Dr. Amy Atchison (friendly skies dratchison)

AKA symbols include ivy and pearls and the colors pink and green. The symbols, gestures, and other insignia of the org are *not ours* to post/wear/etc. Do not use these to represent your support. 3/

This is one of my mentors and I’m very pissed off. She’s principled, thoughtful , and deserves far better than her institution allowing cops to arrest her and the other faculty/students at UCI.

The MPSA needs your help to make sure that the MPSA and its annual conferences provide high quality experiences and a positive working climate. The MPSA will be circulating a Climate Survey to present and recent past members. Please watch your email for a link to participate.

There was a ton of talk this past legislative session about what would make Mississippi healthier. The truth is that Mississippi leads the nation in diabetes mortality, we're second worst in heart disease mortality, we're the worst in childhood obesity, and our total population is among the most obese, statistically. No government health insurance program will solve these issues. The hard truth that people seem hesitant to discuss is that we, as a people, need to develop better diet and exercise routines, and from an earlier age. That's what's proven to fix big health problems. "There is nothing, I think, more unfortunate than to have soft, chubby, fat-looking children." Want to guess who said that? President Kennedy in 1962. Sounds harsh, but we need to be honest about what actually ails our state and then do something about it. Kennedy called for a renewed commitment to physical education in schools. It's time for Mississippi to do the same. If our elected representatives spent as much time thinking about how to overhaul our physical fitness education as we did about expanding government health insurance, we would be a national leader in fitness for children. And imagine the taxpayer money we'd save in the long-run if we prevented an ounce of the diabetes, heart disease, and obesity you see today. Imagine how more outdoor exercise and better eating would cut down on the epidemic rates of childhood depression that is rampant among young Americans right now. Imagine what it would look like if Mississippi were a leader on these issues. This is all common sense stuff, but sometimes it's hard to look in the mirror and admit the real problem.