To mark my 20th year of being a cartoonist in Mississippi, I thought I’d dig out 20 tales from the past two decades. Some are funny. Some are serious. All tell the story of how I came to fall in love with this sometimes frustrating but always fascinating state we live in.
It seems appropriate I now have a television show called Conversations on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. For the past two decades, I’ve enjoyed the back and forth I’ve had with readers. In the beginning, it began as letters to the editors, e-mails and phone calls. Now it’s primarily through social media — although I still get some old school communication. Most of it is positive — although there are people who (gasp) disagree with me.
I know — shocking, right?
One of my first phone calls was from Jerry Clower’s brother Sonny. Sonny might have been a nice man, but he didn’t particularly care for my work or me — and let me know it. Another frequent critic was a local Jacksonian named L.D. Bass. Reverend Bass called me a “blue-eyed devil,” and liked to equate my cartoons to some of the ones in the Jackson Daily News. He was convinced I was a racist — which always put our conversations off on a wrong foot. But I’d let his insults roll off my back and after a while, I even found out what he loved the most — his grandchildren and Tiger Woods. I knew I could bring up either and our conversation was going to take a turn for the better.
Certain events also bring out the worst in people. The 2001 Flag Vote was one of those times. I’m thankful there wasn’t social media back then — the phone calls and e-mails were bad enough. Let’s just say charitably that the Mississippi State Flag Vote didn’t bring the best out of people. But I didn’t mind. I would rather people people be honest with me. And people were very honest with me then, during the McDaniel/Cochran Race and now about Donald Trump — to a fault. Oy.
I’ve also had anonymous posters on local blogs cheer when I had career setbacks and even went as far as hoping my family starved. If you wonder why I don’t post my kids’ pictures and names — well there you go. They don’t deserve that. I sign my name to my work and am willing to accept the consequences. I don’t have much respect for people who take shots at you without signing their name. It’s chickenshit.
But I’m a big boy. I dish it out and can take it. And I’ll tell you the one moment that put it all in perspective for me. On the day of the Mississippi Flag Vote (April 17, 2001), I received numerous heinous phone calls. Then at 5:30 p.m., my doctor called. “Marshall, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you have cancer.”
I didn’t care about the other calls after that. Still don’t.
Ninety-nine percent of what I hear from Mississippians is positive. I love the conversations. I like to hear what’s on people’s minds and I’ve even made friends with many of them. A great group of folks used to hang out on my old Clarion-Ledger blog. They called themselves the Marshall Ramsey Bloggers Association. We’ve had picnics and many remain close friends to this day. I look forward to the conversations my Facebook and Twitter fire up everyday. I will occasionally argue with people but most of time just sit back and read what is on their mind. We all walk different paths and see the world in different ways. I don’t spend a lot of time picking Twitter or Facebook fights, though. Not that I don’t care — it’s just that I don’t have the time.
My job isn’t to make people laugh or even mad. I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything. But if you read my work and think hard about what you believe, then maybe I’ve made a difference that day.
Thank you for being part of the conversation. And allowing me to have one with you for the past 20 years.