State and Local Politics Blog

Because of a recent court decision, Tennessee had briefly joined 16 other states in allowing no-fault absentee voting. The Tennessee has fought changes despite the global pandemic and its impact here. Formerly certain concrete reasons such as travel, age, disability, or being a candidate would qualify you to apply for a mail-in ballot and it was not widely publicized. This year, with Memphians concerned about the ever-increasing COVID-19 infection rates, around 15,000 voters requested ballots, with little publicity or help from our Secretary of State or local Election Commission.

In 1970, when my oldest daughter was three, nearly 50 years ago, she participated in a pilot effort at the Institute for Human Potential in Philadelphia, which usually worked with brain injured children. They emphasized the “crawling before you walk” perspective to help children develop, and discovered that brain-injured children could learn to read before they were five – sometimes as young as two or three years old. The Institute wanted to see if the techniques they had developed would help “normal” children to read. It worked! So, they taught us how to continue sharing the process.

Every resident, every taxpayer in Shelby County, would benefit from having accessible transportation for all. Before COVID 19, and hopefully again in the near future, those of us with the good fortune to own one or more vehicles, could freely move about going to work, keeping a doctor appointment, picking up essential prescriptions, buying groceries, or attending some form of entertainment. For those without a vehicle, up to 40% of households in some parts of the county (see attached map for areas that are 10%+), such activities are more challenging, if not totally inaccessible, with our current MATA public transit system.

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.

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.