State and Local Politics Blog

People ask me, why I vote” liberal.”

I vote blue because of my grandmother. Universal Healthcare would have kept her from spending every dime she had trying to make sure my grandfather was well, and she wouldn’t have had to work on a towboat, cooking 3 square meals a day, for 30 men for 30 days straight to make ends meet. And my mother wouldn’t have had to raise herself because of it.

The Pulitzer Prize Board awarded the posthumous special citation for Wells’ “outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching.” The honor, announced Monday, by the board of the Pulitzer Prizes, is a testament to Wells’ long-standing work and contributions to the country,” said Michelle Duster, the great-granddaughter of Wells. As a journalist, Wells, also known by Wells-Barnett, reported on the racist lynchings of black men, sorting through statistics and uncovering fabrications.

Torrey first caught the attention of Future901 during his first run against State Rep John DeBerry in 2018. At that time, he as was able to run an unexpectedly competitive contest against the 24-year incumbent. Then, as now, DeBerry was heavily funded by interest groups from outside the state. It was clear, at that time, that Rep. DeBerry was out of step with his district and needed to be held accountable for his voting record and lack of community engagement.

“They’re coming for our water.” Thus began a rallying cry for the founding members of Protect Our Aquifer (POA) in December 2016. It was a commonsense recognition that TVA’s five new wells—predicted to extract 4-10 million gallons/day to cool their new gas plant—were a waste of drinking water.

Like everyone else, the steering committee for Future901 is attempting to adjust to COVID-19. Now that the initial shock of this crisis has subsided, a few things are coming into focus. First, the past few weeks have underscored why it matters who we send to government. The policy decisions of the State and Federal government have come home to roost in a painful way this month. Every city in Tennessee (like the rest of the country) is scrambling to figure out what to do with the coming influx of patients into our hospitals.

On March 19, 2020, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state of Tennessee topped 150. As of this being published on March 21, the cases were at 371. This number is growing quickly and is expected to be underreported, as at least one study found that up to 86% of cases can go undetected. Combine that with the well-documented severe shortage of available tests in the United States and the fact that East Tennessee is showing an atypical spike in fevers, and Governor Bill Lee has a huge undertaking on his hands.

If we want to see Tennessee change directions, we need to flip TN State House seats.  If you were to make a list of TN House seats vulnerable to flipping, State House 97 will be one of the top three on your list.  This includes Berclair, parts of Bartlett and a little of Cordova. Over the past few years, demographic changes and sweat equity have made a once solidly “red” seat purple.  Moreover, with the recent retirement of the district’s long-time incumbent, a focused Democrat candidate can win this seat. After watching this district for years, the Future901 Steering Committee unanimously agrees that Allan Creasy is the ideal candidate to make this happen.

Heralded and unheralded people will be featured on the upcoming Memphis Suffrage Monument to be located on the river side of the University of Memphis Law School. Unveiling for the “Equality Trailblazers” monument is planned for either March 27 or 28, 2020. The monument honors early and later suffragists as well as those women whose careers were made possible by the suffragists' victory.