Guys, we’ve been so busy doing so much we haven’t had time to write about it. I’ll get around to doing my Coachella blog at some point (maybe) and at least one of us will write about this roadtrip that we’re currently on. But I’m writing this post as a bit of a public service announcement – Jackson, Mississippi, is a shit-hole.
Yesterday we drove from New Orleans, Louisiana, and drove north to Memphis, Nashville. This involves driving all the way through Mississippi and we were pretty excited to have a stop in Jackson. We were singing ‘We’re going to Jackson’ by Johnny Cash and June Carter for most of the morning, sometimes interspersed with a little “Hollywood, Harlem, Jackson Mississippi” from Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk. We got into town and shut up immediately. Why, Mark Ronson?! Why?!
We did not even get out of the car. I think the only person we saw was one guy on a park bench who started walking towards us when we paused too long at an intersection. I just asked Fish how he would describe the place and he just said ‘Caltowie’. Perfect.
Mary googled some facts about the town as we quickly retreated – Jackson has a population of 175,000 people (the largest city in Mississippi) and the state ranks as the worst in the entire USA in education attainment; mean household income; and health. It’s also the most racist and most religious.
We just have no idea why the city gets sung about.
Title is from The Animals ‘We Gotta Get Out Of This Place’. Kosta thinks the song is about the Vietnam War but I’m sure it’s another Jackson song.
LOOK WHAT WE DONE! 
Maybe they’re singing about Jackson, TN, . . . NOT Jackson, MS. But even that place, isn’t too much better these days.
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I agree, the local government squander any funds they receive and fill there own pockets instead of helping the city communities. Jackson, all parts is dirty and falling apart. It’s horribly riddled with crime.
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I’ve been in Jackson for 14 years, since leaving the military and I would have to agree. The people are extremely undereducated in everything, they are so called “religious” but highly street smart, double speakers! The racial divide is great and so is the division of income between races. The city leaders do squander public funds and cover their asses by patching up areas where business is frequent and by creating policy that rarely benefits anyone other than the extremely rich. 6 elementary schools were closed this year, businesses are constantly leaving and reopening in the suburbs, the streets are pot-hole ridden (a young lady died after hitting a pothole), the city is majority African American and majority of the people are in poverty, Marijuana has been decriminalized (weed and uneducated people don’t mix well), there are very few attractions for visitors, the cost of living rises every year and the city’s taxes never decrease, the city doesn’t have a MALL to shop at, the housing is terrible to fair on every side of town apart of Eastover, Fondren, and Belhaven, the city has a murder rate higher than Baton Rouge, Jacksonville, Little Rock, and other larger cities in America, the police are out of shape, unqualified, uneducated pricks, the water is brown throughout the entire city but “safe to drink”, and 80% of the population is overweight…but they’ve got some damn good food here lol, there is an gay and prostitute population that are essentially unseen and the people who are actually happy living here couldn’t survive in any other US city, so they’ve never lived anywhere other than Jackson or they have played a part in the destruction and impoverishment of the people who aren’t happy here, or they’re too damn stupid to know any better!! God bless them! I’m getting the hell out of here too, it took me 14 years of struggling working meaningless jobs and making drug addict and alcoholic friends to realize that Jackson life built around prison and death…and people from other counties in MS and other states in the US know what I’m talking about, that why they come here…and get the hell back to where they’ve come from!
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