“We need to talk.” 

When uttered, these four words have the power to instill fear in the hearts of spouses, children, and employees alike. They aptly describe the situation we face as a nation today. 

The problem? Toxic polarization – the way we demonize each other across differences. Most of us have few or no friends who have different political preferences. We think “other people in America” pose the biggest threat to our way of life. We are finding it more and more difficult to say what we believe without the conversation devolving into utter chaos. Unsurprisingly, we shut down. We don't talk. It's a problem we can all hear, loud and clear.

The good news is that most of us want to talk. Most of us believe it is crucial for everyday Americans to be involved in finding solutions to the problems facing their communities. In a time marked by deep-seated divisions along ideological, political, and social lines, the need for constructive dialogue has never been more pressing. 

Since last August, 19 graduate students seeking a degree in Integrated Marketing Communications at the University of Mississippi have been planning and preparing for the seventh annual National Week of Conversation (NWoC). They are helping provide real opportunities for people across the country to build bridges of understanding and empathy. Each of them committed to the course because they understand that beneath our differences lie shared humanity and common aspirations. They've been learning and applying concepts from Collective Impact and Reflective Structured Dialogue and are both inspiring and encouraging to work with. 

At its core, NWoC embodies the principles of empathy, respect, and openness – values that are essential for a thriving democracy. When people take the time to really listen to others, they learn. They learn that we really aren't that different, that we share many of the same values and aspirations, something reinforced by findings of several studies. They learn that others, like them, desire to make positive change in our communities. They learn, as Brene Brown has written, that “people are hard to hate close up.” 

These students are being courageous enough to put aside their own agendas and listen to the experiences of others. They are finding that this desire to listen across our differences is shared by the majority of their peers. And they are standing up opportunities to work together despite forces working to tear us apart. 

But don't take their word for it. Experience it yourself. Find an event to attend, here, and be with the nearly 80% of Americans who believe in creating more opportunities for people to talk across their differences. And who knows, maybe you'll learn its not as scary as it sounds after all.  

Graham Bodie is Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Media and Communication in the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi. When asked what he does for a living he responds, “I teach people to listen.” More importantly, he has been able to work with a group of dedicated students for several years to plan and execute the National Week of Conversation, a yearly campaign launched by Listen First Project in 2018 that seeks to provide opportunities for people to #ListenFirst across their differences. This year, those students have put together an amazing set of promotional toolkits and events for the Better Together Film Festival that features film screenings across the country including Tupelo and Oxford. Several of them contributed to the writing of this piece.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Note: This editorial anchored Mississippi Today's weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive access to legislative analysis and up-to-date information about what's happening under the Capitol dome.

Happy Tax Day, when millions of us Mississippians will send our hard-earned money to 40 other states that are providing health care coverage to millions of poor, working people.

But here in Mississippi, hundreds of thousands of poor, working people are not afforded that same benefit of our taxes. This is the intentional result of political ideologues who have blocked the implementation of Medicaid expansion, the proven federal policy those 40 other states have passed.

Today, while all those other states reap the economic benefits of our money, so many of our fellow Mississippians are sick and cannot afford trips to the doctor; dozens of our state's hospitals remain on the verge of financial collapse because they must cover emergency care to so many of those uninsured people; and our state is missing out on a pot of billions in federal dollars that we are paying into every single day.

If these facts surprise you, know that you've been duped. As Mississippi lawmakers seriously consider Medicaid expansion for the first time since it was implemented in 2013, opponents of the policy have worked to deliberately message an outright lie in order to rile you up. What they want you to hear and react to is that hardworking Mississippi taxpayers like you shouldn't be on the hook for expansion.

But they don't want you to consider the cold, hard truth of the matter: You already are on the hook for expansion — only the federal taxes you're paying today are flowing to the 40 other states that have chosen to expand. Your own state, meanwhile, because of the cold shoulder of a few politicians, has left more than $10 billion on the table over the last decade.

Today, our neighbors across the Mississippi River in Arkansas and Louisiana are grateful for our money considering we're helping save their residents' lives and their hospitals. Across the nation, 20 Republican-controlled states and 20 Democrat-controlled states appreciate our red state's contribution to their economies that are growing faster than ours.

But here in Mississippi, people are dying, our hospitals are cutting services or closing doors for good, and our economy is not keeping up with our neighbors.

Your tax dollars could benefit your own state — not just the many people who need health care, but the state as a whole and even your own personal bottom line. If lawmakers expanded Medicaid, the state would receive $1.5 billion in additional federal money in year one, which would free up hundreds of millions of dollars our leaders could spend on other major needs besides just health care. The Medicaid expansion dollars would provide a lifeline for the many rural hospitals that are the heart of so many of our struggling small towns. Expansion would create 11,000 jobs in five years, grow the state's coffers as much as $44 million annually, increase the state's gross domestic product and even modestly grow the state's population.

Without Medicaid expansion in place, you're paying more for health care even if you currently have your own private insurance. Your out-of-pocket health care and insurance premium costs today are higher, experts say, because your providers are charging you more to help offset their costs of having to pay for uninsured patients.

You don't have to take my word for it.

Republican Speaker of the House Jason White, whose traditional expansion proposal is being considered at the Capitol: “We're sending our dollars to the federal government. And it's going to 40 other states to fund an expansion population of low-income workers.”

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, the most recent state leader to usher through expansion: “We were in the same situation in North Carolina for a long time, but Mississippians should know they're propping up North Carolina's and other states' programs.”

Dr. Joe Thompson, the Arkansas surgeon general under Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee and Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe: “It's important to note that the residents of Mississippi and the other holdout states have not been spared from paying for Medicaid expansion. They have been helping to fund it for over a decade through their federal tax dollars, but the money has been flowing into states like Arkansas and Louisiana instead of benefiting the working poor, hospitals, and economies of their home states.”

Today could be the final Tax Day that Mississippians are forced to burn their own cash without getting the return that we need and deserve. All it takes is the will to be honest about the situation and a couple votes from the Legislature.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Jerry Mitchell, a senior investigative reporter with Mississippi Today, is the winner of the 2024 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence in recognition of his body of work and lifelong commitment to investigative journalism.

The medal, administered by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, honors the life of investigative journalist I.F. Stone and is presented to a journalist or journalists whose work captures the spirit of journalistic independence, integrity and courage that characterized I.F. Stone's Weekly, published from 1953 to 1971.

“I believe journalism is one of the world's most noble professions, and I feel so honored and humbled to receive this award. God has truly blessed me, far beyond what I deserve,” Mitchell said.

In 2019, Mitchell co-founded the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, which became part of Mississippi Today in 2023.

Over four decades, his stories have exposed injustices, corruption and abuse of power in the American South. His work has prompted prosecutions, important reforms of state agencies and firings of state board officials and helped lead to a woman being freed from Death Row.

His cold case investigations helped lead to convictions of Ku Klux Klansmen some of the nation's notorious civil rights-era crimes. Those attacks include the 1963 assassination of Mississippi NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers, the 1963 bombing of the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four girls and the 1964 slayings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andy Goodman and Mickey Schwerner.

Despite death threats and the objections of readers opposed to his investigations, Mitchell has persevered in his reporting.

His work also led to the 2016 conviction of Felix Vail, the longest delayed conviction in a serial killer case in U.S. history. Vail, who authorities believe killed at least three women, was prosecuted nearly 54 years after he murdered his first wife.

In 2023, Mitchell and his colleagues produced “Unfettered Power: Mississippi Sheriffs,” a series co-reported by The New York Times and the MCIR at Mississippi Today. That reporting including the torture and sexual abuse of two Black men and a third white man by six now former Rankin County law enforcement officers, leading to their recent sentencings in state and federal court. A bill may soon arrive on the governor's desk that would would expand oversight over the state's law enforcement, allowing the state board that certifies officers to investigate and revoke the licenses of officers accused of misconduct, regardless of whether they are criminally charged.

In addition, MCIR's prison project, produced in partnership with the ProPublica Local Reporting Network, led to a Justice Department investigation of serious problems inside Mississippi prisons, which is continuing.

“In every sense imaginable, Jerry has blazed a path for journalists to follow.,” said Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau. “He's set the gold standard for society-changing, powerful local investigative journalism. I'm among the countless journalists who strive every day to have the impact he's had on the world around him, and I'm fortunate to work with him and learn from him. This award is so very deserving.”

I.F. Stone Medal jury member Bernice Yeung said the work Mitchell and his colleagues produced on “Mississippi's lawless and abusive law enforcement agencies is a powerful demonstration of how Jerry Mitchell's hard-charging yet collaborative approach can help our industry find a way forward.”

Mitchell “has elevated and provided opportunities to the next generation of investigative reporters,” Yeung said.

Michael Riley, another selection committee juror, added, “I think the continued work coming from MCIR – and its collaboration with Mississippi Today – really does show the profound and ongoing influence Mitchell has had in Mississippi and nationally.”

Juror Jasimine Brown noted how MCIR has helped to “bolster local coverage and struggling newsrooms” by providing its work free to news outlets across the state, also a hallmark of Mississippi Today. 

“They have also established the MCIR Immersion Program, which works to train and inspire the next generation of investigative reporters,” Brown said.

Mitchell began his career in 1983 at the Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 1986, he joined The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, and worked there as an investigative reporter for 32 years before co-founding the MCIR.

“Through his dogged and thoughtful reporting, Jerry Mitchell has not only brought accountability and change but inspired a new generation of reporters to pick up the mantle of investigative journalism, said Mitchell's longtime editor Debbie Skipper, who has worked with him on his reporting projects since the 1990s and joined the Mississippi Today in October 2022 as the justice and special projects editor.

A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2006 and longtime member of Investigative Reporters & Editors, Mitchell has won dozens of the nation's top journalism awards and received a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2009. In 1998, he was among four journalists honored at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

His memoir about his pursuit of civil rights cold cases, “Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era,” was published in 2020.

Mitchell will receive his medal during a ceremony at the Nieman Foundation in May. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.