Here come the Memphis Grizzlies again, playing tonight against Houston. Arkansas-based journalist and author Mara Leveritt will be signing copies of her new controversial book Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three. And while I’ve never heard them, any band that calls itself The Drunk Stuntmen should be worth checking out; they’re at Murphy’s tonight.
It is Super Bowl Sunday, of course, so many of you will be chugalugging beer and eating bean dip either at your favorite bar or at home. Alternatives: m.o.e. is at the New Daisy tonight; and there’s the Memphis Symphony Orchestra: 50th Anniversary Concert at the new Cannon Center for the Performing Arts.
Vladimir Radmanovic scored 19 of his career-high 29 points in the second half to lead the Seattle SuperSonics to a 95-83 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Radmanovic also established career bests by making six three-pointers on 11 attempts. He scored nine points in the third quarter, helping Seattle erase a five-point halftime deficit and win for just the third time in 11 games. “Everybody knows who can shoot and who cannot shoot,” Radmanovic said. “They probably wanted to stop something else, but when you stop something else, then something else is going to be open. I think that’s what happened.”
Rashard Lewis also scored nine points in the third quarter and finished with 22. Lewis, who grabbed 10 rebounds, converted a three-point play with 8:10 left in the period to cap an 11-1 run and give the Sonics a 57-52 lead.
“They’ve got to do that more often,” Seattle guard Gary Payton said of Radmanovic and Lewis. “They’re up and down. They had a good game tonight, and they see when they have good games it takes a lot of pressure off a lot of guys.” Payton had 18 points, six assists and five rebounds for the Sonics, who defeated the Grizzlies for the 26th time in 30 meetings.
Payton became the fourth player in NBA history to record 18,000 points and 7,000 assists when he made a fast-break layup with 4:55 left in the first quarter. Payton joined John Stockton, Oscar Robertson and Isiah Thomas in the elite group. Payton and Stockton are the only ones who also have 2,000 steals. Memphis stormed to the halftime lead after trailing 31-23 at the end of one quarter.
Pau Gasol scored 13 of his 25 points in the second period and made 7-of-8 shots over the opening 24 minutes. But he shot just 4-of-8 after halftime. In the third quarter, the Grizzlies shot 26 percent (5-of-19) and were outscored, 28-15. They shot 54 percent (19-of-35) in the first half.
“We are in the upper echelon in field goal percentage,” Memphis coach Hubie Brown said. “Now all of a sudden we … can’t make a shot.”
Lorenzen Wright had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who have lost five of their last six games. “It’s very frustrating,” Wright said. “It seems like we’re constantly taking steps back and we’re not improving. We didn’t play our game tonight. We didn’t play together and didn’t play defense.”
In honor of the recent holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (and in light of the pro-segregationist remarks that ousted Mississippi senator Trent Lott from his leadership position) we thought it might be a good time to explore Senate majority leader Bill Frist s brief but decidedly right-leaning voting record concerning civil rights issues. In September 1996, he voted against a bill that would have prohibited workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, while in October 97, he voted in favor of a bill to eliminate a program that helps businessses owned by women and minorities to compete for federally funded transportation. What does this mean for Frist s political career? Should the ancient, onetime segregationist Strom Thurmond keel over of a heart attack, the good doctor should probably not attempt resuscitation.
NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen is a walking, talking microprocessor: feed him information, he’ll process it and give you a solution. That’s the impression the Harvard-educated physics major and successful businessman gave Tuesday during his first Cabinet meeting.
After eight years of Don Sundquist, who gamely tried to pass an income tax in his turbulent last two years in office, Bredesen and his new team are a breath of fresh air.
In fact, they’re so fresh that Bredesen turned to his chief lobbyist to explain some simple facts of legislative life.
Lawmakers come to Nashville on Mondays for a 5 p.m. session. They gather in committee meetings on Tuesdays.
On Wednesdays, legislators hold committees throughout the morning and hold floor sessions in the afternoon.
For at least the first couple of months, lawmakers head for the hills after 9 a.m. floor sessions, Anna Windrow told Bredesen’s Cabinet.
Of course, this was not news to some in the Cabinet. Agriculture Commissioner Ken Givens and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber left the Legislature just two months ago, knowing they likely could not win re-election after supporting an income tax.
Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz and Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Jim Neeley have been around. Goetz is a former business trade association lobbyist and radio and television reporter who covered Capitol Hill. Neeley was labor commissioner for Gov. Ray Blanton, 1975-79, in one of the most forgettable administrations in Tennessee history.
But for most of the remaining 17 Cabinet members, Tuesday’s meeting was the first step in their on-the-job training.
For his part, Bredesen is rearing to go.
“In a way, it’s kind of invigorating,” he said.
Bredesen said he’s ready to tackle Tennessee’s worst problems, a budget shortfall and the yawning TennCare monster that needs at least $259 million more this budget year and about twice that amount for the new fiscal year that begins July 1.
Cabinet members are working on their budget requests for the new fiscal year. Bredesen warned them they cannot expect more money than their departments received this year. And, he instructed them to come up with ways to cut spending by 2.5 percent and 5 percent.
In addition to the TennCare expenses, the state has to come up with $45 million to cover increases in state employee health care premiums. In the frantic final days of last year’s legislative session — it happened in the previous two years as well — legislators and Sundquist failed to appropriate the money.
That won’t happen on his watch, Bredesen said.
“I don’t want to wait until 11:59” to deal with problems that must be settled before lawmakers go home for the year, he said. “This $45 million health care problem has that flavor.”
How about an ethics policy? Bredesen and his legal counsel, respected Nashville lawyer Bob Cooper, are working on that as well.
Cabinet members should receive a draft ethics policy, focusing on financial disclosures and conflicts of interest, any day now.
“We have a state in which lobbyists are a very powerful force,” Bredesen said. That’s an understatement. Lobbyists are responsible for most of the legislation that is approved every year. They draft bills, take them to prospective sponsors, line up co-sponsors, testify before legislative committees and then count votes to ensure passage. Sometimes, they all but punch the voting buttons for lawmakers.
“I just want you to keep a friendly arm’s length,” Bredesen told his Cabinet.
Speaking of legislators, Bredesen reminded his group that the Legislature is a separate branch of government. “Don’t let them chase you around the table,” he said.
Still, Cabinet members need to get to know legislators. Bredesen noted that he called on Lt. Gov. John Wilder, the Senate speaker, and House Speaker on Tuesday morning, his first official day in office.
Meantime, Bredesen said he wants information from his managers. He wants them to offer ideas that he can absorb, process and use to solve the mammoth problems facing Tennessee.
“I don’t want to leave problems for the future,” he said.
Lamentagions
. . . sitting in forgotten chairs . . . Paul Zweig
You dang near pulled my finger off says
my neighbor to her dog
and her dog stares briefly and breaks.
She’s recently married to her
second husband, Gerald, the happiness
new and dramatic, but there are pains, or numbnesses,
her whole left side seems half
alive, the cervical area, she
points with her right arm and forefinger
behind her neck, this might be it . . .
Her dog has stopped and stands still
as if straddling two cities.
The insolent white star of his chest.
The love of sitting in forgotten chairs.
The laughter of two people, the
yield, the humility
endlessly.
Not the boredom or the fear,
not the waiting, not the motion
and momentum. Only
the spokelike tender turnings like
a bicycle clicking through time.
The pain situates here
and here, the left holds on to
the right, the dog has
flown to what he imagines
as the final spectra —
where else would one wear a leash
over the shoulder
like a scarf on an airman?
Back
I can hear the even clicking
of a bluejean button as it tumbles
in the clothes dryer in a room
off the kitchen. Is the world
coming to an end? Why ask
such questions if it is not?
The lucid skin, the salt and sorrow.
I am back in childhood.
I see the father leaning over the steaks.
He has his shirt off, is smiling into the lens.
He thinks he will never die.
The stairs in heaven shake their chains.
Smoke rises like always with casual
meandering florets which stick in the eye.
The mother seeks unintended grace.
Unintended? Grace? Seeks?
I have been this child who hid.
Who listens as the button falls.
*
If you turn away the universe
would sail, everything would
shift. The moment pressing down.
In a few minutes the telephone rings.
The voice says who in the hell
do you think you are.
If I bother to look outside
snow sluices down the street
with great masses of leaves
I haven’t raked but I stare
inward and fail to speak
as if I’m on a bus.
The setting spins by.
The dwellings are real.
I am who I think.
From Ghost Notes, by Ralph Burns, published by Oberlin College Press
(http://www.oberlin.edu/~ocpress/). Copyright © 2001 by Ralph Burns. All
rights reserved. Used with permission
Ralph Burns is co-director of creative writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He has published six collections of poems: Ghost Notes, which received the Field Poetry Prize, (Oberlin College Press, 2001); Swamp Candles (University of Iowa Press, 1996); Mozart’s Starling (1990); Any Given Day (1985); Windy Tuesday Nights (1984); and US (1983).
Ralph Burns has published in many magazines including The Atlantic, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, and Field. He has won a number of awards, including the Iowa Poetry Prize, the Great Lakes Colleges Award for the Best First Book in Poetry, and two fellowships in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts. Next week, we will feature an excerpt from his latest book, Ghost Notes.
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DIPTERA
Attn: Lesha Hurliman
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Memphis, TN 38103.
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\Dip”te*ra\– An extensive order of insects having only two functional wings and two balancers, as the house fly, mosquito, etc. They have a suctorial proboscis, often including two pairs of sharp organs (mandibles and maxill[ae]) with which they pierce the skin of animals. They undergo a complete metamorphosis, their larv[ae] (called maggots) being usually without feet.
A big night. For starters, how s this for coincidence? Jerry Springer is doing something at the Grand Casino tonight, while here at home at the New Daisy there s Extreme Chaos Insane Hardcore Midget Wrestling featuring Sheltered Life and Another Society. Ah, the choice one must make. I just hope they are on speed. Those Memphis Grizzlies are back at it again tonight playing Seattle. It s Memphis Zoo Pet Adoption Day at the Memphis Zoo, where the Memphis Shelby County Humane Society will have numerous pets for adoption. The Newfoundland-bornEnnis Sisters (winner of this year s East Coast Music Award Group of the Year, among others) bring their country/folk sound to the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center tonight. Today s Chocolate Fantasy at Oak Court Mall offers all kinds of chocolate samples from area restaurants and benefits the National Kidney Foundation o West Tennessee. FM 94.1 The BUZZ is hosting their first free concert of the year tonight at the Hard Rock CafÇ with Lisa Loeb, The Scott Sudbury Band, and Native Son. Henry Gross (wow, who remembers him? I do) is at the Blues City CafÇ. The Sugar Free All-Stars are at the Blue Monkey. Tha Movement featuring Jah-mek-I, Akili, and DJ Armis are at Young Avenue Deli.
It’s become a TV ritual: Every year in mid-January, around the time of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, we get perfunctory network news reports about “the slain civil rights leader.” But the last three years of his life are totally missing, as if flushed down a memory hole.
What TV viewers see is a closed loop of familiar file footage: King battling desegregation in Birmingham (1963); reciting his dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (1963); marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965); and, finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968).
An alert viewer might notice that the chronology jumps from 1965 to 1968. Yet King didn’t take a sabbatical near the end of his life. In fact, he was speaking and organizing as diligently as ever. Almost all of those speeches were filmed or taped. But they’re not shown today on TV.
Why?
It’s because national news media have never come to terms with what King stood for during his final years. In the early 1960s, when King focused his challenge on legalized racial discrimination in the South, most major media were his allies. Network TV and national publications graphically showed the police dogs and bullwhips and cattle prods used against Southern blacks who sought the right to vote or to eat at a public lunch counter.
But after passage of civil-rights acts in 1964 and 1965, King began challenging the nation’s fundamental priorities. He maintained that civil-rights laws were empty without “human rights” — including economic rights. For people too poor to eat at a restaurant or afford a decent home, King said, antidiscrimination laws were hollow.
Noting that a majority of Americans below the poverty line were white, King developed a class perspective. He decried the huge income gaps between rich and poor and called for “radical changes in the structure of our society” to redistribute wealth and power.
“True compassion,” King declared, “is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
By 1967, King had also become the country’s most prominent opponent of the Vietnam War and a staunch critic of overall U.S. foreign policy, which he deemed militaristic. In his “Beyond Vietnam” speech delivered at New York’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 — a year to the day before he was murdered — King called the United States “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”
From Vietnam to South Africa to Latin America, King said, the U.S. was “on the wrong side of a world revolution.” King questioned “our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America” and asked why the U.S. was suppressing revolutions “of the shirtless and barefoot people” in the Third World, instead of supporting them.
In foreign policy, King also offered an economic critique, complaining about “capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries.”
In his last months, King was organizing the most militant project of his life: the Poor People’s Campaign. He crisscrossed the country to assemble “a multiracial army of the poor” that would descend on Washington — engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol, if need be — until Congress enacted a poor people’s bill of rights. Reader’s Digest warned of an “insurrection.”
King’s economic bill of rights called for massive government-jobs programs to rebuild America’s cities. He saw a crying need to confront a Congress that had demonstrated its “hostility to the poor” — appropriating “military funds with alacrity and generosity” but providing “poverty funds with miserliness.”
How familiar that sounds today, 35 years after King’s efforts on behalf of the poor people’s mobilization were cut short by an assassin’s bullet.
Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon are syndicated columnists and authors of Adventures in Medialand: Behind the News, Beyond the Pundits.
