If we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves. The political and social realities in Tennessee — and particularly in Memphis and Shelby County — are riddled with inequities that elected officials refuse to name. Public statements from those in power often evade accountability, trading in optimism rather than truth. As a Black faith leader and community advocate, I don’t have that luxury.
For centuries, “State of the…” addresses have been moments where leaders inform the public, outline policies, and provide hope. But today, they are political spectacles — staged performances meant more to entrench power than to educate. In an era of manipulated algorithms and AI-driven disinformation, the danger of leaving the public misinformed is more pressing than ever. The societal and cultural ills we face — racism, fascism, white Christian nationalism, threats from President Donald Trump and the death of intellectualism — require truth-telling that no elected official seems willing, ready, or able to offer. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us, “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” That time is now.
The perils we face in Tennessee and Memphis
The state of our society is perilous. In Memphis and Shelby County, unchecked power, systemic neglect, and political cowardice define the landscape.
Policing in Memphis remains brutal and unjust. The U.S. Department of Justice’s report on the Memphis Police Department confirmed what many already knew — racial profiling, excessive force, and unconstitutional surveillance are not isolated incidents but ingrained practices.
Yet, despite these findings, leaders refuse to embrace real reforms. Gov. Bill Lee and state legislators have done nothing to address systemic abuses. Instead of investing in community-based safety initiatives, they continue to prioritize over-policing and mass incarceration.
Public education in Tennessee is under siege. The state legislature aggressively pursues privatization, diverting public funds to private and charter schools while weakening oversight.
Local leadership is just as ineffective. Mayor Paul Young and the Memphis City Council have not fully committed to meaningful transformation. Symbolic gestures are offered, but the same policies that led to the murder of Tyre Nichols in 2023 persist.
Economic disparities in Tennessee are deepening. Memphis remains one of the poorest metropolitan areas in the nation, with nearly one in four residents living in poverty. While developers and business elites secure multimillion-dollar incentives, everyday workers struggle to afford housing, health care, and basic necessities.
Lee’s administration has done little to alleviate these burdens, rejecting federal funding for essential services while keeping the minimum wage stagnant at $7.25 an hour. Meanwhile, Memphis and Shelby County leaders operate in austerity for public resources but in abundance for corporate handouts, funneling millions in tax breaks to developers who contribute nothing to the communities they displace.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Public education in Tennessee is under siege. The state legislature aggressively pursues privatization, diverting public funds to private and charter schools while weakening oversight.
Memphis and Shelby County are prime targets, as majority-Black school districts are first to be dismantled under the guise of “school choice,” and a limited school voucher plan that passed in 2019 only applied to Shelby and Davidson Counties.
Lee and state officials push vouchers and charter expansion, harming Black and low-income students while the instability within the Memphis-Shelby County School Board creates opportunities for state intervention. The goal is clear: weaken public education, siphon funds to corporate interests, and render Black children intellectually and culturally vulnerable. If our children are not taught their own history and denied critical thinking skills, their futures are predetermined.
A path forward rooted in truth and justice
In moments like these, I am reminded of the four lepers in 2 Kings 7. Facing death and desperation, they chose to move forward in audacious resistance rather than succumb to despair. Their courage led to unexpected deliverance — a lesson for us all.
Racism and fascism are not relics of the past; they are shaping our present and threatening our future. White Christian nationalism is not about faith; it is about fear
We, too, must move forward with revolutionary audacity, even amid anxieties and uncertainties. This means calling out the lies and half-truths that dominate political speeches. It means telling our own truths — unapologetically and unrelentingly. The truth is that fealty to Trump is not just a political ideology; it is a spiritual sickness that has spread into every corner of our society, including Tennessee.
Racism and fascism are not relics of the past; they are shaping our present and threatening our future. White Christian nationalism is not about faith; it is about fear — fear of a world where Black people are no longer subjugated, fear of a justice that holds the powerful accountable and fear of a truth that cannot be silenced.
Our response must be prophetic. We must confront rogue policing with demands for systemic reform. We must counter economic exploitation by organizing for fair wages and policies that prioritize people over profits. We must resist the privatization of education by advocating for schools that empower rather than exploit.
A vision for collective liberation
Tennessee and Memphis demand a response, and that response must begin with us. It must start in our churches, our community organizations, our grassroots movements, and even at our kitchen tables. We must reject the empty rhetoric of political performances that offer hope without action, promises without plans, and rhetoric without resolve. Instead, we must organize, strategize, and mobilize. We must speak the truths that others are afraid to utter. We must build power—not just for survival, but for liberation.
As the four lepers showed us, it is better to risk the unknown than to accept the unacceptable. The state of Tennessee may be perilous, but it is not beyond redemption. If we move forward with courage, conviction and community, we can transform this moment of despair into a movement of deliverance. And that is a state of the culture worth fighting for.
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Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Kim Jarrett | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-24 13:25:00
(The Center Square) – Two Tennessee bills addressing hemp and marijuana are going before legislative committees on Wednesday with different objectives.
The “Pot for Potholes” bill sponsored by Nashville Democrats Rep. Aftyn Behn and Sen. Heidi Campbell would legalize recreational marijuana and place a 15% tax on sales. The Department of Transportation would receive 75% of the tax revenue and local governments would receive 20%, according to the bill.
“Other states are already benefiting from cannabis tax revenue, while Tennessee is leaving money on the table and ignoring our growing infrastructure tab,” Campbell said. “This legislation invests in safer roads, creates jobs, and delivers new revenue for counties across Tennessee. It’s time to get this done.”
The bill gets its first hearing in a House Criminal Justice subcommittee on Wednesday.
Rep. Larry Miller, D-Memphis, and Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, have their own version of recreational marijuana on the subcommittee’s calendar. Their bill would allow 15% of the revenues for administrative purposes, with 85% going to the general fund.
Recreational marijuana is legal in 25 states and 39 states allow medical use, Miller said previously.
“Our state has spent millions and millions of taxpayer dollars to enforce outdated cannabis laws,” Miller said. “While recent estimations show that we are potentially leaving more than $155 millions dollars annually on the table by ignoring what poll after poll shows Tennesseans overwhelmingly support.”
Bills supporting the legalization of recreational marijuana face challenges in red states. Only two of Tennessee’s neighbors, Missouri and Virginia, allow it.
Republicans introduced a bill that would place more restrictions on the sale of hemp products. It will be heard in the House Finance, Ways, and Means, Committee on Wednesday.
House Bill 1376/Senate Bill 1413 would ban the sale of products at grocery and convenience stores and turn control of the hemp industry over to the Alcoholic Beverage Commission. It would also reverse a law passed in 2023 that allowed a 0.3% legal limit of THCa concentration by prohibiting the manufacturing, production and sales of hemp or hemp plant parts that exceed 0.10% of THCa concentration.
The Republican-led bill would decimate the hemp industry, a Senate committee was told in February.
At least one Republican senator said that the issue of legalizing marijuana will eventually need to be addressed.
“We are absolutely just kicking the can down the road,” Sen. Adam Lowe, R-Calhoun, said of a possible vote on recreational marijuana legalization. “It’s coming, whether it’s this year, next year, five years from now.”
SUMMARY: March is Red Cross Month, and the American Red Cross is expanding its health services by offering free A1C testing to individuals who donate blood, plasma, or platelets. The A1C test helps identify pre-diabetes and diabetes, crucial for the 8.7 million undiagnosed diabetes cases in the U.S. Additionally, Wednesday is Giving Day, encouraging financial donations to support disaster relief. Those unable to donate money can participate by donating blood or volunteering. The blood donation process is quick, taking about 7-10 minutes, and results from the A1C test will be available within one to two weeks. For more information, visit redcrossblood.org.
State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is supporting President Donald Trump’s order prohibiting birthright citizenship for children born to immigrants without permanent legal status after Feb. 19.
The attorney general filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court last week in support of Trump’s move to deny citizenship to those children and forbid U.S. agencies from issuing citizenship documents to them. The legal brief says courts that issued national injunctions against the Trump order should instead be confined to specific cases and not allowed to make sweeping orders.
“The American people are the ultimate source of authority and legitimacy for every branch of our government, and every court interpreting the Constitution must therefore adhere to the understanding of the voters who adopted the constitutional language,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “Undermining the sovereignty of the American people through judicial overreach threatens to alienate the people from our constitutional system and thereby cause grievous harm to liberty and public order.”
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court last week to let the birthright citizenship restrictions take partial effect while the matter is in court after district judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington blocked his order nationwide. Three federal appeals courts turned down Trump’s requests.
Skrmetti’s release says the influx of more than 9 million immigrants without permanent legal status in recent years was caused in part by an “expansive interpretation” of the nation’s Citizenship Clause, which is inconsistent with the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868 to deal with citizenship rights and equal protection under the law, mainly for former slaves.
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Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
