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Otis Sanford

  • Geoff Calkins
  • Otis Sanford
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  • Premium Elections

    Opinion: With refusals to debate, GOP Senate candidates shortchange voters

    Welcome to the alternate universe of 2020 election year politics in Tennessee and Mississippi. With less than three weeks to go before Election Day, the races for Senate seats in both states have turned into exercises in ultra-partisan campaigning.

    By Otis Sanford October 15, 2020
  • Otis Sanford

    Opinion: Implicit bias is real, and we need to continue discussing it

    Implicit bias is a thing, and it’s reflected in virtually every aspect of our society. Without meaningful discussions of the issue, in public and private workplaces, we can never fully address the scourge of systemic racism.

    By Otis Sanford October 01, 2020
  • Premium Otis Sanford

    Sanford: Alexander’s flip-flop on confirmation vote should surprise no one

    No one should be surprised that Lamar Alexander flip-flopped on Supreme Court nominations. He has morphed over the last 40-plus years into a shameless political partisan, and is content to end his political career that way.

    By Otis Sanford September 24, 2020
  • Premium Otis Sanford

    Opinion: Division on the county commission often brings more heat than light

    Like the population they represent, current members of the Shelby County Commission are turning out to be the most disparate and eclectic group to be elected to a local legislative body in years – perhaps ever.

    By Otis Sanford September 17, 2020
  • Premium Otis Sanford

    Opinion: Trump’s vaccine claims are all about politics, not about medical science

    President Donald Trump has done next to nothing to engender trust from African Americans. In fact, he’s done the opposite. He lies incessantly and shows an interest in Black people only when it suits him politically.

    By Otis Sanford September 10, 2020
  • Premium Otis Sanford

    Opinion: Have we gone too far with mandatory minimum sentences?

    As criminal justice reform continues to be debated in America, we must focus on whether we’ve gone too far over the last few decades in aggressive policing and over-incarcerating certain individuals.

    By Otis Sanford September 03, 2020
  • Otis Sanford

    Opinion: Anti-protest law misguided, enacted by governor who follows and doesn’t lead

    The Republican-controlled state House and Senate – with Gov. Bill Lee as an accomplice – decided to make protesting on state property a felony, punishable by up to six years in prison.

    By Otis Sanford August 27, 2020
  • Premium Otis Sanford

    Sanford: Time to start ‘Votes for Bertha,’ because the struggle continues

    Reader suggests a 'Votes for Bertha' campaign in honor of my mother, who faced down resistance to register to vote 56 years ago in Panola County. She would be so pleased.

    By Otis Sanford August 20, 2020
  • Otis Sanford

    Sanford: Biden’s bet on Harris is backed by the numbers

    Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is counting on his choice of running mate Kamala Harris to bring in new and reenergized voters in key battleground states.

    By Otis Sanford August 12, 2020
  • Opinion Otis Sanford

    Sanford: Primary election politics are not about honesty

    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. 

    By Otis Sanford August 06, 2020
  • Sanford Otis Sanford

    Sanford: It’s time to retire the national anthem from sporting events

    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.

    By Otis Sanford July 30, 2020
  • Premium Otis Sanford

    Sanford: At a meeting in Memphis, John Lewis made his mission clear

    When he gave his moving address at the Memphis library to supporters – as well as some covert observers – the 27-year-old John Lewis was already a veteran in the fight for voting rights, equal accommodations and equal justice.

    By Otis Sanford July 22, 2020
  • Premium Otis Sanford

    Opinion: What’s in a name? In the case of ‘Redskins,’ an offense to others

    Redskins owner Dan Snyder for years ignored pleas to drop the moniker, telling USA Today in 2014 that he would never change it. Apparently Snyder has since watched Sean Connery’s last James Bond movie, “Never Say Never Again.” 

    By Otis Sanford July 16, 2020
  • sanford Otis Sanford

    A $40M gift to LeMoyne-Owen was ‘the right thing at the right time’

    College President Carol Johnson-Dean took the call announcing the largest endowment the 158-year-old school had ever received: “I literally began to cry.”

    By Otis Sanford July 09, 2020
  • Premium Otis Sanford

    Sanford: Mask or no mask? Politics – and gender – inform the decision

    A study released this month found that men are less likely to wear masks in public than women. 'Men more than women agree that wearing a face covering is shameful, not cool, a sign of weakness, and a stigma,' one of the study’s authors said.

    By Otis Sanford June 25, 2020
  • SANFORD Otis Sanford

    Where is our Lyndon Johnson moment?

    Johnson’s message was powerful as he urged Congress to pass voting rights legislation. Drawing from the gospel song that became a hymn of the civil rights movement, he said, “it is all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.”

    By Otis Sanford June 11, 2020
  • SANFORD Otis Sanford

    Protesters remembered their Tennessee history when they met the statue of a racist

    Edward Carmack’s statue in the Tennessee Capitol was among several monuments linked to racism and the Confederacy that bit the dust or were defaced during protests over the senseless killing of African Americans by police and vigilantes.

    By Otis Sanford June 04, 2020
  • Premium Otis Sanford

    A death in Minneapolis is a metaphor for the black experience in America

    If this does not create sustained national outrage from the halls of government to the smallest police force in America, if this does not convince you that the Black Lives Matter movement had it right all along, nothing will.

    By Otis Sanford May 28, 2020
  • Premium Otis Sanford

    ‘Ida B. Wells Park’ strikes just the right note

    Renaming Health Sciences Park after Ida B. Wells would honor one of the city’s most underappreciated historic figures.

    By Otis Sanford May 21, 2020
  • SANFORD Otis Sanford

    First responders need to protect themselves, too

    In the age of COVID-19, suspicions that police are not trustworthy must take a back seat to the certainty that this pandemic will spread without adequate safeguards.

    By Otis Sanford May 14, 2020
  • SANFORD Otis Sanford

    Local news has competition again — and that’s good

    I cherish the competitive newspaper environments that marked the early years of my career — in Jackson between The Clarion-Ledger and Daily News and in Memphis between The Commercial Appeal and Press-Scimitar.

    By Otis Sanford May 05, 2020
  • opinion Otis Sanford

    Sanford: Three reassuring words in the COVID crisis

    Watching Alisa Haushalter, director of the Shelby County Health Department, explain our new reality in a calm, measured and fact-based tone, I came away with more optimism than pessimism about our prospects for overcoming this ruthless pandemic.

    By Otis Sanford April 30, 2020
  • Opinion Otis Sanford

    We’re missing national unity in this crisis

    The dissension has filtered down to statehouses and into the streets, with thoughtless protesters thumbing their noses at social distancing and demanding that states end stay-at-home orders.

    By Otis Sanford April 23, 2020
  • Sanford Otis Sanford

    Race remains a factor, even in a pandemic

    The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on African Americans shines a spotlight on racial disparities that translate into different health outcomes for whites and blacks.

    By Otis Sanford April 10, 2020
  • Opinion Otis Sanford

    Sanford: West Memphis mayor deserves a long-distance pat on the back

    The governor of Arkansas opposes allowing cities to issue their own stay-at-home orders, but that's not stopping Mayor Marco McClendon from moving forward with his curfew for West Memphis.

    By Otis Sanford April 09, 2020

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