Mississippi has the lowest percentage of Internet users in America, the radio voice announced Thursday morning, followed by the editorial comment “Can we not be first in anything good?”

Selling Mississippi as the place I know it to be is one of the most difficult tasks imaginable.

The Mississippi I knew nearly 18 years ago when I boarded a train in New York bound for a different world was that of Hollywood’s portrayal of “Mississippi Burning,” the loose interpretation of the most famous civil rights killings in our nation’s history.

The Mississippi I knew then was filled with backward ignorant citizens with a penchant for firing shotguns and terrorizing the state’s minorities.

With an open mind and heart, though, it took little time to realize that the Mississippi I once believed to be true is not even close to the Mississippi I now know.

The Mississippi I know is diverse. It’s the cradle of modern American music. It has the beach, the pine forests of South Mississippi, the Delta, the Mississippi River, the hill country and the heel of the Appalachian Mountains.

The Mississippi I know has wonderful people struggling to put to bed the horrors of years past. Elements of that time — thankfully well before my move from Yankee to Southern — are slowly giving way to the more accepting, enlightening elements of today.

It was those elements I championed to a gathering at an Albany, N.Y., pub 11 days ago when the group seated around me asked about where I live. They, too, had limited vision of Mississippi — that of Gene Hackman and two hours of burning crosses and, maybe worst of all, being last at everything good and first at everything bad.

We’ve all read the stories and seen the TV reports — fattest, poorest, most unhealthy — and sooner or later the notion of being last begins to take its toll even on those who know the difference.

So I answered each assertion about the state I proudly call home with a simple, “It’s nothing like that at all.”

“Everyone who has ever visited me in this state leaves saying the same thing,” I said to the group. “They leave saying, ‘That is not at all what I expected.’”

Numbers might continue to portray us as last in everything, but those willing to look into the soul of this place know many times numbers lie.