Video: Karriem Talks Legislature Action

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Columbus, Miss. (WCBI) — Former Columbus city councilman, now District 41 House Representative Kabir Karriem spoke with WCBI Monday about some upcoming action in the Mississippi legislature.

Karriem said one of the biggest topics so far in session has been education, with bills dealing with school voucher, charter schools, and parents having the choice of choosing what school their child will attend, among the top of the list.

Karriem also said a bill that would allow guns in churches and the Religious Freedom Act that passed the House Friday, which allows business owners to make decisions based on religious and moral belief, are both among the top bills that will be discussed as they move to the state Senate.

Karriem, a Democrat, also spoke of his experience as a freshman legislator on the minority side of a Republican super-majority, saying “…sometimes you’ll be surprised who feels the same way you feel…”

“You can’t wear your feelings on your sleeve, you know you’re trying to get things done…”, Karriem said about having legislation he’s authored or co-sponsored being shot down in committees, “…you don’t want to burn a relationship on just one issue because there is a lot of highway to travel down [in Jackson].

“If you don’t get something on…this particular day…just chalk it up, and still present that legislation on another day, you just never know…”

Karriem has also sponsored his own legislation regarding criminal record expungement and equal pay for women in the workplace.

“Coming from a single parent home, I understand how my mother had to work two jobs to try and make ends meet and still not making those ends meet…”, said Karriem, “…I think that women deserve, if they do equal pay for equal work, then they deserve the money that a man would get…”

Karriem is also co-sponsoring a bill that would make cursive writing a mandatory lesson in schools.

One piece of legislation Karriem said he authored and did pass a committee would be to rename a portion of Highway 182 in honor of the late legislator Esther Harrison, who Karriem replaced in the legislature after she passed away last year.

Categories: Local News, State News

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