progress. Are we thinking through what life will be like in our region, our state, our country and our earth 25 to 50 years from now? Or is progress simply related to how much, how big, how many and how soon?
Progress is a good thing. Let’s hope that we don’t confuse it with something that it is not.