News Operation Entry

SUBSCRIBER-EXCLUSIVE PRE M IUM SECTION
SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 2016
#NEW
NASHVILLE
MUSIC CITY IS HOT.

ITS ONE OF THE FASTEST-GROWING CITIES
IN THE COUNTRY. READ WHAT THAT MEANS
TO THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE AND WORK HERE.
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THE TENNESSEAN
#NEWNASHVILLENUMBERS
Finding current figures for a city thats changing so rapidly is difficult.

These numbers are a snapshot of wages, housing, employment and
education drawn
from a variety of sources.$4 billion
$4 billion
illion
visitors
ville spend
y year.
What visitors
to Nashville spend
every year.
What visitors
to Nashville spend
every year.
Ranked No. 1
in the U.S. for
women-owned
businesses.
What visitors
to Nashville spend
every year.
Where
are people
moving to
Nashville from?
6. Chicago
7. Miami
8. Detroit
9. Dallas
10. Chattanooga
1. Clarksville
2. Memphis
3. Los Angeles
4. Atlanta
5. Knoxville
Nashville was named the best city in the nation for women-owned businesses for 2016 by WalletHub.com. The
citys score of 70.4 was based on ranking the business
climate for women, levels of female entrepeneurship and
overall friendliness for new businesses.
In fact, Tennessee scored well overall with Chattanooga
coming in second and Memphis fourth.
$4 billion
8
6
3
2
5
10
4
5 LARGEST
NASHVILLE
INDUSTRIES
(employment and wages/
location quotient/LQ)*
TOP 5 EXPORT
INDUSTRIES
$3.6 billion
Transportation equipment
manufacturing
Nashville 2014 population compared to some other cities

MSA Population
Chemical manufacturing
$380 million
Next decade of Population growth in Nashville/MSA

Estimated population growth of Nashville MSA within the next decade
$511 million
Machinery manufacturing
11,446
Electrical equipment, appliance and

component manufacturing
Source: International Trade Administration,
U.S. Department of Commerce
8,413
15.8%
2,214,057
8,413
Education
15.8%
25.7%
Sales and
office
8.2%
Major appliance
Management, Service
business,
science
and arts
25.7%
13.1%
Inland water
transportation
Natural
resources,
construction and
maintenance
2,455
2014
OCCUPATIONS
manufacturing
37.1%
Service
4,732,161
3,671,478
2,321,418
1,994,536
1,792,649
1,336,767
1,004,516
857,585
577,564
1,868,145
2016
2026
Source:
Census
Source:
U.S.U.S.
Census
BureauBureau
2014
Major appliance
manufacturing
6,954,330
Motor vehicle
$475
million
manufacturing
Computer and electronic product

manufacturing
11,446
How Nashville population compares to some other cities (of 2014)

Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL
Columbus, OH
Nashville-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN
Oklahoma City, OK
Tucson, AZ
Knoxville, TN
Jackson, MS
$1.9 billion
Motor vehicle
manufacturing
Sales and
office
8.2%
Inland water
transportation
Production,
Natural
transportation
resources,
and material
construction and
moving
maintenance
2,455
Nashville37.1%
MSA among
those 25 and older.
15.8%
Management, Service
business,
science
10.5% 12.7%
and arts
Did not
Graduate25.7%
or
professional
Sales andgraduate
office high school
degree
10.5%
Graduate or
professional
degree
Median
home value
13.1%
8.2%
Production,
20.2%
transportation
Bachelors
and material
degree
moving
Nashville MSA*
Natural
resources,
construction and
maintenance
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2014 American

Community Survey 1-Year Estimates
29.0%
High school
graduate
(equivalency)
$193,400
20.2%
Bachelors
1-year
change
degree
+13.4%
Over next year
+4.2%
Sound recording
industries
2,075
Tobacco
manufacturing
86326.5
minutes
Mean travel time
* Location Quotients to
(LQs)
work
are ratios that allow an
area's distribution of employment by industry to be
compared to a reference or
base area's distribution.
Source: Bureau of Labor
Statistics
TOP
10 LARGEST
Sound recording
EMPLOYERS
industries
IN NASHVILLE
2,075 AREA
1. Vanderbilt University
& Medical Center
2. Nissan North America
3. HCA Holdings Inc.
4. Saint Thomas Health Services
5. Randstad
6. Shoney's Inc.
7. Electrolux Home Products
8. Kroger Company
Use public transport
9. Community Health Systems
Taxi,
motorcycle
Tobacco
10. Cracker
Barrel Old
Country
Store
manufacturing
Source: Nashville Chamber of Commerce
Walk
1%
1.2%
1.4%
863
4.5% Work from home
9.1% Carpool
Ranked
6work
82.8%No.
Drive to
27.6%
Source: Zillow
27.6%
Some college or
associates degree
Source: U.S.
Census Bureau
How do 606,000 Nashvillians

manage their commute?
26.5
minutes
Mean travel time
to work
1% Use public transport

1.2% Taxi, motorcycle
1.4% Walk
4.5% Work from home
9.1% Carpool
82.8% Drive to work
Some college or
associates degree
MEDIAN
HOUSEHOLD
INCOME BY
METRO AREA
Nashville MSA*
$53,463
Cost of living
is 3.3% above
26.5
U.S. average
minutes
Source: Forbes
Mean travel time
in job growth
in the country
Source: Forbes
Source: US Census Bureau 2012/Nashville Chamber of Commerce
* MSA: METROPOLITAN AND MICROPOLITAN STATISTICAL AREAS (METRO AND MICRO AREAS) ARE GEOGRAPHIC ENTITIES DELINEATED BY THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET (OMB) FOR USE
BY FEDERAL STATISTICAL AGENCIES IN COLLECTING, TABULATING, AND PUBLISHING FEDERAL STATISTICS. m THINKSTOCK IMAGES
to work
THE TENNESSEAN
SHELLEY MAYS / THE TENNESSEAN
With views of downtown Nashville, crane operator Lee Essick works moving building supplies to the 27-story Westin Nashville Hotel.
EXCITING GROWTH
AND UNCERTAINTY
IN THE IT CITY
Downtown glistens, but cost of living is soaring out of reach for many.
JASON WOLF JWOLF@TENNESSEAN.COM
n hour or so into another long predawn

commute up Interstate 24, Phillip Luther
sees the glistening lights of the city hes
helping to create.
I about put myself out of commission
making all these people around here rich, the
middle-aged longtime construction worker said.
But you know what I strive for? Ive got four kids,
two girls and two boys. Thats what keeps me on
my feet. Thats what keeps me striving for this
(expletive).
Three years have passed since The
New York Times dubbed Nashville the
new it city, and the rapid ascent of this
once-sleepy Middle Tennessee town
On average,
continues unabated, spurred by a low
the number of people
unemployment rate, entrepreneurial
Katie Burnett, right,
moving to Music City
participates in a yoga class
endeavors and tourism.
every day.
at Nelsons Green Brier
The Nashville skyline evoked in Bob
Distillery. Hot Yoga Plus
collaborated with Nelsons
Dylans 1969 album of the same name is now
Green Brier Distillery to host
the Yoga & Whiskey
synonymous with development. Two dozen cranes
event, where participants
mark the panorama, with nearly 150 active
also received a tour of the
distillery and a tasting.
construction projects in Davidson County alone.
Nashvilles neon-soaked strip of downtown
At left, gathering places like
honky-tonks suddenly rivals Las Vegas as the go-to
Bar Louie on 11th Avenue
South attract a young, hip
spot for bachelor and bachelorette parties.
crowd as construction
booms in the Gulch.
Bridgestone is building its new corporate
LARRY MCCORMACK / THE TENNESSEAN
headquarters downtown, Google is laying 3,200
miles of high-speed fiber optic cable under the
county. And the citys brand is vigorously marketed
across the nation, in an eponymous television
drama and a hijacked fast-food version of hot
Contents
chicken, a signature local dish.
Nashville ranks among the fastest-growing
9 The city continues to diversify, but Sunday
3 Nashville is a combination of hope and concern
remains segregated
metro areas in America on average, 82 people
4 The flood gave The Nations a chance at reinvention
5 The Station Inn hangs on in the Gulch
10 Dinos has always been the hip place to go
move to Music City every day.
82
See #NewNashville, Page 4
6-7 The developments
11 What will Nashvilles future be like?
8 New businessess move into historic neighborhoods
12 Cover explainer
THE TENNESSEAN
#NEWNASHVILLE
Continued from Page 3PE
When I was growing up here, it was

unusual to run into someone at school or
out who had moved into town, said Kyle
Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of
Fame and Museum. The local guy is the
freak now. And by and large that has really had a great effect on the city, in terms
of how its developed. Were more cosmopolitan, I think.
But the gains are accompanied by
growing pains.
Cars idle at green lights in gridlocked
streets. Housing costs are skyrocketing
as demand strangles supply.
Nearly 2 million people now call the
greater Nashville area home.
Luther does not. He treks 65 miles
northwest from tiny Manchester each
day, steeling himself for another round of
backbreaking labor, erecting the rebar
that reinforces the concrete that forms
the base of the city where he cant afford
to live.
The new Nashville.
ANDREW NELLES / THE TENNESSEAN
Warren Cloud, 10, gets into shooting position while playing basketball with friends at Sevier Park in Nashville.
Demolition and progress

Leon Jacksons father once helped
build Nashville, too.
The late Leon Quincy Jackson, a noted
African-American architect, moved here
in 1954 to teach engineering at Tennessee
State University. He designed a number
of buildings and landmarks that still
stand, including the Pagoda of Medicine
in North Nashville.
The citys modern transformation
traces to the late 1950s, when the Life &
Casualty Tower became its first skyscraper and the interstate highway system began slicing through neighborhoods.
Recent downtown growth began in
earnest around the turn of the 21st century.
Today the younger Jackson, a Nashville native who grew tired of what he
called punching the clock on Music
Row, promotes electronica music. He
and his associates drive the streets scouring for places to host dance parties. Ideal
venues, like some of the historic buildings his father once designed, are being
leveled.
Not that progress is bad. Progress is
great, Jackson said. But ... its good to
recognize your past and respect it. You
cant keep every piece of brick and mortar just because its old. But we need to
respect some of it and look out for the facilities that need to be saved.
Downtown, just off Broadway, sits the
legendary Ryman Auditorium, the longtime former home of the Grand Ole Opry.
Its planned demolition was averted only
after public outcry in the 1990s.
Thank goodness smart people figured out that it needed to survive,
Young, of the Country Music Hall of
Fame, said. That would have been tragic. If that had been just looked at strictly
as a financial proposition, I doubt it would
still be standing.
Culture
F L O O D S W E P T I N G ROW T H
ADAM TAMBURIN ATAMBURIN@TENNESSEAN.COM and ANITA WADHWANI AWADHWANI@TENNESSEAN.COM
DID
YOU
KNOW?
DID
YOU
KNOW?
DID
YOU
KNOW
?
2010 Flood damage
DID
YOU
Nearly 11,000 properties
KNOW?
were
damaged or
destroyed in the flood,
and 10,000 people were
displaced from their
homes. The flood caused
more than $2 billion in
private property damage
and $120 million in
public infrastructure
damage in Nashville.
One year after the flood,
the Nashville Area
Chamber of Commerce
reported, 300 to 400
businesses remained
closed and 1,528 jobs
were "very unlikely"
to return.
KAREN GRIGSBY/
THE TENNESSEAN
GARLAND GALLASPY
Pagoda of Medicine was designed by notable

African-American architect Leon Quincy
Jackson.
Not that progress is bad.

Progress is great. But sometimes
you need your past dictates your
present and your present dictates
ashvilles 2010 flood turned Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center into a giant indoor
swimming pool, left grand pianos bobbing atop 5.25 million gallons of water
inside Schermerhorn Symphony Center
and in a surreal scene that will remain
forever etched into the memories of
those who saw it glided a portable
classroom from Lighthouse Christian
School down the street as if it were a fallen leaf floating down a creek.
The 1,000-year flood, an unprecedented natural disaster, has come to
shape the character and evolution of
both the citys longtime and emerging
neighborhoods ever since.
Stroll through The Nations, a once
working-class neighborhood in West
Nashville, and youll see towering threestory town houses neighbors call
them tall skinnies clustered in twos
or threes where modest one-story brick
cottages once stood.
Construction crews are ever-present,
with multistory condos being built high
along Charlotte Pike. There is a womens
clothing boutique, an upscale dive bar,
a popular new restaurant and a craft
brewery coming soon.
Nearly six years earlier, overwhelmed by the flood damage, many
low-income, longtime homeowners decided to sell giving developers an
opening to raze and rebuild as Nashvilles national profile soared.
Elizabeth Elkins moved from Atlanta
to The Nations after the flood. The songwriter was drawn to the neighborhoods
proximity to Music Row.
From her porch on Indiana Avenue,
Elkins pointed to the row of tall town
houses a block away on Illinois Avenue.
All had cropped up in the past few years.
It seemed like it was changing, she
said. Its changed a good deal more in
the last few years.
The shift has given residents more
time to get to know one another over
long walks with their dogs or meals at
Flip Burger or one of the other restaurants that have opened.
The influx of more affluent residents
has left some longtimers and advocates
wondering where they fit in.
Thats the big million-dollar question right now, said Corey Gephart, the
CEO at St. Lukes Community House.
How do we strategically set ourselves
up to continue to serve those weve
served and to bridge that gap between

the new and the old?
St. Lukes has spent more than 100
years supporting low-income and elderly families in The Nations.
But many of those families have
moved to Antioch or Madison, neighborhoods that are undergoing their own
transitions as new destinations for residents displaced by the flood and seeking
affordable housing.
The same trend has taken root in other
parts of the city as well, where a surge in
housing costs pushed residents into
neighborhoods they never would have
considered otherwise. Danielle Condon,
who left Inglewood in 2015 after years of
searching, remembers her reaction
when her husband suggested moving to
Madison.
I was like, Theres no way you will
catch me living in Madison ever, she
said with a laugh.
But the couple and their family made
the move last April, and Condon has
come to see things differently after a
year in the northern neighborhood.
People think its a world away, she
said. Weve just been so surprised that
we like it and theres growth. ... I feel like
Ive kind of tapped into whats happening.
Further west in Bellevue, where middle- and upper-middle-class residents
were more likely to clean up, rebuild and
stay, the neighborhood is in the midst of a
boom after years of stagnant growth that
predated the flood.
When the local mall closed in 2008,
Bellevue ceased to become a destination
to those outside the neighborhood. But a
building boom that includes new apartment complexes along with the redevelopment of the mall is expected to change
the once small-town atmosphere.
Meanwhile, in Bordeaux just northwest of downtown, residents are wondering why they have been left behind.
Bordeaux has always been one of the
last to the table when it comes to development, period, said Lonnell Matthews,
a Bordeaux resident who now heads the
Mayors Office of Neighborhoods. Its
almost like we get the leftover proposals from developers.
Matthews predicted the citys rapid
growth would force developers to bring a
wider range of housing and retail development to the North Nashville neighborhood surrounding Clarksville Pike.
your future. Its good to recognize

your past and respect it. You cant
keep every piece of brick and
mortar just because its old.
But we need to respect some of it
and look out for the facilities
that need to be saved.
LEON JACKSON, NASHVILLE NATIVE AND
ELECTRONICA MUSIC PROMOTER
SAMUEL M. SIMPKINS / THE TENNESSEAN
A runner jogs in front of homes being built on Tennessee Avenue and 52nd Avenue North.
THE TENNESSEAN
Music
PHOTOS BY LARRY MCCORMACK / THE TENNESSEAN
The Station Inn is a little oasis of bluegrass and roots music surrounded by condos and apartments as construction booms in the Gulch.
5 musicians
to watch
LAURA E. PARTAIN
KELSEY WALDON: Fans of Kacey Musgraves

will be drawn to the whip-smart songwriting
and catchy hooks of country singer-songwriter
Kelsey Waldon. Shes finishing a new record
that will be released later this year.
KATE YORK
The Stray Birds make their debut at the Station Inn, one of many performers who got their start at the 42-year-old venue.
ICONIC BLUEGRASS VENUE

HANGS ON TO ITS MUSIC IN
A DEVELOPMENT HOT SPOT
MEGAN MCCORMICK: Youve seen singersongwriter Megan McCormick tour with Jenny
Lewis and appear on Nashville, but if you
havent heard her solo material, youre missing out. In between side work with other
artists, the wickedly talented McCormick is
working on another album and getting into
production work with Ethan Ballinger, another local to keep an eye on.
DAVE PAULSON DNPAULSON@TENNESSEAN.COM and JULI THANKI JTHANKI@TENNESSEAN.COM
n the wall at the Station Inn

theres a sketch of Mount Rushmore that seems out of place surrounded by old gig posters. Look a little
closer, and youll see an additional face
alongside Abraham Lincolns: Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass.
At this cozy gem in the Gulch, roots
music is king. Every night, fans fill the
clubs mismatched chairs to watch artists ranging from Texas honky-tonker
Dale Watson to local treasure Jim Lauderdale to wickedly funny country duo
Doyle & Debbie.
Surrounding the Station Inn is a thriving neighborhood; the new construction
dwarfs the tiny club, and at night, tourists and Nashville residents alike file
into the Gulchs many hot spots. Its a
world away from how the area looked in
1981 when J.T. Gray purchased the club.
This was all industrial then, he explains. The only businesses that were
open was the Station Inn and a restaurant on the corner. (People) came to
this part of town for us because there
was nothing else around here.
Mandolin maestro Roland White remembers that time as well. Hes performed at the Station Inn since the club
opened in 1974 at its original location
near Vanderbilt (it moved to its current
spot four years later). If hes not onstage,
White can often be found in the audience, because he knows hes in for a good
show no matter the night. The musics
always top-notch, he says.
The Station Inn attracts tourists from
around the world in addition to regulars,
drawn by the excellent music as well as
the prospect of a relatively inexpensive
night out. (Sometimes its more expensive to park in the neighborhood than it
is to see a show at the Station Inn, where
the average admission is $15.)
Though it seems the Gulch is changing daily, the Station Inn isnt going any-
where. Charlie Wehby owner of the

land on which the Station Inn sits says
DID
to dehe has no plans to sell the property
velopers, though some have approached
YOU
J.T.
him over the last several years:
KNOW?
(Gray) and I have a pretty good rapport
together and as long as were around, I
think the Station Inn is going to stay
there.
Just as one of NashvillesDID
hottest
neighborhoods sprouted up around the
YOU
most
42-year-old Station Inn, the citys
KNOW?
buzzed-about music makers are
also
turning to decades-old traditions.
After a decade of rock and pop acts
making a name for New Nashville,
suddenly the citys hippest sound, believe it or not, is country. Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton are
three exceptional singer-songwriters,
hailed for shaking up the modern Music
City establishment while also tipping
their hats to the outlaws of yesteryear.
The citys non-country musicians are
also embracing their Nashville roots in a
new way, even as they push their sound
into other uncharted territories.
Nashvilles Judah and the Lion sums
up their swirl of influences as Folk Hop
N Roll. Thats the title of their new album, produced by Nashvilles Dave
Cobb (who was also part of Simpsons, Isbells and Stapletons efforts).
The band whose members met
while attending Belmont University
picks mandolin and banjo over a bold
blend of rock anthems, shout-along hiphop and folk.
You cant really just settle to be the
norm in Nashville anymore, because
people can see through it, I think, says
frontman Judah Akers.
Were just trying to become who we
are as musicians and as a band. In figuring that out, we (decided) Well, lets not
try to be like everybody else. Lets do
stuff the way we want to do it.
DID
YOU
KNOW
?
SUBMITTED
CAREY: Fuzzy power-pop, or carport rock,

as the band calls it, abounds on Careys selftitled debut EP (out this month), which the
trio recorded in their East Nashville home.
Ryman
DID
WhenYOU
the Grand Ole
Opry
moved from the
KNOW?
historic Ryman Auditorium to the Grand Ole
Opry House in 1974, a
6-foot circle of oak was
cut from the stage at
Ryman Auditorium and
inserted into the new
stage at The Grand Ole
Opry House. By preserving a piece of the Rymans stage, generations
of country music singers
can perform on the
wood where the genres
legends, including Hank
Williams and Johnny
Cash, once stood.
COURTESY OF PARADIGM TALENT AGENCY
MIKE FLOSS: This 24-year-old from East Nashville might be the next Nashville rapper to hit
the mainstream. Hes even made waves in
Music Citys rock scene, performing at Jack
Whites Third Man Records venue and teaming
with his band, The Dead Weather, on an unspecified project.
CINDY WATTS/
THE TENNESSEAN
SUBMITTED
JUDAH & THE LION: This Belmont Universitybred band whisks rock, country and Americana
sounds into their inspirational anthems, so we
can see where theyre coming from with their
new albums title, Folk Hop N Roll.
That Dave Cobb-produced effort hit stores
earlier in March, and the band is set to make a
big splash at Bonnaroo in the summer.
JULI THANKI AND DAVE PAULSON / THE TENNESSEAN
THE TENNESSEAN
THE TENNESSEAN
CHANGING SKYLINE
DOWNTOWN RENDERING COURTESY OF CENTRIC ARCHITECTURE; GOOGLE EARTH
Projects that are under construction or proposed to be built in downtown Nashville

NOTABLE
DOWNTOWN
NASHVILLE
BUILDINGS
#NEWNASHVILLE
A. Tennessee State
Capitol, 1859
B. Municipal
Auditorium, 1962
Pay to play
SUBMITTED
DID
A paperweight sat on George ArmisYOU

served
teads desk for 12 years while he
KNOW?
1987 to
on Nashville Metro Council from
99.
Is it best for Nashville? it read.
And thats really how I tried to vote
on different issues and tried to lead and
DID
tried to make a difference for our
city in
said.
the Metro Council, ArmisteadYOU
His tenure included constructing
KNOW?
Bridgestone Arena and luring major pro
sports teams, now recognized as catalysts in the citys downtown transformation. The venue is home to the NHLs
Nashville Predators franchise and home
a long menu of other events, like the annual CMA Awards.
We moved from tertiary status to
secondary, Armistead said. Its catapulted Nashville.
Community support wasnt universal,
and even Armisteads own family took
exception.
My parents were so mad at me
when I voted to help bring the Predators
and the Titans here because they were
concerned about taxes, he said. And I
explained to them we had to spend money to make money. And now is our
chance to bring Nashville out of obscurity.
While the redevelopment supercharged the local economy, the concerns
shared by Armisteads parents and others were well-founded.
The cost of living has soared.
A year ago, a penthouse condo in The
Gulch sold for more than $1 million.
Units in a new Music Row development
rent for between $1,700 and $5,300 a
month.
Recently, for the first time, a home in
Sylvan Park sold for the same amount.
Small one-bedroom apartments near
downtown rent for upwards of $2,000 a
month. Trendy East Nashville rates
among the hottest neighborhoods in
America, forcing those in search of
more affordable housing even farther
out of town. Gentrification in Germantown highlights the citys massive socioeconomic disparity.
Its gotten expensive, Armistead
said. You have to pay to play here.
Historically, stories of progress are
also often stories of those left behind.
SUBMITTED
DID
YOU
KNOW
?
1. 505
Paddlewheels
DID
and barges
YOU
KNOW?
The General Jackson
paddlewheeler was
launched in 1985 at a
shipyard in Jefferson, Ind.,
and the 330-foot-long
vessel had to sail 500 miles
down the Ohio, Tennessee
and Cumberland rivers to
get to its home at Opryland USA theme park. It
cost $12 million.
Developer:
Giarratana LLC and others
Type: Mixed-use
Location: 505 Church St.
Value: $69 million
Description: 550 residential units with the upper
third designed to be sold as
condos, up to 10,000 square
feet of restaurant space at
155 Fifth Ave. N. plus a pair
of roughly 800-square-foot
retail spaces at each corner
on Church Street.
Start Date: Underway
Completion Date:
Late 2017
HASTINGS ARCHITECTURE
GRESHAM SMITH AND PARTNERS
SUBMITTED
SUBMITTED
KEN GRAY
POLLACK SHORES
SUBMITTED
ASSOCIATES
2. Bridgestone
Americas corporate
headquarters
Developer:
Highwoods Properties
Type: Office
Location: 200 Fourth
Ave. S.
Value: $232 million
Description: 506,000
square feet of office space,
8,000 square feet of streetlevel retail space, 1,150
parking spaces
3. 1201 Demonbreun
4. 222 2nd
5. Thompson hotel
6. SoBro
Developer: Eakin Partners

Type: Office
Location: 1201
Demonbreun
Value: $95 million
Description: 15-story,
285,000-square-foot Class A
office tower with space for
a bank branch, restaurants
and a full-service fitness
facility.
Completion Date:
Fall
Developer:
Hines and C.B. Ragland Co.
Type: Mixed-use
Location: 222 Second Ave.
S.
Value: $100 million-plus
square feet of office space,
25,000 square feet of retail
space and garage space for
1,100 cars.
Completion Date:
mid-2017
Developer: Market Street

Enterprises, AJ Capital
Partners, The Berger Co.
Type: Hotel
Location: 401 11th Ave. S.
Value: N/A
Description: 224-room
lifestyle luxury
Completion Date:
Summer
Developer: Giarratana
Development, Magellan
Development Group,
Wanxiang America Real
Estate Group
Type: Apartment tower
Location:
205 Demonbreun St.
Value: $90 million
313-unit luxury apartment
building, 20,000 square feet
of retail and restaurants,
500 underground parking
spaces.
Completion Date:
December. Initial occupancy
August.
Completion Date: September 2017
7. The Westin
Nashville
Developer: Castlerock
Asset Management
Type: Hotel
Location: 807 Clark Place
(Across from Music City
Center)
Value: $110 million
Description: 454 rooms
and suites, 20,000 square
feet of flexible event space,
two signature restaurants, a
luxury spa
Completion Date: Fall
2016
8. The Gossett
Developer: Pollack Shores
Real Estate Group
Type: Mixed-use
Location: 1215 Church St.
Value: $80 million
Description: 376-unit
apartment complex with
9,000 square feet of retail
and parking garage
Opening Date: 2017
9. HCAs Sarah
Cannon and Parallon
headquarters
Developer: HCA
Type: Office
Location :
1100 Charlotte Ave.
Value: $200 million
(Estimated)
Description: 16-story
tower with more than
500,000 square feet of
office space
Completion Date:
End of year
C. William A.
Snodgrass
Tennessee Tower, 1970
D. Metro Courthouse
City Hall, 1936
E. Life & Casualty
Tower (L&C tower)
1957, the first skyscraper
in downtown
F. AT&T Building, also
known as the Batman
building, 1994
G. Ryman Auditorium,
also known as Mother
Church of Country
music, 1892
H. Bridgestone Arena,
1996
I. Frist Center for the
Visual Arts, 1932
J. Union Station Hotel,
1900
SOURCE: THE TENNESSEAN
K. Music City Center,

2013
L. Country Music Hall
of Fame and Museum,
2001
SUBMITTED
FILE /
THE TENNESSEAN
The General Jackson

passes under the Shelby
Street Bridge in 1985.
SUBMITTED
SUBMITTED
10. Cambria Suites

hotel
11. The Joseph

Nashville
12. New LifeWay

headquarters
Developer:
Fillmore Capital Partners
Type: Mixed-use hotel
Location:
118 Eighth Ave. S.
Value: $50 million
255-room hotel with 9,000
square feet of ground-floor
restaurant space and a
rooftop bar
Start Date: Early March
Completion Date:
Late 2017
Developer:
The Pizzuti Cos.
Type: Mixed-use
Location: 401 Fourth Ave. S
Value: $100 million-plus
Description: 300-room
luxury hotel with ballroom
space, 380 parking spaces,
restaurant and bar etc.
Start Date: Summer
Completion Date: 2018
Developer:
LifeWay with Boyle
Investment Co.
Type: Office
Location: 11th and
Jo Johnston avenues
Value: TBD
Description: Nine-story,
250,000-square-foot office
tower with conference
center and 9,000 square
feet of retail space
Start Date: May
Completion Date: Late
2017 or early 2018
SUBMITTED
13. Headquarters for

Barge Waggoner
Sumner Cannon
Developer:
The Mathews Co.
Type: Office
Location: 615 Third Ave. S.
Value: $38 million
square feet of office space
(10,000 square feet of
street-level space that could
be available for office or
retail use)
Start Date: Second quarter
Completion Date:
September 2017
ARQUITECTONICA TURNBERRY
ASSOCIATES
SUBMITTED
MICHAEL GRAVES AND

ASSOCIATES INC. / THOMAS,
MILLER & PARTNERS LLC
14. JW Marriott
Nashville
15. Tri-branded
Marriott hotels
16. New Nashville

federal courthouse
Developer:
Turnberry Associates
Type: Hotel
Location:
201 Eighth Ave. S.
Value: TBD
532-room hotel with
50,000 square feet
of meeting space
Start Date: TBD
Completion Date: TBD
Developer: North Point

Hospitality
Type: Hotels
Location: Fifth Avenue
South and Korean Veterans
Boulevard
Value: $120 million
Description: 455 hotel
rooms in an AC Hotel by
Marriott, Residence Inn by
Marriott and Spring Hill
Suites by Marriott
Start Date: Later this year
Completion Date:
Mid-2018
Developer: U.S. General

Services Administration
Type: Courthouse
Location: Church Street
between Seventh and
Eighth avenues
Value: $181.5 million
Description: Initial designs
called for a seven-story,
347,000-square-foot building.
Start Date: TBD
M. Schermerhorn
Symphony Center,
2006
GENSLER
MEEKS + PARTNERS
17. Fifth + Broadway
18. City Lights
Developer:
Oliver McMillan and
Spectrum | Emery
Type: Mixed-use
Location: 500 Broadway
(project) and 501 Commerce St. (office portion)
Value: $400 million
Description: 350,000 to
450,000 square feet for
office use, 230,000 square
feet for retail and entertainment, 350 residential
units plus parking.
Start Date: TBD
Developer: Houston-based
architect Don Meeks along
with three investors.
Type: Condos
Location: 20 Rutledge St.
Value: $50 million
Description: 71 condo units,
anchored by a restaurant
with a 1,500-square-foot
deck overlooking downtown
and the Cumberland River.
Start Date: August
Completion Date: End of
2017.
N. The Pinnacle, 2010

O. Ascend
Amphitheater, 2015
P. Nissan Stadium, 1999
*Dates are when
building was completed.
COMPILED BY GETAHN WARD /
THE TENNESSEAN
THE TENNESSEAN
Business
PHOTOS BY GEORGE WALKER IV / THE TENNESSEAN
Barber Joe Trotter cuts Larry Tyners hair at his Jefferson Street barbershop . Its a good thing, he said about newcomers. The dynamics of the old community have changed.
Entrepreneurs
set the tone for
the new Nashville
Five who started local companies weigh in
on the citys welcome of businesses
Amanda Havard
Co-founder of Health: ELT
Nashville is ever increasingly
becoming a great place to
start a business. There is a
plethora of talent there and
there is a lot of opportunity. ...
People who have opportunities at more established companies might be willing to take a
risk to come with you because its becoming a
cultural norm to work at a more interesting
company.
Nicolas Holland
Founder of CentreSource,
Populr.me and director of labs
at HubSpot
It felt very much like we had
something to prove. ... Every
hard-driving, hustling entrepreneur kind of had a chip on their shoulder, in terms of having to kind of defend their
decision for starting up here. ... That atmosphere in my opinion has really changed. ...
Nashville has a lot of entrepreneurial infrastructure now.
Marcus Whitney
President of Jumpstart Foundry and co-founder of Moontoast
Entrepreneurship has become a primary conversation
in Nashville, right along with
the great music scene and the great health
care scene. People think its really important
that Nashville be a very strong entrepreneurial
city, and I think we have invested correctly in
various community organizations that are
emphasizing that importance.
Josh Nickols
CEO of InvisionHeart
Its a very different and exciting city. There are a lot more
in the way of resources available to entrepreneurs the
(Nashville) Entrepreneur Center, the number
of people in town who are excited about early
stage companies and willing to be supportive
and champions of those companies. There are
more investor groups, more angel groups who
are coming in behind, so the likelihood of
succeeding with a startup here has increased
quite a lot since a decade ago.
Chris Hefley
CEO of LeanKit
Nashville is definitely a great
city to attract people to. As we
grow LeanKit, one of the
things we are doing is going
out and finding people that have the talent
we need Silicon Valley or the Northeast
and bringing them here. More and more, as
we get more and more successful tech companies and businesses like Leankit in Nashville,
then we will have more and more of that
talent level.
JAMIE MCGEE / THE TENNESSEAN
Buildings spring up along the east end of Jefferson Street in the booming Germantown neighborhood.
NEWCOMERS BRING LIFE

BACK TO HISTORIC STREET
GETAHN WARD GWARD@TENNESSEAN.COM AND LIZZY ALFS LALFS@TENNESSEAN.COM
wners are walking their dogs outside Joe Trotters barbershop on

Jefferson Street.
You didnt see it as much as you do
now, said the owner of Craighead Barber
Shop, talking about the variety of walkers
and joggers.
Theyre standard bearers for nearby
upcoming neighborhoods such as Germantown (getting its own Trader Joes)
that are extending their reach west along
Rosa L. Parks Boulevard into the heart of
the once-vibrant hub of Nashvilles African-American community.
In the quarter century after World War
II, Jefferson Street was the epicenter of
the black R&B music scene where stars
like Ray Charles, Etta James and an
emerging Jimi Hendrix performed.
Jefferson Streets heyday was followed by a post-integration downturn,
which began in the 1960s and was fueled in
part by construction of Interstate 40
through the area. That was the first dagger that caused the hemorrhage the exodus of middle-class consumers and clients, recalled Kwame Lillard, a civil
rights activist and area property owner.
That corridor was not the best corridor
for I-40 West.
Known most recently for barbershops,
beauty salons and fast food restaurants,
Jefferson Street now has businesses
opening, residential developments under
way and properties changing hands.
Internet marketing companies, a bike
shop and a new veterinary practice are
setting up shop and bringing fresh life to
one of the last thoroughfares to feel the
Nashville boom.
Newcomers to the area include Eva Evans, who bought a 1930s building at 1016
Jefferson St. to open a veterinary practice
targeting young professionals moving to
nearby neighborhoods.
Jefferson Street right now is in the beginning of this whole innovation, so its
kind of an exciting place to be and time to
be here to kind of get in at the ground floor
when things are starting to establish, Evans said.
The new interest puts Jefferson Street
on the front line of issues reverberating
across other Nashville communities.
Some Jefferson Street business own-
ers and nearby residents worry about the

street maintaining its identity amidst
growth.
I call it Caucasian re-invasion, Lillard said. The word gentrification is too
innocent, too deceptive. Its really a land
grab and a push out ethnic and economic cleansing.
Rosetta Perry, publisher of the blackowned Tennessee Tribune newspaper,
with offices on Jefferson Street, sees
things differently. Maybe we need to
lose some of our identity, so we look like
the rest of Nashville, she said. We dont
have to keep rundown buildings, because
Jefferson Street looked better 50 years
ago. You cant stop people from buying
property and putting what they want
there.
Like other small-business owners, Evans cited affordability as a reason she
chose to invest on the street.
When I looked at the cost of leasing
(in Germantown) for five years plus the
renovations to build out the space, it was
DID
the same as if I bought this whole
thing in
cash, Evans said.
YOU
For Evans, the makeup ofKNOW?
the surrounding neighborhoods underpins the
logic of that location.
Those young professionals that are
single and dont have kids yet they have
time and
pets, theyre willing to investDID
they want the best service and health
said.
care for their animals, EvansYOU
KNOW?
Trotter of Craighead Barber
Shop
said hes picked up a few new clients. Its
a good thing, he said. The dynamics of
the old community have changed.
At-Large Metro Councilwoman Sharon Hurt expects the area to always be
known as historic Jefferson Street as
long as mainstays like historically black
Fisk University, Meharry Medical College, Tennessee State University and
stalwart area churches remain.
I dont think its ever going to be what
it once was, but it can be vibrant again,
Hurt said about Jefferson Street. Its
possible where we celebrate our history
and honor our heritage, but we also have
to embrace our future. We have to not be
victims of our past, but victors where we
all work together for the betterment of
the community at large.
Nashville veterinarian
Eva Evans is looking
forward to opening her
practice in this building
on Jefferson Street.
DID
YOU
KNOW
?
Jefferson Street
DID
Jefferson
Street was one
YOU
Americas best-known
of KNOW?
districts of jazz, blues and
rhythm & blues from the
1940s through the early
1960s, with famous musicians including Little
Richard, Jimi Hendrix, Ray
Charles, Fats Domino and
Memphis Slim performing in the many clubs
there.
MARY HANCE /
THE TENNESSEAN
Eric Jackson
kayaks at Rock
Island State Park
in Middle
Tennessee.
Serving the people

of the Tennessee
River Valley
SPONSORED BY THE
TENNESSEE VALLEY
AUTHORITY
PHOTO BY SHELLEY MAYS / THE TENNESSEAN
who we are as Tennesseans.
In our state, they help shape
of balance and the horizon.
They challenge our reference points
mundane hours we churn on land.
Rivers are an escape from the
relative safety of our dirt-born lives.
Water removes us from the
Still, we are drawn to them.
Rivers don't care.
they leave their banks.
We dam them and
Sources of food.
Barriers and escape routes.
They are commerce and recreation.
Rivers connect us.
ROOTED
BY THE
WATER
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016
USA TODAY NETWORK TENNESSEE
JESSICA TEZAK / USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
Katie Tuten, left, and Sarah Pridham, both of Atlanta, propel a paddleboard on Norris Lake, the first lake created when the Tennessee Valley Authority began building dams in the 1930s.
TVAS IMPACT ON ALL TENNESSEANS
SHAPING OUR WATER

LINDA LANGE AND STEVE AHILLEN
FOR USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
xplaining the Tennessee

Valley Authority seemed a
simple task for Ernie Pyle. In
his 1935 article No Flood
of Worry, the national
newspaper columnist who
later became one of this
nations most famed war correspondents
wrote, TVA is one of those things that
everybody knows exist but few people
(outside this valley) seem to make head
or tail of. There is no flood worry on the
upper Clinch River. That is the sense of
Norris Dam. There were floods. Then,
SAUL YOUNG / USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
thanks to TVA, there werent.
Flood gates spill water at Norris Dam, the first dam TVA built.
Opponents of TVA there at its inception May 18,

1933, and there today have hardly seen it as that simple. From items as small as the snail darter to those as
large as its CEOs $6.4 million compensation package,
TVA has been a magnet for controversy.
But detractors and supporters alike agree on this:
TVA has changed the state, helped define its history
and altered its geography like no other man-made entity.
From that first dam project to construct Norris
Lake just north of Knoxville, TVA has created reservoirs that encompass 650,000 surface acres of water,
producing 11,000 miles of shoreline. The federal agency produces our electricity, runs campgrounds and
helped the state attract business and industry.
The authority was born of different times. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt built up public works programs in an attempt to lift America from the Great Depression, he signed the TVA Act, a measure sponsored
by Sen. George W. Norris, a progressive Republican
from Nebraska.
The problem was clear enough. Climate conditions
in eastern Tennessee hot and cold air masses colliding, occasional spinoffs from coastal hurricanes
made a perfect storm for storms of all shapes and
sizes.
There was much debate even then on whether the
government should get involved in the dam-building
and utility businesses.
Plans to build massive reservoirs also involved displacing the farms and villages that would soon be underwater. TVA records show 15,654 families were relocated. The stories and songs of lost farms and homes,
many that had been in families for generations, are
testament to the large, often unwanted sacrifices
made by many.
TVA key facts

TVAs retail electricity
rates are the 33rd lowest
among the nations 100
largest utilities.
TVA accounts for more
than 3 percent of the
nations energy
production. It sold more
than 158 billion kilowatt
hours of electricity in
2015.
The Tennessee River
was once too shallow in
parts to handle barge
traffic. With the
construction of nine
dams along the main
river and a lock system
for each of those, the
river offers navigable
water at least 11 feet
deep for 652 miles.
TVA has done much to
improve recreational
options and activities in
the region, building
parks such as Big Ridge
and Norris Dam. It has
229,000 acres of
undeveloped lands
available for hunting and
fishing.
Butler, Tenn., an incorporated, often-flooded town

of 600 homes near Elizabethton, was moved to make
way for Watauga Dam, which was finished in 1948.
By contrast the small town of Norris, Tenn., north of
Knoxville, owes its birth to TVA, which built it as part
of the Norris Dam project in 1936.
TVA would eventually own 29 hydroelectric dams
spanning parts of a seven-state region built to control
flooding and provide power.
TVA has become the largest public power utility in
the United States, serving 9 million people. In addition
to the dams, it owns eight fossil fuel plants, three nuclear plants, a pumped storage hydroelectric plant,
nine natural gas-combustion-turbine plants, seven
natural gas combined-cycle plants, a diesel-generator
site, 14 solar energy sites and a wind energy site.
But TVA has come under regular and intense criticism for its environmental stewardship from the
pollutants its coal-fired power plants spew into the air
to the coal ash those plants produce as waste. In 2008, a
dike broke at a coal ash storage pond in Kingston,
Tenn., spilling 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash. It
was one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation. TVA has spent more than $1 billion cleaning up
from the spill.
Author James Agee in a 1933 article for Fortune
magazine wrote, TVA has swung a bold foot through a
beehive of problems both practical and ethical, of significance not merely in themselves but as they apply
to the whole theory of relationships between private
and public interests.
The beehive still buzzes, even as TVAs huge stamp
on Tennessees rivers grows. Now, the authority is so
engrained into the waterways of the state that its seldom possible to discuss one without the other.
Credits
President, USA TODAY
NETWORK Tennessee
Laura Hollingsworth
Vice President/News
Michael A. Anastasi
Section editor
Reporters
Duane W. Gang
Steve Ahillen
Jamie McGee
Mike Brown
Brad Vest
Karen Grigsby
Visuals editor
Stacey Barchenger
Holly Meyer
Paul Efird
George Walker IV
Designer
Marcia Prouse
Jessica Bliss
Jim Myers
Shelley Mays
Saul Young
Bill Campling
Tom Charlier
Brad Schmitt
Larry McCormack
Amy Smotherman
Burgess
Graphics
Linda Lange
Photographers
Andrew Nelles
Producer
Kent Travis
PHOTOS BY LARRY MCCORMACK / USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
David Miget and other crew members wear life jackets as they work on the James Paul Ayers towboat on the Cumberland River, since they are always very close to the sides of the ship.
ON THE CUMBERLAND RIVER
A CAPTAINS JOURNEY
BRAD SCHMITT USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
ts a giant game of water Tetris. As the

towboat churns up the Cumberland River,
it starts passing dozens of bunches of
barges tied up along the riverfront. Theres
a break in the barges, a space just slightly
longer than the towboat.
Capt. Todd Butts has to slide his towboat into that tight
gap, but it isnt a big deal for the guy with 16 years of experience
steering 4,000-horsepower water crafts.
Just parallel parking, he says softly with a wry smile.
The parallel parking job takes about 20 minutes before deck
hands start lashing a group of 15 barges three wide and five
deep, all but one empty to the towboat.
The crew has been charged with dropping off three just over
the Kentucky state line before taking the rest upriver to Paducah,
Ky.
Butts and his fellow barge captains and crews push 22 million
tons of sand, coal, scrap metal and other material each year on the
Cumberland River.
River traffic remains vital to the Middle Tennessee economy,
offering a cheaper, more efficient and environmentally friendly
means of moving cargo than, say, a fleet of trucks.
From an air-conditioned, wood-paneled wheelhouse atop the
towboat, Butts, 47, looks out the front window at his crew.
Wheres that mans gloves at? he says easily in a deep voice
with a Southern accent. He needs some gloves on.
Word spreads on portable radios until that worker is wearing
gloves.
Butts smiles an easy smile. He loves being outside and enjoys
running the towboat and its crew, a role that is so much more than
a job.
For six months a year like most towboat crew members
his job is his life. The men work 30 days on, 30 days off, and most
talk about having two families, one on land, the other on water.
The schedule is what attracted Butts to towboats in the first
place, 28 years ago, when hed just turned 20.
Two weeks before I first got on a towboat, I didnt know what a
towboat was, Butts said.
He had a friend in his hometown of Cadiz, Ky., about 83 miles
northwest of Nashville, who worked on a towboat. Butts loved his
buddys work cycle. The way he saw it, his friend got six months
off each year to hunt and fish and play golf.
Turns out it wasnt only the schedule Butts liked. He enjoyed
being out on the river, no matter what the weather was.
It grew on me quick, he said. I knew pretty quick Id be doing
this the rest of my life.
950
Captains,
mates and
water vessel
pilots
$85,600:
Annual
mean wage
1,060
Sailors and
marine oilers
$40,180:
Annual
mean wage
360
Ship
engineers
$65,650:
Annual
mean wage
$8.2
billion
Economic
impact
generated
by 1,046
miles of
navigable
waterways
and ports
34.4
million
Tons of
cargo
moved by
Tennessee
waterways
Like driving a car on ice

When it comes to steering, technology helps.
Theres a giant GPS screen that shows where the boat
will be in 90 seconds.
On a towboat, you have to think that far ahead to turn
effectively with 1,000 feet of barges more than three
football fields long in front of you.
Its like driving a car on ice, Capt. Todd Butts said.
You drift.
If the barges are empty and there is strong wind, well,
it turns it into a whole new ballgame, he said.
The good-guy dad

There are some downsides of being on the river,
though.
Butts said he asks his wife to be the disciplinarian for
the kids.
I dont want to come home and be the bad guy. But it
dont always work out that way.
While working, Butts calls home daily, talking at
length with his wife and speaking briefly with the kids.
Its like, Hi Dad! I love you. Wish you were home. Im
going to play. Bye.
Those dang swimmers and boaters!

Its really tough for captains to see swimmers and small
boats, so binoculars are used often in the wheelhouse.
The scary part is that it takes about a half-mile for
towboats pushing barges to stop. The captain hits five
short blasts on a horn to warn boaters and swimmers hes
coming. If a ski boat stalls in front of them, well, its a lot
of stress.
If theres an emergency, crew members sprint the
length of the barges to help stalled boaters or swimmers
in distress.
It sure is pretty out there

When the sun or clouds hit the river a certain way, its
absolutely breathtaking.
Thats when Butts takes out his cellphone and starts
taking pictures.
My wife, she tells me, You take the most awesome
pictures of nature and outdoors, but you cant take a
picture of a person. Its a train wreck, Butts said,
smiling.
His river pics on Facebook have caught the attention of
some hometown friends. A board member at the Janice
Mason Art Museum in Cadiz, Ky., has promised Butts his
own show soon to display those pictures.
Pretty neat, Butts said.
Capt. Todd Butts has many years in the wheelhouse of

towboats, including the James Paul Ayers. Like most towboat
crew members, six months a year his job is his life.
Michael Goff, left, and Jared Henderson work to tie barges together for the trip down the
Cumberland River near Nashville.
PHOTOS BY MIKE BROWN / USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
Cathy Fowler from Blythe, Ga., reads on the sundeck of the American Queen as it makes its way down the Mississippi River from New Madrid, Mo., to Memphis.
RIVER CRUISES MAKE RESURGENCE
MISSISSIPPI QUEEN
TOM CHARLIER USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
nder a late afternoon sky that soon

will give way to a twinkling canopy
of stars, the American Queen rounds
a sandy, sinuous bend as it churns
south on the Mississippi River at 14
miles an hour, a leisurely speed that
suits Herb Hodus just fine.
One of 389 passengers on board, the 86-year-old retiree from Delray Beach, Fla., sits in the Chart Room of the six-deck riverboat playing bridge with his wife and two other family members. As the hours
tick away, the group continues with what they call their afternoon
activity, paying little attention to a GPS monitor thats mounted on a
shelf and tracks the vessels progress.
This is a real sleepy trip for me, Hodus said. Sometimes youve
got to slow down.
The languid pace certainly permeates the passenger areas of the
American Queen. But theres nothing relaxed about the activity going on behind the scenes on the vessel, the largest and most elegant
paddle-wheeler ever built.
Some 165 crew members everyone from engineers and emergency medical technicians to sous chefs and band directors attend
to passengers needs. Once the boat arrives at Memphis, caravans of
golf carts navigate the spiral ramp at Beale Street Landing to load the
vessel with some of the 400 pounds of bacon, 900 pounds of chicken,
240 pounds of salmon, 160 pounds of coffee, 8,600 eggs and 300 quarts
of ice cream consumed on each cruise. A service boat pulls up to
pump about 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel.
Since their reappearance on the Mississippi in 2012 after a fouryear absence, long-distance river cruise boats such as the American
Queen have infused new life into the Memphis economy. More than
that, theyve brought renewed attention to the Mississippis historic
importance to the city.
Rivers have played vital roles in the establishment, growth and
prosperity of cities across Tennessee, but probably none as much as
Memphis.
Generations have passed since the economy, culture and social
life of Memphis centered on the steamboats arriving regularly on the
citys old cobblestone landing. But the Mississippi remains a vital asset, accommodating four main Memphis harbors that, together, support about 20,000 jobs and generate an $8.46 billion annual economic
impact, according to a 2014 study. Memphis industrial operations
that include a steel mill and food products facilities all depend on the
river.
But if the new industrial shipping trends represent a revolution,
the resurgence of river cruise vessels is something of a counter-revolution.
A throwback to the steamboats of yore, the new cruise vessels are
building on the Mississippis benefits to Memphis. During 2016, more
than 16,000 people will board the 43 cruises on four boats leaving out
of Memphis, dominated by the locally based American Queen and a
second company, American Cruise Lines, which operates the Queen
of the Mississippi and America. Next year, 64 cruises by five boats
are slated to leave the city, carrying more than 20,000 passengers.
The growth is expected to continue, and even accelerate. Viking
River Cruises has announced plans to bring as many as six 300-passenger vessels to the Mississippi within the next two years.
In the meantime, a local company, Memphis Riverboats Inc.,
launched in 1955, continues to operate local excursion and dinner
cruises.
According to a study published last year, the new riverboats produce $36.4 million a year in economic benefits for Memphis, a sum
projected to grow to $41 million in 2017.
We think it could easily be pushing $80 million in the next five to
10 years, said Benny Lendermon, president of the Riverfront Development Corp., a nonprofit firm that runs Beale Street Landing as well
as parks along the Mississippi under a contract with Memphis.
Its like bringing in a major industry that didnt exist before.
Back aboard the American Queen, Gaile and George Cousens,
both 78 and from New York state, were planning to visit Graceland
once the vessel reached Memphis. Have to go see Elvis, Gaile Cou-
Crew members of the American Queen work to pull one of the boarding
ramps back onto the bow of the boat as it leaves port in New Madrid, Mo.
A rainbow appears in the spray from the paddle wheel as the American
Queen steamboat makes its way down the Mississippi River.
sens said.
Tourists from as far away as Switzerland and New Zealand can be
found on the American Queen.
Jerry Hay, the riverlorian who gives talks about the Mississippis history and geography, attributes the rivers allure mainly to one
author.
When people come to the U.S., they want to see Mark Twains Mississippi, he said. Mark Twain put the Mississippi on the world
map.
To be sure, long stretches of the river along Tennessee, Arkansas
and Mississippi appear little changed from Twains era of the 19th
century. With levees moved miles back from the bank in many areas,
the flood-prone land along the Mississippi has largely reverted to nature. Theres but one bridge between Cairo, Ill., and Memphis, and
long stretches of forest line the banks.
Some passengers are surprised by the remoteness of the countryside surrounding the river.
I didnt realize there was so little population here, said Roswitha
McDonald, 72, of Brisbane, Australia, as she enjoyed the small swimming pool on the top deck.
We came because of the music. We love the blues, country and all
that, said McDonald, who was traveling with Janice Craig, 62, of
Tauranga, New Zealand.
As daylight fades, the quiet of the river is broken only by the
thrashing of the paddlewheel. The brilliant sunset is replaced by a
night sky uncluttered with city lights.
Its a way of travel that some passengers find addicting.
I havent gotten tired of it yet, said 79-year-old Minnesota native
Eugene Hansen, as he sat in a chair swing on deck.
PHOTOS BY SHELLEY MAYS / USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
For world champion kayaker Eric Jackson, the choice for his home came down to outdoor haven Hood River, Oregon, and a rural area in Middle Tennessee near Rock Island State Park.
ROCK ISLAND STATE PARK
BLAZING PADDLES
JAMIE MCGEE USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
or world champion kayaker Eric

Jackson, the choice for his home came
down to outdoor haven Hood River,
Oregon, and an unknown, rural area in
Middle Tennessee called Rock Island,
just outside economically distressed
White County.
In what would become a game-changing decision for White County and surrounding communities, Jackson, his wife and two young
kids drove their RV trailer to Tennessee, drawn by a particular rapid
in the Caney Fork River that would allow him to train year-round.
Fourteen years later, 175 local workers are employed by kayak
manufacturer Jackson Kayak in Sparta, Tenn., and a second plant is
underway. Where whitewater and recreational paddlers were once a
rarity, they are now a regular presence on the Caney Fork and its
tributaries throughout the summer months.
Meanwhile, new businesses have sprung up to take advantage of
the growing demand for boating hobbies. A place that was largely
unknown to paddlers is visited by professional kayakers from
around the world for global competitions, fueling the local economy
with an influx of visitors.
All of it points back to Jackson.
Its all his fault. He was the catalyst, said John Binkley, who
launched a recreational kayaking business down the street from
Jacksons home called The Happy Yaker. He has changed the culture, not just in creating jobs and things like that with the factory, but
everybody is kayaking now.
Against the backdrop of twin waterfalls rushing into the Caney
Fork River, Jackson effortlessly paddles his kayak atop a wave to
surf, releasing one hand from his paddle to flash a thumbs-up and a
big smile to those watching him from the riverbank.
He is joined by a handful of young paddlers, including a teenager

who is interning at Jackson Kayak. They cheer each other on as they
take turns flipping and cartwheeling their boats in the main rapid.
On land, Jackson speaks earnestly about his company and the value of Tennessees rivers. But in the water he is clearly enjoying himself, dunking his younger peers and performing tricks.
In the nearby parking lot, Matt Cunningham, who works in customer service for Jackson Kayak, shares the names of colleagues
who found jobs at Jackson Kayak after their previous employer, Philips Lighting, left Sparta .
Nearly 300 workers lost jobs when the company moved to Mexico,
a departure announced in 2010, according to local media reports . In
2005, the county lost its then-largest employer, Emerson Appliance
Controls, where 500 people worked.
Similarly, Cunningham commuted to a manufacturing company,
Honeywell, in Murfreesboro before his job was transferred to Mexico, he said. When he found a job at Jackson Kayak the next year, it
was a big relief, he said.
Jackson Kayak sells its boats through Caney Fork Outdoors and
Chattanooga-based Rock Creek Outfitters and generates $20 million
in annual revenue. The kayaks are high-end, with whitewater models
starting at $700. The company also makes recreational, fishing and
hunting kayaks, as well as paddleboards and specialty coolers under
the Orion Coolers brand.
Jackson Kayak doesnt advertise. Instead, kayakers see his boats
at competitions or online. Jackson has taken advantage of the branding power of social media as videos of his stunts and those of his
now-grown kids are able to reach a wide audience.
Employees in Sparta mold and assemble boats, and work on research and development, maintenance and customer service in a
building that used be home to Philips Lighting.
With $1.25 million in grants from the Tennessee Economic and
Community Development office, Jackson Kayak is renovating the
building while it builds a second facility in Sparta that together could
add 200 jobs in the coming years.
Our objective is to employ our community, Jackson said. Weve
got an amazing pool of talent to pool from that used to be at Philips.
Were just beginning here, he said. We are not going anywhere.
Eric Jackson kayaks at Twin Falls in Rock Island

State Park.
Eric Jacksons daughter Emily Jackson Troutman and her son, Tucker, prepare to kayak at Rock Island in August.
SHELLEY MAYS / USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
Makiya Ammons, 12, of New Hope Middle School in Whitfield County, Ga., snorkels in the Conasauga River in Tennessee during a school trip to the Cherokee National Forest.
PRESERVING THE ECOSYSTEM
RIVER GORGE EXPLORER BOAT RIDE
AQUA TEAM
HOLLY MEYER USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
quatic conservation biologist Bernie

Kuhajda thinks of the endangered blue
shiner, a small freshwater fish that
grows to be about three-and-a-half
inches long, as if it were a brick in the
foundation of an ecosystem.
River
life
320
species
of fish
200
species
of snails
180
species of
mussels
90
species of
crayfish
Pull enough bricks from a foundation and the

building eventually collapses, said Kuhajda, a
scientist at the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, the
Chattanooga-based aquariums research arm. It is one of the key
players in the state working to protect and restore the regions
vast aquatic biodiversity.
Every time you lose a species that ecosystem gets a little
weaker, Kuhajda said. You remove enough species that ecosystem is not going to function properly and were going to have
to pay more for clean water at our water treatment plants and
our air quality is going to become less viable for humans.
The Southeast has the greatest aquatic biodiversity of any
temperate climate in the world, and Tennessee is home to hundreds of species of mussels, crayfish, snails and freshwater fish,
Kuhajda said.
Anna George, the director and chief research scientist at the
conservation institute, has another way to describe Tennessees
rivers and waterways.
Think of them as an underwater rain forest.
The aquarium has worked for about 25 years to educate the
public about it, and this fall it opened the doors to a new $5 million
research facility to further conservation efforts, George said.
Were going to start doing more active protection, she said.
We can take all of these things that happened in little nooks and
crannies around the aquarium and give them a permanent home,
give that a place for the public to see and to be inspired by that
work as well.
On a warm August morning, Kuhajda and a small group of
aquarium staff waded into the cool Conasauga River southeast
of Cleveland, Tenn., with a fishing net and cameras. They were
looking for blue shiners near the popular freshwater snorkeling
site in the Cherokee National Forest. It didnt take long before
Kuhajda had scooped a few out of the net and was pointing out
their distinct features as they squirmed inside the handheld
aquarium.
Kuhajda received a grant to survey six threatened and endangered species, including the blue shiner. For about two years, he
will search for the fish in rivers in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama and determine the health of the species for the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service.
If theyre missing from populations and their numbers are
really low, then that sends up a red flag and then we try to figure
out what the cause is, Kuhajda said.
Habitat loss and damage are the greatest threats to aquatic
animals, Kuhajda said. From pollutants such as oil in parking lots
to waste from a chicken farm, everything in a watershed eventually finds its way to a river and can degrade it. Cars and chickens
are necessary, but using best management practices can help
balance human needs and environmental impacts, he said.
Dams have changed rivers from a mix of depth and speed to
just deep lakes, which is not ideal habitat for much of the states
fish species. Fragmentation also reduces genetic diversity.
Now you just have these isolated populations in the tributaries to these reservoirs and they dont get any more genetic exchange so their genetics start becoming less diverse and the population starts diminishing, Kuhajda said.
Kuhajda also thinks humans have a moral responsibility to
preserve their natural heritage.
We are the most intelligent creatures on the planet earth and
do we really want to cause other creatures we share this planet
with to go extinct? he said. Is that really the legacy we want to
leave for our children and grandchildren?
PAUL EFIRD / USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
Tennessee Aquarium River Gorge Explorer carries up to 70 passengers

on a 24-mile, round-trip ride through part of the Tennessee River Gorge.
GORGEOUS GORGE
There are few things as rewarding as

seeing that light of understanding come
on in a childs eyes, Capt. Pete
Hosemann says. He has seen that light
often over the past eight years as he has
captained the River Gorge Explorer
along a beautiful stretch of the
Tennessee River.
As an attraction of the Tennessee Aquarium, the

Explorer is a one-of-a-kind, $2.9 million boat that
takes visitors on a 24-mile, round-trip ride through
part of the Tennessee River Gorge, a protected
stretch of the river so unspoiled and beautiful that
it is known as Tennessees Grand Canyon.
Because of the steepness of the gorge and its
height from sea level, sunlight hits parts of the
gorge and not others, says Hosemann, who has
been piloting boats for more than 40 years on rivers throughout the Eastern United States. Because of that, we have quite a variance in both flora and fauna. There is a greater variety of hardwood trees in the gorge than anywhere else in the
United States. It is one of the most beautiful navigable waterways in the country.
The boat, operating since 2008, is a wonder
with the ability to hit 55 mph, carry 70 passengers, stop and turn nearly at will, and move in less
than 3 feet of water.
We recognized the uniqueness of the gorge,
but a conventional boat would have needed three
to five hours (for a tour like this), says Hosemann, who was in on the Explorer at its inception.
The unique ability of this boat makes this whole
operation feasible.
The Explorer also takes winter cruises, usually starting around the end of December to see the
sandhill cranes at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge.
We have been there at times when there are
10,000 cranes in the area, plus a dozen or more
bald eagles, and maybe a whooping crane or other
birds that follow the cranes, Hosemann says. It
can be quite a sight.
A scenic
river
The
Tennessee
River
running
through
Chattanooga
and the
Tennessee
River Gorge
was
designated a
National
Scenic River
Trail in 2002.
Called the
Tennessee
River
Blueway, it
stretches
from
Chickamauga
Dam to
Nickajack
Dam.
MIKE BROWN / USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
The sun sets on the Hatchie National Wildlife Reserve near Brownsville, Tennessee.
POLLUTION STILL PLAGUES WATERWAYS
ITS NOT
EASY BEING
CLEAN
veteran of hundreds of water cleanups

in 20 states, Chad Pregracke had
pulled refrigerators, mattresses, tires
and even cars out of rivers from the
Potomac to the Missouri and figured
hed seen the nastiest pollution
imaginable. Then he came to Memphis.
It was by far the worst Id ever seen, said Pregracke, founder
and president of the conservation group Living Lands & Waters, referring to his initial 2011 visit to a harbor on the Mississippi River in
Memphis.
The scene that greeted Pregracke and his group in McKellar Lake
that March day was indeed stunning: acres and acres of floating
trash that had gathered into mats covering one end of the harbor.
They had to get bulldozers down on the levee to push the trash
into piles, Pregracke said.
The refuse that had washed into the harbor from Memphis stormwater system and a creek draining much of the city represented one
of the most dramatic examples of the environmental challenges still
facing rivers in West Tennessee. But it was hardly the only one.
Sewage pollution continues to plague the Mississippi at Memphis,
as well as some local tributaries. Trash and sediment still pour into
the Wolf and Hatchie rivers, and invasive species threaten the ecosystem of the entire Mississippi River.
Local and state governments, however, have made significant
progress in cleaning up rivers. The city of Memphis is spending $250
million over a 10-year period to eliminate sewage spills and better
treat the effluent discharged into the Mississippi. The city also is installing trash-corralling equipment in its harbors to eliminate unsightly pollution. Meanwhile, the state of Tennessee recently
dropped plans to discharge treated sewage from a proposed industrial megasite into the pristine Hatchie River.
At McKellar Lake, a slack water harbor in southwest Memphis
that serves as the citys main port on the Mississippi, Pregrackes

Living Lands & Waters group over the past five years has removed
more than 730,000 pounds of trash during annual campaigns involving students on spring break.
Today, the harbor is considerably cleaner as a result. And its
about to improve even more.
At a cost of $319,000, the city is installing a network of booms tethered to the shore and anchored to floating platforms to capture the
trash washing into the harbor from Nonconnah Creek. Before that
work is finished, Memphis will be selecting a contractor to regularly
remove the refuse corralled by the booms.
Trash may be unsightly, but its the Memphis wastewater system
that poses perhaps an even greater environmental challenge on the
Mississippi.
For years, sewage system overflows caused by rainwater infiltration and leaks sent untreated waste into local tributaries and the Mississippi. The system suffered catastrophic breakdowns during historic rainstorms in March, resulting in two massive leaks that
spewed hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into Cypress
Creek, McKellar Lake and the Loosahatchie River.
Also, while the citys two treatment plants break down and clarify
wastewater, they dont disinfect the 150 million gallons of effluent
discharged into the Mississippi daily. The rivers immense flow
eventually dilutes bacteria to safe levels, but with recreation on the
rise, officials worry that kayakers and others could be put at risk.
Under a consent order with environmental groups and regulators,
Memphis is spending about $25 million a year in a decade-long campaign to upgrade its wastewater system and eliminate spills.
Another environmental menace thats not restricted to the Memphis area comes from exotic fish species that have invaded the entire
Mississippi River.
Asian carp species such as the bighead and silver carp were introduced to the U.S. more than 40 years ago to control weeds and parasites in fish farms. The carp eventually escaped into the Mississippi, where they established breeding populations and expanded their
range to as far north as Minnesota.
But commercial fishermen like Darrell Butler, of Obion, Tenn.,
are trying to rebuff the carp invasion. During a recent afternoon on a
portion of the Mississippi in northwest Tennessee, he finished catching about 5,000 of the carp with the same kind of gill nets used to
harvest other species. He then shipped them by truck to a processing
plant in nearby Samburg, Tenn., where theyre gutted and frozen for
export to Chinese customers who consider the fish a delicacy.
One river that remains notably clean, however, is the Hatchie,
which flows 238 miles from north Mississippi across West Tennessee
before emptying into the Mississippi west of Covington. The longest
free-flowing tributary to the Lower Mississippi, it has the largest forested flood plain of any river in Tennessee and hosts an almost unparalleled variety of fish and aquatic life. Its also the only West Tennessee stream designated as a scenic river under the state Wild
and Scenic Rivers Act.
Still, the Hatchie remains vulnerable to environmental threats.
Silt and sand washing in from channelized tributaries have made the
river shallower and broader and harmed trees lining its banks.
The Hatchie needs to preserved as an asset for tourists and recreation, rather than used as a dumping ground, said Mike Butler,
chief executive officer of the Tennessee Wildlife Federation.
BRAD VEST / USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
An egret flies over the Hatchie River upstream from the Lower Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge. The
wildlife refuge consists of 9,451 acres of land in Lauderdale and Tipton counties.
A dragonfly perches atop a closed flower from a water lily inside

the Hatchie National Wildlife Reserve.
Oh, continent, what are these waters that curry favor as quickly as they whisk it away? Rivers, whispers the immortal stone.
Becky Stratton watches the sun set over the fog-covered Clinch River near
Norris, Tenn. Stratton was fishing for trout with friends below Norris Dam.
jim myers
Columnist
jtmyers@tennessean.com
WHERE THE
RIVERS RUN
ivers are the emotional arteries of
Tennessee. Their pulse is our pulse.
A contemporary roll call of Tennessees
crossroads reads like a riverbank
directory. Make a list of the cities and a
river runs through it. Bristol. Kingsport.
Knoxville. Chattanooga. Murfreesboro.
Nashville. Clarksville. Jackson. Memphis.
Rachael McCampbell, right, hosts a summer party with friends in a creek behind her Leipers Fork home. Outdoor chairs and tables were placed in the middle of the creek for the creek party.
ANDREW NELLES / USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
Commercial fisherman Dennis Duncan tosses an Asian carp into a bin on his boat while bringing in his
catch from Hickman Creek in Dover, Tenn.
Qamra Muhammad, 14, has clay from the bottom of the Mississippi River smeared on her face
while playing in the river during a guided canoe trip near Memphis.
Charlie Floyd flies an amphibian light sport aircraft over Old Hickory Lake, part of the Cumberland River near Nashville.
Send the arrow of time back further still, before the concrete and glass,
and the calls of the original people sing like our states own name.
Say them out loud.
Cherokee. Yuchi. Koasati. Shawnee. Chickasaw. Quapaw.
Say the place name, Tennessee, a name forever locked in the tears of an
inglorious past that trailed into the rivers, begging passage to the salt of
the oceans.
From the first people to the first Europeans, from the first slaves to the
last refugees, the rivers connect us.
Rivers are the sums of their opposing banks. They are commerce and
recreation. Barriers and escape routes. Sources of food and waste receptacles. We dam them and they leave their banks. Rivers dont care.
Beautiful and dangerous, they act as moving reminders of the plasticity
of matter. Shape-shifting their banks, they allow us to bear witness to geological evolution, finding ways to teach us lessons in both patience and urgency.
Rivers have the capacity to erode the past, drown the present and carry
us to our future. They are as mutable as we are fallible, and that may be
why we are drawn to their banks and feel the kinship of the currents.
Rivers are the conduits of our dreams.
Tennessee, the state and its people, remain as inextricably linked to our
rivers as we are to soil and stone. Our abundance of fresh waterways creates a crazed landscape of springs, streams and creeks. They in turn feed
the broad, meandering ribbons that softly cleave the states three grand
divisions. We speak like rivers.
East Tennessee babbles in cold, clearwater tenors, reflecting light like
still-run whiskey. Rivers fall with steep, untrusting urgency. They cascade
and reel in small drops, joining to form a roaring bass line. They thundershake the boulders strewn in their way.
Moving west, where mountains give way to plateaus, the land is pushed
from below by the backs of unseen giants. Water seeks its level, and a new
mean carves deep canyons that fracture the edges of the land.
Middle Tennessees low-slung hills are cut and channeled by the creeks
and rivers that gouge the hollows and carve steep faces of limestone. Gravel bars are convening places for the detritus of time, accruing on the inside
edges of omega bends, giving audience to the silent bluffs.
With few exceptions, almost all of the riparian roads lead to the Cumberland and the Tennessee. Those are the great basins that drain the state,
connecting the three cultural provinces from east to west, south to north.
Further still, our western border contorts to the turns and whims of the
most grand, the Mississippi. It trundles and roils, as muddy and wide as the
delta fields it leaves behind.
The people of West Tennessee swallow sounds, channeling their words
into deep eddies that trap emotions, eventually releasing them into blue
song. Opaque waters lap at the soft banks, spilling truths by the bar while
oxbow lakes lay within sight of the current, imprisoned by the silt deposits
of other lands far away.
We are drawn to the rivers because water removes us from the relative
safety of our dirt-born lives. Rivers are an escape from the mundane, from
the hours we churn on land. They challenge our reference points of balance
and the horizon.
That is the ultimate riddle of the river. When we call nature, Nature,
we have crept to a place where we see it as something apart from who we
are. When we stand on the bank, and the water flows past, it is something
other than us. Only when we join the flow, feel the current and are buoyed
by our imaginations, do we step back into ourselves. Only then does the
fixed point on land appear to move.
All the while, the river flows on in constant renewal, forever destined to
carry the blood and dreams of our sons and daughters.
10
BRAD VEST / USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
Johnny Campbell paddles around trees in the Wolf Rivers Ghost River section during a guided trip in Fayette County.
RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND IN WEST TENNESSEE
CALL OF THE WOLF

iles from any roads or cities, deep

in a swamp where tupelo and
cypress trees close in on the Wolf
River like the walls of a dense
green canyon, Tabitha Glenn is
paddling a kayak when a
distinctly out-of-place melodic
sound breaks the rustic silence. Its a cellphone.
Her cellphone. Im not answering it, Glenn says.
Glenn and her husband, Jeff, who live in Bartlett, are busy on an
adventure thats become popular in West Tennessee. On any weekend
when the weather is accommodating, scores of paddlers like the
Glenns take the meandering eight-mile journey down the Wolf in
Fayette County from La Grange through the Ghost River State Natural Area, a vast swamp reminiscent of the Okefenokee where the
Wolfs current melts away and signs mark the canoe trail to the takeout point near the town of Moscow.
All across Tennessee, rivers such as the Wolf are attracting growing interest among residents looking for places to go kayaking, paddleboarding, swimming, fishing and bird watching. Corridors along
many of the waterways also accommodate multipurpose trails for
bicycling, jogging and walking.
If anything, the recreational opportunities on West Tennessee rivers will continue to expand. Towns along the Hatchie, for instance,
are promoting the rivers scenery and wildlife to visitors. And next to
the Wolf, the city of Memphis and the Wolf River Conservancy are
building a 23-mile greenway, a paved, landscaped trail extending
from Germantown to the Mississippi River.
An even more dramatic recreational improvement opened above
the Mississippi on Oct. 22, when Memphis officials unveiled the Big
River Crossing. Its a nearly $18 million bicycle-pedestrian boardwalk on the Harahan Bridge, a 100-year-old rail span across the Mississippi.
Nowhere has the recreational boom on rivers been more noticeable than along the Wolf.
In the Ghost River State Natural Area, canoe and kayak outfitter
Mark Babb, of Ghost River Rentals, talks about the transformation
of a river that had been known only to local hunters and fishermen
into a destination recreation site used by paddlers from across the
nation and even around the world.
We have to be respectful of the locals because theyve always had
it, he said. Theyre now more appreciative (of the recreational activity) because they can see what its done to the local economy and
how much more it can do.
The groups led by Babb paddle along a serpentine channel where
fallen trees create occasional obstacles, and where snakes, including
venomous cottonmouth water moccasins, can be seen sunning themselves on logs. Paddlers can traverse five ecosystems on the Wolf and
see clear water a rarity in West Tennessee.
On a trip that can take anywhere from three to five hours, Babb
has noticed a difference between American paddlers, who tend to be
in a hurry, and Europeans, who generally go slower and savor the
experience.
Now were on the European pace, he tells one group that has
slowed down during a trip.
The Wolf River Conservancy, a nonprofit conservation group that
has spent more than three decades protecting the river, also leads
recreational journeys 12 months a year. It also conducts service trips
to collect trash and remove obstacles from the Wolf.
The Ghost River is our biggest asset, said WRC Executive Director Keith Cole. Its breathtaking.
On the Hatchie, there are fewer kayaks and canoes, but the river,
flowing through two national wildlife refuges encompassing 23,000
acres of forest, attracts plenty of visitors.
But the fastest-growing type of recreation along the Hatchie involves non-consumptive uses, such as wildlife viewing, bird
watching and photography, said Randy Cook, manager of a network
of refuges that includes the Hatchie and Lower Hatchie national
wildlife refuges.
Recreation isnt restricted to smaller rivers such as the Wolf and
Hatchie, however. Even the Mighty Mississippi is attracting lots of
A bald eagle, one of a mating pair, can often be seen in the trees on private
land visible from the Wolf River.
users, thanks in part to the efforts of people like Joe Royer.

The president of Outdoors Inc., which sells recreational gear and
clothing, Royer also is a renowned paddler who has participated in
races and tours around the world. He thinks the Mississippi River is
one of the premier paddling spots on the globe the kayaking equivalent to surfing the Mavericks in Northern California.
But first, Royer has to convince area residents that the river isnt
as dangerous and dirty as many perceive.
We still, as a community, cant put our arms around the Mississippi River, he said. For some people theres a century of being afraid
of it, or thinking its too dirty.
A few people at a time, Royer is winning converts. He takes people
out in large touring canoes to show them the majesty of the Mississippi, to let them experience its power.
Bailey Donahue, 22, is among the Memphians who regularly go
stand-up paddleboarding in the Wolf River harbor in front of downtown.
When youre out there, youve got the whole city just sitting there
in front of you. Its almost a spiritual experience, she said.
On many weekend evenings during the summer and fall, groups of
40 or more ride in about 10 boats up to Loosahatchie Bar, a broad
sandy island or peninsula (depending on river stage) just upriver
from downtown Memphis. There, they build bonfires, sunbathe on
the 60-plus-acre beach and swim in the slack water behind navigation
dikes.
Youre not out in the main current, said John Gary, who has been
boating on the Mississippi for decades.
Still, he finds there are many people resistant to swimming and
boating in the Mississippi.
Ive got friends who arent scared of anything, except the river,
Gary said.
I think its the color of the water. Youre afraid of what you cant
see.
11
Jimmy Johnson, a guide with Cherokee Rafting, greets Zeppelin during a rafting trip in August along the Ocoee River.
OCOEE RIVER
MELTON HILL LAKE
OBED RIVER
WHITEWATER
ADVENTURE
A ROWERS
PARADISE
CONQUER
THE CLIMB
Blake McPherson laughs when

asked how he got hooked on the
Ocoee River.
Jack Hay says hes still astounded

that more people dont know about
rowing on Melton Hill Lake.
Teaching a 2-year-old to rock climb

might not be what Matt Hudson
signed up for, but he gave it a shot.
I grew up in Cleveland. When I was

7 or 8, my parents would stop by the river to watch the rafters go down,
McPherson recalls. I wanted to go rafting myself, but my dad would tell me
you have to be 12. Dad kept promising,
but when I turned 12 we didnt go, then
13, then 14. Still, we didnt go.
When I turned 16, I got my drivers
license and I spent my whole summer
up here on the river.
McPherson, like so many others,
loves the rapids. Now operations manager of Cherokee Rafting one of 24
outfitters on the river he is treasurer
of the Ocoee River Outfitters Association and cant guess how many times
hes been down the river.
Whitewater on the Ocoee draws an
average of 220,000 to 250,000 rafters,
canoeists and kayakers each year. After
a steady rise in numbers through the
1980s and 1990s, the total has stayed
about the same for the past five or more
years. The business has brought about
$44 million annually into the economy
around Polk County in Southeast Tennessee.
Crowds come for the thrill of riding
wild Class III and IV whitewater rapids,
some with names like Broken Nose, Tablesaw and Double Trouble, that buck,
jerk, spin and sometimes even flip over
rafts carrying howling people in helmets and life vests.
On a Saturday in July or August,
4,000 to 5,000 will be going down the river commercially, McPherson says. It
has gotten crazy some Saturdays where
companies have had to cap the number
of people they put on the river.
Using the services of an outfitter is
not required.
Imagine being able to say you did
whitewater on the Olympic course,
McPherson says.
That is like living in Vail (Colorado)

and not knowing there is a ski resort,
says Hay, a member of the Oak Ridge
Rowing Association board of directors.
This is one of the top three rowing venues in the United States.
While the other two top venues Sarasota, Fla., and Oklahoma City spent
millions to build courses, the biggest asset at the rowing venue here is the water
itself, which has drawn big rowing
events and served as a training site for
several Olympic teams.
The rowing venue is just a few miles
from downtown Oak Ridge. The lake has
a wilderness feel, with blue herons hunting fish in the shallows and occasionally
osprey flying overhead. Often the only
sound breaking the stillness is that of
oars striking water.
We dont have a lot of wind like the
other top courses. TVA manages the flow
and, when they stop moving water, it is
very still here, Hay says.
The result is ideal rowing conditions
that bring five or six regattas to the
2,000-meter course each spring and a
number of three-mile head races in the
fall. The ORRA hosted its first regatta in
1978. The biggest event is the Southeastern Intercollegiate Rowing Association
championships, which include 500 boats
each April. The SIRA event alone provides $500,000 in hotel revenue to the
area.
The United States and Switzerland
have used the lake as training sites. In
addition, season-long programs for masters and juniors rowers of all levels are
available.
The big news at Melton Hill is the
planned addition of an eighth rowing
lane to the course, which will require
shaving off a point of land to make room.
Eight-lane courses are required for international and NCAA events. And the
new lane will make Melton Hill eligible
to bid on those competitions.
Hudson, chief ranger at the Obed

Wild and Scenic River, gets would-be
climbers in all sizes, skill levels and
ages at the Coffee and Climb with a
Ranger programs on the first Saturday
of every month. Often more than 100
participants gather to try their hands at
going up.
Climbing is a big part of the 5,000
acres of outdoor adventure available at
the Obed River in Cumberland County.
The Obed River is one of the few
free-flowing rivers in East Tennessee.
Put in place in 1976, the Wild and Scenic
River designation helps protect the
Obed, which had once been considered
for damming.
We get climbers from all over the
world, Hudson says. The Obed is best
known for its sport climbing, which involves climbing on routes where there
are already bolts in place (on which to
latch safety ropes).
The sandstone is harder than most in
the Eastern United States, making it ideal for gripping while not breaking or
crumbling in a climbers hands.
The Obed has more than 400 named
climbing routes. One package of routes
in an area called The Stephen King Library is named after books by the horror novel author.
The river has some whitewater, but
usually doesnt hold enough water in the
summer. Hiking also is a popular pastime, with more than 20 miles of named
trails, including a part of Cumberland
Trail State Park.
The Obed is a unit of the National
Park Service, which has a visitor center
in Wartburg. It is part of a collection of
lands protected from development in
the area, a list that also includes the Big
South Fork National River and Recreation Area.
What sets the Obed apart is the scenery, Hudson says. You climb to some
amazing views of the canyon.
Sunburst Adventures, a commercial rafting business, takes a group of rafters down

the Ocoee River in August.
Atomic Rowing team members Hannah Winstead, right, Marisa Colvais, Jessica Paris,
and Amelia Walters practice on Melton Hill Lake.
12
MARY HANCE
USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
Cummins Falls
State Park
In Jackson County outside
Cookeville is a 211-acre site with
a spectacular 75-foot waterfall,
which is the eighth largest in the
state in terms of volume. The
pool below is a popular
swimming hole, and even
though the 2-mile round-trip
hike is rugged, it is super
crowded on pretty days. For
example, on Labor Day, the
crowd below the falls was
estimated at more than 1,000
people.
South Cumberland
State Park
Tennessee, ranging from gentle
In and around Grundy County,

the park claims some beauties,
including the 50-foot Greeter
Falls in Altamont. It is part of the
parks Savage Gulf State Natural
Area and is accessible through a
one-mile loop trail. Other falls in
Savage Gulf include Savage Falls,
a three-mile round trip, and
Horsepound Falls and Ranger
Creek Falls, both of which are 25
feet tall and involve a five-mile
strenuous round-trip walk. The
park also has falls along its Fiery
Gizzard Trail, including the
80-foot Foster Falls, which is the
most prominent and less than a
half-mile hike down to its lovely
pool. Other beautiful Fiery
Gizzard Trail falls are Sycamore
Falls, which is 12 feet, and Blue
Hole Falls at 9 feet tall.
trickles to gushing cascades
Rock Island State Park
TENNESSEE WATERFALLS
FREE
FALLIN
With more than 325 waterfalls in
that drop more than 200 feet into

pristine pools, a waterfall
outing is not hard to put
together. With some help from
state naturalist and waterfall
expert Randy Hedgepath,
here are some of Tennessees
most spectacular falls.
In Warren and White counties,

the park is at the confluence of
the Collins and Caney Fork rivers
and has numerous waterfalls.
The two largest ones Twin
Falls at 80 feet and Great Falls at
30 feet are in the gorge area
and can be seen with just a short
walk from the parking areas. If
you want to hike, you can climb
down to the stream bed and
swim beneath Great Falls, but no
swimming is allowed beneath
Twin Falls.
Fall Creek Falls

State Park
In Bledsoe and Van Buren
counties, the park includes six
falls. The main Fall Creek Falls
drops 256 feet, making it one of
the tallest single vertical drops
east of the Rocky Mountains. It is
even more spectacular when
seen with its companion, the
250-foot Coon Creek Falls. The
two can be seen from the same
overlook. Hedgepath says a walk
under Fall Creek Falls is always
on his list of the top 10 nature
experiences in Tennessee.
Old Stone Fort

State Park
Coffee County west of
Manchester is home to several
falls that you can see from the
main trail. They include Step Falls
along the Duck River, which is a
stairway of little tiered waterfalls
on both sides of the river, plus
the two largest falls Blue Hole
Falls and Big Falls each 30 feet
in height.
Virgin Falls State

Natural Area
In White County, reaching the
falls requires a rugged hike, but
the sight of Virgin Falls is well
worth it, according to
Hedgepath. He described it as
extraordinary because the
waterfall comes out of a cave,
falls 110 feet into a sinkhole and
into another cave. There is no
surface stream, just a waterfall
out there all by itself. But he
said seeing it requires a rugged
and strenuous 9-mile round-trip
hike.
Frozen Head Natural

Park and Natural Area
The park in Morgan County

north of Rockwood and
Harriman has two falls: DeBord
Falls and Emory Gap Falls. A
3-mile round-trip moderate walk
along the Panther Branch trail
gives you a good look at both of
them.
Ozone Falls State

Natural Area
In Crab Orchard in Cumberland
County, the natural area has
Ozone Falls, a 110-foot waterfall
with a pool below. The trail to
the top is short less than a
mile and easy, but the trail
that takes you to the pool below
is strenuous, especially on the
way back up.
Burgess Falls State Park

On the Falling Water River in White and Putnam counties between Sparta and Cookeville the park has the
20-foot Cascades, the 30-foot Upper Falls, the 80-foot Middle Falls and the 136-foot Lower Falls. Outside Sparta
not far off Interstate 40, there is a 1.5-mile round-trip trail you can take to see all of the falls.
13
n

MISSISSIPPI RIVER
Swallow
Kentucky
Lake
The Tennessee
Ten
Rivers
path makes
make a crescent
and its w
watershed
includes parts of Virginia,
Kentucky, Tennessee,
North Car
Carolina, Georgia,
Alabam
Alabama, and Mississippi.
Y KNOW?
DID YOU
Savannah
Tennessee River
Jackson
Forked Deer River
Union City
The Mississippi River flows 167 miles

along Tennessees western border, but
because it shifts over time the river is
not the state line. The river is 2,320
miles long and is home to multiple
species, including 360 fish and 145
amphibians. More than 40 percent of
the countrys bird species migrate along
the rivers flyway.
Obion River
Obion
Dyersburg
Mississippi River
Hatchie River
Dragonfly
Paris
TENNESSEE RIVER
Old Hickory
Lake
CUMBERLAND RIVER
Dale
Hollow
Lake
Emory River
Watts
Bar
Lake
Tellico
Lake
CLINCH RIVER
Boone
Lake
Monarch
Butterfly
ECONOMY
AND THE
RIVERS
Bald Eagle
For centuries, rivers have

fueled Tennessees economy
through commerce, with
agricultural and manufactured
goods shipped along the
waterways. More recently, the
tourism sector has benefited as
well, translating to new jobs
and new revenue for the state.
Red Fox
Cardinal
Holston
Lake
Watauga
Lake
Johnson
City
Kingsport
The Clinch River flows through Virginia and the Great

Appalachian Valley before joining the Tennessee River
in East Tennessee. The river used to be a major producer
of freshwater mussels and pearls before it was dammed.
Still, it is considered a great place for fly fishing. It was
St
designated a scenic river near Knoxville and is used for
de
re
recreational paddling.
Powell River
Powe
Tennessee
River Otter
Nolichucky River
Holston River
Clinch River
Cherokee
Lake
Dandridge
Newport
Douglas
HIWASSEE RIVER
The 147-mile Hiwassee River flows from Georgia

Th
to the Tennessee River. Its flat and whitewater
rapi
rapids are a draw for paddlers and anglers. A
section of it is a designated scenic river and
sect
winds through the Cherokee National Forest. Its
wi
named after the Cherokee word that means a
na
me
meadow place at the foot of the hills.
For the 1996 Olympic

Games in Atlanta, the
Ocoee River was used
to hold the whitewater
canoe and kayak events.
DID YOU KNOW?
Tennessee River
Lake
Knoxville French Broad
River
Melton
Hill
Lake
Clinch River
Norris
Lake
The nearly 700-mile Cumberland River flows from Kentucky into

northern Tennessee, winding through Nashville. Commercial
fishermen harvest species like catfish and paddlefish from the river,
which is also used for commercial shipping. Its a popular river
among recreational anglers looking for bass and
Catfish
crappie as well as catfish. Motorized boaters
also enjoy the river and its lakes.
Celina
Cookeville
Cumberland River
Center
Hill Lake
Carthage
Murfreesboro
Nashville
Cumberland River
Clarksville
Harpeth River
J. Percy
Priest
Lake
Stones River
McMinnville
Sequatchie River
Salamander
Hiwassee River
Ocoee River
Lake
Ocoee
Chickamauga Lake
Tennessee River
Nickajack
Lake
Chattanooga
DID YOU KNOW?
The Duck Rive

River is North America's richest river
ver in
variety of freshwater
fres
ing more
animal species, containing
species of fish than are found in all the rivers of Europe
combined and more fish varieties per mile than
han any
other river in North America. Overall, the Duck
ck
remarkable diversity of freshwater
supports a rema
ter animals
in its waters,
ter including 151 species of fish, 60 fre
freshw
freshwater mussel species
spec and 22 species of aquatic sna
snails.
Manchester
Tims Ford
Lake
Shelbyville
Elk River
Columbia
Duck River
Buffalo River
Lawrenceburg
Winchester
Tennessee River
in Alabama
Tennessee
Crayfish
NOTE: Rivers and wildlife are representational and not to scale.
The 125-mile Buffalo River flows

Th
through the southern and western
th
po
portions of Middle Tennessee. In
Middle Tennessee, it is the longest
Mi
unimpounded river, as well as the
un
longest Duck River tributary. The river
lo
is home to almost 85 species of fish. Its
scenery and fishing make it popular
sc
am
among
kayakers and canoers.
6 BUFFALO RIVER
Gallatin
The Tennessee River is more than 650 miles long

and divides Tennessee into three regions. The
river was vital to the culture of several Native
American tribes, including the Cherokee. Its
name originates from the Native American word
Tanasi. The Battle of Shiloh was fought along
the Tennessee River during the Civil War.
LIFE RUNS DEEP IN OUR RIVERS
Wolf River
Memphis
5 HATCHIE RIVER
R
The West Tennessee river
is the longest free-flowing
tributary of the Lower Mississippi
River, and as a result, it has great
ecological diversity. The rivers ecosystem
supports more than 100 species of fish,
including 11 types of catfish, and about 250
species of birds. The Hatchie River starts in
Mississippi and is 238 miles long.
GRAPHIC BY KENT TRAVIS , TEXT BY HOLLY MEYER, THINKSTOCK IMAGES - SOURCES: Tennessean research, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
14
THE TENNESSEAN
SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2016
What is Nashville food?
Music City keeps

its meat-and-three
roots, but with
many tastes added
for good measure
jim myers
Columnist
HOTTEST
HOT CHICKEN
HAUNTS
STAFF PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

GRAPHICS AND PHOTOS BY
ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
JEN TODD JTODD1@TENNESSEAN.COM

Though imitations have popped up around
the country, Nashville Hot Chicken is one of
a kind freshly fried with a crisp outer
shell surrounding juicy, spice-soaked meat.
To get your taste buds fired up, start at one
of these tried-and-true hot chicken joints.
t should come as no surprise to

casual newcomers that for decades
Nashvilles food scene was quiescently frozen in a time capsule of
Southern cooking. Though we have
evolved, and greatly, we still wear the
South on our barbecue-stained sleeves
and trot it out on our sideboards for a
welcome repast.
Southern food has always been about
degrees of home cooking, until it was
codified and compartmentalized in the
plate-lunch joints in the small towns
and cities, feeding those who would not
cook, or couldnt.
In that regard, Nashville is no different from other cities in the South, except that many of those lunch places
we call them meat-and-threes somehow found a way to hang on and remain
relevant. Now that Nashville is in its
full dining ascent, with all the latest in
food and mixology trends, meat-andthrees are the cultural reminders of a
Nashville before its boom.
That is what keeps Nashville Southern, that we do not lose our taste for
grits and fresh tomatoes, pulled
pork and biscuits. We harbor a
grand obsession for garden vegetables and the places that serve
them.
The question has always been
why? Cultural com-
1 Princes Hot Chicken Shack

123 Ewing Drive
615-226-9442,
facebook.com/PrincesHotChicken
Princes is the king of the Nashville specialty, serving regulars and celebrities alike.
Legend has it, the recipe was inspired by a
woman intending to punish her boyfriend,
Thornton Prince.
mentators far greater than I, such as

the late John Egerton and the very current John T. Edge, have waxed at length
without beaming a sure light, unable to
put their fingers on any definitive reason to their own satisfaction. Said Egerton to Edge, I think this is the kind of
thing you just thank your lucky stars
for, the kind of blessing you chalk up to
unearned grace. Amen.
While I cant add much to the discussion of historical persistence, I do
have some observations on their modern relevance.
Chefs and gastronauts come in
droves to visit Nashville for the modern
kaleidoscope of flavor, but the smart
ones almost always start with a Southern plate lunch. Even strangers from
the North recognize their own mothers
and home kitchens when gazing at the
gravy and crumbs left behind on the
plates.
Nashville spins on a rare axis right
now, tilting at cranes and creating a
tremendous pull, but we are the keepers of the meat-and-threes. We cling to
them like vines; they are our comfort
and plated memories. We go to them
when the swirling traffic and madness
seems out of control. They are, figuratively and literally, the handles on
ourselves.
Of course, we cant discuss Nashville
food while ignoring the incessant banging coming from the side door. Its our
crazy cousin, the unlikely phenom
clutching the microphone right now.
Hello, hot chicken.
Weve always had fried chicken,
behaving properly and making us smile
at every turn. For more than half a
century, a couple of joints have made
their names serving its spicier cousin. They were followed by a small cadre
of iron-tongued devotees, until the story
spread wide and the sincerest flattery
took roost at other joints around town.
Whether it was the proliferation of
heat-seeking diners or the places needed to serve them, Nashville hot chicken
became our official unofficial dish.
Yes, we are still whole hog barbecue
and fried chicken (hot and not), greens
and beans and cornbread made six
ways to Sunday. We are all that, and
more, these days. We are becoming
global, in every sense and sensation,
but the places, the restaurants,
that honor those deep-seated
traditions, those remain our
beacons, our community
centers and places of want
when we are away.
Reach Jim Myers at 615-259-8367 on
Instragram @culinarity and on Twitter
@ReadJimMyers.
JOSEPH WOODLEY
2 Hattie Bs Hot Chicken

112 19th Ave. S., in Midtown, 615-678-4794;
5209 Charlotte Ave. in West Nashville,
615-712-7137, hattieb.com
Bishops Meat & Three owner Nick Bishop
created the famed restaurant after a wellreceived experiment. Try the Shut the
Cluck Up, if you dare.
1 Arnolds Country Kitchen

605 Eighth Ave. S.
arnoldscountrykitchen.com,
615-256-4455
Though the line may be
long, it moves swiftly
as patrons order
roast beef with mac
and cheese and
greens or another
combination of tasty
offerings. Add a slice
of chocolate pie
stacked high with meringue to your tray, too.
3 Boltons Spicy Chicken & Fish

624 Main St., in East Nashville, 615-2548015; 2309-A Franklin Pike, in Melrose,
615-383-1421, boltonsspicy.com
Boltons uses a family recipe for its fiery
chicken and fish. But the soul-food joint
serves other entrees if your guests cant
handle it.
2 Barbaras Home Cookin

1232 Old Hillsboro Road in Franklin
barbarashomecooking.com,
615-794-9533
This small country house is packed
with sweet-smelling aromas.
Dont miss the poppy seed chicken
casserole or dessert.
4 400 Degrees
319 Peabody St.
615-244-4467, 400degreeshotchicken.com
Get your fix in degrees of heat, from zero
degrees to, you guessed it, 400. Call in your
order ahead to skip the wait.
MUST-TRY
MEAT-ANDTHREES
JEN TODD JTODD1@TENNESSEAN.COM

Meat-and-threes have been a lunchtime staple
in Nashville for decades. Step through the line
for a hot Southern meal.
4 Swetts
2725 Clifton Ave.
swettsrestaurant.com,
615-329-4418
For more than 60 years, Swetts
has served blue-collar workers,
politicians and everyone in between with country fried steak,
beef tips, pork chops and more.
3 Dandgures Cafeteria
538 Lafayette St., dansnashvillecafe.com, 615-256-8501
The bright mural may catch your attention, but the hot soul food, from fried cabbage to pole
beans, keeps customers coming back.
5 Bishops Meat & Three

3065 Mallory Lane,
Suite 115, Franklin
bishopsmeat3.com,
615-771-9432
PHOTOS BY SAMUEL M. SIMPKINS / THE TENNESSEAN
5 Pepperfire Hot Chicken

1000 Gallatin Ave., Suite C
615-582-4824, pepperfirehotchicken.com
With seven levels of heat, Pepperfire can
satisfy each palate. Try the Tender Royale
fried grilled cheese with pepperjack and
chicken tenders.
PHOTOS BY KAREN DUNBAR / FOR THE TENNESSEAN AND TENNESSEAN FILE PHOTOS
Before Hattie Bs came along,

there was Bishops, also owned
by Nick Bishop. Head to Cool
Springs for chop steak, turkey
and dressing and carrot souffle.
THE TENNESSEAN
K1 SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2016
GEORGE WALKER IV /
THE TENNESSEAN
Diners enjoy
sitting on the
patio at The Pub
in the Gulch.
Nashvilles dining scene
EXPLODES
A potent mix of top chefs,
tourists, population growth
creates restaurant heaven
inside nashville
Brad Schmitt
brad@tennessean.com
bout 18 months ago, Jimmy

Kimmel flew from Los Angeles to Nashville just to eat.
His people said Kimmel
came here to tape a segment
for the CMAs. Indeed, the awards show
included a funny Kimmel skit with Tim
McGraw and Faith Hill.
But the late-night ABC talk show host
confided in an interview that he really came
here to chow down. Kimmel said he
couldnt wait to try celeb chef Jonathan
Waxmans spot Adeles and several others.
Do what?
I think for people who know a lot about
food, Nashville is on their must-visit list,
Kimmel said.
Wait, arent we all, like, country music,
Taylor Swift (sorta) and a splash of Hollywood? (Thank you, Reese Witherspoon.)
Not anymore. All this meteoric growth
has made us hungry, and fried catfish and
cornbread no longer cut it.
Celebrity chefs and innovative restaurateurs have added giant dollops of creativity
and manic energy to Music City.
And, the nation has taken note.
USA Today says Nashville has the thirdbest local food scene in the country
better than New Orleans and San Francisco. Zagat puts Nashville at No. 6 on its list
of Americas Next Hot Food Cities.
And forget a Philly cheesesteak or a New
Orleans po boy: Bon Appetit says the East
Nasty fried chicken biscuit at Biscuit Love
was last years Best Sandwich in the United States of America.
Wed gladly join the (hour-plus) line for
just one bite of Karl and Sarah Worleys
monument to excess: a slightly-crunchy-onthe-exterior, fluffy, buttery biscuit topped
with a ridiculously good piece of fried chicken, which is swaddled in rich sausage gravy, the magazine gushed.
You get the picture: Nashvilles dining
scene is hotter than Princes extra-hot
chicken. OK, not really. Nothings that hot.
Do we need an attitude adjustment?
It seems our appetite for new restaurants is insatiable. More than 120
restaurants opened in Nashville in 2014 and 2015, according to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp.
Still, its hard to get into some of the citys hottest restaurants. Many
dining regulars grumble that it can take a week or two to find a reservation
at Nashvilles more popular spots.
Vogue magazine recently included the exclusive Catbird Seat with
only 22 seats on its list of 13 Hardest Restaurant Reservations in America.
So, is this exploding restaurant scene good or evil? Depends whom you
ask and, usually, how long he or she has been in Nashville.
I love the way the restaurants are built now patios, high ceilings,
industrial look, edgy, big windows. Its really catering to a younger crowd,
said Nikko Sansone, 25, a commercial real estate company worker who
moved here recently from St. Louis.
I like the way Nashville has got a trendy feel.
Too trendy, if you ask longtime Nashvillian and veteran Music Row publicist Ronna Rubin.
Out of control, a bit too precious, too big for their britches, style
over substance, take themselves way too seriously, in need of a
major attitude adjustment, she said. Check, please.
GEORGE WALKER IV /
THE TENNESSEAN
Diners enjoy
Saint Aejo in
the Gulch.
Oh, you had a reservation?

When friends flew in from Chicago, health care executive Sara Powell
Stanton wanted to show them the trendy 12South area. Stanton, 45, was
thrilled she scored same-day dinner reservations for Urban Grub, which
she picked because it has been open for a few years.
Usually if a restaurant has been around a while, its not as hard to get
in, she thought.
She thought wrong.
That Thursday night, Stanton and her friends drove by a throng of people outside red-hot Josephine restaurant and a long line outside Jenis
Splendid Ice Creams before hitting a crowded Urban Grub.
The hostess told them they were running at least 30 minutes behind on
reservations. The bar was packed. A dozen or so people waited outside.
Stanton sighed.
The more press Nashville gets, the harder it is for locals to enjoy it,
she said.
In four short years, Nashville went from no reservations required to
reservations recommended to dont even think about it without one. On a
Friday in March, Butchertown Hall in Germantown had a 90-minute wait
for drop-ins.
At least you can get reservations, but you have to make sure its in advance, anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, said Cassie
McConnell Kelley, a frequent Nashville diner, founder of the style-fashiontrend blog Womanista and wife of country singer Charles Kelley.
See EAT CITY, Page 4PE
THE TENNESSEAN
K1
BEST PLACES
TO GET YOUR
BISCUIT FIX
Sean Brock
Maneet Chauhan
Ryan Poli
Dale Levitski
Michael Mina
JULI THANKI
JTHANKI@TENNESSEAN.COM
Angels or cat heads, flaky or flat, biscuits

remain the queen of Southern breads.
Jonathan Waxman
Richard Blais
Gerard Craft
John Besh
EAT CITY
1 Biscuit Love
316 11th Ave. S.
615-490-9584, biscuitlove.com
Whether youve got a craving for sweet or
savory biscuits, this popular destination in
the Gulch has you covered. Bonuts, fried
biscuit dough served with blueberry compote and lemon mascarpone, are one of the
restaurant's best-selling items. The Nasty
Princess (a biscuit sandwich stuffed with hot
chicken, sausage gravy and aged Cheddar)
isnt listed on the menu. Order it anyway.
So how did this restaurant explosion happen?

Well, turns out that celebrity chefs breed like rabbits.
Renowned chef Sean Brock, who spent some time in Nashville 10 years ago, came back in 2013 to open a Nashville
edition of his celebrated nouveau Southern restaurant Husk.
Brock begat Jonathan Waxman (Adeles Nashville) begat Chopped star Maneet Chauhan (Chauhan Ale & Masala
House) begat Richard Blais (FLIP Burger Boutique) begat former Top Chef contestant Dale Levitski (then of Sinema) begat St. Louis chef Gerard Craft (Pasta Ria) begat Ryan Poli (The Catbird Seat) begat New Orleans chef John
Besh (The Marsh House in the soon-to-open Thompson Nashville hotel) begat San Franciscos Michael Mina (Bourbon
Steak in the soon-to-open J.W. Marriott Nashville hotel).
All this 615 restaurant procreation has chefs waxing artistic.
The Nashville dining scene is a beautiful blank canvas, Chauhan said. Chefs are making some gorgeous Picassos on it.
KEY
TENNESSEAN FILE
The Belly Ham

Pizza at City House
is $15, extra for an
egg on top.
3
8
5
12
16
14
17
13
N ST
MADISO
6 7
15
JEFFERSON ST
GERMANTOWN AREA RESTAURANTS

Tattoos that match the dining room
Chatter is loud on the packed patio at Butchertown Hall in Germantown
where servers carrying craft beer deftly navigate among laughing hipsters.
Inside, a hostess in a white tank top taps a computer screen while a halfdozen people with no reservations gaze hopefully at the full bar and tables of
diners picking at wood slabs filled with oak-roasted marrow bones, brisket and
klobasa sausage.
The hostess vine tattoos just happen to match the faux woods-meets-industrial look of the restaurant inspired by German beer halls. Think of a West Elm
store with a touch of Rainforest Cafe.
On weekends, waits can be as long as two hours. But thats not unusual in
the citys dining hot zones.
New high-end restaurants started clustering in Germantown, East Nashville, 12South, Charlotte Avenue/The Nations and the Wedgewood-Houston
neighborhood, which folks are starting to call WeHo.
In Germantown alone, in a six-square-block area, you can eat at take a
deep breath:
Butchertown Hall
312 Pizza Co.
Barista Parlor
Lazzaroli Pasta
The Mad Platter
Cochon Butcher
Little Donkey
City House
Rolf and Daughters
Steadfast Coffee
5th & Taylor
Monells
Silo
Germantown Caf
Jack Browns Beer &

Burger Joint
Red Bicycle Coffee &
Crepes
Tempered Caf and
Chocolate
Its an exciting, vibrant place for visitors, but several Germantown residents say they now have a love/hate relationship with their neighborhood.
Sheila Cope, a 10-year resident, loves that she can walk to so many restaurants and coffee shops. And Erin Stevens, an 18-year resident, loves the Germantown architecture.
But both women are unhappy with other elements of the explosive growth
Stevens with the congestion and Cope with the noise.
There are always cars parked on both sides of popular streets, so two-lane
roads are essentially one lane, Stevens said. It can be frustrating when
youre in a hurry.
What we hate is this neighborhood used to be quiet and now its not, Cope
said.
Construction everywhere, jackhammers for weeks. We are looking to sell,
she said. West Meade is calling.
See EAT CITY, Page 5PE
ALAN POIZNER / FOR THE TENNESSEAN
4 Nashville Biscuit House

805 Gallatin Ave.
615-228-4504, nashvillebiscuithouse.com
This East Nashville joint is both delicious
and unfussy, and the drive-thru makes it
easy to grab a breakfast biscuit on the run.
But the Ultimate Platter three biscuits
layered with country gravy, bacon, ham
and cheese is definitely a dish you'll
want to eat at a table.
5 Porter Road Butcher

4816 Charlotte Ave.
615-454-2995, prbutcher.com
Porter Road Butcher does breakfast right
(served 7-10 a.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m.noon on Saturdays). The biscuit with bacon
and egg n cheese souffl is a favorite, and
you cant go wrong with any of their rotating biscuit-of-the-day options.
E
D
3R AV
Remember when the biscuits at Loveless

were small, flat vehicles for butter and
sorghum? These are those biscuits, thanks
in large part to a Loveless family connection. They are worth the drive to Bon Aqua
(and the fried chicken is pretty great, too).
S
MONROE
E
H
4T AV
3 The Beacon Light Tea Room

6276 Highway 100, Bon Aqua
931-670-3880, beaconlighttearoom.com
E
5TH AV
SUBMITTED
RS
TAYLO
10
E
6TH AV
This restaurant has been serving up meltin-your-mouth biscuits to Nashvillians and

tourists alike for more than 60 years. For
those who crave Loveless but live too far
away to indulge, bags of biscuit mix and
several different fruit preserves can be
purchased through the website.
R ST
TAYLO
E
7TH AV
8400 Highway 100

615-646-9700, lovelesscafe.com
11
BLVD
2 Loveless Cafe
N ST
URE
B
N
1
VA
PARKS
LARRY MCCORMACK / THE TENNESSEAN
What tasty works of art they

are.
The Husk crispy chicken
skins are deep-fried strips of
chicken skin baked in buttermilk until tender, dredged in
seasoned flour and fried into
little bites that get drizzled with
hot sauce, honey and lemon
thyme.
At City House, chef Tandy
Wilson got pork bellies one day,
but he didnt have a smoker. So
he brined them for five days,
roasted them and turned them
into his popular belly ham pizza,
named Tennessees best pizza by
Food Network Magazine.
Of course, any Picasso is
going to be pricey.
Go to popular steakhouse
Kayne Prime on trendy McGavock Street, and you can easily
drop $120 per person on dinner.
There, the Green Dragon
tequila cocktail runs $13, the
roasted bone marrow appetizer
is $18, a farro grain salad is $14,
the 14-ounce New York strip is
$38, charred broccoli on the side
is $9, and a milk chocolate cremoso dessert (with unfiltered
olive oil and sea salt, of course)
is $10.
Throw in a tip and/or coffee
or a second drink, and the bill is
more than $125.
But thats the thing: Suddenly, thats normal.
Now, weve conditioned
everyone for the $14 cocktail,
and now were used to the $22 to
$35 entre, said singer/songwriter Jamie Floyd, a server at
Lockeland Table in East Nashville. People now are willing to
pay that over and over and over.
L
ROSA
1. Butchertown Hall
2. 312 Pizza Company
3. Barista Parlor
4. Lazzaroli Pasta
5. The Mad Platter
6. Cochon Butcher
7. Little Donkey
8. City House
9. Rolf and Daughters
10. Steadfast Coffee
11. 5th & Taylor
12. Monells
13. Silo
14. Germantown Caf
15. Jack Browns Beer
& Burger Joint
16. Red Bicycle Coffee
& Crepes
17. Tempered Caf
and Chocolate
That will be $120 each
L
SS P
PRE
SHELLEY MAYS /
THE TENNESSEAN
Diners wait
outside to eat at
Biscuit Love.
THE TENNESSEAN
K1 SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2016
cindy watts
ciwatts@tennessean.com
WHERE DO
NASHVILLE
STARS EAT?
With celebrity chefs flocking to Nashville at a rate rivaling wannabe country

singers, Music City is quickly becoming
known for its food as well as its music.
A-listers line up to eat Jonathan Waxmans signature JW chicken at Adeles
and the street corn at Mas Tacos Por
Favor and are in constant search of the
citys best sushi.
When theyre home or passing
through Nashvilles stars told
The Tennessean where they find their
favorite foods.
SAMUEL M. SIMPKINS /
Paving the way

Old Guard sets the table for dining scene in Nashville
heyre the Old Guard, the

Original Culinarians, the
gatekeepers and foundation
makers.
Were it not for the work
of Randy Rayburn, Deb Paquette,
Rick Bolsom, Margot McCormack
and other like-minded folk, Nashville might still be mired in restaurant mediocrity.
They paved the way for the series
of booms that brought us the current concussive wave of restaurants. And they deserve our thanks.
When I arrived in 1971, I found a
collection of chains and imitation
European restaurants along with the
classic meat-and-threes. Liquor by
the drink had just passed in 1969,
says Rayburn, who went on to open
the now-shuttered Sunset Grill,
Cabana and master the helm at Midtown Cafe.
Rayburn bore witness to the influx of American-style cuisine,
starting with Jody Faison and his
assortment of restaurants, including
the eponymous bungalow (Faisons),
in the early 1980s. Others followed,
only to watch the explosion of ethnic
dining in the 90s as more refugees
and transplants made their way
here.
Bolsom watched something else
from the front window of Tin Angel,
his West End restaurant near Vanderbilt. It was the march of big-box,
big-budget chains, grabbing prime
corridor real estate that the small
independent places couldnt dream
of affording.
We were getting beaten up. Sure
we could compete in quality, but
were handicapped when it came to
marketing, purchasing power and
visibility, Bolsom said.
Along with Rayburn and a hand-
EAT CITY
Beer as hot
as the chicken
ful of others, and as an effort to

stem the tide of chains, they founded the Nashville Originals as an
organized group that could pool its
resources for PR, lobbying and zoning issues. Bolsom called it a mutuality of interest that still exists,
more as a reminder of the independents of the first waves than the
current one.
For Paquette, who many chefs
still call Mama after making it
through her nurturing but demanding kitchens, the past few years
have been a blast.
Its great. Its an open palate
free-for-all, she says of the explosion of variety. When a loyal customer voiced concerns about all the
tourists at Etch, Paquettes downtown restaurant, she saw it as a
boon. They picked me. They can go
online, they can Uber anywhere
now, but they chose me.
Paquette watches the evolution
with a deeper interest, too. When
asked, she demurs, but when
pressed, she admits shes likely
launched between 15 and 20 young
chefs careers during her own 30year tenure, including Kimmy
Totzke, the chief operating officer of
the Turnip Truck natural grocery
stores.
What Nashville native McCormack found was the staid reality of
her West Nashville upbringing.
When she worked at the now defunct F. Scotts, a fine dining outpost
in Green Hills, she planned her escape to the east side.
Her primary reason for heading
east was financial. She simply needed to find a place she could afford.
I grew up in West Meade and
didnt want to live the same life over
again, she said. I had been in New
THE TENNESSEAN
Randy Rayburn, Rick

Bolsom, Deb Paquette and
Margo McCormack
gathered at Brown Diner
to discuss the dining
changes they've seen,
and created, in
Nashville.
Charles Kelley
KAYNE PRIME
We go to Kayne Prime a lot.

Its good steak.
jim myers
Columnist
York, and East Nashville was as

edgy and urban as you could get at
that time.
I wanted to be new. At F. Scotts,
everyone told me, Youve got to do a
chicken Caesar salad. Nobody will
eat anything challenging. Well, I
destroyed that myth. I told myself,
they will learn to love skate and
hanger steak and go without tomatoes in the winter.
Rayburn ultimately sees Nashville divided into two eras, the
pre-2011 antediluvian period of his
salad days, and now the post-flood
explosion of pent-up demand.
The creative class of young-gun
chefs, led by Margot McCormack
(who straddles both the new wave
and the Old Guard), Tandy Wilson
(City House), Hal Holden-Bache
(Lockeland Table) and Tyler Brown
(formerly of Capitol Grille), says
Rayburn, they followed the old
turks of Deb Paquette, Anita Hartel
(Sasso, Mambu), Willy Thomas
(Park Cafe), Jody Faison, Brian Uhl
(Cabana) and other culinary stars
who created the foundation in spite
of what some current arrivals and
revisionists might think.
Certainly others will take credit
for the boom. Some outsiders will
claim to have brought us what we
needed, but the fact is the talent was
already here. The critical mass of
diners just finally started to catch
up.
Reach Jim Myers at 615-259-8367
and on Twitter @ReadJimMyers.
Emmylou Harris
SPERRYS RESTAURANT
I think the best restaurant in

Nashville is still Sperrys. Its
been around forever and its
just a good, honest restaurant.
Kip Moore
BRICKTOPS
Thats my spot.
TENNESSEAN FILE
Jennifer Nettles
Upscale taco joints,

like Bartaco,
are on the rise as
part of Nashvilles
food scene.
I love Rolf and Daughters

and City House for sure. I love
Mas Tacos and Thai Phooket.
The dining scene is

hot, and some Nashvillians
take that literally. Brewmaster
Wesley Keegan of West Nashvilles
Tailgate Beer has been playing with
hot peppers.
He has created a Hot IPA and a
Spicy IPA. Keegan and his team
members kept tinkering with the
recipe, until three months ago, they
hit on habanero-tinged perfection.
Now, what to call it?
We wanted something fun to
represent Nashville, Keegan said.
Why not call it Hot Chicken
IPA?
If nothing else, customers love the
name, and, yes, at least one hot chicken place Hattie Bs has served
the Tailgate Beer Hot Chicken IPA.
Ironically, Keegan has found himself offering a disclaimer: Theres
no chicken in it.
Theres hot chicken pizza at several places in town, and you can get a
Nashville Hot Chicken liver pate
appetizer at Capitol Grille in the
Hermitage Hotel.
Predators fans can enjoy a hot
chicken and waffle grilled cheese
sandwich at the grilled cheese stand
in Bridgestone Arena.
But hot chicken isnt the only ubiquitous food or dining trend in Nashville. Seems you cant swing a chicken leg around here without hitting a
taco place.
Once ruled by trucks on Nolensville Road, a fancier (more expensive) taco now can be found at Bartaco or Taqueria del Sol in 12South;
Taco Mamacita in Edgehill Village;
Baja Sexto downtown; Mas Tacos Por
Favor and Local Taco in East Nash-
ville; or at Local Taco locations in

Sylvan Park and Brentwood.
Also on the rise: outdoor patios,
drink prices, global/ethnic food, craft
beer/distillery joints, hipster coffee
shops and juice bars. And watch
out, Memphis barbecue is still
going strong. You havent lived until
youve crowded around the pit to see
a whole hog cooking at one of the
Martins Bar-B-Que locations.
Its all a little overwhelming for
some longtime Nashvillians, who
miss the days when Granite Falls and
Boundry were as trendy as it got,
and bartenders werent mixologists.
Dining out should not feel like a
competition or a scene, said Carrie
Ferguson Weir, 49, who moved here
from New Jersey in 1990. I feel a
little bit like an outsider.
Brand strategist Kidd Redd, 59,
agrees.
In fairness, we have more places
than ever, and some are great, said
Redd, a Nashvillian since 1984.
But if one more guy recites the
entire menu and its immaculate
farm-to-fork origins, or one more
barista acts like hes doing the old
ROLF AND DAUGHTERS
guy a favor by begrudgingly handing me a decanter of brown syrup

because I was impure enough to
request sweetener, Im not responsible for what I might say out loud.
Nate Cannon, the 26-year-old general manager at hotspot 5th & Taylor,
gets that.
There can be an inflated attitude, Cannon conceded, adding he
works hard to make sure his servers
are humble.
Its a fine line between making
servers excited and taking pride in it,
and being pretentious in presenting
it.
Overall, though, Sam Reed, a partner in Sinema, says its an awesome
time to eat out in Nashville and a
challenging time for a restaurant
owner.
The fine-dining scene is better
than it has ever been. The competition is as solid as its ever been, he
said.
Our diners are becoming more
discerning and critical. If youre not
really delivering, youre gonna have
some trouble.
Reach Brad Schmitt at 615-2598384 or on Twitter @bradschmitt.
Frankie Ballard
SAMURAI SUSHI
Samurai Sushi on Elliston.

It looks very authentic.
Brian Kelley
(Florida Georgia Line)
VIRAGO
Virago is always a good go-to.

They have good sushi there.
Husk is really good, too.
PHOTOS SUBMITTED AND FROM
TENNESSEAN FILE AND GETTY
THE TENNESSEAN
THE TENNESSEAN
ITS THE WEEKEND!

T
AR
ST
Where should I eat in Nashville?
HE
RE
JIM MYERS JTMYERS@TENNESSEAN.COM
GRAPHIC BY PAMELA TSENG/THE TENNESSEAN

PHOTOS SUBMITTED AND FROM TENNESSEAN FILE
How
hungry
are you?
I just ate.
Wait
a couple
hours, then
try again.
How
about a
drink?
Do
you like
sweets?
I prefer savory.
BIG
ALS DELI
Want to eat with the locals

and really escape the sunburned,
matching-windbreaker crowds?
Then a French-toast breakfast at Big
Als Deli on the edge of Germantown is
your escape pod. The sausage biscuits
are solid, too, and Als charm makes
the visit worth the Where the
heck are we going? coming
from the back seat.
Im on
the fence.
Of course!
Sure.
How
do you
feel about
chocolate?
INTER-ASIAN
MARKET
After
sunset.
CHOCOLATE
F/X
Theres something vaguely

magical about the pork belly
Bahn Mi sandwich at Inter-Asian
Market near the Fairgrounds. This isnt
your standard Franco-Vietnamese
creation. They only make it on
weekends, and the belly is
alternately crisp and juicy
and meltingly sublime.
Alcohol
or coffee?
Want
to go some
place casual
or a little bit
more fancy?
Sounds
good!
Im more into
something
laid back.
Alcohol,
duh.
OLD GLORY
The ceilings in this old boiler

room are so high, you might get
vertigo if you look up for too long.
Come back down to earth with a
shot of bang bang (Mezcal,
grapefruit and worm salt) and
a bite from their housecured lox board.
Caffeine runs
in my veins!
PINEWOOD
SOCIAL
STEADFAST
COFFEE
Break up the day with a coffee

and pastry at the ever-fashionable
Pinewood Social. The coffee comes
from Crema, one of the best shops
in town, and the baked goods
are the work of Dozen Bakery.
Together, they are besties.
I didnt get
dressed up
for nothing.
ROTIERS
The Rotiers have

fed generations, and
their grilled cheeseburger on
French bread is stout and fine.
But their chilli rarely gets the love
it deserves. Get a big bowl. Get
it with butter grilled bread and
what the heck, get it with a
cheeseburger. Fortify, and
go forth.
In some caffeine-addled parallel

universe, this is the holy grail.
Fortunately for our world,
Steadfast Coffee came up with
the perfect coffee soda. Forget
everything youve ever thought
about cold coffee drinks.
This is the one.
JOSEPHINE
Not always on the

menu, but available if you
ask nicely, the Combo No. 1 at
Josephine on 12th Avenue will
have you testifying at the altar
of cheek meat. A bed of fries,
beef cheeks, gravy and an
egg. Any questions?
INTERNATIONAL
MARKET
How about
some good
Southern
cooking?
Um,
yes!
Whether youre trying to stave

off or induce the sweet sweats,
head to East Nashville and get freaky
at Chocolate f/x, where they combine
great candies with special effects
artistry. You know, like chocolate
werewolves, eyeballs, robots and
cartoonish bunnies. You cant
be sure what the season
will bring.
Coffee, but now

Im hankering
for something
sweet, too.
Theres a reason folks line up

for a restaurant based on simple
Southern bread, and its not just the
stupid-good Bonuts. The Family
Reserve biscuit is a giant, rectangular
homage to the Souths legendary
hummingbird cake: banana jam and
pineapple on the inside, pecans and
cream-cheese icing on top.
Oh, and did we mention
the grits?
Im up for
an adventure.
The popsicle as culinary

art, found at Las Paletas, is a
harbinger of happiness. You never
know what they might be offering,
but the chocolate-wasabi and
tamarind-chili pepper will set
you free with flavors that you
taste ... and feel.
No
thanks.
Id rather
play it safe.
Lunch
time!
LAS PALETAS
Im a little
peckish.
Do you
like going
off the beaten
path?
I hear
roosters
crowing.
What
time
is it?
MY STOMACH
IS ABOUT TO
EAT ITSELF.
BISCUIT
LOVE
Im watching
my cholesterol.
For almost 40 years, the cheapeats temple for Vandy, Lipscomb and
Belmont college students has been
International Market. Skip the steam
table and order from the menu taped to
the wall. The Pad See Ew, with pickled
jalapeos and a dusting of their dusky,
homemade chili powder, will add
years to your life, or least
hours to your weekend.
Old school
or new
school?
If it aint
broke,
dont fix it.
I like living
on the edge.
HUSK
Start with a bang

and beeline it to Husk,
considered one of the countrys
best restaurants under one of the
best chefs. Grab a seat at the bar
before 1:30 p.m. and you can enjoy
a superlative fried chicken plate
(chicken with a Nashville kick, not
Nashville hot) and two sides
for only $14. Thats an
insane deal.
WENDELL
SMITHS
Old-timers call Wendell Smiths

Jakey Cooks place after the
second-generation owner. Now four
generations deep, this no-nonsense
Southern joint beckons with time-warp
neon, and we all return with gladness
for the turnip greens and cornbread
because they taste like your best
childhood memories, no
matter your age.
THE TENNESSEAN
K1
IN NASHVILLE
YOUR GUIDE TO
INTERNATIONAL
DINING
NANCY VIENNEAU
FOR THE TENNESSEAN
Theres a wide assortment of styles at local ethnic restaurants
big trip to Central America, North Africa or the Middle East may never
be on your horizon, but an easy drive south down Nolensville Road or west
out Charlotte Pike could be your passport, a delicious step off your eaten path.
In assembling this local global roster in Nashville, weve highlighted those
places where immigrants to our fair city prepare and serve dishes authentic
to their heritage and tradition. All around, its a testament to a hospitable spirit. Where
the spoken word can be a difficult barrier to cross, the language of food has a way
of clearing the path to understanding.
MEXICAN, CENTRAL AMERICAN,

CARIBBEAN
MEXICAN
In 1992, La Hacienda Tortilleria opened a small market and tortilla factory to serve the growing Hispanic
community. It was a first of its kind in Nashville,
ushering in generations of markets, taquerias,
shops and mobile taco stands along the
busy Nolensville Pike corridor and
throughout the city.
La Hacienda
2615 Nolensville Pike, 615-256-5066,
www.lahanashville.com
El Tapatio #2
3611 Nolensville Pike
standing tenant in the Market House food court

of the Nashville Farmers Market. Theres also now
a standalone spot in Midtown.
Jamaicaway
900 Rosa Parks Blvd, 615-255-5920
1812 Hayes St., 615-678-4031
PUERTO RICAN
Mofongo! Fun to say, and fun to eat. The traditional
Puerto Rican dish is typically made with mashed
plantains combined with pork cracklings, chicken or
seafood and formed into a mound. But dont pass by
the Mofongo de yucca: The boiled and mashed
tuber is laced with oregano, garlic and pepper, and
deep-fried to a crunch, yet retains a creamy center.
Tacos Y Mariscos El Amigo

3901 Nolensville Pike, 615-833-6434
Salsa
818 Palmer Place, 615-401-9316,
www.salsarestaurantnashville.com
Taqueria San Luis

369 Harding Place, 615-831-7116
ASIAN
SALVADORAN
The hand-patted-stuffed-and-griddled pupusas are
El Salvadors answer to a hoe-cake. The variety of
fillings, from mild white cheese to loroco a tiny
brined Central American herb to mixto, a mixture
of cheese, beans and chicharron, are all worth sampling.
KOREAN
Put an egg on it! That prevailing trend didnt get its
start in a Korean kitchen, but a serving of Dolsot
Bibimbap gives credence to the practice. We love
the sizzling stone bowl full of rice, stir-fried vegetables, shredded beef, topped with a sunny egg. But
were also drawn to barbecued short rib, savory
seafood pancake, spicy marinated pork and the
array of banchan small bowls of pickled vegetables and kimchi.
Las Americas Pupuseria y Taqueria

4715-A Nolensville Pike, 615-315-8888
Korea House
6410 Charlotte Pike, #108, 615-352-2790
La Esquina Pupuseria
1326 Antioch Pike, 615-582-9029
Hai Woon Dai

2051 Antioch Pike, 615-333-9186
La Mulita Express #2
6317 Charlotte Pike
HONDURAN
Honduran dishes draw on a confluence of cuisines:
Spanish, African and Caribbean. Specialties include
baleadas, their version of a stuffed tortilla, and
chismol, a vegetable salsa with tomatoes, peppers,
onions, lime and radish.
Honduras Restaurant
1057 Murfreesboro Pike, 615-365-2522
CUBAN
Cuban cuisine hasnt taken a strong hold in Nashville
both Havana Grill and Guantanamera were good,
but didnt last. However, Back to Cuba has been
serving for more than a decade.
Back to Cuba Caf
4683 Trousdale Drive, 615-837-6711,
www.backtocubacafe.com
JAMAICAN
For Jamaican cuisine a rarity in Nashville
diners have been lucky to have Jamaicaway, a long-
Seoul Garden
4928 Edmondson Pike, 615-445-3613,
www.seoulgardentn.com
VIETNAMESE
A rich and remarkable experience of Vietnamese
cuisine can be found in concentration on Charlotte
Pike, two of which are located in a vast and unremarkable shopping mall, the third nearby, on the
other side of the busy thoroughfare. All three serve
dishes fragrant with fresh herbs: mint, Thai basil and
cilantro, sparked with slices of fresh jalapenos.
Kien Giang
5845 Charlotte Pike, 615-353-1250, cash only
Miss Saigon
5849 Charlotte Pike, 615-354-1351
VN Pho and Deli
5906 Charlotte Pike, 615-356-5995, cash only
THAI/LAOTIAN
The roots of Thai cuisine in Nashville can be traced
Dont know
what to order?
Visit Dining.
Tennessean.com for
some of our favorite
ethnic dishes.
to 1975, when Patty Myint opened the

much-loved International Market on
Belmont Boulevard. Siam Caf, which opened
in the 80s and is still operating on McCall Street
off Nolensville, is another forerunner in introducing
Nashvillians to the wonders of pad Thai, drunken
noodles, tiger tear salad and fiery curries.
International Market and Restaurant
2010 Belmont Blvd., 615-297-4453,
www.internationalnashville.com
Siam Caf
316 McCall St., 615-834-3181
Kings Market Lao-Thai Caf and Grocery
1801 Antioch Pike, 615-333-3103,
www.kingmarkettn.com
Thai Esane Thai Cuisine and Bar
907 12th Ave. S., 615-454-5373, www.thaiesane.com
The Smiling Elephant
2213 Eighth Ave. S., 615-891-4488
www.thesmilingelephant.com
CHINESE
Curiously, authentic regional Chinese food is
a rarity in Nashville. But, at Lucky Bamboo,
Jack Ting and Gavin Weng (who also own
Chinatown in Green Hills) raised the bar,
offering Cantonese and Sichuan styles.
Lucky Bamboo China Bistro
5855B Charlotte Pike, 615-760-5930,
www.luckybamboochinabistro.com
Chinatown Restaurant
3900 Hillsboro Pike, 615-269-3275,
www.nashvillechinatown.com
JAPANESE
If you lived here in 1977, youd remember Kobe,
Nashvilles introduction to Japanese hibachi-steakhouse theater and wagyu beef. Or, in the early
80s, when Koto was the only place to get
sushi. In our grown-up it city status
where Nissan has its corporate headquarters and its name on our football
field, weve got abundant options for
maki, sashimi, tempura and gyozas.
The ramen phenomenon is recent,
with Otaku Ramen and Two Ten
Jack heading the pack.
Continued on next page

STAFF PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
PHOTOS BY ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
F I N D G R O C E RY C O U P O N S I N S I D E T H A T C A N S A V E Y O U U P T O $ 2 2 5
The morning sun

lights the mountain
ridges in Grand
Goave, Haiti, outside
the Hands and Feet
Projects Mission
Guest Village.
LARRY MCCORMACK / THE TENNESSEAN AND PULITZER CENTER ON CRISIS REPORTING
In Insight
About this series
Many mission trip groups travel to the island nation to
Helping Haiti requires

thoughtful approach, 1H
Reporter Jamie McGee and photographer Larry

McCormack traveled to Haiti in March through a
grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
They spent nine days in Gressier, Grand Goave and
Port-au-Prince, focusing their reporting on efforts
under way to develop sustainable incomes and
expand agricultural production.
lend a helping hand. But a large number of those visitors
Inside
Marriott takes a gamble
in Haiti, 12A
Hands and Feet Project
battles Haitis orphan
crisis, 13A
Coming Monday: A Tennessee nonprofit is

combating poverty in Haiti with the help of chickens.
IN NEWS, 3A
most spend money. One Tennessee-based

organization has restructured its model around one
simple premise: Act like a tourist.
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from the cover
S U N D AY , M AY 2 2 , 2 016
PHOTOS BY LARRY MCCORMACK / THE TENNESSEAN AND PULITZER CENTER ON CRISIS REPORTING
Street vendors in Port-au-Prince come to town with chickens in their hands and clothes and other merchandise balanced on their heads.
Rethinking Haiti
Mission trip groups pour
into Haiti each week, but
the groups often avoid a
key part of helping Haiti:
spending money.
JAMIE MCGEE
JMCGEE@TENNESSEAN.COM
he mission trip groups

pour into Haitis Portau-Prince
airport
each week, adorned in
colorful matching Tidentifying
shirts
their causes.
Theyve come to
this mountainous island plagued in recent years by earthquakes, cholera and political unrest to
hand out food, paint houses and even perform eye surgery. They are here to help.
But the groups often avoid a crucial
component of stimulating the Haitian
economy: spending money.
Typically, the groups stay within a
mission campus, sleep in bunk dorms,
eat food they brought and work on their
project, rarely venturing out to taste the
island nations cuisine and explore its
culture.
Its an issue that the Franklin-based
Hands and Feet Project recognized as its
founders looked for ways to help the
abandoned children they cared for in the
towns of Jacmel and Grand Goave transition to adulthood. The group has overhauled the mission trip model to encourage U.S. visitors to eat at local restaurants, employ Haitians as trip guides,
pay for hotel-like accommodations and
buy goods made in the communities they
visited.
Hands and Feet co-founder Will McGinniss looks out over the grounds of the organizations new retreat center.
Haiti has a lot

more to offer
than just you
coming and
feeling good
about digging
Continued on Next Page
in the dirt or
Number of visitors over

the years in Haiti
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Local teenagers weave hats for the Haiti Made brand in the Hands and Feet
workshop in Grand Goave, Haiti.
145,000
150,000
149,000
147,000
143,000
140,000
142,000
140,000
136,000
96,000
112,000
108,000
building a
building or
even loving on
some kids.
WILL MCGINNISS
HANDS AND FEET PROJECT
CO-FOUNDER
386,000
258,000
387,000
255,000*
349,000
349,000
420,000
465,000
*Year Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake.

Source: The World Bank
Sean Moore, who leads the Hands and Feet Project in Grand Goave, Haiti,
surveys the construction of a suite at the organizations new boutique hotel
and retreat center. The site is expected to be fully operable in 2018.
from the cover
S U N D AY , M AY 2 2 , 2 016
11A
Sheeven Joseph skateboards at the Hands and Feet Project childrens home in Grand Goave, Haiti.
Continued from Page 10A
The Hands and Feet Project vision is for

Haitian teenagers and young adults to take
visitors hiking along the green mountain
ridges, paddleboarding and snorkeling in the
clear ocean water or on day trips to the artist
community in Jacmel.
Haiti has a lot more to offer than just you coming
and feeling good about digging in the dirt or building a
building or even loving on some kids, said Will
McGinniss, Hands and Feet Project co-founder.
Those are all awesome, but at the end of the day, who
did they really help besides the (visitors)?
Hands and Feets Mission Guest Village employs
Haitian housekeepers, chefs, gardeners and construction teams, and teenagers and local women weave hats
and make bracelets in a downstairs workshop. Farmers work the land, motorcycles drive by on the dirt
road and uniformed children walk to school with the
glow of a golden sun rising behind them. The guests
come to learn, to experience and to take back an
awareness of Haitis beauty, not just its problems
and they dont have to go without a hot shower while
doing so. The guests stay in a two-story, tin-roofed boutique hotel and retreat center that overlooks, on one
side, the Caribbean Sea and, on the other, a rugged
mountain ridge. The grounds are landscaped with
flowering trees and a handmade stone wall.
The project reflects a shift in the way faith-based
groups are helping others in developing countries. Instead of focusing on charitable giving and charitable
work, they are investing in job creation and economic
development, seeing it as a more meaningful way to
address the roots of poverty.
Some groups, who come with a volunteer mentality,
resist adjusting to the organizations new model. Hav-
ing a lobster and plantain dinner served to them by locals on the beach, in what is known as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, can feel uncomfortable for some, said Sean Moore, who leads Hands and
Feet Project in Grand Goave. Moore said he emphasizes that buying a meal in Haiti is the same as buying a
meal in the U.S. its a mutual exchange providing
dignity in place of a handout.
You just bought a $15 meal, Moore said. Thats
tuition for one of their kids for a whole month. People
dont look at it that way. (They say) Oh, I dont want to
be served. You are doing more by buying that meal
than really if you would have raked that guys yard. He
can rake his own yard.
Betsy Wall, who runs Walls International Guest
House in Port-au-Prince, says while she hosts medical
teams, adoptive families and tourists, the majority of
her guests are mission groups. Some offer short-term
fixes in the form of Ibuprofen and Tums donations and
peanut butter sandwiches they serve to local children,
and they see little of Haiti beyond the mission compound where they work, she said.
The majority of visitors that come here come within a mission context, within a mission mind that We
are here to help, heal, save, fix Haiti, Wall said inside
a shop selling Haitian-made jewelry and other goods.
To have the nerve to come here and say you are a tourist is like next to a sin.
Wall takes what she calls adventure travelers on excursions to agricultural cooperatives in rural areas to
see where investments have been made. A business
group she led in March visited a Haitian-led cooperative for which their farming equipment company had
funded literacy training.
The people who usually travel with me are those
who are interested in understanding how we make a
difference in the world that is both appropriate and respectful, Wall said. It is not a trip that is to do or to do
for, but it is to observe and to understand.
Continued on Next Page
How Haitis tourism

sector stacks up
Amount spent by
international visitors in 2014,
including international
carrier airfare, in U.S. dollars:
$5.64 billion
Dominican Republic
$2.47 billion
The Bahamas
$2.26 billion
Jamaica
$578 million
Haiti
Visitors in 2014
5.14 million
Dominican Republic
2.08 million
Jamaica
1.43 million
The Bahamas
465,000
Haiti
Children play at Taino Beach in Grand Goave, Haiti, as others sell fruit on the shore.
You just bought a $15 meal. Thats tuition for one of their kids for a whole month. People dont look
at it that way. (They say) Oh, I dont want to be served. You are doing more by buying that meal
than really if you would have raked that guys yard. He can rake his own yard.
SEAN MOORE
HANDS AND FEET PROJECT
12A
from the cover
S U N D AY , M AY 2 2 , 2 016
Sheeven Joseph, who lives at Hands and Feet Project, examines a piece of coral at the beach in Grand Goave, Haiti.
You can help Haiti by helping us build the tourism sector. If you come to Haiti to help people that is
good, but if you can come to Haiti to help people and for the destination, thats great.
SAMUEL DAMEUS
HAITIS MINISTRY OF TOURISM
Haiti was once a popular tourist

destination, especially in the
1950s. Bill and Hillary Clinton
honeymooned there in 1975, and
Club Med operated a resort off its
western coast in the 1980s. As
political instability and fear
surrounding AIDS took hold in the
same decade, vacationers
seeking white sand beaches
turned to neighboring Caribbean
countries, and Haitis momentum
halted in the decades since.
In 2014 alone, foreign visitors poured
$5.6 billion into the neighboring Dominican Republic and $2.3 billion into nearby Jamaica, dwarfing the $578 million
flowing to Haitis tourism sector.
While safety is a concern for travelers in Haiti, the same could be said for
those visiting any developing country.
Haitis Ministry of Tourism has
sought to expand the countrys travel infrastructure to attract more visitors. In
Port-au-Prince, three new luxury hotels
have emerged in recent years and existing hotels have poured large sums of investment money into expansions. In 2015
Royal Club DeCameron Indigo Beach
Resort opened at the former Club Med
site.
The investment is paying off, according to ministry spokesman Samuel Dameus. At least 500,000 visitors came to
Haiti in 2015, a significant increase from
previous years. The World Bank reported 349,000 visitors in 2012 and as few as
96,000 in 2004.
Volunteering is the top reason for

trips, with missionary work second, according to a 2013 Igarap Institute report. Officials would like to see the sector expand its scope and its spending,
Dameus said.
We value the work they are doing
here in Haiti, but we want them also to
enjoy Haiti, he said. You can help Haiti
by helping us build the tourism sector. If
you come to Haiti to help people that is
good, but if you can come to Haiti to help
people and for the destination, thats
great.
For Joel Rezil, a 17-year-old who is
transitioning out of the Hands and Feet
Project childrens home, the new guest
experience translates to additional income opportunities that he hopes will
help him continue his education in economics. While some of his peers will take
groups to the beach, he wants to share
the areas history with guests.
When they leave Haiti and then go to
the churches and anywhere else to talk
about Haiti, more tourists will come to
Haiti, and Haiti will be better, he said.
The Hands and Feet Project directors
want to expand their operations and double employment to 300 jobs. With members of their Haitian staff supporting
several family members in the Grand
Goave and Jacmel communities, the impact is significant.
Whats happened over the last three
decades is we have stripped the dignity
of the people, said Mark Stuart, Hands
and Feet co-founder. The Americans
getting off the airplane arent there because Haiti is beautiful; they are there
because Haiti needs help. The reality is
Haiti is beautiful.
This reporting was supported by a
grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis
Reporting.
Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071
and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.
Hands and Feet Project directors Andrea and Will McGinniss walk with older boys on their way
to school. The two teenagers behind the McGinnisses have moved into transitional homes from
the Hands and Feet childrens village in Haiti.
BANKING ON TOURISM
Marriott takes
a gamble in Haiti
JAMIE MCGEE JMCGEE@TENNESSEAN.COM
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti In a gleaming, tallceiling lobby, guests in blazers, Polo shirts and running attire pass through. Stunning prints, paintings
and voodoo flag designs by Haitian artists decorate
the walls on the way to the open bar and dining area.
The Marriott Port-au-Prince hotel is in its second
year of operation. With a $45 million investment
from Digicel, the hotel hosts non-governmental organization officials, journalists, business officials,
Haitian-Americans, missionaries and vacationers.
Benefiting from its brand name, the Marriott became profitable its first year, according to Stephanie Gibson, the hotels marketing manager.
It employs 165 people, nearly all of whom are
Haitian, and has put a heavy emphasis on buying local goods.
Still, demand is less than anticipated. With the
opening of two other luxury hotels a Best Western and a Royal Oasis and the expansion of two
existing hotels in the wake of the 2010 earthquake,
the market has ample supply. The political turmoil
this year surrounding Haitis elections has done little to help, and the bookings have also declined as
non-governmental organizations scale back their
role in post-quake Haiti.
We are finding theyve come and fulfilled their
mission of what they wanted to set up, and now they
are training local staff and talent to take over what
they had ex-pats doing, Gibson said.
The oversupply is no surprise to Richard A.
Morse, who manages Hotel Oloffson, a smaller, 20room gingerbread house-style hotel. With its regular live voodoo-inspired music and historical role,
Oloffson attracts travelers seeking a more eclectic
and artsy experience, so he does not consider the
new hotels as direct competition. He is puzzled,
though, especially by the hotel growth in the wealthier suburb of Ptionville.
I dont know how those places stay open, Morse
said. Why are they building all these big hotels in
Ptionville?
Tourism officials said oversupply is not a concern. After the earthquake, more rooms were needed. For Haiti to rebuild its tourism sector, a strong
economic development tool, adequate infrastructure must exist.
If we want the tourism in Haiti to grow, we definitely have to have the capacity, said Samuel Dameus, spokesman for Haitis Ministry of Tourism.
We have to be ready.
Even with lower occupancy, the Marriott maintains a busy feel. Guests mill around the lobby at all
hours, filling bar stools and tables, and Gibson said
the dining area becomes a business hub during the
lunch hour. It hosts conventions and parties, turning
the pristine pool and patio area into a concert venue.
Gibson says hotel management is optimistic
about demand once the political instability subsides. Meanwhile, its staff is perfecting its Marriott culture based on strong customer service, she
said.
Its not selling the hotel, its selling Haiti as a
destination, a destination for the right traveler, a
destination to come and do business said Gibson, a
Boston native. We are right in the U.S.s backyard.
Its just getting people down here. Once you come
down once, typically people are back in the next
eight months to a year because there is something
they fall in love with.
The reporting for this story was funded by a grant
from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071.
from the cover
S U N D AY , M AY 2 2 , 2 016
13 A
Battling Haitis orphan crisis

JAMIE MCGEE
GRANDE GOAVE, Haiti In the orphanage where Sheeven Joseph lived as

a young boy, 31 children slept on cardboard boxes.
They had little food to eat. The man
who housed them received donations
based on the number of children, but the
money did not go toward their care, according to the organization that provides
care for them today.
When we got them they were very
sad, very sick, very hungry, said Andrea McGinniss, director of child care at
Hands and Feet Project, The Franklinbased nonprofit that began working in
orphan care in Haiti in 2005.
The same children now sleep in blanketed bunk beds, eat three meals a day
and live under the care of four Haitian
house mothers. Hands and Feet built a
new site for the children in Grand Goave
after local authorities stepped in eight
years ago.
I go to school, said Joseph, 13. I
make good grades. I eat well. Im comfortable.
The Mission Guest Village project,
which is expected to be fully built and operable in 2018, is Hands and Feets latest
effort to address the needs of Joseph and
the nearly 110 children and teenagers living in their care. The children transitioning out of the homes will be able to earn
incomes as guides for guests or fill other
jobs created through the facilitys operations. The vision is to help the children
live independently as adults and to break
the cycles of poverty their parents encountered.
Hands and Feet began with musicians
of Christian group Audio Adrenaline in
2004, when they established their first
childrens home in Jacmel, south of
Grand Goave. More recently, they created a line of leather goods and woven hats,
called Haiti Made, that employs about 35
individuals both teenagers from their
two homes and teens and adults from the
local communities.
Of those children living at Hands and
Feet Projects homes, about 85 percent
Children at an orphanage in Gressier, Haiti, eat chicken raised by KORE farmers. The chicken is a source of protein to combat malnutrition.
have a living parent. The problem is rooted in poverty. Parents, unable to provide
adequate food, see no other option but to
find alternative caregivers. As often as
once a week, a parent asks if a child can
live there, according to Hands and Feet
directors.
They see, OK, my kid is going to eat,
said McGinniss, who lives in Jacmel with
her husband, Hands and Feet co-founder
Will McGinniss, and three children. My
kid is going to have clothes. My kids going to go to school.
Hands and Feet only accepts children
after social services approves and connects families to resources that can help
them get by.
Every orphan care strategy has to
start with a fight to keep families together, said Mark Stuart, Hands and Feet cofounder. We are putting as much effort
into family preservation as our child
care.
Reporting.
They see, OK, my

kid is going to eat.
My kid is going to
have clothes. My kids going
to go to school.
ANDREA MCGINNISS
DIRECTOR OF CHILD CARE AT HANDS AND FEET PROJECT
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S U N D AY , M AY 2 2 , 2 016
HELPING HAITI REQUIRES

THOUGHTFUL APPROACH
analysis
Jamie McGee
jmcgee@
tennessean.com
Jamie McGee, a Tennessean business

reporter, spent nine days in Haiti in March
with photographer Larry McCormack
through a grant from the Pulitzer Center on
Crisis Reporting. They focused their reporting on efforts to build sustainable incomes
in rural Haiti.
The 2010 earthquake brought an international focus to Haitis struggles, causing

many to ask what can be done to help. Is
there a meaningful way to contribute to a
country in which the majority of the population lives in poverty? Is it writing a
check, offering our labor, building a new
organization or staying on the sidelines?
In 2015 we read about the Red Cross
collecting millions in aid for Haiti with
little results to show for it. We hear about
the great work that mission trips and organizations on the ground do, but also questions surrounding their effectiveness.
In Nashville several local groups have
acted on their concerns for those in Haiti.
They have focused on health care, education, child care, nutrition, water quality and
job development. Some organizations have
been working in Haiti for more than a decade, while others formed more recently.
They have seen firsthand the challenges of
carrying out an initiative, the damage that
well-intended aid can sometimes inflict
and the positive impact of a carefully
planned program.
They offer these takeaways:
Use short-term trips to supplement
long-term partnerships.
Mission trips can be positive experiences for both the visitor and the host
country when done right. The trips help
fund long-term programs, bring new perspective to the traveler and especially
when skilled volunteers contractors,
mechanics, doctors, nurses are involved,
they can pass on useful knowledge and
offer needed skills.
Work with local workers, dont compete with them.
LiveBeyonds Dr. David Vanderpool
says visiting medical students offer expertise to local doctors in the organizations
Thomazeau campus and work alongside
them. Less helpful is when groups set up
free clinics in the same area where local
practices exist.
They may have just put the local doctors out of business, Vanderpool said.
That is a tremendous hit to the local economy if they lose their local doctors.
The same goes for other professions,
including construction. While Americans
often come to erect or repair buildings,
unemployed Haitians could take on those
projects and earn an income.
Tread carefully when it comes to
orphan care.
Orphanages often become homes for

children with living parents, who hope
their child will have more access to food
and education there. To keep families together, Hands and Feet Project in Franklin
began to accept children only through
social services, and they try to be the last
resort by helping struggling parents find
resources they need.
People should focus on job creation and
family preservation as much as possible,
said Mark Stuart, Hands and Feet co-founder.
Prioritize employment over gifts.
Building lasting initiatives that create
jobs has a greater impact than donations.
Consider supporting efforts underway that
are focused on employment.
If a program can become sustainable
and pay for itself with income it generates,
it will be more successful and more lasting
than if it is based entirely on donor support, said KORE Foundations Dennis Bratton. If donations stop, the livelihood of
people and their families is not at stake.
Locals at work
Some Nashville-area organizations operating in Haiti:
KORE Foundation: Located in Gressier
and 10 other rural communities.
See Haiti, Page 4H
A local resident traverses a dirt road down a hillside in Grand Goave, Haiti.
Inside Insight
David Plazas: School board race is most important local election of 2016. 2H
Point, counterpoint: More work needed to battle suicide. 3H
A birds-eye
view of
colorful and
crowded
Port-auPrince, Haiti.
4H
insight
S U N D AY , M AY 2 2 , 2 016
Lincoln: We must not be enemies

metropolitan
Keel Hunt
It was not always this way.

In the history of our nations presidential politics, there have always been
moments of madness and meanness,
but this 2016 race has become an obscenity. Smart parents mute the TV
when screaming candidates come on.
What has made it so? I nominate four
central culprits (and Donald Trump is
not one of them).
1. Cable TV news with its dearth of
standards, judgment, originality and
good taste.
2. The two failed national political
parties, who prize winning at any cost
over any saner guiding principle.
3. The profit-driven campaign consultant class, who make big bucks producing sound bites that feed shallow discourse.
4. The deep pockets of dark money that
feed all of the above.
This perverted pathology extends to
many local races also, from congressional to legislative to mayoral to aldermanic. Not all of them, but enough to
disgust and alienate the regular citizen.
This is not all about Trump. For all
Four factors have led to the meanness and madness in the 2016 political season. Among them are money
obsession and shallow discourse.
his arrogance, scornful behavior and
privileged condescension, Trump in my
view is not the disease but a symptom.
He did not make the problem, but he
does embody it. His conduct is only the
effect, not the cause.
Trumps campaign is rather a playing-out of the steep decline of civility in
our national public life. He knows no
other way. He is succeeding partly
because he is outrageous but more so
because he channels a larger welling up
of impatience and frustration that
many of his voters obviously feel. And,
lets face it: These voters may make
him our next president.
Hillary Clinton is meanwhile being
Ralph Nader-ized from her left by a
variant of that same impatience. Whatever else the Bernie Sanders campaign
may be, it feels like a third-party incursion that is splitting the Democrats.
Third parties have yet to succeed in
modern times. They only divide and
hand victory to the other side.
Notice I wrote other side not ene-
my at the end of that paragraph. Enemies is sadly how the current campaigns seem to regard each other
like dueling devils but their vocabulary only leads to more chaos. Namecalling may feed the cameras and talking heads of cable TV, but too much is
unhealthy for the republic.
What matters most now, whatever
the result in November, is how our
country will emerge from this troubled
process. We may see attempts at reconciliation, but for now the word honeymoon does not come to mind.
It was not always like this.
We are not enemies, but friends,
President Lincoln admonished political
foes in his day. We must not be enemies. A 20th-century politician who
often quoted Lincoln was the late Sen.
Howard Baker Jr. of Tennessee, also a
Republican.
Baker was called The Great Conciliator of the Senate. He fought hard but
respected his rivals. He treated them
as friends, regardless of party, and
became famous for finding common
ground.
For Baker, the job was about solving
problems, keeping the system functioning and the nation moving forward, in
spite of divisive issues and the heat of
partisan elections. Among his direct
political lineage today are Sens. Lamar

Alexander and Bob Corker.
The Baker legacy came to mind this
week when I read Corkers reply when
asked about Trumps remarks on U.S.
foreign policy. While many exclaimed
dismay over Trumps brashness and its
implications for U.S. interests abroad,
Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, instead responded: Lets chill for awhile. Lets really
see what a Trump presidency would be
about.
In other words: Well see. Lets try to
understand. I am willing to help him.
For this essentially moderate position, Corker received some bashing
from the Never Trump crowd. My
own view: Corker is trying to find a
sensible path forward through what is
now a very dark place.
We cannot know until November
what Election Day will bring. My guess
is Sanders will fade and Clinton may
yet be elected. But if she is not, we will
surely need wise souls who can work
with President Trump and help him
succeed.
That is how our world will survive
all of this.
Keel Hunt is a Tennessean columnist. Reach him at Keel@TSGNashville.com
Congress should
pass much-needed
Chemical Safety Bill
tennessee columnist
Saritha Prabhu
In what seems like an earlier life, I majored in chemistry in college. i enjoyed the subject, but as it sometimes happens, my life took a different direction and I
became a writer.
But my chemistry days taught me, among other
things, the extent to which everything in and around us
has a basis in chemistry. What are our bodies but exquisitely balanced chemical factories (of sorts) under
our skin? As science advances, we discover that our
bodies, organ systems and mental faculties are sensitive to the chemicals were exposed to in our daily lives.
The topic at hand is the proliferation of man-made
chemicals in our modern lives, many of them serving
useful purposes but many also being harmful to our
physical and mental health, and that especially of our
children.
CNNs Dr. Sanjay Gupta wrote about this several
years ago, about the more than 80,000 chemicals currently in commerce, and how only about 200 of them
had been tested for their safety.
Its not a sexy topic, but an essential one. The fact is
our modern lives are about comfort and convenience,
and this means that the everyday products we use, in
order to be functional, are laced with chemicals of all
kinds.
The list of these harmful chemicals is long but here
are a few examples: Processed foods that contain chemical additives to preserve freshness, appearance and
taste; sofas and car seats containing flame-retardant
chemicals that can cause cancer; formaldehyde in some
clothes and furniture that can cause cancer and asthma;
the harmful chemical known as PFOA used in Teflon
for non-stick pans; endocrine disruptors found in shampoo, cosmetics, plastics, food can linings, cash register
receipts.
And I havent even mentioned the industrial pollutants in the air, soil and water in many parts of the country.
I dont necessarily see this as a corporations-are-evil
scenario, but as the price paid for living in our modern,
industrial society. When you actually dig into the subject, you wonder why we are all not sicker than we are.
But the effects of chemicals can be all the more
devastating on young children and fetuses. As former
EPA chief, Lisa Jackson said at a congressional hearing
a while back, Everything from our cars to cell phones
... are made with chemicals. A child born in America
today will grow up exposed to more chemicals than any
other generation in our history.
As Gupta has added, Babies in this country are born
pre-polluted.
The good news is that the House and Senate recently
passed their respective versions of a sweeping bipartisan chemical safety bill introduced late last year called
The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st
Century Act, named after the late New Jersey senator.
This updates the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act
which was lax and didnt require safety testing of
chemicals. Hopefully, the House and Senate versions
will soon reconcile and the bill will pass.
The not-so-good news is the extent of the problem
and how much advocacy and regulation needs yet to be
done.
Dr. Gupta has pointed out a key difference between
the approaches of the U.S. and the European Union in
chemical safety: Our nation had a passive system for
the last 40 years that simply assumed that chemicals
are safe, and that put the burden of proving otherwise
on watchdog groups and regulators, whereas the EU
had a more precautionary approach the companies
were required to prove chemical safety.
He added that it hasnt seemed to affect their industries bottom line.
The effects of our decades-long deregulatory and
corporate-friendly approach to chemical safety has
been costly, widespread and ultimately sad.
At least some part of our diabetes and obesity epidemics are due to endocrine-disrupting chemicals like
BPA and Phthalates present in our products; some of
our childrens ADHD, asthma, early puberty and other
ailments can be related to chemical exposure in food
and products.
As Sen. Lautenberg said a while back, the children,
especially, in the U.S. had been virtual guinea pigs in
an uncontrolled experiment. Hopefully, the bill will
soon pass and will change that.
Saritha Prabhu of Clarksville is a Tennessean columnist. Reach her at sprabhu43@gmail.com
Haiti
Continued from Page 1H
KORE supports 185 chicken farmers

with co-ops, training and marketing
resources, helping them become independent farmers after paying off a
starting loan. Through $6.25 monthly
sponsorships, KORE purchases chickens raised by KORE farmers to feed to
children and reduce malnutrition.
Learn more at korefoundation.org
The Joseph School: Cabaret, Haiti.
The school opened in 2015 with 31
kindergarten students and five Haitian
teachers with a focus on leadership. It
will double in size with a new first grade
this year, and work will begin this summer on a new facility.
Learn more at thejosephschool.org
LiveBeyond: Thomazeau, Haiti.
LiveBeyonds maternal health care
program provides care, education and
meals for 350 women. The organization
employs 100 Haitians full-time and as
many as 250 when construction projects
are underway. LiveBeyond also supports a school for 250 children and a
childrens home, and it provides clean
water to 200,000 people. The organization is building a new hospital and plans
are underway for a new school.

Learn more at livebeyond.org
Hands and Feet Project: Grand
Goave and Jacmel, Haiti.
Hands and Feet provides housing and
care for 110 children at two childrens
villages. To help the teenagers being
raised at the Hands and Feet homes and
to create jobs and alleviate poverty,
Hands and Feet operates its Haiti Made
brand that employs about 35 Haitians.
Learn more at
handsandfeetproject.org
Restore Haiti: Morne Oge and Portau-Prince, Haiti.
Restore Haiti operates a sponsorship
program that covers food and school
costs for children, and the organization
provides care at a medical clinic.
Learn more at restorehaiti.com
myLIFEspeaks: Neply, Haiti.
The organization includes a food
program and health care for children,
prenatal care and education for mothers, orphan care and prevention, physical therapy for children with disabilities and a school for 14 special needs
kids. A second school is being built that
will add a grade each year.
Learn more at myLIFEspeaks.com
Reporting. Reach Jamie McGee at 615259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.
Guests dance to the music under the glow of stage lights during a Haitian music experience
at the Marriott Hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Children at
an
orphanage
in Gressier,
Haiti, eat
chicken
raised by
KORE
Foundation
farmers. The
chicken
serves as a
source of
protein to
combat
malnutrition.
Check out the updated Tennessean app

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MO N D AY , M AY 2 3 , 2 016
Hatching a market
Middle
Tennessee
nonprofit KORE
Foundation is
using chicken
farming to
combat poverty
in rural Haiti
JAMIE MCGEE JMCGEE@TENNESSEAN.COM
About this series
GRESSIER, Haiti Each day, Therane Hypolite, 51, tends her hillside chicken
coop filled with nearly 400 chirping birds. She feeds them, provides them with
water, checks for illness, and when they grow large enough, she sells them to market merchants. Its a source of income that was nonexistent for her two years ago.
It helps us make some money, said Hypolite, a mother of two. She had gone
from selling shoes and other goods at local markets to doing nothing before chicken farming. When you make money, the kids go to school (and) eat.
Hypolite and more than 180 other chicken farmers living in extreme poverty
developed their business with a loan from KORE Foundation, a Gallatin-based
organization that seeks to build sustainable incomes as an alternative to direct aid
Since I was a baby, Haitian people keep receiving gifts from Americans. They
eat it and tomorrow they are hungry again, said Christian Jean Pierre, KOREs
Haitian-born production director. We try to find something where the farmers
can make the money very quick to solve that.
Reporter Jamie McGee and

photographer Larry
McCormack traveled to Haiti
in March through a grant from
the Pulitzer Center on Crisis
Reporting. They spent nine
days in Gressier, Grand Goave
and Port-au-Prince, focusing
their reporting on efforts
underway to develop
sustainable incomes and
expand agricultural
production. If you missed Part
One of this series, find it
online at Tennessean.com.
Above,
KORE
employees
prepare
chickens for
processing
in Gressier,
Haiti.
Inside
Haiti poultry
industry still
feels pain of
US imports,
8A
Continued on Page 6A
ONGOING DISPUTE
Classifieds............. 8C
Comics ................ 13A
Letters ............... 15A
Obituaries .... 10-11A
Puzzles ............... 14A
Weather ............. 10C
IN SPORTS
Sheriff, mayor at philosophical odds

JOEY GARRISON
JGARRISON@TENNESSEAN.COM
Davidson County Sheriff

Daron Hall, left, and
Nashville Mayor Megan
Barry have differences over
some issues.
It was December, and Mayor Megan

Barry was three months into her new
job. Thats when Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall says he learned of a new
Metro organizational chart created by
the mayors transition team.
There was his name Hall, a constitutional officer elected by voters listed among the city bureaucrats that report to the mayors Chief Operating Offi-
cer Rich Riebeling.

He was miffed.
Two department heads in Metro government, friends of mine who Ive
known a long time, sent it to me and said,
I didnt know you worked for the mayor, Hall said.
You can list me wherever you want
to, but its symbolic of some of the problem.
Today, Hall tells that story as he
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6A
from the cover
M O N D AY , M AY 2 3 , 2 016
Andre Paul carries indigenous chickens from a Port-au-Prince market.
Chicken production was once a

prospering industry in Haiti, with
a handful of medium-size
operators leading the market.
But Haitian agricultural
production, especially rice, took
a hit in the mid-1990s when the
government dramatically lowered
its tariffs to appease the
international trade community
pushing for open markets.
The KORE farmers are part of a larger effort to rebuild Haitis agricultural
sector that has been dominated by imports for the past two decades.
You have the double-edged sword of
poverty and hunger in the Haitian economy because their markets disappeared,
KORE founder Dennis Bratton said. If
you can get (the chicken) sold, thats the
key to it and thats what we are trying to
do.
KORE began in 2010 with Bratton, a
former pastor and Gallatin resident,
along with a member of his church and a
University of Florida professor who developed several agricultural initiatives
from a farm in Gressier, Haiti. They had
built a home for children in India and
were considering adding a chicken farming project, but saw greater potential in
Haiti. Together they developed a business model, Bratton raised funds, and the
first group of farmers began in 2012.
The participating farmers are chosen
in part based on need they are typically living off a dollar a day and they
must be recommended by leaders in
their community. As part of a $4,000 loan,
each farmer is given a coop, insurance,
the first cycle of chicks and corn feed to
raise them. When the chickens reach full
size, KORE helps the farmers sell them
and buys back some birds to serve at local schools and orphanages to boost protein levels and combat malnutrition. The
farmers use proceeds on loan payments
and to pay for the next cycle of chicks
and feed. They keep the remaining money, which on average is close to $350 every 60 days. After about three years, they
become independent farmers, free of
debt.
Developing the system has not been
without its challenges. Of the original
group of 12 farmers, only three remain,
with nine of 16 in the second left, ratios
that prompted the organization to begin
setting stricter selection guidelines and
rules.
The problem was that many farmers
did not fully understand the credit concept, said KOREs national director, Robenson Desir. Flush with proceeds after
their first sale, farmers would spend the
income on other needs a trip, a cow, a
wedding rather than adhering to
KOREs repayment and expenses plan.
The mindset comes from being accustomed to ongoing aid from U.S. visitors.
The farmers must learn the distinction
between a gift and a loan, Desir said.
It is the first time they see all that
money in their hands, Desir said. They
go buy a motorcycle, they go buy a piece
of land. When you come back and say,
Are we ready for production next week?
You need to pay for production, they say,
Oh, Im sorry. Are you going to bring me
Above,
young
chickens line
up for a
meal in
Gressier. The
young
brood will
be nurtured
for 42 days
and then
sent to
market.
Left,
KORE
operators
process
locally
raised
chickens at
KOREs small
facility in
Gressier,
Haiti.
another production for free?

The KORE directors added staff to
provide daily oversight, enhanced the financial training given to farmers and
toughened their stance when asked for
leniency. If a farmer failed to save
enough to pay their loan and to pay for
the next cycle of birds, it was the farmers responsibility to find more money.
Most farmers do not read or write, so
Jean Pierre trains them at their homes
through PowerPoint presentations from
his laptop. He uses images to convey
methods of care and instructs them
through the process multiple times.
By providing greater accountability
and comprehensive support, the organization dramatically dropped its attrition
rates. The eighth and ninth groups of
farmers have 100 percent participation
rates more than a year into the KORE
program, according to Desir.
We know that they can raise healthy
chickens, Bratton said. We know that
Haitians eat an awful lot of chicken. We
have to get a bigger corner of the market.
Continued on Next page
Haiti poverty
75%
People in rural areas living in poverty
59%
People living in poverty
28%
Food insecurity nationally;

34% in rural areas
24%
People living in extreme poverty

or off $1.23 a day
from the cover
M O N D AY , M AY 2 3 , 2 016
7A
Childrens home residents in Gressier, Haiti, cut apart processed chicken to be cooked for dinner.
The ability for the small farmer to be able to produce protein, to be able to contribute to the
food structure and food system in Haiti, we see that as good for children ultimately.
JOE SCANTLEBURY
VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMMING FOR THE MICHIGAN-BASED KELLOGG FOUNDATION
Many of the farmers are

gardeners, growing corn,
peanuts or beans on small
patches of land they own. They
do not track expenses or income,
but farm because their parents
did and they know no alternative.
You ask them, How much money do
you make? Desir said. They dont
know.
The same was true for Desir growing
up in a rural Haitian island, called La
Gonve, before he gained a scholarship
to study in Wisconsin. His mother, a
farmer, would take a motorcycle and a
ferry to get to the market, often spending more on transportation than her
earnings would yield.
Those people are in the same situation, he said.
Once KORE farmers began earning a
steady profit, many shifted their focus
entirely to chicken because the income
is much greater, he said. And while
many of the farmers are reticent to eat
the chicken they raise for fear of eroding profit, KORE officials encourage
them to do so in moderation, as a means
to enrich their own diet.
Desir is among three KORE staff directors, each of whom are Haitian. The
organization employs about 30 Haitian
individuals, not including farmers, and
the local involvement is a key component to KOREs success, according to officials at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation,
which has contributed to KORE through
grant funding.
We have a partner that is willing to
actually work with communities and
work with families and do it in a way
that has integrity with the people there
and is sustainable over time, said Joe
Scantlebury, vice president of programming for the Michigan-based Kellogg
Foundation. The ability for the small
farmer to be able to produce protein, to
be able to contribute to the food structure and food system in Haiti, we see
that as good for children ultimately.
For the farmers and their families,
the KORE investment in the chicken
economy is paving a path to financial independence that they hope has longterm potential. While the challenges for
the sector remain, KORE has been able
to scale incrementally each year, adding
farmers and more direct jobs to a market that barely existed five years ago.
Im building a house, said chicken
farmer Anoux Decerant, riding in Desirs truck on the way to KOREs production facility. His current home made of
wood is located by his coop at the bottom
of a hill. I am planning my future.
Reporting.
Imported chicken parts are sold in a Port-au-Prince market.
A young orphan enjoys a protein rich meal of locally raised chicken through the KORE Foundation.
8A
from the cover
M O N D AY , M AY 2 3 , 2 016
$'9(57,6(0(17
Drug Companies Nervous

as Doctors and Patients
Demand the AloeCure
Big Pharma execs
stand to lose
billions as doctors
and their patients
abandon drugs
like Nexium and
Prilosec. Drug free
remedy could put
Big Pharma out
of the digestion
business.
By David Waxman
Seattle Washington:
Drug company execs are
nervous. Thats because the
greatest health advance in decades
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expect it to put a huge crimp in Big
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So whats all the fuss about?
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The name of the product is
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But demands may force future prices
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TOP DOC WARNS: DIGESTION

DRUGS CAN CRIPPLE YOU!
Company
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Many people take them daily and for
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Dr. Leal should know. Many
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Aloecure Users Are

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SIDE-STEP
HEART CONCERNS
Chicks are stacked to be distributed at Haiti Broilers in Lafiteau, Haiti.
So youve been taking proton pump

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feel just fine. In June of 2015 a major
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Haiti poultry industry still

feels pain of US imports
Debilitating brain disorders are on

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JAMIE MCGEE
DOCTORS EVERYWHERE ARE

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*compensated for opinion
LAFITEAU, Haiti Henry Chatelain remembers the disappointment

he felt in 1998, when his employer, a
Haitian chicken production company,
shut down and its 500 workers lost
their jobs.
The company, Prinsa, had recently
expanded its capacity, but with cheaper chicken imports pouring in from the
U.S. and other countries, it could no
longer stay in business.
They could not compete, Chatelain said.
Prinsa was among the three leading
chicken producers, all of which closed
in the late 1990s. On the heels of a stifling trade embargo, Haiti dramatically lowered its tariffs to other countries
from as high as 50 percent to lower
than 3 percent, with the rice sector hit
particularly hard. With the lowest tariffs in the Caribbean, Haitis agricultural sector has yet to recover.
Trade liberalization had been encouraged by the International Monetary Fund and the United States. Haiti
struck an agreement with the IMF and
World Bank in 1995, committing to tariffs below 15 percent as part of an economic aid program.
Haiti imports nearly 70,900 metric
tons of poultry meat a year, which is
mostly chicken. The amount dwarfs
the annual production of about 9,600
metric tons of chicken, according to
country officials. Most of the imported
chicken comes from the U.S., where
consumers buy the more expensive
white meat. The dark meat sold in
frozen parts is shipped to Haiti and
is two to three times cheaper than the
birds sold in the market or in stores.
With nearly 60 percent of the country
living in poverty, the market for more
expensive fresh chicken is limited.
Former President Bill Clinton has
described the Haitian trade liberalization he pushed for as a mistake, calling
it a devils bargain that especially
benefited Arkansas rice farmers at
the expense of Haitis economy. Haiti
was nearly self-sufficient in rice before reduced tariffs, but now imports
comprise 80 percent of its consumption.
Haiti has a much more liberalized
market, much lower tariffs, across the
board, said Marc Cohen, a senior researcher at Oxfam America, a global
nonprofit focused on international development. In the 90s, that was a
very popular view in development circles, that if you open your markets that
will help you develop.
That has not been the case for Haiti.
The countrys trade deficit has steadily ballooned over the past two decades
with agricultural exports nearly disappearing and imports surging.
The issue extends beyond chicken
and rice. In March the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it was
donating 500 metric tons of packaged
peanuts to Haitian children as part of a
humanitarian effort. The donation
was criticized among aid groups who
saw it as another initiative that undercut Haitian farmers.
Jamaica Broilers, a chicken production company that employs close to
2,000 people in Jamaica, opened Haiti
Broilers in 2011, seeing the potential
for expansion. It buys chickens from
smallholder farmers that it processes
for groceries, restaurants and hotels.
The company operates partly in the
former Prinsa site and employs more
than 200 Haitians in its egg, hatchery,
feed and processing facilities.
KORE Foundation is one of its leading suppliers. The nonprofit, founded
by a former pastor who lives in Gallatin, provides loans, training and oversight to 185 rural farmers, who raise
about 400 chicks at a time. Through
chicken farming, they go from dollara-day poverty to being able to generate
a sustainable income.
Those in the Haiti Broilers processing area wear white T-shirts that read,
Kore Pwodiksyon Nasyonal la!
Haitis imports and exports

(Year: imports, exports)
1990: $443 million, $266 million
1994: $141 million, less than $60 million
2014: $3.3 billion, $874 million
Source: Export.gov, International Monetary
Fund
U.S. chicken exports

by country 2010 to 2012
31% Cuba
16% Guatemala
14% Haiti
8% Jamaica
Source: Economic Research Service of the
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
which translates to Support national

production in Haitian Creole. While
egg production has done well, chicken
production remains stifled amid import competition, said Dave Fairman,
country director of Haiti Broilers.
The disposable income is low,
Fairman said. Cheap is going to always win.
U.S. chicken producers argue the
low tariff allows those without reliable
income sources to afford the critical
protein in their diet. Higher tariffs
would eliminate their buying power.
There also needs to be a more affordable product for the low income
and the nutritionally deprived consumers, said Jim Sumner, president
of USA Poultry & Egg Export Council.
If you look at the number of people in
Haiti that are involved in poultry production versus those in the poverty
level, its easy to see which the larger
group is.
Those in Haitis agricultural sector
charge the U.S. producers with
dumping chicken in Haiti, an allegation Sumner says is false. Sumner is
also critical of the higher tariffs imposed by other Caribbean countries,
which he said are examples of protectionism and unfair to the struggling
consumers.
Its a matter of priorities, Sumner
said. Which is more important: feeding the poor, undernourished citizens
of Haiti or increasing the wealth of a
couple of companies that have primary control of their poultry?
Fairman acknowledges the benefit
of inexpensive chicken for consumers
but said the loss of agricultural production has greater economic consequences. Its an argument underway in
the U.S. as well, as manufacturing
workers are calling for increased import tariffs to preserve U.S. jobs.
When Dr. Michel Chancy, Haitis
secretary of state for animal production, explains the impact of cheap imports, he points to the egg market.
When the government banned eggs
from the Dominican Republic during
an Avian flu outbreak, local egg production increased by 600 percent in
four years. Eggs are still brought in illegally, but Haiti saw significant results with greater restrictions.
With the majority of Haitians living
in rural areas, the agricultural sector
must strengthen, and increasing the
tariffs is the first step, he said.
The children are poor because
their fathers are poor, because they
cannot produce, because they cannot
sell, Chancy said. Dumping products
kills all our efforts and all the jobs and
all the possibility to make an economy.
Cohen says any tariff increase must
be gradual and in conjunction with agriculture investments that allow local
production to increase and better meet
consumers needs.
Its not just a question of trade policy, he said. There needs to be investment in local production.
grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Reach Jamie McGee at 615-2598071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.
S U N D AY , J U LY 3 , 2 016
MARTHA STROUD ILLUSTRATION WITH GETTY IMAGES
Readers respond
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE
AN AMERICAN TODAY
Readers answer the question What does it mean to be American today? with opinions
that run the gamut from calling for newcomers to assimilate to accepting their diversity.
The heated rhetoric of the 2016 U.S.
presidential election reveals sharp
divides among voters as to the direction of the nation, but more interestingly, what defines us Americans.
The United States of America is
larger (8,000 times to be exact) and
more pluralistic than it was at the time
of the 1790 census the nations first
population count since declaring independence from Great Britain on July 4,
1776, and adopting a Constitution on
Sept. 17, 1787.
The America then is in many ways
far different from the America today,
although we still celebrate and teach
our Founding Fathers spoken and written devotion to equality and to the Jeffersonian notions of life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.
Today, however, slavery is illegal,
women can vote and about 680,000
immigrants without ties to the Mayflower are becoming naturalized citizens every year.
So, while the American experiment
has been successfully sustained for
two-and-a-half centuries Monday is
the U.S. 240th birthday, after all we
hold strikingly different views on what
it means to belong here.
That is why I wrote the column
What does it mean to be American
today? June 22 and asked for responses about what it means to readers, and I
am pleased to share a selection of responses, which run the gamut from
calling on all newcomers to assimilate
into the established culture to accepting an evolving definition that adapts to
change and diversity.
Poet Richard Blancos poem One
Today, which he read at President
Inside Insight
Barack Obamas 2012 inauguration,

reflects an America that is diverse, but
is also warmed by the same sun, encouraged by the same joys and devastated by the same tragedies.
The first verse tells a powerful
truth:
One sun rose on us today,
kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting
the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under
each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving
behind windows.
Amid the things that separate us,
there are so many things that unite us.
David Plazas is The Tennesseans
opinion engagement editor. Call him at
615-259-8063, email him at
dplazas@tennessean.com and tweet to
him at @davidplazas.
Loyalty to God and country integral

You closed your article with Maybe
the challenge of being an American
today is mustering up the courage to
build upon our nations success by contributing our unique sets of talents and
traditions even when there are those
who would prefer we were not there in
the first place.
The success to which you referred
was initially achieved through the efforts of people who wanted to be Americans, not just live in America but leave
their loyalty with the country of their
birth.
That success continued and multiplied through several generations of

people born here and brought up in an
environment fostered by that same
sense of identity.
In more recent times, some would
say modern times, that sense of identity has degenerated into a sense of
entitlement and a Whats in it for me?
mindset.
Millions of people dont love their
country anymore they love their
causes; and their country, because of
the freedoms their predecessors fought
and died to provide them, is simply the
platform on which they can champion
their causes.
What being an American means to
me is what it meant to generations
before me, including mine, who were
brought up in an environment in which
loyalty to God and country was an integral part of our very existence.
I hope and pray that our rapidly
accelerating digression from that environment has not already taken us so far
down that path that it is too late to restore it.
Charles M. Jones, Franklin
Change, diversity define America

First of all, I was born in America; I
was born and raised in Quito, Ecuador,
and as far as I know, Ecuador is part of
the American continent.
Id like to think that Im defined by
my experiences and not by a flag or a
geographic location.
Almost half of my existence, and the
most crucial part of my upbringing,
was spent in Ecuador; my family, my
friends, my teachers, the language I
Diversity: Candidate with White Again billboard needs history lesson. 2H
spoke influenced greatly who I am now.

The other half of my existence has
been lived in this part of the continent.
Here I had my first job, I learned
how to drive, I went to college, I got
married, I raised my son and formed a
career.
I consider myself an engaged citizen
of the U.S., I speak the language, I
work, pay taxes, vote and try to help
others regardless of their ethnicity,
nationality or religion when at all possible.
While I consider myself an Ecuadorian, I see myself as a member of
this country and I am forever thankful
for all the opportunities that this nation
has offered me.
So to answer your question, what
does it mean to be an American today?
For me it means to be part of a diverse tapestry of cultures, beliefs and
experiences and the more diversity we
experience as a collective group, the
more well learn about the world, but
more importantly, about ourselves.
I just hope that when someone asks
the same question 10, 20, 50 or 250
years from now, the words change
and diversity will be ever more present.
Irina Araujo, Nashville
Unity behind purpose, values key

In an effort to make this short and
sweet, I know that a thoughtful person
will be able to shoot holes in these statements. These are intended to be what
may seem like somewhat shallow, but
there are truths deep within them.
See American, Page 3H
News analysis: Wine in grocery store was fight that began decades ago. 4H
2H
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White Again billboard candidate

needs American history lesson
david waters
Columnist
An independent candidate for Congress in East Tennessee put up a perplexing campaign billboard the other
day.
It says, and I reluctantly quote:
Make America White Again.
What does that mean? More kale?
More NASCAR? More Chevy Chase
movies?
Theres no reason to give this candidate undue publicity, so lets call him
Voldemort, Harry Potters nemesis who
hated half-blood wizards, even
though he was a half-blood himself.
Our Voldemort lives in Ocoee, a
Cherokee word for an old Cherokee
town right next to the Cherokee National Forest.
The Cherokee Nation was there first.
Thats why we call them Native Americans. It would make more sense to put
up a sign that says, Make America
Cherokee Again.
By the way, Voldemort, white isnt
really all that white.
Genome explorers have discovered
that we all come from lineages that
migrated from Africa and Asia. Race is
barely skin deep. Voldemort shares the
same set of genes with President Barack Obama. Cool, huh?
Chances are, Voldemort himself isnt
entirely pure white.
Recent DNA studies have shown that
as many as 1 in 10 self-described European Americans in the South have African ancestry.
Voldemorts real surname is of English heritage. So is Obamas mothers
side of the family. Obama is related to
Dick Cheney, Brad Pitt and Wild Bill
Hickok. He could be related to Wild
Billboard.
I get where Voldemort is coming
from. He lives and advertises in Polk

County, a kayakers paradise set among
the ridges and whitewater rapids of
Tennessees rugged southeastern corner.
Its also 99.9 percent white. Voldemort might not even know any nonwhite folks.
The county voted to secede from the
United States in 1860, a year before
Tennessee.
Half the county (the forest) is now
owned by the federal government,
which is currently run by a biracial
Muslim from Hawaii by way of Indonesia and Kenya.
All of this diversity must be unsettling to Voldemort.
Its not just him. The fear and anxiety reflected in his billboard are being
reflected in bigger campaigns.
The White Again billboard is a pale
imitation of Donald Trumps Make
America Great Again presidential
campaign slogan.
When did America ever stop being
great?
Some say in 2008 when Obama was
elected. Others say 2000 when George
W. Bush was elected. Still others date
Americas decline to 1992 or 1980 or
whatever year the presidential candidate you feared most was first elected.
Politicians always have exploited
and reflected our own fear and loathing
of the other.
In some ways, this campaign seasons nativist demagoguery is no different from previous populist uprisings
against immigrants, integrationists and
others who changed the face of America.
The Know-Nothing Party never
learns. The Southern Strategy never
ends.
Seeing our own reflection in Trump
and his campaign demands that we call
out his shameless exploitation of the
white fear of otherness, Parker
Palmer, a Quaker elder and author,
wrote last week for the On Being blog.
That fear is amplified these days by

the widely known fact that, come 2045,
over half of the American population
will be people of color.
Change is hard, Voldemort, but
America has been diversifying since
July 4, 1776.
The White Again billboard was
removed recently, but Voldemort told a
TV reporter he didnt take it down. (In
the news video, Voldemort is wearing a
WWFFD cap. What would Fred Flintstone do?)
He also told the TV reporter he
doesnt hate people of color. He just
thinks America should go back to a
1960s, Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to
Beaver time when there were no
break-ins, no violent crime, no mass
immigration.
Actually, Voldemort, mass immigration to America began about 15,000
years ago, first from Asia, then from all
other continents.
The first American break-ins were
perpetrated by white European explorers and immigrants, who followed
up with waves of violent crime.
As for your reality TV shows of
the past, Beaver has been married
three times and divorced twice. Wally
suffered from clinical depression. Eddie became a disabled cop after he
was shot by a car thief in 1980.
And you should read about the real
adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Talk
about reality TV.
Listen, Voldemort, if it helps, dont
think of how America is changing as
diversity or multiculturalism. Think of
it as good old-fashioned American pluralism.
Our very unity has been strengthened by our pluralism, an American
president once said.
That wasnt President Obama. That
was President Ronald Reagan.
David Waters is a columnist for the
Commercial Appeal in Memphis. Contact him at waters@commercialappeal.com.
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Facebook comments What it means to be American today

A half-hour Facebook Live video chat with Tennessean Opinion
Engagement Editor David Plazas on June 22 regarding What does
it mean to be an American today? drew more than 160,000 impressions, 2,100 views and 77 comments.
Viewers commented in real time and started conversations with
each other on the meaning of freedom and what exactly makes up
the United States of America today.
The discussion stemmed from a column Plazas wrote on the
subject for the purposes of soliciting commentary from readers.
Find a selection of comments below:
Ernestine Wilson Stanley: We now have to be careful about
what we say because someone might get offended and flying a flag
could get you nasty remarks. Sitting at a ballpark when the national
anthem is sung you will see men keep hats on and people not looking
at the flag. Our children cannot play alone in our own yards for fear
of abduction, America is crying out for help.
Jason Little: It seems to me that more immigrants today do
not really integrate into what we often think of an American as,
but instead hold on to their cultures and live almost as if they were
still in the country they immigrated from.
Debbie Porter: Are we still Americans ? With everything that
has been taken from us and the mixing of politics and religion,
makes one wonder. We are called United States, acting more like
United World...just saying.
Blake Brockwell: Freedom of religion. Freedom of speech.
Freedom to individual rights. Freedom to Love. Thats what the
soldiers who fight for you and I believe. Freedom allows this conversation to exist.
Chris Campbell: God Bless America. God please allow us to
keep what few freedoms we still have left ... and regain the ones
weve lost.
Chase Geiser: Being an American means being free to me. I
believe Capitalism is deeply rooted in America given the place of
Wealth of Nations in our history.
Leila Russell: Free to work so others can stay home!
Annie Stewart: With Liberty comes responsibility.

Glen Bo Williams: American exceptionalism is gone. Pride in
who we are. We have been over taken by anti American pride. We no
longer build up other nations we destroy. Time to change.
Richard Kaleta: We NEED to hold those that take an oath of
office to keep that oath or step down from that office - local, state
and federal.
Nancy Pullen: It means remembering that we are a beautiful
patchwork of cultures, religions, ethnicities, and beliefs. We are
stronger when we support each other.
Andrea Leander: Apparently it means living in paranoid fear
of losing freedoms we never lost and shaking in our boots from the
nonexistent threat of nebulous dangers. It used to mean dismissing
such nonsense and being strong and empirical.
Dennis Pepperack: It means to either: a) whine on social
media about perceived threats & loss of freedom by those who dont
fully understand what theyre ranting & raving about; or b) mock &
ridicule those that do while calling for sane, rational thought to be
re-introduced to the polity.
Yvette Noxolo Northern: Being American means to fear
almost EVERYTHING, including each other. But it also means to
stand up too.
Andrew McGill: America has a reality that falls short of its
aspirations as an ideal society. There are naturally opposing factions of more than one vision of the ideal society. We have often
fallen short of our hopes on both sides and both good and bad have
prevailed at different times. We ARE a society of immigrants. We
WILL continue to be. The notion that a political movement will make
us Great Again or White Again cannot succeed. America is
change and if we embrace it and guide it in positive ways, we will
still be leaders.
Vigo Farms: We need to be one people. America first Our
Government has let us down by making wrong decisions and not
listening to the people.
Curated by David Plazas.
insight
S U N D AY , J U LY 3 , 2 016
3H
GETTY IMAGES / ISTOCKPHOTO
George Washington, the nations first president, is carved into Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
American
in the same war against Germany.

Recently I heard this quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that sums it for me:
We may have all come on different
ships, but were in the same boat now.
To me, the best of being in the American boat means:
Respecting diversity, dignity and the
laws of this country,
Voting in every public election,
Being responsible to faith, family and
community,
Contributing to the ongoing building
of America,
Having freedom to make choices (see
No. 1 above).
Time is change, and the U.S. is changing. It is browner, older, more techy and
more crowded as it ages.
We always will be a nation with challenges to solve, but we also are good at
that.
What our nation needs to safeguard is
that core American way of being that
continues to promote democracy and a
place for everyone in the boat.
Joan Anderson, Nashville
Continued from Page 1H
To be an American means:
1. That the American motto E pluribus unum must be maintained. When
we are no longer one people striving to
make America the best place it can be,
our country will become many factions
and will no longer stand strong.
2. The Framers of the Constitution
realized that the Roman Republic should
be the pattern upon which the new American government should be based, and
certainly not Athenian Democracy
(which many of them described as Mobocracy). They also knew that the Roman
Republic eventually failed because the
leaders became more selfish and began
to think of themselves as being more important than the Republic. Simply stated,
they lost their civic virtue. Today when
citizens and leaders vote based on what
is best for them, or their constituents,
and not what is best for their country, we
lose a little of that civic virtue.
3. President John Adams stated in a
letter written during his presidency that
our Constitution was made only for a
moral and religious people. It is wholly
inadequate to the government of any other. Today there are many who want to
believe that statements like these are to
be left on the scrapheap of history. All
right, so even if we leave out the religious part of Adams quote, there is still
the moral part that begs Americans to
do the right thing, treating others as they
want to be treated.
These three things are what I believe
true Americans should be striving for no
matter what part of the country they
come from, nor where they live.
Since we just celebrated Fathers
Day, many quote the old saying That
any man can be a father, but it takes
someone special to be a dad.
An analogy I would make is that Any
person can be born an American, or become one, but it takes a special person to
be an American that is willing to give up
his own personal wants to make sure that
the country will remain a strong unified
America.
Victor D. Black, Smyrna
Cherish people of all types

My family moved to Hibbing, Minn.,
during my junior high school years.
This was an iron mining town filled
with immigrants from all over Europe.
When a boy at school asked me, What
are you? I said that I didnt understand.
He replied, Are you Swede, Italian,
Polish, what? I hesitantly said, I guess
Im French and Irish.
OK, he said, and we became friends.
He was just reflecting the viewpoints
of his parents, who were proud of their
heritage, interested in the diversity of
their neighbors and happy to be in America.
I am now living in Nashville and am
viewed by some as a Yankee, a white
man, a liberal and a spiritualist. I am OK
with these labels and happy to be in a diverse community with many friends of
all nationalities, colors, backgrounds,
LGBT and straight.
Most of all I am proud to be an American!
Being an American, to me, means
cherishing the variety of people and heritages that make up this great country.
America is great because of this diversity and how it welcomes all people with
love and compassion.
Michael Bolduc, Nashville
FILE / THE TENNESSEAN
Betty Cornelius holds her niece, Victoria Oudenga, as they watch her sister Mary Cornelius
become a U.S. citizen during a naturalization ceremony at The Hermitage in 2010.
Assimilation essential
Being American today means much
as it has always meant: the ability to assimilate.
The USA is comprised of immigrants.
Earlier they came from China, Ireland,
Poland, Italy and other parts of the
world.
Each group was met with suspicion,
which led to prejudice. Unlike blacks,
these immigrants came because of the
opportunity they saw in this country.
Jobs were not necessarily available to
these minorities, so they opened small
businesses by providing services considered mundane to established citizens.
Others found public service as a means
for promoting values shared.
Don Bingham, Nashville
Obama, Washington divide USA

Mr. Plazas, thank you for your
thoughtful column.
I enjoy reading stories like yours, and
I tweeted your story because I think that
others who do not appreciate or forget
that there are a lot of people here in this
country who truly do not appreciate it
for what it is or how far we have come.
You must have a wonderful mother.
I do admit I resent some immigrants
who come here and will not learn the language or assimilate in order to make
their own path, and then there are those
whom Obama brings in and gives them
money for businesses, etc.
They take the money they earn and
send it to another country while the people who were raised in this country
struggle to have a business but cant
muster the money together to start one.
I do not think they appreciate what a
chance they have been given. This is why
there is such a divide in this country.
Obama has divided us and dissected
us so many times that I feel sometimes
like a stranger in my own country, and
for sure I do not feel I am represented in
Washington by the president nor any of
my elected officials.
L.Fine, Chattanooga
Not living up to Jeffersons words

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Can we continue to reconcile, within
the context of the realities posed 240

years later, the concept of what it
means to be an American to the spirit
and intent of the original document,
which heralded the birth of a new nation?
The signers of the Declaration of Independence attested to the following
conviction, which is the foundational
statement and guiding principle upon
which this nation was built:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their creator with
certain unalienable rights, that among
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
Some would argue convincingly that
the sacred rights of life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness are in jeopardy
within the America of 2016.
The question What does it mean to be
an American? begs answers to the following queries:
Can America claim to exercise belief
in the unalienable right of life when
that right is being compromised by the
unchecked proliferation of guns on our
streets?
in the unalienable right of liberty when
a disproportionate segment of its citizens are denied the basic freedom of lifesustaining health care?
in the unalienable right for the pursuit
of happiness when the obscenely pernicious system of income disparity renders void her boast as the land of opportunity?
In contemporary America, oftentimes there is a distinct disconnect between political rhetoric and the everyday challenges faced by millions of
Americans.
Robert Judkins, Hendersonville
Promote democracy for everyone

My grandfather was the son of German immigrants.
One day Gramps and Great-grandpa
were walking in their small Nebraska
town during World War I.
They were speaking German when
they noticed people looking warily at
them. Great-grandpa said, Now we
speak only English.
Later my grandfather, a first-generation German-American, was a doughboy
American equals freedom

One way I would like to answer your
question is to quote a good friend and
subcontractor of mine.
His name is Robert. Robert was an illegal immigrant to California.
After a failed marriage and losing it
all, he came to Tennessee to start over.
He had become a citizen and married
a young lady from Mexico, where he was
from.
He started working in the home building industry in Franklin and was able to
buy out his partner.
He has grown his business such that
he has rental property and lives in the
city proper. He told me that he loves this
country because nowhere else could
he have the chance with a lot of hard
work to be successful.
He and his wife send their children to
public school and teach them to be Americans and learn all they can about the
American way of life, but because his
roots are Mexican he and his wife teach
their children their Mexican traditions
at home thats at home!
He credits his living in California,
where Ronald Reagan was governor, as
the reason he became a citizen and
joined the Republican Party.
He doesnt like government handouts
and believes that playing by the rules
wins out in the end. Hearing him talk
about what it was like growing up in
Mexico and the poverty trap that exists
there made me love my great country
more.
Many, many Americans need to have
a Robert to remind them how fortunate we are to be Americans and enjoy
the freedom to be all that we can be.
Yes, being American means freedom to be and do whatever you want to
aspire to .... even if it means do nothing!
Having served in the military helps
one to appreciate what sacrifices have
been made to keep that freedom alive,
and that freedom should be protected at
all costs.
As Abe Lincoln said in his great debate: A house divided cannot stand!
If we lose our precious freedoms, our
country will not last.
Thanks be to all who have given their
precious blood for that freedom, may
they never be forgotten.
Ask not what your country can do for
you, but what you can do for your country, said John F. Kennedy.
God bless America.
F.D. Jewell, Nashville 37215
4H
S U N D AY , J U LY 3 , 2 016
insight
Pat Summitt was a visionary

even as a 22-year-old coach
metropolitan
Keel Hunt
Four decades ago a mighty collision

occurred in American sports an
event where an irresistible new force
met an immovable new object.
The new force was a rising young
athlete and coach called Patricia Head.
The new object was called Title IX of
the Education Amendments of 1972.
Together, they would profoundly accelerate opportunities for girls.
Even the brightest sportswriters
could not know its true meaning until
years later. Yet in the fullness of time,
Title IX and that prodigy from Henrietta, Tenn., together would change the
world.
Much has been written this week on
the passing of Coach Pat Head
Summitt, the winningest coach in
college sports. Writers cite her records and national championships over
a stellar career at UT-Knoxville all
true, and well-deserved praise.
But little has been told of a very
early leadership role she played that
arguably made the most difference of
all: the conversion of girls high school
basketball from the six-player/dividedcourt rule to the modern five-player/
full-court system.
In 1972, while Pat Head was playing
for the University of Tennessee-Martin, President Nixon signed the new
federal Education Amendments. Title
IX declared that no college receiving
government assistance could exclude
anyone from participation in any sport
on the basis of gender. This provided
the legal foundation for non-discrimination in college sports.

Two years later Pat Head, now a
graduating senior, was offered the
head coaching position at UT-Knoxville. At 22 years old, she took the job.
But there was a disconnect. When it
came to recruiting new players, it was
difficult for college coaches to recruit
prep stars from Tennessee because of
the states rules for girls basketball.
Pat Head knew that system well. In
her high school playing days, at
Cheatham County High School, she had
grown up under the old six-player/
divided-court rules. She knew girls in
the old system had trained either as
guards on defense or forwards on offense, not both, and how this limited
their chances when college coaches
made choices.
By 1976, Tennessee was one of only
six states in the nation that still followed the six-on-six rule. The family of
Victoria Cape, a high school player in
Oak Ridge, sued the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, claiming discrimination.
Pat Head testified in the Knoxville
trial of Cape v. TSSAA, declaring she
could not recruit in her own home
state. Tennessee girls, she said, started
out at a disadvantage.
Judge Robert L. Taylor ruled in the
familys favor. The TSSAA appealed
but in the end changed to the fiveplayer/full-court rule.
I asked some of Summitts former
colleagues about the import of that
change four decades ago.
Womens basketball has always
been very popular in Tennessee, but
when the nation started changing to
the five-player game, it was obvious
that we needed to change, said Joan

Cronan, former womens athletic director at UT. Our goal was always to be
leaders, not only in the state but nationally, and to do that we needed to change
the game and come out vocally. This
was important.
Teresa Rotier Koeberlein, now chief
of staff to U.S. Rep. Diane Black, was
the head manager of the Lady Vols
from 1988-92, reporting to Summitt.
Everybody talks about how many
wins and her graduation rate, which
are great, she said, but when you
look at significant change in the history of the state, this was a pretty significant change. In order to build a powerhouse Pat Summitt had to be able to
recruit in state, and to do that she had
to re-structure what was being done in
Tennessee.
Betty Wiseman was Belmont Universitys coach for 16 seasons, compiling a 248-152 record, and is considered
the founder of Belmonts womens
athletics. She grew up in Portland,
Tenn., and like Pat Head was raised on
a family farm.
The early 70s was a critical time
for womens sports at the collegiate
level, she told me. Pat became the
agent of change for five-on-five. She
became the spokesperson. She had the
vision. She was really the one who
initiated conversations. We all just
jumped on the bandwagon, but Pat was
our leader the one who was most
vocal about it.
Today girls everywhere, whether on
the court or off, know they are eligible
to take their best shot.
Keel Hunt is a Tennessean columnist. Reach him at
Keel@TSGNashville.com.
TENNESSEE VOICES
Economic Council on Women leaves legacy

PHYLLIS QUALLS-BROOKS
This is a time to reflect on all the outstanding work done by the

staff of the Tennessee
Economic Council on
Women these past 18
years, with the support
of the council itself and its partners.
Since the establishment of the Economic Council by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1998, championed by
state Sen. Thelma Harper and state
Rep. Brenda Turner in their respective
chambers, and additional legislators
and countless others across the state,
the TECW has set a steady pace of
work to promote and advocate for
women with an economic focus.
Research, workshops, summits,
presentations, hearings and publications have all been a part of this process.
From its origin, the Economic Councils mission was to do research and
advocacy in a wide range of areas:
from wages and business ownership to
health care and domestic violence;
review workforce training programs
and effectiveness; and provide information to the governor of Tennessee
about women with potential to serve on
appointed boards and commissions. It
has embraced each task dutifully.
It is important to note that the
House passed legislation to extend the
council in 2015, both in the House Government Operations Committee and on
the floor, and Gov. Bill Haslam included funding for the agency in his proposed budget for the coming fiscal
year.
The Senate Government Operations
Committee did not produce the five
votes required for extension legislation
to move forward in the Senate.
Four senators voted for extension,
two voted against, two chose not to
vote and one was absent. Therefore,
for the lack of just one vote, the Economic Council is now sunset and
ceased to exist Thursday.
The work of this organization has
been lauded and utilized far and wide,
not just in towns and cities across Tennessee but also nationally and internationally.
Research from the Economic Council has been requested, cited in other
research projects, used for grant submissions and speeches, and by legislators to better understand and describe
their districts. Economic Council reports on the status of women in each of
the 95 counties have been used by the
Federal Reserve to direct community
investments toward Tennessee, and the
Councils Economic Impact of Violence Against Women in Tennessee
has been included in the United Nations online Knowledge Gateway,
where it is one of only 700 reports
worldwide.
Advocacy programs such as the
councils statewide and regional summits and the Tennessee Womens Hall
of Fame have provided opportunities
for thousands of Tennessee citizens
and others around the country to learn
from other women and celebrate their
accomplishments.
Seventeen women have been inducted into the prestigious Tennessee
Womens Hall of Fame, including

famed basketball coach Pat Summit,
astronaut Rhea Seddon and journalist
and civil rights activist Rosetta Miller
Perry.
Throughout the years, the Economic
Council has partnered with groups
such as the Womens Economic Council
Foundation to hold annual economic
summits for women, which have
brought such noteworthy speakers as
Justice Sandra Day OConner, FCC
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn,
ATHENA founder Martha Mertz, equal
pay advocate Lilly Ledbetter and many
more.
Now, all that changes.
There is no questioning the significant amount of work done by the Economic Council to promote women,
children and families.
I believe some of this work will
continue but in a different way.
I do fear the narrow focus and credibility afforded to this agencys efforts
by its status as a state agency will be a
challenge to replace.
I offer my sincere thanks to council
members and staff past and present
our many supporters and partners
throughout the state and beyond and
those who have looked to this state
agency for the vital information that
has become its hallmark.
We dared greatly. Now we continue
our work in a different way, in a different place, as such a time as this.
Phyllis Qualls-Brooks served as the
Tennessee Economic Council on Womens last executive director. The agency
was sunset on Thursday.
Wine sales
in grocery
stores took
a long road
analysis
Lizzy Alfs
lalfs@tennessean.com
Its official: The decades-long battle to get wine into Tennessee grocery
stores is over.
The highly anticipated wine in
grocery stores law took effect Friday,
and Tennesseans can now pick up a
bottle of red with their steak at hundreds of grocery stores across the
state, including Kroger, Publix, WalMart, Sams Club and Costco.
Wine in grocery stores is one of the
most significant changes to state liquor laws since the repeal of Prohibition, and it will impact the way consumers shop for booze, grocery
stores bottom lines and the way many
liquor stores conduct business.
Kroger Nashville spokeswoman
Melissa Eads said wine has consistently been one of customers most requested items. The legislative change
gives Kroger and more than 30
other grocery companies that have
been approved for wine sales local
entry into the $38 billion U.S. wine
industry. Eads said the law created 36
new jobs across local Kroger stores.
But the road to get here was long
and winding, dating back to the 1970s.
Legislative approval came in 2014
after seven consecutive years of debate and a lot of hiccups along the way
that ultimately pitted grocers against
the liquor lobby and alcohol critics.
Proponents of the law, including
the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience
Store Association and wine-loving
consumers, argued bringing wine into
grocery stores is about convenience
and is already legal in 37 other states.
Supporters also said it could result in
millions of dollars in extra tax revenue for the state, which collects more
than $50 million a year in taxes on
alcoholic beverages.
Critics argued wine in grocery
stores could make it easier for minors
to buy alcohol and that the law would
destroy business for small liquor retailers. Cue years of ping-ponging
between lobbyists on both sides of the
debate until it finally became law in
March 2014, with a two-year delay in
implementation to give liquor store
owners time to adjust their business
model.
Local voters then had to OK wine
sales in grocery stores in municipal
referendums. Results showed an overwhelming majority of voters favored
the measure with 79 percent of Davidson County voters giving approval in
November 2014. In Williamson County, 77 percent of Franklin voters and
79.5 percent of Brentwood voters
approved of wine in grocery stores.
It was just a long, difficult fight,
said Rob Ikard, president of the Tennessee Grocers and Convenience
Store Association.
Still, the conversation didnt end
there. A bill passed earlier this year to
allow grocery stores to begin stocking
shelves ahead of July 1 because of
fears that, unless lawmakers acted, it
could take months to fill shelves because of high demand. That bill also
included a controversial provision
that placed a two-store limit on liquor
retailers in the state, in effect keeping
large out-of-state liquor retailers such
as Total Wine & More from expanding
across Tennessee.
Then there were concerns earlier
this year that sales of wine in grocery
stores could be delayed after the unexpected departure in March of the
Alcoholic Beverage Commissions
former executive director, Keith Bell.
Clayton Byrd was appointed on May
24 as the new executive director.
The biggest uncertainty moving
forward is how the wine in grocery
stores law will impact the states liquor retailers, most of which are
small mom-and-pop operations.
The law allowed those liquor retailers in 2014 to begin selling beer, tobacco, party supplies, food products and
other items they werent permitted to
sell previously. A provision of the law
that required grocers within 500 feet
of a liquor store to get written permission from the liquor store to sell wine
was dropped earlier this year.
Bard Quillman Jr., owner of Red
Dog Wine & Spirits, said in January he
isnt sure how his business will be
impacted long term by the wine in
grocery stores law since his Franklin
store is next to a Publix.
We added 20 taps of beer and nonalcohol products (in 2014) when we
could, so we tried to diversify our
portfolio. But exactly how (wine in
grocery stores) is going to work and
how the consumer is going to react to
it, Ill be really honest, I dont know,
Quillman said.
For the wine connoisseur, the specialty liquor store could still be the
way to go. But the law certainly
makes it more convenient for a onestop shop to sell wine with groceries.
Reach Tennessean retail reporter
Lizzy Alfs: 615-726-5948 and on Twitter
@lizzyalfs.
S U N D AY , M AY 15 , 2 016
Special Edition on Youth Violence
OUR VIEW
Help Nashville youth

feel validated, hopeful
Youth violence is a
problem for the city; the
solution is a sustained,
empowering effort
ne of the best things about

the ongoing communitywide effort to confront
youth violence in Nashville
is that it has not devolved
into simplistic rhetoric.
Rather, the focus has been on empowering youth by listening to them
and by acting upon what they are saying.
In a series of meetings and a summit
over the past year organized by Mayor
Megan Barry and community leaders,
young people told the adults in the
room that they felt hopeless, not validated and lacked opportunity.
While critics could argue that the
kids in the room were the ones who
wanted to be there, their voices are
important in developing the foundation
for a long-term approach that seeks to
chip away at startling statistics on kids
killing kids and by offering activities,
mentorship and employment to focus
their energies in a positive direction.
The challenge will be maintaining
the momentum, strengthening broad
community partnerships and continuing financial support for important
initiatives like after-school activities.
In the past five years, nearly 17,000
Nashvillians under the age of 25 were
involved in a violent incident, and 2015
was a heartbreaking year for Nashville:
55 percent of the homicide victims
were under the age of 25.
The April 28 arrest of 16-year-old
Demarcus Kavel Amos in connection
with the shooting of four teens at the
Music City Central bus station in downtown Nashville brought the issue front
and center.
Only a month before, Youth Violence
Summit co-chairs Juvenile Court Judge
Sheila Calloway and Davidson County
Criminal Court Clerk Howard Gentry
presented their report, explaining the
challenge, laying out the statistics and
recommending six priority areas:
Training and employment
Meaningful youth engagement
Education
Health awareness and access
Safe environment
Restorative justice and diversion
On April 29 Barry wove the theme of
youth empowerment in her first State
of Metro speech and her subsequent
2016-17 budget presentation.
The proposed Metro government
budget includes $2.6 million for
youth programs that focus on
employment, after-school
programs, college readiness
and youth violence prevention.
The mayors new Opportunity Now program seeks to
provide employment for
10,000 young people by 2017.
That will rely heavily on
business leaders offering
young people a job a great opportunity for employers to invest in the citys
future.
The support from across departments in Metro, from police to parks;
the Metro Nashville Public Schools; the
juvenile justice system; nonprofits; and
the private sector is encouraging, and
is essential.
There are numerous factors identified by the summit research that create
the conditions for youth violence: concentrated poverty, poor educational
opportunities, boredom due to lack of
activities, unemployment and lack of
caring adults in the lives of children.
Adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse, domestic violence and poverty, exacerbate the problems.
The youth violence efforts in
Nashville so far show that the
adults care enough to want to act, but
there is still much work to do.
That includes developing alternatives to punitive approaches in correcting harmful behaviors.
Find ways to reduce school suspensions where blacks and Latinos who
are most at risk of being victimized or
sent down the school-to-prison pipeline are suspended at a rate of three
times or two times, respectively, their
white counterparts.
Refine community policing techniques that build trust with the community and avoid mistakes like the
recent arrests of students at Hobgood
Elementary School in Murfreesboro
for a fight that happened off-campus.
Ensure that anti-bullying initiatives
in schools are appropriate to deal with
the extent of the problem.
Understand that a religious leader,
parent, neighborhood association
board member or educator can make a
difference in the way he or she treats
or talks to a young person.
There are many small, but significant, steps the community can take to
keep the momentum going.
This will take time and effort, but
the end result will be empowered,
validated, hopeful and employed (or
responsibly occupied) young people.
What a win that will be!
Opinion Engagement Editor David
Plazas wrote this editorial on behalf of
The Tennessean Editorial Board. Call
him at 615-259-8063, email him at
dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to
him at @davidplazas.
MARTHA STROUD/NASHVILLE DESIGN STUDIO
Inside Insight
Point, counterpoint: How can adults, others fight youth violence? 3H
A role for readers: Violence is the greatest threat to Nashvilles prosperity. 4H
2H
insight
S UNDAY, MAY 15, 2016
Our
purpose
To actively
influence
and impact
a better
quality of life
in Middle
Tennessee.
Laura
Hollingsworth
President and
Publisher
Michael
A. Anastasi
Vice President /
News and
Executive Editor
Maria
De Varenne
News Director
David Plazas
Opinion
Engagement
Editor
Frank
Daniels III
Metro Columnist
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Counselors reject Nashville

over sincerely held views
frank daniels III
Columnist
fdanielsiii@tennessean.com
It seems fitting that the Tennessee

General Assemblys bill to protect professional counselors from being sued for
not providing services to some potential
clients for reasons of personal principles has devolved into a playground
game.
After
Gov.
Haslam
signed
HB1840/SB1556 into law over the objections of the American Counselors
Association and many business groups,
the ACA and another group have reneged on commitments to bring their annual conventions to Nashville.
Im going to take my ball and go
home could be rationalized as a fitting
response to the states legislation that
protects counselors who refuse to treat
any client that violates the counselors
sincerely held principles (the original
bill had more limited language religious beliefs). The counselors do have to
refer the patient to a counselor who will
treat them.
Whose discrimination matters?

Many Tennesseans, including Haslam, figured the bill was a reasonable response to U.S. Supreme Court rulings
that legalized same-sex marriage. Allowing therapists to be protected from
lawsuits for exercising their religiousbased discrimination on who they would
treat honored the states deep commitment to religious freedom, embodied in
Article I, Section 3, of the state constitution: that no human authority can, in
The American Counselors Association rejects Nashville because of its

sincerely held principles. Is running
away a tactic that works?
any case whatever, control or interfere
with the rights of conscience;
After all, the reasoning went, why
would a patient want to deal with a therapist who could not set aside their prejudice, regardless of the source of the
prejudice? And why not, these folks reasoned, protect therapists from being a
target of an agenda-driven lawsuit?
The ACA, whose code of ethics is embodied in Tennessees rules of conduct
for therapists, does not accept that reasoning for its members. The association
sincerely believes that professional ethics and responsibility trump the personal views a therapist holds.
The thing that I will say is that this
might be law in Tennessee, Richard
Yep, the CEO of ACA, told Joel Ebert of
The Tennessean, but if youre a member of our association and you practice
in that matter, you will be brought up on
an ethics charge.
Just because the law is in place does
not mean that the ethics go away. The
law does not trump our ethics.
The organizations ethics code allows
therapists to refuse treatment only in
narrow cases, Yep told The Tennessean.
For example, lets say you have a
teenager and that teenager is going
through maybe theyre being bullied
or theyre depressed. And you go to a
counselor and the counselor says, I actually only work with career issues, he
said. That person does have an obliga-
tion to say, but I do know of some other

people who have that skill set.
In other words, if you do deal with
adolescents, but you just dont happen to
like this adolescent, youre not allowed
to deny services under our code of ethics.
An opportunity missed
While the opposition to the law has
been all about lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender issues, there is a broader
conversation about the intensified conflicts created by our commitment to religious freedom and our commitment to
liberty.
Where is the line?
The ACA worries that the law could
protect a range of unethical choices: A
counselor who is offended by a clients
hijab could turn away the client; A counselor who doesnt agree with a clients
feminist stance could turn away the client; A counselor who doesnt agree with
a clients sexual identity could turn away
the client, according to the organizations website.
Both the ACA and the Centers for
Spiritual Living are missing an opportunity to confront and discuss the nature of
prejudice and discrimination by taking
their annual meetings to ostensibly
more welcome environs.
The groups may find another place to
host their conventions, but neither will
find a more welcoming and accepting
city than Nashville.
Plus, there is no doubt that our legislature could benefit from any counseling
and spiritual guidance.
Reach
Frank
Daniels
III:
fdanielsiii@tennessean.com , 615-8817039, or on Twitter @fdanielsiii
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immediate
publication may
not be possible.
Think pieces are
preferable to
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500-600 words
or fewer. Include
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Letters to the editor

Variance request would set bad precedent
Re: Council advances Hillsboro apartments, May 5.
The Hillsboro-West End Neighborhood Association generally
supports increased density on our corridors, as stipulated in NashvilleNext. HWEN also supports additional density for the subject
development, 1710 Belcourt, situated on the Wedgewood corridor.
However, we are opposed to the project primarily due to the
unnecessary setback variation requested.
The developer GBT seeks to change zoning to nearly triple the
number of units allowed (from 26 to 76), gain extra height (from the
standard one-three stories to four-five stories), and site the buildings taller mass so that it adversely juts in front of neighboring
buildings.
Yet shifting the building back to the setback line of the current
structure (the former Belcourt Terrace Nursing Home, to be torn
down) would keep it in context with its neighbors and, given the
additional height requested, would deliver density that is only incrementally less than what is now proposed.
As is, 1710 Belcourt will set a precedent that cannot be undone
and for no good reason. Developers will be invited to ignore the
front wall lines of adjacent buildings when planning projects.
The vision is one of future redevelopment following suit, marching taller walls right up to the sidewalk, erasing green space and
creating an unwelcoming built canyon.
HWEN believes that with this project the citys goal of increased
density can be obtained while maintaining the established setbacks
along Wedgewood. We do not need to set a new precedent here. And
we surely do not need to do so while receiving such little gain in
density in return.
Martha Stinson, Chair, Hillsboro-West End Neighborhood Association, Nashville 37212
Construction project would create traffic jam

Re: New York provides needed lessons for Nashville, by Stephen Morris, May 10.
Kudos to Stephen Morris for his excellent comparison of New
Yorks mistakes to Nashvilles current overbuilding frenzy.
The Metro Council recently rubber-stamped a 76-unit apartment
Featured letter
Amy Frogge editorial promoted conformity, groupthink
After reading the May 9 editorial, Stay Focused, Nashville school
board, on hiring best leader, I feel as if writer David Plazas is a promoter of compliance, conformity and groupthink.
He wraps his attacks on School Board member Amy Frogge and other
school board members in rhetoric of promoting cooperation and
collaboration.
He attacks people who research facts and backgrounds and then
speaks up for what they feel is best for Nashville schools and children.
I applaud Amy Frogge and other school board members for being
engaged and outspoken on their beliefs.
Thank you for NOT being compliant and conformed just for the sake
of popularity.
That takes real character.
Annette Daniel, Nashville 37215
complex for 1710 Belcourt. The site is a half-block dead-end alley.

No turnaround.
The ice cream truck creates a traffic jam.
So now there will be 76 moving vans on it ... and when those tenants move out.
76 out, and 76 in? 152 moving vans in a half-block dead-end alley.
Photo essay, anyone? Political cartoons?
Marty Hansen, Nashville 37212
Morris article objective, insightful

The article by Dr. Stephen Morris should be read by all Tennesseans. His assessment of looming problems for the state was objective
and insightful.
It is too bad he did not relocate to Nashville. He would be an excellent addition to the Planning Commission. Welcome to Tennessee,
Dr. Morris.
Peggie S Metra, Nashville 37221
insight
3H
At issue:
Youth violence
POINT
COUNTERPOINT
Resolve youth
violence without
help from cops
JOHN R. FAISON SR.
Adults play part

in creation of
youth violence
RODGER DINWIDDIE
The frequency of youth violence in Nashville is

alarming. While our city officials witness the statistical and sociological impacts of these tragedies,
pastors like myself see firsthand the emotional and
communal devastation.
In four years of leadership at Watson Grove Missionary Baptist Church, I have buried far more children than I should have due to senseless violence. Therefore, I am
encouraged by Mayor Megan Barrys response. The hands-on,
strategically youth-driven approach should be commended.
However, our entire city must embrace the stark reality that
youth is not the only factor involved in youth violence. Poverty, unemployment, inequity of community resources, systemic educational failure and lingering generational hopelessness are all factors that feed the beast that is youth violence. Not even a growing
city can ignore its groaning, neglected populations.
Without a long-term, citywide commitment to adA fight in a church dressing these issues, the violence will continue.
Yet, in the midst of this struggle, I recently witparking lot was
nessed a powerful event that spoke to the hope that
halted when a
exists for our youth, while providing some wisdom
for our response. Following one of our Sunday serfamily, a church
vices, it was brought to my attention that a fight had
and some college
occurred in the parking lot of our campus. About
students joined to eight boys (ages 12-15) were involved: two were
fighting while the others watched and recorded it.
provide guidance
They were all with one boys mother and grandmother, who were embarrassed and frustrated. Some of
our staff separated the boys and brought them inside the church.
Several Vanderbilt University students attend our church
weekly, many of whom have become members. Six of those students witnessed this altercation and stepped in to assist. Those students are named Tre Tarpley, Tre Herndon, Ron Monroe, Trent
Sheffield, Ladarius Wiley and Trey Ellis. Upon receiving the permission of the mother, these young men came inside with the boys.
Once inside the church, I placed them all in my conference room
and began to talk with them. Organically, the young men from Vanderbilt began to lead the conversation. They shared their personal
stories and what motivates them. They shared how their parents
had sacrificed so much for them to be where they are, and how this
kind of behavior undermines and disrespects that sacrifice.
Through the conversation, the boys discovered that all six of the
students were members of the Vanderbilt football team. The boys
were immediately captivated. Moreover, they were astonished
that these young men cared enough to get involved. The young men
challenged the boys to change their direction. Then, they exchanged information with the boys and offered to take them on
tours of the campus and sports facilities.
The boys began to grow up right before our eyes. At the end of
the conversation, each of the boys decided on his own to apologize
to the mother and grandmother. Both were shocked as each boy
apologized, hugged them and thanked them for being in their lives.
It was an amazing moment to witness!
The intersectionality of this moment should not be missed. A
family, a church and some college students came together to help
some children who needed guidance. Community formed around a
cause that demanded our attention. Adults who cared stepped into
the world of children in trouble. Authorities were never needed because the adults present were the authority. No arrests were made.
No court dates are pending. No children made any contact with the
juvenile justice system. Amazingly, violence was still halted and
young lives were impacted.
John R. Faison Sr. is the pastor of Watson Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Nashville.
As our STARS counselors are quick to remind me, there is no one reason for a childs
need for help, just as there is no one reason for
youth violence.
Like the dream deferred of Langston
Hughes Harlem, too many of our young people are placed at a disadvantage. They are suspended from school when they need to be there more than anywhere else. They are blamed for a home environment they
cant control. One burden after another is piled upon their
shoulders until they sag like a heavy load.
And far, far too often, they explode.
Mayor Megan Barry and members of our community are
working harder than ever to disrupt this continuum of violence among our youth. We are looking at the mental health needs of young people who are exposed
to what we call adverse childhood experiences, or Working with
ACEs. We now know that traumatic experiences at young people
a young age raise a persons risk for later physical
and mental health problems like substance abuse instead of taking
and propensity for violence.
action against
Thankfully, the state and the city are doing
more than ever to combat ACEs, and Barrys pro- them can help
posed budget reflects this new priority.
improve behavior.
The mayor also has stressed the necessity of restorative justice. Simply put, when we work with
young people instead of inflicting action upon
them, they are more likely to change their behavior in a positive way. For the last 16 years, STARS has partnered with the
International Institute for Restorative Practices to help
schools and community organizations implement these essential strategies.
Through these restorative justice measures, were also acknowledging that we adults may be part of the problem.
Through the PASSAGE initiative with Metro schools and the
Juvenile Court, our eyes have been opened to our radically
high suspension rate, and the drastic racial gap in those suspensions. In recent years, our schools have suspended black
students at a rate three times higher than whites. Latino children are suspended twice as often as whites. We have worked
to reduce suspensions throughout our schools, but more must
be done to end this disparity.
We at STARS have partnered with the Tennessee Department of Education in advancing best practices in social and
emotional learning, the development of a positive school climate, as well as the prevention and intervention of bullying
and harassment. We have had the privilege of working to advance youth development strategies, which include fostering
the youth voice in finding solutions to violence across the
state. And, at STARS, we are committed to systemic change
for our young people, and for reducing violence in all its
forms.
Such tasks will require commitments from every corner of
our city, as well as each of us individually. When we are called
upon, may our response to our young people reflect the sentiment of another work from Mr. Hughes: that, when people
care for you and cry for you and love you, they can straighten out your soul.
Rodger Dinwiddie is CEO of STARS, a Nashville nonprofit
that works with area schools to support young people in overcoming social and emotional barriers through creative, innovative programs centering on prevention, intervention, training and compassion.
Letters to the editor Youth violence

Single parents are not to blame
Re: Parenting key to raising nonviolent youth, by Parnell Donahue, May 9.
When I read a letter that appeared in
Mondays paper, instinctively, I knew it
was penned by the same man who recently authored an op-ed.
Most of his words leave me hollering, Give me a break!
A lot of single mothers raise successful children (see: Barack Obama)
and plenty of stable, two-parent households turn out children who visit a
member of Dr. Donahues profession
who overprescribe substances that
leave them hooked following their initial uses.
Addiction isnt as simple as always
eating at the dinner table as the doctor
prescribes in his blog. Children dont
always turn to crime because their
mother was promiscuous as suggested in his op-ed or because they lack
character, but often because they lack
opportunity and because they are suffering from addiction.
The day we smash the moral superi-
ority and condescension is the day we

might move closer to helping those the
doctor claims to care about.
Candice Mathis, Dickson 37055
Foster parenting is about love

I was 16 when I married my husband. He joined the military, and we
had our first child.
I decided to foster teenage girls
because I remember several people
telling me (like them) I was not going to
amount to anything. But I did.
Its not my job to replace anything
in the childs life, but to add to the
childs life. The love, support, and understanding thats given to a child
should be given unconditionally under
all circumstances.
Being a foster mother means loving
a child, building their self-esteem, and
being there to support their dreams.
Its about preparing them to fly,
watching them fall, and then building
them back up for their next flight.
Its about building an unbreakable
connection with the child that they will
be able to hold on to for the rest of their

lives, and no one, time or thing will be
able to take it away from them or you.
May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, a reminder of the greatest
gifts in my life and how thankful I am
for all my children.
Amber Moreland, Clarksville 37042
Solving youth violence

Why do youth resort to violence?
Research shows that the three main
factors that contribute to violent reactions are low self-esteem, lack of empathy, and lack of knowledge of any other
way to respond to conflict other than
violence. (Dr. James Gilligan in Preventing Violence)
I am thankful for the opportunity to
work in Nashville with dedicated volunteers who have been trained to address
these causes of violence through the
Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP).
Started in 1975, AVP workshops have
been proven successful in reducing
violence in schools, prisons, refugee
camps as well as with gangs, people
affected by civil war and genocide.

Currently, AVP programs are in 37
states, 98 prisons, 55 countries, and six
continents.
Our workshops use the shared experience of participants, interactive exercises, games and role-plays to examine
the ways in which we respond to situations where injustice, prejudice, frustration and anger can lead to aggressive behavior and violence.
A Basic AVP workshop focuses on
the following themes:
Affirmation of self and others
Communication
Community
Cooperation
Creative Conflict Resolution
Workshops help people improve selfawareness, empathy and the interpersonal skills needed to transform their
lives in a positive way. If you are interested in learning more or in getting
involved in a local community workshop, feel free to contact me at
avpnashville@gmail.com
Trina Baum, Nashville 37056
4H
insight
Help us cover Nashville

youth violence issues
Michael A. Anastasi
Vice President and Executive Editor
of The Tennessean
The facts stare at us. Painfully, and

always.
The question is what our community
does about it. One horrifying and
senseless incident after another, youth
violence is tearing apart families,
neighborhoods, schools. Its tearing
apart Nashville.
So we begin by owning it and that
includes The Tennessean.
We have launched an ongoing project to cover, comprehensively, the
greatest threat to Nashvilles prosperity and to a generation of children
growing up in the very shadows of the
skyscrapers that house wealth that
The Tennessean has launched an

ongoing project to cover the greatest
threat to Nashvilles prosperity.
today is unimaginable by too few of

them.
Today, in addition to our inspiring
story on Pastor Marcus Campbell, we
are devoting our entire Insight section
to this important topic. Earlier this
year, weve begun framing the profound challenges facing our
communities.
Thats a start.
What I want to know is what arent
we covering.
Where should we be that we havent
been?
What have we not seen that we
should? What photographs should be

we publishing that we havent, what
video?
Whose stories should be told? What
stories should be told?
Who are the people making a difference every day?
What might our own inherent life
experiences blind us from seeing, from
understanding.
Our fundamental mission is to help
communities connect, act and thrive, to
actively influence a better quality of
life in Middle Tennessee.
Behind that is an implicit promise to
listen. Help us, help me, by telling us
where and to whom. I invite you to
write me and take an active role in this
process. I promise to be there.
Michael A. Anastasi is executive
editor of The Tennessean. Write him at
manastasi@tennessean.com.
Nashvilles youth should solve

problems with words, not guns
analysis
Natalie Neysa Alund
nalund@tennessean.com
Not too long ago I covered crime in

Oakland, Calif.
It wasnt an anomaly to cover youths
being killed in the city, where the
streets are mean and poverty flourishes.
When I took this job covering crime
and breaking news in Nashville last
year, I thought Id get a break from
seeing children die.
I was wrong.
Last year, Nashville had double the
number of teens killed as a result of
criminal homicide than Oakland. They
lost 10. We lost 20.
Since the start of 2016, three youths
age 19 and under have died in Nashville as a result of criminal homicide.
All three victims one 17-year-old
and two 18-year-olds died in a bloody
five-day span last month, all victims of
gun violence.
So far this year, Nashvilles death
toll for teens is below last years pace.
At this time in 2015, four children had
been killed two were infants who
died as a result of abuse.
Maybe the lower number is because
of media attention, Nashville Mayor
Megan Barrys effort to combat youth
violence or police becoming more
proactive. Perhaps it is another reason.
After the child death numbers
rolled in late last year, Barry organized
a Youth Violence Summit, where she
vowed to create an action plan to combat the problem.
Make no mistake about it. Youth
violence is a symptom, or better yet, a
sickness, Barry wrote when her office
unveiled the youth violence task force
recommendations.
Among several of the groups goals:
Young people in Nashville need better
access to jobs, more activities outside
of school and a juvenile justice system
that doesnt just try and lock minors
up.
My hope is that Nashvilles children
are working to combat their issues by
using words to solve problems instead
of guns. And that parents, neighbors
and religious and city leaders form a
united front to help them. To teach
them.
Unfortunately, the most recent child
Police respond to a shooting near the Music City Central bus station in downtown Nashville.
death in the city probably wont be the

last this year.
I anticipate showing up on another
mothers porch, asking her what happened. Hearing her sob. Seeing tears
roll down her flushed cheeks.
Its a sadness no one wants to imagine.
In my time covering the deaths of
Nashvilles youths, some family of
victims want to share their story in the
hopes that another child doesnt die.
Others curse me, telling me to mind
my own business.
There are nights I dont sleep well.
There are days I call loved ones and
cry. I feel the need to tell my mom that
I love her in case something happens to
me her child.
But for the most part, I keep the
gory details involving their deaths

locked in a small place inside my head.
A lot of journalists who cover the
beat do.
In the end, no matter the scrutiny,
the hate and the all-encompassing
opinions, the death of our youth is
news.
Reporters are here to let the world
know about the epidemic of lethal violence involving our children.
If we dont report the killings, the
masses wont know. And if the masses
dont know, nothing will change.
And right now change involving
Nashvilles youth is crucial.
Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking news for The Tennessean. Reach
her at 615-259-8072 and on Twitter
@nataliealund.
Power of
art can
curb youth
violence
Artists and arts groups are being
asked to help engage youth who
otherwise may never experience the
transformative power of the arts
RICKEY CHICK MARQUARDT
Nashville is undeniably one of the rising

cities of the South. With
its rich cultural heritage, a booming food
scene and thriving
music industry, Music
City continues to join the ranks of
large creative cities that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each
year.
With its steadily growing influence,
Nashville has the power to make a
difference in any space thanks to our
boundaries-pushing community. Specifically, artists and arts organizations
in Nashville have shown time and
time again that they go above and
beyond when their support is needed.
Now, the artists of this city are being
called upon once again to address a
challenge that is deeply impacting all
of us youth violence.
Comprehensive work on the issue
of youth violence began shortly after
Mayor Megan Barry took office. The
mayors youth violence summit was
formed, with Criminal Court Clerk
Howard Gentry and Juvenile Court
Judge Sheila Calloway serving as
co-chairs. The summit began with
community forums, giving a voice to
the youth and stakeholders of our city.
In a 60-page report, the chairs outlined six recommendations to address
youth violence in Nashville.
The recommendation that speaks
most directly to the artists in our community is found under the youth engagement section and suggests the
city should use the local arts community when creating engagement opportunities for youth.
According to Calloway, the juvenile
court has begun to focus more on the
needs and strengths of this special
population of children and less on why
they came to the attention of the
court. Through the assessments done
by our team on each youth that comes
before the court, we are learning that
most of these youth have no prosocial
activities, she explained. In other
words, theres no positive in their
lives. They have nothing to do.
Roy Hutton, Ph. D., a practicing
clinical psychologist in Nashville,
knows the importance of such partnerships to help address the issue of
violence among our youth.
Research shows that the absence
of normal play behavior in childhood,
which means activity that serves no
function other than bringing delight,
is highly correlated with violence in
adulthood, Hutton said. Words, song,
music, laughter, running, jumping,
shared engagement around language,
all these help us develop the expectation of joy yet to come. Any activity
led by caring, wise adults that lets a
young person play, to have joy, to
embrace the resilient spirit of youth
that activity makes us all safer.
Denice Hicks, executive creative
director of the Nashville Shakespeare
Festival, founded the festivals Apprentice Company for actors age 13
and above and has spent decades seeing these principles play out with
young actors. Theater is a great expressive outlet for youth, she said.
It can build an individuals confidence, teach team collaboration, and
requires a lot of energy, both physical
and mental. Shakespeare is the most
demanding of all playwrights, and
when youth engage in playing Shakespeares characters, they find new
reserves of strength, creativity and
inspiration.
At Calloways request, The Nashville Shakespeare Festival is expanding its Shakespeare Allowed! program
to the Juvenile Courts Davidson
County Detention Center. The expansion of this educational program to
serve these at-risk youth, aligns the
mission of the festival and the court,
Hicks said. And as with all of our
educational programming, we know
we will become an even better organization through this partnership with
the Juvenile Court of Davidson County.
Opportunities such as the expansion of Shakespeare Allowed! exist in
every art form. Artists and arts organizations in Nashville are being
asked to lend their talents to help
engage youth who might otherwise
never experience the transformative
power of the arts and in doing so facilitate shared joy, spontaneity and
improve life for all of us. There is no
doubt they will answer the call.
Calloway encourages artists and
arts organizations who would like
more information about how to partner with the Juvenile Court to call her
at 615-862-8000.
Rickey Chick Marquardt is co-chair
of the Education Committee of the
English Speaking Union and development director for the Nashville
Shakespeare Festival.
S U N D AY , N O V E M B E R 13 , 2 016
Election 2016:
Healing USA
Our view
AP / PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS
President Barack Obama meets with President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday, Nov. 8, in the Oval Office of the White House.
AMERICANS CAN HEAL

BY COMING TOGETHER
Elected officials must unite in spirit of graciousness, humility
he road to healing begins by accepting reality.
Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election
and will be the 45th president of the United States of
America on Jan. 20, 2017.
Americans can rejoice that the 219 year-old tradition of peaceful transition of power in the U.S. will
occur anew.
President-elect Trump showed graciousness and
humility in victory and Secretary Hillary Clinton did so in defeat.
And, to paraphrase the nations 44th president, Barack Obama,
the sun rose and it will again.
Now, it is up to citizens in their communities to begin the process of healing and coming together.
This can be done by reaffirming our commitment to the values
and freedoms endowed by the state and national constitutions, by
facing each other even if we voted differently, and by having difficult, respectful conversations about how to move ahead.
Protests have broken out nationwide, and as long as they are
peaceful, they are a constitutionally protected expression of dissent, which should not be ignored or marginalized.
However, Americans ought to come together, perhaps over a
meal, a coffee, a cocktail, a prayer service or over a walk.
The reality is that there is angst over this election.
For many Trump voters, that angst revolved around concerns
over financial and job security and finding their place in an increasingly globalized economy.
For many Clinton voters, the angst now revolves around protecting long-fought-for rights related to equality in voting, in marriage
and in having a seat at the table, regardless of ones religion, race,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender expression or background.
At The Tennesseans Election Night Watch Party, attendees
wrote brief thoughts about how they felt the nation should go about
healing. This is a sample:
Love your neighbor.
We heal by listening first to one another.
We should focus on what we have in common.
Prayer, positive activism, think globally, act locally.
This last one is very important and calls on Americans to be
more engaged than ever in civic life, from decisions on where to
build sidewalks to what happens to our health care system.
The elected officials at all levels, from president to mayor, are
not our masters; they are the peoples servants.
So Americans must urge them to unite in the spirit of the graciousness and humility shown by Trump, Clinton and Obama as
they exercise their duties.
Today, we should reflect upon the 32nd President Franklin Roosevelts call to reject fear. The only thing we have to fear is fear
itself, he told Americans in 1933, in his first inaugural address.
Fear of the other be it the white rural man without a college
degree, the urban Muslim woman wearing a hijab or the immigrant
working hard to put food on the table will only divide us.
Inside Insight
Mayor Megan Barry: We need to find common ground. 3H
We heal by listening
first to one another;
We should focus on
what we have in
common.
Now is the time for courage, for unity of purpose and for summoning the intentionality to sustain and strengthen our democracy.
We Americans are capable of this and so much more.
We are all the United States of America.
Opinion Engagement Editor David Plazas wrote this editorial on
behalf of The Tennessean Editorial Board. Call at 615-259-8063, email
him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @davidplazas.
Saritha Prabhu: Trumps win should teach us a few lessons. 4H
2H
insight
Our
purpose
To actively
influence
and impact
a better
quality of life
in Middle
Tennessee.
Laura
Hollingsworth
President and
Publisher
Michael
A. Anastasi
Vice President /
News and
Executive Editor
Try to overcome rhetoric

So we have elected as president a man who during the election
campaign assailed and demeaned women, ethnic groups, disabled
individuals, potential allies and anyone else who dared to disagree
with him. Our incoming president brings no previous commitment
to public service or the public good as he assumes his new role,
primarily supporting his policy positions with little more than believe me.
As a response from anyone who is not willing to accept such poisoned language in our public dialogue, including, I hope, our Tennessee Republicans in Congress, I invite you to join me in demonstrating extra and genuine care and kindness toward those who are
different in gender, ability, skin color or ethnicity, religious preference, living in a small town or large city, or in other ways.
We can and must be more than a mere reflection of our new
president. Believe me.
Mike Pinter, Nashville 37204
Trumps speech reflected good character
Write us
There is an old German expression: Just do what you said.

Lasst den Worten Taten folgen.
The speech the president-elect delivered on Tuesday night was
too good to be Donald Trump. It was so inconsistent with what he
had said all along the campaign that either one or the other cannot
possibly have reflected what he really thinks and intends to do now.
Will there be a positive attitude? Will there be reasonable decisions and actions? Will there be respect for different opinions?
The world is watching closely and with great concern what is
happening in the U.S. It will influence and change the international
development politically, economically and socially.
In the U.S., many people will be disappointed and take to the
street, even from among his own supporters.
Good luck to Trump.
Paul Mensing vonTroschke, Nashville 37208
Letters:
Overcome campaign divisions
Maria
De Varenne
News Director
David Plazas
Opinion
Engagement
Editor
250 words or
fewer. Name,
city and ZIP are
published.
Address and
phone number
required for
verification.
These can be on
any topic, but
Insight staff
reserves the
right to edit
letters for space,
grammar,
spelling, and
libel.
racism, sexism and divisiveness. After half of Americans voted for

this type of leadership, my hope is Congress will squelch Donald
Trumps permeation of violence and lead us back to civility. My
hope is Congress will not be enthralled by Trumps presence but
appalled at his words of hate and fear.
Mussolini and Hitler showed the sick power of narcissistic leadership. Have we learned anything from their destruction?
I appeal to all congressional leaders at this pivotal and crucial
time in our country to have mercy on all Americans. Having voted
both political parties, I recognize party is no longer the issue.
Trumpism must not rule over our strong established Republican and Democratic platforms.
Carol Williams, Nashville 37206
Featured letter
Speeches bring hope
While it remains to be seen whether ultimately actions are consistent
with words, post-election sentiments offered up by Donald Trump and
Hillary Clinton speak to the legitimacy of all citizens.
Clintons concession speech, following a long and protracted
campaign season, seemed to set the healing tone for her followers. A
key takeaway is that the anticipated culmination of a dream does not
always align with the reality on the ground.
Clinton exhibited grace and deference to the will of the electorate
while conceding the election to Trump. To her credit, she refused to
dwell on negative speculation as to why her coronation as Americas first
female president proved unsuccessful.
Trump, during his acceptance speech, in a rare expression of humility,
opened the door of reconciliation to former adversaries. Notable, in its
absence from his address, was the omission of the customary
saber-rattling rhetoric, replaced by a more measured and diplomatic
delivery.
Robert Judkins, Hendersonville 37075
We now have a third-party president.

One who is represented by his own rhetoric as he touts violence,
Tennessee
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writes a
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perspective
about that
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immediate
publication may
not be possible.
Think pieces are
preferable to
reaction articles.
500-600 words
or fewer. Include
a short
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America governed by laws
If you want to understand the fears and reservations many had
and have for a Trump presidency, look no further than your own
social media pages.
Already Ive read from Trump supporters that protesters, minorities and those who are not of the secular Christian faith should be
rounded up.
Let this be a gentle reminder that this is not Nazi Germany,
where the Jewish people were rounded up during the Holocaust and
forcefully sent to their deaths.
This is still America and we are governed by laws. On Friday, we
honored the sacrifices and deaths of the veterans who served our
nation to provide the equal protections and freedoms we all enjoy
today.
Congratulations to Donald Trump and to the supporters who
elected him. I hope that the rhetoric from the campaign will subside
and that hell be a more humble person as a president than he was as
a candidate.
As a citizen, I hope we all think before we post our thoughts and
feelings or the words we use in conversations. Words have meanings and consequences. The words, like our actions, show our individual character.
Ben Brady, formerly of Nashville, Batavia, Ohio 45103
Lamar good for small business

Over my time as a small-business owner, the federal government
has consistently come down on us with regulations that are confusing, costly and unnecessary. Instead of protecting small businesses,
duplicative or unnecessary regulations harm our growth and our
ability to invest back into the community.
When the Department of Labor announced its overtime rule, I
wasnt so much surprised as I was disappointed.
What Ive never been surprised by is Sen. Lamar Alexanders
unwavering and constant support of small businesses and I want
to thank him for all that he is doing. His Overtime Rule and Reform
Act in the Senate gives us the one thing that we need but cant buy:
time. We need the Senate to approve this act, just as the House approved its legislation.
Time will help me figure out what my upcoming costs will be,
which of my employees are eligible for overtime and if I am actually able to afford these new changes.
Thank you, Sen. Alexander, for truly being on the side of small
business.
Wyatt Harper, Dickson 37055
Featured letter
Move on from past rancor
Politically, America is solidly purple. Both candidates got 48 percent
of the vote. This means that most of us are just to the right or left of
center. We all want a good job, fair taxes, proper education and a
chance to live a happy, healthy life.
Single-issue voters and ideologues can expand the fringes or refuse
to compromise for the common good, but respect and care for each
other, not just personal enhancement, is what true citizenship entails.
We cannot let the rancor of the last year seep into our collective
psyche. We have to cleanse our spirits and minds to be able to address
the work to come. Do not fall prey to the idea that we have become a
country we cant recognize. We have our problems and shortcomings,
but we are not a mob of fanatics. We are still neighbors. We have our
differences, but we have so many common goals that bind us.
May our political leaders become statesmen, and may we become
truly vigilant citizens working for the greater good of our fellows, our
nation and the future of our planet.
Matthew Carlton, Nashville 37216
insight
U.S. Rep.
Jim Cooper
says he is
ready to
work with
Trump
We must put the interests of America
first, and that means working in good
faith with President-elect Trump.
JIM COOPER
I am humbled by the
overwhelming 62 percent support that the
voters gave me in this
years election. I pledge
to continue working
hard to represent all
700,000 people in my district, regardless of their politics.
Likewise, after the Trump victory,
the entire Congress must work hard to
make the nation successful. Members
of Congress take the oath of office to
the U.S. Constitution, not to any leader
or political party. We must put the
interests of America first, and that
means working in good faith with
President-elect Trump.
Thats always been the Tennessee
way: solving problems, not starting
fights. Being practical, not ideological. Respecting other people regardless of their views. Doing such a good
job that people want to re-elect you.
It is very hard to move forward
when your heart is broken because
your candidate lost. It is harder still
when you are fearful for the nations
future. But our nation survived the
Civil War, World War II and 9/11. We
will get through this, too.
Hillary supporters have a lot to be
proud of because we won the majority
of the vote. But that was not enough.
The Electoral College will, for the
second time since 2000, pick the Republican candidate to be president.
Remember that the Republican
Party did not really win this week. An
insurgent candidate with zero political
experience won, a man who often
scares Republicans as much as he
does Democrats. Trump has now completed his hostile takeover of the old
Republican Party. It remains to be
seen what he will do with it.
True, Trump carried the GOP banner, but mainstream Republicans like
Gov. Bill Haslam and former President George W. Bush refused to vote
for him. Trump actually agrees with
Democrats and Libertarians on some
key issues. Democrats should lock
him in before the Republican establishment tries to tame him.
No presidential candidate in history was such a wild card. With no voting record, no detailed platform
only a mountain of tweets, soundbites, and rally speeches Trump is
known for generalities but few specifics. He has criticized many Republicans in Congress who do know the
specifics.
No one really knows what sort of
president Trump will be. We do know
he is the oldest president-elect in
American history. Being president is
the hardest job in the world and it
ages people rapidly, graying them
before our eyes.
It wont be anyones fault, but everyone is bound to be disappointed
with Trump, no matter how hard he
tries. Expectations are so high that it
will probably be impossible for him,
or anyone, to be the vessel of so much
anger, frustration, and hope. Ironically, this is the same problem Obama
had after the 2008 landslide. No one
can satisfy all their supporters. Candidates campaign in poetry, but must
govern in prose.
New presidents only get 100 to 200
legislative days to pass their main
agenda. That means his window of
opportunity will close next August. Is
Trump ready? He has 60-plus days
before inauguration. We really dont
know who Trumps team will be. If he
picks incendiary pundits like Newt
Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani or Chris
Christie, he probably wont get much
done. If he picks someone like our
own U.S. Sen. Bob Corker he would
have a much better chance.
I am hopeful that Trump will be as
much of a reformer as he has promised, particularly on national problems that, until now, both major political parties have ducked. Getting the
economy growing faster in order to
benefit all Americans is vital.
Reining in our huge budget deficits
is urgent.
Crafting a new foreign policy that
keeps us engaged in the world, without being the worlds policeman, will
define the 21st Century.
I hope and pray he is ready for
these huge challenges. I know that I
am ready to work constructively with
him.
Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, represents District 5 (Davidson, Cheatham and Dickson counties) in the U.S.
House of Representatives.
3H
TENNESSEE VOICES
Lets find some common

ground to solve problems
MEGAN BARRY
Honestly, this isnt

the op-ed I originally
wrote. My original op-ed
envisioned a Hillary
Clinton victory and the
title Lets Find Common
Ground resonated in a
different way because, frankly, the
ground I thought we needed to find
was ground with which I was already
comfortable.
But the ground has shifted and Donald Trump is our president-elect. I said,
our president, and I mean it.
Both sides can agree it has been a
divisive campaign. We could continue
to find the issues that divide us and to
focus on those but I believe we need to
find what unites us, and whether you
believe we are Stronger Together or
you want to Make America Great
Again, chances are you believe wed
be both stronger and greater with better infrastructure, fewer traffic jams
and less congestion on morning and
afternoon commutes.
And while this may feel like a local
issue, addressing our traffic and transit issues is very much connected to
regional and national politics.
As a member of the Regional Transit Authority and the Middle Tennessee
Mayors Caucus, Ive seen partisan
affiliations fall by the wayside when
we start talking about our shared goals
to move toward a real transit network
thats worthy of Nashvilles status as a
major American city.
Ive seen partisan affiliations fall by

the wayside when we start talking
about our shared goals to move
toward a real transit network.
On the national level, Congress
should work with President-elect
Trump to implement an infrastructure
investment program that will repair
dilapidated roads and bridges while
expanding transit options for metropolitan areas. Both presidential candidates made big promises on this.
In his victory speech, Mr. Trump
said were going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become second
to none. And we will put millions of our
people to work as we rebuild it.
This, to me, shows room for great
bipartisan compromise. If nearly every
voter chose a candidate who wanted to
increase our nations commitment to
quality infrastructure, then surely
Congress can find common ground
with President-elect Trump to honor
that commitment.
Here in Middle Tennessee, we saw a
bipartisan coalition of mayors and
community representatives in the
region come together in support of the
nMotion strategic plan for transit.
Now well need our elected lawmakers from both the Middle Tennessee region and across the state to
support our joint efforts to build a
transportation network that will sustain our growing economy, reduce
traffic congestion, and improve the
quality of life for residents and visitors.

This doesnt mean we expect the
State of Tennessee to pay for our transit system. But having state approval
for local funding mechanisms will be
critical to having an effective and sustainable plan for implementing the
nMotion vision.
We have the opportunity on the
local, state, and federal levels to move
forward on infrastructure in a way that
creates jobs, sustains our economy, and
makes America more competitive
globally.
In doing so, we can create a more
equitable transportation system. One
that empowers low-income and working men and women by giving them
better transit options so they have
access to new or better paying jobs. A
system that reduces burdens on working moms and dads who struggle to
pick their kids up from school, or
transport them to the school of their
choice. One that allows us to spend less
time sitting in traffic, and more time
doing the things we love.
My hope is that we seize this opportunity and show the American people
our political system is not broken. Lets
build a 21st-century transportation
network that can be a source of pride
for all Americans.
The election is over. Lets get to
work.
Megan Barry is the seventh mayor of
the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. She was
elected in 2015.
TENNESSEE VOICES
Act on election ideas, make move

to put them in a positive light
BETH HARWELL
Election Day has

come and gone, and I
know many are probably
glad its over. This cycle
was a long one, much too
long, in my opinion
the first major announcement from a candidate regarding a presidential run was way back in
March of 2015.
There has been a lot of divisive
rhetoric this year, but one thing that is
important to our system of governance
is the process of coming together after
a hard fought election.
It is a good thing that challengers
step up to run against incumbents, or
when primaries have several candidates. Our founders certainly envisioned that voters should have choices
with regards to who represents them.
Our democratic republic is healthier
when options are presented to voters,
so they can learn about both candidates
and make an informed decision.
It is, of course, not unusual for elections to become contentious, especially
in presidential election years. The give
and take between candidates often
brings new ideas to the forefront, and
increases public awareness of the issues facing our state and nation.
And now is the time that we take
In the Tennessee General Assembly,

and all levels of government, we must
serve our constituents and do what is
best for the state and the country.
those lessons and ideas and put them
into action. The peaceful transfer of
powerat all levels of government
will become official in the coming
months, which is a vital part of the
process.
The voters have made their choice,
and now is the time for the country to
come together, accept the results, and
begin working toward solutions to our
countrys challenges. In simple terms,
it is now time to govern.
As I watched President-elect
Trumps acceptance speech, and Secretary Clintons concession Wednesday
morning, I was struck by the change in
tone. They were both gracious in winning and losing, respectively, and
pledged to accept the results. This sets
an example we need to follow, whether
our candidate won or not.
In the Tennessee General Assembly,
and all levels of government, we must
come together to serve our constituents and do what is best for the state
and the country.
Coming together does not mean we
cast aside our principles or that we will
always agree it means reaching

toward a common goal of prosperity
for all Tennesseans.
As we look toward next year when
the 110th General Assembly convenes,
we will need to do so with level heads
and a thoughtful approach. We will
need to put behind us the heated election year rhetoric, and focus on doing
whats best for Tennessee. The taxpayers of this state deserve nothing less.
I have no doubt that we will. I have
seen your Tennessee General Assembly come back, year after year, with
these priorities in mind and ready to
work. In order to tackle these challenges, it will take everyones ideas on
the table, and a healthy and thoughtful
debate about how we accomplish it.
This includes input from you our
constituents. We always appreciate
hearing from Tennesseans who have a
unique perspective on the issues that
we face.
I am grateful for the opportunity to
work on these important issues, and
look forward to addressing them when
we begin our legislative session in
January.
Rep. Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, is
Speaker of the Tennessee House of
Representatives. She represents District 56, which includes the west Nashville communities of Belle Meade, Oak
Hill and Forest Hills.
4H
S UNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016
insight
TENNESSEE VOICES
Look at views, the issues

MING WANG
Donald Trump has

been elected our next
president. This has been
one of the most contentious elections in recent
U.S. history, characterized by an unprecedented
amount of personal attacks.
Although it was a messy election, it
did present a valuable opportunity for
many Americans to openly share their
views.
Now that the election is over, I believe our country has a chance to turn
the elections negativity into something
positive by examining the viewpoints
expressed, and finding out where we all
stand, and how we feel.
Something happened in this election
that surprised most of us the unexpected popularity of Donald Trump
and Bernie Sanders. Even though they
represented two opposite ends of the
political spectrum, they nonetheless
shared one thing in common neither
was expected to do as well as he did.
Why did we believe they wouldnt do
well? Because most of us thought their
opinions would not be popular. So why
did they end up becoming so widely
supported? Because large sectors of
our society do, in fact, share their
views.
Donald Trump wants to return our
country to the post-war America of the
50s and 60s, when our borders were
secure, our country was the dominant
power internationally, and there was
less cultural, racial and ethnic diversity domestically.
I believe our country has a chance to

turn the elections negativity into
something positive by examining
the viewpoints expressed.
Many who voted for Trump are nostalgic about that period of time in our
nations history. They are fed-up with
the changes that have taken place in
recent decades and believe that the
current system of government is
rigged against the middle class, as they
see debt soar, healthcare diminish,
incomes stay stagnant, and jobs leave
our country.
But can the clock be turned back? If
not, how can we adjust to the changes?
How can we help America maintain its
leadership in a world that has seen the
dramatic rise of emerging economies?
Domestically, unlike the America of
the 50s and 60s, we are now much
more diverse with Hispanic, African
and Asian Americans accounting for 20
percent, 18 percent and 6 percent of our
population, respectively. In the next 10
to 15 years, these groups are projected
to become the majority. So how can we
in fact harness the strength of our increasing diversity?
Bernie Sanders wants to move our
nation toward socialism. He has gained
strong support, especially from the
younger generation which has not experienced the disasters of communism
in the last century. They feel that
America as a society no longer cares
for the underprivileged, and they believe the government should help by
requiring greater sacrifices from the
wealthy.
Yet how can we strike a proper balance between an individuals responsibility and societys duty to help the
poor? How do we maintain social programs for the needy yet avoid advocating attitudes of complacency, entitlement and fiscal irresponsibility
which continue to reduce our products
competitiveness internationally?
How can we rekindle the hard-working spirit of our forefathers? We must
reignite curiosity and drive, especially
in our youth who often lack motivation
due to living in a country with material
abundance.
Though the election is now behind
us, the necessary changes have just
begun. We need to look beyond the
candidates and political parties, and
begin listening and discussing the issues exposed in this election that are
important to our country.
Better listening leads to better understanding, and better understanding
leads to better solutions. Perhaps the
best formula for success for our country is a progressive social policy that
embraces diversity and a conservative
fiscal policy that emphasizes individual
responsibility.
Dr. Ming Wang, MD, PhD is the director of Wang Vision 3D Cataract &
LASIK Center, Nashville, TN, founder of
Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration,
co-founder of Tennessee Immigrant and
Minority Business Group, president of
Tennessee Chinese Chamber of Commerce and honorary president of Tennessee American-Chinese Chamber of
Commerce. He can be reached at
drwang@wangvisioninstitute.com.
Dont disengage now, millenials

KIRK A. BADO
KBADO@TENNESSEAN.COM
Like so many other of

my fellow millennials, I
watched in disbelief on
Tuesday as more and
more states turned red.
The same faces of
friends who had worn
their first I Voted stickers with such
pride and enthusiasm now showed
frustration, disappointment and fear.
Donald Trump was not supposed to
win if you ask young people.
According to The Washington Post,
Hillary Clinton overwhelmingly carried voters age 18-29, in similar numbers to Barack Obama. In fact, some
models showed that if only millennials
votes counted, Clinton would have
crushed Trump.
We thought we were going to make
history with the first woman president,
instead we woke up to heartbreak.
Now begins the difficult part of
Dont allow electoral disappointment

to turn into political apathy.
democracy. Its easy for me to write
this as a straight white male and say
we need to rally behind a presidentelect who has openly bragged about
sexually assaulting women, called for a
ban on Muslims and his running mate
who is openly hostile to people in the
LGBTQ community.
For some this is very scary and it
will take more time to accept this new
reality. It is a time of uncertainty, but
we cannot let that scare us every day
for the next four years.
Love will still trump hate, even if it
didnt on Election Day. But love will
triumph only if we keep fighting for it.
We can never forget the feeling of
disappointment when we read the returns, or the elation we felt when filling out our first ballot. Hold onto that
energy, channel it into change.
We cannot allow our electoral dis-
appointment to turn into political apathy. Continue to be engaged. Read every day and hold your elected officials
accountable. Thirty-three Senate seats
are up for election in 2018 along with
hundreds of other seats at the state and
local level.
This is not as glamorous as a presidential election, but it is just as important. Campaigns need energized young
people to make the change we all wish
to see in the world.
Take as much time as you need to be
upset. Reflect on your feelings and
where we are going as a country.
Tomorrow the sun will rise again
and it will be a new day.
Do not let your voice go out because
of a loss. We need it now more than
ever.
Kirk Bado is a Belmont University
student studying journalism and political science. Over the summer he
served as an intern with The Tennessean as a general assignment reporter.
Fisk University will welcome everyone

FRANK L. SIMS
This morning signals

a different reality in
America and many of our
students are deeply concerned about what lies
ahead and what this
means for their future.
As an institution of higher learning,
we feel compelled to express our deepest commitment to the values of diversity, inclusion, and equality. We believe
education remains the key to continually improve the world in which we live
We express our deepest commitment

to diversity, inclusion, and equality.
and to better understand and engage the
challenges we face.
For all the incivility and hostility this
election has exposed, Fisk University
remains steadfast in its mission to provide a welcoming environment for all.
We cherish the opportunity to educate
all of our students as they embark on
their journeys to make their mark on the
world. Curiosity, kindness and the willingness to embrace plurality remain pil-
lars of the Fisk experience and no

amount of exclusion and divisiveness
can stall our dedication to this calling.
As we move forward into the coming
weeks, months and years, we continue to
honor our tradition of intellectual inquiry and the free exchange of ideas.
For 150 years, Fisk University has
served as a sanctuary for analytic rigor
and open dialogue. As such, we continue
to serve as a critical voice to the democratic process and the future of the nation.
Frank L. Sims is interim president of
Fisk University.
Trumps
victory
offers many
political
lessons
Saritha
Prabhu
The hope is that the weight and
power of his new position will humble
and ennoble him.
Donald Trumps stunning victory
offers many insights and lessons on
our politics today. But the need of the
hour is to leave behind the ugliness of
the 2016 campaign and to move forward with our better angels.
But first, lets give credit where its
due. Whatever one thinks of Trump,
he pulled off something huge and
almost surreal he defeated 16 challengers for the GOP nomination, and a
veteran Democratic politician and her
formidable political apparatus to become president.
And he did it without a big political
machine or the kind of big money that
his opponent had. He did it with his
outsize personality, charisma and
relatively simple message that resonated with millions of ordinary
Americans.
This election would have been historic if Hillary Clinton had won, for
obvious reasons, but the Trump win is
historic too: A rank outsider with no
government experience will now be
our 45th president.
We also owe it to Trump voters to
not indulge in facile, one-dimensional
characterizations of them as nativists,
xenophobes, rubes and racists.
It would be a mistake to look at the
election results in just one or two
ways or narratives, that annoying
word pundits overuse. In my opinion,
Trump didnt win only because of
economic and cultural anxiety, and he
didnt win only because of demographic and class differences, or only
as a repudiation of both political establishments.
It is a combination of all the above,
and added to the mix was the fact that
the Democratic Party fielded an establishment candidate and also took
for granted and misread many of their
blue-collar voters.
I didnt vote for Trump, but I can
understand that his election was at
least partly voters powerful rebuke
to everything establishment, that is
establishment politics, establishment
media and establishment economics.
Also, I think we should lay off the
apocalyptic scenarios now that Trump
is president. Roughly 30 percent of
Hispanic Americans and about 30
percent of Asian Americans voted for
Trump. They probably saw in him
what many other Americans saw: a
rude, crude figure, sure, but also
someone who scrambled ideologies
and orthodoxies, and one who is like a
human defibrillator to our dysfunctional political status quo.
The hope is that the weight and
power of his new position will humble
and ennoble him, and help bring his
best possible self to the office.
After a long election season, it also
bears remembering that democracies
arent just about elections they are,
of course, about power sharing, compromise, rule of law, acting for the
common good and citizens faith in
institutions.
We especially learned that after the
first, free Iraqi elections in 2005: All
the excitement and raised purple
fingers didnt amount to much if you
return to scorched-earth tactics the
day after.
And the coming months and years
will be a test for our constitutional
democracy: one party rule in Washington and a president with some
strongman tendencies.
Meanwhile both parties and the
media need to engage in some serious
reflection on their part in bringing
things to this pass.
The news media, in some quarters,
abdicated their roles somewhat,
dropped neutrality and overtly and
covertly advocated for their candidate, supposedly for the goal of saving
American democracy from a strongman. Voters saw it and didnt like it.
I didnt vote for Clinton, but I hope
my party, the Democratic Party, does
some reflection too on their many
missteps. If they look at the election
results and castigate Trump voters
and paint half the country as misguided, theyd have failed to learn
lessons.
One lesson for both parties seems
to be: Dont take your voters for
granted. Voters hate that.
One of my favorite quotes postelection, quoted in The New York
Times, came from a Florida voter: I
think the future of our country is
about each one of us, not one person in
charge.
Saritha Prabhu of Clarksville is a
Tennessean columnist. Reach her at
sprabhu43@gmail.com.
S U N D AY , J U N E 2 6 , 2 016
Our view
OPIOID
EPIDEMIC
Forum on painkiller
addiction yields
valuable ideas
The opioid epidemic forum The

Tennessean recently hosted led to the
conclusions that more conversations
such as these are needed, that future
discussions need to home in on treatment options and that action on resolving the problem must be swifter.
Experts in the audience revealed
that Tennessee does not provide money
for treatment and that the waiting list
for those seeking treatment is in the
hundreds of thousands.
There was also a demand for insurers to cover more types of treatment, besides pain pills, and for a longer period of time because treatment is
costly and most people cannot afford it.
Concerns were expressed that some
medical professionals are overprescribing pain pills for all types of pain,
minor or chronic.
In addition recovering addicts and
families of addicts said they feel marginalized and left out of important conversations on the issue because they
are seen as criminals and not as people
living with an illness.
These are all issues that could be
addressed through a variety of means:
legislative reform, dedicated funding,
appropriate changes in practices and
an evolution in the way the community
views addiction.
The state of Tennessee has identified
the opioid epidemic as the No. 1 public
health crisis and what used to be a
problem primarily in East Tennessee
has spread all the way west.
Eight states border the Volunteer
State, which means the problem is exacerbated because of the ability of
patients to obtain prescription pills
from multiple sources despite there
being limits on how much medication
one person can be prescribed in a particular state.
It is clear that this will not be the last
of these discussions, and The Tennessean is committed to continuing the pub-
lic conversations with help and feedback from the community.

There were many lessons learned at
the June 15 event, held at the First
Amendment Center. The panelists were
state Health Department Medical Director for Special Projects Mitchell
Mutter, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge State Dangerous Drugs Task Force Tommy
Farmer and Blue Cross Blue Shield
Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Andrea Willis.
The audience included doctors,
judges, social services leaders, chronic
pain patients and people who have been
touched by the epidemic, either because of their own recovery or the
death of a loved one.
There was general agreement that a
law-enforcement-first strategy is not
optimal, and treatment needs to be the
first priority. However, the epidemic
has led to an increase in unlawful behavior, from the illicit sale of pain pills
to heroin use to the rise of the synthetic
drug fentanyl.
Healing and recovery were a message that U.S. Surgeon General Vivek
Murthy sent when he delivered remarks on the opioid epidemic at Meharry Medical College on Wednesday. He
called for looking at addiction as an
illness and not as a crime.
We have to change that. We have to
help the country see that its ... a chron-
ic disease like diabetes or heart disease. If we help people see that it will
make it easier for folks to come forward, Murthy said. It will also make
it easier for communities to support
treatment programs in their neighborhoods.
Some patients and medical professionals, however, say they feel that all
people who use pain medication are
being lumped into the same basket.
Carl Dobs, who blogged about the
2012 fungal meningitis outbreak as a
result of contaminated steroid medicine by Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center, said people
who suffered during that outbreak rely
on painkillers to deal with their pain
and thus are victims of a poorly
thought out anti-opioid frenzy that has
fostered the wanton growth of the interventional pain industry.
The week of the forum he sent a
response to The Tennesseans recent
opioid epidemic discussion guide, and
specifically the article Culture of healing needed to battle painkiller addiction.
The people with severe pain like
arachnoiditis (as seen after some of the
NECC poisons) will never get healed,
Dobs added. Their problems are night
and day different than the examples
the author uses to describe people using opioids for minor aches and pains.
A culture of healing may work for
them, but it will only further harm
people with ongoing torturous daily
chronic pain.
What is clear is that there is much
work to be done, and the public is understandably getting impatient for
solutions.
Opinion Engagement Editor David
Plazas wrote this editorial on behalf of
The Tennessean Editorial Board. Call
him at 615-259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at
@davidplazas.
Inside Insight
Point, counterpoint: The fallout from Orlando. 3H
Sexual assault: Vanderbilt, Stanford cases had one big difference: Bystander intervention. 4H
2H
insight
S UNDAY, JUNE 26, 2016
Our
purpose
To actively
influence
and impact
a better
quality of life
in Middle
Tennessee.
Laura
Hollingsworth
President and
Publisher
Michael
A. Anastasi
Vice President /
News and
Executive Editor
Maria
De Varenne
News Director
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Metro Columnist
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Nashville teaches us
the value of being sweet
Citys hospitality may be reason
for economic boost, new construction
and faster growing population
garrison
keillor
The TSA lady at Nashville airport
said, Thank you, sweetheart as she
handed back my ticket and drivers
license which sort of amazed me. Up
north where Im from, a woman would
not say that to a strange man unless at
gunpoint, and then only reluctantly.
It made me feel good. It is very
seldom that a federal officer expresses
affection to me. Im sure the TSA did
not train her to do that, but her upbringing won out over indoctrination.
Her mother told her to Be Sweet and
she was.
Not to make too much of a nicety,
but Nashville is a welcoming city
where hospitality is palpable, and maybe economists cant measure sweetness but I say its one reason the economy there is booming: new construction everywhere you look, jobs are
growing faster than population.
Warmth is a factor: Outsiders dont
feel there are all sorts of passwords
and secret handshakes to learn before
youre accepted. If not for the wretched humidity, even I could be happy
there.
Not to make even more of it, but let
me point out that Tennessee joined the
Confederacy reluctantly, the last state
aboard, and Nashville was a divided
city through the war, with Union sympathizers, Confederate draft dodgers,
escaped slaves, northern businessmen,
moving freely about, mingling, making
their arrangements.
Talk about diversity elsewhere
men were slaughtering each other on
blood-soaked fields and those in this
city were avoiding the subject, sticking to business, wheeling and dealing,
biting their tongues. They came because there was money here. The city
prospered during the war, even
boomed, thanks to good rail and river
transportation. When it fell to the
Union Army in December 1864, life
went on as before, the businessmen
simply switched accounts. It was a city
unwilling to die for a lost cause, preferring to adapt and move on.
There ought to be a national holiday
when we celebrate the willingness to
back down, compromise, tolerate difference, get along, hush your mouth,
be sweet. Not saying it should be Jan.
14, Benedict Arnolds birthday, but
maybe April 12, in honor of Henry
Clay, the man who agitated for the War
of 1812 and then negotiated the peace,
the man who worked out a compromise
between slave states and free and died
when the nation needed him most,
before the Civil War.
Clay Day would honor the art of
negotiation, recognize that as human
beings we have feet of clay, and honor
the clay that goes into making bricks
which are so much better for building
than rocks. Ive been in stone houses.
People who live in stone houses long
for glass.
I grew up among hardshell fundamentalists who held to revealed Scriptural truth, every jot and tittle, and
tolerated no deviation, so dont tell me
about principle, Ive been there, I saw
the wreckage. Now I go to a church
where we recite the Nicene Creed, but
look around the sanctuary and youll
see some lips arent moving. Thats
quite all right.
Back in the mid-20th century, we in
Mrs. Moehlenbrocks fourth-grade
class sang, Oh the E-ri-e was a-risin
and the gin was a-gettin low, and I
scarcely think well get a drink till we
come to Buffalo and we also sang
Frankie and Johnny with the wonderful verse, The first time she shot him
he staggered, the second time she shot
him he fell. The third time there was a
southwest wind from the northeast
corner of hell. We knew it was wrong
for 10-year-olds to sing about gin and
homicide, it was terribly wrong, and
nowadays Mrs. Moehlenbrock would
be hauled in for inflicting emotional
distress and we kids would go straight
into therapy, but we didnt rat on her.
We liked her, wrong though it was to
encourage children to drink gin. As it
says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time to
keep silence and a time to speak. We
kept our lips zipped.
Clay Day, April 12, will be about
reconciliation, buttercup. Anger is
poison. Meet hostility with courtesy.
Dont spit into the wind. Weve got to
live with each other, angel cakes. Be
sweet.
Garrison Keillor is an author and
radio personality.
Tennessee
Voices
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Opioid forum participants

share concerns and solutions
After the June 15
opioid epidemic forum,
The Tennessean sent participants a brief survey
about lessons learned, top
concerns and solutions
and how future conversations should be shaped.
The participants included doctors, judges,
social services leaders,
chronic pain patients and
people who have been
touched by the epidemic,
either because of their
own recovery or the death
of a loved one
You can find samples
of responses below and
add your own take, by
emailing Opinion Engagement Editor David Plazas
at
dplazas@tennessean.com or you can send a
letter to letters@tennessean.com.
What did you learn
that you had not known
before the forum?
I didnt realize how
many more opioids the
U.S. uses compared to other countries.
That there really are
folks in our community
that are seriously wanting
to address the opioid epidemic!
I did not realize the
street value of the drugs
and the related cost to
maintain the addiction.

200,000 Tennesseans
on waiting lists for opioid
addiction treatment!
What would you consider your top concerns
as it involves the opioid
epidemic?
The opioid epidemic
touches every community. Addiction does not discriminate The special
needs of women and infants impacted by the
opioid epidemic are not
frequently addressed.
Addressing availability of health care coverage to demographics
heavily impacted by
opioid abuse, addressing
mental health issues
legislation reform given that less than 3 percent
of state budgets on average are dedicated to substance abuse prevention,
judicial legislation should
be reformed to give firsttime offenders the opportunity to go to rehab instead of jail.
Im worried that the
epidemic continues to go
the wrong direction despite all the efforts and
energy working to combat it.
Im also concerned
that there arent enough
treatment opportunities
for people who recognize

they are in over their
heads.
if the true fiscal impact of opioid addiction to
the state were to be measured, just imagine how
much this epidemic is taking away from other worthy line items in our budget?
How can we encourage physicians, nurse
practitioners and insurance companies to recommend other proven options for pain relief such
as physical therapy before suggesting opioids?
How do we deal with
the large number of folks
that are already addicted
and cant afford treatment.
How do we spread the
word across the communities?
The direct connection
between addiction and
crime.
The lack of quality
treatment for people who
cannot afford expensive
rehab centers.
What top solutions
should the community
be looking at to employ?
Support primary prevention strategies like our
states prescription drug
monitoring
database
which is called the controlled substances monitoring database.

Access to treatment,
with a special focus on
pregnant women and
their infants.
Naloxone for first responders.
Increased education
about substance abuse, increased access to mental
health care and public
awareness to reduce the
stigma associated with
mental illness, and lobbying for changes in legislation to address these
needs.
drug courts are a
great asset, but everyone
needs to be trying to get to
addicts before they are so
far gone that they are in
the court system at all.
We need to fund treatment programs for those
who do not have access.
Treatment in conjunction with punishment for
non-violent criminal offenders.
What do you think the
focus of the next conversation should be?
Special population impacted, such as women
and infants.
Mental health correlations with substance
abuse and addressing the
mental health crisis

substance abuse is a consequence of mental illness in more than 30 percent of abusers.
Reaching addicts and
getting them into treatment before they are in
the criminal justice system.
To what extent are
doctors/insurance companies becoming drug dealers? Are they doing all
they can to identify red
flags that indicate illicit
use and diversion?
Addressing the overfull jails filled with nonviolent drug offenders
and what that is costing
are they being treated
successfully for their addiction?
I would also be interested in knowing what is
being done to educate and
discourage people from
overusing opioids in the
first place and becoming
addicted.
What are the evidenced-based options to
opioids and how do we get
these into the mainstream
treatment, or in other
words how do we stop the
growth of the addiction.
Comments curated
by Opinion Engagement
Editor David Plazas.
insight
SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 2016
3H
At issue:
Orlando shooting
POINT
COUNTERPOINT
A Christians
response to the
Orlando tragedy
REV. DR. JUDY D. CUMMINGS AND SHANTELL HINTON
Friday, June 17, marked the one-year anniversary of

the shootings at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston,
S.C.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak
out
Because I was not a Socialist
Cummings
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to
speak for me. Rev. Martin Niemller
In the wake of the tragedy in Orlando, where 49 people
were slain and another 53 injured, we are again left picking up the pieces of our fractured spirits and patching the
holes of our wounded souls.
For the countless many whose lives were taken at Pulse
Hilton
nightclub, we mourn. For the people whose lives
were irreversibly damaged, we lament. And for
all of us, who are navigating evil and oppression
Now is the time to
at every turn, we hold our cries for help in tenshed hatred, stand
sion with our complicity for harm in and against
together and listen to
the LGBTQIA community.
Though the Orlando massacre is the most
one another to
recent, and deeply traumatic, occurrence of
understand concerns
violence against our brothers, sisters, and kindred in the Queer community, violence against
Queer bodies happens every day and goes largely unnoticed and unrepented.
We must know that these untimely assassinations are not the sole
responsibility of a lone individual though our sensibilities would
sometimes have us believe the whole Muslim religion is to blame.
However, rather than assuage our conscience, let us see this violence
as the collective result of all of our secret sickness as a nation.
Christians, Muslims, Jews, Universalists, agnostics, atheists, Black,
White, Brown, Red, and everything in between we are all carrying a
sickness within us. Our sickness is hatred.
We have been trying to cover up this sickness for centuries. We have
allowed our sickness to fuel people like Omar Mateen and Dylan Roof to
enact the terror we are all capable of when the symptoms of our hatred
goes unchecked.
As a nation, we have suffered, are suffering, and have caused suffering, by-and-large, in silence.
As Christians, we have let this silence infiltrate our faith and paralyze
our voices concerning our LGBTQIA friends and family members. Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor in Germany during the time of Hitler,
said it best when he reflected on the perils of selective silence; for, when
evil came knocking at his door, no one was left to speak for him.
Are we perpetrators of the same silence? Do we exonerate ourselves
of this collective guilt by dividing ourselves into us and them? Do we
miss the fullness of the image of God because cannot see ourselves in
the humanity of people in the LGBTQIA community?
Beloved, now more than ever I believe we must learn love, listen to,
speak with, and speak for. Now is the time that we must learn to love
people where they are for who they are in the midst of our humanity.
Now is the time that we sit down with our family, friends, and loved
ones and listen to their stories our stories.
Now is the time we must speak with our brothers and sisters concerning the hateful ideologies, harmful beliefs, death-dealing policies that
are infringing upon the lives of not only our LGBTQIA siblings, but also
our Muslim neighbors.
Now is the time that we speak for Christians who desire to do justice,
love mercy, and walk humbly and boldly proclaim that love still wins.
Rev. Dr. Judy D. Cummings and Shantell Hinton, New Covenant
Christian Church, (Disciples of Christ).
Acknowledge that
shooting targeted
LGBT community
KEVIN TEETS
It is disheartening, and sometimes offensive, that people and politicians on both sides of the aisle have offered
their thoughts and prayers for Orlando, but have done
so in a calculated way that never mentions the LGBT
community.
On the heels of 49 people being murdered at Pulse Orlando, Florida Gov. Rick Scott refused to acknowledge gay
people were the target of the Orlando attack. He also failed to mention
the LGBT community in any way.
Gov. Scott even dodged a question that asked if upcoming gay pride
events will see the presence of additional security. Instead, Gov. Scott
and others who have spoken about this act of violence that targeted the
LGBT community have turned to battle-tested words from a political
playbook terrorist, terrorist attack and radical Islam.
In contrast to Gov. Scotts refusal to acknowledge the LGBT community, Im thankful for Nashvilles Mayor Megan
Barrys leadership. Mayor Barry called Orlandos attack what it is a hate crime targeted at Politicians, leaders
the LGBT community. She pledged support and need to address the
police protection at pride events.
Orlando shooting as a
I hope Gov. Scott and others who are not
LGBT take a moment and speak to someone
hate crime against the
who is and ask them what the events in Orlando
LGBT community
mean to them. Ask them what it feels like to
realize you could be the target of such brutal
violence simply because of who you love.
For many of us in the LGBT community, gay nightclubs, bars, pride
parades, and sporting events like kickball and rugby are one of the only
places where we can escape the mental agony from a society that still
wants to marginalize and deem us as something less than citizens deserving full equality, respect and dignity.
We continuously hear rhetoric thats offensive. Just this year in Tennessee, members of our community were the target of 13 legislative bills
that sought to legalize discrimination based on sexual orientation and
gender identity.
Our community has been told they could be refused services by counselors and therapists. Weve heard State Rep. Susan Lynn say members
of our community are suffering from a mental disorder and weve heard
former State Rep. Richard Floyd say he would violently stomp a mud
hole in someone using a restroom corresponding to their gender identity.
When 49 of our brothers and sisters of the LGBT community and
allies are brutally murdered at a gay bar, it directly affects all of us and
it is hurtful and offensive when our elected officials and even our
friends refuse to acknowledge this as a hate crime or choose to be silent
on the matter altogether. Terrorist or not, the murderer went into Pulse
to kill gay people. Gay bar or not, no one deserves to lose their lives to
violence.
As we try to move forward from the tragedy, ponder this: if youre
speaking of the LGBT community, are you doing so in a way that encourages violence and hate or in a way that encourages love and acceptance?
If you support the LGBT community, is there more you can do? More
you can say? Know that the words you use have both positive and negative consequences.
The voices of 49 innocent people were silenced on June 12. But, the
rest of us still have a voice, and the fight for LGBT equality is not finished. Lets use our voices responsibly. And lets be loud when we use
them. Our community is hurting and we need your voice now more than
ever.
Kevin Teets is a practicing attorney in Nashville with Eastside Legal.
Letters to the editor Guns and gun control

Violent gun crimes down
Regulate gun depictions in media
While its true that the country has

seen a larger number of jihad-inspired
mass murders on American soil during
the Obama administration than at any
other time in history, the facts dont
support Democrats who claim gun
violence epidemic as an excuse to
make it harder for a law-abiding citizen
to own a gun.
In 1995 we had 1.8 million violent
crimes. Despite a huge population increase, in 2014 there were 400,000 fewer incidents. From 2005 to 2014, the rate
of violent crime dropped by more than
16 percent, according to FBI statistics.
The incidence of murder, robbery and
aggravated assault also saw doubledigit decreases in this period.
A president who appointed the leader of the Homeland Security Administration testifies that its his job to
give a voice to Muslims may lead to
more victims of Muslim-committed
crime, but as a nation we are safer than
weve been in quite some time.
David Altschul, Nashville 37211
Gun control is serious and needs

reform and compromise from both
parties.
What about Hollywood and the networks? Perhaps Congress should pass a
law banning any network to show a gun
or violence in any show before 10 p.m.
Any movie made should be rated X if it
shows a gun or emulates violence.
The creativeness of these shows
accepts violence and guns, and can
even help motivate potential aggressors. And what about video games. The
networks, movie industry and video
game makers need more oversight than
the NRA.
Glenn Whitaker, Brentwood 37027
Blame senators, not NRA

It is time to quit blaming the NRA
for the fact that suspected terrorists
who cannot get on a plane in this country can buy an assault weapon and
shoot down US citizens at will.
Wayne LaPierre cannot vote on gun
laws.
However, both Sen. Alexander and

Sen. Corker can.
If you want to blame someone,
blame them.
Linda Sander, Nashville 37221
Blood on their hands

The Republican senators who shot
down all of the gun measures Monday
should be ashamed of themselves.
When the next slaughter of American citizens by some deranged idiot
with an assault weapon happens, and it
will happen, those who voted against
these reasonable initiatives will have
blood on their hands.
Those senators will be held personally responsible for their support of the
NRA and not their constituents. But we
the people will have the last word.
Don Geddes, Nashville 37214
Ban automatic assault weapons

Dear Rep. Blackburn:
Please pass legislation to ban automatic assault weapons from being sold
to individuals online, in gun shops, at
gun shows and any other ways automatic assault weapons are currently
being acquired by the general public,
those who might otherwise be allowed
to legally purchase a gun.
Automatic assault weapons are
made for military warfare and absolutely should not be allowed to be purchased for hunting or leisure activities
by the general public. The NRA should
not be allowed to perpetuate fear that
this action would impede on our Second
Amendment rights.
If anything the NRA should be stepping forward and stating that this
movement toward legislation is the
least that can be done to help deter
further possible mass shootings upon
innocent people who are guaranteed
their safety and freedom within our
country. Citizens who themselves might
have fully supported the NRA. Please
step forward as a leader and a representative for those of us powerless
except in our speech to do something to
prevent further mass killings by assault weapons in the US.
Melissa Dotson, Franklin 37064
4H
insight
S UNDAY, JUNE 26, 2016
Life as a red-state liberal

not as bad as you may think
tennessee
columnist
Saritha Prabhu
Whats it like being a liberal in a

Southern red state? I sometimes get
this question from friends up North.
They probably assume that I suffer
from a case of red-state blues.
My answer, usually, is, Not bad at
all. To borrow a commercial slogan:
Life is good.
And its true life has been good,
personally, since my family put down
roots in this state 20 years ago. With a
temperate climate, a nice, slower pace
of life, and a lower cost of living, there
are plenty of things to like around
here.
And whatever ones politics, there
is, as someone once said, a decency
among regular folks here that ought to
be bottled and sold. Just one example:
An older, conservative neighbor
walked over last year and offered us
showering facilities at his house when
we were having major plumbing work
done at our place. We were touched by
his generous gesture, but didnt actually end up needing it.
OK, but as I tell my Northern
friends, the politics here often get
vexing. Our state legislature is sometimes preoccupied with guns, fetuses,
Muslims, the Bible and womens reproductive rights. Politically speaking, we
sometimes like to cut our nose to spite
our face as in, refusing to pass Insure Tennessee.
Being a Democrat here in Tennes-
Rather than focusing on political

differences, set them aside and
appreciate what there is to like
see, you instinctively do some things.

You think twice, for instance, before
putting out yard signs or bumper stickers of your favored candidate.
You learn to hold your tongue a little
in mixed company when politics is the
topic, and learn to swallow your ire
when someone says that Obama is a
Muslim and a radical who is destroying
the country.
As a liberal in these parts, Im grateful for my conservative friends. Im
also grateful for my meager number of
Democratic friends, and hanging out
with them sometimes feels like an
expatriate gathering in a different
country. Oh, but Im exaggerating.
And in sometimes amusing situations, people can unknowingly mistake
you for political kin. Like when an
acquaintance leaned over, lowered her
voice and told me that a relative of
hers who lives in Boulder, Colo., is a
liberal Democrat.
But as it sometimes happens, the
longer you live in a place, you begin to
get it a little better. One example:
Many years ago, when I was younger
and stupider I wrote a thundering column decrying the hunting practices
prevalent in this region. I cringe when
I think about it today.
My tree-hugging, Bambi-loving,
vegetarian self still doesnt like hunting, but now I kind of get why hunters
hunt: It is a primal thing, and a way to

feel connected to the land, and, besides, I know at least one hunting family that supplements the meat on their
table with the deer they hunt.
Besides, if there were a natural
disaster, my lily-livered liberal self
would starve to death, while my hunting friends may do just fine.
A little more seriously, though,
heres where living outside my political
comfort zone has been beneficial for
me it is a learning experience and
allows me to see a little beyond the
stereotypes in the media.
It has often been my experience
that individuals anywhere are better
than the bigger groups they belong to,
that people are often better than the
sum of all their parts, and that people,
for the most part, often surprise me
favorably by being a bundle of contradictions.
Fact is, the current political climate
has been quite successful in otherizing not only immigrants and Muslims,
but also the rest of our fellow citizens.
Sometimes it feels like Democrats and
Republicans with their ancient rivalries are like the Sunnis and Shiites
in the Middle East.
Im not saying that we can or should
paper over our political differences.
But from living in a red state, Ive
learned that we can sometimes compartmentalize, look beyond our political differences and see and appreciate
one another in all our flawed humanness.
Saritha Prabhu of Clarksville is a
Tennessean columnist. Reach her at
sprabhu43@gmail.com.
TENNESSEE VOICES
Education funding, achievement

see improvement in Tennessee
HARRY BROOKS
George Washington
Carver, a pioneering
botanist and inventor
who was born a slave,
said, Education is the
key to unlock the golden
door of freedom. Carver was keenly aware of the opportunities available after receiving a formal
education.
Education has always been a centerpiece of our household. My wife and
my father both retired after long careers as public school teachers. I also
taught school at one time.
I remember working tirelessly with
students on difficult concepts and remember the satisfaction both the student and I had at the end of a lesson
when that student mastered the material. Involvement in our local schools
is something about which my family is
passionate.
For this reason, ensuring that Tennessees nearly 1 million students and
all of our teachers have every tool
available to them has been a focus of
mine since I was first elected to the
Tennessee House of Representatives.
We have much to be proud of in
Tennessee, but K-12 education is a
particularly bright spot. Since 2011,
Tennessee students have been the fastest improving of any state in the nation, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
Since 2011, Tennessee students

have been the improving faster
than in any other state in the nation
commonly known as the Nations

Report Card. In fact, the 2015 NAEP
results showed Tennessee as ranking
25th in fourth-grade math the first
time the state has ever ranked in the
top half of states in any subject or
grade. We have a long way to go yet,
but this shows that students and teachers are up to the challenge.
This improvement is not an accident. We have been aggressive in committing resources in our schools over
the past several years. This year, we
made the largest investment in education in the states history without a tax
increase nearly $260 million in new
dollars for schools.
This included more than $100 million for teacher salaries, nearly $30
million to fund the 12th month of insurance for teachers, $14 million for Tennessees growing English language
learner (ELL) population and $15 million for recurring technology funds.
For Davidson County, that means
almost $13 million more for schools,
including significant improvements
for the districts ELL programs. In
fact, this years investment in ELL
marks the first such improvement
since 2008, signifying a commitment
by the administration and the General

Assembly to assist school districts in
serving high-need students.
Since 2011, Gov. Bill Haslam and the
General Assembly have partnered to
increase education funding by more
than $730 million, including more than
$340 million for teacher salaries.
Under the leadership of Haslam and
Speaker Beth Harwell who has been
a leader on the issue for many years
alongside me education has become
a priority in Tennessee, and we have
demonstrated that commitment
through increased funding where it
really counts.
Working together, the state has exercised fiscal responsibility and put
the state in a financial position others
envy. This has allowed us to increase
funding and fully fund one of the
states greatest priorities: education.
I consider it a great honor to serve
as the chairman of the House Education Administration & Planning Committee, and I am grateful Harwell appointed me to this position.
The success of our students affects
everything else in the state: our workforce, the economy and the health of
our communities. I look forward to
continuing this work with leaders like
Speaker Harwell, ensuring that every
student in our state has access to a
world-class education.
Rep. Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, is
chairman of the House Education Administration & Planning Committee.
What role did

bystanders
have in
Vandy rape?
analysis
Stacey Barchenger
sbarchenger@tennessean.com
Theres something missing from

the national dialogue comparing sexual assault cases involving the attacks
on unconscious women at Vanderbilt
University and Stanford University.
Its time to scrutinize the role of
other people. The bystanders.
The night a woman was sexually
assaulted behind a trash bin at Stanford in January 2015, two men riding
by on bikes intervened and tackled
the assailant as he fled. The victim
later, in a statement that went viral,
called them heroes.
The night police say a woman was
raped by four men inside a Vanderbilt
University dorm three years ago, at
least six men saw her partially
clothed in the dorm or, worse yet, saw
graphic pictures or video of the assault. One testified he saw the unconscious woman and four football
players in the dorm, but tried to sleep
through it.
No heroes intervened for her.
Instead, the Vanderbilt teammates
deleted pictures. Destroyed phones.
Orchestrated a cover-up. Lied to the
woman, who did not remember the
rape. And as Deputy District Attorney
General Tom Thurman said during his
opening statement in last weeks trial
of one of the men, 23-year-old Brandon Vandenburg, they almost got
away with it.
I think the role of bystander in
any act that requires intervention,
whether it be an emergency or a
health crisis, is critical, said Sharon
Travis, prevention and community
outreach specialist at Nashvilles Sexual Assault Center. Travis leads bystander training courses.
To be fair, Travis said since the
Vanderbilt case first made headlines,
demand for bystander training has
increased and more schools are offering those programs. Vanderbilt is
among them, requiring bystander
intervention training for student leaders and fraternity members.
Alaleh Kianerci, a Santa Clara,
Calif., deputy district attorney who
worked on the case at Stanford, said it
best at a news conference in 2015. It
was after charges were filed against
swimmer Brock Turner, whose sixmonth jail sentence earlier this month
prompted outcry and criticism it was
too lenient. Kianerci praised the two
bicyclists who intervened as taking
heroic actions.
Luckily for the victim in this case
there were two Good Samaritans who
were in the right place at the right
time, she said. And more importantly, they did the right thing. Thats the
message that needs to be sent to the
community. Dont just stand by if you
see something inappropriate. If you
see something, say something.
Travis offered the following tips so
that everyone including you and I
can feel comfortable as active bystanders:
Pay attention to your surroundings: I think the thing that stands out
with Stanford is that people noticed
what was going on, Travis said. We
dont know how many people rode by
and didnt pay attention and didnt
see.
Decide ahead of time you will be
the kind of person who speaks up
when you see something wrong.
If you see something, consider
these options: distract (draw either
persons attention away to try and
separate them), delegate (go get help
or call police, for example) or direct
(approach the situation head-on and
say something).
All of that with personal safety in
mind, of course. No one is saying you
should tackle attackers. Travis suggested the Stanford bystanders could
have called police or literally shone a
light on the attack there to stop it.
This isnt only about college students.
Everyone can speak up, and not only
to prevent criminal conduct but to
help in any potential emergency.
Consider the myriad of other options the simplest, a phone call to
911 and the massive impact it can
have.
What if one of the men who saw the
Vanderbilt student partially clothed
and unconscious after the rape in the
dorm on June 23, 2013, called police?
Maybe the investigation would
have started immediately, instead of
three days later when campus police
happened across suspicious activity
on surveillance video. Days sooner,
before Vandenburg lied and told the
woman she got drunk and he took care
of her. Before he could have sex with
her and ejaculate, actions prosecutors
argued were to cover up evidence.
What if someone tried to get help,
from a resident adviser or police or
anyone, for the unconscious woman
even before she was carried into that
dorm room?
Stacey Barchenger covers courts
and legal affairs for The Tennessean.
Reach her at 615-726-8968 and on
Twitter @sbarchenger.
S U N D AY , J U LY 17 , 2 016
GETTY IMAGES
OUR VIEW
Time for
Americans to stop
running in fear
Instead of being afraid, we must develop empathy for others
and try to develop an understanding of their points of view
The very thing that is causing Americans so much
angst, confusion and disconnect in this summer of
violence may also be what helps us overcome these
feelings: Fear.
Americans are in fear of many things: of their
lives, of their loss of liberty, of neighbors and strangers not understanding them, of an uncertain future.
The divisive rhetoric of the 2016 presidential
election has helped exacerbate these horrible feelings.
Yet, facing this fear boldly is a start to breaking
down the barriers that keep people from seeing each
other.
Overcoming our collective lack of empathy will
make America stronger.
That way everyone can understand why an African-American person does not fully feel the promise
of America today more than 150 years after slavery was abolished in the U.S. as it comes to seeking opportunity, to being perceived suspiciously by
nonblack citizens and by police, and to feeling legitimately heard when he or she says, Black lives matter.
That way everyone can understand the police
officer who risks his or her life daily to protect the
community and must walk a fine line between being
constantly on alert to those who might harm them or
others and being self-aware enough to show restraint
during the most uncertain situations and in the language they use in public and on social media.
While the Nashville area is not Dallas, Baton
Rouge, La., or Falcon Heights, Minn., this community
is one that historically has taken stands for the freedom of all, be it through the sit-ins of the 1960s or the
recent vigils and demonstrations that united people
to walk down Broadway or West End to express their
deep sorrow and anger over the killings of Alton
Sterling, Philando Castile and Dallas police and public safety officers Brent Thompson, Michael J.
Smith, Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol and Patrick Za-
Inside Insight
marripa.
There have been too many vigils and
demonstrations this summer because there has been
too much senseless violence.
These public, peaceful demonstrations of unity
are collective expressions and assertions of First
Amendment rights of free speech, airing grievances
against government and assembling together, and
that is a good thing.
That is one way to break through the fear, to develop empathy and to strengthen the ties that bind
people.
There are many other things people can do, like
going to dinner with someone of a different faith,
taking a walk with a co-worker one doesnt really
know or seeking to engage someone in a respectful,
but profound, conversation about race and racism.
Americans should not try to escape the latter,
knowing that it might get heated, but also maintaining the hope that it might lead to the affirmation of
each persons unique experiences and humanity.
None of this is easy and there are more I dont
knows than firm solutions.
If Americans do nothing, break down or give up,
however, than we will miss the opportunity to heal
and make our community stronger.
A mother on social media recently tweeted: One
day, my children are going to ask me, Mommy
where were you when America ate itself? And what
did you do?
Imagine if that question became How did you
help heal America when it was hurting so badly?
Maybe the answer could be: We spoke up. We
embraced each other. We decided we did not want to
be afraid anymore.
Tennessean Opinion Editor David Plazas wrote
this editorial on behalf of The Tennessean Editorial
Board. Call him at 615-259-8063, email him at
dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at
@davidplazas.
Bold Name: Brief refer to a column here for a few words then period page. XX
Point, counterpoint: Something about the topic please. XX
2H
insight
S UNDAY, JULY 17, 2016
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Featured letters
A poem for unity
Black lives matter.
White lives matter.
Blue lives matter.
Red lives matter.
Brown lives matter.
Yellow lives matter.
Lives matter.
Words matter.
Behaviors matter
Thoughts matter.
Actions matter.
Education matters.
Thinking matters.
Caring matters.
Responsibility matters.
Living matters.
Treating each other the way we wish to be treated matters.
It doesnt matter who we are.
Carolyn Musfeldt, Nashville 37220
Cause and effect
Madness must stop

Recent events concerning the violence and unrest
that have besieged our country over lives taken by police forces and the lives of police officers killed in retaliation have caused me great sorrow.
I watched the live-stream to Facebook of the aftermath of Minnesota shooting victim Philando Castile. I
read about the shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton
Rouge, La. Both were heartbreaking and senseless.
This was followed by news of the shooting of five
Dallas police officers who lost their lives because of a
rampage by Micah Johnson, who set out to seek revenge on officers who had absolutely nothing to do with
either of the two events.
We have been witness to the protests and rallies for
the Black Lives Matter movement. I only want to say
that in my opinion All Lives Matter! No one has the
right to take the lives of innocent people, not black nor
white, Hispanic or any ethnicity, nor the lives of police
officers. When will this madness stop?
Richard R. Hutchison Jr., Nashville 37217
I wonder, if they succeed in killing all the police, do they really

believe that their neighborhoods will be safer?
Chris Kitterman, Franklin 37064
Promote peace
I am deeply disturbed about recent events that led to the slaughter of police officers and civilians in Dallas.
I think part of the responsibility is the sensationalism by the
media. I cant believe that a trained police officer would take the life
of an innocent citizen, whether black, white or any other race, strictly because of his race.
Maybe you should explore that and report on it. What kind of
training do these officers go through before being commissioned?
You continue to report a skewed perspective that would sell more
news and promote more hate in the process. The article I read about
the Dallas shooter says he was upset about Black Lives Matter. Have
you ever thought about attending one of those meetings?
Maybe it is a hate group and not one of peace. I love all people and
do not discriminate based on skin color. I realize there are a few bad
apples in every bunch, but couldnt you report the facts in cases like
this so that people could decide for themselves what the truth is? I
hold the media responsible.
Eleanor Williams, Nashville 37012
Hate symbols must come down

This is formally to address the problem of racism that has been a
part of this country since the first slave set forth on this nation during the period before the Revolutionary War.
The Civil War did not really take care of it, Reconstruction, the
period after, up before World War I, World War II, Brown v. Board of
Education in the 1950s, the time of the 1960s, the laws passed during
Lyndon Johnsons term of his presidency, the assassinations of John
F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy and the
events of the last few years where African-Americans have still not
enjoyed what other races have had for the centuries that this country has been here since civilization made its appearance.
During the period before World War II, in Germany the dreaded
Nazi government under Adolf Hitler persecuted the Jews. They had
no rights, even basic rights; they were murdered by the millions.
After the war the Germans under Dwight Eisenhower went
through a period of de-Nazification that lasted for many years. Due
to the history any representation of Nazi symbols was not allowed.
When Jews entered Germany after the war they did not see much
Nazi anywhere. Can you imagine during the late 40s and to the present how they would feel if they saw a Nazi flag?
It was bad history. We should ask all of us how blacks feel about
the Confederate flag. It was history that has led to so much bad
like young black men being killed. Just like Germany we should ban
it so this nation really can be the home of the free and all that entails.
Tear hatred from the sky so this nation can be free for all of us,
not just some of us.
Jackie Postell, Nashville 37221
Dont cozy up to Black Lives Matter

Re: Nashville vigil becomes march, closes Broadway, July 9.
I am so thankful Chief Steve Anderson is the police chief of Nashville, because that means he is not the chief of police of my town.
Chief Anderson, in the past two years, has capitulated and allowed
anarchists to take control of the streets of Nashville.
In December 2014, he welcomed the anarchists to shut down I-40
Be on our best behavior?

Re: Heed Dads advice: Dont antagonize a cop during a stop, by Jim League, July 11.
Did I just read an op-ed from a Jim League that you
actually printed where he says, In light of all these police issues I am reminded of my father telling me not to
be rude to cops?
Thank you, Tennessean, for that gentle reminder to
African-Americans to really be on their best behavior
when they get pulled over.
I would like to add another point that I think will help.
My father used to tell me all the time, Todd, at some
point in your life you will be pulled over by a police officer and when that happens, dont be African-American.
So far I have heeded that advice and in all my life, so
far, I havent been killed by any police officers and it
was as simple as listening to my father.
Print that and this problem will just go away. Right?
I was surprised to see such insensitive ignorance
make it to print.
Todd Snider, Hendersonville 37075
by serving them hot chocolate and doughnuts, which endangered

other law enforcement officers.
Just this past month, he allowed the anarchists to have a vigil,
so lo and behold, what happened? Surprise, surprise. They decided to
turn it into a protest march, taking over the streets and closing down
Broadway. Surprisingly, I dont think the chief served hot chocolate
and doughnuts.
Who are the anarchists? An anti-American mob known as Black
Lives Matter, whose clenched fist salutes harken back to the 1960s
and 1970s and is reminiscent of the Black Panthers and Black Liberation Army.
These revolutionary groups professed the violent overthrow of
the United States, the annihilation of white Americans and introduced the term off the pigs. Sound familiar?
Black Lives Matter ideology is based upon a lie and hands up,
dont shoot never happened. They would have you believe that police officers are killing unarmed black men every day.
In fact, a police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a
black male than an unarmed black male is likely to be killed by a
police officer.
If I were Chief Anderson, I would be very careful accommodating
and cozying up to a bunch of revolutionaries calling for terrorist
acts, destroying private property, denigrating and threatening law
enforcement officers, and sporting T-shirts that say The revolution
starts within us.
Gary Campbell, Franklin 37064
See Letters, Page 3H
insight
SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2016
3H
At issue:
Police, race and community realities
POINT
COUNTERPOINT
Gentrification,
over-policing the
price of It City
REV. DR. JUDY D. CUMMINGS AND SHANTELL HINTON
People who shut their eyes to reality

simply invite their own destruction, and
anyone who insists on remaining in a state
of innocence long after that innocence is
dead turns (their) self into a monster.
James Baldwin
Just a week after people all across this
nation celebrated our country with bombs bursting in air, we were yet
again forced to reckon with blood on the leaves. From the untimely deaths
of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and several brave Dallas Police officers,
we are a country in trauma.
It seems the patriotic emblem bearing red, white and blue may also signify the color of our deepest conflicts as a nation red from continued
bloodshed, white as the skeletons of our past and blue from the collective
wounds from which we have never fully healed.
The stark reality is that this nation is riddled
with the tumorous overgrowth of lesions caused
Since 2000, areas such
by centuries of poisonous race relations. And,
as Germantown and
now is not the time for us to act as though we do
12South have displaced
not see these blemishes upon our countrys moral fabric.
many of Nashvilles
What is stopping Nashville from becoming
original residents and
the next Baltimore or Baton Rouge? What separates this city from becoming that city instead
changed the citys most
of the It City the one where another national
historic neighborhoods.
tragedy explodes onto media outlets?
The answer is beneath our noses. James
Baldwin writes that anyone who refuses to acknowledge the reality staring
them in the face invites destruction. Perhaps, Nashville is turning itself
into a monster by not questioning the implications of what it costs to be the
It City.
With gentrification doubling since 2000, areas such as Germantown and
12th South have effectively displaced many of Nashvilles original residents and changed the very essence and culture of the citys most historical neighborhoods.
What is more, persistent over-policing of the remaining un-gentrified,
urban neighborhoods, largely populated by African Americans, continues
to be a trend in North Nashville. How is it that the It City is only it for
some?
While the uprisings of violence and cases of police brutality have not
explicitly infected in this city, these manifestations of structural racism
(i.e. gentrification, over-policing, etc.) are priming Nashville to be the next
perfect storm of race relations gone wrong unless we begin calling our
leaders and citizenry into accountability for the Nashville we are becoming and having the much-needed, honest dialog about what racism looks
like in this city.
For example, what if we were honest about how beneficial it could be to
allocate adequate funding for on-going diversity/cultural-sensitivity training for Metro Police Department rather than spending millions on the Blue
Lives Matter legislation for Tennessee?
What if we could be transparent about how the lack of policing in gentrified neighborhoods sends subliminal messages about the communities
that are valued versus the communities that are feared? What if we could
be authentic enough to admit that the gentrification has deep profit margins but is also deeply traumatic to the people it is pushes to the margins?
In the midst of great racial turmoil, now is not the time for us to shut our
eyes and bury our heads in the sand.
Rev. Dr. Judy D. Cummings and Shantell Hinton, New Covenant Christian Church, (Disciples of Christ).
Nashville police
trained to engage,
respect all people
STEVE ANDERSON
The events of last week in Dallas, Minnesota and Louisiana have shaken the souls of Americans everywhere, Nashvillians certainly included.
I know first-hand the profound emotional agony of losing
just one officer in service to this city. I cannot imagine the
pain of losing five officers on a single night, with multiple
other officers and civilians wounded.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown is a friend and colleague. I have so
admired his poise, grace, resolve and commanding strength as he has addressed the nation and leads his department through this tragedy. I have no
doubt that Dallas will be a stronger city in the aftermath of the murders.
We also have the opportunity to be a stronger community.
As I said on July 13, I am very concerned about the videos and the accounts we have heard regarding the police-involved shootings in Baton
Rouge, La., and Falcon Heights, Minn. The only
information I have is from news accounts. I expect the Justice Departments investigations MNPD training staff
will be thorough, timely and provide answers.
teach officers to
While those investigations progress, I have
asked Nashvillians to please not judge or asso- communicate with
ciate MNPD officers they may as having any citizens as the key to
connection to Baton Rouge or Falcon Heights.
There is a tendency to think of the police as if avoiding or de-escalating
every law enforcement officer everywhere is any hostilities.
one in the same.
I do not know the training protocols or the internal procedures of those two agencies. I do, however, know about the
training of Nashville police officers and the community engagement that
is strongly encouraged throughout this departments eight precincts.
Before graduating from the MNPD Training Academy, a new police officer will have received nearly six months of instruction from an academy
staff that I believe is among the very best in the nation.
Those individuals teach our officers to effectively communicate with
citizens as the cornerstone to avoiding or de-escalating any tensions or hostilities. Our training, to both new officers and veterans, emphasizes the
sanctity of human life.
Officer trainees attend instruction on our citys civil rights history of
the 1950s and 60s taught by experts at the Nashville Public Library. They
participate in a day-long tour of Nashvilles diverse communities and dialogue with members through a program co-sponsored by the Nashville Human Relations Commission.
Trainees also receive more than 220 hours in use-of-force instruction
and de-escalation skills. That training continues to be a priority during annual in-service. This year, four reality-based scenarios are being used to
help officers hone their communication and de-escalation skills.
In addition, we began making preparations earlier this year for department-wide implicit bias instruction. We recently certified 26 MNPD members to teach this eight-hour course to all employees within our department.
This training will help attendees understand that even well-intentioned
people have biases; understand how implicit biases impact our perceptions, and can, unless prevented, impact what we do; and help identify actions to reduce implicit bias.
As chief of the MNPD and a 41-year veteran of this department, I have
confidence in the moral ethic of the men and women working to protect the
people of Nashville, the skills they possess, and their ability to make appropriate decisions in difficult situations. Thank you for your support. We are
working every day to maintain your confidence.
Steve Anderson is chief of the Metro Nashville Police Department.

Blame the right, not left
Re: Left created violent climate, by
Tom Coplin, July 10.
I am writing in response to this letter
in The Tennessean blaming the left for
the violence. This is complete balderdash.
The real culprit is Donald Trump,
whose campaign extols the haters, bigots, racists, anti-Semites, white supremacists, KKK members and their ilk and
allows them to use violence to show
their hatred of others. Another culprit
is the Republican Party, which continues to try and enact legislation
against the LGBT community and abortion rights, and pushes voter suppression as well as being anti-woman, antiworkers, anti-middle class, anti-working poor, the elderly and others.
The Republican Party of 2016 is only
interested in helping the very rich get
richer, corporations making ever larger
profits and getting re-elected at the
expense of everybody else.
Alan L Schwartz, Gallatin 37006
Response to All Lives Matter

Yes, All Lives Matter! I dont argue
that and I absolutely agree. But it undermines the problem that black people
are facing every day.
Its not all lives that are receiving
harsher sentences in the judicial system.
Its not all lives who have been
lynched for centuries in this country.
Its not all lives that we are watching
on social media getting executed almost
daily.
Dont wash out todays problems with
other slogans. That does nothing but
continues the cycle of debate and segregation.
Isolate the problem, unite with it, and
focus on the solution.
If you dont unite with empathy, compassion and basic civil rights, then you
are on the wrong side.
Black Lives Matter. Thats the focus.
Youre all sick of reading it, were sick
of seeing it, Im sick of writing about it.
Unite.
Dominic Baker, Nashville 37205
Obey the law

I am by no means defending the
police actions in the latest incidents,
and no one should have to die, but all the
victims were breaking the law!

Yes, they were minor offenses unworthy of a death sentence.
So, everyone obey the law and dont
resist the police and live!
Everett Steele, Nashville 37211
Do you vote?
My question: Do any of the displayed
protest marchers exercise the greatest
tool that Americans possess?
The voting ballot.
D.M. Drake, Gallatin 37066
Police doing jobs

While police (just doing their job) are
trying to catch criminals doing something wrong, Black Lives Matter people
are obsessed with trying to catch police
doing something wrong.
With over 90 percent of black killings
caused by other blacks, isnt it obvious
where the priority should be placed?
John Bridges, Nashville 37217
On guns and violence

A few thoughts to add to the national
conversation about guns, violence, race,
ideology and policing:

1. The shooters in the nationally publicized shooting incidents last week
were not Islamic.
2. Philando Castile had a gun and a
carry permit. They did not protect him,
and in fact, there is some evidence that
he might still be alive if he hadnt had
them.
3. All the police officers in Dallas had
guns. Yet five of them died and seven
are hurting because one unstable individual had a gun that would have been
banned if the assault weapons ban were
still in place.
4. If there was a nationally accepted
protocol governing interactions between police and civilians during traffic
stops, it would at least help in cases
where the civilian is trying to comply
with the police. This might not help in
cases like Alton Sterlings, but may
have helped in Philando Castiles case.
5. I dont have the answers, and it
looks as if no one person does. We need
to talk and listen to each other, across
racial, professional and ideological
divides.
6. Yelling and name calling dont
count.
Eileen Brogan, Fairview 37062
4H
S UNDAY, JULY 17, 2016
insight
Nashville offers lessons

metropolitan
Keel Hunt
The most encouraging signs of hope

this month have been those seldomreported moments where regular people meet each other when they talk,
even hug, and one asks how the other is
doing and feeling.
It will be in similar moments of
human energy and compassion that
reconciliation and hope for our common future will come about.
We have seen good examples of
human connection on a large scale
across Nashville in my lifetime
ranging from the nonviolent engagement by students at the downtown
lunch counters in the 1960s to the citywide visioning processes a generation
later.
The Davidson Group initiatives of
1975 and 2008 also paired individuals
from different racial backgrounds so
they could learn about each other.
These things dont just happen.
They take careful planning.
In 1993, for the first Nashvilles
Agenda project, 202 facilitators volunteered to be trained to guide smallgroup discussions across the city. This
elaborate model became known the
Nashville Process.
There are racial tensions in Nashville, to be sure. But a Nashville Process could help to heal our country now,
calling on as many Americans as possible to inconvenience themselves for a
morning or an evening to listen and
learn, to walk in the other guys
shoes and see the world through anothers eyes.
Words matter. Conversation can
help. Nashville has learned how there
Deck FRK 15p. Deck FRK 15p. Deck

FRK 15p. Deck FRK 15p. Deck FRK
15p. Deck FRK 15p. Deck FRK 15p.
Deck FRK 15p. Deck FRK 15p.
can be promise and hope in a civil conversation across the city, neighborhood
by neighborhood. Our country needs
this type of energy now.
Today it is clear none of us can go it
alone. This time around, we need to
save each other.
Otherwise history may mark 2016 as
the year of The Unraveling.
Much in the social order seems to be
coming undone violence in too many
cities, deaths of young African-Americans in questionable police actions,
distrust of law enforcement, the sniper-killing of cops, the absence of leaders, the silence of institutions failing to
take sides when they really should.
This fortnight of mayhem has frankly been made worse in this moment by
a concurrent presidential race that is
outrageous and obviously unhelpful.
One candidate thrives on division. The
other seems to repeat the same stiff
speech everywhere and believes she is
connecting.
What has happened in Dallas and
Baton Rouge and Minnesota requires
more than a one-day scheduling hold.
How about hitting the pause button on
all the campaign anger? How about,
for a change, bringing us together in
this moment of your rendezvous with
responsibility?
Racism is complex with strains of
fear, separation, distrust, uneven opportunities, hopelessness. Complexity
requires discussion that is impossible
in 140-character tweets, one-way Facebook posts, or 20-second TV sound
bites. It requires more context and

genuine human engagement than social media allows.
Also, while the problem may seem
national in scope, in truth it rises from
a communication failure neighborhood
by neighborhood, in city after city.
People from different circumstances
need to talk.
One of the surgeons in Dallas who
treated the dying officers spoke emotionally in a news conference of his
own feelings as a young African-American parent. He acknowledged the
anger, frustration and distrust of law
enforcement that is prevalent.
But they are not the problem, Dr.
Brian Williams added. The problem is
the lack of open discussion about the
impact of race relations in this country.
I think about it every day. We have to
come together.
It will not be government that
solves this. Nor will it be technology
that heals us. The solution will come
not from city halls and the White
House but from human hearts in all
our cities.
It will happen only with the help of
good folks who know how to help people talk with each other, so our hearts
are revealed in small-group settings.
This is how churches work.
The fundamental need is to commit
to more and better conversation across
racial divides not on one-way TV or
on social media but at the street
level.
We need more engagement, and
there is a way to do that.
I suggest Nashville, from its recent
history, has some lessons that other
cities might heed now.
Keel Hunt is a Tennessean columnist. Reach him at Keel@TSGNashville.com
TENNESSEE VOICES
Can you not understand why

black Americans are angry?
I can honestly say
that the Black Lives
Matter movement does
not believe or insinuate
that all police officers
are bad, just like people
of color have been trying to prove for decades
that all black people
arent bad regardless of the stereotypes or way that we are constantly
and negatively portrayed by the media.
Statistics show that cops have killed
more white people than black people,
yet since African Americans make up
13 percent to 15 percent of the entire
U.S. population while Caucasians are
77 percent of the population, black
people are literally just proclaiming
that we are getting killed at a faster
rate and have been getting killed for a
longer period of time by police officers.
The Black Lives Matter movement
has now been accused of having no
respect for police authority. People are
saying the shooting in Dallas shows
what a black man equipped with training and motivated by anger could be
capable of doing. In addition, there
have been whispers of African American retaliation spreading after the last
two videos of police brutality proved
LEONA DUNN
All lives do matter, but not all lives are

in constant jeopardy. We cannot blame
the movement; we can only blame
ourselves for not valuing life
that the marches and rioting solved
nothing.
It temporarily silenced the officers
who were using their badges to feed
their sick need to murder innocent
people both black and white, and even
cost the government thousands of dollars equipping officers with body cameras. Sometimes those cameras are
conveniently either facing the wrong
way, or not charged, or even covered
up when they should be filming.
All cops are not bad, but the bad
ones are very active. If we want to be
honest, when theres a bad cop in your
area and no one reports him not
even his own unit that says that you
support his behavior. That is where we
all have to take responsibility. We all
decided to stay silent until we are
forced to scream.
Anyone who takes a life is selfish.
They are temporarily acting on their
emotions and not thinking about the
mothers, siblings, children and other
people involved in that individuals life
that they took.

I am angry that the news has covered more about the black sniper in
Dallas than it has focused on the officers that took the lives of those two
black men who received point-blank
chest shots.The officers knew those
close-range shots would result in
death.
So now the five officers shot by one
man are more important than the two
men shot by cops with multiple officers surrounding their fresh corpse,
arresting their girlfriends and checking their pockets?
Can you not see why we are angry?
Those officers are on paid leave and
now all other officers are fearing for
their lives the same way all black men
fear for their lives when they see a cop
car.
All lives do matter, but not all lives
are in constant jeopardy. In this case
we cannot blame the movement; we
cannot blame African Americans; we
cannot blame the police; we can only
blame ourselves for not understanding
the value of life of all lives whether
we like or dislike characteristics about
each other.
Leona Dunn is a Tennessee State
University student and news editor for
The Meter, the campus newspaper.
Ride with
Nashville
cop shows
priorities
analysis
Ariana Sawyer
asawyer@tennessean.com
When we parked next to two other

police units at the Midtown Tigermarket, Officer Eric Burford opened the
trunk and handed me a short but heavy
flashlight.
Here, he said, you can use this to
see or to hit someone with.
We were looking for two homeless
men who were reportedly stabbing each
other nearby. Walking behind the gas
station convenience store, through a
dark alley formed by the building and a
tall wooden fence, I pointed my flashlight from side to side looking for a dead
body or blood splatter. Burford did the
same, but with a gun in his grip.
We didnt find anything. Another
officer thought the call may have originated at a known drug house nearby in
a public housing development as a way
to test the police response time or to
keep police in the area busy while dealers did some business.
The officers stood in a tight circle
before getting back in their cars for
another call, discussing their work
the worst-smelling corpse, the goriest
stab wounds and how many dead bodies
they see in an average week at my
request. As the new night breaking news
reporter, also known as Night Cops, I
wanted to hear some war stories.
I went out on a ride-along with officer
Burford on July 2 to learn what a patrol
officers day is like. Before that, Id only
interacted with them from behind the
yellow police tape or else listened in on
them using a police scanner from my
desk.
I moved here last month and wanted
to learn more about Nashville, its communities and how police interacted with
minority communities.
Do they police public housing developments more heavily than actual crime
reports warrant? Is there an adversarial
relationship between black communities
in Nashville and Metro police?
From what I saw that one day, the
answer is no. Though there are probably
bad apples, and nationwide, racism remains a systemic problem despite public
outrage over the most recent spate of
fatal officer-involved shootings, the men
and women patrolling the streets that I
met were not targeting anyone based on
their race.
They were going where they were
called, from a report of a hit-and-run to a
missing iPad. At one point, Burford
waited for at least two hours in a highrise apartment with the air conditioning
turned off to be there for the crying
family members of an elderly man who
had died of natural causes.
We talked to the family about the
mans passion for photography and music composition or else stood silently
until the funeral workers arrived.
The list of calls ran on endlessly. We
never made it to the man in the new
Olympus Midtown luxury apartments
who wanted to report a missing cell
phone, yet somehow managed to call
every 10 minutes demanding an officer
come talk to him.
Burford explained that he tries to
maintain a presence near the gay bars
and the public housing developments in
his zone as a crime deterrent and to help
people feel safer. He said he usually
talks to the neighborhood kids who are
curious about his equipment and whether he has stickers for them.
At one point a group of people set off
a bunch of fireworks, an illegal act in
Davidson County. He shined a spotlight
on the group of African-American kids
and adults, smoke rising from the middle of the street. I asked Burford if he
would cite them.
Nah, Burford said. Thatd be the
least of their worries.
Ariana Sawyer is a breaking news
reporter for The Tennessean, covering
police and public safety. Reach her at
615-815-5933 or on Twitter
@a_maia_sawyer.
GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
Police go where they were called, from a

report of a hit-and-run to a missing iPad.
S U N D AY , N O V E M B E R 2 7 , 2 016
Titans at Bears
NOON, WTVF-5 / 104.5-FM
PREVIEW ON PAGE 8C
VANDERBILT 45, TENNESSEE 34
Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason celebrates his teams 45-34 win over Tennessee on Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium.
RIVALRY
REALITY
ITS TIME TO BELIEVE IN MASON AND QUESTION JONES
joe
rexrode
Columnist
jrexrode@tennessean.com
heres never been more reason to believe in
VANDY VS. UT
Derek Mason. Theres never been more reason to
Adams: This is worse for UT

than loss to South Carolina
question Butch Jones. Masons Vanderbilt

Commodores scored the programs biggest win
in many years Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium,
45-34 over Jones 24th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers in a

rivalry shootout for the record books. How many years? If
youre looking for the last Vanderbilt triumph over a
winning UT team, youre going back to 1982.
See Vanderbilt, Page 4C
Tennessees struggling defense hit a new low in

losing to Vanderbilt. On 3C
Ammenheuser: Vanderbilt gets

two victories in one night
With a bowl secured because of APR rating, Vandy
clinched it again the old-fashioned way. On 4C
Seven things we learned from

Vandy win over Tennessee
It was a big numbers nights for the Commodores
Ralph Webb and Kyle Shurmur. On 4C
615-809-3427
SPORTS ANNOUNCEMENTS: TNSPORTS@TENNESSEAN.COM
REPORT NEWS: 615-259-8010 OR FAX 615-259-8826
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THE TENNESSEAN/FILE PHOTOGRAPHS
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MERRY ECCLES/
THE TENNESSEAN
SEC football dominates

because of coaching
John
Adams
USA TODAY NETWORK

Tennessee
On the brink of another college football season, the SEC remains perched
above the competition, its credentials
unquestioned.
Right where it belongs, the fans of
its member schools would say.
And who can argue?
The conference has won eight of the
past 10 national championships. If thats
not enough proof of its superiority,
there is plenty more evidence all the
way from high school to the NFL. Alabama, the SECs marquee program, has
had the No. 1-ranked recruiting class
for six consecutive years, and the conference has had more players taken in
the NFL draft for 10 years running.
If youre looking for less tangible
reasons for the SECs preeminent position, check fan message boards. Or
better yet, spend a day within tailgating
distance of an SEC stadium. Then, you
might conclude SEC fans could lift the
league above the field through sheer
desire.
In Richard Scotts book SEC Football 75 Years of Pride and Passion,
he quotes an outsider on the subject.
In the East, college football is a
cultural exercise, said Marino Casem,
best known for his coaching career at
Alcorn State. In the West, it is a tourist
attraction. In the Midwest, it is cannibalism.
But in the South, it is a religion
and Saturday is the holy day.
The fan passion translates into financial donations, which help build
state-of-the-art facilities, which help
attract great players. And the players
themselves help attract more great
players.
If youre looking ahead to an NFL
career and realistic or not, what college prospect isnt? you wont find a
better proving ground than the SEC.
Maybe youre not quite good enough to
play for Alabama. But you might be
good enough to play against Alabama by
signing with lesser SEC football schools
like Kentucky and Vanderbilt.
All of these pluses dont account for
eight national championships in 10
years, though. The conference had
plenty going for it in the 1980s, yet
didnt win a national championship
from 1981 through 1991.
Why is the SEC so dominant now, as
opposed to then?
Before answering, ask yourself: Why
MATT KARTOZIAN / USA TODAY SPORTS
Nick Saban has won five national titles: One at LSU (2003) and four at Alabama (2009, 11, 12 and 15).
did Alabama win six national championships from 1961 through 1979?
Both questions have the same answer: Coaching.
Alabama roared through the 60s and
70s with Bear Bryant leading the
charge. The Tides recent revival,
which accounts for half of the conferences last eight national titles, is a Nick
Saban production.
But a couple of Florida coaches,
Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, also
played a role in the SECs rise to power.
The Gators had never won so much
as an SEC championship in football
when they hired their former Heisman
Trophy quarterback before the 1990
season. In a league long identified with
running the ball and defense, Spurrier
showed that you also could win with
passing. And while the conference competition was struggling to keep up, he
led the Gators to four consecutive SEC
titles and a national championship from
1993 through 1996.

Two years after Floridas first national title, Tennessee went 13-0 to give the
conference a second national championship in three seasons. However, what
the SEC accomplished in the late 1990s
was a warm-up for the decade to come.
And it started with Saban at LSU,
not Alabama.
In considering the move from Michigan State to LSU, Saban did his homework, which revealed that Louisiana put
more players in the NFL per capita than
any other state.
The other side of the hire was significant, too. Then-LSU chancellor Mark
Emmert, now the NCAA president, cut
through all the Louisiana politics that
had sabotaged other LSU coaching
searches and made the hire himself
after the 1999 season.
Four years later, LSU won its first
national championship in 45 years. Although Saban left LSU for the NFL after
the 2004 season, the Tigers continued to

prosper under his successor, Les Miles,
who won a national title in 2007.
Miles hasnt succeeded at Sabans
level but has followed Sabans lead and
continued to recruit spectacularly by
convincing so many in-state prospects
to stay close to home and further bolstering the roster with national
recruits.
Saban has long been regarded as a
defensive guru. But recruiting, more
than anything else, has set him apart.
What Spurrier did for passing in the
conference, Saban did for recruiting.
Like Saban, Meyer proved to be a
relentless recruiter.
If you want to beat out the SEC for
national championships, you have to
win recruiting battles. But recent history tells us any championship run will
have to go through the SEC.
Reach News Sentinel columnist John
Adams at john.adams@knoxnews.com.
A brief history of SEC football

NOV. 9, 1940
DEC. 8-9, 1932
With a two-day meeting in

Knoxville, the SEC quietly
formed long before college
football owned a distinct
place in sports fans consciousness. The original SEC
was an off-shoot of the
Southern Conference. SEC
charter members were
Alabama, Auburn, Florida,
Georgia, Georgia Tech,
Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss,
Mississippi State, University of
the South (Sewanee),
Tennessee, Tulane and
Vanderbilt.
SEWANEE
Sewanee
beat
Vanderbilt
16-0 on
Thanksgiving
Day in 1924.
Both schools
left the
Southern
Conference
in 1932 to
help form the
SEC.
JAN. 1, 1935
Alabama beat
Stanford 29-13
in the Rose
Bowl on New
Years Day to
finish 10-0
and win the
SECs first share
of a national
championship.
However, Alabama and
Minnesota split the title
between numerous polls, and
the NCAA currently recognizes Minnesota as the 1934
champion. In the first decade
of the SEC, Alabama, Georgia,
LSU and Tennessee won
national titles according to at
least one poll, but the NCAA
does not recognize an SEC
national champion until
Tennessees 1951 title.
Sewanee lost 20-0 to Vanderbilt in its final SEC game, and

its only conference contest
that season. Sewanee was an
elite football program in the
early days of the sport. Its
1899 squad went 12-0 and
accomplished the unthinkable feat of earning five
shutout wins in six days over
Texas, Texas A&M, Tulane,
LSU and Ole Miss. But by the
1920s, Sewanee, a small but
well-respected liberal arts
school in Tennessee, had
fallen behind in football as
large state universities utilized athletic scholarships.
Sewanee was a charter member of the SEC, but it lasted
only eight years with an 0-37
record in SEC games. It now
resides in Division III, known
more for its beautiful campus
scenery and Rhodes Scholars
than football.
SUMMER 1965
Frustrated by their players fatigue in the heat,

Florida coaches asked university physicians to
help. A team of four researchers created a
beverage stocked full of carbohydrates and
electrolytes, and they dubbed it Gatorade.
Florida lost in the Sugar Bowl that year and
then won the Orange Bowl for the first time in
its history in 1966. The Kansas City Chiefs then
used Gatorade in the 1969 NFL season, which
ended with their win in Super Bowl IV. Today,
the bigger the win, the more Gatorade is
poured on a coach.
AP
Tennessee
standout
Hank
Lauricella led
the Vols to
the 1951
national
title, the first
in the SEC
officially
recognized
by the
NCAA.
NOV. 28, 1942
AP
Before he
starred for
the Green
Bay Packers,
Don Hutson
led Alabama
to a 10-0
record in
1934.
Almost 63 years before the SEC Network debuted, Tennessee beat Alabama 27-13 in Birmingham on CBS in the SECs first televised
event of any kind. TV wasnt new to college
football. The first televised college football
game was in 1939 between Waynesburg College and Fordham, but it was only available to
about 500 homes. By the 1950s, the NCAA
feared TV games would hurt attendance, but
it lost that battle to networks, which aired
more games as the sport grew in popularity.
The UT-Alabama game was a good choice, as
the Vols were awarded the national title at
seasons end. This year, every SEC spring game
was aired live on national TV.
STEVE MITCHELL / USA TODAY SPORTS
Gatorade baths have become a staple at

championship games.
JAN. 1, 1962
Georgia halfback
Frank Sinkwich
became the SECs
first Heisman
Trophy winner
after excelling as a
runner and passer for
the Bulldogs. Sinkwich
received 1,059 total voting
points ahead of runner-up
and Columbia quarterback
Paul Governalis 218 points,
making for one of the most
lopsided victories in Heisman
history. Even more impressive
was that Sinkwich won AP
Athlete of the Year, beating
out Ted Williams in his first
Triple Crown season.
AP
Georgia halfback
Frank Sinkwich
OCT. 20, 1951
Paul Bear Bryant claimed

his first national championship with Alabamas 10-3
win over Arkansas in the
Sugar Bowl. Bryant had already been a successful coach,
guiding Kentucky and Texas
A&M to top-10 finishes in the
1950s. But the 1961 season, his
fourth year at Alabama, started
Bryants rise to the highest standard for college football coaches
and a mythical figure today. He
finished his career with a 323-8517 record in 38 seasons, along
with at least a share of six national championships. Bryants
1961 undefeated squad allowed
only 25 points (three TDs, two
FGs, one PAT) in 11 games and is
still regarded as one of the best
defenses in NCAA history.
1964-66
JOE HOLLOWAY JR. / AP
Alabama's Paul Bear

Bryant won at least a
share of six national
titles.
Charter members Georgia Tech

and Tulane left the SEC in 1964
and 1966, respectively, as both
schools argued that the conferences focus on football was
overshadowing academics.
Tulane cut its athletic scholarships a few years before
giving up on competing in the
SEC. And Georgia Tech, fueled by
a feud between coach Bobby
Dodd and Bear Bryant, left
abruptly when the SEC failed to
change its rule that allowed
football teams to sign as many as
45 players per year and then cut
many of them before the season.
Dodd saw it as a competitive
disadvantage because he refused
to cut players while SEC powers
like Alabama oversigned and
then dismissed players, keeping
them away from opponents.
THE TENNESSEAN
Winning, money and the

SEC rule the college game
Joe
Rexrode
USA TODAY NETWORK

TENNESSEE
Guys who devise football defensive

strategy for a living make more than
people who run entire universities, and
many of those universities have aging
academic buildings and student unions
sitting in the shadows of football facilities with brand-new, gold-plated, stateof-the-art everything.
The money is out of control, especially for coaches, and the tradeoff is in
their job security. There isnt much of it.
The pressure is enormous to win, a lot
and right now, and those who dont often
sacrifice top assistants to buy more time.
Compliance and academic support
staffs have hatched and multiplied one
assistant athletic director might have
handled both duties as recently as the
1990s, now were talking dozens of fulltimers even though degree pursuit is
an afterthought for too many and cheating is rampant.
Players risk permanent physical
damage to run onto those fields with
thousands cheering and millions more
watching on television, dreaming of
potential riches even though a fraction
of them will ever earn an NFL paycheck.
They do have free college educations,
though, and endless gear and opulent
workout facilities and a lot of powerful
people motivated to get them out of trouble if they get into any.
If this were a human being, it would
be a hard-drinking, donut-binging narcissist who only watches the Kardashians.
There is no life balance here. This is
big-time college football.
Note that I did not say: This is SEC
football. There are folks in other regions of the country who would like to
think that the ills of this sport are confined to the SEC, but thats simply not
true you can find all the same things in
Columbus, Ohio, Eugene, Ore., Norman,
Okla., and so on.
Its just that the SEC does it best and
is the most honest about it. And theres
something refreshing about that.
This is a business, its about winning
and the average fan of a particular college football team cares about the results on the field, not the teams gradepoint average. The days of healthy competition within the confines of an academic setting died around the time color
TV was born.
If you aint cheating, you aint trying, one of my good friends, an Alabama alumus and rabid Bama football
AP
The SEC football programs generate millions of dollars for its member institutions through its ticket sales, memorabilia sales and broadcast fees.
fan, likes to say whenever an NCAA investigation pops up.

Anyone with a shred of common sense
can look at this system and confidently
conclude that theres a market separate
from the awarding of scholarships, room
and board. A fascinating look at this was
provided in a 2014 SB Nation piece called
Meet the Bag Man, an interview with an
unnamed booster for an unnamed SEC
school who said of paying players regularly: I don't view what I do as a crime, and I
don't give a (crap) if someone else does,
honestly.
Another one came in Yahoo! Sports
2011 expose on Miami (Fla.) booster Nevin
Shapiro, whose musings from prison on
his illicit payments to Hurricanes players
included the admission that he couldnt
compete with the depth of the SECs under-the-table money.
MARCH 3, 1976
COURIER-JOURNAL FILE
Kentuckys Nate Northington broke the SEC

football color barrier in 1967.
SEPT. 30, 1967
Kentucky safety Nate Northington broke the

SEC football color barrier, becoming the first
black player to play in an SEC varsity game. He
logged about three minutes of playing time in
a 26-13 loss to Ole Miss. It was supposed to be
a shared feat, as Northington came to Kentucky a year earlier with roommate and fellow
black player Greg Page. But Page, a defensive
end, suffered a paralyzing neck injury in preseason practice and died the day before the
Ole Miss game. The Kentucky team attended
Pages funeral after the game and then returned to practice later that night.
SEPT. 14, 1968
Tennessee introduced the SEC

to artificial turf in its 17-17 tie
with Georgia at Neyland
Stadium. A week later, an
over-the-top Sports Illustrated
story titled A Rouser on a
Rug exclaimed, God blew it
when he gave us grass. The
story further marketed UTs
turf as a brilliant cost-cutting
measure because a school
can save $10,000 a year in
cleaning bills alone because
there was no dirt on the
players uniforms at games
end. Only five of 14 SEC teams
currently have artificial surfaces Arkansas, Kentucky,
Missouri, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. Last season, Tennessee drew criticism for the
poor condition of its surface
grass.
In an era when conference

tie-ins to bowls were being
disputed, the SEC officially
inked a contract with the
Sugar Bowl. SEC teams had
been regular participants in
past Sugar Bowls, but their
new contractual relationship
created a strong one-two
punch of influence. TV ratings
for the game grew over time,
and the Sugar Bowl successfully petitioned the NCAA to
move the game back to New
Years Day. Pittsburgh beat
Georgia on New Years Day in
the 1977 Sugar Bowl to secure
the national title, and then
coach Johnny Majors returned to his alma mater
Tennessee.
But does anyone actually believe this

is confined to the SEC? I sure hope not.
The soaring salaries, ridiculous facilities
and win-or-else outlook are everywhere,
too. The SEC simply leads the industry.
There are schools that appear to do
things more the right way than others.
Vanderbilt, Northwestern and Stanford
come to mind. But all have made winning football a larger priority in recent
years.
And when it comes to winning football, no one can touch the SEC. The game
itself is why so many care and gather,
and if the game were a human it would
be a vegetable-eating do-gooder who
prefers reading to TV. Its in great shape,
the SEC version of it in the best shape of
all.
Reach Tennessean columnist Joe
Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com.
SEPT. 5, 1992
Although Arkansas and South Carolina

officially became the 11th and 12th SEC
members in 1991, they didnt join in football until the following year. On opening
day in 1992, Arkansas lost to The Citadel
and South Carolina fell to Georgia. The two
new members were chosen over Florida
State, Miami, Texas and Texas A&M.
AP
CURTIS COMPTON / AP
Alabama cornerback Antonio Langham

intercepts a pass for a touchdown in the
1992 SEC Championship game.
The SEC Championship Game, the first of its
kind in major college football, didnt seem
like a good idea in Year 1. Under the old
system, unbeaten No. 2 Alabama would
have headed straight to the Sugar Bowl to
play No. 1 Miami for the national championship. But with the introduction of the
new conference title game, the Crimson
Tide had to survive an upset scare from No.
12 Florida to secure a national title shot.
JAN. 1, 1990
It didnt seem like a landmark

event at the time, but Steve
Spurriers hiring at Florida led
the SEC into a new era. Spurrier, a former Heisman Trophy
quarterback for the Gators,
inherited a program buried
beneath NCAA penalties and
a half-century without a
full-fledged SEC title. Spurrier
not only made the Gators
really good with six SEC titles
and one national championship in a decade, but he
also spiced up the league on
and off the field. Spurriers
brash nature ruffled feathers
of opposing coaches. And his
pass-happy Fun n Gun
offense modernized the SEC,
which had been a powerrunning conference since its
inception.
winning and the average fan

of a particular college
football team cares about the
results on the field, not the
teams grade-point average.
The days of healthy
competition within the
confines of an academic
setting died around the time
color TV was born.
JAN. 3, 2007
If not for his return to the

SEC, Nick Saban may have
been remembered as a good,
national-title winning LSU
coach and a middle-of-theroad NFL coach, but certainly
not alongside Bear Bryant.
Saban was hired by Alabama
in 2007, after two seasons
with the Miami Dolphins. He
now has five national championships, six SEC crowns and
nine divisional titles.
AP
Nick Saban
JULY 1, 2012
DEC. 5, 1992
Johnny Majors
This is a business, its about
JAN. 4, 1999
Steve
Spurrier
DAVE MARTIN / USA TODAY SPORTS
Tennessee beat Florida State

23-16 in the first Bowl Championship Series national title
game. It kicked off one of the
SECs most successful eras. In
16 BCS championship games,
SEC teams won nine times,
including seven straight.
Surprisingly, non-SEC teams
Oklahoma and Florida State
made the most BCS title
game appearances with four
each, but they posted a 1-3
record versus SEC schools in
those games. The SECs depth
was especially on display
during the BCS era, as Alabama (3), LSU (2), Florida (2),
Auburn (1) and Tennessee (1)
each won titles.
Missouri and Texas A&M

joined the SEC amid widespread expansion in other
conferences, becoming the
13th and 14th members. Texas
A&Ms move to the SEC
served as a counterstrike to
rival Texas creation of the
Longhorn Network. Missouri
was simply the best option
after Florida State and Virginia Tech were blocked by
hefty ACC exit fees, and West
Virginia seemed like an awkward fit. The expansion
stretched the southeastern
conference slightly outside
the region, pushing the
league into 11 states.
AUG. 14, 2014
DAVE MARTIN / AP
SEC Commissioner Mike

Slive poses with helmets
of Missouri and Texas
A&M, when the schools
joined the league in 2012.
The SEC Network launched on a Thursday evening, and it

quickly surpassed the reach and revenue of other conference
TV networks. In its first fiscal year in which the SEC received
money from the formation of the SEC Network and the College
Football Playoff, the conference raked in $527.4 million in total
revenue, an increase of more than 60 percent from the previous year. Also in that
inaugural SEC Network
year, the SEC reported
$311.8 million in TV and
radio rights fees, an
increase of more than
$100 million over the
previous year. In short,
the SEC Network has
been lucrative for the
league and its members,
and profits continue to
soar. ESPN owns the SEC
SEC
Network rights through
Former Florida quarterback Tim
2034.
Tebow now serves as an analyst for
the SEC Network.
ADAM SPARKS
THE TENNESSEAN
Greatest Moments
Kick
Six
Though its one of
the SECs most recent
great plays, Auburns
stunning return by
Chris Davis in 2013
from the back of the
end zone with no
time remaining off a
missed Alabama
field goal is one of
the greatest of all
time. Television analyst Gary Danielson
compared the play,
which resulted in a
34-28 win for the
Tigers, to the U.S.
hockey teams victory over the Soviet
Union in the 1980
Olympics. Davis described the play as
life-changing and
said it was a result of
excellent blocking.
JOHN REED / USA TODAY SPORTS
Billy Cannon
Langhams return
LSU was No. 1 and Ole Miss No. 3. Both

were undefeated heading into the 1959
Halloween night game, which turned into
a defensive battle. Each team punted nine
times. Cannon told teammates if he could
get his hands on the last punt he was
taking it back for a TD. And sure enough,
the ball bounced chest-high, Cannon
grabbed it, broke six tackles and headed
for an 89-yard touchdown, giving LSU a 7-3
win. The run helped lock up the Heisman
Trophy for Cannon.
The SEC Championship Game has been

played 24 times, but the biggest play came
in 1992, its first year. With the score tied
21-21 and less than four minutes to play at
Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabamas
Antonio Langham picked off a pass and
returned it 27 yards for the game-winning
TD. Its been called the game and the play
that changed college football because it
showed that conference championship
games were here to stay. Alabama went on
to win the national championship.
Run, Lindsay
AP
Under coach Paul Bear Bryant, left, Alabama relied on a goal-line stand to beat Joe Paternos
Penn State team in the Sugar Bowl and won the 1978 national championship.
AP
Bluegrass Miracle
Kentucky fans had already gathered on the
sidelines eager to start celebrating the
Wildcats win over LSU at Commonwealth
Stadium on Nov. 9, 2002 when Tigers quarterback Marcus Randle heaved a Hail Mary
pass that was deflected by a Kentucky
defender. Instead of the ball falling harmlessly to the turf, LSU receiver Devery Henderson caught it near the 15-yard line and
raced into the end zone, giving the Tigers a
33-30 victory.
Alabama goal-line stand

Before high-scoring spread offenses were the norm and the BCS or
College Football Playoff decided the national champion, defense
was a big part of the game. And it was a monster stand by Alabama
that helped the Crimson Tide win the 1978 national championship.
No. 2 Alabama faced No. 1 Penn State in the Sugar Bowl. Joe Paterno had a shot at his first national title late in the game after Alabama quarterback Jeff Rutledges pitch to Major Ogilvie was fumbled and recovered by Penn State deep in Crimson Tide territory.
Penn State moved the ball to the 1, and on third-and-goal, Matt Suhey tried to dive into the end zone but was met in the air by Alabama linebacker Rich Wingo. On fourth down, Alabama linebacker
Barry Krauss stopped running back Mike Guman short of the goal
line, and the Crimson Tide claimed the national title 14-7.
The highlight of Georgias 1980

national championship season was
Buck Belues 92-yard TD pass to
Lindsay Scott on Nov. 8 against
Florida. With about a minute left to
play and Florida leading 21-20, Scott
took a short toss from Belue, broke
a tackle and sprinted to the end
zone. Legendary Georgia radio
broadcaster Larry Munson shouted
over the airwaves, Run, Lindsay .....
Lindsay Scott, Lindsay Scott, Lindsay
Scott!
Stumbled and fumbled

Tennessees run to the national championship in 1998 came so close to being
derailed. The biggest play of the Vols
season came with Arkansas up 24-22 with
1:43 to play. UTs Billy Ratliff got the jump
on Brandon Burlsworth, who stepped back
and bumped into quarterback Clint Stoerner, who fumbled. Ratliff fell on the ball on
UTs 43. Travis Henry scored in the final
seconds of the Vols 28-24 win.
Punt, Bama, punt

Heisman
kick
Florida was undefeated on
Oct. 29, 1966, when Auburn
visited for homecoming.
The Tigers tied the score
27-27 on a late TD run by
Larry Blakeney. Florida
quarterback Steve Spurrier
had driven the Gators 71
yards to take a 27-20 lead.
Now he needed to take the
offense back down the field
for the win. Spurrier got the
Gators in field goal range
and, according to coach Ray
Graves, called his own number to kick the game-winning 40-yarder. Spurrier and
Purdue quarterback Bob
Griese were battling for the
Heisman Trophy and many
believe this play won it for
Spurrier.
David Langner returned two blocked punts for TDs in the final 5:30 to
lift Auburn to a stunning 17-16 win over heavily favored Alabama in the
1972 Iron Bowl. Bill Newton, a walk-on linebacker, blocked both punts.
Langner returned the first punt 25 yards and the second 20. Langner
wasnt finished. After Alabama got the ball back with time winding
down, he intercepted a pass. When he got to the sideline he was surprised to find Auburn coach Ralph Shug Jordan upset. Jordan apparently wanted to force Alabama to punt again.
Earthquake
Game
It wasnt so much what
happened during LSUs
come-from-behind 7-6
win over Auburn on
Oct. 8, 1988, but what
happened right after.
As soon as Eddie Fuller
caught an 11-yard,
fourth-down pass from
Tommy Hodson in the
end zone with 1:41 left,
the crowd of 79,431 at
Tiger Stadium erupted
in a roar that was measured by a seismograph
at LSUs Howe-Russell
Geoscience Complex.
FLORIDA ATHLETICS
The Promise
LSU ATHLETICS
LSU's Eddie Fuller caught a touchdown pass from Tommy

Hodson for the game winner against Auburn in 1988, and the
roar from the crowd reportedly registered on a seismograph.
Tim Tebow was responsible for many great

plays as Floridas quarterback. But perhaps
his most memorable moment came in the
news conference after the Gators 31-30
loss to Ole Miss in 2008. A teary-eyed
Tebow accepted blame that Florida would
not go undefeated and vowed the loss
would inspire him to work even harder. I
promise you one thing, a lot of good will
come out of this. You will never see any
player in the entire country play as hard as
I will play the rest of the season. You will
never see someone push the rest of the
team as hard as I will push. Florida won its
final 10 games to claim the national title.
MIKE ORGAN
THE TENNESSEAN
Darkest Moments
Chucky
Mullins
Butts-Bryant scandal
On March 23, 1963, The Saturday Evening
Post printed The Story of A College Football Fix, which claimed Georgia athletic
director Wally Butts and Alabama coach
Bear Bryant conspired to fix the 1962 game
between their teams. The article claimed
an insurance salesman named George
Burnett was accidentally connected to a
call involving Butts and Bryant. Burnett said
he heard Butts give Bryant Georgias offensive plays and defensive strategy. Alabama
won 35-0 as Georgia struggled through a
3-4-3 season. Butts and Bryant agreed that
the phone call was made but denied that
they talked about game details. Butts, who
lost his job over the article, sued the Post
for libel, was awarded $3.06 million by a
jury and collected $460,000. Bryant settled
with the Post for $300,000.
Ole Miss Chucky Mullins was paralyzed from the neck down on Oct.
28, 1989, while making a hit from
behind on Vanderbilts Brad
Gaines. Four vertebrae in Mullins
spine were shattered. Mullins never
walked again and even though he
returned to school eventually, he
died less than two years later because of a blood clot in his lungs.
AP
Alabama football coach Paul Bear

Bryant, right, walks from his hotel to the
nearby federal building in Atlanta, where
he was a witness at the Wally Butts $10
million libel suit against the Saturday
Evening Post on Aug. 8, 1963.
FILE
AP
Clemson running back Yusef Kelly, right, kicks an unidentified South Carolina player in the
head during a fourth-quarter brawl on Nov. 20, 2004, in Clemson, S.C.
South Carolina and

Clemson brawl
South Carolina coach Lou Holtz announced during the week of the
Gamecocks 2004 game with rival Clemson that he was retiring after the season. So the Gamecocks were already more emotional, but
they didnt play well. Clemson was in control 29-7 with about six
minutes left. Gamecocks quarterback Syvelle Newton had just
thrown a fourth-down incompletion and was brought down by
Clemsons Bobby Williamson. Shoving began, prompting fighting
among players that lasted 10 minutes, covered a 60-yard area and
needed police involvement before it was over. Officials at both
schools decided their teams would not play in bowl games that year,
and six players from each team were suspended for one game.
South Carolina would have ended a three-year bowl drought.
Bobby
Petrino
Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino and a woman riding with
him on a motorcycle were
involved in an accident on
April 1, 2012. Petrino suffered
broken ribs and the woman
wasnt injured, but the accident exposed an affair that
had been going on for
months. Petrino, 51, was
fired because he didnt disclose the relationship with
Jessica Dorrell, 25, before
hiring her as an assistant in
the football office after the
affair had begun. Petrino
also had given Dorrell
$20,000.
Mississippi defensive back Roy Lee

Chucky Mullins hits Vanderbilt tight end
Brad Gaines during their game on Oct. 28,
1989, in Oxford, Miss. The hit not only
paralyzed Mullins, but it also took his life.
Race relations
While colleges in most parts of the country
were integrating their football teams in
the first part of the 20th century, the South
was the last holdout. Of the SEC members
at the time, Kentucky was the first league
team to have a black player participate in a
varsity football game in 1967. LSU and Ole
Miss were the last two in 1972.
Albert Means
Lynn Lang, who was coach at Trezevant High in Memphis, took
$150,000 from Alabama booster
Logan Young to get defensive end
Albert Means to sign with Alabama
in 2000. Alabama lost scholarships
and was banned from bowls in 2002
and 2003. In 2005, Lang and Trezevant assistant Milton Kirk were fined
and sentenced to community service.
Young was sentenced to six months
in prison. But he remained free on
appeal after his lawyers said he
needed a kidney transplant. He died
in 2006. Means played one season at
Alabama and then transferred to
Memphis.
Mike Price
Brandon Vandenburg, left, and Cory Batey during their trial in 2015.
Jackie Sherrill
Vanderbilt rape case
In 1992, Mississippi State coach Jackie

Sherrill had a bull castrated in front of his
team on a practice field before the Bulldogs game against Texas. He said he did it
partly for motivation and partly for education. I asked our players what a steer
was, and none of them knew,
Sherrill said. People say (the
Texas mascot) is a Longhorn
steer. Is that a bull, or is he a
steer? The Bulldogs won the
game 28-10, and Sherrill
later apologized.
On June 23, 2013, an unconscious female Vanderbilt student was raped in the
dorm room of football player Brandon Vandenburg. Four football players
who had not yet played for the Commodores were charged with aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery and were kicked off the team
Vandenburg, Cory Batey, Brandon E. Banks and Jaborian Tip McKenzie.
Vandenburg and Batey went to trial together and were convicted in 2015
of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery. But a mistrial was
declared after it was revealed a juror did not disclose in jury selection he
had been the victim in a statutory rape case. Vandenburg and Batey
were retried separately in 2016. Both were found guilty of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery. Banks and McKenzie have
pleaded not guilty, and their cases are pending.
Jackie
Sherrill
Mike Price never lost a game as Alabamas

coach, but he never won one either because his tenure lasted four months and he
never made it on the field. In April 2003,
Alabama officials investigated reports from
witnesses that Price visited a Pensacola,
Fla., strip club the night before a pro-am
golf tournament and that a woman also
ordered $1,000 of room service and
charged it to his hotel bill. Price, who was
fired in May, never signed his seven-year,
$10 million contract.
Auburns trees
On Jan. 27, 2011, a person who
described himself as Al from
Dadeville called Paul Finebaums
radio show and said: The weekend
after the Iron Bowl, I went to Auburn, Ala., because I lived 30 miles
away, and I poisoned the two Toomers trees. I put Spike 80DF in em.
Harvey Updyke later pleaded guilty
to a felony charge of damaging
animal or crop facilities. He was
ordered to pay more than $800,000.
The oak trees were removed in 2013,
and two new ones were planted in
early 2015, but one has had to be
replaced. This fall Auburn expects to
resume the tradition of fans rolling
the trees at Toomers Corner with
toilet paper after wins.
AP
Charley Pell
Pell was Floridas coach from 1979-84, going
0-10-1 his first season but making four consecutive bowls after that. But while Pell was in
Gainesville, the Gators faced 107 allegations of
rules violations. Among the issues uncovered
by the NCAA were spying on opponents practices, paying players and giving athletes loans.
Pell was fired during the 1984 season when
Florida won and later had to vacate its first SEC
title. Florida was banned from TV and bowl
games for two years. Pell later told NBCs
Dateline: Did I violate some rules? Yes. Does
that make me a cheater? If it does, yes I am.
Charley Pell
was fired as the
Florida Gators
football coach
in 1984.
KEVIN PROCTER
AP
THE TENNESSEAN
1. TIM TEBOW
16. SONNY COLLINS
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Running back. Kentucky. 1972-75. Schools all-time leading

rusher (3,835 yards). 1973 SEC Player of the Year. Three-time
All-SEC first team.
Defensive lineman. Auburn. 1985-88. First SEC player to win

Lombardi Award and Outland Trophy in same season (1988).
All-American and SEC Player of the Year in 1988.
9. JOHN HENDERSON
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Defensive lineman. Tennessee. 1998-2001. Two-time AllAmerican and 2000 Outland Trophy winner. AP SEC Defensive Player of the Year. No. 9 overall draft pick in 2002.
ROUND 3
AUG. 1
5. CAM NEWTON
Quarterback. Auburn/Florida. 2007-08, 10. Only player in

modern era to win Heisman, national title and be No. 1 draft
pick in one year. 4,327 yards total offense, 51 TDs in 2010.
12. ART STILL
Defensive lineman. Kentucky. 1974-77. All-American and No.

2 draft pick in 1978. Anchored stout defense from 1976-77
that held foes to 13 points or less in 16 of 23 games.
ROUND 1
JULY 24
ROUND 2
JULY 28
4. CORNELIUS BENNETT
Linebacker. Alabama. 1983-86. Three-time All-American.

1986 SEC Player of the Year & Lombardi Award winner. No. 2
draft pick in 1987.
13. CARNELL WILLIAMS
Running back. Auburn. 2001-04. Auburn record-holder in

rushing TDs (45) and ranks second in rushing yards (3,831)
behind Bo Jackson.
ROUND 1
JULY 24
ROUND 4
AUG. 4
3. TOMMY CASANOVA
Defensive back. LSU. 1969-71. Only three-time All-American

in LSU history. Walter Camp All-Century team. Also played
running back and was game-breaking returner.
14. DEUCE MCALLISTER
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Running back. Ole Miss. 1997-2000. Only player in Ole Miss

history with three seasons of at least 1,000 all-purpose yards.
Schools all-time leading rusher with 3,181 yards.
11. KEVIN FAULK
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Running back. LSU. 1995-98. SECs third all-time rusher (4,557

yards). Holds several LSU career records, including rushing,
all-purpose yards and TDs.
Quarterback. Georgia. 1991-94. No. 5 in career passing yards

(11,153) in SEC history. 1994 All-American. Two-time All-SEC
selection.
10. BERT JONES
15. SHANE RAY
ROUND 3
AUG. 1
ROUND 1
JULY 24
ROUND 2
JULY 28
ROUND 1
JULY 24
ROUND 4
AUG. 4
ROUND 1
JULY 24
ROUND 2
JULY 28
SEMIFINALS
AUG. 8
ROUND 1
JULY 24
14. TERRY BEASLEY
FINALS
AUG. 11
2. ARCHIE MANNING
Linebacker. Mississippi State. 1977-81. Had 392 career

tackles. Highest-drafted player in Bulldogs history at
No. 2 in 1982.
Quarterback. Florida. 1964-66. Heisman Trophy winner in

1966. All-American in 1966 and 1967. 4,848 career passing
yards, 37 TDs. No. 3 pick in 1967 draft.
16. JADEVEON CLOWNEY
Defensive end. South Carolina. 2011-13. All-American in

2013. Sixth in 2012 Heisman Trophy voting. No. 1 pick in 2014
draft.
ROUND 2
JULY 28
ROUND 3
AUG. 1
8. DERRICK HENRY
ROUND 3
AUG. 1
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Running back. Alabama. 2013-15. Heisman Trophy winner in

2015 when he SEC records for single-season rushing yards
(2,219), carries (395) and TDs (28).
9. JOHNNY MANZIEL
ROUND 1
JULY 24
ROUND 4
AUG. 4
ROUND 1
JULY 24
HERO
5. WILBER MARSHALL
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Vote for your
ROUND 2
JULY 28
ROUND 2
JULY 28
ROUND 4
AUG. 4
ROUND 1
JULY 24
ROUND 2
JULY 28
ROUND 1
JULY 24
6 charter members with a national title in last 50 years: 7 players each (42 players total)
4 charter members without a national title in last 50 years: 4 players each (16 players total)
2 members entering in 1991 (Arkansas, South Carolina): 2 players each (4 players total)
2 members entering in 2012 (Missouri, Texas A&M): 1 player each (2 players total)
TOTAL: 64 PLAYERS
Defensive tackle. Tennessee. 1981-83. All-American and SEC

Player of the Year in 1983. Has school records for sacks in a
season (15) and career (32).
14. JAY CUTLER
Tight end/split end. Alabama. 1974-77. All-American in 1977.

102 career catches, 2,070 yards, 16 TDs. Alabamas Player of
the Decade for the 1970s.
11. PATRICK WILLIS
Linebacker. Ole Miss. 2003-06. All-American, Butkus Award

winner in 2006. 355 career tackles, 33 tackles for loss. No. 11
pick in 2007 draft.
ROUND 3
AUG. 1
SECs players were chosen by The Tennessean sports staff from the last 50 years (since 1966) on a sliding scale
based on conference membership and success to ensure both a premium crop of players and participation
from each school. Players were only eligible if they played while their school was an SEC member. Players
were chosen using this formula:
Quarterback. Alabama. 2010-13. Starter for two national

championship teams. 9,019 career passing yards, 77 TDs.
Runner-up in 2013 Heisman Trophy voting.
6. OZZIE NEWSOME
ROUND 1
JULY 24
7. TIM COUCH
SEC PLAYER BRACKET SELECTION PROCESS
ROUND 1
JULY 24
13. A.J. MCCARRON
Quarterback. Vanderbilt. 2002-05. Has school records for

attempts (1,242), completions (710), yards (8,697) and TDs
(59). SEC Offensive Player of the Year in 2005.
ROUND 2
JULY 28
begins today at tennessean.com/heroesofthesec
ROUND 3
AUG. 1
Defensive lineman. Florida. 1968-70. All-American and SEC

defensive player of the year in 1970. In first group of players
inducted into Floridas Ring of Honor.
3. REGGIE WHITE
the SEC in the last 50 years. First-round voting

ROUND 1
JULY 24
12. CARL PICKENS
4. JACK YOUNGBLOOD
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Help us select the top player in
ROUND 2
JULY 28
Linebacker. Florida. 1980-83. All-American in 1982, 1983.

343 career tackles, 58 for losses and 23 sacks. No. 11 pick
in 1984 draft.
Wide receiver. Tennessee. 1989-91. All-American in 1991.
Finished with 109 career catches, 1,875 yards, 13 TDs. Had
four interceptions in 1989.
Whos No. 1? Your vote counts.
2. PEYTON MANNING
15. JOHNIE COOKS
15. JOHNTHAN BANKS
Quarterback. Texas A&M. 2012-13. Heisman Trophy winner

in 2012. Finished with 7,820 passing yards, 2,169 rushing
yards in two seasons.
Offensive lineman. Vanderbilt. 1982-85. Dominant

offensive tackle in 1980s. First-round pick of the
Buffalo Bills in 1986.
Quarterback. Tennessee. 1994-97. Heisman runnerup, SEC Player of the Year in 1997. SECs No. 4 all-time
passer (11,201 yards) and No. 3 in passing TDs (89).
Quarterback. Ole Miss. 1968-70. All-American in 1969 and

1970. Fourth in Heisman Trophy voting in 1969 and third in
1970. No. 2 pick in 1971 draft.
1. STEVE SPURRIER
ROUND 1
JULY 24
7. PAT SULLIVAN
10. WILL WOLFORD
10. MARK INGRAM
Phillip Fulmer Bracket
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Wide receiver. LSU. 1999-2001. Biletnikoff Award winner and

All-American in 2001. Two-time All-SEC selection had 3,001
receiving yards in career.
Quarterback. Auburn. 1969-71. Heisman Trophy

winner in 1971. Passed for 6,284 yards and 53 TDs,
and also ran for 18 TDs.
Running back. Florida. 1987-89. SEC Player of the Year,

All-American in 1989. Has school records for rushing yards in
a game (316) and season (1,599), set in 1989.
SEMIFINALS
AUG. 8
ROUND 2
JULY 28
6. GLENN DORSEY
11. JOSH REED
11. TERRY HOAGE
Running back. Alabama. 2008-10. Heisman Trophy winner,

All-American and SEC Offensive Player of the Year in 2009.
Finished with 3,261 career rushing yards.
WINNER ANNOUNCED ON MONDAY, AUG. 15
Wide receiver. Auburn. 1969-71. Fourth in SEC history

in TD receptions (29). Two-time All-American had
2,624 receiving yards in a run-first era.
Defensive lineman. LSU. 2005-07. First player to win Nagurski, Lombardi, Lott and Outland Trophy in same season. 2007
SEC Defensive Player of the Year.
Running back. Georgia. 1990-92. All-American in 1992.

Finished with 3,232 rushing yards, 33 rushing TDs career.
Third pick in 1993 draft.
7. EMMITT SMITH
ROUND 1
JULY 24
3. DAVID POLLACK
Defensive lineman. Georgia. 2002-04. Three-time

All-American. SEC Player of the Year in 2002 and
2004. Finished with 36 career sacks.
14. CHRIS GAINES
Safety. Georgia. 1980-83. All-American in 1982 and 1983.

Has SEC record for single season with 12 interceptions in
1982. Finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting in 1983.
ROUND 1
JULY 24
4. CHAMP BAILEY
Linebacker. Tennessee. 1995-98. Team captain of 1998 national title team. Two-time All-SEC first-teamer and 1998
All-American.
Quarterback. Florida. 1993-96. Heisman Trophy winner in

1996. Davey OBrien Award winner, All-American, SEC Player
of the Year in 1995, 1996.
6. GARRISON HEARST
ROUND 2
JULY 28
Wide receiver. Kentucky. 2008-10. Broke SEC singleseason record for all-purpose yards (2,396) in 2010.
Finished career with 42 TDs.
13. AL WILSON
Wide receiver. South Carolina. 2009-11. Fourth in SEC history

with 3,042 receiving yards. 1,517 receiving yards in 2010
third-most in SEC history for single season.
Linebacker. Vanderbilt. 1984-87. Holds Vanderbilt record for

single-season tackles (214) and was All-American in 1987.
Finished with 440 career tackles.
ROUND 1
JULY 24
5. DARREN MCFADDEN
Defensive back. Georgia. 1996-98. 1998 All-American and

Bronko Nagurski Award winner. Also had 59 receptions as a
wide receiver in career.
13. ALSHON JEFFERY
3. DANNY WUERFFEL
Quarterback. Florida. 2000-02. Heisman Trophy runner-up

and SEC Player of the Year in 2001. 9,164 career passing
yards and 77 TDs.
12. RANDALL COBB
Quarterback. Mississippi State. 2011-15. One of four players

in FBS history to throw for 9,000 yards and rush for 2,500.
Third in SEC in career total offense (11,897 yards).
Defensive back. Mississippi State. 2009-12. All-American, Jim

Thorpe Award winner in 2012. Tied for third in SEC history
with 16 career interceptions.
8. HEATH SHULER
Running back. Arkansas. 2005-07. Ranked second in

SEC history in rushing yards (4,590). Two-time Heisman runner-up and two-time SEC Player of Year.
12. DAK PRESCOTT
Wide receiver. Vanderbilt. 2010-13. All-American in 2013.

SECs all-time career leader with 262 receptions and 3,759
receiving yards.
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Wide receiver. Mississippi State. 1993-95. Had 62 catches in

1995, led nation in kick return average in 1994 (32.8 yards)
and scored 17 career TDs.
9. REX GROSSMAN
Quarterback. Ole Miss. 2000-03. SEC Offensive Player of the

Year, third in Heisman Trophy voting in 2003. First overall
pick in 2004.
4. JORDAN MATTHEWS
ROUND 3
AUG. 1
1. BO JACKSON
Quarterback. Tennessee. 1991-93. Heisman Trophy runner-up

and SEC Player of the Year in 1993. 4,089 career passing
yards and 50 total TDs (rushing, passing).
9. SHAWN ANDREWS
5. ELI MANNING
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Bear Bryant Bracket
16. ERIC MOULDS
Offensive lineman. LSU. 1994-97. Was an All-American and

Jacobs Award winner in 1997 when he allowed only one
sack.
Offensive lineman. Arkansas. 2001-03. All-American, Jacobs
Award winner for most outstanding blocker in the SEC in
2002, 2003.
Defensive lineman. Missouri. 2012-14. SEC Defensive Player

of the Year. All-American. First-team All-SEC. School record
14.5 sacks in 2014.
Running back. Auburn. 1982-85. 1985 Heisman Trophy

winner. Two-time All-American. No. 4 in SEC with 4,303
career rushing yards. No. 1 overall pick in 1986 draft.
16. KEVIN BUTLER
8. ALAN FANECA
ROUND 1
JULY 24
ROUND 2
JULY 28
2. DERRICK THOMAS
Running back. Georgia. 1980-82. Heisman Trophy winner

in 1982. Three-time All-American and SEC Player of Year.
SECs all-time leading rusher (5,259 yards).
Kicker. Georgia. 1981-84. Two-time All-American. On

Walter Camp, Sports Illustrated All-Century teams. Made
60-yarder to beat No. 2 Clemson.
ROUND 2
JULY 28
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Quarterback. LSU. 1970-72. 1972 Sporting News national

player of the year. Fourth in Heisman voting. First-team
All-American. No. 2 overall draft pick in 1973.
Linebacker. Alabama. 1986-88. Set NCAA record with 27

sacks in 1988. Butkus Award winner and first-team AllAmerican. No. 4 draft pick in 1989.
ROUND 1
JULY 24
ROUND 3
AUG. 1
7. ERIC ZEIER
1. HERSCHEL WALKER
Our 64-seeded player bracket

on the conferences best
players in the last 50 years.
ROUND 2
JULY 28
6. ERIC BERRY
Defensive back. Tennessee. 2007-09. Two-time All-American.

2008 SEC Defensive Player of the Year, 2009 Jim Thorpe
Award winner. No. 5 draft pick in 2010.
SEC
Vince Dooley Bracket
of the
ROUND 2
JULY 28
8. TRACY ROCKER
HEROES
Nick Saban Bracket

Quarterback. Florida. 2006-09. Won Heisman Trophy in
2007, third in 2008. Two-time SEC Player of the Year. Twotime national champion. 145 TDs (passing/rushing).
THE TENNESSEAN
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Quarterback. Kentucky. 1996-98. Has SEC record for completions in a season (400), set in 1998. 795 career completions,
8,435 passing yards, 74 TDs. No. 1 pick in 1999 draft.
10. TYRANN MATHIEU
Cornerback/returner. LSU. 2010-11. All-American, fifth in

Heisman Trophy voting, had 76 tackles, MVP of SEC Championship Game in 2011.
ROUND 2
JULY 28
2. JOHN HANNAH
ROUND 1
JULY 24
Guard/tackle. Alabama. 1970-72. All-American in 1971,

1972. Sports Illustrated, Walter Camp All-Century teams.
No. 4 pick in 1973 draft.
15. CARLOS ROGERS
Cornerback. Auburn. 2001-04. All-American, Jim Thorpe

Award winner in 2004. Finished career with 182 tackles,
seven interceptions.
THE TENNESSEAN
The Bucket List

W H AT T O S E E I N T H E S E C E A S T
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
POPULATION: 183,270
Tennessee
Volunteers
RANDY SARTIN / USA TODAY SPORTS
ENROLLMENT: 27,845
STADIUM: Neyland Stadium
(capacity 102,455), built in 1921.
ON CAMPUS: The Rock, a large
stone located at the corner of
Volunteer Boulevard and Pat
Head Summitt Street. Various
artists routinely paint creative
messages on The Rock to the
Vols, their opponents or anything on the mind of the student body.
AROUND TOWN: Knoxvilles
Sunsphere, built for the 1982
Worlds Fair. Its the defining
image of the citys skyline and
was once referenced in an episode of The Simpsons.
FOODIE? You must eat at Stock
& Barrel, known for its delicious
burgers, located on Knoxvilles
famous Market Square.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: Right on
the Tennessee River. Thats
where the Vol Navy meets before the Volunteers play for
some tailgating with a view.
GAME TRADITIONS: Be in your
seat in time to watch the Vols
run through the T formed by
the Pride of the Southland
marching band. Fans also line
the street for the Vol Walk as
the team enters the stadium.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Orange and bring your Peyton
Manning jersey
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: The
verses to Rocky Top, the
schools unofficial fight song
not just the chorus.
BUCKET LIST GAMES TO SEE:
Tennessee vs. Florida; Tennessee
vs. Alabama.
QUOTABLE: Neyland Stadium
to me was my favorite stadium
to play in in the SEC. It reminded me of The Coliseum in Rome.
Its very vertical. Everybody just
felt like they were on top of
you. It was incredibly loud. Incredibly hard to communicate.
Its a beautiful building. Its
right by the water.
former Florida quarterback
Jesse Palmer
Former Tennessee quarterback
Peyton Manning leads the school
band in the playing of Rocky Top.
Neyland Stadiums capacity of 102,455 is the largest in the SEC.
ATHENS, Ga.
POPULATION: 119,980
The popular 40 Watt

Club in Athens, Ga.
Georgia Bulldogs
ENROLLMENT: 36,130
STADIUM: Sanford Stadium (capacity 92,746), built in 1929.
ON CAMPUS: Herty Field. Now a picturesque plaza with a large fountain, it is the site of
Georgias first game in 1892.
AROUND TOWN: The 40 Watt Club, which gave Athens its reputation as the site of
new wave and alternative musics early days. R.E.M., The B52s and Widespead Panic
got their start there.
FOODIE? No self-respecting Bulldogs fan skips a trip to The Varsity, a nostalgic spot
for chili dogs, onion rings and ice cream.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: Myers Quad is where ESPNs College Gameday camps out.
The North Campus area is big and scenic.
GAME TRADITIONS: Uga, an English bulldog, is as well-known as any mascot in college football, and his genealogy is as sacred as the Southern roots of the university.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Red and black. But Georgia fans often dress well, with ladies
in dresses and guys in polo shirts, khakis and even suspenders.
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: The famous hedges surround the game field. Other schools
have tried to copy it, but Georgia is the original.
BUCKET LIST GAMES TO SEE: Georgia vs. Auburn; Georgia vs. Florida (in Jacksonville).
QUOTABLE: Children laughed and grown men cried. How bout them dogs! famous writer
and Georgia alumnus Lewis Grizzard, following the Bulldogs win in the 1981 Sugar Bowl for a
national title.
COLUMBIA, Mo.
POPULATION: 115,276
Missouri Tigers
AP
AP
ENROLLMENT: 35,050
STADIUM: Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field (capacity
71,004), built in 1926.
ON CAMPUS: Ionic columns, the universitys symbols
and the only six pieces remaining of Academic Hall,
the first building erected on campus.
AROUND TOWN: MKT Trail or Rock Bridge Memorial
State Park for outdoors lovers.
FOODIE? Shakespeares offers one of the best pizza
and beer combinations in the SEC.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: Fans are spread out quite a bit,
DENNY MEDLEY/USA TODAY SPORTS
Missouris Big mo drum
LOGAN BOWLES / USA TODAY SPORTS
Georgia Bulldogs mascot Uga
but the most dedicated tailgaters congregate in Lot X

along Stadium Boulevard.
GAME TRADITIONS: Tiger Walk before the game.
And the band plays the Missouri Waltz between the
third and fourth quarters, as fans stand and go into an
arm-waving clap-along with the song.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Black and gold, the colors
of mascot Truman the Tiger.
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: Missouris sideline always
includes the Big MO brass drum and the ROTC cannon,
which fires after every Tigers score.
BUCKET LIST GAME TO SEE: Missouri vs. Arkansas
QUOTABLE: This was a win for all the fans that have
been waiting for this for 20-something years. And its
for all the players that played before us. Missouri
linebacker James Kinney after upsetting Nebraska in
2003 to snap a 24-game losing streak in the series.
THE TENNESSEAN
COLUMBIA, S.C.
POPULATION: 133,358
South Carolina Gamecocks

ENROLLMENT: 32,027
STADIUM: Williams-Brice Stadium (capacity 80,250), built in 1934.
ON CAMPUS: The Horseshoe is the historic section of the original campus, which dates back
more than 200 years. Some of the states oldest buildings are located along this U-shaped path.
AROUND TOWN: The State House. Construction dates back to the 1850s. There is a monument
at the site of the old State House, which was burned by William Shermans Union troops in 1865.
FOODIE? Get the best fried chicken in town at Bernies Restaurant.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: Cockaboose Railroad is a line of 30-by-9-foot immovable railroad cars
with a rooftop deck. But they are about $250,000 apiece. For the rest, the old Farmers Market,
now called Gamecock Park, is a favorite pregame spot.
GAME TRADITIONS: For more than 30 years, the Gamecocks have entered the stadium to the
slowly building theme song of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Garnet and black.
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: Cocky, the South Carolina mascot, appears from his magic black box
during the pregame introduction. His appearance in smoke always revs up the home crowd.
BUCKET LIST GAME TO SEE: South Carolina vs. Georgia
QUOTABLE: At South Carolina, our fans realize theres more to life than winning the SEC
championship. We have a state championship trophy. Steve Spurrier on the importance of
beating rival Clemson.
JIM DEDMON / USA TODAY SPORTS
South Carolinas Cockaboose
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
GAINESVILLE, Fla.
POPULATION: 659,042
POPULATION: 127,488
Vanderbilt
Commodores
KIM KLEMENT / USA TODAY SPORTS
Florida Gators mascot Albert after a win over rival Georgia.
Florida Gators
ENROLLMENT: 49,785
STADIUM: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, or The Swamp, (capacity
88,548), built in 1930.
ON CAMPUS: The bronze statues of Heisman Trophy winners Steve
Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow.
AROUND TOWN: Paynes Prairie State Park. A few miles down I-75
offers a park full of quiet walking trails and stocked with live gators.
FOODIE? The Swamp Restaurant, across the street from the stadium,
is a no-brainer. Try the sweet potato fries and Swamp Juice.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: In the O-Dome parking lot, right next to
the stadium entrance. Also anywhere along University Avenue
and try parking under the shade trees at Norman Field.
GAME TRADITIONS: Mr. Two Bits has been a fixture for
nearly 70 years, leading the fans in a cheer, Two bits, four
bits, six bits, a dollar. All for the Gators, stand up and holler!
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Blue and orange. And wear short sleeves because
its humid and youll need to do the Gator Chomp all afternoon.
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: Between the third and fourth quarters, fans
stand, lock arms and sway to We are the Boys from Old Florida.
BUCKET LIST GAMES TO SEE: Florida vs. Tennessee; Florida vs. Georgia (in
Jacksonville).
QUOTABLE: A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous. Only Gators
get out alive. Steve Spurrier, coining the stadium nickname, The Swamp.
ENROLLMENT: 11,815
STADIUM: Vanderbilt Stadium
Dudley Field, the site of the
current stadium, dedicated in
1922.
ON CAMPUS: Kirkland Hall.
The site of the universitys original building, which was struck
by a fire in 1905. The brick structure has the look of a historical
high-academic southern university.
AROUND TOWN: Anything to
do with country music, including the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman
Auditorium, Country Music Hall
of Fame & Museum, Tootsies
Orchid Lounge, Johnny Cash
Museum and RCA Studio B.
FOODIE? Go to nearby Rotiers
Restaurant for its signature
French bread cheeseburger.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: Vandyville, just outside the stadium.
Its family friendly and growing
in size each year.
GAME TRADITIONS: Star Walk
and Dynamite fight song,
capped by V-A-N-D-Y.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Black
and gold.
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: The
most recognizable way to show
Vanderbilt pride is by flashing
the VU hand sign.
Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee; Vanderbilt vs. Kentucky.
QUOTABLE: I am still convinced that outside Yale and
Princeton, the Commodores
would have an even break with
any other team in the country.
That is a great deal for Vanderbilt and for the entire South.
Georgia Tech coach John
Heisman, namesake of the Heisman Trophy, after Vanderbilt
beat the famed Carlisle Indian
School in 1906.
A statue of
former
Florida
quarterback
Tim Tebow,
a Heisman
Trophy
winner.
Florida
cheerleader
George Mr.
Two Bits
Edmondson in
1998.
USA TODAY SPORTS

GAYLORD ENTERTAINMENT
Ryman Auditorium
SCOTT AUDETTE / PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL
LEXINGTON, Ky.
afford it, Kentucky opens its 1865 Club in fall

2016, offering luxury tailgating suites just
outside the stadium.
GAME TRADITIONS: Fans line up outside
Gate 1 about two hours before kickoff for the
Cat Walk, welcoming players and coaches as
they march into Commonwealth Stadium.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: A whole lot of blue
for the Blue Mist fan base, and some white
sprinkled in.
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: The words to My
Old Kentucky Home, which has been played
at various times throughout home games for
years.
BUCKET LIST GAMES TO SEE: Kentucky vs.
Tennessee; Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt
QUOTABLE: That was a good football team
we played. What can you say after you get the
devil kicked out of you? Joe Paterno, after
his Penn State squad lost 22-6 to Kentucky at
Commonwealth Stadium in 1976.
POPULATION: 308,428
Kentucky
Wildcats
ENROLLMENT: 30,000
STADIUM: Commonwealth Stadium (capacity
67,942), built in 1973.
ON CAMPUS: A new statue will be unveiled
in the fall of Kentuckys first four black players
Nate Northington, Greg Page, Wilbur
Hackett and Houston Hogg.
AROUND TOWN: Keeneland Racecourse,
especially if the horses are running.
FOODIE? Steak at Tonys and pulled-pork mac
and cheese at Village Idiot.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: For those who can
MARK ZEROF / USA TODAY SPORTS
Kentucky Wildcats band at the Cat Walk.
MATT SLOVIN AND ADAM SPARKS
10
THE TENNESSEAN
The Bucket List
W H AT T O S E E I N T H E S E C W E S T
AUBURN, Ala.
POPULATION: 58,582
SHANNA LOCKWOOD / USA TODAY SPORTS
Auburns Toomers Corner
Auburn Tigers
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.
POPULATION: 95,334
ENROLLMENT: 27,287
STADIUM: Jordan-Hare Stadium (capacity 87,451), built in 1939.
ON CAMPUS: Samford Hall with its famed clock tower high above the school. If youre near there at noon, youll hear
it chime out the Auburn fight song.
AROUND TOWN: The trees at Toomers Corner. An Alabama fan poisoned them after the Iron Bowl in 2010, taking
the rivalry to a new level.
FOODIE? You must try the lemonade at Toomers Drugs at the corner of College Street and Magnolia Avenue. There
might be nothing more refreshing on early fall afternoons.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: Theres plenty of room at the amphitheater, which has great views of the campus.
GAME TRADITIONS: If you go to an Auburn game and dont yell War Eagle while watching an eagle fly overhead
at Jordan-Hare, did you really even go to an Auburn game?
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Orange and blue and bring your tiger claws.
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: To bring the toilet paper to Toomers Corner after wins.
BUCKET LIST GAMES TO SEE: Auburn vs. Alabama (Iron Bowl); Auburn vs. Georgia
QUOTABLE: The environment at Jordan-Hare Stadium is always special, what with the golden eagle flying around
the stadium and landing at midfield. And that environment is particularly charged for a prime-time setting.
ESPN writer Matt Fortuna in 2016
An eagle circles
the field at
Jordan-Hare
Stadium.
JOHN REED / USA TODAY SPORTS
OXFORD, Miss.
POPULATION: 20,865
Ole Miss Rebels
AP
James
Meredith
statue at
Ole Miss.
ENROLLMENT: 23,838
STADIUM: Vaught-Hemingway Stadium (capacity 64,038), built in 1915.
ON CAMPUS: A statue of James Meredith, the first black student to attend the school. The
integration of Ole Miss in 1962 was an important moment in the civil rights movement.
AROUND TOWN: Rowan Oak, where author William Faulkner lived and wrote. The estate is
filled with memorabilia from Faulkners prolific life.
FOODIE? City Grocery is one of the best restaurants in any city of a comparable size to Oxford.
Its probably the go-to choice if youre visiting for a weekend.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: The Grove isnt just the best tailgate spot in Oxford; its very likely the
greatest place to tailgate on the entire planet for a college football game.
GAME TRADITIONS: Fans lock arms and sway in unison as the Rebels enter the field each week.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Red and blue, and make it something nice no school dresses up
for games quite like Ole Miss.
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: What exactly Hotty Toddy means and why Ole Miss fans say
it with such a passion.
BUCKET LIST GAMES TO SEE: Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State (Egg Bowl); Ole Miss vs. LSU
(Magnolia Bowl)
QUOTABLE: Tailgating certainly does not do it justice. It might be a gathering of football fans before a game, but it hardly resembles those celebrated scenes in Green Bay and
Kansas City, which are modest by comparison. A 2014 New York Times article on tailgating in Oxford
Alabama
Crimson
Tide
ENROLLMENT: 37,100
STADIUM: Bryant-Denny Stadium
ON CAMPUS: Alabama has statues
of five of its legendary coaches
outside of Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Nick Saban already has his likeness
attached to one.
AROUND TOWN: The Paul W. Bryant Museum, located on campus.
Visitors can pay tribute to Bear
Bryant and learn some Crimson Tide
football history along the way.
FOODIE? You must eat ribs from
Dreamland Bar-B-Que. Be prepared
to wait if you visit on a home Saturday.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: The Quad is
the best place to set up shop on
sunny Saturdays. Be sure to fill out
the necessary permits with the
university if you plan to tailgate
there.
GAME TRADITIONS: The Rammer
Jammer cheer might sound like
nonsense to first-time Tuscaloosa
visitors, but its still played as Alabama closes in on a home win.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Crimson
and bring your houndstooth clothing
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: Roll
Tide can function as every possible
pleasantry.
Alabama vs. Auburn (Iron Bowl);
Alabama vs. Tennessee
QUOTABLE: Its crazy. That stadium is crazy. Its loud. It was a great
experience for me. Florida running back Brandon Powell to
AL.com in 2015.
JOHN DAVID MERCER / USA TODAY SPORTS
Alabama fan Samuel Adams II in a

houndstooth-pattern hat.
THE TENNESSEAN
11
BATON ROUGE, La.

POPULATION: 229,426
LSU Tigers
ENROLLMENT: 31,527
STADIUM: Tiger Stadium (capacity 102,321), built in 1924.
ON CAMPUS: The habitat of LSU mascot Mike the Tiger. Most SEC fans can only see their live
mascots on the sidelines on game day. But at LSU, you can pop in and visit Mike whenever.
AROUND TOWN: The Old State Capitol building, which will be appreciated by those who love
European architecture. The history of Louisiana is on full display here.
FOODIE? A Po boy is a must while youre in town, and a good place to grab one is The Chimes,
which is named for the sounds emanating from LSUs Memorial Tower.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: One solid location is the Parade Ground near the campus student union.
GAME TRADITIONS: The LSU Tiger Marching Bands pregame show is as good as any in the
country. Be in your seat early.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Purple and gold and bring your pom poms of the same color for
night games in Death Valley.
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: Its called Death Valley because lots of teams dont make it out
alive.
BUCKET LIST GAME TO SEE: LSU vs. Alabama
QUOTABLE: I wanted to always go to a school that had a fan base that supported the team
through thick and thin and thats definitely LSU. Theres no place like Tiger Stadium. I swear it
shakes. former LSU star Patrick Peterson
USA TODAY SPORTS
LSU Tiger marching band.
STARKVILLE, Miss.
COLLEGE STATION,
Texas
POPULATION: 24,775
POPULATION: 100,050
Texas
A&M
Aggies
MATT BUSH / USA TODAY SPORTS
Mississippi State fans ring cowbells.
Mississippi State
Bulldogs
ENROLLMENT: 20,873
STADIUM: Davis Wade Stadium (capacity 61,337), built in 1914.
ON CAMPUS: The Drill Field. It serves as the heart of campus and is a
great place to see the school in action.
AROUND TOWN: The Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, which is full of beautiful nature sights. Its also a favorite fishing
spot among students.
FOODIE? Strombolis, a pizza joint, can hold its own against anywhere selling pies in SEC country. Its a popular choice any day of the week.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: The Junction is broadly thought of as the best place to
go. Cant make it? Dont fret. The university has a game day webcam of the
area.
GAME TRADITIONS: Constant ringing of cowbells. Legend says the tradition
started when a wayward cow trekked onto Mississippi States field during a
convincing win over Ole Miss in the early part of the 20th century.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Maroon and bring your cowbells.
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: Mississippi State keeps a live English bulldog
named Bully on its sideline on game day, perhaps to intimidate opponents.
BUCKET LIST GAME TO SEE: Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss (Egg Bowl)
QUOTABLE: Want to know what a revolution sounds like? Between the
third and fourth quarter, Journeys Dont Stop Believin blares through the
stadium speakers. The throng rings cowbells to the beat, creating a deafening
roar as they try to hold on to the feeling. Sports Illustrated in 2014
MATT BUSH / USA TODAY SPORTS
Mississippi State Bulldogs statue in the

Junction.
ENROLLMENT: 57,934
STADIUM: Kyle Field (capacity
102,733), built in 1927.
ON CAMPUS: The George Bush
Presidential Library and Museum on the west side of campus. No matter your politics, its
an interesting tribute to our
41st president.
AROUND TOWN: The Bonfire
Memorial, which serves as a
reminder of the 12 people who
lost their lives when a bonfire
collapsed in 1999 as part of a
campus ritual.
FOODIE? Youve got to try Rudys Country Store and Bar-B-Q.
The brisket is simply to die for.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: Anywhere around Reed Arena,
home to Texas A&M basketball,
is a good choice and a guarantee of a good time.
GAME TRADITIONS: The night
before every Aggies home
game, a Midnight Yell pep rally
is held at the schools stadium.
Five students who serve as the
yell leaders lead the cheers.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Maroon and bring the 12th man
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: To
sway during the appropriate
time of the Aggie War Hymn.
Texas A&M vs. Arkansas
QUOTABLE: You talk about
loud. You talk about affecting
the game. I mean, their fans
really did affect the game, and
it says a lot about our players to
keep their poise and focus.
Alabama coach Nick Saban on
his radio show in 2015, according to SECCountry.com
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.
POPULATION: 79,960
Arkansas Razorbacks
ENROLLMENT: 26,754
STADIUM: Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (capacity 72,000), built in
1938.
ON CAMPUS: Old Main, which is the oldest building on the Arkansas campus.
Built in 1879, Old Main remains one of the most enduring symbols of the university.
AROUND TOWN: Lake Fayetteville is worth a visit. It features some of the
states best scenery and is just a 15-minute drive from campus.
FOODIE? Be sure to stop in at the Catfish Hole. You should be able to guess
what the specialty is, but fish isnt the only thing they do well.
BEST TAILGATE SPOT: The Pit, a large parking lot area near the athletic complex, is a pretty good bet.
GAME TRADITIONS: Wed be remiss not to mention calling the Hogs. The
schools cheer of Woo, Pig, Sooie! started in the 1920s and is still going
strong today.
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR: Red and bring your voice to call the Hogs.
EVERY TRUE FAN KNOWS: The hand motions for the Woo, Pig, Sooie!
chant.
BUCKET LIST GAMES TO SEE: Arkansas vs. LSU (Battle for the Golden Boot);
Arkansas vs. Texas A&M
QUOTABLE: Were a little bit like Steph Curry here at Arkansas. Not everyone thinks we can do it. Coach Bret Bielema to Sports Illustrated in 2015.
AP FILE
Arkansas cadets line up in front of the historic Old Main building in 1919. It's one of the SEC's
oldest structures.
12
THE TENNESSEAN
K1
Looking ahead to SEC football in 2036

them. That way, there are no Title IX
complaints. Everyone male or
female, Bulldog or Gamecock has an
equal opportunity to generate income.
Geoff
Calkins
USA TODAY NETWORK

Tennessee
Welcome to SEC Media Days, 2036!

First team up will be the Oklahoma
Sooners. But first, SEC Commissioner
Tim Tebow. Questions?
Yes. I have a question. Did you say
Oklahoma?
Of course, Oklahoma. Long-time
member of the SEC. Joined along with
North Carolina in 2020. That was back
when Notre Dame was an independent,
back when Texas was still in the old Big
12.
The old Big 12?
The one that fell apart. Went the way
of 300-pound offensive linemen and
amateurism.
Those are gone, too?
Well, youll find the occasional,
crafty, 380-pound center. But most
linemen are well over 400 pounds these
days. And amateurism has been gone
for nearly a decade now.
What happened?
We could only get away with that
scam for so long, you know? When
coaches started making $15 million a
year it became hard to keep a straight
face. Cmon, amateurs?
How much do the players make?
As much as they can get in endorsements. Thats how its done. Its just like
the Olympics. The schools dont have to
pay the players. Companies do it for
1. Which school is a former SEC member?

A. Centre
B. Millsaps
C. Rhodes
D. Sewanee
2. Which head coach played football for
his current school?
A. Dan Mullen, Mississippi State
B. Will Muschamp, South Carolina
C. Kirby Smart, Georgia
D. Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M
3. Which SEC team plays in the nations
second-oldest stadium still in use?
A. Georgia
B. Mississippi State
C. Ole Miss
D. Tennessee
4. Where was the first artificial turf game
played in the SEC in 1968?
A. Knoxville
B. Lexington
C. Nashville
D. Tuscaloosa
Some high schools dont play

football?
Up North, mostly. They banned it.
Too dangerous, they said. Couldnt afford the liability. So, yes, things are
different now. Every SEC school puts
aside a portion of that $183 million
check to take care of the medical needs
of former players. Some people wonder
about the future of college football. But
I bet they were saying the same things
two decades ago.
So Peyton Manning Jr. gets paid?

Not by his school, Tennessee, but by
his sponsors, State Farm, Papa Johns
and Gatorade.
But what happened to the purity of
the sport? Doesnt it ruin everything
to know the players arent true
amateurs?
Did it ruin the Olympics when those
athletes got paid? No, of course not.
People like their football. They root for
the tradition, and the uniforms. As
much as we tried to pretend otherwise,
the fans loyalty did not depend on the
players getting stiffed by the system.
Theres money enough for everyone.
ESPN keeps ponying up for TV rights,
eh?
TV rights? Have you been asleep for
the last 20 years or something? Some
people still watch ESPN, but the big
money comes from Netflix and Google.
Thats why every school got a check for
$183 million at the spring meetings.
And that didnt count the payout for the
six SEC teams that made the playoff.
Wait. Six?
Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Florida,
Tennessee and Georgia. Poor University of Mississippi. Came down to the
last game of the year, against LSU. The
Rebels were honoring their newest
NFL Hall-of-Famer, Laremy Tunsil.
Really great day, until their kicker hit
the left upright on that extra point.
Playoff berth went right up in smoke.
But six out of 16 is still pretty good for
MATTHEW EMMONS / USA TODAY SPORTS
Columnist Geoff Calkins predicts Tim

Tebow will be the SEC commissioner in
2036.
one conference.
Remind me, when did the playoffs
expand to 16?
When the money got big enough, of
course. They used to say college football would never have an NFL-style
playoff. Then they said it would be
just four teams. Then they said eight.
Then they said 16, which is a little ridiculous. Eight is the right number. Let the
rest of the country play in any of the
124 bowl games.
Ever long for the good ol days?
You mean, back when they still
called the University of Mississippi Ole
Miss? Back before Nick Saban left
Alabama for that last chance to coach
in the NFL? Back when every high
school in America played football?
Test your
SEC
smarts
Why does it last?

Saturdays. It lasts because of Saturdays. Because everything else can
change the money, the broadcast
distribution package, the conference
membership, the playoff system but
the Saturdays are still glorious. Thats
why people love the sport. They love
the memories, and the connections.
Those things endure, more than any
game or any play. Those things are
forever.
Just look at the nature of education
these days. So much of it is done online,
and I guess thats just fine, for learning.
But thats not why tens of thousands of
people gather on Saturdays in the
Grove and in the Swamp. Thats not
why Southerners routinely include
their college teams in their online obituaries. Think about that. Their obituaries! Where they list the things in this
world that have meant the most to
them.
Yes, SEC football has challenges. It
has always had challenges. But four
years ago, in 2032, it celebrated its first
100 years as a conference. Ill bet you
anything itll last another 100.
Reach Commercial Appeal columnist can be reached at geoff.calkins@commercialappeal.
12. Which school holds the record for the

most consecutive SEC wins?
A. Alabama
B. Florida
C. Georgia
D. Tennessee
13. Which is the most-played SEC rivalry?
A. Auburn vs. Georgia
B. Kentucky vs. Tennessee
C. Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State
D. Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt
14. Which SEC West school has never won
a national championship?
A. Arkansas
C. Ole Miss
D. Texas A&M
15. Which team enters the stadium to the
theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey?
A. Arkansas
C. Missouri
D. South Carolina
5. Which school has the top two receivers

on the SEC career receptions list?
A. Florida
B. LSU
C. South Carolina
D. Vanderbilt
6. Who set the SEC record for most TD
passes in one season with 40?
A. Jay Cutler, Vanderbilt
B. Peyton Manning, Tennessee
C. Aaron Murray, Georgia
D. Andre Woodson, Kentucky
GETTY
IMAGES
7. Who was the SECs first Heisman Trophy

winner?
A. Billy Cannon, LSU
B. Frank Sinkwich, Georgia
C. Steve Spurrier, Florida
D. Pat Sullivan, Auburn
16. Which player did not win a Heisman

Trophy?
A. Mark Ingram, Alabama
B. Peyton Manning, Tennessee
C. George Rogers, South Carolina
D. Danny Wuerffel, Florida
17. Which SEC record does Tim Tebow hold?
A. Most points in a game
B. Most points in a season
C. Most rushing TDs in a career
D. Most rushing TDs in a season
18. Which teams stadium is not named
after someone?
A. Alabama
B. Arkansas
C. Kentucky
D. South Carolina
AP
19. What is the name of Arkansas

mascot?
A. Hoggy
B. Jowls
C. Red Razor
D. Tusk
8. Where did Bear Bryant coach before he

came to Alabama?
A. Arkansas
B. Auburn
C. Kentucky
D. Texas A&M
20. Which single-season SEC record did

Alabamas Derrick Henry not set in 2015?
A. Rushing attempts
B. Rushing TDs
C. Rushing yards
D. Rushing yards per attempt
9. Which SEC school used the first black

player in a varsity game?
A. Alabama
B. Kentucky
C. Tennessee
D. Vanderbilt
How did you do?
10. Which campus has a presidential

library?
A. Arkansas
B. Kentucky
C. Missouri
D. Texas A&M
11. Which was the first SEC school
recognized by the NCAA to win a national
championship?
A. Alabama
B. Auburn
C. Georgia
D. Tennessee
20 of 20: SEC champion and national

champion
16-19 of 20: SEC championship game finalist,
advance to major bowl game
13-15 of 20: Mediocre season equals
mediocre bowl berth
0-12 of 20: Last place in the SEC East
THINKSTOCK
ANSWERS: 1. D; 2. C; 3. B; 4. A; 5. D; 6. D; 7. B; 8. D; 9. B;
10. D; 11. D; 12. A; 13. A; 14. B; 15. D; 16. B; 17. C; 18, C; 19.
D; 20. D

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n hour or so into another long predawn

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ANDREW NELLES / THE TENNESSEAN

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served and to bridge that gap between

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Continued from Page 4PE

A paperweight sat on George ArmisYOU

GRESHAM SMITH AND PARTNERS

Developer: Eakin Partners

Developer: Market Street

Completion Date: September 2017

SOURCE: THE TENNESSEAN

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The General Jackson

10. Cambria Suites

11. The Joseph

12. New LifeWay

13. Headquarters for

MICHAEL GRAVES AND

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Developer: North Point

Developer: U.S. General

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18. City Lights