Tag: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

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Hayley Arceneaux Q&A and Book-Signing at Novel

Hayley Arceneaux (Photo: Hayley Arceneaux)

If, out of the blue, you got a call from your employer asking if you wanted to go to space, would you say that’s out of your job description? Would you ask for a couple days to sleep on it? Well, for physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux, who got that call from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the answer was clear and immediate: Yes.

The mission Arceneaux would be a part of — SpaceX’s Inspiration4 — launched almost a year ago on September 15th as the first all-civilian space mission and raised more than $200 million for St. Jude, a cause near and dear to Arceneaux’s heart ever since she was diagnosed with bone cancer at 10 years old. In fact, when she wasn’t even finished with her cancer treatment, Arceneaux began raising money for the hospital and embarked on what would become a lifelong journey in support of St. Jude. By 2020, she began her dream job working with pediatric oncology patients.

“I knew I really wanted to work at St. Jude and help support these kids with cancer treatment and help make their experience something positive, and then also show them what their future can look like after cancer,” Arceneaux says. So when, not even a full year into her job, the hospital asked her about going to space, she couldn’t say no to the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “I wanted to show these kids that anything is possible.”

Arceneaux would become the youngest American who has been in orbit, as well as the first pediatric cancer survivor and the first person with a prosthetic body part to go to space. Her story would become an inspiration. “Around the time when I was training I was really touched by people who were reaching out, especially on social media, telling me that my story inspired them to get through hard times and take on big challenges,” she says. “Then I was approached by people who wanted me to share my story in book form.”

Once again, Arceneaux said yes, with the hope of reaching children with cancer, girls and women interested in STEM, and anyone needing a bit of hope. “I think writing it really renewed how much gratitude I feel,” she says. “Like, wow, I’m just so fortunate to survive my cancer, have my dream job, have the opportunity to go to space. … The main thing I want people to get out of it, is the importance of hope when you’re going through something hard.”

Her memoir, Wild Ride: A Memoir of I.V. Drips and Rocket Ships, covers her childhood, her diagnosis, getting her dream job, the loss of her father, and, of course, her journey to space. “The most challenging part of writing for me was describing what it was like to look at the Earth,” she says. When she first got back from space, only one word came to mind when asked that question: pretty. Now, she has written pages upon pages describing what she meant by “pretty.”

To celebrate the memoir’s launch, Arceneaux will do a Q&A at Novel, followed by a book-signing. Line tickets are required to meet the author and are free with a purchase of the book.

Meet The Author: Hayley Arceneaux, Novel, Saturday, September 10, 5 p.m.

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We Recommend We Recommend

NCRM Hosts Exhibit Reflecting on St. Jude’s Legacy of Defying Racial Inequities

Dr. Rudolph Jackson is featured in the Pioneer portion of the exhibit. (Photo: Courtesy St. Jude/NCRM)

In honor of Black History Month, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and ALSAC, the hospital’s fundraising and awareness organization, have partnered with the National Civil Rights Museum in an exhibit reflecting on St. Jude’s legacy of defying racial inequities within healthcare.

“St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was founded as a beacon of inclusion and equality, and I couldn’t think of a better place to share that history than the National Civil Rights Museum,” says Richard C. Shadyac Jr., president and CEO of ALSAC. “We encourage everyone to visit this amazing museum to learn more about the connected civil rights stories of Memphis, ALSAC, and St. Jude.”

The interactive poster installation traces St. Jude’s history starting with its 1962 founding as the first fully integrated children’s hospital in the South at the height of segregation. With QR codes that direct visitors to video footage and webpages, guests can read about and hear the stories of three people: Paul Williams, the African-American architect who designed the original star-shaped hospital building; patient Courtney, whose life St. Jude’s care helped save; and Dr. Rudolph Jackson, one of the first Black doctors at the institution.

“When I first came here in ’68, I came here as part of the sickle cell program,” Jackson says in one of the exhibit’s videos. “The entire country and the world were going through the same kinds of things that we were seeing in Memphis. There was the school strike going on, the garbage strike, marches. … I wanted to do something for particularly African Americans who could not afford healthcare. The kind of healthcare people get here at St. Jude, you can’t purchase. It’s so great to find so many people who have the same ideas and work three times as hard.” Jackson has passed away since the filming of this video.

The exhibit is on display through March 8th in the guest lounge on the second floor of the museum.

“ALSAC & St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Commitment To Equity And Inclusion For All Children,”

National Civil Rights Museum, 450 Mulberry, on display through March 8th.

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: St. Jude Goes to Space

Photo: Posted to Twitter by @inspiration4x via @johnkrausphotos

Memphis on the internet.

St. Jude in Space

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was a central focus of the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission to space last week. Memphian, St. Jude physician’s assistant, and former St. Jude patient Hayley Arceneaux served as the mission’s medical officer aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience capsule.

The mission began with liftoff on Wednesday.

Photo: Posted to YouTube by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

On Friday, St. Jude patients got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to speak to Inspiration4’s astronauts as they circled the Earth in low orbit.

Photo: Posted to YouTube by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Patients asked the astronauts about their sleeping bags, what they do for fun in space, whether or not there are cows on the moon, their favorite space food, and whether or not there were aliens in space. Arceneaux then gave the patients a tour of the Dragon’s cupola, the largest window ever in outer space.

Photo: Posted to Twitter by @inspiration4x

The crew safely splashed down Saturday. The mission raised $210 million for St. Jude after a $50 million donation by SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

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News News Blog

St. Jude Researchers Announce Possible COVID-19 Breakthrough

CREDIT: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, vice chair of St. Jude Immunology (center), Bhesh Raj Sharma, (left), and Rajendra Karki, (right), in Kanneganti’s lab.

Researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital may have figured out how the pandemic virus kills and how to stop it.

Lab research at the hospital has given St. Jude immunologists a better understanding of the pathways and mechanisms that drive COVID-19 inflammation, lung damage, and organ failure. This research can lead to effective treatment strategies possibly using existing drugs, according to the hospital.

“Understanding the pathways and mechanism driving this inflammation is critical to develop effective treatment strategies,” said research lead Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, vice chair of the St. Jude Department of Immunology. “This research provides that understanding. We also identified the specific cytokines that activate inflammatory cell death pathways and have considerable potential for treatment of COVID-19 and other highly fatal diseases, including sepsis.”

The research team included Bhesh Raj Sharma and Rajendra Karki. The team’s research was recently published in the journal Cell.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, vice chair of St. Jude Immunology.

The team focused on cytokines, small proteins released by cells in immune response. Elevated levels of these proteins is sometimes called a “cytokine storm.” The researchers focused on a select set of the most elevated cytokines in COVID-19 patients, the hospital said. They tried 28 cytokine combinations and found just one duo that caused the specific reaction they were looking for.

The researchers said drugs that treat these specific cytokines are already available. Treatment with these drugs protected mice from death associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, sepsis, and more. The drugs could be repurposed for use in COVID-19.
[pullquote-1-center] “The results also suggest that therapies that target this cytokine combination are candidates for rapid clinical trials for treatment of not only COVID-19, but several other often fatal disorders associated with cytokine storm,” Kanneganti said.

The other authors of the study are Shraddha Tuladhar, Parimal Samir, Min Zheng, Balamurugan Sundaram, Balaji Banoth, R. K. Subbarao Malireddi, Patrick Schreiner, Geoffrey Neale, Peter Vogel, and Richard Webby, of St. Jude; and Evan Peter Williams, Lillian Zalduondo, and Colleen Beth Jonsson, of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

The research was supported by grants from ALSAC, the hospital’s fundraising organization, and the National Institutes of Health.

For more information on the research, visit St. Jude’s website.

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News News Blog

COVID-19 Vaccine Trial to Launch in Memphis

CREDIT: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Facebook

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Facebook

A Memphis vaccine trial will enlist 500 for a possible COVID-19 drug.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) will offer a testing site here for the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson’s Phase 3 clinical research study. 

St. Jude and UTHSC are recruiting adults aged 18 and older, who are in stable health, and have never received a COVID-19 vaccine. Specifically, they are looking for volunteers who are more likely to be exposed to COVID-19, such as:

• People with underlying medical conditions

• People with greater chances of exposure at their job

• People who live or work in elder-care facilities

• People over age 65

• People who work in jails or prisons

• People from racial and ethnic groups that have been impacted in greater numbers by the COVID-19 pandemic, including people who are African American/Black, Latinx, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaskan Native.

The trial here is part of larger trial that will test 60,000 people. The trial is testing the safety and effectiveness of a single dose of Janssen’s experimental drug. Some in the trial will receive the drug. Some will receive a placebo, a liquid with no active ingredients.

During the study, participants will be asked about their medical history and for blood, saliva, and nasal swab samples for testing, including for COVID-19. At the study site, participants will get one injection in the arm, unless otherwise indicated. After the vaccine, volunteers will track how they feel, and study staff will do occasional checkups.

Participants will not be exposed to COVID-19 as part of the study. If participants do test positive for the virus, they will be tested and staff members will monitor them daily.

For more information on the vaccine trial here visit visit www.preventcovidmemphis.org or email covidvaccinestudy@stjude.org.

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We Recommend We Saw You

Gene Phillips, Swedish Jam Factory, Caritas Dinner, Incognito!

Gene Phillips has been raising money for St. Jude Children’s Hospital at his birthday parties for more than 40 years. This was taken in the late 1990s or early 2000s with me, sporting a different color hair, and Willie Bland, wife of the late Bobby Blue Bland.

Gene Phillips celebrated his birthday — and the birthday of every guest who is an Aquarian — at his Germantown home. The party, which was held February 10th, included a red-and-white iced cake bearing the words “Happy Aquarius Birthdays!” Since my birthday is February 1st, I qualified for a big slice.

Originally, the parties honored the birthday of the late Rufus Thomas. Thomas was a regular at the event.

Just about every room in Phillips’ house is dedicated to a celebrity friend or just a friend. He’s got the Rufus Thomas music room, Bobby Blue Bland media room, and the Anita “Ring My Bell” Ward wall, to name a few.

This year, Phillips dedicated a wall to me — the “Michael Donahue Wall,” where a photo of me, Gene, and Willie Bland hangs.

Phillips, who asks guests to make donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital instead of giving gifts to him, has raised about $100,000 since he began throwing the event more than 40 years ago.


Michael Donahue

Gene Phillips and Dr. Greg Hanissian at this year’s birthday party

Michael Donahue

Spencer McMillin and Rick Farmer at the Chef’s Partnership Dinner

Spencer McMillin, Rick Farmer, and Andrew Saunders teamed up for the Chef’s Partnership Dinner, which was held January 20th at Caritas Community Center & Cafe.

The dinner, which included courses prepared by each chef, was a special one for McMillin. “Rick and Barbara Farmer’s restaurant — Jarrett’s — was a Memphis institution,” he says. “When it closed suddenly in 2008, for me personally, it felt a little like the passing of a family member. Rick and I had been passing friends before my stint in the Jarrett’s kitchen in 2005, but after it I considered Rick — like a lot of us in the life do — a father figure. Without getting into lurid detail, Rick helped me get through a rough patch that year. His kindness and patience with me, together with an insistence that I put my own menu items on the Jarrett’s menu, left an indelible mark.

“Working side by side with Rick at L’ecole Culinaire (2009-2012) subsequent to our time together at Jarrett’s was incredible. I never thought I’d get the opportunity again. Being cubicle mates with Rick was beyond fun.”

Saunders, who worked with McMillin and Farmer at L’ecole Culinaire, now works at Meal MD.

Also in the kitchen were Matt Crone, Duncan Aiken, and Patrick Gilbert. “Bringing the old 2005 Jarrett’s crew together for the January Chef’s Partnership Dinner at Caritas was a hospitality family reunion of the highest order and the fulfillment of a Memphis restaurant legacy. And I have to say, it was the most fun I’ve had cooking on the line in years.”


Michael Donahue

Matt Crone, Spencer McMillin, Rick Farmer, Duncan Aiken, Patrick Gilbert and Andrew Saunders at Chef’s Partnership Dinner

MIchael Donahue

Prior to the show, audience members could view art by Frederique Zindy and Marilyn League in the Levy Gallery outside the auditorium.

Michael Donahue

Alexis Grace (left) attended the Swedish Jam Factory performance featuring her husband, Thomas Bergstig, and Isaac Middleton. With her are Lucy Sterling, Ryan Zabielski, and Buckman Performing and Fine Arts Center director Cindi Younker.

Michael Donahue

Memphis filmmaker Kevin Brooks, who won the Memphis Film Prize two years in a row, with Memphis & Shelby County Film Commissioner Linn Sitler at the 20 Under 30 reception, which was held January 30th at Central Station Ballroom. Sitler nominated Brooks, who was one of the 20 Under 30 recipients.

Michael Donahue

Gopal Murti, who exhibited art at the Incognito! Art Soiree and Silent Auction, won first prize in the costume contest at the show, where guests bid on artwork not knowing who actually did the artwork. All the work in the show, held January 31st at Memphis Botanic Garden, was unsigned; guests learned who the artist was after they bought the work.

…and, of course, this photo had to be taken.

Michael Donahue

HARBINGER OF SPRING NUMBER 1: A sure sign of spring is when the crabapple trees bloom on Belvedere.

                                       WE SAW YOU AROUND TOWN
 

Michael Donahue

Attending “The Play That Goes Wrong” at the Orpheum were Charlene Honeycutt and Kacky Walton.

Michael Donahue

Meghan Stuthard and Holly Whitfield at “The Play That Goes Wrong”

Michael Donahue

Marty Brooks and Ashley Calhoun at “The Play That Goes Wrong”

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Music Music Blog

“Last Night in Memphis” — Lance Carpenter’s Musical Homage to St. Jude

CREDIT: Kristin Barlowe

Kristin Barlowe

Lance Carpenter

The Memphis skyline was the initial inspiration for “Last Night in Memphis,” says singer-songwriter Lance Carpenter.


He was driving over the Harahan Bridge from his home in Ozark, Arkansas to Nashville one night and “looking out over the skyline of Memphis” when the song title came to mind, Carpenter says.

The lines, “Last night in Memphis I walked the streets of Beale. I saw the ghost of Elvis,” came to him, but those weren’t the right words. And they were too close to “Walking in Memphis.”

“I thought, ‘That’s not the way to write that song. I can never write it that way,’” Carpenter says. “I didn’t think much of it. I wrote it on my phone at a gas station. I thought, ‘I’ll live with it for a little while. Eventually, God will tell me what to do with that song.’”

That was in early 2012.

“I made several trips back and forth to Arkansas. Every time I would look at the skyline and try to find something unique to help me find out how to write the song.”

Something happened on his next trip. “God said, ‘Look left.’”

Carpenter saw St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the idea for the song hit him: “Tonight is some kid’s last night in Memphis because they’re cured.”

“I just thought, ‘That’s the way to write it. Now I have to figure out how to write it or who to write it with.”

Carpenter, who at that point didn’t have a publishing deal, had never set foot in St. Jude, but he knew the bands Alabama and Lonestar are big supporters of the hospital. Over the next year he met Randy Owen from Alabama and Richie McDonald with Lonestar, but he and McDonald clicked.

They first met at the Listening Room Cafe in Nashville. Carpenter told McDonald about the song. “He instantly was affected by the idea. He loved it.”

Carpenter didn’t even have music for the song at that point. They met at McDonald’s house a couple of weeks later. “We finished it in a day and a half and did a work tape of it.”

The song talks about a fictitious little girl named Annabelle, who is a patient at St. Jude. She walks down the hall saying goodbye to fellow patients because it’s her last night in Memphis. Listeners might think she’s dying, but they discover Annabelle actually is cured and she’s going home. “We wanted it to be happy. Not a sad song. Give hope to the kids.”

Carpenter originally hoped Lonestar would record the song because he didn’t think he could give it the “promotional status” the band could.

That was in 2016. “I was like, ‘I just don’t think this is the right time yet to do it.’ I didn’t have the following yet. I thought, ‘God is going to tell us when.’”

In 2018, Carpenter’s publicist asked him, “Hey, have you ever been to St. Jude and done a tour? We’re taking a group tour as a publishing company.”

After boarding the bus to take them from Nashville to St. Jude, Carpenter thought, “I feel like I’ve been on it before.”

He saw a pillow with singer Kelsea Ballerini’s name embroidered on it. It was her tour bus. Carpenter was co-writer with Ballerini on the song “Love Me You Like You Mean It.” He felt that was a good sign as he made his way to St. Jude for the first time.

He was impressed and touched during his St. Jude visit, “being with family and kids and walking the halls and seeing smiles and hope on their faces.”

Carpenter played his work tape of the song for Jackie Proffitt with St. Jude. She told him, “My God. You wrote this without ever being there?”

Proffitt told him St. Jude would like to use the song, Carpenter says.

Later that year, Carpenter, who was recording music for an EP, made a demo of the song to see how it sounds. He loved the way it turned out, so he asked McDonald to sing harmony on it.

McDonald agreed. “He said, ‘Man, this is incredible.’”

But Carpenter still didn’t feel it was time to release the song.

Shortly after, Carpenter recorded a duet with Krystal Keith, daughter of singer Toby Keith, on Carpenter’s song, “Anyone Else,” and he was signed to Toby’s label, “Show Dog.”


He released “Last Night in Memphis” November 22, 2019.

“The song definitely affects a lot of people,” Carpenter says. “They reach out and tell me their story. Their son was cured. In remission. I’ve kept in touch with families. Texted on the phone. They touch your heart when you meet someone who’s gone through something so tragic and have a big smile on their face. I admire what St. Jude does. Cancer sucks and I don’t think any kid should have their childhood taken away because of cancer.”

Carpenter’s slogan is “The more success I have, the more significant I can be in the lives of others.”

“This song will allow me to do that.”

McDonald, who is a St. Jude Partner in Hope, says he and Carpenter plan to go to St. Jude and perform the song live in 2020.

They’ve agreed to donate 50 percent of the net proceeds from the song to St. Jude.

“This is one of those songs that will continually give.”

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: St. Jude Marathon, Cotton Bowl Bound, and What the Shell?

The long run

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital said more than 26,000 people came from 50 states and 17 foreign countries to run in Saturday’s St. Jude Memphis Marathon.

Posted to Facebook by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Bowl bound

The University of Memphis Tigers made a cool Adobe Spark story that told the tale of Saturday’s big win over Cincinnati with a series of stunning photographs.

The Tigers will now take on Penn State on December 28th at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl game in Texas.

Posted to Facebook by Memphis Tigers

What the Shell?

Shock and disappointment ran deep in a Nextdoor thread about the sudden closing of Elwood’s Shells in Cooper-Young last week.

Much praise was heaped upon the restaurant for its seafood, breakfast, and massive portions. But Nextdoorians offered their theories on the closing, too. Pricey food, not enough tables, small parking lot, and a deck that “looks like fifth graders” were building it were all blamed.

“That front deck is stupid,” wrote a Nextdoor user.

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Opinion Viewpoint

Formula For Growth

Last week, during our regular committee meetings, I suggested to my colleagues on the Shelby County Commission that we should take another look at the existing Uptown TIF district — one that is generating $4 million per year in economic activity.

Inasmuch as crime is the No. 1 problem facing our community, I have been looking closely at the county budget with an eye toward finding an income stream that could be repurposed toward the crucial issue of public safety. The Uptown TIF may provide just such a stream.

Commissioner Walter Bailey and I have been talking with District Attorney General Amy Weirich, Shelby County Sheriff Bill Oldham, Memphis Police Department director Mike Rallings, and Operation Safe Community director Bill Gibbons. We know that the city is 300 to 400 police officers short of a full complement, and we have been advocating that we add 100 sheriff’s deputies to help supplement the critical shortage of law enforcement. (After going public with the idea I discuss here, I found out rather quickly that no good deed goes unpunished, but that’s another story.)

The Uptown TIF is a very complicated financial arrangement, and it is important to understand the background and rationale that led to its creation.

First, a word about the workings of a TIF (tax increment financing) project in general: TIFs are generally created to help subsidize a specific private project. They are intended to capture the incremental taxes from the project and use those specific funds to pay for public infrastructure (streets, sewers, parking) that was required as part of the project. The additional property-tax revenue generated by the TIF pays for the specific improvements; when the improvements are paid off, the TIF is ended. The Uptown TIF bears no resemblance to the textbook TIF I just described.

More than 16 years ago, when Jim Rout was the county mayor and Willie Herenton was the city mayor, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was growing, amid legitimate concerns that there were neighboring public housing projects that presented adverse “slum and blight” conditions. The Uptown TIF was created with the specific intent of generating positive redevelopment in these adjacent areas.

The geographical TIF area from which the property tax growth was derived came from the Mud Island/Harbor Town area, and it was used to pay for the activities of the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) in the Uptown area. I believe we can get a better return on investment by spending more on public safety and crime prevention.

The Uptown TIF has generated sufficient tax revenue to pay for the bond debt incurred by the CRA. We are at a crossroads: whether to choose to continue the TIF and spend $4 million of county property taxes in the Uptown area, or return that income stream to the county general fund and use it for public safety. I am suggesting that we have that discussion and allow the Shelby County Commission to come to a consensus.

I have been a vocal supporter of downtown development, and I believe that the job of government is to assist and partner with the private sector. I would also like to state for the record that I fully support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I believe that we can improve the neighborhoods adjacent to St. Jude without relying on proceeds from the existing TIF.

The areas of the city that are experiencing growth — Sears Crosstown, Overton Square, South Main, etc. — have a few things in common. Primarily, they are anchored by private developers with a vision. The job of government is to get out of their way and let them flourish.

I have held discussions with the Memphis Home Builders Association, and they are ready to develop market-rate housing in the area around St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

At the moment, we have a significant crime issue. Homicides are up. Violent crime is increasing. We need to invest more in crime prevention and crime deterrence, and we need to fully support our law enforcement officers. The current county budget is tight, and I thought it prudent to at least investigate an available $4 million revenue stream that could pay for 50 extra sheriff’s deputies.

Over the past three years, the county commission has focused on improved funding for education, and the result is a financially stable Shelby County Schools District which is improving on all metrics. It is time, now, for us to put additional resources toward fighting crime and supporting law enforcement.
I like to work toward a win-win solution, and I believe strongly that we can help promote the economic development that will improve downtown and the neighborhoods near St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and simultaneously work on solving our crime problem.

Businessman Steve Basar is budget chair of the Shelby County Commission.

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

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