The week just past brought with it a plethora of news — good, bad, and ugly.
First, some good news in the braggin’ rights department: It was announced that Memphis International Airport (MEM) is back atop the rankings as the world’s busiest cargo airport for the first time since 2009. More than 4.6 million metric tons of cargo came through MEM in 2020, enough to put MEM back on top of the ranking by Airports Council International (ACI), edging out Hong Kong International Airport.
In other good economic news, Amazon announced it was increasing its presence in the Mid-South with two new facilities: a delivery station in North Memphis and a fulfillment center in Byhalia, Mississippi. The company said it expects to employ hundreds at each facility and will pay a starting wage of $15 per hour plus benefits.
In not so good news, another proposed facility in the Mid-South was denied a permit by the Horn Lake, Mississippi, city government. Last Tuesday, that city’s board of aldermen voted 5-1 to uphold the planning commission’s decision to deny approval of the site plan for a mosque proposed by Ray Elk. The Commercial Appeal reported that the aldermen opposing the building cited “insufficient water mains for fire sprinklers, the fear that the building would break the noise ordinance, and that it would be a traffic hazard as reasons for opposing the application.”
But Alderman John Jones said the quiet part out loud: “If you let them build it, they will come. I think we need to stop it before it gets here.”
The proposed mosque would be 10,000 square feet and have 44 parking spaces and would occupy three acres of an 80-acre plot owned by Elk, who told the CA that there would be no loudspeakers outside the building to issue calls to prayer. Elk added the obvious, that a mosque would add considerably less traffic to the area than if he developed a 400-home subdivision on the site.
But my favorite part of the CA reporting was discovering that Horn Lake has an alderman named Donnie “Chigger” White, who said: “That’s strange, 79 acres to put a three-acre church on. … We must have something on the horizon that you’re not wanting us to know about.” And there, ladies and gentlemen, is your ugly.
Typically, this would be when we Tennesseans would scoff at Mississippi for its backward-ass ways. But let me remind you that Tennessee has its own ugly history with opposing mosques and that the General Assembly just last week appointed an anti-Muslim activist and 9/11-Truther to the state’s official textbook selection committee. And given the many repressive and revolting laws being passed in Nashville this session, we have no business making fun of the Magnolia State any longer. We’ve got plenty of our own ugly.
And that, unfortunately, would include the latest local COVID-19 news — which is that our infection rate is rising and our vaccination rate is at a low ebb. We can’t even give away vaccine using food coupons. FEMA set up a massive facility in Midtown a few weeks ago, no appointments necessary. Just drive up and get jabbed. They are mostly sitting on their thumbs these days and are now talking about dismantling the place and moving out of town.
A recent poll showed that about 54 percent of Tennesseans say they are willing to get vaccinated. By my math, that means 46 percent of Tennesseans don’t want to get protected against a disease that has killed 570,000 Americans and counting. The breakdown by party shows exactly how politicized this issue has become: Six percent of men who identify as Democrats say they won’t get a shot, versus 46 percent of Republican men who said they wouldn’t get it. The only possible good news here is that swinging the state blue may get easier. (Did I say the quiet part out loud?)
I know this is bad — or maybe even ugly — but by this point, I’ve pretty much had it with the viral ignorance so many seem to be infected with. The vaccine is free, easily available, and convenient. Anyone who elects to turn it down for political reasons at this point has bought a ticket for whatever ride shows up at their door. Happy trails, dumbass. Enjoy your quarantine, or worse.
