Richard Halliburton spent his short life “living poetry instead of writing it.”

When our world turned upside down on Jan. 25, 2002, Pastor Steve Montgomery and the Idlewild Presbyterian congregation not only fed our souls, but also our bodies.

Over the course of a year I saw first hand the renovation and reselling of homes in my neighborhood, and I saw the people who came with it. After all, I was one of them. Who is this “New Memphis” for?

Stranger things have happened. Heck, Ronald Reagan carried New York – twice. 

There will be a vaccine for COVID-19. In the meantime, we will continue to suffer from chronic, fatal stupidity.

Some find it galling that the City Council pulled back a public referendum on the police residency question. I dunno, I’d say the point of representative democracy is to elect officials and ask them to deliberate and make informed judgments.

The data on inducing COVID-19 immune responses are promising, but it is not clear yet whether this will result in limited protection, modest protection or complete protection from either infection or disease. As we know from influenza vaccines, even partial protection may have benefit.

A majority of Americans trust Dr. Anthony Fauci to tell the truth about the pandemic. But Tennessee U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Manny Sethi, hoping to impress President Trump, says Fauci needs to go. 

The party with which I have self-identified for much of my adult life, the Republican Party, has failed to live up to its “big tent” credo of inclusiveness and belonging.

The pandemic presents everyone with unique and unprecedented options. No school district has ever decided such matters, and there may not be a “one-size-fits-all” direction to take in this.

It’s a community service to put election stories outside the paywall. And yet, bluntly, our decision also comes with a cost. Because producing this news is expensive.

Bipartisan support for this bill – including by Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, Republican U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, and Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander – speaks volumes about the value of parks in our lives. 

As the U.S. reckons with centuries of oppression and racism against Black people, a concurrent reckoning must happen within the Latinx community, which has its own history of systemic anti-Blackness.

The data does not show that we need more police to become a safer city. Police experts will tell you: It is more about how you use police officers, rather than how many you have.

It may surprise Christians who advise athletes and audiences to pray instead of protest, but Christians have never separated protest and prayer.

In light of COVID-19, counselors at Universal Parenting Places now provide individual counseling to parents via HIPAA-compliant telehealth video chats as well as by phone.

Eighteen cities bear his name as do counties in 22 states. Fourteen presidents have gone to his home to pay homage. But stock in Jackson's historical reputation, which has been declining for several years, just took another major hit.

In 1972 in Fayette County, John Lewis and Julian Bond passionately urged African Americans to vote. Attendees that night also saw that both Lewis, the son of sharecroppers, and Bond were just ordinary people intermingling, like “home folks,” with rural activists.

Amid the struggles we are going through, the gist of William Sloane Coffin’s saying is on point. Except for the most disciplined of us all, who is not exhausted by the strain and uncertainty?

My longtime pastor, Steve Montgomery, died of injuries from a bicycle accident earlier this week. What would Steve have said to help us make sense of his death? I asked some of his close friends. 

We, the South, may be finally admitting that the primary cause of the Civil War was slavery, and that the loss of that cause should be celebrated rather than honored.

We told anyone who would listen that to help drive down violent crime in our city, we needed to recruit 2,300 officers to the Memphis Police Department by the end of this year. A new study shows MPD needs more than 2,800 police officers to patrol the streets of Memphis. 

Rather than argue about reopening schools, we should be defining levels of risk and setting metrics for stages of reopening. When will it be safe for pre-K and early elementary to resume in-person learning? When will it be safe for middle and high schools to begin hybrid learning?

Many fans are not even at their seats when the anthem starts. They are purposefully milling around in the concourse waiting for tipoff. I don’t believe those fans are less patriotic than those standing at attention in the arena with their hands over their hearts. But spectators take the anthem for granted. And it’s time to end the ritual.

I respect the views of the kneelers. They have the right to kneel in protest before Old Glory. Millions of American military personnel have bled and died so that they would have those rights. If the kneelers would find another way to protest, I might join them.