By Ida Brown / staff writer
Entertainer Paul Ott wants the Senate Rules Committee to consider giving his poem "I Am Mississippi" official status as the state poem — even though English professors and students at the University of Mississippi are asking lawmakers to reject the work.
"We do not want America and the world to think that 'I Am Mississippi' is the best poem this state can offer," the three dozen English professors, instructors, staff members and students say in a letter addressed to the state Senate, Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, Gov. Haley Barbour and the people of Mississippi.
"In short, we do not want to limit Mississippi's future by presenting its finest as a completed work," the letter says. "We feel that Mississippi is a magnificent new poem waiting to happen every day.''
The House voted 121-0 on Feb. 1 to give entertainer Ott's ''I Am Mississippi'' official status as the state poem.
The poem is a freeform verse that evokes a host of images, from dusty Delta dawns to "Miss Mississippi and all her glory."
The bill awaits consideration in the Senate Rules Committee, and chairman Travis Little, R-Corinth, said he doesn't know if it will come up for a vote before a Feb. 28 deadline.
''I don't know what the consensus on the committee is,'' Little said.
D. Allan Mitchell, an English instructor who coordinated the letter writing effort, points to Mississippi's list of great authors, including William Faulkner and Eudora Welty.
"I do find it really hard to elevate an author above all the great Mississippi authors we've had in the past," Mitchell said in an interview Monday.
Ott, who is president of the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center's board of directors, said Monday that he is aware that he does not compare to literary greats such as Faulkner or Welty.
"That was never my intention," he said. "The fact remains that I don't know if any of them would write a poem and give it to the state of Mississippi as a fund-raiser for a cause such as we're trying to do in Meridian with the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center — of which we have received no extensive funding to complete a project that has been in the works almost four years."
Ott copyrighted ''I Am Mississippi'' in 1990 and has performed it dozens of times on stage and on radio shows, including a nationally televised fund-raiser last fall for Hurricane Katrina relief.
Ott said he has signed the copyright over to the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center, scheduled to be built at Bonita Lakes in Meridian, so the center can use the poem to raise money. He said if the poem is recognized as a state symbol, some big-name stars might agree to record it as a song.
"It still will belong to the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center, whether it's made a state poem or not," Ott said.
He said the issue is not about him and he welcomes additional verses to the poem.
"If those professors at Ole Miss and the students want to write more verses, we will add them to it. But let's take 'I Am Mississippi,' let the Senate pass that, take my name off if they want to, but give us a chance to raise some money to start a project the state of Mississippi designated, but certainly cannot fund at this time because of Katrina," Ott said.
In the letter, the Ole Miss students and faculty members say they have "no personal grudge" against Ott. Mitchell praises Ott's work as a conservationist.
"Mr. Ott is a good man, but 'I Am Mississippi' is not a good poem,'" the letter says.
Ott said he is not taking the students' and faculty members' comments personally.
"Maybe to them the song is too Southern," he said. "But Mississippi is in the South. Those are ideas I got from people all over the state of Mississippi. We talk about gospel singing, we talk about Walter Payton and other things true to our state.
"All I'm saying is why not give it a chance — not for me, but for the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center and the stars and artists from here so we can build this state-of-the-art center. This is going to promote Mississippi and the economic state of Mississippi."
Ott has received public support elsewhere. The Hattiesburg American published an editorial last week in favor of making ''I Am Mississippi'' the state poem, saying it ''captures, in powerful, evocative language, the unique features of the Magnolia State.''
The Mississippi Associated Press contributed to this article.
