Publisher’s Positions
City Council Members Should Be Elected By District
The Knoxville City Council, those lovers of democracy, are trying to undo what the Tennessee General Assembly tried to force them to do: allow district representatives to be elected by the district. By the logic of Andrew Roberto and some of his colleagues on the city council, every United States senator should be elected nationwide. Think about Chuck Schumer of being the U. S. senator from Tennessee instead of Bill Hagerty. By the same logic, every congressman should be elected statewide. Roberto’s proposal calls for “regional” representatives to be elected in place of “district” representatives. Tennessee has three distinct regions: East, Middle and West, so I suppose we should have three congressmen instead of ten. To tell the truth, renaming them “regional” council members is simply to differentiate between the three at-large members in name only. The only difference is the “regional” representative would come from a particular district, but would be elected by all city residents, just like those elected at large.
The system undone by the General Assembly was a vestige of the days when some wished to dilute the Black community’s ability to elect its own representative to the city council. This, too, is designed to dilute representation from specific communities and deny them a voice before the city council. Seema Singh, for instance, was not the choice of the district she represents on the council. She lost the election inside her district, but won the balloting outside the district she supposedly represents.
The way Knoxville has elected its city councilmen has long been outmoded, not to mention that it denied communities a proper voice in their elected government. Electing every member of a legislative body at-large defeats the entire purpose of neighborhoods and individual communities. Those who argue the at-large members must listen to everyone are either morons or so idealistic they would drown while looking up in a good rainstorm. No, they don’t have to listen to everyone. It isn’t inclusive, it isn’t diverse, and worst of all, it isn’t representative.
When any legislative body obediently rubber stamps the executive branch of the government, that body isn’t functioning properly. The executive – – – whether it is the president, governor, mayor or superintendent of schools – – – should be upheld when he/she is right and overturned when he/she is wrong. Evidently, the mayor of Knoxville has always been right since at least Victor Ashe held the office. It’s long past time when the people of Knoxville were able to elect their own representatives who not only live in their home communities, but are actually the choice of those communities rather than people across town.
‘Walking Catastrophies’
The presidential campaign of Kamala Harris is already having to revise running mate Tim Walz’s biography on their campaign site. The revision involves Walz’s military credentials which were evidently inflated. In the meantime, Harris has been backtracking on long held positions on gun control, eliminating private health care, banning fracking, as well as having lectured people about “How dare we say ‘Merry Christmas!’” The progressive left was described last week as “walking catastrophes,” not by a Republican, but by no less than James Carville.
The usual suspects are already coming out from their dens in the mainstream mockingbird media to circle the wagons. Monica Hesse, a columnist for the Washington Post, who defended drag queen story hour in one of her forays into what’s best for America, is now defending Tim Walz for his decision to place tampons in boys’ bathrooms in Minnesota. Hesse says boys should be checking with female classmates about their cycles. According to Hesse, boys who keep tampons on the ready will be “drowning in prom invites” from girls. Who knew? Mrs. Walz better keep her eye on Tampon Tim.
Yes, This Is Unjust
There was a time when many couples in America believed they were incredibly blessed when God gave them a child of each gender. My wife and I have a daughter and a son, so we were one of those couples. It is painful for me to witness things like the boxing match between an opponent who was deemed to be a biological male in the past and a female athlete. One punch and the female boxer went down and yelled, “This is unjust!” That same athlete who threw the punch was disqualified from the world championships last year due to having failed testosterone tests. Maybe that’s why this year’s Olympic games opened with the bearded ladies and drag queen version of the Last Supper.
And it is. It is wrong on so many levels. For those men and women who are blessed to have a daughter or daughters, it is just awful to see the rights of young women simply stripped away in the name of social justice. Male athletes who were middling at best, or just not very good at worst, grow out their hair or simply say they identify as female and participate. The discomfort and lack of privacy of young girls and women in locker rooms changing and showering with biological men is nothing less than appalling. What happened to the feminists? This is a big step backward in women’s rights in the name of some kind of woke fantasy. It demeans and denigrates the very idea of girl’s and women’s athletics.
And it is terribly unjust to the girls and women who work very hard for countless hours in training for what is supposed to be sporting events and contests for females. Not the definition of female by the Left, but females. The truth is female athletes have gotten little publicity from the national media for protesting the inclusion of biological males in their sports and even less sympathy. No truer words have been spoken than when Angela Carini cried, “This is unjust”
Congratulations, Dr. Hurst
Congratulations to Dr. Fred Hurst for being named “Statesman of the Year” for Tennessee’s Second Congressional District by Congressman Tim Burchett. Fred is quite well known and is a widely admired man in our community. Dr. Hurst is a warm and caring human being; Burchett’s choice is a good one and deserves this recognition and more besides.
