What I saw on my Friday night bike ride:
-the last five seconds of a dinner concert at Belmont (I think for the new freshman)
-the Vanderbilt Girls soccer team beating some other team 4 nothing before half
-The beginning stages of some frat parties
-The Parthenon without much of anything going on
-Lot’s of live music on Broadway
-two college age guys having dinner with two gentleman who appeared to be homeless
-a gentleman handcuffed outside a bar while another was being written a ticket by a police officer.
…and that’s about all I had time for.
Tag Archives: Nashville
Polar Bears?
I’ve been meaning to investigate this further but for now I’ll just give me first impression.
The Garnett high rise is a low income housing apartment building on the corner of 12th and Edgehill. It’s located right across the street from a larger public housing block on the other corner. I’ve been there a number of times for neighborhood meetings. There are real needs: dealing with and reducing crime, finding programs and activities for the youth to be involved in, and bringing retail business to the area. All of these things I have heard from the voices of people who have lived in the area.
As I’ve been going to these meetings and passing the building occasionally I noticed some work being done on the corner. About two weeks ago I finally saw what was being done. Someone somewhere in the city decided what this building and the people of this community really needed was two stark white polar bear statues throwing snowballs at one another. I guess they felt these statues where so important that the day they unveiled them I saw city vehicles out at 6am cleaning up trash, hosing down the area, and setting up cameras and lighting. It was so important to unveil these two statues that even the mayor came out and said a few words.
Now, I apologize for my cynicism, but this does not seem like the most pertinent need of the community. I could be very wrong, and maybe the artist was from the Garnett high rise. I’ll take a look further, but something tells me I won’t be surprised at the answers.
Does anyone else in Nashville see a problem here? I mean people in the community are speaking up and asking for the city to help with the crime and help build youth activities so the kids stay out of crime; and instead the city puts up two polar bears?!?
Something is not right here.
Addressing Bredesen Directly
So if you didn’t notice the news yesterday or this morning there was some direct interaction between those raising concern about the TennCare cuts and Bredesen himself.
Somehow Bredesen was the keynote speaker at a convention about Health Care, as if he has the answer for everyone.
I joined others passing out flyers that gave some information about the other side of the story, things the folks at the convention didn’t hear from Bredesen’s lunch address.
If you haven’t seen the mainstream media’s look check it out:
The Tennessean has some photos.
Click on the video right below Bredesen’s photo
All this to say:
Please come to our Town Hall Meeting Tonight!
6:00 PM-7:30
Madison Public Library
610 Gallatin Pike
Hear the stories of TennCare recipients who have been cut from TennCare.
Is Nashville any different?
Having just moved from the Chicago area, I still like to keep up on the news there. This article seemed to sober me to the fact that not all that much has changed in the years since the book, Savage Inequalities
(Jonathan Kozol’s look at the public education system), came out about ten years ago.
Sadly, the situation seems to be the same across our country and has been this way for a hundred plus years, we do NOT have equal education. For a country that so prides ourselves on everyone receiving a quality education, the figures in the article are disturbing. I worked in the Atlanta public schools and the situation was the same. Just because a child is born into a poorer family in a lower income neighborhood, they will more then likely receive a poorer education.
So, here I am in Nashville TN, another city in this big country.
Is Nashville any different?
Calling churches
So I was calling a bunch of churches to tell them about this TennCare Town Hall Meeting, and I had two interesting responses.
First, nearly 90% of the churches I called nobody answered and I had to leave a message on a machine. I realize that many churches don’t have enough staff to have a full-time phone person, but still. I mean isn’t a churches main point to meet the needs of the people (It’s not a business, it’s supposed to be a community of people, more on this later)? What if I was someone with a real immediate need and the only place I felt I could find help was the church? I guess I just find that sort of sad and disturbing.
Second, I called this one church and started asking if the lady on the other line knew anyone in their church who was on TennCare. She said “no” so I just started to inform her about this meeting we were having regarding the TennCare cuts. She just kept inturpting and saying, “we’re not interested,” “goodbye” and she hung up on me! I decided to call back and when I did she passed the phone off to the pastor. I went into my most compelling arguement that as Christians we are called to care for those in need in our community and that this Town Hall Meeting was an opportunity for Christians to hear about the needs of those in their community who had been cut from TennCare. He was decently cordial and he said he would make an announcement. Maybe it’s cause it sounded political and a lot of churches are afraid of being involved with anything like that, but I was quite troubled that a person from a church would hang up on me while I was talking about people in need in the community.
I’m glad to say not all Christians are like that, and those who aren’t I’d encourage you to come out Next Tuesday (August 9th) 6-7:30pm at the Madison Branch Public Library 610 Gallatin Pike S.
See you there.
Welcome to Nashville
note: I submitted my blog to NashvilleIsTalking.com a sweet blog run by a news station (actually by Brittney) that just blogs about bloggers in Nashville (Like me!). Which means:
WELCOME MY NASHVILLE FRIENDS!
My own welcome to Nashville about a month ago came right in the midst of the State cutting off TennCare (the state’s health care program) for hundreds of thousands of people. Not a very nice thing.
I’m not a politician or anything, but I guess I basically think that a humane and justice society would take care of it’s sick and dying members. And so as a vocal citizens in a democracy I’ve raised my voice and called for reform that would keep those in need receiving the care that they need.
Now my Nashville family, you might be thinking: “The system is corrupt anyways! I heard about this guy who lived in Alabama who was on TennCare and pocketing tons of money! My friend said she heard of a guy who just used his TennCare to get drugs to get high on. We don’t want people like this taking our money.”
and some of those things might be true.
But Here’s your opportunity: Come out to a Town Hall Meeting and hear the stories of actual TennCare members. Hear how these cuts have affected those who are sick and some who are dying in our midst. Hear their stories.
TUESDAY
6PM to 7:30 PM
August 9, 2005
MADISON BRANCH PUBLIC LIBRARY
610 Gallatin Pike S.
Nashville, TN 37206
862-5868
Get Directions to It…
*Sponsored by the Grassroots Organizing Committee and the Nashville Peace and Justice Center
615-321-9066 http://www.nashvillepeacejustice.org