Writing should enhance your flow and mental alignment. Elevate your daily notes and planning with the G2 Boost Collection from Pilot. Featuring the legendary smooth G2 gel ink, comfort grip, and powered by the science of color, with blue for productivity, purple for creativity, and pink for optimism. They're designed to power your accomplishments and intentions. Get G2 Boost on Amazon today.
G2 Boost, used to power you. From the Principal Toyota Studios, it's morning in Memphis with Todd Starnes. Oh, yes.
Well, the good news, ladies and gentlemen, you have a short work week.
So, hello, welcome to Tuesday here on the Mighty 990. I'm Todd Starnes, broadcasting from the Principal Toyota Memphis Studio. It is going to be another hot one. You just heard Laura Huckabee with the forecast. 76 degrees right now, very tolerable for you folks out doing the morning walk.
Maybe you're heading over to your favorite coffee house this morning for an iced coffee or an iced tea. Take your time, enjoy today. Make sure you crank up EAC. And if you're going to be outside, you got to hydrate. You got to do that.
76 degrees right now at Briancrest Christian School in Eads. We're going to be checking temperatures across the Mid-South throughout the morning here on the show.
Well, we have.
Some very special guests coming along as well. There is a great opportunity for you to help our Memphis first responders. And George Brown from Kroger is going to be joining us in just a little while to explain what our K-Wham audience and you guys are the most. Generous audience in all of a talk radio here in the Mid-South. George Brown's going to be here to help you, to help us understand what we can do.
Also, John Covington, the vice president of the Memphis Police Association, is going to be here as well. He has a new column out today in the daily Memphian, and we're going to be talking about that. But the one thing, That everybody is talking about is what happened over the weekend at the Memphis Tigers big season.
Well, it's a home opener, and it was look, it was a great night, but there were a lot of challenges. And thousands of you have weighed in on the K-Wham social media pages over what happened with the concessions and the logistics. And we just want to hear from you today. What was your experience like attending the newly renovated Liberty Ball? We can't call it anything other than the Liberty Ball here on K-Wham.
So, what was your experience like? The good, the bad, and the ugly? Because, look, we heard a lot of people say that the renovations were. Were spectacular, beyond spectacular, that they went beyond the expectations. And then, whether or not you could get a pronto pup or not determined whether you actually enjoyed the rest of the evening, because it was brutally hot, and a lot of folks were really frustrated over the lack of the logistics.
In some cases, there were people who purchased season tickets, they showed up and they realized their row no longer existed. And many people wondering, okay, what exactly did they pay for?
Now, we have no doubt that today. There are going to be a lot of calls made to the University of Memphis, to ticketing, to the athletic department. Be nice, be gentle. The folks answering the phones are not responsible for whether or not you got a pronto pup or a seat at the Liberty Bowl.
So be patient is what I'm trying to say. And that really is the messaging coming from the University of Memphis. And yesterday, Monday, two days after the event, the university did release a statement. And I thought it was a pretty darn good statement. They admitted that they completely botched this thing, and they're going to figure it out.
Look, one of the big challenges, I think, is they got rid of all the volunteers that were doing the concessions. And a lot of that money went to help and went to fund local organizations for kids. And the university decided to go with a professional company. And the professional company just dropped the ball. I mean, there's really no other way to say it.
But we want to hear from you this morning. What was your experience like at the game on Saturday? Our telephone number: 901-260-5926. Again, that's 901-260-5926. We have the university statement over on kwamradio.com, and I would encourage you to head over to our website.
I'm telling you, I have never seen so many people weighing in on a story. It's it's really quite remarkable. But Ed Scott, who is the athletic director, said, look. We're going to get to the bottom of this. We're going to make sure this does not happen again.
And again, the Tigers on the road, Boise State, this coming weekend. And we will see that gives them about two weeks. to get everything else in working order. And look, it's a brand new stadium. What are you going to do?
But a lot of this stuff could have been easily preventable. The parking situation. The long lines getting into The stadium. And look, that's a good problem to have. I mean, you would rather have people waiting in long lines than the way it's been in the past, where folks just walk up and you've got a nearly empty stadium there.
Nobody wants to see that. But anyway, Scott said, I want to read this to you. He said, We heard your concerns about parking, stadium entry, concession lines, and other aspects of the game day experience. And we take that feedback seriously. He said that, and he said he used the word they fell short.
And that's a fair, look, that's a fair assessment here. He says we recognize that our first home game fell short of that standard in several important areas. We heard your concerns about parking, stadium entry, concession lines and other aspects of the game day experience, and we take that feedback seriously.
Now for whatever it's worth. As soon as, and I monitor a lot of our social media pages, and as soon as I noticed an influx of people, we were getting messages. from people. And I immediately reached out to the university and said, Hey, guys, we're getting these messages. Is something going on?
Can we convey something to the public here? Because that's, you know, we want to be good partners. The problem is, Memphis Tigers, they don't want to be partners with anybody. And to as a matter of fact, as of well, now, we have yet to hear from the university. We have yet to hear any sort of a and again, we were trying to be somewhat helpful to them by conveying that information to some pretty upset folks on Saturday afternoon.
901-260-5926 is our telephone number. That's 901-260-5926. We want to hear about your experiences. And again, good, bad, or whatever.
Well, you can't be indifferent. You've got to have an opinion about things. But what a spectacular game. Coach Huff and the team delivering once again. And I'm telling you, that game day experience, aside from all the problems.
Pretty remarkable. I mean, i this was um This was beyond something you would see in even the Southeastern Conference.
So, on that aspect, well, well done, university. of Memphis.
Well, it was a violent, violent weekend in the Mid-South and Uh last night uh there was yet another shooting. And there's video. And this certainly looks like some sort of a gang kind of a thing, but somebody opened fire, five people. open fire outside of a home, inside this happened in the wee hours of the morning, inside two teenage boys sleeping in their bedroom, and both of the boys were were shot. As a result of these, I mean, it was it looked like a war zone out there.
And there were, gosh, almost seven or eight shootings in the Mid-South over the Labor Day holiday. And just a reminder here, ladies and gentlemen, that there are a good many people here in the Mid-South who say, we don't need more cops on the streets. We just need more community centers and social activities for the children. That's ultimately what we need.
So just keep that in mind as we go through the morning. Unbelievable. By the way, we also have some video. On our website on the on the social media page. Kwamradio dot com and you can access all of our socials there.
There was so much fighting on Beale Street. And one of them involved a bunch of women, and they were bare bosomed brawlers. They were fighting. These big gals were fighting without any shirts on. There were weaves all over the place.
And it looked like If I had to describe it all, it Sort of look like the wild, wild west. And you know how there would be like tumbleweeds, like tumbling down the main street? That's what the weaves look like. I've never seen anything like this. You gotta go check out the video.
Um these uh women fighting without any shirts on, Okay. On Peale Street. Here's what gets me. Don't we have a police substation?
Somewhere on Beale Street. Where were the police? What was going on there? All right, so go check it out. We've got a lot of the crime news posted over on our website, of course, yesterday afternoon, broad daylight.
You had a shooting right there at the courthouse square. We got a note from one of our K-WAM blisters who said, oh, look, you don't, this is the second shooting in the past several days at the Court Square Park, which, by the way, has basically been turned into a homeless encampment now. But at least one person critically injured in that shooting, and a suspect has been detained. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to get to your calls.
901-260-5926 is our telephone number. That's 901-260-5926. I'm Todd Starns and the principal, Toyota Memphis Studio. For nearly 3,000 years, Homer's The Iliad has shaped the Western imagination. As one of the foundational works of Western literature, it explores permanent questions about honor, courage, leadership, friendship, justice, and what it means to live a noble life.
In one of the epic's defining moments, Achilles returns to battle after the death of his beloved friend, Patroclus, setting aside his wounded pride to confront the responsibilities that come with greatness. His decision reveals one of the central themes of the Iliad, that true greatness requires more than strength. It demands character, sacrifice, and the pursuit of what is right. That's why Hillsdale College has released its newest free online course, The Iliad, taught by Professor Stephen. Smith, the course reveals why Homer's masterpiece remains one of the greatest works of Western literature.
Hillsdale.edu slash start now. Read the classics. Study the West. Hillsdale.edu slash start now. No.
And it is 79 degrees, 22 minutes past the hour. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the morning show. I'm Todd Starns. Great to have you with us today.
By the way, kwamradio.com is our website. That's kwamradio.com. We have all sorts of great news and information for you there. Also, I want to say congratulations to Bartlett, a new place to play golf opened up yesterday. Quail Ridge Golf Course.
They have what it closed, what, two years ago and reopened, the grand reopening happened yesterday. And a lot of folks came out. By the way, Memphis Tigers, Coach Penny Hardaway, among those that played a round of golf, 18-hole golf course and all sorts of great things, including a new pro shop and a new restaurant there at the Quail Ridge Golf Course. It was originally what shut down in 2024 and then purchased by the city.
So, anyway, you guys get out there and enjoy the brand new golf course there in Bartlett. 901-260-5926 is our telephone number. That's 901-260-5926. Want to play this audio from the head coach over at Southern Mist, Blake Anderson. Who generated national headlines went a little viral because he wore a t-shirt.
During the eagle walk, and it said very simply, Christ is king. Take a listen. I did, I mean, somebody said something about this morning. I've had a bunch of people comment, and I'm pleased that it, that, um, that it was noticeable. I mean, the whole point of wearing it was to.
for Christ to be glorified and to be noticed. Man, I'm super grateful. for my bosses. uh that allowed me to You know, to be really just using my platform to share my faith. Not a Not probably an easy decision for an AD and a president, but those are my views.
Those are not, I'm not, that's just me trying to use my platform. I'm so. thankful and saved by grace and opportunity in the position I'm in because um because of God and and just being blessed so um You never know what kind of response you're going to get. It's been 99% positive. and a few negative, which is what I expected, but uh Yeah, I'm um I wasn't completely aware of Just where it would go.
But in my opinion, if one person, it makes one person think. Damn, it was worth it.
Well, well done, Coach, and we certainly salute you here at the Mighty 990. And of course, rave reviews coming in about our head coach, Charles Huff, and Coach Huff just doing a remarkable job with the Memphis Tigers. 901-260-5926 is our telephone number. That's 901-260-5926. Daily Memphian.
promoting something called Black Restaurant Week. It has a new name now. It's called Black Dining Week. and one of the people in charge telling the newspaper that he wanted to set up to continue the week long celebration of black owned restaurants. He says, I know it's a great thing for the city.
It's a great thing for black restaurants, the black restaurant business. It was always a good time for people to come out and taste the wonderful cuisine that our black restaurants offer to this great city. That's a direct quote, by the way. There is no word from the newspaper on whether or not there will be an Asian restaurant week or Hispanic restaurant week or, God forbid, a white restaurant week. I don't know.
I'm just old school here, folks. I prefer to judge restaurants by the tastiness of their food and not the color of the people who own the restaurant. That is. That's just me. But, you know, it's the 21st century now where race is really about everything, I suppose.
Anyway, therefore go forth and eat accordingly. 901-260-5926, our telephone number. That's 901-260-5926. A crazy story that we're going to be following on the national show today. A California judge ruling that teachers were right to punish a seven-year-old girl.
Who wrote the words any life? Over a Black Lives Matter drawing. Take a listen. I knew it was wrong fundamentally. I knew something was wrong, like my rights, my daughter's rights were taken away, and Uh I just had to reach out and started reaching out and asking people.
I didn't know what the name of it was. I didn't even know what compelled speech was until I started talking to attorneys. Let's keep that picture up on the screen. Take a look at it. It says Black Lives Matter and Any Life written on the bottom.
And then there's some cute little drawings there. I mean, basically, they're equating this with the Klan, it seems. Alexander, this little girl, forced to give a public apology and then prevented from drawing. Since when are our schools allowed to force speech upon kids? Yeah, absolutely not.
Every student in this country at a public school has a right to free speech.
Now, those rights are even stronger when a school tries to compel speech. That is, when a school tries to make you say something, as opposed to just telling you that you can't say something. That's exactly what happened here. But it's actually even worse than that, Todd, because not only was she made to apologize for a totally innocuous drawing, one that I don't know how you could look at that and see anything but racial tolerance and respect for other races in that picture. But not only was she made to apologize for that, she's actually been punished on top of it.
You know, Chelsea's daughter, and we're not going to say the daughter's name on TV because Really the whole problem in this case is that she got so much unwanted attention. We're not going to give her any more. But Chelsea's daughter was forced to apologize, and then after that, she was deprived of her ability to do art. She suffers from severe ADHD. Art is her main outlet.
Taking that away is a severe deprivation of something that really is a therapeutic effect. Chelsea, I'd like to end these segments with what I think is the most important question beyond the crux of what happened and the crux of the lawsuit. How is your daughter doing? Oh, she's doing great. she doesn't know what's going on.
We don't want to tell her. She's we just went out and bought her a whole bunch of art supplies and we set her up and she's her arts come along leaps and bounds.
So she's doing great. It's More me, I guess, and my husband and That are still upset about this and still just don't know what to do about it. Wow. That's crazy. Crazy.
Oh, by the way, caller number three: you get a free copy of my brand new book, The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America. 901-260-5926. We'll be right back. This is the story of the one. As a shipping manager, he's running the dock, stocking supplies, and making sure every order goes out on time.
And Granger helps him stay prepared. From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Granger to keep products moving and trucks rolling so his operation runs smoothly no matter the shift. Call 1-800GRANGER, clickgranger.com, or just stop by. Granger for the ones who get it done. It is.
68 degrees here in the Principal Toyota Memphis studios. Outside, well, it's a little bit warmer. As a matter of fact, I want to say good morning to all the students at First Assembly Christian School. 76 degrees over on Walnut Drive this morning. It is going to be a hot one.
Laura Huckabee standing by with your full forecast coming up in just a few moments.
Well, we told you about an incredible opportunity. For you to lend a helping hand to our first responders. This is all in memory of the anniversary, the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on America. It's called Stock the Station. And our good friends at Kroger are lending a helping hand.
We're going to go right to our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line and say hello to George Brown, who's going to tell us all about it. George, an honor to have you with us this morning. Hope you're doing well. Good morning, Todd. Thank you so much.
Doing very well. Thanks for having us on. Folks, George is head of communication and public affairs at Kroger. And George, I want you to tell our listeners how they can help you guys out coming up on the Stock the Station event.
Well, Todd, we are always a supporter of our communities, and we're a big supporter of our first responders. And we were kind of talking and we said, you know, with the anniversary of the twenty fifth, Um, terrorist 25th anniversary of the terror attack on 9/11 was coming up, and we wanted to find a way to sort of honor that and also honor our first responder.
So, today, today. from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Kroger at Poplar. And Highland.
So that's 3444 Popper Avenue. You can come by from three to six. And drop off items. We're going to have the fire department there, the sheriff's department there, the police department is going to be there. And we're just asking people to kind of help them a little bit by dropping off items like hand sanitizer, bottled water, Gatorade, mixed packages of chips, really kind of anything that they could use at a firehouse, a police station, kind of keep them going when they're on the scene of an emergency and that sort of thing.
We sort of felt it was a great way to have a positive interaction between first responders and the public. And George, somebody might be listening and they're saying, I want to be able to help out. I don't have those items. It's okay. You can just go into Kroger and buy some and then bring them out and donate afterwards.
Is that the gist of it here? That is the gist of it. You know, I will say we would, of course, love for you to buy those items at Kroger, but if you want to bring those items from another store, that is fine. This is all about coming together as a community to support those first responders. You know, I've been friends with a lot of police officers and folks, especially my past career.
And a lot of times they need a little help. You know, a lot of people don't realize that the firefighters provide their own food at fire stations.
So that's kind of where this started coming from. Even things like paper towels, trash bags. mixed nuts, those sort of things would help. But I feel like this is a great opportunity. I love when we do food drives.
Typically, this food goes to the food bank.
So this one's a little different. But I really encourage people that are listening, especially those with kids, grandkids, To bring them by during that three to six time period and let them help pick out the items, let them help give it to the first responders. I really wanna create that feeling of connection between our younger folks. And the police department, the sheriff's department, the fire department, so that they know that those are folks that they can trust. Those are people that are going to help them in the future.
And we've had a lot of division, as you know, recently. Of a lot of these things, but this is the time to come together and say, Hey, thank you for supporting us. We're going to give back to you. Yeah, I love this idea. George Brown joining us on our Patriot Mobile newsmaker line today.
This is the Memphis first responder supply drive happening today, 3 to 6 o'clock, over at the Kroger at Poplar and Highland. And, George, you're right. I mean, even, you know, even a lot of young people today don't understand what happened on 9-11 and really the ultimate sacrifice that so many first responders made on that day. Oh, one hundred percent. As we've gotten close to the anniversary, you start kind of thinking about it more.
I started looking on X and on different social media channels, watching the video from that day and just thinking. I mean, I have a friend down who is a retired FDNY Um, a fire worker, fire department employee, excuse me, firefighter. I'm trying to think, and he, uh, He actually joined the fire department after 9-11. uh because he was one of those people that was running down the street covered in soot. And he just felt a calling to that.
And he spent many years with the fire department and has recently retired, is now a fire inspector. But I just think about the folks that day that rush into things. There is something in New York City or something in Memphis. They everyone else is running away, they are running to it. And this is just a way for Kroger to say, we support We support you.
We thank you. We donate. By the way, Gregory donates a lot of items to these people, so it's not that we're just asking other people to do it. But this is a way for the community to feel involved and actually be part of it. Oh, no, no, no.
I want to tell you. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was going to say, we're in five other states that I oversee. And in some of those places, what we're doing is instead of doing a drive like this, we're actually having stores bring items to those different fire stations, police departments.
So it's really, you know, a well-rounded, if you will, give back. I just think this is a brilliant thing that you guys are doing and so important. And again, folks, this is an opportunity for you today. Pick up your kids from school, head on over to Kroger, get some of these items, and we'll share these again in just a moment. And if nothing else, your kids are also going to be able to meet some great first responder heroes as well, George.
That is for sure. And again, this McGruff, I believe, is going to be out there and Rhine Fighting Dog. But again, this is really a way we did this a version of this last year, but this is a way for, again, everyone in the community to come out. In a non-emergency time, right? A time where we're all kind of calm and things aren't going crazy, a time for people to come up and talk to that police officer, that firefighter, that sheriff's deputy, kind of ask them what they do, you know, talk to them, thank them for what they do.
I know a lot of people will bring items by fire stations and police substations, and they love that. They appreciate that. But again, this is a chance for people to kind of drop off those items for them. But again, I really love it when I see at any type of food drive, when I see a kid bring the item up and put it in the bin or hand it to somebody, and they see that connection of giving back. I think that's really important to teach, especially young.
So that's one reason I wanted to do this in the afternoon from three to six, so that people could come by after school. Yeah. George, we actually have John Covington in the studio with us. He's coming up to talk about a column. He's stirring stuff up in the city.
You know how John is. But John is also vice president of the Memphis Police Association. John, this has got to make you guys feel good that Kroger's doing something like this. The biggest smile on my face listening to this. This is so awesome.
And I love the idea behind it, and I so fully support it. And thank you so much. It's about creating those connections and honoring.
So, this is a fantastic thing, and thank you, sir. Oh, you are welcome, John. We appreciate everything you do and the officers on the street. And again, this is just a way, it's sort of a give back. It's a way to say thank you, to see people face to face.
Um, in a time where you can snap a picture, you know, you can you could have just a really positive interaction with somebody.
So, we're going to be in the parking lot, and we're going to be kind of if you're looking at the store, if you've been over there, we're going to be over towards the left, a little bit towards Popper Avenue area of the Kroger parking lot. Um, but I love having it out there. We last year we had a gentleman from the police department out there, he had the breast cancer awareness vehicle with him, and he talked to a lot of people as an officer. Um, and he just had the best time interacting with these folks and saying thank you for the donations and them saying thank you to them.
So, again, it's just a way for Kroger to give back to the community. I will be up there, I would love to meet all of you if you've heard us on the radio today. Appreciate it. Todd, thank you so much for giving us time and letting us use your signal to promote this.
So, thank you. Oh, no, we're super excited about this. And I got to give a shout out to my Kroger over in Germantown Farmington. Let me tell you something. I don't know what they put in that banana pudding, but it is very.
Addictive George.
So, God bless the deli folks. They are, that is a wonderful store. And, but again, we appreciate it. And thank you so much for helping to get this work. Oh, yeah.
All right, everybody, that's George Brown, head of comms and public affairs for the Kroger Company. This guy's a bigwig, and we appreciate him coming on K-Wam this morning. Stock the station. Uh, here's the deal: we want there to be traffic jams. I want Commander Chuck on the air this afternoon talking about the traffic jams at Poplar and the Highland as we get out there and we help out the firefighters, hand sanitizer wipes, energy bars, bottled water, crackers, chips, mixed nuts.
These are some things that we have that they need for these first responders.
So let's get out there and do our part. All right. Covington, you're going to hang tight because we're going to talk about your column coming up. Yes, sir. All right.
John Covington has a column that is causing mayhem in the city this morning. We're going to talk about that. Also, caller number two: you will pick up a free signed copy of my brand new book. This is like a $30 value.
So, and I think, well, once you sign it, Covington, I think the price goes down a little bit.
So, yes, I think you're right. Whoops. But anyway, all right, it's worth $28. All you have to do is caller number two. You're going to get a free copy of The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America, President Trump himself endorsing the book, as well as Speaker Mike Johnson.
All you have to do is pick up the phone and give us a call: 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. We'll be right back. All right, it is 77 degrees at Dingtals in Laurelwood.
So I hope they've got the AC going on that chocolate's going to melt. We love our friends at Dingtals, and we love telling the rest of the nation about the great food and the great things that are happening here in the Mid-South. Hey, I want to go real quick to the phone line, say hello to Greg, listening to us this morning at East Memphis. Greg, hope your day is getting off to a good start. Yeah, I can't complain.
It's cooler. Yeah. Well, that's a good thing. Yeah, it's going to get hotter though, so I don't want to burst the bubble here, Greg. But I will tell you this, congratulations, because you just picked up a copy of The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America.
Excellent. This is great. Greg, congratulations. I get a lot of your books, and they're all fantastic.
Well, thank you. I really appreciate that, Greg. And we're going to get you hooked up here with Helen, and she'll tell you how you can get that book. And we're just excited for you to read it. I think you're going to enjoy it.
There's a lot of laughter there.
So congratulations, Greg in East Memphis.
Meanwhile, John Covington is in studio. And John, hope you're doing well. Again, what a great thing Kroger is doing for first responders. I love that so much, and it means the world to officers. Hey, and if you get by dentals, don't buy all the chocolate-covered grapes.
Save some for me. You know, Becky Dunchel's been trying to get me. I just can't do the grapes. I can't do that. Oh, fantastic.
We're going to have to agree to disagree, my friend. But I'm telling you, I didn't realize what they did for Elvis Week with the little chocolate-covered banana rounds. Holy smokes! Whoa, I gotta, okay. It's like, it's like fentanyl.
I don't know. It's really good, though. It's addictive. All right. You've got a column out here in the Daily Memphian, and it is really causing a lot of controversy talking about this redistricting.
And you point out that the Democrats have framed this as being racist.
Well, that's right. Justin Pearson and obviously, and then Otis Stanford have come out and they're using very uh Hyperbolic language, you know, Jim Crow, racism, all these things, all this emotion, which so often that you see that. In my opinion, the left brings emotion to an argument, the right brings the facts. And when you look at the the facts, you can call it racism all you want. And in fact, uh the title of the piece is.
Calling partisanship uh racism doesn't make it so. And if you look at the facts, The redistricting was done, and you may not, you might shy away from hard-notice, bare-knuckle politics, but that's what it is. They wanted another Republican seat. And quite frankly, race had nothing to do with it. No, as a matter of fact, race did have everything to do with the Supreme Court stepped in.
They said you cannot build these districts based on skin color alone. You can't do that. That's right. And once that change was made, the Republicans were from Marsha Blackburn to people in the state legislature were very clear this was an opportunity. To create another Republican seat, and they were going to go for it.
So the Supreme Court had made that change. And uh it was based on political if you look at every fact It was all based on political maneuvering, and this is not the first time it's happened. And Democrats have done it across the nation as well when they've had the opportunity.
Now, maybe there's a debate to be had about whether gerrymandering these things are ultimately for the good, but that's not the debate the left wants to have. They want to call this just racism and inflame everybody when it's just not the facts. It's not diluting the black vote, it's deluding the Democrat voter. That's right. That's the whole point here.
And, you know, back in 2020, they did it. They they've done it before in Nashville, which was majority white city. Democratic, they broke it up, did the same thing. And it was, again, it was a concentration of Democrats. That's what it was all about, not skin color, but they wanted more Republican representation.
So, here, I do have one concern about the whole redistricting thing, and it's that Memphis might end up getting the short stick because when you look at the Republicans, they don't live here, they live in Williamson County and other deep red parts of the district going all the way to Middle Tennessee. And that could be said, the same could be said of the 5th congressional district where Charlie Hatcher's running as well. Right, and again, that's a legitimate debate. And there's legitimate things to talk about redistricting, but when you come in and start screaming Jim Crow, racism. Then you don't have a deb What you you're robbed of is an actual philosophical debate.
That would be to the good just to have those discussions, but that gets taken off the table. I mean, do you know Otis Sanford? Have you had a chance to meet him and talk to him? I've met him on a couple of occasions. What's the deal there?
Does he really believe this or is he just, you know, is he out there just spewing this to get clicks? It's hard to say. You know, and my reaction was a piece that he wrote that came on really strong, and then I broadened it as I was writing it to Justin Pearson that, you know, it's coming from just more than one place. I don't know what the motivation is, but if you go back and there's a link to his piece, he makes the argument for it being a political decision and at the very end draws the wrong conclusion. he he makes my argument as well.
So I I don't know what the motivation is, but we need to move away from this kind of politics because it achieves nothing except divides people and creates a bunch of emotions. No, that's it. I mean, that's it. And they know that's the third rail, and that's why they're playing. And that's what angers me about people like Otis Sanford and Justin Pearson.
They know what they're doing. Oh, absolutely. And again I like logic. I like facts. I like discussion.
I like positive change. And when you bring emotion into it, Facts go out the window, and then you're getting shouted down. In fact, I'm getting. Texts and comments, and it's all attacking me as being some kind of a racist. When all I'm saying is, if you look at the facts, Calling this redistricting anything but political gamesmanship is just wrong.
John Cummington, joining us from the Memphis Police Association, has a terrific piece up on the Daily Memphian. And again, going back to the this racing cracks me up. They had opportunities every single election cycle. Black Democrats challenged Steve Cohen from the very first time he ran to the last time he ran. And yet the Democrats always went with the white guy and they not the black candidate.
So again, if this is really about race, You know, that's what does that tell you exactly. And then, if you go back and look at the history, 1990, 2000, every time after a census, back when Democrats had more control in the state, they were doing the exact same stuff. Wow, all right, John coming to that music means we've got to scoot out of here, folks. Go and read his great column over the daily Memphian. It's the only thing worth reading, to be honest with you.
But all right, folks, 11 o'clock, the Todd Stern show right here on the Mighty Night 90. Coming up next, Armstrong and Getty. Stay cool, everybody. Crank that AC.
