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Editorial Opinion

Shelby County Democrats Need to Open Up

Among other significant matters that may go largely unnoticed by the general public this week will be a Thursday night meeting of the Shelby County Democratic Committee. The chief order of business will be the selection of a new chairman for a party that in theory should be the dominant political organization of Shelby County but, on the basis of actual election results for the last several years, manifestly isn’t.

Oh, the Democratic Party may come to look like the dominant local party for at least a week this November, when the county’s voters turn out to elect a president. If tradition holds, a majority of the vote in Shelby County will go for the Democratic nominee, who at this writing would seem to be almost surely former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Of course, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders might somehow still be the beneficiary of a miracle. That would be partly the result of his own impressively over-achieving primary-season campaign and partly the consequence of as yet unforeseen external events — e.g., possible legal complications stemming from the zombie-like email controversy bedeviling frontrunner Clinton. If so, Sanders, too, could probably count on a majority out of Shelby County. The demographics of Shelby County, so largely African-American and working class, favor Democrats (though the Republicans will apparently have a presidential nominee this year whose unpredictable appeal could, er, Trump expectations).

But, if Democrats usually prevail locally in presidential elections, they have fallen into a rut in the quadrennial elections for countywide political office, losing most or all such races and losing them badly. Such has been the case in every county election since the institution of local party primaries in the mid-1990s. In recent years, Democrats have at least managed, by dint of fielding clearly qualified candidates with crossover potential, to win the offices of Shelby County Assessor and General Sessions Clerk in off-year elections. (For what it’s worth, legislative changes in the election cycle leave that clerkship as the only county position on this year’s August 4th ballot.)

What accounts for the discrepancy between the outcomes of local races and those for president? One explanation — and, to be sure, it is controversial — is that, in an age of transformative and fluid political loyalties, local Democrats (or those who have prevailed in the party’s executive committee) have adopted a “closed-shop” view of party membership and have adopted rigid bylaws and policies that make it virtually impossible to attract converts of mixed political backgrounds or to license them to run for office under the party banner. Local Republicans have adopted, by contrast, a relatively “open door” policy, and their ranks teem with former Democrats — one possible explanation for their consistent primacy in races for local political offices.

When the Shelby County Democratic Committee meets to hold its ad hoc reorganization meeting, and beyond that point, for that matter, its members would be well advised to keep this thought in mind. While they’re jibing at Republican presidential candidate Trump for his infamous proposal to build an exclusionary wall, they should be on guard against self-defeating tendencies within their own party in favor of building one.

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor, “Black and White and Read All Over” …

[The Commercial Appeal‘s story] was a good read. Even at the turn of the 20th century, readers were complaining about the violence, murder, and mayhem in the paper. But then this has always been a bawdy, violent river town.

If the CA focused on investigative reporting while balancing its coverage with the good and the bad, it would be a thriving metropolitan daily. I firmly believe that the CA can stabilize and thrive within the Memphis MSA.

J.R. Golden

When I lived in Middle Tennessee, The Tennessean was the standard for anybody who followed Tennessee politics. Broadly, the economic model of print journalism is in decline. It truly is a shame, because there is so much benefit it brings to society.

Papers create a public space. In many ways, local papers are like the town square, where debates of the day on current topics of interest take place. That’s why I think the comment sections of local papers are so important, and why I stopped my CA subscription when they went with their Facebook requirement. The primary value of my local paper to me is as a source for a curated discussion of things that might interest the local citizen. I am willing to pay for that, even if a new form of payment is necessary to keep the papers going. But I absolutely refuse to surrender my personal metadata to the Facebook abomination.

OakTree

The Tennessean is awful. It is nowhere near the entity it once was. The CA is better at this point than The Tennessean. That said, I cancelled my subscription about two weeks ago to the CA. I was a 25-year subscriber, but I got tired of not receiving the paper in the morning and the customer service refusing to have it re-delivered.

Packrat

About the Flyer editorial, “Memphis Zoo Study Provokes Controversy” …

The economic impact of the Memphis Zoo seems to be wildly overstated. The lack of empirical data and the multitude of assumptions leave the results of the study questionable. The tens of millions of tax dollars poured into the zoo have resulted in a shortage of dollars for other projects which would benefit Memphians. The zoo must begin to show a profit. If that is not possible given the current management structure, new managers are required. We must not continue to fund year after year deficits to the detriment of every other park program.

Enrico Dagastino

The zoo makes roughly $17 million in revenue. Suggesting that it has a multiplicative effect as it works through the Memphis economy is pretty standard in economic impact assessments. Questions about the amount of that multiplier we can leave to economists to argue over. Suggesting that it brings in additional business not seen in zoo revenues, since it is Memphis’ No. 1 tourist attraction, should be expected. Are we to believe everyone comes to the zoo, then goes and never does anything else?

DatGuy

The great majority of the out-of-Memphis visitors to the zoo come from West Tennessee, North Mississippi, and Arkansas. They come to the zoo, buy McDonald’s for the kids, leave the wrappers on the Greensward where they park, and return home from the zoo with exhausted children.

The zoo needs to produce its surveys, which are the raw data for this study. Who did they survey? How did they survey? When did they survey? It is high time that the taxpayers of this city stopped subsidizing the zoo to the tune of around $4,000,000 a year. That money would go a long way to funding a fire and police pension and to fixing our city parks for the benefit of our children and our citizens.

Memphis Tigers

About a visit to Memphis …

Last week I had the pleasure of travelling to Memphis from Ottawa, Canada. I went to Graceland, the Bass Pro Pyramid, BBQ festival, and several restaurants.

What my Google search failed to disclose was the polite, kind, and terrific people I would meet along the way. Without exception, everyone in the service industry was fantastic. Memphis police and several others stood out as being well above what I expected.

Great job. I will certainly return.

Paul Gagnon, Ottawa Ontario

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Silver Lining

Ordinarily, we don’t address the same subject in this space for two weeks running, but there are exceptions, once in a while. Last week, you may recall, we wrote about the Memphis Zoo board’s economic impact study, vis-a-vis Greensward parking at Overton Park. We dealt briefly (and by no means definitively) with both the study and the reaction of critics who distrusted its conclusions that Greensward parking was not necessarily a bad thing.

The subject (which shows no signs of going away, in any case) reared itself again this week in remarks to a Rotary Club of Memphis luncheon at the University Club by former city councilman Shea Flinn, now senior vice president of the Greater Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce and, as described by chamber chair Carolyn Hardy, the man who “moves the needle” on economic opportunity incentives pushed by the chamber.

Flinn oversees the Chairman’s Circle, a public outreach group operated by the chamber, as well as a series of innovative projects he refers to as “moon missions.”

His approach to the Greensward question was somewhat inadvertent and came his way during the post-address question-and-answer period, via an audience query regarding one of the aforesaid moon missions, this one designated as “Advancing Green Space.” Flinn was asked to comment on that mission in light of the current Greensward controversy.

Flinn made it clear that a) he was not advancing an official chamber position; and b) he was not bursting at the seams with an urge to speak on the matter as a private citizen. In keeping with that caution, Flinn’s first response was to express optimism that, as a result of ongoing mediation efforts initiated by Mayor Jim Strickland, there would soon be found “an adequate solution” to the controversy. He then went further, suggesting that there was an obvious silver lining to the whole wrangle, “if we could step back from the passion and Facebook of it all.”

Flinn reminded his audience that, “20 years ago we actually celebrated the fact of zoo parking.” It was because, he added, at that time the Memphis Zoo and Overton Park had each lost much of their luster and were not attracting nearly as many local citizens and tourists.

What he was saying, in effect, was that there is a problem today only because both the zoo and the park have been upgraded to the point that there is green space worth fighting over.

Well, that’s one way to look at it.

We were struck by several of Flinn’s observations, including his warning that “the best intentions” do not necessarily lead to “the best process.” In any case, said Flinn, it would be “a mistake to see ‘green space’ as meaning only Overton Park.”

Regrettably, however, that is the one green space that most clearly needs to be protected, however the process unfolds.

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News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1422

Unbe-WEAVE-Able

You know what is UnbeWEAVEable? Spell check, that’s what. This unfortunate promotional image teased the latest in a never-ending series of WMC reports about weaves, weave-related crime, and weaves that might be possessed by demon ghosts from foreign countries where people aren’t Christian. Sadly, we’re not making any of this up. This time, WMC’s senior weave correspondent Felicia Bolton used science — or a microscope anyway — to get to “the root” of the problem and determine whether or not products claiming to be made of 100 percent human hair are made from 100 percent human hair. The very serious two-part series was ultimately inconclusive.

Game of Fail

It’s that special time of year when The Commercial Appeal asks Mid-Southerners to vote in their Memphis Most poll, a reader survey created to celebrate regional favorites and sell some ads. You know, like the Flyer‘s “Best of” issue, only awkward. And speaking of awkward, what image could be more quintessentially Memphis than a white hand knuckle-clutching a flaming scepter and/or cattle brand? Check the apocalyptic cityscape in this image — just the kind of place everybody wants to live in and open a business. And this King — is it Elvis? Lawler? The Scorpion King?

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Memphis Zoo Study Provokes Controversy

The Memphis Zoological Society has finally released an economic impact study performed jointly by the Sparks Bureau of Business and Economic Research and the Center for Manpower Studies at the University of Memphis.

The study, hinted at and excerpted from by zoo spokespersons on earlier occasions, was made public last Friday (the 13th). Whether the legendary symbology of that date comes into play is as yet unknown. What is fairly certain, however, is that the study will not resolve the ongoing dispute between adherents of the Overton Park Greensward, on one hand, and members of the zoo establishment on the other.

The source of that dispute, which has mostly to do with allowing zoo visitors to park their cars on the Greensward, is no secret. It involves the age-old dichotomy between quality-of-life issues and the economic bottom line.

On the latter side of the divide are the city’s business elite and the Memphis City Council majority that is responsible for a controversial March vote that gave the zoo control over the Greensward.

On the former side of the divide is the environmentalist community and what would appear, from the volume of protests, to be a sizeable hunk of local citizenry determined to keep the Greensward as parkland.

The best things in life are free, would say the Greensward defenders. Yes, but there’s the rub; they bring in no revenue, the zoo partisans might counter, employing the newly released impact study to buttress their case. The study goes into considerable detail, but its thrust is that the million or so people who visit the zoo annually result in quantifiable advantages for the local community: $83 million in goods and services, $32 million in salaries, wages, and benefits for the 879 zoo employees, and nearly $5 million in state and local taxes.

No sooner had the document bearing these stats landed in public territory, however, than a group calling itself Physicians for Urban Parks issued a counter-claim, signed by an impressive number of local medical people, charging that the study lacks raw data to support its claims, was carried out unprofessionally, and amounts to little more than a “promotional device” whose figures “have been used again and again to justify the Memphis Zoo being given rights to Overton Park.”

The doctors’ letter singles out one specific flaw, a claim in a portion of the economic impact study regarding visitor expenditures alleging “that $364 is spent per party, per visit, on transportation.” Challenging that assertion, the letter cites the 2013 Tennessee visitor profile, “which the zoo publication uses as a data source” and which states that 94 percent of visitors come to Tennessee by automobile. “[T]herefore, that figure must apply almost entirely to gas stations. Using a price of $3.60 per gallon for regular unleaded and a 20-gallon gas tank, the publication contends that the average zoo visitor fills up the gas tank in Memphis five (5) times over a 2.16-day period. Obviously, the numbers are radically inflated, or simply wrong.”

We are in no position to adjudicate this difference of opinion, other than to recall the old adage that anybody can use statistics to prove anything, and to conclude the obvious: That the zoo’s release of its report will not close the argument, and it remains to be seen whether the city-sponsored on-again, off-again mediation talks will manage to do so.

Editor’s Note: The editorial says that the Zoo study was made public last Friday, May 13. That is incorrect. The study was originally released a year ago (May 6, 2015 for the digital copy and May 7, 2015 for the hard copy). It was re-released on May 13 of this year.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Steve Steffens’ Viewpoint “Tear Down the Shelby County Democratic Party and Start Over” …

The current party is a bunch of jackals fighting over the scraps left over after the Republicans have torn the state apart. They have no desire to do their own hunting.

Jeff

About Kevin Lipe’s Beyond the Arc post, “Dave Joerger out as Grizzlies Head Coach” …

While I was initially shocked by this decision, after reading all the “behind the scenes” stuff, I agree with it. I’ve always thought coaching changes set back franchises, but obviously we had a coach who wanted no part of our team. He’d been here nearly 10 years. Thanks, Dave. It’s time to move on.

Midtown Mark

The shedding of tears was also a shot at front office, “Oh, woe is me, it was so hard, all the injuries, they traded Jeff Green, they traded Courtney, then had a carousel of D leaguers… and, oh yeah, they picked Jordan Adams instead of Rodney Hood ….”

It was a shot at front office, and I’m not saying he was totally wrong on everything, but that’s what it was.

His remarks the next day were actually in line with all his prior behavior, including the tear fest. He was thankful for his players, but had disdain for front office since his sponsor Jason Levien left.

Juce

About Frank Murtaugh’s From My Seat post, “Preferred Playoffs: Hockey” …

I am a hockey fan, not the best place to live for that. The Predators are having a good run. I am a Leafs fan. So that is the same as saying, ‘Hey, I am delusional,’ but I grew up in Ontario, so that is my excuse. The playoffs in the NHL are called hockey’s second season for a reason. Often all bets are off. Guys who bag it during the season suddenly come alive. Sometimes the big guns go silent. Always love watching.

Paula Langley

On J.D. Reager’s Local Beat column, “A New Booker in Town” …

Here’s hoping that he’s successful at broadening the mix of performers to appeal to a wider audience. And to appeal to folks truly interested in hearing good live music, not just in drinking and socializing with a live band as merely a backdrop. Much needed at Lafayette’s. (Special request: Please bring back Castro Coleman, aka Mr. Sipp, the Mississippi Blues Child!)

Strait Shooter

On the letter about “Madam President” in Last Week’s “What They Said” …

We elected a black man as president because people said that this country is more than ready for a black man to lead us.

They are and were right, but should we have ONLY one candidate of that sex or color represented?

Surely there are more qualified women to run for office than someone who is under federal investigation for mishandling of classified material and who has let an embassy be sacked and the ambassador murdered and dragged through the streets.

Besides,we have already had a woman president. When Calvin Coolidge had his stroke, his vice president did not want to assume the duties, so Mrs. Coolidge sat in the president’s place and made decisions for the country.

towboatman

Towboatman,

Pssst … it was Wilson, not Coolidge who had the stroke. And if Mrs. Coolidge took over after Mrs. Wilson poisoned the president, well, we got ourselves an HBO series!

CL Mullins

About Joshua Cannon’s News Blog post “Ghost River Requests $66,455 for Tap Room, Renovations”

I love Boscos and Ghost River. Corporate (and a lot of other) welfare, not so much.

ALJS

About zoo parking …

The parking problem will not go away with the Band-Aid proposed last week. Memphis artist Roy Tamboli’s suggestion to see the parking quandary as an opportunity to innovate and enhance the park landscape has been the only solution with a flicker of ingenuity. Surely we have enough great architects and civic-minded business leaders to turn this dilemma into a show-stopping solution. Don’t leave it to the clumsily thuggish zoo PR team or the big-business-indebted zoo board and City Council. Find a Tamboli-like solution that will enhance and resonate for decades.

P.Hall

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About the Flyer editorial, “Tubman vs. Jackson: The Change Will Do Us Good” …

You could probably start a good business by withdrawing a load of the current $20 bills that you plan to turn around and sell for $25 a pop to the rednecks and racists of the world that don’t want to spend Tubman $20 bills.

GroveReb84

I dunno, my confederate dollars have gotten pretty dusty. But it’s worth a try.

Nick R.

I hope they use the photo of her smiling.

Smitty1961

About Toby Sells’ story, “Council Readies for Greensward Mediation Deadline” …

Life isn’t going back to normal for the Memphis Zoo after this. They have really pissed off people enough this time that they are going to have to actually solve the problem. Because, regardless of what the council does, there are people who are going to go after the zoo with legal action and boycotts of their donors. This isn’t going to get better if the council fails to do its job. It will get worse.

OakTree

About Sam Cicci’s story “Goal!” …

It’s a pity that no one remembers the very successful Memphis-based soccer teams: Memphis Express and Memphis Mercury. Both teams won their divisions, both played in the very competive PDL leagues, and both drew very large crowds when they played at Mike Rose Soccer Complex.

The Memphis City FC owners didn’t bother to consult with any of those former players, coaches and owners … some of whom still live here in Memphis. Food for thought!

Mark Franklin

About Jackson Baker’s story, “Can a Wild Card Trump the Opposition?” …

I was surprised to read Terry Roland’s claim that Steve Mulroy voted in 2011 to support the CCHC contract because Roland “called his priest,” who “came down in smoke” on the issue. This is not accurate.  Neither Commissioner Roland, nor anyone acting on his behalf, ever called me about that or any other issue. Steve made his decision independent of any pressure from me. And, as anyone who knows me can tell you, “coming down in smoke” is not my style. 

Fr. Jim Martell, Holy Rosary Catholic Church

About Old Navy’s ad …

I read where an ad run by Old Navy which featured an interracial family caused the company to see an explosion of racist trolls in their Twitter mentions. Old Navy was accused of promoting miscegenation, of ramming interracial marriages down people’s throats, of running a disgusting ad, and so forth. There was also calls for a boycott of Old Navy stores.

I cannot understand the hate of people who would condemn an ad that shows that love knows no color. Racism is clearly not dead, but I pray that the racists who made their hate-filled comments about a beautiful ad are from a group of citizens that is shrinking and that will one day disappear.

I will be shopping at Old Navy soon.

Philip Williams

Time for “Madam President?” …

America has had over 200 years of “Mr. President.” Isn’t it about time for “Madam President,” seeing that the population of America is 50 percent female? Let’s put biases and partisanship aside and look at what the country needs. 

First, Hillary Clinton is simply a better choice for president than Donald Trump. Clinton has experience and leadership skills developed over her years in federal and state positions. Making Trump president of the United States of America would be the same as giving him a powerful race car and saying he is competent to drive in a NASCAR contest.

This is not the time for divisive politics-as-usual; the economy is thriving, and returning to Republican supply-side economics would put a serious damper on the next four years. Not to mention, Trump would be leading the same gridlock-driven GOP legislators that have caused such havoc for the past seven years.

Chip Green

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Let the Sun Shine In

Who said there was nothing new under the sun? Depending on your religiosity, the answer is either the Almighty Himself or the vaguely cynical old churchman who authored the Biblical text known as “Ecclesiastes.”

In any case, now that we’ve reached a point on the calendar where the sun is more or less reliably shining, let us submit the idea to the proof test.

What’s new? Between the previous warm season and the one we’re now enjoying, the University of Memphis has acquired new coaches for its two major sports programs — football and basketball. One of the newbies is Tubby Smith, who won an NCAA basketball championship at Louisville some years ago and who, as recently as last season, was named “Coach of the Year” for his work at Texas Tech. Considering that, only weeks before Smith was snagged, UM’s basketball program seemed incurably bogged down, with two straight seasons without a post-season tournament for the Tigers and a contract with then Coach Josh Pastner that had come to seem over-endowed (to many disappointed boosters, anyhow), Smith’s acquisition does indeed seem to make the sun shine brighter.

And, on the football side, there’s new coach Mike Norvell, the former offensive coordinator at Arizona State, who comes in this year to replace Justin Fuente, who, in his brief tenure, had returned the University’s football program to a measure of the sunshine it had seemed to lose in the several previous years and had won a) 19 games in a two-year span, b) a conference championship, and c) a major bowl game. Can Norvell do as well? By the reckoning of several people equipped to judge such things, Norvell’s first recruiting class may be the most promising in the nation, and, in a self-introduction of sorts to the Rotary Club of Memphis on Tuesday, the 34-year-old Norvell, the self-described “youngest head coach in college football,” certainly seemed convincing as he talked up his team as a family and promised to lead his young charges to the “next step” on their lives and to “excellence on the field, in the classroom, and in the community.”

A tall order, maybe, but even in making his case, Norvell lit up the room. It is easy to imagine him doing the same on the practice field.

And sometimes old wine comes in new bottles and seems the riper and better for it. At the very time that political figures in Tennessee and various presidential candidates in the nation at large have been urging a revision of our criminal justice system, here comes what we judge to be a bright new idea from former Memphis schools superintendent, former Memphis mayor, former charter-school entrepreneur Willie Herenton, who two weeks ago proposed an innovative scheme to house youthful offenders in pleasant, rehab-focused local surroundings, near their homes and loved ones, rather than in far-off, menacing penal institutions that double as crime schools.

Worth a try, we say, and, best yet, Herenton, who hopes for official state support, isn’t asking local taxpayers to foot the bill.

Let the sun shine in: That’s not exactly a new idea, but it’s still a good one.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Jackson Baker’s Viewpoint “Restless Bedfellows” …

Isn’t there some mouth-breather in the Tennessee House who can be persuaded to introduce bills to sell off TVA, rescind all divorces, and make missionary the official state coital position. Just to move things along here.

CL Mullins

CL, I think they would be against missionary being the official state position since it doesn’t work with farm animals. Also, it would depend on the denomination of the missionary. Don’t give them any ideas about TVA, though.

Jeff

The Democrats should embrace an economic message, but the Tennessee Taliban will tar Democrats with being atheist Satan-worshipping, baby-murdering homosexuals no matter what. So why not embrace the social change that the rest of the country is embracing as time goes on and the obits continue to roll for the Social Security- Medicare-receiving social conservatives?

Packrat

About Bianca Phillips’ post, “Local Transgender Community Bands Together in Wake of Anti-LGBT Bills” …

What a self-defeating agenda. There is no home for LGBT people in conservative churches. You need to assist LGBT people in their exodus from those brainwashing institutions rather than playing at seeking tolerance within conservative religion. It may exist among nominal members, but it cannot exist where the Bible and traditional theology are taken seriously.

Brunetto Latini

Faith is not synonymous with the conservative social agenda. It is important for those who understand this — who are actually the majority — to be vocal in providing an alternative viewpoint when those with a political agenda try to conflate them and to point out that faith doesn’t demand archaic views.

OakTree

The current Republican transgender bathroom scare is just more of their crusade and fearmongering against gays, trying to fool an inattentive American public.

For all the anti-gay evangelicals who haven’t been out of their own bathrooms in years: Get a grip! Bathrooms have been transgender all over the world for decades. We were in Europe 30 years ago, and both sexes, all sexes, were using the same toilets. Heaven forbid! 

The latest farce by Republicans and religious extremists will blow over, just like their marriage-equality brouhaha. Then Republicans will put some other sexual taboo on the table to stir up their religious base.

Ron Lowe

About Memphis priorities …

Building bike lanes, green lines, supporting sports teams, subsidizing the zoo and other attractions, revitalizing communities, and providing tax incentives to attract new business and promote population (tax base) growth without investing in education, mass transit, and police and fire services is like trying to bail out the Mississippi River with a teaspoon.

Yes, we need job growth, but you don’t get that by pulling the plug on education and destroying our precious and limited urban green space. No one wants to raise their family in a city that doesn’t offer adequate public educational opportunity or open green space for them to play on.

How many other companies or corporations will join ServiceMaster in the search for a new headquarters before our city leaders wake up and smell the coffee? Memphis really doesn’t need to be “a great place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there” destination.  

Daniel Dixon

Last weekend, my family went to the Memphis Zoo. They saw many parking spaces in the zoo lot but were told by two zoo staff members that they had to “fill up the grass lot before putting people on the pavement lot.” It seems like the zoo is now purposely trying to put cars onto the grass, regardless of the open spots we saw in the paved lot.

Carley Hanson

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Governor Haslam’s Three Non-Vetoes

Re SB 1556 — allowing professional counselors to withhold services: “There are two key provisions of this legislation that addressed concerns I had about clients not receiving care. First, the bill clearly states that it ‘shall not apply to a counselor or therapist when an individual seeking or undergoing counseling is in imminent danger of harming themselves or others.’ Secondly, the bill requires that any counselor or therapist who feels they cannot serve a client due to the counselor’s sincerely held principles must coordinate a referral of the client to another counselor or therapist who will provide the counseling or therapy.

“The substance of this bill doesn’t address a group, issue, or belief system. Rather, it allows counselors — just as we allow other professionals like doctors and lawyers — to refer a client to another counselor when the goals or behaviors would violate a sincerely held principle. I believe it is reasonable to allow these professionals to determine if and when an individual would be better served by another counselor better suited to meet his or her needs.” ­— Governor Bill Haslam, April 27, 2016

Re SB 2376 — allowing employees of colleges and universities to carry concealed weapons on campus: “I am letting SB 2376 become law without my signature. I have long stated a preference for systems and institutions to be able to make their own decisions regarding security issues on campus, and I again expressed this concern throughout the legislative process this year. Although SB 2376 does not go as far as I would like in retaining campus control, the final version of the bill included input from higher education and was shaped to accommodate some of their concerns.

“Ultimately, this legislation was tailored to apply to certain employees in specific situations, it provides protection from liability for the institutions, and it requires notification of law enforcement before carrying on campus. I hope that as a state we will monitor the impact of this new law and listen to the feedback of higher education leaders responsible for operationalizing it.” — Governor Bill Haslam, May 2, 2016

Re SB 812 — providing an alternate means for alleviating hunger: “I am letting SB 812, the so-called ‘Johnathan Swift’ bill, become law without my signature. No idea for resolving the all-too-prevalent problem of hunger in the state’s low-income communities can be dismissed out of hand, and particularly not when the proposed solution also addresses such collateral issues as over-population and ever-proliferating child-care costs. Granted, the bill’s provisions for a requisitioning of dependable supplies of infants for consumption would seem to call for a fiscal note, but this would seem to be minimal, given the mechanisms also prescribed in the bill for out-sourcing responsibility to private vendors for procurement and all necessary food-preparation procedures.

“The idea of converting excess child flesh into edible commodities for the relief of hunger will clash with the moral sensibilities of some of our citizenry, and for this reason, I am withholding my signature. We cannot ignore either that the motivating idea behind this bill originated  from a certified man of genius three centuries ago within the cultural umbrella of a kindred English-speaking nation. It is time to give this idea the fair test without which its efficacy cannot be judged.” — Governor Bill Haslam, May 1, 2017