WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): Tennessee is still taking stock of this year's host of new state laws. With us again to talk about what passed is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you for having me, Chris.
BLANK: Well, before we get to those, Otis, Monday's loss of historic Clayborn Temple in a fire came as a real shock to everybody. As we know, Memphis hasn't always been a good steward of its history, but when people and nonprofit groups do work so hard to save a landmark, it is such a gut punch to lose it. You know, as we're looking at these ruins, though, it's hard to see a path forward for this group. In the wake of this fire, what kind of conversations do you want to hear from city leaders?
SANFORD: First of all, how are you going to be leaders and lead the effort to make sure that this monument really is not just totally obliterated and lost to history? I want the city leadership to, sort of, be at the front of the parade making sure that this community takes on this restoration project as a community-wide effort. Not just Memphis, but Memphis and the Mid-South. And then, in addition to that, I would hope that people who who make money in this community, who put businesses in this community, would step forward, as well. This is going to require -- and it should be a broad effort -- to restore such a treasured landmark as Clayborn Temple.
BLANK: Well, in the spirit of coming together for good causes, let's talk about a few state laws that did get bipartisan support this year. There weren't many, I should say, but it did happen. And to start: a love of animals seems to be a theme in our legislature. There were a few bills passed to help our furry friends. I wonder, do you have a personal favorite?
SANFORD: Well, I like them all. We have a little pooch who runs around here at our house and I would never want him to be mistreated, or abandoned, I think is one of the bills that passed where you got stiffer penalties for abandoning animals.
BLANK: Not one legislator voted against one particular law paying the medical expenses of retired police K-9 dogs.
SANFORD: Actually, that was the one, now that you mention it, that I may favor. Because we're talking about service dogs, here. And not just service dogs that walk around with people. These are service dogs who help solve crimes and nab the bad guy. They need to be taken care of. And so, yeah, if I had to pick one, that would be mine.
BLANK: Well, the state's four private prisons all run by CoreCivic, have a shoddy record of keeping inmates safe. And one new bill that also did not get a single no vote was punishing the private prisons for not keeping them safe. Anything surprising there?
SANFORD: Well, I think the surprise there is that it did not get a single no vote, which tells me that CoreCivic obviously didn't spread enough campaign contributions around to enough people to forestall at least some people coming to their defense.
BLANK: Right, they are a major supporter of Republicans in the state.
SANFORD: Well, that's right. But the Republicans obviously did not see that as a reason to not do what is right. And they did what is right here. We cannot have the level of uncertainty about inmates, the level of deaths. I mean, we have enough of that already. And so I applaud the legislature for doing this.
BLANK: Well, finally another bill with zero no votes was the Voyeurism Victims Act. Tougher penalties for people who use intimate photos or videos in a harmful way. It sounds like that was a bill whose time had finally come in the legislature.
SANFORD: Oh, no question about it. As a matter of fact, I hoped they would have called it the A.C.A. Act, the Anti-Creep Act, because anybody who does that is a creep. And I read the details of what spurred this legislation, with women who came forward on one guy who had done this to several women and had relations with them and then secretly took photos and spread them around. You can't get any creepier than that. And so, again, kudos to the legislature for doing something that obviously the time had come.
BLANK: So it turns out we can agree on a few things, Otis.
SANFORD: Well, we can. And, you know, the legislature, while I bash it all the time... And I do, and I did. Not everything that they do is wrongheaded and partisan and draconian and taking us back to the 1950s. Now a lot of it is. But not everything. And these are examples we're talking about today that are. And there was some bipartisan legislation that passed from our local delegation. It's not all partisan, it's not all vitriol, and I'm glad to see that.
BLANK: Well, I'm glad we can end this week with a little good news in the political realm.
SANFORD: I am too, because we know next week we'll probably be talking about some other dunderhead stuff that's going on out there.
BLANK: I expect we will. Political analyst Otis Sanford joins us each week to talk about Tennessee politics.
