Tag: Mayor-elect Strickland

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Mark Woodall’s Viewpoint column, “By Any Name” …

I groaned reading Mark Woodall’s article “By Any Name” where he tries to disassociate Islam from terrorism. This sentence in particular seemed to sum up his thinking: “I’m just going to assume if you are a terrorist, you are a radical, but calling all Muslims terrorists does a great disservice to the six million American-born Muslims in this country, and to millions of peaceful people who worship Islam.”

First of all, nobody but nobody is calling all Muslims terrorists, and second, Islam is the religion of Muslims. They no more worship Islam than Christians worship Christianity.

Almost every day we are told that Islamist terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. That is nonsense, and deep down everyone knows it. This is not just a question of semantics. It is a question of the best way to deal with a problem.

If someone gets sick, how can you treat it if you won’t identify the cause? There are, in fact, different kinds of terrorists, and acting as if Basque separatist terrorists and Irish Republican Army terrorists and radical Islamic terrorists are all the same blinds you to possible motives and inhibits your ability to do an intervention or hopefully prevent an act of terrorism to begin with.

We need to quit denying the obvious: Not all Muslims are terrorists and not all terrorists are Muslims, but in those terrorists that are in fact Muslim, religious motivations do play a role, and we ignore that at our peril.

Bill Runyan

Donald Trump is guilty of fomenting hate against Muslims. If attacks on innocent Muslim men, women, and children in America begin, then he should be held accountable. Innocent Muslims are no more to blame for terrorist acts committed by ISIS and al-Qaeda than Christians are for terrorist acts committed by the KKK or Timothy McVeigh. 

We are a nation of immigrants, but past immigrants, including the Italians, the Irish, and others were not welcomed and even hated in America. It is hard to imagine, though, how much poorer our nation and our culture would be without the contributions made by the people who have come here from countries around the world. 

There is every reason to believe that our Muslim friends and citizens will continue to make many contributions that will enrich American society and culture and make the United States an even greater country.

Philip Williams

About Jackson Baker’s post, “Strickland Gathering No Moss on Governmental or Money Fronts” …

I would still like to know how Strickland plans to stop police officers from leaving. Over 400 officers have retired or resigned in the last three years due to Strickland and the Memphis City Council’s decisions to reduce pay, eliminate retiree healthcare, kick spouses off the healthcare plan, and transform the pension system. Simply put: It makes no sense to work in the sencond-most dangerous city in the U.S. for what officers now receive in pay/benefits.

In order to get back to a force of 2,400 officers, the city would have to hire/train/graduate at least 100 officers per year for the next 4 years AND have no officers retire or resign in that time frame. It’s not going to happen. If the whispers are true that Strickland has his sights set on switching employees to a high-deductible healthcare plan this summer, you can bet at least 400 more officers will flee the department in the next few years.

Firefox

About Jackson Baker’s post, “MHA Head [Maura] Sullivan Headed to Chattanooga” …

Congrats, Maura Sullivan! I’m sure once she got a chance to see what tangled web of corruption Robert Lipscomb left MHA in, she wanted out. Public housing can work with the right director. It is underserving a city of this size.

Truth Hurts

TH: And you came to this conclusion by way of UFO? I may have my issues with Lipscomb, but surely you know what he has worked to change. Section 8 is a federal government program that local governments participate in. That program makes more sense than concentrating poor people in one section of a city. Certainly, we remember the result of that before Lipscomb worked to change it.

1Memphomaniac

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Tim Sampson’s column, “Thanks, Mayor Wharton” …

As a loyal supporter of Mayor A C Wharton, I concur with Tim Sampson’s thoughts. Opponents blamed the Inquisition on him, the race riots in Watts, the overthrow of the Roman Empire, you name it, but not one time did you hear the man complain.

Time and history will record his name, not only as a footnote as mayor, but as a kind-hearted man who loved his adopted city more than some of us who were born at John Gaston Hospital. Take your rest, Mr. Mayor. You are mighty deserving.

DeeCee

About Toby Sells’ story, “Memphis Wins $30M for Foote Homes” …

Glossing over what is ostensibly the end of traditional public housing in Memphis with an article that trumpets it as a victory over blight renders a historically significant moment in providing affordable housing as merely an afterthought in our march toward “progress.” 

The slow and inexorable movement away from affordable housing provided by public entities in favor of a model that puts it primarily in the hands of the private market is a decades-long shift in public policy that has much to do with the burdensome cost of maintaining such facilities as federal support has declined. However, it is also an ideological choice to “de-concentrate” poverty through a mixed-income approach to developing communities that has very uncertain outcomes for the residents who are displaced by this process. 

Past resident opposition to demolition efforts at Foote and Cleaborne homes goes unmentioned in the article, reinforcing the notion that this solution was the only viable alternative for the neighborhood. Until we fix the systemic issues that cause the benefits of society to be distributed unequally among our community, affordable housing will continue to be a pressing need.

The fact that the removal of public housing complexes has opened up valuable downtown real estate to more speculative uses should not go unnoticed. The impending demolition of Foote Homes is a much more complex issue than simply a straightforward decision to combat blight.

Travis Allen

Some say there’s no difference between Democrats and Republicans. That may have been true at one time, but not today. The recent debates make it clear that the two major parties occupy different planets.

Republicans are locked into guns, anti-government and anti-abortion rhetoric, rehashing Benghazi, and trashing the president and Hillary Clinton. They show no respect for each other.

The Democratic debate, on the other hand, offered a civilized discussion of real issues. It was very clear which party appeals to grown-ups.

Lou Ronson

About Jackson Baker’s story, “What Strickland Will Do” …

When it came down to it, white folks voted for the white candidate. I absolutely deplore this idea of trying to make this a “colorless” election when white folks win. White folks vote based on color, more than not, just like black folks. Heck, the Republicans “recommended” Strickland, a supposed Democrat in the election. How many times have they recommended an African-American Democrat that was running for mayor, or any position for that matter? We don’t have media outlets that make that clear because the major ones are run by white folks.

Sure, I can handle the truth if 20 percent of African Americans crossed over to the white candidate. I have voted for white candidates, even white Republicans. I wouldn’t agree with their reasoning in this case, but I sure could respect it. I just can’t trust the truth from the bumbling idiots at the Shelby County Election Commission.

That being said, I didn’t think when African Americans voted overwhelmingly for Herenton in 1991 that the city was going to fall off into the Mississippi, and I don’t think it will in this case, either.

1Memphomaniac

Mempho, it is very likely many of the votes cast by “white folks” were based on the issues, including the pension issue, the MPD, Save the Coliseum, Memphis Animal Services, and those advocating for a comprehensive plan and for economic development reform, etc.

Time to take the “everybody-is-racist-but-me” glasses off.

Barf