Publisher’s Positions
City Council Members Should Be Elected By District
Region [ree-juhn] noun
Definition: 1. usually regions, the vast or indefinite entirety of a space or area; or something compared to one.
- a part of the earth’s surface (land or sea) of considerable and usually indefinite extent.
- a district without respect to boundaries or extent.
The Knoxville City Council, in its attempt to avoid allowing voters to choose their own representatives by district while still having three council members elected at-large, has used curious language in wording the language of the referendum question. It refers to the “regional” council members, who are certainly a part of the earth’s surface of considerable and indefinite extent. The city council and Mayor Indya Kincannon seem desperate not to allow districts to choose their own representatives but rather prefer to have every member elected citywide.
It is the last vestige of an admittedly racist system that was designed to allow voters citywide to either keep a representative of the Black community off the council or to ensure the representative of the Black community met the approval of the largely White population citywide.
Make no mistake about it, we have people serving on the Knoxville City Council now who were not the choice of the people of their own district. The entire purpose of having districts is to allow the people who reside inside the boundaries of those districts to choose their own representatives. What the city council and sponsor Andrew Roberto is doing is using sleight of hand and the well-used tool of simply renaming something and giving it an entirely different meaning. Roberto and the majority of the Knoxville City Council wish to make district elections meaningless, if not ban them altogether and they are not being honest with the voting public. If they were being honest, why not simply call it exactly what it is? That is proof of a weak argument or in this instance, one they strongly suspect people would dislike if they understood it. It is a deliberate and premeditated attempt to fool the people. Obviously, Andrew Roberto and the other members of the city council don’t want to come right out and say they don’t want any district representation on that body. They talk around it and avoid that topic altogether.
Keep in mind that three members of the city council are already elected at large, meaning that every voter inside the city limits can vote and choose their at-large representatives.
The objection of the city council and Indya Kincannon was when state Representative Elaine Davis sponsored long overdue legislation to return the city government to the people by allowing the six members of the city council supposedly elected by districts to truly be elected by district. Previously, the two top vote-getters in the primary went on to the general election, which was citywide rather than held inside the district. The Davis Bill passed the General Assembly, returning democracy to Knoxville and the coming referendum is a response by the powers that be inside the City of Knoxville to skirt the law and democracy.
The powers that be like a city council that is subservient to the mayor. They like a weak legislative branch in the face of an all-powerful executive branch. No chief executive, whether it is the president of the United States, governor or mayor, is always right. The very genius of the American form of government lies within the three separate branches of the government, none of which are supposed to be subservient to the other. It protects the people from any excesses from one particular branch of the government. It is the very essence of our Republic and the beating heart of our democracy.
ABC Debate Unfair To Trump
Irrespective of where readers fall on the recent presidential debate there is good reason to question what was NOT asked of the candidates who wish to serve as our president. There was not a word mentioned about the murder of Hersh Goldberg-Polin and other Israeli hostages by the Hamas terrorists. There was no question about how either Trump or Harris would deal with Iran, which may be just weeks away from having nuclear weapons. Iran is already having its proxies attack American forces repeatedly, more than 200 times.
There was not a word uttered about the ability of Joe Biden to continue serving as president. ABC is owned by Disney and one can easily understand why the network would not want either “moderator” to ask questions about China.
The bias of the mainstream media was on full display as the hosts only fact-checked one candidate, Trump. As pointed out by the New York Post Kamala made the claim “There is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world. . .”
WRONG. American troops in the Middle East are definitely in a combat zone. As pointed out, Iran and its proxies have been attacking us. Three American soldiers were killed this past January by a drone attack.
Kamala the Chameleon warned Americans watching the debate that they were going to hear “a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 … ”
WRONG. Trump has said over and over again he does not accept Project 2025, which is the product of a think tank not affiliated with Trump or his campaign, he doesn’t believe in it, and would not implement it if he is reelected.
Kamala claimed she had not banned fracking while serving as Joe Biden’s vice president. According to Kamala, she overturned that by being the deciding vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which not only did not reduce inflation but was jam-packed with woke goodies and bloated spending, which drove up inflation. What was in the bill with reference to energy production was put in to get the vote of Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who later called it “bull- – -t.” “So they’re gonna basically starve us out of energy that we have a tremendous, abundant supply of because of their aspirational thoughts?”
The list goes on, but neither “moderator” ever corrected her. I like to think ours is a country with an ingrained respect and admiration for fair play. Unfortunately, that day seems to have come and gone in the mainstream media.
