Forrest Park
Chris Herrington recently wrote one of the best pieces I have ever read — “Liberating Forrest Park” (Viewpoint, February 14th issue). It goes well beyond the sometimes comical conversation we are having regarding the Forrest and Confederate parks and articulates some of the complexity of our region better than anything I have seen in a long time.
I’m currently reading Battle Cry of Freedom (one of the great books on the Civil War), and as a native Memphian, I am very glad Lincoln succeeded in restoring the Union (aka Jefferson Davis’ team lost). And, although I respect Forrest as the military genius he was, I agree with many of my Memphis brethren that he isn’t someone we need to name a park after either.
Renaming the parks isn’t an attempt to eliminate Forrest, Jefferson Davis, and the Confederacy from the history books. But acknowledging that those park names weren’t ever the best idea for a progressive city is a good thing.
Andy Cates
Memphis
The NRA
Michael Jones is exactly correct in his letter (February 21st issue) pointing out that the NRA is nothing more than a lobbying bunch for Smith & Wesson et al. What continues to amaze me is that by repeating all that NRA Second Amendment defense nonsense, the rank-and-file members of the organization and other hunters and target-shooting hobbyists are allowing themselves to be played as complete dupes by the NRA.
You would think that any thinking adult would know they are just being used to enhance the bottom line for the merchants of death arms industry.
Harry Freeman
Memphis
Hope for America?
There is hope for our country yet. A recent survey shows that at this time only 22 percent of Americans consider themselves Republicans. Granted, that’s 22 percent too many, but it shows that the “Party of No” is fading away. The GOP is rapidly becoming the GONE.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer group of folks. During the presidential primaries, I listened to these people chanting “Let them die!” with regard to our uninsured and “Let them starve!” with regard to our poor. I listened to their demented candidates telling us that it was “God’s will” if a woman got raped and that “the body has a way of shutting that down” regarding pregnancy resulting from rape.
Thank God, sanity is prevailing in our country. Our sick will not be tossed into the streets to die, and our elderly and poor will not be cast aside to starve to death.
Americans are not nearly as cruel or heartless as the party of the rich wishes us to be. Trying to destroy our poor and elderly doesn’t play as well as some thought it would.
Jim Brasfield
Memphis
Tim Sampson
Could you find a worse way to end your paper? Tim Sampson is a moron. I find him more annoying than Michael Moore. What’s the problem with the parks’ names? Nobody cared for 100 years. Why now?
Better to have kept those names with the parks, because history is being omitted in our city school system. Seems that history starts with April 4, 1968, and what is mentioned about slavery is the white man’s fault. Funny how Africans sold their own into slavery is omitted. Is there a reason these teachers want to impress upon our children guilt?
As for Steve Cohen, let’s name a park after him. “Wedlock Park” has a nice ring to it. Our fine city council at its best, finding something to stir the race issue. That’s the real black eye, but then that is why this city will never be great. How about Loeb Park or Chandler Park? Why name parks geared toward a particular culture? As for the KKK, they are ridiculous, but they do have a right to protest. Then again, this is Memphis, and we only see one side. I guess we feel guilty.
Scott Blankenship
Memphis