Where is the Charisma?

First of all, congratulations on a great issue ["The Knoxville 100" by Jack Neely, Vol. 8, No. 43]! I would not be so presumptuous to claim it's your best, but it's certainly my favorite, including the superbly written Letter to the Editor ["Take Back Our City!" by Shawnaa Pate].

Surely you will be hearing from readers for weeks to come, challenging your Top 100 list of Knoxville's most influential citizens. Though I would question why my ancestor, George Barber, deserves as high a position as #12 (proud as I am to see him there), I find myself thinking more about the relative lack of personality, color, charisma, and ability to evoke true change, in current community leaders—those the future might look back on with consideration.

I was delighted to discover that many of those who were important in Knoxville's evolution could be classified as liberal, progressive, even occasionally radically leftist (I expected the more conservative notables to appear). And flamboyance was in abundance! It is apparent that Knoxville may have once been a more colorful, varied, energetic city, full of colorful, varied, energetic leaders from all layers of political, religious, and moral spectra.

But having recently returned to live in Knoxville after 15 years away, I think I have a heightened awareness of how "bland" and almost universally conservative our prominent personalities are these days. Though I have noticed more "outsiders" living here than before, I find our fair city clinging mightily to the status quo, not very open to new or diverse ways of thinking and living, still unable to realize a viable city heart, and perhaps forcing our leaders into narrow, "stay-the-course" roles. Surely, there is variety among the citizens, but I don't see it in the leadership.

For example, as much as I disagreed with Cas Walker's politics and methods, it was stimulating and enjoyable to have him around. So now that he, Jake Butcher, and Chris Whittle are gone, there is no one who fascinates, or whom we expect to make a true difference, good or bad. As relatively successful as our politicians, religious leaders, artists, educators, and all-important athletic coaches may or may not be, it would be hard to argue that any of them besides Pat Head Summit or Danny Mayfield are either INTERESTING or PROGRESSIVE people—people who entice us to go buy a newspaper, or who can INSPIRE the community-at-large to emulate, to challenge, or to grow (and I don't mean develop more ugly subdivisions!). Oh yes, Carlene Malone, Mary Lou Horner, and Bee DeSelm are colorful and important people, but they are not Top 100 candidates in my book.

As to which came first, the chicken or the egg—whether the Knoxville mindset will no longer allow a bold personality to garner widespread respect, or whether interesting people just go elsewhere—I leave that discussion for another day. And yes, there is a national trend to mediocrity—witness Washington and network TV. For now, I will continue to rely on Metro Pulse (which, it must be noted, is more reserved than other metropolitan alternative tabloids I have seen) to make each week here a little more hopeful. Now, if you could just be persuaded to open a truly progressive restaurant...

Doug Barber
Knoxville

Now That Would be Scenic

So the Pellissippi Parkway "doesn't look so darn scenic." Well, screw it, then—billboards for everybody! Why should a city that seems so hellbent on destroying anything of interest or value within its limits want to preserve a little greenery way out there on the highway? What amazes me most about City Council meetings aren't the dull and, many times, short-sighted decisions that are made, but the fact that Carlene Malone hasn't strangled someone with her bare hands yet.

Lisa Morrow
Knoxville