During this Lent, the Prophet Isaiah’s strident call — given in God’s name — asks us to do our fasting by “releasing those bound unjustly.” May that perspective lead us in our national debate on raising, for the first time in 12 years, our federal minimum wage.

The snow may be glistening, but winter wonderlands have no place when walking in Memphis.

The fight continues to easily access our history, to stand on our oldest ground above our best view of the Mississippi, to make traffic Downtown make sense.

Here’s to the iced-over trees that began our winter week. We got the eerie beauty without much of the damage. Here’s to the giant icicles forming from gutters and awnings, giving neighborhood strolls a beyond-the-Wall “Game of Thrones” vibe.

In this fight, Black people and white people are on the same side. So are local politicians who don’t always agree on matters of public policy.

This week, the city’s Division of Parks and Neighborhoods will unveil the first Parks Master Plan in more than 22 years. The 10-year plan is ‘based on countless hours of community engagement and research.’

While cities across the U.S. are moving toward roads for all users and equitable, place-based strategies promoting safety and access, Memphis is often stalled and focused on crime and punishment or bending to the will of the auto-centrics.

It’s one of the more interesting things about daily life in Memphis, and one that just might kill you. We can’t drive. Worse. We’re proud of it.

Given what we actually know about COVID spread and what we should value, it’s never felt right to me that I could sit inside a restaurant dining room but my kids couldn’t sit inside a classroom.

But when it comes to serving up political red meat – in both coded and straightforward language – to far right conservatives, Lee has perfected that nicely.

The beleaguered Shelby County Health Department simply cannot effectively manage the monumental effort needed to distribute vaccines. We need someone to take charge and lead. Someone who will get things done, without excuses.

The variety of COVID-19 scams we’ve seen since the beginning of the pandemic are overwhelming.

Once we have gotten to know the people who have called Memphis home through the good and the bad, we can start to understand this place we inhabit together.

Dan Conaway: “Our kids, Memphis kids, our tomorrow, have to get back in classrooms. Today. Period. Every day they don’t is another day falling further behind.”

Lee encouraged Black Memphians to support Democrat Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But when emerging Black leaders in Memphis pleaded for Lee to officially abandon the Republican Party and become a Democrat, he graciously declined.

WYXR-FM 91.7 is a local “cool” nonprofit radio station built by the University of Memphis, Crosstown Concourse and Daily Memphian.

On John Simmons’ last visit, Carnival Memphis presented him their highest honor. That’s particularly interesting since John was instrumental in founding Curbi, the Carnival society named for those who stood on the curb and watched the Carnival parades go by.

“Memphis needs the trusty Mid-South Coliseum right now, and it’s within our means to call its name from the end of our civic bench once again.”

“Privilege ‘is not something we deserve, or are worthy of, and it is certainly not an excuse to turn a blind eye to the vastly different circumstances that one in five Memphians live under,” letter writers Jude Downing and Sophia Overstreet say. 

A letter from a pastor laments the chasm between ‘haves and have nots’ in the Memphis area. Another missive, from two high school students, says free childcare and better public transportation would go a long way toward helping poor families.

As a scout, it’s up to you. If the food you make is inedible, you and your fellow scouts don’t eat. If you pitch your tent in the wrong place, you and your tentmate are going to get wet. If you don’t reach down to help, no one else climbs up.

‘Those whose careers and income streams remained intact see the pandemic very differently than those who have lost their vocations and their income, and fear losing their homes,’” writes Rev. Dr. Dorothy Sanders Wells.

As people wait hours for their vaccine appointment time, they end up leaving without a shot in the arm and a head full of frustration.

The answer is simple and it also stings. It’s in Nashville because Nashville asked for it.

One letter writer praised the Shelby County Health Department’s management of vaccine distribution at Lindenwood Christian Church.