Outsiders believe Mississippi and her people exist in a time warp, where time never passes and people never change.

Certainly change does come slowly to Mississippi and its residents. Our DNA seems to be programmed that way.

We generally move slow, talk slow and operate at a slower pace than people who foolishly put up with big-city traffic jams where snow is measured by the foot.

We like our slow pace of life, but it’s certainly no indication of stagnant hearts and minds. For progressive-minded Mississippians, however, the insistence that the state never changes is infuriating.

It’s clear many — particularly those currently leading the U.S. Department of Justice — believe Mississippi will never shake the shameful stigma of the Jim Crow era.

The latest proof of that comes from the doomed fate of Mississippi’s voter ID law, which appears to be awaiting the executioner at the DOJ.

In November 2011, nearly two-thirds of Mississippians supported a constitutional amendment that provided for voter ID. Since earlier this year, the DOJ has been considering the law. Mississippi’s decades- old history of racial discrimination requires federal approval of any voting procedure changes.

Rather than see the common-sense nature of requiring proof of one’s own identity before participating in among the most important acts a citizen can do, naysayers instead focus on alleged vast legions of people disenfranchised by voter ID.

The Mississippi Secretary of State’s office said recently only 66 residents had actually contacted the office requesting help obtaining an ID — far from the thousands and thousands naysayers allege do not have access to an ID. Perhaps math works differently outside the time warp others insist upon putting over Mississippi.