As you may know, I am a proud 1975 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Communications. I also lived in Nashville from 1975 to 1979.
I just left a message for UT President Randy Boyd that unless he, or the University, makes an immediate and forceful statement condemning the Republican House Majority's expulsion of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, I will discontinue my alumni donations to the school.
Tennessee's legislature is overwhelming Republican, white, male, and supportive of Donald Trump. It has gerrymandered its way to a far-right supermajority that worships guns (no red flag laws, open, permit-less carry of firearms), persecutes the LGBTQ community, controls women's bodies, encourages book banning, refuses to expand Medicaid under Obamacare (one of 10 states), and blames drag queens -- not gun violence -- for injuring children.
Tennessee's Republican legislators have a race problem. African Americans are tolerated only if they stay in their place. Yesterday's expulsion of Jones and Pearson was only the most recent and dramatic example.
When I wrote the annual Gridiron Show scripts in 1978 and 1979, I skewered the fact that a bust of KKK Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest was unveiled in the state capitol on November 5, 1978. After continual protests by Tennesseans of good will, It was finally removed on July 23, 2021 -- 43 years later!
Governor Bill Lee is the most anti-gay governor in the country, and repeated, as late as last month, that he is committed to loosening the state's gun laws.
Worse, yesterday's actions by the Republican supermajority follow the MAGA trend toward authoritarianism and fascism. Not a peep of condemnation of Donald Trump's lies, crimes, or undermining of constitutional order, but expulsion for young, black legislators who dare to point out the senseless death of children from weapons of war.
Nashville and Memphis are progressive oases in the state. The rest of Tennessee needs a wakeup call. The assault on women's reproductive rights, mass murder by guns, and fascist moves by the Trump cult MUST be met with greater voter registration and turnout by the next generation and all citizens of conscience.
I have nothing but admiration for the tens of thousands of young Tennesseans organizing to say "no more." If I ever travel to the state again, it will be to join them in protest.