Golden Child: Devante' Chaney

A cage is not a place of comfort. It is a place that confines and holds and traps living things. Its steel is unforgiving; the metal shaped to imprison. In professional and amateur fighting such as mixed martial arts or kickboxing, cages are used symbolically. Two men enter as equals, but one leaves a winner and one leaves defeated. Though cages made for fighting do not hold anyone against their will, they can be just as uncomfortable and unforgiving to the people fighting inside.

Jackson Grown: An Introduction

In Norway it gets dark early. As we left for the arena around 4:00 P.M., the hazy glow of the daytime winter sky in Oslo had faded. I was on the bus headed to a concert honoring one of our own. Daniel was a member of our little band of misfits living in Geneva, Switzerland, who worked in and around the United Nations on issues ranging from poverty, hunger, and demining to human rights, health, and humanitarian relief. By all measurements, Daniel had “made it.”

Stay 731: Roots

I got my first tattoo when I was twenty-three years old. I worked for it, too. I was married at the time, and it took me two years to convince my wife that I should have one. I guess the compromise was that it would be a cross, which was hard for her to argue against. I picked the cross off of a poster-sized print hanging in the tattoo shop. The design was “flash,” which is a stereotypical design of a tattoo, but I didn’t know that at the time. I knew I wanted a tattoo, so I picked one out.

What I Learned In Jackson Schools

There is a very special place in my heart for the schools in Jackson, Tennessee. From elementary school at Andrew Jackson to middle school at Tigrett and high school and college at Jackson Central-Merry and Union University, I am fully a product of the Jackson-Madison County public school system and West Tennessee higher education.