Archives

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Crime Commission Offers Fresh Perspective on Shelby County Crime

It is much too early to draw definitive conclusions about the work of the newly revivified Memphis Crime Commission, headed now by Bill Gibbons, who formerly served as district attorney general and has returned to

Memphis from his most recent post in Nashville as state commissioner of Public Safety and Homeland Security.  

Certainly there were good omens to be had from a recent Flyer conversation with Gibbons, who has also taken the helm of the new Public Safety Institute at the University of Memphis, and Harold Collins, former city councilman and longtime Gibbons aide in justice-related positions, who now serves as Crime Commission vice president for community engagement.  

The most obvious question about the Crime Commission is: What is its role in directly countering criminal activity in Memphis and Shelby County? After all, the actual pursuit and apprehension of criminals is a street affair, the responsibility of the Memphis Police Department, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department, and the other established law-enforcement bodies in Shelby County.

Gibbons and Collins make clear that their work is in direct collaboration with these agencies, whose specific experiences, anticipated needs, and statistical records provide much of the raw material for the commission’s conclusions. The commission’s work will not be in a vacuum, and whatever recommendations it makes for future law-enforcement strategies in a forthcoming new five-year plan will bear the direct input and specific imprimatur of Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings, Shelby County Sheriff Bill Oldham, and other county criminal-justice principals.

The commission is currently engaged, along with the MPD, in conducting a “zero-based assessment” of what police-force levels should be to deal with current and projected crime conditions. The Crime Commission came into being in 1996 during a rise in crime activity, and at that time made the recommendation for a police force of 2,400 to 2,500 officers. Acting on this and other recommendations in the first of the commission’s five-year plans, the MPD at that time was able to accomplish a serious reduction in criminal offenses. As is reasonably well known, the MPD’s force levels have, during a period of budgetary austerity affecting officers’ benefits, been reduced in number. The commission intends not only to assist in determining what today’s appropriate force level should be but is prepared to join in lobbying efforts to do what is necessary to achieve that level.

The Commission will also have recommendations to make, in tandem with local law-enforcement agencies, regarding specific crime-control practices, as it did with  its advocacy of data-based “Blue Crush” enforcement in response to a spike in crime that occurred in 2006. Collins is focusing his efforts in developing effective modes of community-based policing. Gibbons is also interested in researching the efficacy of a proposal recently made by Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael for extending the purview of Juvenile Court to offenders up to the age of 25. 

Whatever changes come to pass, we are hopeful that the efforts of Gibbons and Collins will provide useful indicators and that the new Public Safety Institute, under Gibbons’ direction, will be able to provide valuable institutional back-up.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

First Debate Was More Heat Than Light

About that presidential debate Monday night: What happened to the pre-ordained and carefully described format of what were to have been six carefully separate segments of 15 minutes each on as many different subjects?

It dissolved, that’s what, into a free-flowing game of the Dozens in which Democrat Hillary Clinton artfully baited Republican Donald Trump, matador-style, into more of the self-destructive bull rushes that have marked his post-convention campaign.

Trump was diverted by Clinton all too often into using his time for querulous self-defense on matters ranging from his unpublished tax returns to his bankruptcies to, God help us, his temperament. (Trump assured us his was just fine and, moreover, that he was “loved.”)

In the process, the New York real estate tycoon (who lamented that he made “only” $654 million last year and suggested he was “smart” to avoid paying federal taxes) lost the control he showed early on, when he made a few effective points about the harmfulness of NAFTA and other trade deals. Ultimately, he surrendered to his all too-familar debate habits of bombast and bullying, verbally overriding both moderator Lester Holt and opponent Clinton, who at one point smiled complacently and said, “Well, just listen to what you heard!”

What viewers heard was not nearly enough from either candidate on several vital issues of the day. Where was a discussion of health-care policy, and, in particular, of the troubling epidemic of health-care providers dropping out of participation in the current Affordable Care system? Where was any sort of useful debate on the major problem confounding our cities just now — that of police shootings of unarmed black males? What, for that matter, about the currently raging issue of athletes refusing to stand during pre-game playings of the national anthem? True, the issue is mainly symbolic, but therein lies its relevance and even a lightning-round treatment of it might have drawn some revealing comments from the candidates.

Moderator Holt, NBC’s evening news anchor, seemed determined to uphold the honor of his network and to prove that he was no Matt Lauer, who failed in the recent “Commander in Chief” forum to rebut Trump’s claim to have opposed the Iraq War folly of George W. Bush. Holt pushed Trump on the subject, and, again, valuable time was lost there. Trump does indeed seem to have been either silent or acquiescent on the issue in the key pre-war period, but let’s be fair. His  finest moment in this campaign may have come during one of the GOP multi-candidate debates when he publicly accused Bush of lying about the rationale for the unnecessary and disastrous war.

Except for one brief outburst from Trump on the subject of Hillary’s emails, that issue, for better or for worse, went unexamined.

And what is this notion, conceded to Trump even by many of his detractors, that he represents change, while Hillary stands for the status quo? The latter part of that would seem correct, but Trump’s blithe advocacy of a return to tax cuts for the rich and of trickle-down economics seems less like a change than a return to policies that have failed over and over again.

There are two more scheduled debates, two more chances to get it right. Let’s hope for the best. Or something better, anyhow.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

TBI Director Gwyn Briefs Memphis Rotary

Among the most intriguing revelations made to members of the Rotary Club of Memphis on Tuesday by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director Mark Gwyn was that
the T.B.I., the Volunteer State’s equivalent of the F.B.I., originated in a newsman’s imagination.

TBI Director Mark Gwyn

This was John M. Jones, the longtime publisher of the East Tennessee Greeneville Sun, who, while covering a murder at some point in the 1950s, became so incensed at the way local police had mucked up the site of the crime (“contamination of evidence,” we call that these days) that he lobbied then Governor Frank Clement for a state-run professional investigative agency. Clement in turn went to work on F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover, who gave the idea his blessing, and — voila! — the T.B.I. came to be.

In those days, the agency had but three employees — one for each of the state’s Grand Divisions — but when then Governor (later prison inmate) Ray Blanton began being accused of crimes of his own in the late ’70s (selling gubernatorial pardons and liquor licenses) and siphoning off agency records, the climate was right for the next Governor, Lamar Alexander, to oversee the expansion of the T.B.I. to its present dimensions as a fully staffed and independent investigative unit, with criminal and forensic divisions of various kinds, all armed with up-to-date technology.

And, as Gwyn explained to his luncheon audience at the University Club, the agency’s directors are appointed to six-year terms in cycles designed to make them independent of specific gubernatorial regimes. (Gwyn himself, originally appointed by former Governor Phil Bredesen, is now in his third term.)

The director addressed three areas of principal concern for the T.B.I — drug trafficking, human trafficking, and cyber crime — all, as he maintained, currently on the rise.

Gwyn claimed credit for a crackdown on methamphetamine production in the state that has reduced the number of meth cases from well into the thousands down to a few hundred. He said the newest specter in Tennessee is heroin and, beyond that, in street doses of heroin cut, in potentially lethal proportions, with the painkiller Fentanyl. (Tennessee has for many years ranked first or second among the states in opioid addiction.)

As for human trafficking, the T.B.I. — commendably — has a policy of regarding young women entrapped into sexual servitude more as victims rather than as criminals, and the agency’s investigative efforts are focused on pimps and customers.

Gwyn came off more as a traditionalist than as an idealist, however, and he got a bit of audience reaction to his statement that he still regards marijuana as a gateway drug as well as to his questioning of legal protections currently enjoyed by users and manufacturers of cell phones — as in the famous Apple case involving the contents of an accused terrorist’s iPhone.

 Those are both cutting-line issues, and how they’ll be resolved is still to be determined. But we appreciate Gwyn’s candor and willingness to discuss these points publicly, as he did on Tuesday.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Special Session Politics in Nashville

Two Cheers for Democracy was the title of an influential tome published in 1951 by the renowned English author E.M. Forster. The book was a collection of essays measuring authoritarian and totalitarian systems of government,
with their single-minded and brute agendas, against the flawed, occasionally fragile and floundering, but somehow enduring democratic governments of the Western world.

Jeremy Durham

Forster’s conclusion overall is summed up in the grudging compliment to the latter, implied by the irony of his book’s title. Hardly an uncritical booster, Forster was fully aware of all the tawdry compromises, pig-headed partisanships, and back-and-forths of parliamentary political systems, but he saw them as the best governmental solutions possible, given the inherent defects of humankind. 

A case in point:  In Nashville this week, the General Assembly has been called back into session by Governor Bill Haslam to deal with a legislative oversight in this spring’s regular session that would cost the state $60 million in federal transportation funds. The problem was a new state law that increased the allowable blood-alcohol level for drivers under 21 from .02 percent to .08 percent. Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration informed the state that the change clashed with federal zero-tolerance legislation that requires the .02 level for states to qualify for its full share of federal funding.

Facing an imminent deadline of October 1st, beyond which the state’s funding allotment would be cut by 8 percent, Haslam didn’t monkey around. He called the special session, and all indications are that the General Assembly will fix the offending glitch post-haste.

So far, so good. The system works, hurrah! Meanwhile, the Republican leadership of the state House of Representatives indicated it wanted to use the occasion of the special session to expel one of its own, state Representative Jeremy Durham of Franklin, who became a huge embarrassment after an investigation by state Attorney General Herb Slatery implicated him in 22 instances of apparent sexual harassment of women.

Expulsion of Durham (who lost a reelection campaign this year in the wake of the investigation) would relieve the state of the obligation for annual pension payments to the offender and would seem to be a no-brainer. That’s where things get complicated. On Monday, when Representative Susan Lynn (R-Mt. Juliet) announced her intent to file a motion for expulsion, several Democratic members unexpectedly raised objections — based on procedural issues, concerns for due process, and what-have-you.

The reason for the Democrats’ obstructionism was not so noble. The minority Democrats have no love for Durham, their frequent scourge in the past. But they wanted to extend debate on the matter long enough to make a case that the Republican leadership sat on the Durham scandal until it became impossible to prevent public awareness of it. The bottom line: Maximizing negative publicity for the GOP super-majority.

E.M. Forster would have no trouble understanding the motive — one of partisanship, pure and simple. In any case, it, too, is how the system works.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Bianca Phillips’ post, “OUTMemphis is New Name for MGLCC” …

Please don’t change it again. These tattoo do-overs are both time consuming and painful.

Long Duck Dong

About Bryce Ashby and Michael LaRosa’s Viewpoint, “The Seismic Shift in Voting Demographics” …

To a substantial degree, individuals are products of their race/ethnicity. It is no accident that lions live and move in prides, wolves in packs, birds in flocks, and insects in swarms. Humans, of course, are more advanced and are capable of free thinking and free action independent and apart from their group — at least sometimes. However, for the most part, individuals behave in line with the rest of their respective group, their respective racial/ethnic identity. It is so much easier and more pleasant to be a conformist than an outcast or misfit.

On top of this, all humans share in common certain traits and flaws like greed, lust, jealousy, and ambition. Mix lots of individuals of various races/ethnicities together (especially in badly lop-sided numbers with disparate levels of power/influence) with universal human flaws, and you get division, oppression, persecution, subjugation, suffering, and tyranny followed by their most famous love child — violence/war/ethnic cleansing.

However, all or most of the oppressors started out as a Joe or a Juan or the son of a historically oppressed/persecuted Joe or Juan. And then one day, young and strong Joe or Juan, full of anger and resentment, decided that enough was enough and decided to do something about that old oppressor. Unfortunately, in the process, Joe or Juan usually becomes the new oppressor.

WilliamJClinton

Were SuperTrump to build a mega wall and carry the millions of illegals back to their far-flung homes on his mighty shoulders, our economy would either fail or be forced into drastic redistribution of wealth. Trump is obviously part of Putin’s fifth column. As are his many commie-trained wives and ex-wives.

CL Mullins

It’s entirely possible for folks to be in disagreement about the politics of immigration, have serious discussions about immigration policy as articulated by one political party or another, and still do all of this without injecting race into your argument at all.

You have to feel sad for people like Bill who can’t seem to grasp this simple idea.

OakTree

Billy, strutting alone around the wrestling ring, blowing kisses at the empty seats.

Jeff

Every great society needs a peasant class. And if we can’t import one, we must make one.

Ern

About Trump and Reagan …

Republicans have been comparing Donald Trump with Ronald Reagan. By no stretch of the imagination could Trump ever be considered comparable to Reagan, except maybe in their celebrity status. Reagan is considered the patron saint of all true conservatives, but the GOP has moved so far to the right since Reagan’s presidency that today he wouldn’t be allowed on the same stage as the typical GOP candidate.

The real Reagan — not the mythic one revered by Republicans today — granted amnesty to nearly three million illegal immigrants, vastly increased the size of the federal government, raised taxes four times, and nearly tripled the national debt. On abortion, Reagan “mouthed the pro-life line” as president, but as governor of California, he signed a legalization bill that enabled abortions in the state to rise from 500 a year to nearly a million. Having been shot himself, he advocated sensible firearms legislation — supporting both the Brady Bill and an assault weapons ban. By today’s Republican standards, Reagan was a heretic. 

StraightTalk

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1437

Bacon Bits

Last week, crummy criminal Martene Stewart called 9-1-1 to report that her purse was snatched by employees at SuperLo Foods as she attempted to run out of the store with a purse full of stolen bacon. Stewart was subsequently arrested for theft of property under $500.

Almost Famous

Curry Todd may have lost his seat in Tennessee’s General Assembly, but the long-legged former legislator is taking a final victory lap in the media. In her end-of-summer roundup for MTV, political writer Jaime Fuller wrote about how Todd was caught on video stealing opponent Mark Lovell’s yard signs. Todd’s sign story was also described as a “monthly favorite” in a compilation of weird news stories assembled by Bloomington, Illinois, newspaper, Pantagraph.

Verbatim

“I did it, yeah, if they put it back up, I’ll do it again. That’s blasphemous … I’d much rather have God happy with me for something I did, even if it puts me in jail,” confessed “Naked Jesus” sign thief Pat Andrews, as quoted by Local Memphis-24. Yeah, sure, Andrews’ God-math failed to adjust for the 8th Commandment and all, but at least he didn’t bear false witness. He didn’t approve of Heartsong Church’s “Naked Jesus” signs, so he just pulled a Curry Todd and took them. The text-only signs advertised sermons about a strictly Biblical Christ.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Policy Needs to be Set for Memphis Sand Aquifer

The good news? The Tennessee Valley Authority’s 2014 decision to phase out the Allen coal plant that spewed toxic gas and chemical particles into Memphis’ atmosphere for decades. Even more good news: TVA’s decision to

replace the coal plant with a much more environmentally friendly combined gas-cycle plant, which is due to go online in 2018.

The bad news? The TVA’s surprise announcement that it would drill five wells into the Memphis Sand aquifer and remove 3.5 million gallons a day of Memphis’ world-renowned drinking water to cool the new plant. This is akin to putting Perrier in your car’s radiator.

The “surprise” part of TVA’s announcement was the non-public nature of its recent policy change. When TVA announced the construction of the new plant, the agency told the public it would be using wastewater from the nearby Maxson Wastewater Treatment Plant for the plant’s cooling water system. TVA now says those plans turned out to be too expensive, primarily because using wastewater would first require treatment of pollutants.

After public blowback to TVA’s original plan to drill five wells into the aquifer and pull water directly from the ground, MLGW suggested that TVA could purchase water from them. But even if that were to happen, much of the water purchased from MLGW would still come from the Memphis Sand aquifer.

TVA says MLGW can’t sell it enough water. MLGW disagrees. Who’s right? And who makes the final decision?

The overarching issue that’s been brought to light by this controversy is that policy decisions as to how our precious water supply is used need to be made at a higher level than the Shelby County Health Department, which is currently charged with the power to grant permission to drill into the aquifer.

Other things the public needs to know: How many wells are currently tapped into the aquifer? How many wells are drilled each year? Who’s gotten permission to drill? How difficult is the process of getting permission? These are issues that need to be addressed by a commission composed of all interested parties: public entities, private corporate interests, environmentalists, state agencies, etc.

The other good news is that, according to MLGW president Jerry Collins, the aquifer is in better shape now than it was as recently as 2000, when the average amount of water pumped from the aquifer daily was 159 million gallons. In 2015, according to Collins, 126 million gallons per day were pumped. Collins credits that drop primarily to low-flush toilets and more energy-efficient washing machines and dishwashers.

But even given that bit of good news, the need has never been greater for close monitoring and smart decision-making regarding our most precious resource.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Pot, Police, and Ambulance Service: Three Wins for Memphis

When it comes to fast-breaking issues in a year of change, the presidential race ain’t got nothing on local government in Memphis and Shelby County. Last week alone featured decisive and potentially transformational action on a trio

of matters — two on the part of the Memphis City Council, another within county government.

The council was the scene of key votes on marijuana and residential requirements for city police. The most surprising perhaps — and certainly the most controversial — was Councilman Berlin Boyd’s proposed ordinance to decriminalize modest marijuana use, providing police with the alternative of writing tickets, much in the manner of traffic offenses, rather than arresting users under the state’s criminal statutes.

To the consternation of professed traditionalists on the council and, as it developed, of Police Director Michael Rallings, the Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee voted 5-2 to support the ordinance, which is due for its first of three required readings on September 6th. We anticipate that emotions will run, er, high on that date in City Hall. Rallings has already resolved to do what he can to defeat the ordinance, and Governor Bill Haslam, on a visit to Memphis last week, also made known his opposition. Opponents on the council, like Joe Brown, summoned up the specter of Demon Weed, but Boyd convinced a major of committee members that recreational use of marijuana is no gateway to hard drug use and that rigid employment of criminal penalties has resulted in instances of severe injustice, especially to young African Americans in Memphis.

At a time when numerous states as well as the seat of national government, the District of Columbia, have chosen to liberalize their attitudes toward marijuana, we find it both encouraging and timely that Boyd is giving Memphis the opportunity to at least rethink the matter.

If Rallings was upset over this Council action, he was relieved about another — the council’s vote last week to reject an ordinance that would have restricted his potential department hires to persons living within the city limits of Memphis. At a time when the buffing up of police ranks with quality recruits is a matter of increasing urgency, it would have been folly to impose so potentially crippling a curb on Rallings’ (and Mayor Jim Strickland’s) prerogatives, and the council recognized that fact resoundingly with a 10-2 no vote.

County government had its moment of clarity, too, at a committee meeting on Wednesday when officials of Mayor Mark Luttrell’s administration and an apparent commission majority read the riot act to representatives of American Medical Response (AMR), whose request for post-contract modifications that would double the county’s costs smacked rather obviously of bait-and-switch tactics. The upshot is a likely move by the county toward creating its own ambulance service — thereby underscoring in practical terms the difference between government’s straightforward mission to perform public service and the potential risks and derelictions to be encountered within the all-too-prevalent practice of outsourcing that mission.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

On the cover story, “Bad Behavior” …

“Strip clubs, porn, booze, weed, guns”

What are things found on Bruce’s monthly expense report?

Charlie Eppes

Q: “Did you expense the lap dances?”

A: “I did the job I was hired to do!”

Q: “Did you expense the lap dances?”

A: “YOU’RE GODDAMNED RIGHT I DID!!!!”

Packrat

On Toby Sells’ News Blog post, “Marijuana Law Passes First Hurdle in Council” …

Of course, Director Rallings is against decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana — petty, nonviolent, drug arrests make the city quite a fair bit of revenue. The surprising thing, to me, is that for someone who is supposedly so “in tune” with the plight of our city, he sure is okay with sending a lot of otherwise innocent young black men to jail. This not only removes their opportunity to be active members in their homes and communities but further hampers their chances for future gainful employment by putting a mark on their record. Hmmmmm. I wish the local BLM chapter (or whoever the recent protesters claim affiliation to) had been more educated on his stance before they championed him so intensely. Memphis has so many other things we need to be focusing on rather than petty, nonviolent, plant-based offenses. Maybe the officers that aren’t arresting people for marijuana could focus on the giant (not so) underground heroin epidemic instead?

R.K. Ford

From Bruce Van Wyngarden’s Letter from the Editor, “Common Sense Pot Policy” …

I recall the alcohol debates in Mississippi when preachers and bootleggers joined together to oppose legalization.

CL Mullins

Purely from an economic standpoint, it makes tons of sense. How much of our public resources are dedicated to pot “criminals”? How many people are we paying to incarcerate due to breaking marijuana laws?

If it’s legal, instead of paying all these prices, you can regulate and tax the product. You create legal industries, where the businesses, employees, and consumers all pay taxes on the transaction. Today, those transactions are all tax-free. Also, by not loading up the population with criminal records, you make people more employable, which is a good thing for the economy as a whole.

I’ll also add that the advent of synthetic marijuana and the continual chase to ban new strains of that is a spin-off of having marijuana be illegal. If marijuana is legal, people don’t need to seek a “legal” alternative substance. Those synthetic marijuanas are getting more and more dangerous the more that they keep banning the new combinations used.

CL, I like your reference to the Baptists and the bootleggers. In this case it’s the Baptists and the pharmaceutical lobbyists.

GroveReb84

On Bianca Phillips’ News Blog Post, “Coalition of Concerned Citizens Plans Legal Action After Graceland Protest” …

I’m still kinda foggy on why they were protesting Elvis fans. I guess they have some kind of logic in there, but to me, it seems like an incongruous venue to be protesting against. Was Graceland doing something wrong that they needed to protest?

If they are upset about police behavior, maybe protest at a government facility? Maybe City Hall? Or MPD headquarters? Graceland seems like an innocent victim in all this mess.

OakTree

On Toby Sells’ News Blog post, “Boyd Threatens Overton Park Conservancy Funding Over Greensward Suit” …

Sick to death of all of them, especially Allan Wade. Self-righteous blowhards! Yeah … let’s pull the upteen millions allotted to the zoo chumps! They filed the first lawsuit against the City and the City Council! AND … THEY VIOLATED THE SUNSHINE LAW, with their March 1, 2016 shenanigans! They think their seats are safe on election day … think again! The citizens won’t forget.

pdp

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Two Political Milestones in Shelby County

So it’s come to this: There is, as pointed out this week by state Young Democrat president London Lamar, only one “chartered Democratic organization in this county,” and it isn’t the Shelby County Democratic Party, a body which was officially “decertified” last Friday by state Democratic chair Mary Mancini. It is, in fact, the Shelby County Young Democrats, led by Lamar’s colleague Alvin Crook.

Surprisingly, given the fact that the SCDP was a hotbed of internal dispute, there was very little remorse at its passing. It would seem that Mancini’s action was widely regarded by all sides as something of a mercy killing.

Meanwhile, Lamar and Crook promise that the Shelby County YDs will  pursue “initiatives” and, in effect, act in the stead of the now defunct “state SCDP,” pending its reconstitution.

That reconstitution will take some doing, in that the party organization, as such, has been so locked into pointless disputation for some time as to have been of little consequence in influencing political results in Shelby County — at least to any positive end. 

In elections for local countywide office, only two Democrats — Assessor Cheyenne Johnson and General Sessions Clerk Ed Stanton Jr. — have been able to gain office and be re-elected in recent years. To rescue an often-abused phrase, their cases are the proverbial exceptions that prove the rule. Both Johnson and Stanton are county-government veterans with demonstrable records of competence and with support across partisan lines. Their success at the polls would seem to clearly debunk the claim made by losing Democratic nominees in every county election in this century that the defeats of party candidates must be due to some infamy or illegality perpetrated by the county’s Republican Party or by the admittedly error-prone Election Commission, with its current preponderance of three Republican members to two Democratic ones.

For whatever reason, in a county which, by the usual demographic and economic measures, should possess an overwhelming majority prone to voting Democratic, Republicans rule the roost instead. It is high time that local Democrats cease looking for the blame elsewhere and begin a long overdue reexamination of their own premises.

Under the circumstances, the plucky resolve of the county’s Young Democrats is a welcome first step.

Ann Morris

Speaking of pluck, the huge turnout this week at the visitation and funeral rites for Ann Ward Norton Morris, across various kinds of lines, political and otherwise, was in large part a testament to that quality in her life — as well as to the virtues of courage and perseverance, which Morris continued to demonstrate, even after a severely disabling stroke suffered in 1997 deprived her of most of the faculties which the rest of us take for granted. Remarkable also was the heroic care-giving service rendered unstintingly over that nearly 20-year period by her husband, former Sheriff and County Mayor Bill Morris, who regards that service, and not any office he gained, as the summit of his own life’s work.