Category: Letters To The Editor

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

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Greg Cravens

About Frank Murtaugh’s post, “Memphis Tigers Post Mortem” …

Josh Pastner is my guy. He’s 38, a great recruiter, has gotten us to the tourney three times, and is destined to make a great run because he’s a great coach.

How stupid will Memphis look if he leaves and gets that run for another school? I’m a true fan of Memphis, but unfortunately our fans will turn their backs on you the minute things aren’t going the way they imagined it.

We’ve got to go through it to get to it. If we bring another coach in, we lose the recruits coming in, and to recruit a decent team will take a couple years or more. No one said it was easy, but for the sake of Memphis, Tiger fans need to be patient and loyal. Go Tigers, go!

Stevo37

Pastner may be a nice guy, but that isn’t the only requirement for being a head coach. We all knew when he took the job that he was coming in green. Heck, he started off badly by saying in his first interview with the Commercial Appeal that if his team tried on defense, he’d let them run on offense. That might be fine in high school, but it’s a recipe for disaster in college.

Being a mediocre coach would have been okay if he had made efforts to get better. That should have included bringing in an experienced bench coach who could help him learn the ropes. That he never did was his failing. It’s also the responsibility of the AD to recognize that. His teams look lost on defense. Trying hard isn’t enough, and too often, he didn’t hold his players accountable on the court. When your power forward runs down and attempts a three-pointer when the clock has barely started, why does he stay on the floor? The fact is, Pastner had the talent to be in the sweet 16 or better almost every year.

The city of Memphis has great talent. Any good coach should be able to keep the best talent home, not chase them away. Pastner needs to GO, GO, GO!

DatGuy

Dedric Lawson has done his year of indentured servitude, and there’s not much promise of improving his position next year, while there’ll be plenty of opportunity to suffer an injury. He should take as much money as he can get. Whoever gave Pastner that contract should foot the bill to buy him out of it.

Jeff

If you’re Pastner, you’d be crazy to take another job. Where else are you going to get that level of salary guaranteed for the next four years? If he walks away, he leaves $10.6 million on the table. If I’m him, I’m staying until they either fire me (and pay me), or until the contract runs out. I might leave if I’m down to the last year in my contract. In that case, I could pass up $2.6 million in the final year, if I got a nice $1.5 million gig with a fresh start.

GroveReb84

About Toby Sells’ story, “Q & A with Tina Sullivan” … 

It seems to me that there’s a parking solution that would be acceptable to the Memphis Zoo and the Overton Park Conservancy: Couldn’t overflow parkers be directed to the nearby Center City Shopping Center? All it would take is a shuttle, charging a nominal fee, to ferry zoo-goers from the shopping center to the zoo’s front gate. The Greensward could be preserved (as it should be; the zoo has taken over too much of the park), and the zoo would have parking for busy days.

Cheryl M. Dare

About President Obama and the Supreme Court …

The cover of the November 14th Time magazine had Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s face on it. The caption read “Change.” That’s because Mitch and other Republican leaders promised to cooperate and work with Democrats for the good of the country. For the last two years, Republican politicians have done the exact opposite, obstructing President Obama at every turn.

McConnell said he was going to “teach the GOP a new word: ‘Yes.'” The “Party of No” had no intention of honoring this promise. 

Now McConnell is leading the Republican charge to keep Obama from his constitutional duty to select a new Supreme Court justice. As Donald Trump might tweet: “Losers!”

Brad Levin

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Bianca Phillips’ story, “Hispanic Man Sues City Over Beer Laws” …

I’m glad to hear he won. I am so tired of laws that tell your neighbor how to live. If you don’t want to buy a bottle of wine on Sunday, then don’t. I might have a dinner party that night and want to buy a bottle. Get over it.

DatGuy

It’s one of our stupidest laws. On the other hand, opening a church is an awesome way to make money. Your product costs nothing to produce, and it exists in infinite quantity. People pay out the nose for it, then use it all up in anywhere between seven and three days, depending on the denomination. It is extremely addictive and habit-forming, and there is enormous social pressure to use. Not only can they not live without it, they can’t die without it. The best part is, they aren’t aware that they can grow their own, so they keep coming back for more.

Jeff

A Walgreen’s next to a church can sell beer, but small mom-and-pop stores can’t? Oye, WWJD?

CityGirl

I know where I’m going to buy my beer from now on. Way to go, Marco!

Greg

About Mary Norman’s Viewpoint, “A Letter to the City Council” …

At the council meeting in which the Overton Park Greensward was given to the Memphis Zoo, attorney Allan Wade was more concerned with what the zoo thought than what the citizens of the city of Memphis think. When Councilman Worth Morgan amended the resolution to remove zoo control of Rainbow Lake and the playground, Wade piped up and said, “Is the zoo okay with that?”

Mr. Wade, it’s not your job to represent the zoo. If you’re the city council’s attorney, it’s your job to give a legal opinion, not advocate for a private business. All we citizens were asking for was to table this motion for two weeks so the people could read it. Of course, if that had happened, it would have been even more evident that this was nothing but a landgrab.

Blaine’s Nanny

And why did not one representative from the Memphis Zoo speak at the meeting? Because their interests were being “handled” by the city council and the city’s attorney, Allan Wade. Collusion, at its finest. Shame on all of them.

PDP

There’s a television show called Portlandia that pokes fun at the cultural idiosyncrasies of Portland, Oregon. Each show is made up of sketch-comedy episodes with overlapping narratives. I’ve long opined that Memphis needs its own medium for local humor. The recent drama between the OPC/zoo was the cherry on top. Look for the first episodes of Memphia sometime this fall.

Memphis Filmmaker

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor, “Detention Deficit” …

It’s amazing how the American mind sees open space as a thing that needs to be filled up. There is a Daoist saying that it is only the emptiness of a vessel which makes it useful. That psychological and spiritual resource is actually a requirement for human well-being.

When we leave our little rooms — at home, at school, at work — and walk into a large, green open space, it fills the mind with the sense of possibilities — to the dreams, and the dreamer, within us. Having such a resource isn’t important to the people who voted to use this space as a parking lot, because they have alternatives. Inner-city kids don’t.

It’s important to remember why we need these spaces and to give them the respect and care they deserve. If we care for them, they in turn take care of us. And that’s why this microcosm of our existential fight, between balance and imbalance, strikes so strong a chord in those who understand that.

Thank you for keeping this issue in the public consciousness.

OakTree

Thank you for cutting through the malarkey and putting a spotlight on what is the right and good decision for Midtowners and Memphians regarding our jewel of a park. The chilling thought is that the zoo, with the consent of the council and mayor, is making a landgrab for the whole park. Make no mistake, they will be stopped.

MemphisTigers

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Toby Sells’ reporting on the Memphis Zoo/Greensward controvery …

Since it appears that certain members of the city council and Memphis Zoo administration are seeking to manipulate the Greensward situation into a racial/class issue, I am curious: How many members of the city council and zoo board are members of country clubs?

Not everyone can pay tens of thousands of dollars annually to enjoy protected, well-maintained, greenspace within the city limits. I would wager that at least half of the zoo board, if not more, are members of country clubs. And I would bet that Reid Hedgepeth, Philip Spinosa, Kemp Conrad, and Worth Morgan are also country club members, many of which to this day do not allow non-white members — or parking on their golf courses. Such irony.

Mary Ost

Memphis is very fortunate to have a world-class zoo in a gorgeous historic park in the center of our city. Their embellishment and preservation are the result of immense commitment and decades of hard work.

While I personally oppose continued development in Overton Park, there may be a parking solution that also increases park space. If park and zoo users decide that resolving the parking problem includes a garage, then why not aim for an ambitious innovative project, also world-class, that everyone could support? Why not make a spectacular parking structure that is a fusion of creature habitat and increased park space? The zoo experience could actually begin when one enters the garage, and the structure itself could become a vehicle for a new, permanent exhibit as well as a natural addition to the park.

A solution that vertically increases natural park space and provides car storage could be designed to connect the park and the zoo together instead of having them separated. Why not create something that’s so innovative, inviting, and beautiful that people come from all over to experience it, along with the park and the zoo? We could transform a contentious conflict into a fantastic, positive experience that brings us together and demonstrates what a wonderful, creative place Memphis is.

Roy Tamboli

I cannot believe that the city council would even consider giving land that belongs to and is used by the citizens of Memphis to the Memphis Zoo. I have always loved and supported the zoo, but since the zoo has displayed a total lack of respect toward nature and toward me, as a citizen, I do not feel the same way.

Overton Park is public land. I am an owner and financial supporter of public land, so, I am being disrespected by the zoo’s and the city council’s refusal to get off my lawn! The citizens of Memphis fought to keep the interstate from going through the park, and now we’ve been thrown into another battle against an organization that, up until now, I have always considered to be a great asset to Memphis.

Overton Park is also a great asset to Memphis, and the zoo and city council need to acknowledge and respect that. A parking garage needs to be built so that the zoo will have parking and our public land will still be ours. Funds can be found for a garage. A corporation in town would be willing to put their name on it. Just think how warm and fuzzy people would feel about the corporation that was smart enough to build it.

It’s time the city council started listening to the people who put them in office. We want the zoo to get off our lawn, get out of our Old Forest, and stay away from Rainbow Lake!

Linley Schmidt

About The Donald …

We the people are fed up with the lies and deceit of the greedy politicians who think more of themselves than the people they represent. They are a group of self-righteous individuals who capitalize on every opportunity to benefit themselves. Our voice is being heard, loud and clear. Politicians, you will mistreat us no more!  

We will elect a person who is not a politician and cannot be bought, one who is on a mission to take this country back and restore the greatness that it once had. We will elect Donald J. Trump! And so it shall be!

George Devine

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Toby Sells’ story, “Lawmakers Consider Bills on Bikes, Historical Markers, and Skunks” …

Translation: “No Gas Tax for Bike Lanes,” written and paid for by the Koch Brothers’ Banana Brand Banana Republics. Where the Bananas Don’t Grow on Trees; They Legislate™.

“No Removal of Historical Markers,” doesn’t apply to the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue, since it’s not in honor of a conflict. It’s in honor of a man.

“Legal Skunk Ownership,” leads to the next step: skunk-fighting rings.

Jeff

There are already enough skunks in local and state government, thank you.

Bike lanes are nice, if they aren’t converted from congested public roads designed and built for — and funded by — motorists.

ALJ2

About Bianca Phillips’ story, “Memphis Police Department Attempts to Boost Presence” …

MPD is 400 officers shy of a full complement, by their analysis. Large cities across this nation have varying numbers of law enforcement officers. Memphis has more than some comparable cities and fewer than others. I hope our new police director will do his own assessment of what a “full complement” should be.

He/she could start with an assessment of how we are currently using our force. Reactivating the PST program is a good start, as is increasing data-based “hotspot” policing. Another thing that would help is getting all the officers parked car-to-car in our parks and behind buildings back moving on our neighborhood streets. We might not need to pay overtime if we more efficiently used our force.

Memphis Tigers

Our violent crime rate is second only to Detroit (12 percent lower), and our police force is 25 percent smaller, based on the total number of officers. Oakland and St. Louis have similar crime rates, but their police forces are significantly smaller. Oakland’s ranks are one-third the size found in Memphis. Milwaukee rounds out the top five violent-crime-rate cities, and their force is 10 percent smaller.

Barf

Barf, try adjusting those numbers by geographical size.

Oakland = 78 square miles

St. Louis = 66.2 square miles

Milwaukee = 96.8 square miles

Detroit = 142.9 square miles

Memphis = 324 square miles

That is the problem. Memphis has annexed like a madman, and now officers are stretched too thin. MPD has to provide police protection for 324 square miles. Kind of hard to do when you run off 400 officers (and another 150 are on the DROP, ready to retire soon). The City Council created this problem and refused to listen to officers who said they would leave if the city changed the benefits.

Firefox

About Bianca Phillips’ post, “Brian Kelsey Drops Bill Supporting Racist, Sexist, Homophobic School Leader” …

Now, was Kelsey doing this to send a message to the people in the rural areas of TN-08 that he was just like them? Then, he got so much blowback that he had to drop it, lest he offend donors?
He wants to be in Congress so badly he can taste it, and I can only imagine he is petrified at the prospect of Mark Luttrell crushing him in Big Shelby.

LeftWingCracker

Kelsey: “I just grabbed the next bill in that folder marked ALEC WANTS. Was this one not supposed to be in there?”

Charley Eppes

This is the same creep who crafted the “Turn Away the Gays” bill in 2014, under the guise of the “Religious Freedom” Act. Follow the money. He’s in ALEC’s back pocket, which means he’s all Gays, God, and Guns all the time. And now, he wants ALEC to bankroll his way to D.C. As if Marsha Blackburn, Diane Black, Steve Fincher, and Scott DesJarlais haven’t already made Tennessee enough of a laughingstock.

CD

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Greg Cravens

About Jackson Baker’s post, “Local Reactions to Passing of Justice Antonin Scalia” …

Justice Scalia was not allowed to rest in peace before Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio made statements that the next president should name his replacement. Mitch McConnell said that the nomination should be delayed until after the next presidential election because the “American people should have a voice” in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice.

The American people had a choice when they elected President Obama twice, and each time he received over 50 percent of the vote. It is the president’s right and constitutional duty to nominate a successor to Justice Scalia.

There is no historical precedent to leave a vacancy unfilled during a presidential election year. There have been several nominations by Democratic and Republican presidents, and confirmations during presidential election years, including the nomination and confirmation in 1916 of one of the greatest Supreme Court justices, Louis Brandeis.

It is all dirty politics with the Republicans. But the Republican majority in the Senate shame themselves and the Constitution if they refuse to consider President Obama’s nominee to replace Justice Scalia.

Philip Williams

Scalia regularly asserted originalism, yet frequently based his decisions upon his religion. Like many, he worried too much about his neighbor’s actions and too little about his own.

DatGuy

The issue that will be fought over like a modern civil war is: Who the hell is going to assume custody of Clarence Thomas?

Packrat

Scalia is a fine example of a bifurcation of intellect and intelligence.

CL Mullins

About Toby Sells’ post, “Parking, Traffic Proposals Unveiled for Overton Park” …

“Reinforce the Greensward with Grasscrete, a concrete structure that allows grass to grow through it.” I am not surprised this statement elicited a negative response. It is completely out of phase with the primary concern of many park-goers; i.e., the preservation of the Greensward.

Sidewinder

I imagine grasscrete would feel just like it sounds, especially when you slip and fall on it while chasing a runaway 5-year-old. That isn’t really going to be a solution.

OakTree

That’s a very professional and creative team from Looney Ricks Kiss working on this project, with Memphis’ best interest at heart. No doubt a doable solution can be agreed upon to preserve all that Overton Park and the zoo have to offer.

SewsoMom

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter from the Editor, “Trump vs. Sanders? It Could Happen” …

The truly crazy thing about Sanders vs. Trump is that it would be a contest over issues that people care passionately about. Bush vs. Clinton would only be a question of what team you’re on.

Autoegocrat

Trump trumps them all in the latest USA Today polling. The Bern has a chance against Cruz, the only Republican he outpolls at this point, if he can get past HillBilly and her shenanigans.

Clyde

Millions of twenty-somethings have been dumbed down enough to think that there is a such a thing as “free” tuition.

Mickey White

Whenever people deride “free” college and medical care, no one points out that, by the same thinking, our wars are free, too.

I suspect Mickey knows wars are not free, either. But plenty of other people who are perfectly happy to spend a billion dollars a day fighting wars on foreign soil for no good reason except “America” will sneer and mock the hippies who want free college and free medical care, as if they’re a bunch of naïve tools.

It’s a question of what we want to spend our money on, because the money will be spent. War? Or free college and free medical care? A little less of the first and we can afford the second.

Jeff

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Greg Cravens

About Jackson Baker’s post, “Bill Clinton Touts His Wife’s Virtues in Memphis” …

That big blue arrow on Hillary’s logo, sticking out there horizontally, looks suspiciously like a piece of Bill’s anatomy in a blue dress. An unfortunate choice.

OakTree

Her logo — an H with an arrow pointing to the future — might be corporate bland but no more so than Obama’s election-era logo. I’ll take it (and her) over a trucker cap with “Make America Great Again” screenprinted on the front.

BP45

Even without the symbolism, it’s graceless. It looks like something you might paint on a hospital’s rooftop helipad.

Chris Davis

Bill Clinton is starting to remind me of old man Herbert on Family Guy.

Nightcrawler

About Martha Park’s cover story, “Memphis Burning” …

The cover article, “Memphis Burning,” was an excellent piece of history to share during Black History Month. There are so many stories that have languished in untold history about the injustices imposed upon African Americans.

The article ends just as James Weldon Johnson began his investigation of the incident on behalf of the NAACP. His investigation led to the organization of the Memphis Branch of the NAACP, along with Robert R. Church , Ida B. Wells, and a host of black business and professional leaders.  In 1917, Memphis was one of the first Southern cities to open a branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which had been organized in 1909. The Memphis Branch will celebrate its centennial in 2017.

Madeleine C. Taylor, Executive Director

Memphis Branch NAACP

About Chris Davis’ post, “Memphis Zoo’s Tiger Says He Isn’t Sorry” …

I blame the parents.

Jeff

Watching the slow-speed chase on CNN right now, with Mohan in a white Bronco. I think a zebra is driving him.

Dave Clancy

I think part of the problem is forcing the cats to mate in such a confined setting. If only there were a large open green space adjacent to the zoo …

CL Mullins

About Jackson Baker’s post, “Trump’s No Pussy” …

Who is doing the most celebrating for Bernie Sanders’ big win in New Hampshire? Republicans are ecstatic. They know that Sanders could not win in November; any Republican nominee could beat him and his socialist pie-in-the-sky ideas. That one word, “socialist,” has doomed Bernie Sanders’ chances of winning, and Republicans would make sure by crucifying him as “socialist.”  

Why can’t Democrats figure this out?

Lowell Robbins

About Lesley Young’s food column, “Mardi Gras in Memphis” …

How can you have a story on Memphis Mardi Gras food places without mentioning a place that’s called Mardi Gras?

Located at Cleveland and Galloway in Crosstown, Mardi Gras has the most authentic Louisiana home cooking north of the border! You won’t find a better corn and crawfish chowder anywhere — or gumbo or anything else for that matter. Give them a try! Since they came to the neighborhood, we’ve been regulars!

Bunty Ethington

About Frank Murtaugh’s post, “Houston 98, Tigers 90” …

This team has no killer instinct. They get a lead on a team, but then they lose focus and fall apart. That begins with the coach.

I have posted in the past that I really love Coach Pastner as a person (as well as I could “know” him by watching his interviews and reading about him), but I do not know that he is the right coach for the Tigers to again be an elite team. If we continue with him, we will always be a middle-of-the-road team, with an occasional run to the Sweet 16 (hopefully). We have the talent for much more than that, and I fear the only way to realize the fulfillment of that talent is to have a different coach.

David Morelli

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Greg Cravens

About the Flyer post, “Venerable Sportscaster Jack Eaton Dies” …

I have no idea how many hours of Jack Eaton’s voice I heard over the years. Rest in peace, Jack. You made a lot of people happy. And what better monument to a life is there than that?

OakTree

What a wonderful person. I worked with Big Jack for many years at Channel 5, and he was always a delight to be around. He will be missed by us who grew up watching him and laughing at his rhymes. My condolences to Erma and his family.

Cyndy Grivich Tucker

The voice of a region, we called him Big Jack.

Larry and Louisville, it’s a Tiger comeback!

Tiger football he called, in good times and bad.

Great Scott, for Jack Eaton, we all should be glad.

Frank Murtaugh

About Martha Park’s cover story, “Memphis Burning” …

We appreciate the story, “Memphis Burning,” by Martha Park, with Andrea Morales’ beautiful photos and the Flyer‘s willingness to join in the work to recover Shelby County history that has been hidden too long.

One correction: “Responding to Racism” is the name of a group at First Congregational Church where conversations were first held about this project. “The Lynching Sites Project” is the name of the group working to memorialize lynching sites and victims.

Randall Mullins

On that day when Ell Persons was lynched, parts of Memphis’ soul and bloodlust was momentarily sated. God bless America and her founding ethos and fathers for the gift that keeps on giving.

Jr. Golden

Stand for Children, the organization working to destroy public education, is listed as something people should support in this story. Stand seeks to create more segregation through charter schools and vouchers. They do not work for justice.

MegHank

About Joshua Cannon’s story, “A Look at Mud Island Park Redevelopment Proposals” …

So many developers, so many self-serving visions based on public money financing private profits, so many promises that the public will somehow profit from spending millions and millions on projects that aren’t feasible for the private sector.

Half our 911 calls aren’t answered within the national standard time, but we have millions to “help” build yet another Midtown grocery or a 500-room resort with a parking garage and front-door monorail service?

ALJ2

I don’t get the need for three new bridges, but the ML Professional Properties proposal strikes me as the most promising in terms of providing tangible benefits for city residents. After all the tax dollars spent on Mud Island over the years, city residents deserve to enjoy some tangible benefits.

Strait Shooter

About Jackson Baker’s post, “There’s an 8th District Congressional Race!” …

Given that a Republican will win this election, Tom Leatherwood wouldn’t be a terrible choice. He has run the Shelby County Register’s office efficiently, and his office has done a great job in getting county records digitized and online.

Kelsey, on the other hand, is a twit. Get him out of the state legislature. Working for a health insurance company turning down claims for kids’ kidney transplants would be more his style.

Packrat

About Frank Murtaugh’s post “Connecticut 77, Tigers 57” …

This game was as close to a desperation game as a team can get. What the devil happened in the locker room at half-time? It was as if a different team took the floor in the second half. How can a team be so competitive and then barely show up?

I watched the game with two visiting friends from Connecticut. There was great banter, but by game’s end, I was speechless.

Teams do not owe fans wins, but they do owe them a competitive effort.

Mike Tremaine

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Greg Cravens

About Richard Cohen’s Viewpoint column, “Time to Get Real” …

Bernie Sanders is a charmer, but when you come down to reality, there’s only Hillary and her “plans” who can take on the GOP. The Republicans would picture Bernie with images from the Soviet Union so fast your head would spin.

Cohen says Hillary has a lot of plans like it’s a bad thing. It’s good to have real, working plans, not just fake plans where things are free with no real way to pay for them. Bernie’s cool on a poster, but Hillary is your gal.

Elizabeth L. Miller

About Toby Sells’ interview with Chuck Brady of the Memphis Zoo …

As a former National Park Service ranger who has worked in parks where civilization and parks often run together — sometimes bringing with them parking challenges — I find it mind-boggling that Brady has not been able to come up with a solution for 30 years to the zoo’s atrocious parking situation.

If Brady were a park superintendent, he would have been replaced by now with someone who could take care of the parking problem. And the problem is deeper than just the greensward: The zoo clear-cut several acres of old-growth forest a few years ago and fenced off (from the public) more old-growth acreage. Its current overflow parking has left parts of the greensward a dust bowl with huge rutted-out areas, even more evidence of its destruction of parts of Overton Park.

I also have to question his statement that “75,000 visitors would be turned away.” Those people can easily find free parking on neighboring streets with a short walk to the zoo entrance. And if he is so concerned about “citizens who can’t afford the zoo” and his free Tuesday program, why did he eliminate the free Tuesday program in the month of March, and why does he limit it to an extremely few hours of the day on Tuesdays, which creates congestion in those limited hours? Open it up all day, and I bet you would see that congestion disappear.

Brady seems like a naysayer, a narrow-minded leader who can’t solve problems. We need leaders with forward and innovative thinking.

Greg Russell

I would love to see the zoo and the Levitt Shell’s foundation collaborate on a parking garage. Zoo visitors could use it during the day, and folks coming to concerts at the shell could use it at night.

Karen Casey

So what Brady’s saying is, if I’m heading downtown for an event, and I see all that greenspace in Health Sciences Park (or whatever it’s called), I can just pull onto the grass and park under the trees? After all, it is public space.

No? I can’t do that? If I do my car will be towed?

I’m so confused.

Jeff

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor, “Wrestling With the Truth” …

“How do you monetize the digital product at a level that pays for a decent-sized news staff?” Bingo. That’s the central conundrum of the newspaper business these days. And make sure that staff includes a competent copy editor or three. I’m appalled at what I see passing as “final product” in so much content these days. Does anybody read this stuff?

I’m not talking about the Flyer specifically; it’s true of everything that gets offered up as news these days. (Spoken as the totally biased spouse of a former dedicated editor who got the axe a few years ago in a broad-stroke staff reduction at a mid-state daily).

John Shouse

About Michael J. LaRosa and Bryce Ashby’s cover story, “American Dreamers” …

Thank you for the story on local higher-ed opportunities for Latino students. I applaud my alma mater, CBU, for standing with these students in accordance with its Lasallian mission. I do question why your story pictures the students at Rhodes College, a school neither one attends. It’s misleading and does a disservice to both Immaculate Conception and CBU.

Aimee Lewis

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Greg Cravens

About some strange new reality show …

Yesterday I switched on the television during lunch and caught what appears to be a new reality show. The actors include some guy from an earlier reality show who played an angry boss with funny hair who was always firing people. The other key actor is a lady who claims to be a grizzly bear who wears lipstick and a bedazzled top.

The show appears to be about a guy running for president, who obviously could never be taken seriously, and a woman who speaks English straight from a blender. I believe the name of the show is The APOTUS,  or The Asinine President of the United States!

After watching what I assume was one of the first episodes, I was not able to find the show in my directory. Which is why I am writing. Do you have any idea who could be behind such a silly but immensely entertaining show? Also, do you know their airing schedule? I can hardly wait for the next episode!

Steve Janowick

About Jen Clarke’s Last Word, “Zoo Blues” …

I keep waiting for someone to explain how parking on the grass is hurting the park. Are these cars causing ruts that can not be repaired? Is the grass dying because cars are being parked there 60 days a year? What?

I understand the power issue. There is struggle between the parties over who has the right to decide how this portion of the Greensward is to be used. Fair enough. But what physical harm to the Greensward is being done?

Arlington Pop

I keep finding it odd that the Zoo can charge $5 for people to park on the grass. I don’t approve of parking on the grass, but shouldn’t the fee be only for parking in the parking lot? (Sort of like the difference between paying to sleep in a hotel room or in an alleyway if the rooms are all full?) The Zoo keeps using the excuse that they need the Greensward to accommodate visitors. I wonder if they would so enthusastically argue that point if they weren’t making parking fees off the lawn? Take that away and let’s see if they become more interested in a collaborative solution.

Steve Scheer

About Chris McCoy’s review of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi …

Denigrating/insulting a director/film is fair game, but read the stories of your “meathead mercenaries” before you slice them with your mighty, spiteful pen. Being a responsible and believable journalist is to attempt to know who you write about, no matter your politics. Don’t be so ugly.

Rebecca Balleza Thompson

About Bianca Phillips’ post, “Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Bill Dies in Subcommittee” …

When even David Fowler of the Tennessee Family Action Council says it’s unconstitutional, you know the bill was never getting out of that committee.

Leftwing Cracker

Indefatigable Mark Pody and the ever-wily and inscrutable Mae Beavers can go stomp on their Bibles and hold their breath now that the sodomites have won. God won’t be mocked!

Packrat

About Toby Sells’ post, “New Trolley Purchase Hints at Program Progress” …

We know of at least five buses that caught on fire in the past year due to lack of funds for maintenance and new buses. These are unacceptably dangerous conditions that thousands of working families endure daily to keep this city running. How about we spend millions on buses, instead of trolleys and gentrification?

MemphisBRU

There is no reason there cannot be a mixed fleet other than possible decrease in maintenance efficiencies. Bring enough trolleys back to serve either Main or the Riverfront Loop, and purchase modern streetcars to operate on Madison and one of the two lines mentioned in the story.

Modern streetcars include low-floor entrances, which means they are fully accessible from a raised curb, so we can also eliminate all the wheelchair lift equipment in the stations that are served by a modern fleet. It is also cheaper for any future routes because a station can be nothing more than a raised curb adjacent to the tracks.

barf

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Toby Sells’ post, “Zoo Removes Trees From Greensward” …

The Memphis Zoo has become a national embarassment. I used to brag about our zoo to my clients that live in places with nice zoos (San Diego, St Louis), and now they laugh at us as hicks parking in the yard. Oh, and don’t forget the Youtube video of the Zoo director losing his temper. We’re look just like a bunch of angry old white men. I’m sorry I ever gave even one penny to the Zoo.

Frank in Midtown

The actions of the Zoo clique continue to demonstrate that organization’s inability to work with other interested parties to create a workable solution to the traffic and parking problem created by the lack of forward-looking planning by Zoo and city officials. The Zoo clique wants to expand without regard to the Zoo’s neighbors. The decision to cut these trees is characteristic of the disregard for reasonable planning which has characterized the actions of the Zoo for decades.

Enrico Dagastino

This was an incredibly sneaky and insensitive and destructive act on the part of the Zoo. I hope they get all the publicity they deserve for this heinous act. They must be stopped, by legal means if necessary.

Memphis Tigers

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor, “Zooey and Bowie” …

Humans generally think by means of reference to Platonic ideals, and then use binary language to describe how closely the elements of their world hew to those ideals. We delude ourselves with such fictions, because then we can avoid the harsh reality of our own inability to comprehend the randomness and unpredictability of existence. We live in a web of constructed delusion, that places certain people and ideas at the pinnacle of that fictional hierarchy.

But the memory of those flavors is all we have to mark the passage of time. What lives inside are volumes of images, smells, tastes, and emotional reactions of pleasure and pain that are attached to these ephemeral constructs. Part of aging I think, is the realization that those constructs have a finite shelf life, and that as we move through time, our common vernacular derived from them becomes irrelevant.

What replaces it feels phony, because to our sensibilities, it is. But none of it was authentic from the beginning anyway, so we are left with a vague sense of something — dysphoria, nostalgia, cynicism — call it whatever you like. The writer has captured this sensation perfectly.

OakTree

About “New Year, New You” …

Although gun violence and traffic accidents remain the leading causes of death among young people, the most dangerous weapon for the rest of us is still our fork. Well over a million of us are killed each year by high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and other chronic diseases linked to our meat-based diet.

But times are changing. According to Gallup, 22 percent of Americans are avoiding meat, and 12 percent are avoiding dairy products. Supermarket chains, along with Target and Walmart, offer a growing selection of delicious and healthy plant-based meats and dairy products. Animal meat consumption has dropped by eight percent in the past decade.

Let’s make this New Year’s resolution about exploring the rich variety of plant-based entrees, lunch meats, cheeses, ice creams, and milks, as well as the more traditional green and yellow veggies. The internet offers tons of recipes and transition tips.

Morris Furman

About the Oregon “Militia” …

Did you notice the anti-government hypocrites in Oregon were carrying American flags. The American government is why these militia types can protest. They wouldn’t get away with their armed, anti-government activities in any other country.

People talk about the terrorists in the Middle East; America has its own terrorists in the guise of white militias. Sheriff David Ward said that militia protesters came to Oregon with the express intent of overthrowing county and federal government,and hoped to spark a movement across the United States. Are these “militia activists” who are trying to force their will on the people any different than terrorists anywhere else?

Ron Lowe