I grew up in small-town America. I went to church multiple times a week. My parents were married when they had me, and they’re still married now. My graduating class from high school was 43 people. I listened to a ton of country music. I never even met a Black person my own age, aside from the kid of a friend of my father’s, until I went to college. I knew more neo-Nazis growing up than I did Black people. My parents had the kinds of attitudes about sexual minorities that you’d expect from rural Midwesterners at the time — confusion and sometimes upsettedness. And even though I’m the oldest kid in my family, my dad told me multiple times that my brother, as the oldest son, just had a different, more important position in the family. And it stung, but I accepted it as I looked around my community and saw that, even as girls were loved and cherished, boys were more important. Because my parents were making do on the salaries of a minister and a teacher, we started coming to Nashville on vacation shortly after I was born.
I’m not saying this to dog on my parents. I just want you to understand that, as different as Tennessee Republicans may view themselves as being from me, they are the people in this state with whom I have the most in common. Even as I’ve wandered quite a way from my upbringing, the foundational lessons of my life come from the same places that, say, Gov. Bill Lee’s or state House Speaker Cameron Sexton’s do.
This is why I find so many of their decisions so baffling. I know I don’t know more than they do or have the benefit of some religious viewpoint or philosophical background that they don’t have. And yet — AND YET — I heard Aaron Tippen on the radio singing, “You got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything,” and I believed him. I took that advice to heart as a worthwhile way of moving through the world, and it has served me well. This is the same reason that, even as I’m sitting here writing this while much of the rest of Nashville is in church, I still take many of Jesus’ teachings into consideration as I’m going about my life. That's not because I have some grave fear of hell if I don’t, but because I have found that having a set of values that orient me toward love of others and justice makes my life better. As both Bunk and Omar said in The Wire, a man’s got to have a code.
‘Commissioner Reynolds is legally unqualified and she must resign’
This is a longwinded way of getting to my problem with state Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds. Because it’s not just that she doesn’t meet the clear standard of being able to teach at the highest level of education that she oversees (though I guess she is rectifying that), and it’s not that she apparently doesn’t live here, though that is hilarious. It’s that Republicans see nothing wrong with this. I mean, I get that they want someone in that position who will enact their policies and that they don’t give a shit about flouting the laws they’re supposed to uphold. But Reynolds is going to bail on them the second things get too hard here. That’s just as clear as day. And I get why they don’t give a shit if she troubles us, but why don’t they give a shit about the trouble she’s going to bring them?
I’m just going by Jesus here, who says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” And Reynolds’ treasure is in Texas. Where she lives. What is tying her here and making it worth her while to stick through tough times?
The other big clue we have that her heart isn’t really in it is that she took the job. Think of it this way: Let's say you see a child who has just gotten hit by a car, and this child is lying in the road, screaming and crying. There’s you, and it turns out, the guy in the truck behind you is a paramedic. Oh, and there’s a bunch of students heading to their nursing classes getting off the bus right there! And as luck would have it, an ER doctor and a couple of surgeons happen to be walking by. Are you going to push any of them out of the way to be the person who tries to give medical attention to the child?
Of course not. You’re not the most qualified person available. You’re going to let the people whose jobs it is to save lives try to save this kid. You are going to realize that your involvement will probably hurt more than it helps.
So I ask you, what kind of person would hear about a job helping kids, look at the list of qualifications, see that they don’t have those qualifications, and still take the job?
To go back to the kid in the street, would you think it was OK for you to butt your way into the position of helping him if, as you were trying to stabilize him, you were also watching YouTube videos on first aid? You’d think that was better than the doctors and nurses and paramedics on the scene? Of course not, it’s ludicrous.
So why would Reynolds take a job that she knew she didn’t qualify for? Why did she think that getting the credentials she needs was something she could just do while also doing the job?
Republicans float drastically different proposals for Gov. Lee’s pet project
I posit that it is because she does not give a shit. Because if she did, she would not have taken the job, because she knows she’s not qualified.
Again, if this were just about the GOP making the libs cry, I could understand it. But if she’s going to successfully enact the Republicans’ agenda, she needs to give a shit about it. And it seems so clear to me that she does not give a shit about Tennessee, which makes it quite likely she will fail at her job, which will obviously lead to frustration and consternation for Gov. Lee and Speaker Sexton.
This is the woman who’s just gotten her face eaten by a leopard after voting for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party reaching down to pet another leopard. Why would you do that?
If basic self-interest doesn’t persuade you, and guidance from your God doesn’t persuade you, and warnings from others don't persuade you, and people telling you straight-up who they are doesn’t persuade you, and your own personal experience of harm doesn’t persuade you, what can persuade you to not do the thing that is going to harm you?
I’m not trying to be out here giving advice to Republicans. But if you’re trying to pass legislation that fundamentally changes how we fund schooling here in the state and you’re already getting pushback from rural Republicans, you need an education commissioner who is dedicated to the fight — not one who has one foot out the door.
