Tag: TN legislature

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Yahoo Posse

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

In case you were ever worried about the GOP-dominated state government of Tennessee not having the best interests of its citizens at heart, you can relax. Our boys are on the case, battling against the vast, nefarious invasion of transgender young people into high school sports, standing firm against college basketballers who kneel for the National Anthem, and, of course, battling for the right of every Tennessean to pack a gun pretty much anywhere.

Jackson Baker

Governor Bill Lee

The truth is that this sort of legislation is just performative. Its only purpose being to stir up outrage among the mouth-breathing masses. “Dang it! We cain’t have boys competin’ against girls in softball!” Right. Because that happens so often. So the legislators propose a bill that ignores all protocols and legal ramifications of the issue and just mandates that transgender folks conform to their birth genitalia, no matter what. The Olympics and other sports organizations have rules involving testosterone levels for athletes, and other regulations that ensure fair competition, but those were ignored in favor of further inciting brocephus prejudices with a law that is very unlikely to stand up in court.

Legislators are also planning to tackle the vital issue of East Tennessee State’s men’s basketball team kneeling for the National Anthem on state property. Look for some overtly unconstitutional legislative foofawfery soon. Never mind that the First Amendment right to protest and free speech is every bit as sacred and protected as, well, the Second Amendment “right” to openly carry a gun into Costco.

Speaking of … If any of these guys ever has the nerve to say “Blue Lives Matter” again, they should be, well, arrested. Open carry laws are opposed by almost every major law-enforcement organization, by district attorneys groups, and by around 80 percent of American voters in recent polls. But Governor Bill Lee and his yahoo posse are more interested in pleasing the NRA and the 20 percent of the population that thinks gun regulations are a violation of the Second Amendment, even though most of them couldn’t spell “amendment” if you spotted them the vowels.

Then there was the egregious piling on by several Republicans of the Shelby County Health Department in the wake of the discovery of 2,400 expired or wasted COVID vaccine doses.

Eighth District Congressman David Kustoff, for example, was shocked and outraged and demanded an investigation into this chicanery. This is the same buffoon who backed Donald Trump’s ignorant and deadly approach to the pandemic for 11 months and who appeared, sans mask, slavishly praising Fearless Leader at rallies. He also voted to overturn the results of a free election after a mob violently demanding the same thing trashed the capitol building where he works, but yes, do demand an investigation into those who are trying, however imperfectly, to save people’s lives.

Lee also weighed in with his concerns, as did several other Republicans. Where was this concern when much smaller (and whiter) Knox County “lost” more than 1,000 doses earlier in February?

Look, there is no denying that Shelby County screwed up some aspects of the vaccine roll-out, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that this scenario is being replicated all over the country.

Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told NBC News earlier this month: “This kind of thing [having to throw away] vaccines is pretty rampant. I have personally heard stories like this from dozens of physician friends in a variety of different states. Hundreds, if not thousands, of doses are getting tossed across the country every day. It’s unbelievable.”

COVID-19 vaccines have a short shelf life once they are thawed out for use, Jha said. And because of federal and state mandates, many hospitals and other healthcare providers would rather risk a dose going bad than give it to somebody who isn’t scheduled to get a shot.

So yeah, we’ve had some issues with vaccine distribution, but so have a lot of places. More than 120,000 people have been vaccinated in Shelby County, so it’s not all bad. It’s fair to point out mistakes, but let’s keep the performative politics out of it.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

We Can’t Go Back: Tennessee’s Latest Anti-Abortion Bill isn’t “Pro-Life”

CREDIT: Maya Smith

Republican Tennessee lawmakers are at it again. Oh, right, they’re always at it. More specifically, they’ve returned to their pursuit to deny women of a basic right: the option to safely access abortions.

Last week, Governor Bill Lee announced that he would be submitting a “comprehensive pro-life” bill this legislative session that will put the state “at the forefront of protecting life.” The bill would ban abortion when there is a heartbeat. It also would specifically ban abortions based on sex, race, or disablilties. Additionally, it would require women to undergo an ultrasound and view the photo before having an abortion.

Maya Smith

Stop the Ban rally in May 2019

These provisions suggest that women are just popping into abortion clinics having abortions for flippant reasons. That’s not the case; women are having abortions because of their health or their financial situation or for a number of other serious reasons that one couldn’t understand unless they have been in their shoes.

As the governor made his announcement, he was surrounded by — what else? —a group of men. Men, who have never and will never walk a step in these women’s shoes, attempting to dictate what women do with their bodies. What a concept.

They say the bill is “stronger” than the “heartbeat bill” that passed in the House but failed in the Senate last year.

If the bill does pass, it will surely be challenged in court. That means thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money will fund fruitless litigation for a cause that most Tennesseans likely don’t support. In fact, a study done by Vanderbilt University in the fall found that 54 percent of respondents believe Roe v. Wade should be upheld.

If abortions are banned in Tennessee, as many experts have said, women will not stop seeking abortions. But abortions will be become more difficult and dangerous for them.

The governor made the announcement of the near-total abortion ban just one day after the 47th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. Nearly half a century ago, the country’s highest court ruled that the Constitution gives women the liberty to choose to have an abortion. Why would we now, 50 years later, attempt to rip that liberty away and regress back to the time when women didn’t have autonomy over their own bodies?

We cannot go back. Only forward.

Laws like these are utterly intrusive and grossly overreach into women’s personal lives. No government entity or any entity, quite frankly, should interfere with a woman’s decision about what to do with her body. The government cannot coerce women into bearing a child they don’t have the capacity to raise or choose not to have for medical or other reasons. It’s a very personal choice that should remain that way.

Views on abortion are just that — views. Whether or not one supports abortion, it’s a personal conviction. And personal and/or religious convictions should not be mandated through laws. These lawmakers shouldn’t force their faux moral-high-ground beliefs on others.

Why does it matter so much to these old white men what women in Tennessee do with their bodies? Why do they talk so much about the life of the unborn child and how important it is to defend it and so little about the women who bear the pregnancy?

Perhaps the most cringeworthy quote from Lee’s announcement was this: “My passion for developing this legislation stems from my commitment to defending the intrinsic dignity of all people.”

It’s the “intrinsic dignity of all people” bit that got me. The intrinsic dignity of many is abused every day in this state, and he doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. Here in Shelby County, the state’s largest county, 45 percent of children are living in poverty. What about their dignity? I wonder if the governor cares just as much about them and their limited access to fresh food or quality health care or decent education. Do lawmakers care just as much about the pregnant workers in Tennessee who receive bare-minimum accommodations in the workplace?

The governor and lawmakers pushing the legislation refer to it as “pro-life,” but does their pro-life view extend beyond women’s vaginas and apply to all people? No one can truly claim to be pro-life if they don’t defend the basic rights of all people and fight to uplift the poor, welcome immigrants, and engage the disenfranchised.

Maya Smith is a Flyer staff writer.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Cold Comfort

CREDIT: Casada from capitol.tn.gov; Malone by Jackson Baker

By all reports, it was as frosty and weather-worn in Nashville on Monday as it was here in Memphis, but there was enough of a quorum in both the Senate and the House to finish up some pending legislation.

What got the most attention statewide was the final Senate passage of a compromise wine-in-grocery-stores bill, SB 837, which — local referenda permitting — allows wine sales by grocery retailers and whichever convenience stores meet the 1,200-square-foot area requirement, in most cases as early as July 1, 2016. Liquor stores, meanwhile, will be allowed to sell beer and other sundries as early as July 1st of this year.

As Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey, a prime mover of the bill, noted, it “allows for the expansion of consumer choice while protecting small businesses that took risks and invested capital under the old system.” In other words, a lot of trade-offs entered into the bill, which now goes to Governor Bill Haslam for signing.

Over in the House on Monday, there was a curious dialogue between state Representative G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis) and state Representative Glen Casada (R-Franklin) over the meaning of an innocuous bill (HB 394 by Hardaway) that allows community gardens in Memphis to flourish independently of sales-tax levies and control by the state Department of Agriculture.

Casada, a well-known advocate and author of bills imposing state authority over local matters, as in his notorious legislation two years ago striking down local anti-discrimination ordinances, went disingenuous on Hardaway.

“Are we in any way telling local government what they can and cannot do? … Are we in any way dictating actions to local government at our state level?” Casada asked, all innocence.

Realizing he was about to be fenced with semantically, Hardaway responded just as disingenuously: “You and I share that concern, that we not dictate to local government, and I’m proud that you’re joining me on this bill, where we are making it clear that local government has the options to proceed on these community gardening efforts, sir.”

A few back-and-forths later, Casada said, “I just want to be clear. So we are, in a few instances, telling these local governments how they will handle these parcels for their gardening projects. Am I correct?”

Hardaway would have none of it. “Quite the opposite. We are telling state government that we want local government to conduct the business of local gardening instead of the state Department of Agriculture.”

Casada insisted on drawing the moral of the story another way, defining Hardaway’s bill not as the sponsor himself saw it — as a measure freeing local vegetable gardens from state control — but as yet another case in which the state can tell localities “how they will or will not” do things. “From time to time we do dictate to local government … and this is a good bill,” he concluded.

That prompted Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner of Nashville to confer mock praise on Casada for his consistency in wanting to “bring big government to press down on local government.”

In any case, the bill passed with near unanimity, something of a unique instance in which, depending on who’s describing it, a bill is said to be both a defense of local autonomy and the very opposite of that concept, a reinforcement of overriding state control.

That’s Nashville for you.   

   

• When Shelby County Commission Chairman James Harvey dropped out of the race for county mayor at last week’s withdrawal deadline, saving his marbles (and his long-shot candidacy) for a run at city mayor in 2015, he left behind what is going to be a seriously contested three-way Democratic primary for the leadership of county government:

County Commissioner/U of M Law Professor Steve Mulroy, aided by experienced and connected campaign adviser David Upton, will be everywhere at once with a carefully articulated message for rank-and-file Democrats. The Rev. Kenneth Whalum may not be as ubiquitous, but he has a potentially potent fan base developed during years of a highly visible ministry and an outspoken school board presence.

Both will have to make their case against a seasoned candidate who has earned a large and loyal cadre of supporters from her years in public life and from campaigns in years past. This is Deidre Malone, a well-known public relations consultant and former two-term county commissioner who ran hard in the Democratic primary for county mayor four years ago, losing out to Joe Ford, a former commission colleague who had the advantage of running from a position as interim mayor.

Appearing on Wednesday of last week before a packed meeting of the Germantown Democratic Club at Coletta’s on Stage Road, Malone cited a detailed list of mainstream Democratic positions on issues and looked past her Democratic rivals to voice a resounding challenge to incumbent Republican Mayor Mark Luttrell, challenging his bona fides as a crossover politician and as a leader.

Making an effort to debunk the incumbent mayor’s mainstream status, Malone disparaged Luttrell’s claims to have been a regular participant in meetings of the post-school-merger Transition Planning Commission (“Leadership is not sitting in a meeting”) and to have supported pre-K efforts (“When he had an opportunity for the first county pre-K initiative … he came out against it.”).

Leadership, said Malone, means, among other things, having an opinion: “Sometimes it’s comfortable, sometimes it’s not, but leadership is making that opinion known, so people will know where you stand. So I’m going to ask you today, Democrats here in Germantown and across Shelby County, for your vote. … I’m excited about the primary, but more excited about the opportunity to represent the Democratic Party in general, because he [Luttrell] knows that I’m coming, and he knows that I’m going to be nothing nice.”

Before she spoke, her campaign manager, Randa Spears, took a straw vote of the attendees, an exercise Spears repeated after Malone’s speech. The results in both cases showed Malone hovering around the number 20, with her opponents in single digits — the chief difference between the two votes being that significant numbers of votes for Mulroy (whom Malone seemingly regards as her chief opponent) had — according to the tabulation, at least — shifted over to “undecided.”

Granted, Malone’s cadres were out for the event, and those of Mulroy and Whalum, for the most part, were not, and the ad hoc poll could by no means be regarded as scientific. The fact remains that Malone, a well-known African-American public figure going into her second run for county mayor, was able to demonstrate some core support among a group of predominantly white Democrats meeting out east, and that fact should tell some kind of tale to her opponents.

• Another change in the May 6th primary picture for countywide offices was the Shelby County Election Commission’s decision last week to overrule the previous disqualification of Martavius Jones, a candidate in the Democratic primary for the new District 10 county commission seat, because of a disallowed signature on his filing petition.

That creates a legitimate two-way race between Reginald Milton and Jones, with political newcomer Jake Brown likely to function as a spoiler (though Brown may have a rosier outlook, seeing a split between Milton and Jones as giving him a real chance).