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Oh, the Missed Irony

Thirty years ago I was walking a picket line in front of an apartment complex in Charlotte (N.C.) that had no policy to keep black people out but whose managers had somehow not been able to find a qualified person of color to accept as a tenant.

As we walked, signs in hand, a middle-aged, white male resident of the complex approached two of us and said he wanted to explain why he thought integrating the complex would be a bad idea. He began his spiel with, "Now don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are black, but..."

Before he could finish, Arthur, the black man standing beside me, interjected: "That's wonderful, sir. Some of my best friends are also black."

This week I read Attica Scott's column ["Color Conscious," Vol. 10, No. 24] and these words: "Don't get me wrong. This column will not be about bashing white people. Some of my best friends are white." I couldn't help but notice that the same sentiment didn't sound any less insincere and self-deluding coming from a woman of color in the year 2000 than it did coming from a white bigot in 1970.

David Hunter
Powell

Pulling From Our Pockets

While our state Senate may debate the wisdom of new taxation versus budget cutbacks, the real question most Tennesseans should be concerned with is future fiscal responsibility. Certainly, many of those now opposed to any additional taxation—regardless of the socio-economic class said tax focuses on—believe that our state government is too fiscally careless to create any useful good beyond short-term solvency. Regardless of what the current financial situation is, "throwing money at the problem" does little good without long-term plans. I would support the governor's, or another, income tax plan (despite the massive headache it will cause in paperwork) if I felt that the entire process will not be repeated the next time Tennessee's foolish spending delivers us all into another crisis. Unfortunately, such plans take a good deal of time to create by consensus, and a legislative consensus is required here. No matter how much money Tennessee pulls from our pockets, we will soon return to this situation without a cohesive, intelligent, and clear plan of future financial goals. Our state government should have created a committee for this years ago, for now it may be too late.

Patrick Bryant
Knoxville

Inside This Issue!

Stephanie Piper, in her piece in the Metro Pulse of June 8-14, "The Truth of the Moment," beautifully evokes a seamlessly connected sense of past, present, and future in 10 brief paragraphs. To read more such writing by Ms. Piper would be a singular pleasure.

Wallace Gambill
Clinton