As a native Mississippian, I seldom have good reason to be proud.  After all, you name the statistic, and Mississippi is either ranked first or fiftieth.  For example, Mississippi is first in teen pregnancy, fiftieth in states rates of infant mortality.  Conservatism and fundamentalism often seems to have a stranglehold on the politics here, and Mississippi's national reputation for racism and ignorance and backwardness is, well, by and large deserved. 

Yet, something almost miraculous happened yesterday.  The voters of Mississippi by a margin of 58 to 42 %, proclaimed that a zygote should not be recognized as a legal person.  Apparently, there are more reasonable people in Mississippi than I previously thought.  

It is nice to, for once, feel proud of my home state.