Danny Thomas – Memphis Flyer

Greg Cravens

About the Syrian refugee crisis and Randy Haspel’s column, “The Great Unfriending” …

I had to chuckle over Randy Haspel’s column. Seems he thinks that anyone who’s worried that accepting refugees from an alien culture from an area of the world torn apart by that same culture is a Nazi, an idiot, or both.

He was doing all right until the last paragraph, where he reminded us “that once our forefathers were accepted as refugees into this country by the indigenous population.” Yup, the natives here accepted people from a completely alien culture in large numbers. Tell us, Randy, how did that work out for them?

Bill Runyan

Having spent the majority of my years in Memphis, I was and am in awe of the tremendous work performed by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A big reason for the hospital’s success, not to mention its charity, was ALSAC, the American Lebanese Syrian Association Charities. Without the immigrants who formed ALSAC — those from Lebanon and Syria — many lives would not have been touched and saved by St. Jude.

As the debate rages about preventing Syrian refugees into this country, consider the amazing work their predecessors, and all other immigrants, have performed here, how they’ve helped make this “Land of Immigrants” the great country it is today. Also, consider the hell these refugees are fleeing. Put yourself in their shoes, as well as in those of the kids and their parents who’ve been helped by organizations such as St. Jude.

Richard Banks

French President François Hollande has said that 30,000 refugees will be welcomed to France during the next two years. He also said that “the people of Iraq and Syria have fled because they are martyred by the same people who attack us today.”

The process of selecting and vetting refugees should be as strict and rigorous as possible, and we have to err on the side of caution. But the men, women, and children, who themselves have suffered at the hands of terrorists, should be allowed to settle here.

If we see refugee camps created worldwide, there could be many in them who turn to extremism and violence because of their frustration and anger. Such camps could be the breeding grounds for future terrorists, and, if so, we will be even more unsafe in the future.

Philip Williams

It’s a raucous chorus, led by disciples of the Republican right.”No! No! No!” they chant.”No Syrian refugees in our back yard!” Eschewing the words written on the Statue of Liberty, our cowardly Congress now has passed legislation that effectively bars any significant influx of Syrian refugees into these United States.

That this is a thinly veiled act of bigotry directed toward Muslims is hardly debatable. But, more than this, it is an act of contempt aimed at the very core of our Judeo-Christian values. If there is any theme that courses through the teachings of the Old and New Testaments, it is the undeniable message of welcome to the stranger, the alien, the homeless, the outcast, the sick and the hungry. Those who are saying no to Syrian refugees are saying no to the very essence of the sacred scriptures. Such behavior can be compared to tossing the Holy Bible into a roaring fire fueled by hatred and fear.

Instead of being intimidated by such despicable hypocrisy, we who object must name it openly for what it is and challenge it wherever it is found.

Rev. Thomas E. Sagendorf

United Methodist Clergy, Retired

About Frank Murtaugh’s post,

“Sweet Sorrow: Fuente Bids Farewell to Memphis” …

I’m not one who usually says, “What if … ” but I will this time. Can Tiger fans imagine how good we would be next year with both Fuente and Lynch back? The only difference I would like to see would be the development of our next quarterback.

I am thankful to all of the Tiger players for their play this year, and I wish all of the Tigers, Fuente and Lynch included, the very best, no matter where they land.

David Morelli

It’s Saturday morning and Memphis has the blues.

The rain is coming down, slow and persistent from a low gray sky. It soaks the grass, fills the gutters, and falls hard on the flowers left on the Beale Street sidewalk outside of B.B. King’s club.

The King of Blues left us on Friday, gone after 89 years, one of the last living links to a long-ago Memphis — the era of WDIA and the old pre-tourist Beale Street — an era we’ll never see the likes of again.

And on that same Friday, just a block away on the now-booming Beale Street, our beloved Memphis Grizzlies were eliminated from the NBA playoffs. Grit ‘n Grind came up short against the flashy, splashy hotshots from the Golden State.

It’s Saturday morning and Memphis has the blues. A double shot.

I’d spent that Friday on a 12-hour drive back from a vacation in Western Pennsylvania. I listened to the radio all day, and on almost every show — from NPR to sports-talk radio — B.B. King was discussed and eulogized. His music was everywhere; past interviews were replayed. His humanity and humility came through as clear as one of his signature guitar lines. He spoke as he played — with elegance, dignity, and perfect timing. He was seen, without question, as a national treasure. And he belongs to Memphis.

Now, Mayor Wharton is suggesting that we honor B.B. King by naming a street after him. This is a great idea, and certainly not unprecedented. One of our major thoroughfares is named after Danny Thomas, who founded the world’s greatest children’s hospital, St. Jude. Another is named after Elvis Presley, the king of rock-and-roll. B.B. King deserves no less.

The mayor has suggested Third Street, which runs through the east side of downtown before trickling into a hodge-podge of less-than-stellar retail mini-malls and decaying urban sprawl, before it hits the I-240 loop south of town. I think we can do better for the King of the Blues.

We should rename Riverside Drive for B.B. King. It’s one of our most beautiful and iconic streets. Coming from the South, from the bluff, you get a wonderful view of the Mighty Mississippi and Tom Lee Park below, and the M-Bridge in the distance. It runs along the riverfront, past the boats and the harbor and the cobblestones, where cotton from the fields was once loaded and unloaded — and where the blues were born. It’s the best way to enter the city, the way I drive all my first-time-in-Memphis visitors from the airport.

I’d like to see a statue of B.B. King in Ashburn-Coppock Park, just before the street that would bear his name descends to the river, a river named for the state where King was born.

Lots of cities have a Riverside Drive. If Memphis is going to have a B.B. King Boulevard, let’s do it up right. We’re Memphis and we can have the blues every day.

And in this case, that would be a very good thing.