Roy Exum: Bad Ideas Never Work

  • Friday, May 6, 2016
  • Roy Exum

When the Chattanooga City Council gave Kevin Muhammad, who is purportedly the “leader” of the Nation of Islam’s “Chattanooga chapter” or whatever it is, “the right” to speak for 20 anguished minutes on Monday night, everybody who heard about it could have told our city leaders it was “stinkin’ thinkin’.” My goodness, did you think he was going to read a sweet passage from the Quran and apologize for the terrorists shootings by one of his flock?

First, this Muhammad does not have any more of “the right” to give a “State of the People” address than I do.
The City Council should limit its affairs to the business of Chattanooga and, while its members certainly could have invited “Mister Angry” had that been their desire, any sane person would not let the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Bloods and Crips, the homeless in Miller Park or any other self-serving group take up its time and infuriate the general public.
I believe Muhammad most definitely has the right to speak but at the proper forum. The City Council is most certainly not the place for his personal agenda, but in order to spread his insidious message and its acid overtones, he did so (No. 1) for the publicity value and (No. 2) to incite the black community’s ire. Poor blacks are his “mission field,” don’t you see, and by demanding the rich white folks’ money, he wants to soon be the poor’s poverty champion. Candidly, there a money angle in it for him, but let that slide…
So let’s look at a couple of issues:
* -- Muhammad yells the Violence Reduction Initiative is failing. He’s right – black thugs keep shooting other black thugs. It’s atrocious … blacks and white alike all weep … but Muhammad and his vocal “plants” in the packed Council chambers would do far better to show us he wants to help “his people” by actions rather than lips. If this guy has a community leader’s history it is well hidden from Google and other search engines.
* -- He says a Youth and Family Services reading program has failed but every creek has two banks; what has Muhammad and the House of Islam done to keep the reading program alive? Muhammad knows it’s a good thing, to be sure, but his true calling is to shout and scream at City Council meetings, just so you’ll know.
* -- He publicly accused the City Council of “rubber stamping” Mayor (Andy) Berke’s budget rather than admitting a better truth, that City Council has actually studied, debated, and understands it.
* -- He threatened the elected officials, ranting, “If you do not take heed, I hope some new people are sitting in your seats.” (Like who? The Nation of Islam isn’t exactly known for its political-savvy base or bloc vote and – on Monday night – did far more to hurt its image than polish it.)
* -- He chided the 184 jobs that were awarded to former gang members, saying they ‘were temporary and without benefits,’ when – in fact – in almost every company you only get advanced to full time and benefits based on personal performance. How is a former gang member going to react to $8 an hour compared to the cash that flows steadily through illicit drugs? This isn’t economics – it is reality.
* -- He wants River City to fork over $1 million (to whom?) for a “Peoples Youth Institute.” Well, we’ve already got some of those - except our community calls them schools. Any money should rightfully go to the schools, particularly our inner-city schools where Muhammad is allegedly being boxed-out by the wonderful members of the black clergy, devout men and women who can guide their congregations to get beautifully involved with the Chattanooga 2.0 initiative.
* -- He wants Blue CrossBlue Shield, Volkswagen and others to contribute $1 million each (to whom?) when federal taxes from every company in Chattanooga now help fund the greatest welfare rolls in the United States. From a businessman’s prospective our man Muhammad “is a few bricks shy of a load.”
* -- He said our police are like “the occupied armies of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.” It is not known if Muhammad has been to those countries, where he and his patter would hardly fare well, but had it not been for prolific shootings in certain sections of the city, the police would not be “occupying” the streets trying to save the lives of very frightened black residents. Our police are the only resource many good and fine black people have. Perhaps Muhammad and the Chattanooga Chapter of ‘The Nation’ could join in patrols. They would be most welcome.
* -- One member of the audience talked about rich people’s tax breaks – as if he knows how tax incentives work – “when we can’t even get a grocery store in East Chattanooga,” as if he doesn’t know exactly why no grocer will go within miles of the shoplifting, the vandalism, the fights, people squirting lighter fluid down the aisles and repeated robbery attempts. (The BI-LO chain, before it was sold, had a scrapbook on the East Third Street store than was stunning in its scope.)
* -- Katherine Cordell of ‘We the People’ endeared herself to all of society when she said “stop the mass incarcerations and stop the war on drugs.” Seriously, the woman said this to the City Council, knowing not one person is incarcerated without a reason for it and that illicit drugs – hello! -- are the main reason. If we stop shackling thugs, and we let drugs flow freely, what does this poor woman suspect is going to happen?
I am as shocked as any one that Donald Trump is where he is today but a huge reason is the public’s reaction to those like Kevin Muhammad, the leader of the Chattanooga branch of the Nation of Islam whose “State of the People” address can be thoroughly summed up in seven sickening words: “Give us black folks some white money.”
Until black people and while people unite in a common goal, we’ll never stamp out hunger, illiteracy, ignorance, shootings, drugs or any of the other sins that now make us cry. So let’s recognize pretenders like Kevin Muhammad have only one agenda … somebody else’s money. Don’t believe it? He said exactly that to the City Council.
And then there is the misguided soul who asked the crowd where was Mayor Berke. “Do you see him? Andy, are you here?” Heaven’s sakes, Andy hasn’t time for such theater. He was with the great majority of our community’s blacks and whites … avoiding the crazies among us.

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