Bicentennial

In late 2017, the city of Memphis decided to sell off the parks in which the Nathan Bedford Forrest Statue was located, essentially marking the end of the statue in Memphis, Obviously this did not please the ludicrous state government in Nashville, as they believed they had to commit some act of retribution. The state government decided to take 250,000 dollars away from Memphis for its bicentennial funding, While the city of Memphis claims it did not even know about the money it was receiving, this is still an absurd tactic that should not be tolerated in 2018. The fact that the state government feels like they can take money away from the city of Memphis due to it finally taking down a racist statue, shows the outward racism that the legislature in Nashville commits. There has been a G0-Fund me created to raise money for the cities bicentennial, but a better option would to raise money for things such as free homeless shelter or to help fund out schools. The Commercial Appeal recently posted an article discussing how Memphis should secede from Tennessee, but this is a ludicrous idea that gives into this division that the state legislature in Nashville is trying to create and foster. This us versus them idea that the state has foster will only lead to the state trying to punish the city of Memphis more for the decisions that they make. The city of Memphis has many issues of its own regarding issues revolving around race, which makes this state legislature versus the city of Memphis dichotomy even more complicated. Ten city has major issues in the areas of public housing, school segregation, and the law and order rhetoric that Jim Strickland used during his mayoral campaign in 2015. It is necessary that the city of Memphis uses this awareness of its bicentennial to try and create awareness of some the terrible things that the city of Memphis has done in the past regarding race and still continue to do in 2018. While it is great that the city will likely get its bicentennial funding back through crowdsourcing, the money would be much better spent going towards issues that the city actually faces. It is important that the individuals who fostered this environment in the state legislature be voted out and also individuals who have failed for so long in solving Memphis’s problems regarding the issue of race. Memphis has a lot of thinking to do in its 200^th year.
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2018/04/18/memphis-confederate-statue-removal-fallout-gofundme-created-help-bicentennial-fees/528023002/