Duffel-bag Class
Two critical points are worthy of note in connection with Chris
Davis’ excellent article “The Duffel-bag Class” (November 26th
issue):
First, the city of Memphis suffers from self-inflicted wounds,
having now fulfilled the description rendered by Time magazine
decades ago of Memphis as a “decaying river town.” Infrastructure,
neighborhoods, and schools have rotted away to a point at which
qualified workers and their families have fled to the suburbs or beyond
by the thousands.
The requirement that city employees live within the city limits thus
becomes self-defeating. Other than the very rich, the city is fast
becoming populated exclusively by the undereducated, under-socialized,
and economically disadvantaged — individuals who haven’t the
capacity to qualify, to use one example, for law enforcement
positions.
Second, the application of the “live within the city” standard
apparently is limited to the powerless, while public officials, e.g.,
Shelby County mayor-elect Joe Ford, are permitted to flaunt
requirements that they live within their district, pay taxes on a
timely basis, and otherwise conform to the laws they enact.
This, I would argue, is the ultimate hypocrisy, one that puts
Memphis only a few steps beyond Detroit. Would the last one to leave
please turn off the lights?
E.W. “Bill” Brody
Germantown
False Equivalency?
For the second time recently, in one of his “letters from the
editor,” Bruce VanWyngarden has conflated the viciousness of
right-wingers with behavior by the other side of the political
spectrum. The last time (October 29th), he did so by falsely suggesting
that Keith Olbermann, as much so as Bill O’Reilly, would be incapable
of an apology for an on-air mistake, in spite of the fact that
Olbermann, unlike O’Reilly, has done so several times.
Now, the editor says he’s tired of the incivility of the right and
the left, which he apparently finds engage in that kind of behavior in
equal measure. By making this equation, VanWyngarden falls into the
same trap the corporate media have, namely a kind of misguided
“fairness” motivation, otherwise known as “we report, you decide,”
which is the pablum the media feed us as their version of
objectivity.
It is absolutely fallacious to equate anyone on the left side of the
political spectrum with the likes of a Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or
their ilk. The flame-throwers on the far right are responsible for
creating the kind of atmosphere that tolerates, if not encourages,
people attending political events carrying firearms and signs at
lily-white, astroturf “demonstrations” equating Obama’s health-care
program with Hitler’s concentration camps. They hurl epithets during
presidential addresses, suggest the president (who is half-white) hates
white people, and revel in the murder of an abortion doctor.
Extremism has become the unique province of the far right, and it is
intellectually dishonest to suggest that liberals come anywhere close
to the tactics demonstrated by that unhinged phalanx of
conservatism.
Marty Aussenberg
Memphis
An “Experienced Patriot”
It is obvious that the power of the vote is not working. With no
term limits, the culture of corruption and abuse has changed our
federal government into a national government oligarchy, no longer
representing “we the people,” rather representing self-interests and
special interests in the name of political correctness, social
engineering, and centralized power. They have taken complete control of
our states, using our money and constitutional loopholes to justify
their way or the highway.
The states have the power under Article 5 of the Constitution to
stop the tyranny! They are either ignorant of this and how it works or
lack the fortitude to take action. We are being denied our
constitutional right to an Article 5 convention to propose
constitutional amendments, despite a whopping 750 (or more) Article 5
applications from the state legislatures in all 50 states.
Now it falls on our shoulders, the experienced American patriots, to
let our state legislators know we are behind it, that we will support
it in every way, that we will accept no less than a complete return to
the values instilled in the original Constitution and the Bill of
Rights, recognizing that neither would have been possible without the
Declaration of Independence.
Samuel Adams wrote in 1776: “If ever a time should come when vain
and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our
country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its
ruin.” I am an “experienced patriot.”
Doug McCormick
Knoxville, Tennessee
