It depends who you ask. A recent story in “Politico Magazine” ranked all 50 states “from fabulous to failed” based on 14 different state rankings, such as wealth per captia, unemployment rate, high school graduation rate and crime statistics among others.
   Mississippi kept with the stereotype and pulled up the rear, ranking 51st overall — behind all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It also finished last in four of the individual lists.
   In response to the “Politico Magazine” story, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant wrote a piece titled “It’s Time to End the Mississippi Bashing.” While briefly acknowledging the challenges facing Mississippi, he argued Mississippi is unique and continues to grow and “(defy) expectations.”
  While the “Politico Magazine” piece concedes its approach isn’t scientific or comprehensive, it was still the culmination of examining 14 important gauges of the social and economic health of a state. Mississippi wasn’t bullied or bashed — as the governor contends. We finished last.
  Why shy away from this reality? Dancing around the facts doesn’t make them any less true and certainly doesn’t lead us to a path that sees Mississippi raised from the bottom.    
 Rose-colored glasses must come with the job because Mississippi governors have worn them since at least 1992 when Governor Kirk Fordice put the message, “Welcome to Mississippi —  only positive Mississippi spoken here,” at all of the entrances to the state.
   What if we were honest with ourselves? What if we didn’t speak “only positive Mississippi,” but we spoke the truth?
   The oft-spoken platitude that to solve a problem one must first admit there is a problem is a platitude for a reason. It’s true.
  Whether stemming from embarrassment or pride, our political leaders’ refusal to acknowledge and tackle our problems head-on is counterproductive. To understate our current standing for public relations
— to “sell Mississippi” — or political reasons serves only to perpetuate the problem.  
  Being at the bottom does provide an incredible opportunity for us to grow and improve our state. But to do that will require (at least) enough courage to admit we have real problems.Offering qualitative arguments to refute quantitative facts solves nothing and proves only that we are content doing what we’ve always done.
   Mississippi has problems. And ironically, our seeming inability to admit we have real problems is the one that most hampers efforts to solve the rest.
   We’re last. But we don’t have to be. Let’s talk about it.