Opinion: Mayor Harris isn’t listening to Memphis families about MSCS
“Instead of waiting for the school board election, we demand an immediate, concrete commitment to fix our schools and restore public trust.”
Topic: Guest Columns
RSSThere are 195 article(s) tagged Guest Columns:
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October 2025
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Opinion: What the federal task force proves about the council’s traffic-stop policy
“Instead of treating a horrific tragedy as an isolated incident and holding those specific officers accountable, the council put the entire MPD culture — and legitimate policing — on trial.”
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Echols: What word does God use for you and me?
“What we name each other, both on legal documents and in earned fellowship, is enough to determine some amount of lifelong meaning. But the grace-filled name God gives to us, both in secret and in stone, will be who we are for the rest of eternity.”
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Opinion: Environmental justice is not negotiable
“Every person has the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water and live free from the fear of corporate exploitation.”
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Opinion: How a circular economy supports the ‘Digital Delta’
A circular economy is about designing systems that are efficient, adaptive and less vulnerable to shocks.
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How Boss Crump stared down a governor’s threat to send the National Guard to Memphis
Memphians may be intrigued to learn what happened in 1938 in a world where Memphis stood largely united against a National Guard deployment, behind a self-assured leader with a powerful political organization and friends in Washington, D.C.
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Opinion: Amend Germantown’s charter to support a full-time mayor? Where’s the outrage?
“The qualities needed to win an election are not the same qualities needed to manage a modern city like Germantown.”
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Opinion: Memphis once again finds itself at a crossroads. Let’s make sure a MATA bus is there to give us a lift.
“Would 79% of Shelby County households who believe in MATA support an investment of $2 and change a month to fund public transit? Especially if it means they would be able to ride the bus, microtransit and trolley all fare-free?
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Opinion: The Shelby County criminal justice system needs sustained state support
“While Memphis Safe Task Force agencies are here now, their assignment is temporary. When they depart, the resulting caseloads and responsibilities will remain with our local courts, clerks and correctional facilities.”
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September 2025
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Opinion: Memphians deserve a choice in how we are governed and policed
“The outsiders ... who think this “surge” is a wonderful idea for the city have little insight into how the deployment of a few hundred people in a city as sprawling and diverse as Memphis can effectively combat crime.”
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Opinion: Driving Tennessee’s prosperity in divided times
“Our goal is simple: to create a space where partisanship fades and common sense takes the lead. We may not agree on everything, but we can agree on this: We all want our families and communities to thrive.”
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Opinion: School vouchers expand opportunities for families
“Suggesting that school choice programs drain public schools is misleading and distracts from the real conversation we should be having — how do we give every child in Tennessee access to a high-quality education, regardless of ZIP code, income or circumstance?”
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Opinion: There is no ‘model jail’ for Memphis
“By failing to address the underlying problems that put so many people to jail in the first place, Shelby County will be doomed to revisit these problems again and again.”
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Echols: ‘We need the wisdom of trees’
“We need the wisdom that shows us how to turn our faces toward the light and bend without breaking.”
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Opinion: MATA is fixable — and other lessons I learned on the MATA board
“If we want our city to thrive, we need a strong transit system. It effects all of us who want our packages delivered, our children to learn, our construction projects completed, our coffee to be made, and so much more.”
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Opinion: Use the Mason prison for juvenile intervention, not an ICE detention center
“There is no doubt in my mind this facility can go a long way in helping Memphis reduce crime and help some of these children. It is desperately needed. Cost and bureaucracy should not be a problem.”
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August 2025
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Opinion: Upholding Memphis’ reputation as a generous city
“My philanthropic heroes, whether congregants on fixed incomes or billionaires like Warren Buffett, embody a rare attribute. Sacrificial giving means contributing beyond one’s self, not merely after one’s self-pursuits or leisure.”
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Opinion: Life-saving medical support should not be a privilege
“Cancer doesn’t care where you live. But in this city, where you live can still determine whether you live.”
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Opinion: A Venezuelan immigrant’s experience with ICE in Memphis
Alfredo Caminata saw the United States as a safe place free from the authoritarianism and persecution he suffered in his home country. Until he was stopped by ICE agents.
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Opinion: Tennessee legislators lob insults but lack ideas
“With a striking sense of amnesia, the lawmakers are eager to take over Memphis’ school board, apparently forgetting the state has already taken over many low-performing schools and been unable to do anything to help them.”
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Opinion: ‘Why is Crime Down?’
“Memphians aren’t experiencing things in our community which might explain the crime reduction. And we all see what is still on the news night after night: violent crime.”
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July 2025
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Opinion: ‘Reentry programs work - Memphis needs to invest in them’
“In Tennessee, more than 62,000 people are on parole, probation, or community supervision. In Shelby County alone, approximately 7,000 people are released from prison or jail every year. Most of them are ready to work and rebuild.”
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Opinion: ‘Every time we lose a child, we have failed’
“Jack didn’t die because he didn’t want recovery. He didn’t die because he was a bad kid. He died because the systems around him were inadequate, uncoordinated, underfunded and broken.”
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May 2025
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Opinion: On STD rates, we need to start having ‘uncomfortable conversations’
“If middle school students are having unprotected sex and contracting sexually transmitted infections, do we really think they are going to log onto a website and order a test?”
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April 2025
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Opinion: The potential impact of tariffs on Memphis
A slowdown in global trade because of the tariffs could mean layoffs, lower investment or worse for many Memphis companies big and small.
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