“While it is fashionable to bash state workers as lazy, useless bureaucrats, it is truer to say that they have the same moral fiber as the typical employee of a large private-sector business and the same expectations that they will be paid more from year to year.”
— Phil Ashford, in the Nashville Scene as quoted in Co-Worker, the newsletter of the Tennessee State Employees Association.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in the words of the great Shirley Q. Liquor, let s give it up for the complex and multitalented Patti Labelle, who kicks off her two-night gig at Sam s Town tonight. Back at the New Daisy, there s a big fund-raiser for Friends for Life featuring live jazz by Joyce Cobb, Gary Johns, Jackie Johnson, Debbie Kines, Susan Marshall, Teresa Pate, Reni Simon, and the amazing Memphis Jazz Orchestra, one of the best kept secrets in this town. Gregory Hines is the headliner at tonight s Memphis Heart Gala Silver Anniversary at The Peabody, benefiting the American Heart Association. Papa Top s West Coast Turnaround is at Kudzu s tonight. Big Ass Truck with The Subteens are at Young Avenue Deli. The Billy Gibson Trio is at the P&H CafÇ. Crash into June with The Rosenbergs and Shaking the Ree are at Newby s. Back at the Hi-Tone, it s live music by Lucero and Secret Liquor Cure (go early and have dinner at Rumblefish, adjacent to the bar). And last but certainly not least, New York rockabilly purveyors, The Camaros, are at the Blue Monkey.
A couple of art functions tonight: There s an opening reception at the Art Farm Gallery, for paintings, sculpture, and musical instruments by Mark Gooch. And in conjunction with South Main s monthly trolley art tour, there s an opening at Mariposa Artspace for recent works by Emery Franklin, which includes a live musical interpretation by the artist. That could be a good thing, or a very scary one. Philadanco: The Philadelphia Dance Company begins a two-night performance at Germantown Performing Arts Centre. Brooks & Dunn are at the Horseshoe Casino tonight. And here in town, The Derailers (kick ass) are at the Hi-Tone; 2 Cute Guys in a Band are at Java Cabana (never heard of them, but if they really are 2 cute guys in a band, what s not to go see?); and Memphis own Todd Snider is at the New Daisy.
For everyone frustrated with telemarketers calling during dinner — and that’s probably just about everyone — the Tennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA) can offer some relief.
Consumers may submit their names and telephone numbers to the TRA’s “Do Not Call” program by either calling a toll-free number (1-877-872-7030) or completing an online form available on the TRA’s Web site (www.state.tn.us/tra).
The “Do Not Call” program was instituted following passage of TCA 65-4-401 through 65-4-408, which allow for the creation of such a program and define several applicable terms, such as “solicitor.” Though the program only officially began on August 1, 2000, already some 550,000 Tennesseans have registered for the service.
“We appear to have started a pretty popular program here,” says program coordinator Ed Mimms. “We vigorously enforce it. After a consumer has reported a violation, we investigate it to make sure the consumer’s name is on the list and then we send the violating company notice of the alleged violation. In most instances we get a response from the company after that.”
Mimms says that several fines apply to companies not in compliance with the law. A company can be fined up to $2,000 for not registering themselves as telemarketers with the TRA. The company may also be fined $2,000 for not responding to a violation notice, and they can be fined another $2,000 if they are proven to have called a registered consumer.
The statute defines a solicitor as a company or other organization that makes more than three calls a week in order to sell a product. Also, solicitors may only call between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. and cannot knowingly block identifying information from appearing on a consumer’s caller ID device.
While no fines have been levied against any violators to date, Mimms says they have already investigated 577 cases of non-compliance.
“It’s a lot like speed limits, though,” says Mimms. “There’s always going to be someone out there who is not aware of the regulations.”
The statute also provides a few exceptions for telemarketers. If a consumer has given the company permission to call (i.e., signed up for a promotion, returned a post card) the solicitor is exempt from the regulations. Also, if the consumer and the solicitor have a preexisting business relationship that has been active within the past 12 months, the solicitor may call.
TRA spokesman Greg Mitchell says the program has been so well received that people were signing up before it even began.
If you re the type who likes to pay $7 to vomit in movie theater restrooms, sickened by a two-hour exposure to terrible acting, an unbelievable plot, a Hallmark script, and Keanu Reeves tubby, moon-white chest, then Sweet November has found its niche.
I thought about quitting my job when I was assigned to review this two-hour-plus Love Story rip-off. The synopsIis: Uptight career jerk meets free-spirited babe at the Department of Motor Vehicles. They strike up a deal to spend 30 days together. She teaches him how to smell the patchouli and he falls in bed, urgh, love with her. Improbable? Of course, but isn t love funny like that? Throw in a cute, nerdy kid, a bunch of fluffy dogs, a cross-dressing neighbor, and it s one silly sitcom moment after another. But the story is much deeper than that. The free spirit is ill like shelf-full-of-meds sick. Sweet November is a tragedy. It s sad. You ll cry.
This is no longer a subjective statement: Keanu Reeves cannot act. I m not sure if it was Stella Adler who taught actors that Bill and Ted s woah approach to the craft will win over audiences, but it has worked tremendously well for Mr. Point Break. Here, he is Nelson Moss, a conceited, power-hungry advertising executive who ridiculously mumbles possible catchphrases for his newest account with Diggity Hot Dogs. His apartment has the expected American Psycho-meets-Ikea decor, accented with a wall of televisions, a treadmill, laptop, lots of microbeers, and a girlfriend, whom, for the sake of delicacy, he touches with as much feeling as he does his remote control. He calls his boss chief.
In between the insipid commands Nelson barks at his Diggity Dog art team ( Make it pure sex! Red, blood red! ), he cheats on his DMV test and Sara Deever (Charlize Theron) gets blamed for it. She has to wait 30 days to retake the test. Without a license, she needs a ride. Inexplicably, in a city the size of San Francisco, Sara finds out where Nelson lives and makes him give her a ride across town to … rescue some puppies! Yes, it s odd that someone as cold as Nelson would agree to give a seemingly insane woman a ride across town in the middle of the night to conduct a dog heist, but again, love is about taking chances, embracing life, blah, blah.
It takes only a nightcap of cocoa at Sara s bohemian-chic apartment and a day from hell at work to turn Nelson into mush. He agrees to move in with her for 30 days while she teaches him to feel again. They play hide-and-seek, take long walks on the beach, play with cute dogs, eat ice cream, eat candle-lit dinners. He goes from Gianni to grunge in less than a week and helps the neighborhood nerd win a remote-control boat race. Unlikely transformation for a guy as unfeeling as Nelson? Well, two things: They only have 30 days and time s a wastin . And Theron as Sara is probably the most beautiful woman in all of Northern California.
But Nelson has his moments of yuppie weakness. He s still armed with a cell phone and when he flips that baby out, he walks like a stiff Old West cowboy through a saloon door. The Motorola remains his only connection to a world without vegan dinners and crocheted scarves. His slick business partner, played by the always amusing Ally McBeal star Greg Germann, is working on landing him a meeting with the industry s most wicked mogul, a perfectly sadistic Anthony Langella. Germann is the one to watch in this movie. Desperate to ride anyone s coattails to advertising fortune, Germann s character recalls the well-scripted Richard Fish on Ally. Though the role isn t a stretch for the actor, his transition from television to film is smooth and confident.
Not quite good enough to save this sap-fest is Jason Issacs, Sara s downstairs neighbor who informs Nelson that he is Mr. November, just like the guy before him was Mr. October, then Mr. September, etc. The Patriot s well-known villain is a more than capable actor, but he s wasted here with a poorly written role and sparse scene time. He can t lift this film out of its overall malaise.
Though it s Theron s character who s dying in Sweet November, it s Reeves who needs a resuscitation. Even if his lines were laden with cheese, he d still deliver them like a mechanical He-Man without one spark of natural acting talent. There s virtually nothing right with this waste of celluloid. So if the original Love Story, the uber tale of love and loss, left audiences believing that love means never having to say you re sorry, then audiences are due an apology from Sweet November s unrelenting sentimentality.
FROM THE WEIRD SPONSORS FILE:
By entering the Roto-Rooter Jingle contest you get a chance to sing your way to the 2002 Grammy Awards. The contest calls for entrants to create a music video incorporating a plumbing or drain cleaning story or theme. People can “sing” about their pipes, “hip hop” to the bathroom or create new plumbing “‘techno’-logy” in the kitchen sink, in order to be a Roto-Rooter Jingle Jam rock star.
(http://www1.internetwire.com/iwire/iwpr?id=23659&cat=li)
Another Tennessee death row inmate could face execution in just a week.
Stephen Michael West has not filed any appeals that would stop his scheduled March 1st execution. Sharon Curtis Flair, spokesperson for State Attorney General Paul Summers, says that their office is “treating this as if he will be executed.”
“There are no appeals on file and there is no stay,” says Flair.
The inmate has chosen the electric chair — a method of death that he has chosen over lethal injection. West was condemned to death at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the state legislature passed a law that mandates all inmates be lethally injected.
West was sentenced to die by a jury for stabbing Lake City residents Wanda Romines, 51, and her daughter Sheila Romines, 16, near their home by Big Ridge State Park. He also raped Sheila. Twenty-four years old when the crime occurred, West was also found guilty of larceny and aggravated kidnapping of the Romines. Photographs at the trial demonstrated that the mother and daughter were tortured before they were murdered. West did not act alone, though. With him at the time of the killings was Ronnie Martin, who told agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation that he instructed West to kill Sheila because Martin had already killed her mother. Martin and Sheila also knew each other; they had attended the same high school.
In January of last year, West’s defense attorney John Rogers argued before the Tennessee Supreme Court that his client had been victimized as a child, telling the court that West was born in a mental institution to a mother who constantly abused him throughout his youth and adolescence.
Tennessee Department of Corrections spokesperson Steve Hayes says that no attorneys have since represented West, but Chattanooga firm Miller and Martin is now reviewing the inmate’s case history.
Death penalty abolitionists are speaking about West’s decision to speed up his sentence.
Randy Tatel, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition Against State Killing in Nashville, says West’s death is a form of state-assisted suicide.
“It points out even more reasons why the death penalty fails as public policy,” says Tatel. “The state of Michigan is prosecuting a doctor for doing that, but here we have a man who’s expressed a wish to die in which the government is complicit in carrying that wish out. Tennessee has executed one person in 40 years. Are we going to become like Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, where the state is a killing machine?”
But Tennessee Department of Corrections spokesperson Steve Hayes suspects that West’s position is a false alarm of sorts.
“This has happened before,” Hayes said. “But perhaps not this close to an execution date.” — Ashley Fantz
Golfers in Whitehaven will have to wait a while longer before they’ll have a course in their neighborhood. Though the city council voted almost a year ago to purchase the former Whitehaven Country Club property, construction isn’t likely to begin for another year.
“The residents really want a golf course in Whitehaven,” says Councilwoman Tajuan Stout Mitchell, who represents the area. “The council made a decision and appropriated the money for the course, so it’s not money that we’re waiting on.”
Whitehaven residents have been asking the city for a golf course since McKellar Park was acquired by Memphis International Airport six years ago. The council approved $2 million to purchase the former country club last spring and the purchase was finalized last October.
Earlier this month the park commission submitted a four-phase master plan to the city council, which shows that planning on the Whitehaven Community Park will not be completed until the end of September of this year, with construction to begin after the final plans are approved.
“It’s a slow process,” says Patrick Carter, a Whitehaven resident and golfer. “We’d like to see something done before it all goes to weeds.”
Residents also say they’d like for the Whitehaven Community Park to have a recreation center and a municipal pool. District 3 does not have a community swimming pool.
John Vergos, chair of the city council’s parks committee, says the Whitehaven Community Park will not be included in the city’s enterprise fund, which dictates that city golf courses be financially self-sufficient, relying on greens fees and not the city. — Rebekah Gleaves
A February 19th Commercial Appeal story reported that an internal investigation by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department has been unable to verify a rape that allegedly occurred in the county jail. But according to the sex crimes investigator in charge of the case, it’s still ongoing.
Lieutenant M.A. Featherstone told the Flyer that she has not officially closed her probe into a complaint Joseph Liberto filed against the jail administration. Liberto claimed that he had been assaulted by four inmates who forced the 54-year-old to perform oral sex and then anally raped him with a spoon. Liberto went public with his story in the Flyer‘s January 18-24th cover story, “A Night in Hell.”
According to The Commercial Appeal story, Liberto’s allegations were uncorroborated by witnesses the department interviewed, including an inmate who supposedly had full view of Liberto’s cell and perhaps might have seen the incident.
Liberto’s medical records indicate that he suffered tears to his anal cavity, intimating forced entry.
Attorneys Richard Fields and Kathleen Caldwell are representing Liberto. Caldwell calls insinuations that Liberto’s injuries are self-inflicted or that they occurred outside of the jail “preposterous.”
“In terms of [the sheriff’s investigators] asking questions — they’ve tended to be leading or suggestive to what they wish him to say or for others they’ve interviewed to say,” says Caldwell. “Of course, if you ask questions a certain way, you’re going to get the answers that you want — in this case those that don’t corroborate Mr. Liberto. Of course,[the sheriff’s department is] trying to take this case out of the pattern of other problems occurring at the jail. But that’s not going to work.”
Fields called the police department’s statements about the case “propaganda.”
The CA story does not quote Liberto. During the internal affairs investigation, Liberto told the Flyer that he wasn’t shown any photos of people whom he recalled seeing while at the jail.
“It’s curious that the paper didn’t try to contact Liberto,” Caldwell added. “When [he] went into the jail, he didn’t have these problems. When he came out, he did.”
Chief Deputy Don Wright had not returned phone calls at press time.
— Ashley Fantz
Two weeks ago Todd Pack discovered that his Chevy Blazer was no longer parked in his apartment building’s lot. Fearing that it had been stolen, Pack filed a stolen vehicle report with the Memphis Police Department, only to learn that the truck had been taken by police themselves.
Now Pack must pay the Memphis Police Department approximately $250 to get his own car back. Officers told him that the truck, which had a broken driver’s side window, had been towed under suspicion that it was a stolen vehicle.
“I shouldn’t have to pay for anything,” says Pack. “I especially don’t understand why I have to pay for an impound. It’s not like I was driving with expired tags. The truck had been parked in the apartment building’s lot until I could get it fixed.”
Mike Jerden, a service representative at the police impound lot, explained that citizens sometimes complain about vehicles and officers can tow them if the officer deems the vehicle suspicious.
Jerden says that the report completed by the officer and on file at the impound lot authorized the towing of Pack’s truck because the truck had a broken driver’s side window and a popped steering column. According to Jerden, this and the truck’s expired out-of-state tags would be reason enough for the officer to have the truck towed. However, Pack says that the steering column was not popped and the window, which he had broken accidentally after locking himself out, was covered in plastic.
Jerden also says that unless the vehicle is actually stolen and recovered, citizens must pay a $75 towing fee and the $10 a day lot fee, even in situations like Pack’s, where the “stolen” car had never been stolen. — Rebekah Gleaves
With a proposed budget deficit of $34 million on the table, the Memphis City Schools public budget hearing lasted all of 10 minutes. And then a discussion of district consolidation, student athletics, required remediation for competency, and a consent agenda took over three hours.
Only one community member at the sparsely attended hearing posed a question. The same Memphis City Schools parent also made the only comment, telling board members that they could not expect people to make comments on something they do not know anything about.
The proposed operating budget shows expenditures at $678 million and expected revenues of almost $644 million. The cost of the 10 new schools opening in August — for 155 more staff members and operational expenses — is estimated at just over $8 million.
“We’re always disappointed we don’t have more individuals that come [to the budget hearings],” said Board of Education president Barbara Prescott before moving into the regular meeting agenda.
Prescott and Commissioner Michael Hooks Jr. also brought up a previously passed resolution dealing with the pending state legislation on county and “special” school district consolidation.
“I would like to research this issue collectively,” said Hooks. A resolution was passed by the board in 1998 that asked the superintendent’s staff to study consolidation but was never conducted or presented to the board.
“Rather than take a stand, we would like for the board to receive a study,” said Prescott, “so we can be prepared to take a stand.”
“It would solve some of our funding issues,” said Prescott. “We always seem to be in competition with the county schools.” It would also create a district of more than 150,000 students, and size seems to be a concern already.
During a discussion about alerting student athletes to NCAA eligibility regulations, Prescott said that some of the schools were already doing an adequate job.
“In a district this large, we have difficulty enforcing some of these things we struggle with.” — Mary Cashiola
| PHOTO BY CHRIS Przybyszewski |
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Oops!
Noticeably absent Sunday in a Commercial Appeal story about the daily decreasing the size of its pages was a disclosure about the potential millions of dollars in paper costs the newspaper stands to save after the switch.
The story, penned by the paper’s editor and president Angus McEachran, mentioned several other benefits the smaller paper size will yield, such “less clutter” and being easier to read in cramped spaces. But the paper failed to mention that in reducing the size of the printed page, the Commercial Appeal will be reducing its operating expenses and possibly reducing its news hole — the amount of space available for news stories.
When there’s less paper space, stories must be cut or shortened. And when papers elsewhere have used smaller print to keep from reducing the number of stories, as the CA’s new design does, some readers have gotten upset.
In his column, McEachran maintains that by using a new, smaller, typeface the paper will be able to reduce the size of the paper without cutting into the number of stories. He goes on to write that the “letters will be clearer and appear bigger although their computer-assisted design actually makes each word more compact.”
McEachran did not respond to the Flyer’s request for comment.
The Commercial Appeal is not the first newspaper to adopt the “smaller is better” logic. Papers nationwide, including USA Today, The L.A. Times, and The Washington Post have already made the switch. Major newspaper publishers have discovered that by going from 54 to 50 inches they can save a bundle on the cost of newsprint. And with the cost of newsprint currently on the rise, many papers have succumbed to temptation and cut back on paper usage. The Boston Globe, which recently reduced its paper size, expects to save about $4 million this year. News industry experts estimate that newsprint can constitute as much as 60 percent of a paper’s total costs, so the Memphis paper’s profitability could improve significantly.
Nationwide, page sizes aren’t the only newsroom casualities. At many of the other shrinking papers the editorial staff has also been cut. At The Asbury Park Press, the second largest paper in New Jersey, newsroom staff has dropped from 240 to about 180 since 1997. And The Akron Beacon Journal announced earlier this month that it will lay off some 60 employees in order to meet financial goals set by Knight Ridder, its parent company.
According to sources at The Commercial Appeal, the paper has a hiring freeze on new reporters and positions left empty after the departures of Sara Derks, Bobby Hall, and Larry Rea. Warren Funk, the Commercial Appeal’s director of human resources, did not respond to calls from the Flyer, nor did Deputy Managing Editor Otis Sanford.
It’s possible the Commercial Appeal is feeling pressure from its parent company, Scripps Howard, to help maintain the company’s impressive profit margin of nearly 30 percent in its newspaper division. As the second largest paper in the Scripps chain, the Memphis paper would seem to be in a position to greatly impact profit margins. But the newspaper division is the slowest growing of the Scripps ventures. (The cable channels Home and Garden Television, the Food Network, and Do it Yourself are more aggressive properties).
Whether or not the CA will have less news when pages are reduced a couple of inches remains to be seen. And the new size may be indeed be easier to handle in cramped spaces and beneficial to trees. But other beneficiaries will no doubt include Scripps Howard and its stockholders.
— Rebekah Gleaves
High Point Terrace is probably named for its elevated site, not its initial sale prices. The neighborhood is now experiencing tremendous growth in value. Certainly its central location is a factor, but its large lots also make for easy additions, leaving plenty of yard. This house is a prime example of how, several expansions later, these G.I. bill starter houses can become both spacious and gracious.
The house was built in 1948 by a young developer named Kemmons Wilson. It was still occupied by the original owner until five years ago. This owner made only two spatial alterations in an almost 50-year tenure. The east side porch was enclosed for an intimate TV room. Later a master bath and dressing room were added on the west end.
This being a Colonial Revival house, two flanking wings work perfectly. And because the lot is ample there was plenty of room to expand to the side. The current owners have been much busier than the first in their five years in the house.
The living room gained a fireplace with appropriate Colonial mantel and new, well-scaled ceiling moldings. The red-oak floors were uncarpeted, sanded, and clear-sealed to highlight their inherent color. The intimate TV room was converted into a two-person office with lots of built-ins and all the latest in telephone and cable outlets.
The back of the house was the real target. The original kitchen, breakfast room, and bedroom were all gutted and combined. Lots of glass was installed to fill these rooms with light and views to the very private backyard. The new kitchen’s painted cabinets up to the ceiling provide storage for everything imaginable. There’s even an island with butcher-block top and a cozy breakfast area. The other end is a keeping room. Bookcases have been added. In addition to an ample seating area there is a counter for stools facing the kitchen. This new space can accommodate a passel of folks and, when the weather is nice, opens to an adjoining rear deck.
Still not willing to rest, the current owners continued by adding a rear wing. It is a very spacious third bedroom and/or family room. It has lots of windows onto the backyard, and there’s still plenty of room if you wanted to make this a second master suite by adding another private bath and dressing room off the rear.
The backyard has a new ell to one side and a one-car garage to the other. The garage has enough room for a workbench and a paved potting area out back. The back of the property has been terraced with stones to form raised beds filled with sun-loving perennials. While the front, which faces south, is well shaded by two beautiful oaks, the back has an open, sunny demeanor that’s perfect for playing or just watching the grass grow. After this much work that’s really all that is required.
2,100 square feet, 3 Bedrooms, 2 Baths; $220,000
FSBO, 230-6943, e-mail: michael.reeves@alumni.duke.edu
http://www.geocities.com/highpointterracehome/oakley.html
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| John Prine |
The Keith Sykes Song-writer Showcase gears up again this week with a bang as the best of the “New Dylans,” John Prine, joins Sykes and guest Roger Cook at the Black Diamond. The show starts at 8 p.m. on Thursday, February 22nd, with a $15 cover.
After having to cancel their last advertised gig at Young Avenue Deli to open for the North Mississippi Allstars in Chicago, Lucero is back at the Hi-Tone Café on Saturday, February 24th, with the Kansas City band Secret Liquor Cure. — Chris Herrington
The Circuit Riders, a group of talented youngsters from Oxford town, claim that their music is a hybrid of Southern rock and Americana, but I just don’t buy it. Their song “Hat Giver” begins like a tom-tom-happy Led Zeppelin (lyrically substituting mermaids on the Mississippi for Zep’s fantastical characters from Tolkien’s Middle Earth) then smoothly morphs into a rootsy mid-Seventies Stones rip-off. The twangy, jangly ballad “Around the Bend” sounds a lot like an unlikely duet between Uncle Tupelo and the Revolver-era Beatles. Their recording of an incredibly dated Faces cover, “Glad and Sorry,” begins with the spoken indictment: “We need everybody to support local music.” The irony is almost painful. But one thing is for certain, the kids can play the fool out of their instruments. They also have a good ear for intricate and eclectic arrangements. Hopefully they will, with time, stop using their influences as crutches and develop a sound all their own. Still, it’s great to watch young bands develop, and they are certainly worth checking out. Do so when they play the Hi-Tone Café Thursday, February 22nd. The Hi Tone also features C&W powerhouse The Derailers on Friday and the utterly amazing acoustic roots mob The Asylum Street Spankers on Sunday. Go Hi-Tone. That’s one heck of a weekend!
The Bluff City Backsliders are a skronky, sloppy, glorious mess of an old-time Memphis jug band. Between Jason Freeman’s throaty (Gus Cannon only wished) vocals, John (Lucero) Stubblefield’s plucky bass, Mike (Fatback Jubilee) Graber’s manic mandolin, Clint (Mash-o-Matic) Wagoner’s sawing fiddle, and Jack (Professor Elixir) Adcock’s awesome scratch board and spit-drenched jug-work this Memphis superband can deliver the soulful, spirited, and often very funny sounds that first made Beale Street famous. Throw in some zippy kazoos, a mean dobro, and effective, minimal drum-work and you have the swampy recipe for a nasty hangover. They are playing 8-11 p.m. every Wednesday at Beale Street’s Blues Hall. Ah, at last — something authentic on the street that Mr. Handy built. — Chris Davis
Props should go to Clutch for longevity, especially since all nine of their releases have borne a different record label imprint. Their latest, Pure Rock Fury, is on Atlantic records, and while, despite the title, some fans may complain that Clutch doesn’t rock as hard as in their early days, the band goes beyond that to contribute to the redefinition of the term “heavy.” This fine album demands a journey back through the Clutch catalog to witness the evolution of a band fusing hard core and hard rock through roots music, jazz, and go-go. Clutch will be at the New Daisy Theatre on Tuesday, February 27th, with Corrosion of Conformity, Spirit Caravan, and Clearlight. — Pat Mitchell
To the Editor:
The Friends of Shelby Farms wish to add to the statement made by Mayor Rout in The Memphis Flyer (City Reporter, February 1st issue). We agree with attorney Richard Glassman that Alternative F is worthy of serious consideration. We anticipate further discussion once the roadway is presented in specific detail. It is important to note that this latest alternative, like its predecessors, is subject to the federal laws pertaining to roads through parkland. The citizens of Memphis and Shelby County should have the final decision.
Steve Eppel, Friends of Shelby Farms, Memphis
To the Editor:
I am writing in response to a recent letter to the editor (February 8th issue) in which Ashley Fantz was taken to task for her article on Grandmaster Fu Wei Zhong. I too had a strong negative reaction when I first read an article by Ms. Fantz months ago. However, after I read and re-read that particular article (of all things to get irked over, it was a book review), I felt that my criticisms were perhaps not entirely fair and held back on firing off the two-page letter I had written.
I have subsequently read Ms. Fantz’s work with a somewhat skeptical (albeit amused) eye and have found that, while I do not agree with everything she writes, I find her work to be relatively balanced, well written, serious when needed, humorous when appropriate and simply fun to read. Sadly, it’s predictable in today’s oversensitive society that when you skewer a few sacred cows — even when done with tongue-in-cheek humor — those on the receiving end have a hissy fit.
Chris Leek, Memphis
To the Editor:
John Branston’s Viewpoint column (“A Bogus ‘Choice,'” February 1st issue) posed the question, “Why do 118,000 students stay in the Memphis City Schools?” He uses the number of children enrolled in the Memphis schools as evidence to refute the idea of vouchers. He says that choice exists in Memphis through the optional schools, the Memphis Opportunity Scholarship Trust, and the ability to move to a desired school attendance zone. Well, what’s bogus is Branston’s analysis.
First, the vast majority of Memphis City Schools’ student population lives in poverty. People in poverty need before- and after-school care, free breakfasts, free lunches, transportation, etc. The schools located in the depressed areas of Memphis offer those services through a designation as an “entitled” school. Many optional schools do not provide these additional services.
Then there’s Branston’s idea that transportation is a small issue. He must not live in a household that has only one or even no reliable automobile. Reliance on public transit is problematic at best. When on a limited income, the additional time and expense of getting a child across town for school and then getting yourself to work are huge hurdles. Such parents do not have any options; even their housing is usually limited to the rentals that are eligible for government subsidy.
Second, the Opportunity Trust limits its assistance to low-income persons. Has Branston looked at the cost of the city’s top schools — Presbyterian Day School, St. Mary’s, Lausanne? A $1,500 check doesn’t go far for tuition, and tuition is just a portion of the costs for private schools. Would Branston feel the same if the waiting list for scholarship aid contained 116,000 names instead of its present 2,000?
Third, I’m one of those “mobile” folks who chose his school by buying a home miles from his workplace. Did I have any influence over Mayor Herenton’s annexation frenzy? My mobility has gone the way of doubled taxes and a neighborhood with “For Sale” signs and foreclosure notices everywhere. I was forced to go to the school board building three times last week: once to sign up for a spot in the 900-plus-person line, a second time for a roll call to keep my number 369 place in line, and a third time at 5 a.m. to languish in line until 8:25 a.m. This, just to hand in applications for my two oldest children for a chance to attend an optional program miles from our home. And, since few optional schools include kindergarten, who knows where my rising kindergartner will be next fall?
Last, Branston countered his own view by noting that the economically advantaged have fled to Germantown, Collierville, and private schools, leaving the poor to MCS. Doesn’t that clearly indicate that over 100,000 students do not have a choice? Branston concludes that my children will be in Memphis schools because I do not believe MCS is a poor choice for my children or I choose to ignore its problems. It is neither. My children will be in Memphis schools because I make too much money to get scholarships but too little income to send three children to private schools or buy a more expensive house in an “annexation free” Shelby County area.
By the way, does Mr. Branston have children in Memphis City Schools?
Raymond Miller, Memphis
(Editor’s Note: John Branston has two children in Memphis City Schools.)
To the Editor:
Mr. Branston with his Viewpoint column “A Bogus ‘Choice'” unfortunately defends the failing status quo against vouchers and charter schools and tax credits for private and parochial school tuition. Branston basically grants in the column that many public schools are largely failing. Branston also seems to grant that teachers’ unions and bureaucrats might rule the public schools. Branston is then struck by the fact that 118,000 students “choose” to attend public schools in Memphis. (Branston has obviously never heard of the mandatory school attendance law in Tennessee.)
Branston then diverts our attention to another bogus notion: that Memphis City Schools has sufficient “choice” through its optional school program for gifted students. But the point of Mr. Bush’s programs, as I understand it, is to expand the choices to all students, whether gifted or not. (And this doesn’t mean that elite students could not enroll in the Memphis City Schools optional program under Bush’s programs.) The heavily taxed citizens of America and their children deserve a greater range of choice. So, now, who is really missing the more important point?
Phillip Stephenson, Memphis
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