Recent editorials from Tennessee newspapers:
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Nov. 21
Cleveland Daily Banner on Thanksgiving priorities :
…
No, our world is not perfect; far from it.
No, our lives are not free of challenge; nor will they ever be in this life.
No, times are not what they could be or should be; at least, not until mankind’s priorities take a new direction.
Nevertheless, we still have reasons to remember that this season of Thanksgiving is given its name with purpose. No matter who we are, where we live or our lot in society, we all have that in our lives for which we should be unconditionally thankful.
If 101 people prepared lists of 101 reasons they are thankful during this season of gratitude, the result surely would be 101 sets of diverse and exclusive rankings. Likely, some of the same items would appear on most - if not all - the lists, but their order of impact on people’s lives would vary.
For instance, being thankful for good health might be No. 1 on half the lists with an appreciation for family unity somewhere in the Top 10. Others might rank health high, but not among the highest. Some could even notch good health among those in the lower tier, but place material possessions like a nice house, a high-paying job and a cool sports car within the elite of appreciated goods.
It is not difficult to determine what means most to many people. To Google such Thanksgiving narrative is a revealing glimpse at the people around us.
Here’s what we found.
One list offered appreciation for income by pointing out, “. More than 660 million people live on less than $2 a day.”
One list gave highest priority to social networking because this form of communication created the opportunity to collaborate with “. many friends we have ’met’ even though we might never have had the chance to actually ’meet’ them.”
One list placed “free time” atop the pedestal of all that is good in life.
One list ranked “life” as No. 1. Another pointed to “parents” as the top of the thankfulness heap, and yet another listed the “significant other.”
Another list named God as No. 1. …
Our season of Thanksgiving is upon us and we in this hometown community are blessed to still have the opportunity to set aside a day - if only one in 365 - to remind ourselves, and those around us, of how we benefit from the influence of others.
To recognize their positive impact, and their favor, is one thing. To tell them, or to show them, is quite another. And to actually do it, that’s what Thanksgiving is all about.
Don’t let Thursday pass without telling another of their endearing value.
Don’t let the tender mercies of Thanksgiving fall by the wayside too soon just to get an early jump on the sales of the approaching Christmas season.
Like the festive Yuletide, Thanksgiving is a season of sharing and a time of precious fellowship. We urge area residents to give a time, a place and a reason for this miracle of family.
And for any who might have wondered, “family” showed up on every list of reasons to be thankful that we came across.
This is as it should be.
This is as it is.
This is Thanksgiving.
And to Thanksgiving, may we offer, “Welcome to a community that still believes in you.”
You are a part of us. We remain a part of you.
And for this, we are thankful.
Online: http://www.clevelandbanner.com
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Nov. 18
Knoxville News Sentinel on Gov.-elect Lee’s call for an open-government “overhaul”:
On his new transition website, Gov.-elect Bill Lee lists “open and responsive government” as a priority of his new administration.
“Bill will lead a complete overhaul of our open records and open meetings acts to make government more transparent to you,” his team promises.
This is welcome and timely news.
Tennessee’s Public Records Act was adopted in 1957 with broad language “so as to give the fullest possible public access to public records.” The Open Meetings Law came along in 1974, in the wake of Watergate, and court rulings upheld its broad impact.
The records law was updated a decade ago to make local governments more responsive, and recently all cities, counties, school districts and state agencies were required to establish transparency policies so citizens could know how to obtain the information they needed.
But at the same time, more and more information has been stamped “confidential.”
The original Public Records Act had only two exemptions. A study in 1988 found that number had grown to 89. Early this year, an audit by the Comptroller’s Office uncovered 538 exemptions, and the total has increased since then.
Laws now prevent the public from seeing investment records of public funds, performance evaluations of state employees, accreditation reports on public hospitals, tax information on subsidies for private companies, details of economic development deals that are deemed “proprietary,” audits of many public entities, the results of investigations by the TBI, and much more.
The courts have thrown a cloak of secrecy over many records, too.
Most troubling is a Supreme Court ruling that is being treated by many agencies as a blanket “investigative” exemption for local law enforcement. Some police and sheriff’s departments now refuse to disclose all records tied to any case they say is still under investigation. This includes initial incident reports showing that a complaint has been made or a crime committed.
Worse, this ruling has been used to hide records that were public previously.
For instance, the state attorney general insisted that travel records and phone logs of state employees - normally open - became confidential after a Nashville district attorney started investigating the former acting director of TBI.
Likewise, local governments in Sevier County stopped releasing all public records after the Gatlinburg fire because District Attorney General Jimmy Dunn said they could become part of his investigation into the cause of the fire.
Happily, the time is ripe for reform.
State Sen. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, has long been a champion of transparency, and he returns to the legislature as lieutenant governor, the leader of the Senate.
Other lawmakers share his spirit. State Rep. Bob Ramsey, R-Maryville, and state Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, sponsored legislation last session to invigorate the Advisory Committee on Open Government, an appointed body created to help resolve transparency issues. State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, and state Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, have been energetically chairing an interim Open Records Ad Hoc Committee examining the proliferation of exemptions to the public records law.
Now the governor is throwing his weight behind the movement. That’s huge.
Open government isn’t a partisan issue. Conservatives and liberals alike know it is the key to accountability, and thus to good governance.
Nor is the issue anything new. Tennessee’s leaders recognized its importance when they included a provision in the state Constitution declaring: “the printing press shall be free to every person to examine the proceedings of the Legislature; or any branch or officer of the government, and no law shall ever be made to restrain the right thereof.”
But over time, pressure from special interests and fear of scrutiny has tended to erode good intentions.
Also, complex issues of privacy and security present many legitimate concerns in this digital age.
Overhauling Tennessee’s open meetings and open records laws won’t be an easy task. But it’s one that folks of good will, working together with the long-term interests of the citizenry in mind, can, and must, accomplish.
Thank you, Gov.-elect Lee, for making this a priority. Tennessee will be the better for it.
Online: https://www.knoxnews.com/
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Nov. 18
The Daily Times of Maryville on the completion of a section of the Foothills Parkway that opens new vistas for visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park:
The long-awaited completion of the Blount County section of the Foothills Parkway from Chilhowee Lake to Wears Valley opens new vistas for visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Political observers might wonder if it also marks the end of an era.
Did we just witness a relic when elected officials and journalists could routinely work in common cause to ensure the common good?
Recent events aside, we don’t think so. We don’t because we continue to believe in American democracy and the crucial role of journalism. …
We see the completion of the “Missing Link,” as an example of what can be done. In the minds of many, it had been buried years earlier. U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and a Maryville native, and U.S. Rep. John J. “Jimmy” Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., never accepted that. Their words and deeds, spoken and done without acrimony toward those who would not be persuaded, were crucial.
Longtime readers of The Daily Times know what’s coming next: There was no stronger or more relentless supporter of the Foothills Parkway than Dean Stone, editor of The Daily Times, who died in 2016. In this space in 2001, Stone reiterated his support for the project by reminding readers of its beginning.
“In the early 1920s, the East Tennessee individuals responsible for the eventual establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National Park conceived the idea of establishing a foothills parkway along the northwest boundary of the area being bought by donations from Tennessee and North Carolina residents to give to the nation for the national park.
“Even though there was not yet a road to the top of the mountains, they knew then, as we know now, there are no views of the higher elevations of the Smokies equal to those from the Foothills Parkway. Can you imagine their vision?”
Today we can see it. Stone garnered support by reminding readers of Blount County connections.
“With the first park headquarters located in downtown Maryville, and having gotten the park officially established as of June 15, 1934, Tennesseans turned their attention to the building of that parkway they had been discussing for more than 20 years.”
When human failure blocked progress, Stone pointed it out. When other federal priorities - the Vietnam War was one - froze parkway funding, presidential Chief of Staff Howard Baker Jr. and then Gov. Alexander worked out an arrangement to save the project by turning it over to the state.
As Alexander’s term wound down, a rift between employees of the state departments of Transportation and of Environment and Conservation resulted in lawsuits between the departments over following regulations. Stone nailed the cause.
“Transportation ignored many of the stringent environmental rules which resulted in some pollution of water sources. This pollution in the end led to the expenditure of another $1 million for a second Environmental Impact Study.
“The most harmful result was that apparently lax inspection during the state’s construction work allowed improper installation of metal straps in some of the high fills which eventually caused slides in Section 6-E at the Blount-Sevier county line and resulted in the halt of construction, leaving a 1.6-mile uncompleted ’Missing Link.’”
Stone related the travails of two redesigns of the “Missing Link,” and continued to support a fix.
“It seems rather obvious to us that the Foothills Parkway makes even more sense today than it did when our forefathers conceived the idea. And likely it will be needed even worse in the years ahead. . The need is even greater now to provide a better circulation of traffic in and near the park, especially to offer options to crowded areas such as Cades Cove.
“Some may oppose completion for private reasons and some may seek to have the effort devoted to projects that would better serve their own personal interests but we think those concerned with the overall best interests of the park will continue to support completion of the full 72 miles of the parkway.”
“It is time the federal government began keeping its commitments such as that for the Foothills Parkway!” Stone concluded in an editorial.
Commitment to a cause for the common good. That’s missing in today’s broken government. The “Missing Link” is a 1.65-mile-long piece of evidence the break can be breached.
Online: https://www.thedailytimes.com/
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