Roy Exum
There is never an acceptable time to use vulgar language. Never. Ever. This rule holds true for every one of us, most particularly if you are a public servant and even more so if you aspire to hold yourself to a higher standard. But as someone who has apologized on more than one occasion for inappropriate language, I have also found that on rare occasions “darn it” does not seem to be enough.
Todd Gardenhire, a state senator from Chattanooga, had a “slip of the tongue” in late March after he was harassed by apparently someone who has little else to do other than wear silly T-shirts that match and sit in solidarity.
Demonstrate once and make your point; demonstrate day-after-day and you’ll become a loathsome irritant prone to a tired lawmaker’s too-quick anger at the end of a harried day.
I promise, I have known Todd for 40 years and while we may disagree on our views, he is indeed a friend of mine and we enjoy one another’s company. If he could “un-ring the bell” after his ire got the best of him he most certainly would but, because he cannot, he is working tirelessly in the legislature with, what I believe, is the best delegation from this area we’ve ever had.
He has been roundly castigated and rebuked nationwide after an audio tape of him demanding a protester leave him alone has gone viral. To know what exactly he said you can easily find out elsewhere – I don’t even hint on vulgar -- but in Sunday’s Nashville Tennessean, a page-one story, above the fold, of course, purports the vulgar term is the way “most Tennessee legislators feel about residents in our state.” Oh, please!
Such a statement by an accredited news outlet is, in my mind, even worse that Todd’s outburst. Actually, the Tennessean writer, David Plazas, used the vulgar term on purpose, a flash-point to get as much traction as he possibly could in the very liberal newspaper’s effort to get “Insure Tennessee” passed in the legislature. Think about it, as amateurish as it may well be.
While I am far to the right of the Tennessean’s opinion writers, I freely admit I am in favor of Gov. Haslam’s plan that would help almost 300,000 poor people obtain health insurance, bring federal Medicaid dollars to the state, and keep rural hospitals viable. Then again, I am not privy to Sen. Gardenhire’s file of “inside knowledge” and must trust him to do what is best for all of us, not just the poor who have less resources for whatever myriad of “real” reasons there may be.
Regardless, I deeply resent the Nashville writer’s stance on a professional level. What reputable writer would dare pen the following? “There's an arrogance, an entitlement, a disregard for the common citizen and a lack of desire by many state lawmakers to have a robust debate about the most important piece of public policy in the state this year,” wrote Plazas.
“Compound that with legislative and state leaders who refuse to lead on this issue, refuse to create coalitions of support, refuse to move beyond partisan politics,” he added. “The see-no-evil-except-Obamacare mantra that has poisoned passage of Insure Tennessee shows that lawmakers are more interested in their own preservation than the long-term welfare of this state.”
That is pure rubbish. It is blatant propaganda and Plazas – of all things -- admits it in ink. “Why not Insure Tennessee? That is why The Tennessean is drumming up support on behalf of the people of Tennessee, with the desire to get people to PRESSURE their legislators to do the right thing,” the opinion piece read.
Need more “pressure?” “We will publish the amount of money Tennessee is losing by not having Insure Tennessee,” Plazas promised, “[as well as] the amount of jobs that won’t be created without it, and the names and contact information of the legislative leaders and the Commerce and Labor Committee senators who voted against the resolution (including Gardenhire) or abstained.”
Are you kidding me? This drivel isn’t what any sane newspaper editor would ever allow on the front page.
Hey, David! Let’s include the names of each of their children, the schools the kids attend, the bus schedules and call in the TBI to assist with the most strategic places to put explosive devices. We’ve clearly got enough kooks among us that we can incite them to do something very dramatic in the name of good-versus-evil.
And, hey, who doesn’t want to help the poor and downtrodden? Squeeze the tears hard enough and I’ll lay even odds there just has to be a martyr in Newport or some foreign national working covertly in the Nissan plant in Smyrna. “Pressure” makes it happen, huh?
The best part? After the “retaliation” goes down, the newspaper can “pressure” the system while some slick public defender has the ‘perp’ cop a voluntary manslaughter plea. A quick “guilty” in Tennessee gets you a three-year-sentence but, with plea bargaining, I’m thinking less than two years. That’s three years or less of free room-and-board, a GED, social counselling and – the kicker – all the free health insurance the ‘perp’ could want. Some states even allow gender “redefinement” and, with the “pressure” you can promise in your definitive opinion pieces, we have a completely different person to return to society. What cha’ say!
I know that is a preposterous notion but no more than The Tennessean, the state’s newspaper of record, should openly “pressure” officially chosen and elected by the people
The truth? Most that people in Tennessee don’t want to pressure anybody. To openly encourage an unlawful gathering with a front-page story, a possible poor peoples’ riot, or a demonstration of public discord, I believe, is very much against state law. Unwarranted and undeserved pressure ought to be, too, in the legislative plaza. It is unconscionable to lump every member of the Tennessee legislature as “arrogant, entitled and lacking in desire” in what is easily seen as an arrogant, entitled effort to force The Tennessean’s agenda forward.
You disagree, David? Then prove it and win the Pulitzer with a slanted, biased article based just on one word, as vulgar as it may well be. After civilized readers read your banter and then flip it toward the waste basket, “darn it” seems hardly enough of a response.
royexum@aol.com