Time for some local politics. Memphis activist Thaddeus Matthews has succeeded in getting together a petition to recall Memphis mayor W.W. Herenton. Mr. Matthews needs about 70,000 signatures to get the question on the August 3rd ballot, and has about 75 days to do it. If he gets that done, city voters will decide whether to recall or not. It's gonna be a tall order.
Mayor Willie has certainly been an enigma. He owns a PhD from SIU, and he's done some great things for Memphis during his 14 year tenure, but seems to suffer from a character disorder at times. He's a politician, but we should expect more from our leadership, right? His latest troubles stem from being dragged into the trial of former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, where it was alleged he took payoffs in return for plum city contracts.
The decision whether to sign or not depends a lot on the above case. If it's proven the mayor took a wad of bills from a bagman a petition might be moot. Even if he's clean on those charges there are other wayward acts to consider, such as the example he's been trying to set for our youth. This coming from a former Superintentent of Schools, no less. But short of any illegal wrong-doing it might be a tough sell.
If you're wondering, this is not about race--yet. Mr. Matthews himself is black. Not to say a few race cards might not get pulled out of the pack at crunch time, but hopefully we can avoid that. The last thing we need is blood in the streets as our rep is on the line.
So, what to do, what to do. Actually, it might be healthy to get the recall on the ballot even if we decide to keep the Mayor. It's good to occasionally stir things up a bit. I've got 75 days to decide.
RACE, ALREADY? 2/28/06
Mr. Matthews held a meeting last night to articulate his case and rally support. About 100 people showed up, mainly white. Thaddeus wasn't fazed:
"It's not a white thing or a black thing, it's about doing the right thing," Matthews insisted.I would agree, but as one attendee put it,
"The way this room looks now," he said of the predominantly white audience, "it looks like white vs. black ... and that's the way this is going to be perceived."An uphill battle, for sure.
3 comments:
Most any politician that is in power for more than eight years, gets into a mindset that makes them vulnerable to corruption. They can do great things, true enough. But power really does embolden some people to the degree that they think they are a machine that cannot be stopped. It's just one of our frailties we must suffer, as human beings.
BTW, what's his PHD in?
Not sure what his PHD is in, but if I had to guess it's in education since he was a former schools super.
But agree with you 100 percent on these long-termed politicians. They start believing the invincibility principle after awhile. It reminds me of Hugo Chavez and his recent threat to do away with presidential term limits in Venezuela.
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