Everybody ‘put on notice’
In most ways it was predictable: Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith won election in Nov. 27’s runoff. Republicans held another U.S. Senate seat. President Donald Trump tweeted he was proud of his candidate.
But Mississippi Democrats were nevertheless buoyed Nov. 28 by Mike Espy’s performance. An African-American Democrat ran within 8 points in a statewide race in Mississippi — a historic showing they say indicates the state’s political tendencies are changing.
“I think everybody was put on notice last night,” state Democratic Party Chairman Bobby Moak said Nov. 28. “Democrats were put on notice that, ‘Hey, you can make it happen here,’ and Republicans were put on notice that, ‘Here comes the Democrats.’
“We turned out about 101 percent of the numbers we had on Nov. 6, and Republicans had about 86 to 87 percent,” Moak said. “We think we have expanded the base. We think we have widened the tent and we think we have the opportunity to grow our base a little more than the Republicans do.”
Without Trump rallies, ‘it would have been close’
Hyde-Smith, who had been temporarily appointed to the Senate seat in April, had Trump’s endorsement and enjoyed an unprecedented three Mississippi rallies by the president on her behalf, including two the night before Nov. 27’s runoff. She defeated Espy 54 percent to 46 percent in unofficial results in a race that wound up being more competitive than many had expected in dependably Republican Mississippi.
Geoff Pender and Luke Ramseth
describes it as dealing with the dilemma of what to do with suffering and the things caregivers experience.
Coplan is the book’s publisher and founder of the Seattle-based nonprofit Grief Dialogues.
Grief Dialogues is a movement where, through artistic expression, people can create a new conversation about dying, death and grief, which the organization calls the great equalizer transcending race, creed, ethnicity, gender, age or economics.
“Our journey is our own, and yet we find solace in knowing we are not alone in that journey. Each story is unique, yet they are all profoundly human,” Coplan said. “They present each author’s own road map. Perhaps the reader will travel that same path. Or they will choose another route. Either way, the reader knows they are not alone in their grief.”
Coplan and Lepeska connected online. Lepeska is not the only local contributor to the book. Contributor Robert Neimeyer is a psychology professor at the University of Memphis and director of The Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, as well as a board member of Grief Dialogues.
Lepeska and Coplan spent part of Children’s Grief Awareness Day on Nov. 15 at Master Jewelers, 5070 Goodman Road, suite 103, in Olive Branch where they talked about their experiences and signed copies of “Grief Dialogues: The Book.”
The book can be purchased at griefdialogues.com.