Author Archives: Netmom

Voter Service

Posted on by
3

Terry Frank says

I have to say that being disappointed in the League of Women Voters is nothing new.

I guess that’s not surprising, given the “you’re 100% with me or 100% against me” mentality that seems to have grown amongst the social conservatives segment of the Republican Party. By definition, any organization whose mission is to provide an unbiased format for debate is not 100% with (or against) anyone.

Terry refers to the Nashville League cancelling a candidate forum because Bob Corker declined to participate. Of course, reviews from the Knoxville forum indicate that it was a two-against-one slugfest, so it seems to me that this was a reasonable decision for a truly unbiased organization. In all honesty, I don’t know why Corker declined the invitation — whether he just didn’t want to go, or if there was a scheduling conflict. Somehow, I’m not inclined to jump to the conclusion that he “just didn’t want to,” given the editorial assessment from the link above:

If Bob Corker doesn’t win the nomination, it will be because of some other, unforeseen issue that arises before the Aug. 7 primary election. It won’t be because of the issues raised or the personal attacks that he deftly parried during the Knoxville debate, nor will he lose on the issues he has successfully made himself clear on throughout the early rounds of campaigning.

He’s just not a fraidy-cat kind of guy.

On a related note…
Locally, the League of Women Voters has conducted two candidate forums in preparation for the Anderson County general election. The first (and most lively) was on June 27, but there have been developments since that haven’t yet made it to the public eye.

The League, sensitive to the fact that candidates’ words can be taken out of context and misused, prohibits recording except by the press. All candidates sign an agreement not to do so, and one of the rules printed clearly in the event program reads as follows:

  • Tape and other material of the Candidates Forum is for the exclusive use of LWVOR and is not to be sold or reproduced without express consent of LWVOR.

In definance of this rule (which would seem to be a copyright violation), Energy Media managed to get hold of a recording, airing selected clips on a program which they pay Channel 12 to air. Since Energy Media is employed by local candidates as a campaign consultant, the program was decidedly biased, and the local League is furious.

The repercussions have already begun, as candidates have expressed concern about the incident. Without assurance that the League’s policies to ensure fairness will be followed, there is a very real risk that candidates will elect not to participate in the future.

That is bad for the League, and worse for the public. It’s my understanding that Channel 12 has pulled the taped program from future airings, and that they are likely to be much more diligent about the content of paid programming in the future.

It’s too much to hope for that Channel 12 will cancel the show, but I’ll hope anyway.

Sit with any group of local League members (who aren’t all women, by the way) for an informal chat, and you’ll find great diversity of opinion — many of them quite strong — all over the political spectrum. However, if you sit in on a Board meeting and watch the planning process for voter service efforts, you’ll find a group of people who check their individual preferences at the door for the sake of a truly unbiased process.

I never want to live in a place where there’s a requirement of total agreement on all things… there must be discourse for growth and improvement to flourish. More importantly, it sounds too much like the failed “iron curtain” politics of the past.

Frivolous Friday

Posted on by
1

These signs are a riot, given the criticism about the DA not spending any time in court, and not much in the office (see letters to the editor, Oak Ridge Observer, July 2).

What happens if a judge doesn’t show up?

Retirees in Arms

Posted on by
1

It’s been a couple of weeks since the pension plan meeting at Pellissippi State between DOE officials and contractor retirees, but the struggle isn’t over.

In fact, the candor displayed by the headquarters designee (see Munger’s column in the Sentinel today) may have invigorated those interested. For the uninitiated, the essence of the retirees’ complaint is that their pension amounts have remained stagnant for years, with no adjustment for cost of living.

Walter Hedge’s letter to the editor (also today) summed it up nicely:

An unbelievable statement from the BWXT Y-12 representative indicated that one of the problems with the pension plan is that the retirees are living too long – we apologize for that.

From the outside, one perception may be that these employees held good jobs — among the best in the region — and fared well. The reality, even more so in the last couple of decades, is that most contractor employees in professional fields like engineering would actually earn more in the private sector. The attraction was, and is, stability, decent benefits (though no longer that much better than the private sector, as was once the case), and for some, a sense of purpose.

Federal employees receive regular cost-of-living increases, as do retired congressmen and even social security recipients. Clearly, the Department is unable or unwilling to acknowledge their debt to the retirees and do the right thing, so the solution will be political.

Why should people who didn’t retire from, don’t work for, or have never worked for a DOE contractor care if the pensioners are treated fairly? Because these folks live in your community, and their purchasing and taxpaying power is directly related to the shrinking value of the pension they earned on salaries of ten, twenty, or more years ago. It impacts the viability of your local government, and places a heavier burden upon you.

Munger’s summation that the issue may likely be settled politically is correct, and you have an interest in supporting reasonable change.

Debating the Debate

Posted on by
2

Planning for a weekend in the woods last Thursday, I set my tv-gadget to record channel 12’s replay of last Tuesday’s League of Women Voters’ Forum between the candidates for DA, Chancellor, Judge, and Sheriff. However, in a monumental technological error, I set it to record on the wrong day (it should have been Friday), which yielded instead an hour of Chad McNabb on Inside Anderson County (the program, not the e-zine of the same name).

Thursday’s guest on the show was independent DA candidate Ann Coria, one of those whom Beauchamp is said to be advising. A few clips were played from the forum, and there seemed to be a little piling on of Coria and Hunt supporters against Dave Clark, the clear frontrunner in the race by most observers.

It was a weak piling on, in my opinion, but a three-way race can yield close margins: it’s the only way that Ramsey stayed in office 16 years ago, when just a sprinkling of votes separated the republican, the independent, and the then-democrat Ramsey. Without a third candidate, he would have been defeated by a two-to-one margin.

Coria is bright, experienced, and a solid citizen. Watching her respond on the program, however, yielded a couple of concerns: she does not seem to share the other candidates’ commitment to reducing the number of plea bargains (an issue due to Ramsey’s long-standing practice of plea-bargaining everything), and she seemed to give a couple of different answers to gun-control questions. Most disturbing to me was her statement that she did not plan staff changes in the DA’s office.

Since Ramsey hasn’t tried a single case in this county in decades, the assistant DA’s are an issue. I’ve experienced firsthand the frustration of plea-bargaining when ADA Sam Lee wanted to edit the theft of my vehicle down to “joyriding.”

Joyriding would have been appropriate had my prized mustang convertible, a Mother’s Day gift from a few months before, been returned to my driveway. When I had to go out and hunt it down — which I did — it’s THEFT.

In another case where a friend of mine was the victim of a notorious scam artist, Lee wanted to dismiss the case altogether, even though there was sufficient evidence to put the guy away. Fortunately, Judge McNees recognized the con man from his previous infractions, and declined to go along. Con man did time.

Thank God for good judges! Which is why, for those who don’t quite make the connection between why a bad DA would make for a worse judge, Jim Ramsey should not be elevated to the bench where he can dismiss cases at will, or impose his own strange brand of justice not only in criminal trials, but also in the sensitive family law and civil matters handled by the Chancery Court.

A few years ago, hubby served as a jury foreman in a case where the accused’s real crime was that he hosted a website that was critical of Jim Ramsey. He was guilty of the minor offense with which he was charged, but the real villains in the incident were never brought before the court at all.

Neutral, objective, and independent? That’s not what the record shows for Jim Ramsey. We need a competent and assertive District Attorney, along with a neutral, objective, and competent chancellor.

This August 3 election can bring real change to Anderson County. Think hard, and do your homework before voting.

Heat is On

Posted on by
2

The heat is on for one Anderson County Probation Director, who was angry enough about my two previous posts that he headlined me on his little e-zine (which I will neither name nor link, since he declined to name or link to this blog).

Sometimes the truth is hard to take; Alan Beauchamp seems to have broken out in a rash over it.

MushroomCloud has taken the discussion to the Oak Ridger Forums; not exactly what I would have expected, but this has been a season of surprises.
* * *

At right, Gamma enticed a flock of half-grown goslings to eat from her hand, and one allowed her to pet it. I love Summer!

Forum or Brawl, part ii

Posted on by
1

The Oak Ridger’s coverage of the forum is up. Looks like one of the more interesting punches was taken by Don Layton, regarding his

…lack of adequate oversight of Anderson County Probation Services, and his closeness to Alan Beauchamp, probation services director.

Layton said it isn’t his job to supervise Beauchamp, but Rex Lynch’s guest column from December 21, 2000 indicates that Layton certainly had a hand in setting up the program, even giving Layton and Murch “most of the credit.”

Anne Phillips’ letter to Lynch from November 2003 says, in the next to the last paragraph,

Judge Layton told me that he had created that department so that Alan “would have something to do” if you were ever voted out of office.

That site has a number of interesting documents, and the URL has been circulating via e-mail this week according to the person who told me where to find it.

Forum, or Brawl?

Posted on by
Reply

I really regret missing the League Forum for local candidates last night; I hear that it got very interesting.

However, BBB Communications did record the event, which will be aired on Channel 12 Friday evening at 8:00 provided that the sound and images are of sufficient quality, according to General Manager Brad Jones.

I do wish I’d been there, but it will be interesting to see how the local papers cover it, especially the Observer (which comes out Thursday at noon, and is available at these locations).

Political Thermometer

Posted on by
2

The heat of political races, both for the county general election and the state/federal primary on August 3, is rising right along with the temperature outside.

Other political news is getting hot too: former County Commissioner Bubba Scarbrough is in trouble again (and still). Shelby County poll worker Verline Mayo was running from the law, wanted for her role in a Memphis election fraud case (see Ophelia’s Fine Mess for older links).

Locally:
The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge is hosting two candidate forums next week. On Tuesday, candidates for Chancellor (Lantrip and Ramsey), General Sessions Judge Div. 1 (Stuart and Layton), Juvenile Court Judge (Meldrum and Hess), District Attorney (Clark, Hunt, and Coria), Trustee (Stair and Archer), and Sheriff (White v. White) will face off in the Roane State auditorium in Oak Ridge (across from Home Depot and the new National Fitness Center).

On Thursday, candidates for Anderson County Commission and School Board from the three Oak Ridge districts will go through the same process, at the same place.

* * *
Not long ago, I ran across some interesting statistics on the number of court cases in Anderson County, which is the entire 7th Judicial District.

The courts have no backlog of criminal cases. Only three criminal cases went to trial between July 1, 2004 and June 30, 2005, the last full year in which records are available. The courts have no need to increase the number of days available for criminal trials.

The office Chancellor Lantrip’s opponent now holds, that of Anderson County District Attorney, brought only three criminal cases to trial that year. Why is he urging that the days available for criminal trials increase?

Excellent question. Of course, since we’re going to have a new DA, it seems possible that we might actually have a few more criminal trials after this election… and that’s a good thing.

* * *

In the US Senate primary, Bryant, Hilleary, and Tennessee Right to Life are piling on Bob Corker, saying he’s misleading voters by calling himself “pro-life” because he would make exceptions for rape and incest.

Anyone who would not make such an exception is a heartless monster. Somehow it seems that Republicans have lost their way, forgetting the third basic principle of their own philosophy:

Government activities should be limited to those things that people cannot do at all, or cannot do so well for themselves.

Check back: I’m tracking down something very interesting on the local scene.

School in any other language

Posted on by
3

This year’s “buzz” in education funding is “English language learners,” or ELL. This seems like a silly term to me, as I hope we expect all children to be learning English (and math, science, etc.), but the phrase refers to children who speak a foreign language at home.

The City Paper carries an article today about Nashville’s complaints, but rest assured that the same arguments are being made in each of the state’s four largest cities, as well as a few rural areas with growing immigrant populations.

Although the clamor for funding and specialized staffing is new, the problem is not: in this country, we have always had immigrant children in our schools. In Oak Ridge, we have traditionally had a more diverse array of languages than most, but even in the tiny rural school that my husband attended, there were children of migrant farm workers who spoke only Spanish at home.

Children adapt more easily than adults, and are able to learn a new language much more quickly through immersion. Whether Hispanic, Russian, Chinese, or any other nationality, kids can and do pick up English if they’re exposed to it every day through their peers. Although I did not attend school during my adventure as an exchange student, I went from knowing little more than “please” and “thank you” to literally dreaming in Spanish — within a few weeks’ time.

Do we risk doing more harm by segregating these children into special classes comprised of other non-English speaking students, thereby separating them from those from whom they would learn the language most quickly?

Or, is the real goal to leverage more funding from the state for yet another specialized program, serving a few at the expense of the many?

ALL children can learn. They will not learn at the same rate, nor will all attain the same levels of mastery in all subjects. They are, like the rest of us, unique individuals. However, to give immigrant students the best opportunity to succeed in this country, it seems that we should immerse them in our language, culture and customs in our schools.

Tennessee needs to provide adequate funding to educate all students, and stop wasting time and resources trying to divide an inadequate pie.

Etc.

Posted on by
2

The past week or so has brought a couple of worthwhile achievements — and working on others. If you didn’t read last Thursday’s (June 15) Oak Ridge Observer, pick up a copy before they’re gone. It’s free, and they’re all over town.

I have a column on the op-ed page, sort of an expansion of the thoughts seen in Calling Council’s Hand. I’d rather you read the whole paper (the main editorial is good food for thought as well), but if you can’t get it in time, you can read the text of my piece here.

On the heels of that endeavor, our whole family engaged in the time-honored tradition of helping friends move. They only relocated about a mile or so, but it was from a house that was getting a little cozy (now that their boys are 9 and 15) to their dream home. So our family — along with several others — packed, loaded, transported, unloaded, and helped unpack the essentials.

I was exhausted and more than a little sore, but it felt really good to help accomplish something neighborly, the way people used to help each other as a matter of routine.

Next was Gamma’s birthday — daughter #3 turned 14. Her wish for the day was for the whole family to do something together, so we all hung out at the Secret City Festival for a while, and she attended the concert Saturday night with her father and me. While at the festival, I snagged a copy of Cooking Behind the Fence, a collection of recipes from the 43 Club.

Father’s Day was a laid-back affair, with my husband enjoying an uninterrupted nap for most of the afternoon. We went to my parents’ house for supper, where my father ranted about Phil Mickelson’s meltdown on number 18 in the US Open. I told Dad he should have been caddying for Mickelson, to which he responded “damn right! I would have told him to use a 2-iron.”

Somehow, I have no doubt that Dad would have no problem doing exactly that. And he probably would be right. Funny how the older I get, the more he knows.

I also spent a bit of Sunday missing my father-in-law, gone a little over five years now. I treasured knowing him for 15 years, long enough to recognize that my husband is who he is in large part because of his own father’s influence.

The upside of the moving experience is that it has inspired me to do a little packing of my own — packing up things we don’t need, that is, and clearing some of the clutter that has accumulated over the past 20 years. There’s a long way to go, and we’re not likely to be cured of our pack-rat tendencies in this lifetime, but at least we can be a bit more organized.

With Alpha college-bound in August, the remaining three are eyeing how to divvy up the added space. Gamma has set out on the ambitious project of cleaning out the “office” (a room which was once an office, but has now become a repository for boxes of stuff that doesn’t belong anyplace else), so that youngest sibling Delta can move out of her shared room.

Seems like just last week that I was nursing one, trying to keep the other three from writing on the walls or disassembling the electric outlets. Where have the years gone?