Greg Cravens About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor, “Have Yourselves an Angry Little Christmas” … George Bailey saved the town of Bedford Falls by being born in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. I have faith that many voters born in America will save this country from the loose cannon that is Donald Trump. […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
Memphis Schools: ASD or iZone?
The educational reforms proposed and overseen by the Haslam administration statewide have been both well-intentioned and internally flawed. There is no question that too many public schools in Tennessee qualified for the adjective “failing” in 2011 when Governor Bill Haslam, then newly inaugurated, appointed new state education officials dedicated to pursuing new policies. Those policies […]
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
What They Said…
Greg Cravens About the editorial, “The Whirlwind” … I get the correlation between “Christianist” and “jihadist,” suddenly. But if you’re going to press the analogy, you’ll need someone other than Robert Dear. The jihadists whose pictures appear in the media don’t look like they’ve spent their lives away from church in a trailer in the […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
Mayor Strickland’s New Cabinet
So far, the major appointees of Mayor-elect Jim Strickland seem an acceptable bunch. Like the members of his transition team, they are a mix. Appropriately enough for mayoral bridegroom Strickland, the old nuptial saying applies: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” The “something old” component, previously announced, includes several retainees: interim, now permanent, […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
Reaping the Whirlwind of Violent Words
In the aftermath of yet another act of senseless violence, this one in Colorado Springs at a Planned Parenthood center, we are again reminded of the power of one person to inflict death and injury via an easily obtained high-powered weapon. Guns are the new American way of death, as commonplace as accidental death by […]
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
What They Said…
Greg Cravens About the Syrian refugee crisis and Randy Haspel’s column, “The Great Unfriending” … I had to chuckle over Randy Haspel’s column. Seems he thinks that anyone who’s worried that accepting refugees from an alien culture from an area of the world torn apart by that same culture is a Nazi, an idiot, or […]
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
What They Said…
Greg Cravens About Toby Sells’ story “New Day at the CA (Again)” … What concerns me is that now that Gannett will own most of the newspapers in Tennessee, it will attempt to have “one newspaper” for the state, which for Memphis will be tragic, because we aren’t like the rest of the state. I […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
Pounds & Pennies in Memphis
Remember the old saw, “It takes money to make money”? That’s a classic, right up there with, “The Lord helps those who help themselves,” which makes the same kind of sense. The idea behind both sayings is that all good results have to be seeded in advance from somewhere, somehow. Merely consider turning those two […]
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
What They Said…
Greg Cravens About “The Dark Side,” our cover story on fall beers … The Flyer staff at the end of the day’s tasting: “I think I can see the air.” — CM “Who knew the asphalt was so soft? I mean, I’m lying here and it is sooooo sofffftttt.” — AP “I’M KING OF THE […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
How Do We Counter Daesh?
When you have declared enemies so fanatic that they will not only risk their lives to deprive you of yours but will pursue such a suicidal end as a glory to be achieved at all costs, how do you arrive at the right sort of disincentives to discourage them? That is rapidly becoming the main […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
Veterans Day
DVIDSHUB – Flickr As American holidays go, Veterans Day is right up there with Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and Passover on the reverence scale. Though it lacks the same kind of religious content and is probably more solemn than celebratory, the annual November 11th homage to the men and women who have served in our armed […]
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
What They Said…
Greg Cravens About Toby Sells’ post, “Urban Land Institute: Save the Coliseum, Youth Sports for Fairgrounds” … I see nothing new here, minus the fact of complete demolition of the Coliseum. The idea of a “shell” of a building was introduced at the Roundhouse Revival, and carried along by a very few to the charrette […]