|
Let’s See Action
I was just reading Joe Tarr’s article on the lack of diversity downtown. I saw Bill Lyons’ and Michelle Hummell’s comments and felt compelled to put pen to paper. Now, understand that I know Bill and Michelle. I have libated and/or broken fast with both of them. I seriously doubt that either of them have an actively or intentionally racist bone in their bodies. Unfortunately, that’s not good enough.
Imagine that you are a life-long smoker. Eventually, you get lung cancer. Once you have the cancer, if you just stop smoking that will get rid of the problem, right?
Wrong, of course. You will need radiation, surgery, chemotherapy, dietary changes, exercise, indeed an entirely new and different mental approach. Otherwise, get used to the idea of being dead.
Or how about another football analogy. When the Vols are down 21 to nothing because of some mistakes our quarterback made, all we have to do is replace the quarterback, right? Wrong again. Unless the intent is to lose by no more than 21 points, you not only have to score, but you have to stop, or at least slow down, the opponent’s scoring. The coaches’ attitudes must change to reflect the different skills of the new quarterback and the need for aggressiveness to overcome the deficit. The defensive coaches have to adopt something other than a “hold them” strategy, as our offense needs the ball back if they are going to score. In essence, our whole game plan has to change.
If you can understand the basic truths of the above analogies, you now know the underlying reason for Affirmative Action. For roughly 300 years, this nation pursued policies that were actively and/or passively racist. It has lead to the cancers of poverty, crime, irresponsible parenting, ineffective educational institutions, and the general stifling of dreams. To say that now we will no longer pursue or allow racism is great, but it’s also like quitting smoking when you have cancer. It is a smart and necessary step, but it is just one of the many steps necessary if the life of the patient is to be saved.
I don’t pretend that Affirmative Action as it has been implemented is ideal. I don’t pretend to know what it will take to fix it or even if it can be fixed enough to approach its intention. What I do know is that there must be an action to balance the previous action. The simple cessation of the previous action is not enough.
Obviously, this is a national issue. However, like so many such issues, it must be addressed at the local level. For all the wounds to be healed, it would require effort by all individuals to reach out to other individuals. I’ll just assume that isn’t going to happen (although none will be happier than I if it should come to pass). Fortunately, in this instance the patient can survive—and even thrive—though less than 100 percent healed. If our governmental, corporate, and religious leaders would understand the benefits they stand to reap and lead the way in taking the necessary actions to balance previous actions, our nation can and will flourish.
The actions of our forefathers have a definite and continuing impact on our daily lives. Our societal traditions and prosperity—indeed our very lives—are built on the foundation said forefathers laid. Your current lot in life is not attributed solely to your own efforts. Without all that went before, most of us can’t have what we now have. Because we as a nation still profit from the racism of the past, we all have a responsibility in eliminating its more negative lasting effects. Our downtown would clearly benefit from the addition of several thriving minority-owned or focused businesses. Our society benefits whenever we have citizens taking an active and positive role.
The surgery may hurt, and the treatments may be uncomfortable. But if you want to live, you do it anyway.
Steve Dupree
Knoxville
Border Patrol
Is “Big Money” or “Power” the dirty little secret behind the strange actions of our politicians? Why else would our congressman, Representative William L. Jenkins and our two distinguished U.S. Senators Bill Frist and Lamar Alexander help Democrats try to move heaven and earth to eliminate all national borders? And why do they keep insisting that our borders are no longer important, that unlimited and uncontrolled immigration is OK, that our American Sovereignty, protected with American blood, is no longer important, and that all of this makes the “so-called” “Free Trade Agreements” a good deal?
If the plan is to erase all national borders, [aka European Union], how can any sovereign nation exist without borders, and if our borders are to be eliminated, what effect will our wonderful Constitution and Bill of Rights have in a borderless nation? How can they still apply if there are to be no more national borders, as part of those very dangerous “Free Trade Agreements?” How can we keep our American flag at our borders if these borders are erased completely by destructive and misleadingly labeled “Free Trade Agreements?” And wouldn’t unrestricted immigration be a “WELCOME” mat for terrorists?
How can any American politician support this deadly agenda and be qualified to hold public office of any kind without violating his “Oath of Office” to support, protect and defend the Constitution? Why haven’t Representative William Jenkins, Senators Bill Frist and Lamar Alexander publicly explained their support and why they are pushing these agreements to bring about the end of American Sovereignty and the step-by-step removal of the American flag at our borders, all as a part of these lethal Free Trade Agreements?
Raymond Adams Waddle Junior
Gatlinburg
Speak Out
If all goes as planned, the state of Tennessee will execute Philip Workman on Sept. 22. I am saddened and outraged to think of it. Harold Davis, the sole eyewitness to the very tragic shooting of Memphis Lieutenant Ronald Oliver, lied to the jury. Davis never saw Workman shoot Lt. Oliver, because he was not at the crime scene. Five jurors who convicted Workman said they would have acquitted him of Oliver’s murder without such perjury. It takes only one juror to prevent a death sentence. In addition, forensic evidence has established that Philip Workman did not fire the fatal bullet. That evidence suggests that it was “friendly fire” that killed Lt. Oliver.
Our criminal justice system depends on human decision and thus human limitation: it will sometimes get things wrong. The standard of reasonable doubt was designed with this possibility in mind. All too often that standard is given low priority because the government has already invested resources in “getting” someone—anyone!—for a heinous crime. But blood lust should play no role in the administration of justice in a democracy. Nor should the outlay of political and economic capital determine whether a man lives or dies. I urge fellow Tennesseans to speak out by writing to Governor Bredesen.
Lois Presser, Ph.D.
Knoxville
Confessions of an Imaginative Mind
An idea occurred to me while reading [Frank Cagle’s] column and the rest of the Aug. 19 edition of Metro Pulse: Move the downtown library into the Victor Ashe/Knoxville Folly/Tax Blackhole Convention Center—or even the TVA towers—and be done with it.
The thought was originally a facetious one, born from rage and frustration over idiotic wastes of money and unconstitutional (or at least unfair) forced tax tributes, but...
I’ve never been in either building: Is it conceivable that either could be converted to such use? With space for a Discovery-like area, a Planetarium-like observatory on the top floor or roof, perhaps some Theatre-like screening rooms for small groups, maybe some reasonably priced snack and souvenir shops to recoup costs... and, of course, Free Parking?
Maybe everyone that came in could easily find information, walking maps and special discount offers for other downtown attractions and eateries and maybe even for the Knoxville Zoo?
Hey, maybe even a Hotel-like thing, too... one small padded room for Commission meeting nights: “The Meltdown Arms Motel.”
And just to make everybody happy and ensure solvency, make part of it a paid-admission UT football museum.
Anyway, it was just a thought.
Darrel Mendenhall
East Knox County
August 26, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 35
© 2004 Metro Pulse
|
| 
