Letters to the editor:
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Criminally Stupid?

Just how more stupid can an idea be? It baffles me that our city's leaders have let this idea get this far ["Looking for Justice" by David Madison, Vol. 10, No. 3]. I thought it was their job to prevent such idiocy from getting out of hand and "threatening" the citizens. Have they really thought this out? Are they awake?

Let's make this Sesame Street-simple for our leaders to understand. Let's play the "What does not belong" game. Here are the choices: the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, a new convention center, a revamped waterfront, and A JAIL. Okay, I know it's tough, but put some WD-40 on those cogs in your heads, and make an effort to think!

What a source of pride and showcase of savvy civic planning! What a boon to downtown growth and rejuvenation—convicts, and less parking! I think that the first inmate should be our wonderful Sheriff Tim for taking the lead on this reject of a project. It's only fitting—I feel that the construction of this jail is a crime, and this project is his baby, so he should be the first one to enjoy it.

Michael Garaza
Knoxville

Keeping it Legal

You quote John Gill's comment on the justice center: "County Commission is not hearing from anybody..." ["Downtown Dialogue" by Joe Tarr, Vol. 9, No. 45]

The County Commission held well-advertised hearings on the justice center and these hearings and a number of letters to the editor were reported in the press. Where was John Gill?

The consultant hired by the County Commission took a group to see the Arlington County, Virginia justice center and jail, which is in the high-rent district with a long-established, expensive French restaurant across the street. As someone said: Near a jail is the last place criminals want to be. In Knoxville, the area near the jail is the most thriving part of downtown.

Downtown is the legal and banking center of Knoxville. If the legal goes, the banking will too and we will have more boarded-up buildings.

Bobby Johnson
Knoxville

The Quaker Community

I received a call a couple of weeks ago: "You must look at the latest Metro Pulse! (as if I weren't a regular reader) It's about Quakers!" ["Manner of Friends" by Ed Richardson, Vol. 9, No. 48] I immediately went to the stand to pick up an issue. The cover was inviting, quite "Quakerly." Unfortunately, I think that the article was a bit misleading about the state of the Society of Friends in East Tennessee, something I wish to correct. Friendsville is not the oldest settlement of Friends. New Market, Tenn. (outside of Jefferson City) has the oldest Quaker meeting still active in Tennessee, Lost Creek Friends Meeting. While a small Meeting, it has more youths than adults, has a website, and is involved in its community and with the larger body of Friends. It's held meeting for worship in the same Meeting House since 1796. Similarly, there are smaller meetings affiliated with Friendsville Friends in Knoxville and McMinn county.

The typically liberal body of Friends is thriving in East Tennessee with worship groups in Cookeville and on the UT campus and meetings in Johnson City, Cedar Bluff, and Chattanooga. Oddly enough, the largest of all Friends Meetings in East Tennessee is the one in West Knoxville. Also, Friends, while differing somewhat in theology and social views, are working together to understand our history. Quakers are involved in the cutting edge of social issues in this town. Our diversity is reflected even on the Web at www.quaker.org. You will find Quakers involved with immigrants and refugees, prisoners and the poor, sexual minorities, and other marginalized persons. We Quakers are growing in some areas and leaving others behind, but we are a still, small presence in the conscience of East Tennessee, as we have been for nearly two centuries. We just try not to rub it too often in our neighbors' faces.

Kevin-Douglas G. Olive
Knoxville