I was not able to attend the Memphis City Council committee meeting today because I had class but thank the Twitter gods for live tweets. In case others were also unable to attend but are interested in what is going on in Memphis politics, here is my summary, based on twitter and news summaries. If anyone has a first hand account or would like to speak more towards Memphis politics please comment or talk to me! I am ashamed to admit I have not be very engaged in Memphis politics in the past but this class and year has sparked my interest in politics on a local level.
To start with, today I learned from the commercial appeal that five of the seven current council members were elected in instant runoffs in 2015 by a grand total of 9,198 of the city's more than 264,000 registered voters. Basically, 38 percent of the City Council was elected by 3.5 percent of the registered voters. If you add two other district members elected in 2015, 54 percent of the council was elected by 7 percent of our registered voters. This is so bad/ important because the council are the people that vote on issues that impact the entire city.
The meeting tonight discussed a number of items but the big one was supposed to be the change in the permit process. This topic was not discussed tonight (which allows us to all attend the next meeting when they do talk about this!). However this change in the permit process came about because the grandson of FedEx founder was late to his football game due to a charity race (do I smell white privilege?). The change in permit process makes obtaining permits more expensive, requires 90 - 180 days of notice instead of 14 days, and ‘consults’ the police director. Check out ours truly, Dr. McKinney’s article on the topic.(http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2017/12/04/using-public-safety-claims-curtail-our-rights/919444001/).
However regardless of my interest or involvement in Memphis issues and politics, I cannot vote. I feel deeply connected to Memphis and it’s well being after spending the past 4 years here but I am unable to vote in Memphis. While this is a bummer I can still use my mind/ body/ voice to make change in the Memphis community in a number of ways. Additionally, I plan to carry over this feeling to becoming more aware about the location elections and politics in my home town. Does anyone else feel this way? Along these lines, if you're from Alabama please please vote. I know there is a lot going on with finals and that it can be difficult to vote while out of state… but don’t let your special election slip by, vote! do it! In conclusion, local and special elections are important (looking at you Alabama) and obstruction of justice in Memphis is being disguised as a public safety plan.
Rachel Farley
Rachel, I really liked your argument hear about how politicians are not talking about what needs to be said. They shy away from the "dangerous" and controversial topics in order to look good in the public eye, when really they are just hiding from solving the real issues that are at hand. I really enjoyed how you added all of the statistics about voting in Memphis, and that is a sad reality about voting. It isn't just the fact that people choose not to vote, but some people actually can't vote. We need to make voting more accessible to the impoverished people in the country. Public transportation is something that has to be dealt with. In many instances, the public is not able to physically be there to vote. Making accessibility more available to people that want to vote won't solve this major problem, but I believe that it is a step in the right direction.
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