Tennessee economic briefs
First Horizon is cutting mortgage division jobs.
Nissan offering $100,000 buyouts to Tennessee workers.
The courage of Unitarianism
No, it is not a traditional faith. It never was.
Unitarianism was one of the earliest movements of the Reformation, and its history is old and really interesting. Michael Servetus is the Latinized named for Miguel Serveto, a Spanish theologian and a real Renaissance man in the literal sense of the word. Also an astronomer, mathematician, legal scholar, and meteorologist, he was a keen enough anatomist to have figured out pulmonary circulation and written a treatise on it. (No wonder so many smart people - professors and the like - go to the UU Church.) He didn’t exactly found a church, because he disliked dogma. He especially disliked the theology of the Trinity, and by several writings he more or less established the Unitarian philosophy. Of course he was eventually burned to death as a heretic by Calvinists in Geneva, in 1553.
The Unitarian idea was controversial but popular among educated people in Europe. So many controversial ideas were floating around during that time, you could get away with all kinds of heresy before getting killed. And Unitarians were targets, that’s for sure. But they were brave. Servetus knew he was writing and promoting official heresy, but he didn’t care. It needed to be told! And he knew the ultimate penalty, and he faced it.
Those macho liberals
I was visiting with some friends last night, one of whom attends the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. She happened to be absent from Sunday’s services, but is obviously very shaken up by everything that happened.
Anyway, we were chatting, and she said that she’s just so proud of the men who took down the shooter, saying that whatever misconceptions people may have about “non-violent progressives like us,” when the moment came for courage under fire - literally - those guys did what had to be done.
Without guns or any weapons - and without any hesitation - three or more men of the church rose from their seats and tackled the bad guy. With their bare hands. And they then showed incredible restraint by not proceeding to beat the heck out of the guy. Instead, they held him until authorities arrived.
The message? Don’t mess with the men of “the liberal movement.”
Getting it straight on hate in the Volunteer State
There has been a lot of discussion here at Knoxville Talks, and elsewhere in our community about the possible prosecution of the TVUU Church shooting as a “hate crime.” And as WBIR Producer Jake Jost points out, there is also a lot of misunderstanding. He notes:
There’s a few misconceptions here I felt a need to correct.
1) Tennessee does not have a hate crime statute under which one can be charged. Bias motivation is considered an element of the crime itself. It can be a sentencing enhancer but is not a standalone crime. In Tennessee, it can be a bias based on race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, or disability.
2) The feds can charge you with a hate crime as a separate matter, but it still requires you to do something that’s otherwise a criminal offense. The federal statute is limited to crimes motivated by bias against a person’s race, color, religion, or nation of origin. It’s more narrowly tailored than Tennessee’s statute.
3) Bias motivation is distinct from thoughtcrime in that one can only be charged with a hate crime for actually committing something that’s otherwise a crime. Just thinking it or just saying it in a way that otherwise obeys the law will not get one charged, typically.
4) Hate crime does not create special groups, in that a crime committed out of an anti-white, anti-heterosexual, or anti-Baptist bias motivation would not be any different in the eyes of the law than a crime committed out of an anti-black, anti-homosexual, or anti-Muslim bias motivation.
This is easily observed in the state of Tennessee’s annual report on hate crimes: http://www.tbi.state.tn.us/Info%20Systems%20Div/TIBRS_unit/Publications/2007%20Hate%20Crime%20in%20Tennessee%20.pdf . You’ll see whites and heterosexuals are the targets of crimes motivated by a bias against those groups. Under the theory of “special groups,” that would be impossible.
If you wish to make a claim of selective enforcement/prosecution, that’s another matter–but to say that hate crime legislation creates unequally protected groups by the letter of the law is plainly inaccurate. If you wish to argue that hate crime legislation is unneccessary, insofar as the crime is the problem, rather than the motivation–go right ahead, but to say that motivation and the mental state of one committing a crime is otherwise not considered in court is also absurd.
Everyone is welcome to his own opinion but not his own facts.
Do you think they have a big, comfy couch on Knoxville’s “miracle mile”
Apparently the NBC reporter covering the Knoxville shootings this morning made the statement (paraphrase) that there are so many churches along that stretch of Kingston Pike near TVUUC that “people call it ‘miracle mile’”
Have you ever called that stretch “miracle mile?”
Has anyone you know ever called it that?
The Web at its worst
This is very disturbing, and so NOT what Knoxville needs right now.
A friend just sent me this link to an AOL Australia story indicating that Britney Spears is set to star in a movie about the Knoxville murder of Channon Christian.
Huh? What?
So I went and looked at the story and immediately recognized it as a “press release” written by a sexually obsessed racist who has frequently attempted to post comments at WBIR.com on our stories referencing Channon Christian’s murder.
I recognized the guy’s wording choices, the title of the “movie,” and the name of the “production company” as the handiwork of this lone wolf blogger, who has also sent me nasty e-mails in the past as a result of my moderation of WBIR.com’s online community.
This guy scares me. I won’t link to his blog here (suffice it to say that it is concerned almost exclusively with disturbing pornographic, racist discussions related to the tragic Knoxville murder), but I am certain this is the same person.
And now, somehow, AOL Australia has picked up this guy’s “press release” as real entertainment news, and splashed it all over the planet. Within the past hour several other international news outlets seem to have picked it up.
This is the power of the Web at its worst. I am really, really bothered that this has happened. I am going to try to track down a contact for AOL Australia’s entertainment content division to let them know this, but in the meantime, if you hear this rumor, please debunk it. And I hope Britney Spears sues him.
Support TVUUC by supporting its causes
Here’s a wonderful effort undertaken by a local blogger to show support for Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church.
I don’t attend TVUUC and have no connection to the church or other causes linked below. I do have several friends who are members of TVUUC. I have been struggling with a way to show my support.
The violent events on July 27th’s are inexplicable. No doubt, they will have lifelong ramifications for the each of the victims, attendees, church members and their loved ones. I also find it extremely troubling that the Church was targeted because of the causes it supports.
Whether or not you support all of the causes TVUUC supports, it is undeniable that TVUUC is home to a number of people that are actively trying to make Knoxville and the world at large a better place. Their causes are sometimes controversial, but always rooted in love and generosity. I respect that effort and appreciate the perspective that TVUUC brings to Knoxville. I also very much admire TVUUC’s efforts to help the unfortunate and under-appreciated.
I may not agree with all of TVUUC’s beliefs, but I respect the members of TVUUC just as I respect anyone who is motivated by sincerely held beliefs to make the world a better place. In order to show my support, and in an effort to convey that the vast majority of Knoxvillians appreciate TVUUC’s generosity toward the community, I am going to make a donation to each of the following causes which are mentioned on TVUUC’s web page
Sam Venable: Knoxville was victim of “domestic terrorist attack”
Believers of this warped rationale can be found living in Pakistani caves and white duplexes in Powell. Not even the peaceful confines of a church sanctuary afford safe haven from their madness.
How ironic that Adkisson wore a shirt depicting the Tennessee state flag when the heinous crime for which he has been charged was executed.
Featured prominently in this design are three stars, one for each of the grand divisions of our state. The geography of these regions is as diverse as any in North America. So are the people who live therein.
Yet, as different as our heritages, homes, speech patterns, cultures and societies may be, we find a way to live and work as one.
What a liberal concept.
Home video of happier times
A blogger over at WBIR.com who is a member of TVUUC and a friend of Tammy Summers, one of the shooting victims who remains hospitalized, has shared some home video of Ms. Summers and her family a young friend’s birthday party.
I am so happy to hear from UT Hospital this morning that Ms. Summers, along with the other victims who remain hospitalized, have had their conditions improved from “critical.”
My prayers remain with their families. It’s hard to think of the little ones in that video missing their mama, who is in the hospital, and probably will be for some time.
I do love me some good irony in a headline
From WKRN.com today: “Less Schools Failing Under ‘No Child Left Behind’, state says”
(I reproduced the wording and punctuation of this headline exactly as it appears on the site at 11:03 am. Maybe they’ll get it fixed by the time you click on the link…)
Another Unitarian
Obviously, Unitarian Universalism is in the news this week for some very terrible reasons, but I also notice that a very well known UU died this week - and his death was as meaningful and joyful as any of us could ever hope for ourselves.
Randy Pausch, the author of the inspirational “Last Lecture,” was a very active UU.
PHOTOBLOGGING: Red door
Photo by Shane and Ruth.
Local Talk Radio
I’ve been listening to our local newstalk station, WNOX 990 some in the past few days, trying to get some sense of that audience’s reaction to the terrible TVUU church shooting.
On yesterday afternoon’s show, I heard Catherine Howell ask a fair, difficult and important question. She said (and I paraphrase): Do those of us who do right wing talk radio bear some responsibility for this crime?
First of all, I was a bit shocked to hear her describe herself (and maybe she just misspoke) as “right wing.” She is the station’s primary straight news reporter, so for her to openly state her political bent like that was a little surprising.
But I appreciated her asking the question.
I then heard caller after caller extol the virtues of talk radio, and deny that it had any responsibility for fanning the flames of intolerance for “the liberal movement” (Anybody else wondering exactly what that is?)
Then this morning I listened to some of the Hallerin Hill show with my mouth hanging open, as the great majority of callers complained that this terrible act might be classified as a hate crime.
All crime is hate, one woman opined. If you covet your neighbor’s possessions, that is hate, ergo, there is no such thing as a hate crime.
The idea that hate crimes are not a real, distinct, particularly heinous type of criminal act is especially disturbing in post 9-11 America, where we should be even more grateful for and protective of our liberties. As that bastion of liberal philisophy, the FBI points out, “groups that preach hatred and intolerance plant the seeds of terrorism here in our country.”
I finally had to turn the radio off after the call in which a man literally said that the UU church was “reaping what it sowed.”
Yes, he actually said this.
And Mr. Hill - on a day when our neighbors will be preparing to bury their murdered family members - did not step in to disagree with the man. That was a great disappointment to me.
Church attack victim issues statement
From Allison Lee this afternoon:
I read in yesterday’s newspaper (Sunday Knoxville News Sentinel) that a woman was “trampled” during the shooting yesterday at the Unitarian Church. I believe that refers mistakenly to me. I want to be clear that I was not “trampled.” I heard the blast, saw the man with the gun and saw a woman behind us collapse, bleeding. I threw myself and my daughters on the floor and we crawled as fast as we could to the exit then outside. It was only after the police arrived that I realized I could not walk. At the hospital thay said I broke my kneecap, probably while crawling frantically. But nobody in the church stepped on me or over me. It was quite the opposite. Many people, several in particular, were extremely helpful to my daughters and me, even though we were just visiting that day to see the children’s show and are not members of the church.
PTSD
One of the victims of the church shooting is headed home from the hospital today with a very serious eye injury, as well as a re-emergence of symptoms from his past:
John Worth suffers from post traumatic stress after serving in Vietnam, and according to Joy, her husband is once again exhibiting signs.
“He’s very jumpy,” she said. “But he’s had a heart attack. We’ve been through a lot and we’ll get through this, too.”
My prayers are with the Worth family. I suspect many of those who were in that sanctuary yesterday morning will be struggling with post traumatic stress disorder issues for a long time to come, particularly the children who were facing the gunman as he entered the room.
How they heard
The husband of one of the injured victims in Sunday’s TVUUC shooting heard about the incident from a Dutch newspaper he read in Brazil, where he’s doing research:
Allison Lee and her daughters were sitting near 61-year-old Linda Kraeger, who was killed in the attack. J.D. Lee says his six-year-old granddaughter was splattered with blood in the attack.
J.D. Lee said he learned of the shooting from a friend in Philadelphia who called him as he sat in church.
Allison Lee grew up in Monroe County, and attended Webb School of Knoxville. She has her own law practice in Arizona, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona.
She is resting at her father’s home Monday, while her children are spending time at the Knoxville Zoo. She will fly back to Tucson on Wednesday, and will have surgery there.
Allison Lee’s husband is a a scientist currently working on his doctoral thesis, doing research on global warming in Brazil. He read about the Knoxville church shooting in a Dutch newspaper, and called her to check on his wife. He is flying to Arizona to be with her.
Our community’s worst fears confirmed
KPD Chief Owen has just confirmed that it appears the suspect in yesterday’s fatal church attack was, in fact, targeting the good people of the TVUUC because of their religious and political beliefs.
No matter what YOUR religious or political beliefs happen to be, we must all stand together as Knoxvillians united during this terrible time, and as they declare in their liturgy each Sunday at every Unitarian Universalist church:
Let people living in all lands
Declare that fear and hate are done.
Rise above differences and stand
In love and understanding, one.
Let us work together as a community to turn this tragedy into an enhanced dialogue for peace and justice that crosses social and belief boundaries. We owe that to the brave victims of this brutal attack, as well as to the heroes - yes real HEROES - who tackled the shooter and saved dozens of others.
.
Commenting on the TVUUC attack
Knoxville News Sentinel online guru Jack Lail ponders how to handle the most offensive comments that end up on news sites after a tragedy like yesterday’s church shooting.
My publisher sent me several emails over the weekend about complaints about hateful, invective, acidic and just generally mean-spirited reader comments on our newspaper Web sites.
And the comments in question met all those tests - and then some. They had already been removed for the most part after being flagged by users. But one thinks publishers have better ways to spend Saturday nights? Sort of emphasizes the scope of the problem.
While the emails he received were about specific comments, questions are being raised anew about newspaper comments in general, one of the recurring (Oh, not that again) debates on journalism blogs.
Fox blogs Knox
Fox reporter Jonathan Serrie is doing some blogging on the church shootings from Knoxville.
Bratton vs. Sisk
LVG breaks the race down, declaring it a contest between the “devil you know” and the one you don’t.
