Quilts for John Lewis, with joy and gratitude - Atlanta Quilt Festival, part 1

Last week I was in my house in Georgia, again. For those who have not read my prior posts - my house has an address in Marietta, however it is located about 10 miles outside the center of town and city limits. It is nearer two other towns, 6 miles each from Kennesaw and Acworth and 6 miles even from Dallas in the next rural county, Paulding. There is an article in The Discoverer blog mentioning Marietta - read it here "8 of the Most Underrated Cities in the South." I have visited five of these eight - including Ellijay, Georgia; I wrote several posts including Ellijay, look here and here. Below is an overview of Marietta center. My house is west of it, at the base of Kennesaw Mountain, in West Cobb County (where I placed a red mark.) (photo coursesy The Discoverer.) The bottom photos are about a couple of miles from my house.

While there I wanted to go on a small outing, not far. When checking, I found several exhibits in greater Atlanta including a quilt show. I enjoy visiting quilt shows and have posted several from Bulloch Hall, in Roswell, GA - you can find them by clicking on the side of my post. When I saw that this was a special exhibit in honor of our late Georgia Congressman, John Lewis, of course I had to go. It was in Southwest Atlanta, off Cascade Road, at the Southwest Arts Center. Arriving there in mid-morning, two visitors were leaving, and then I was the only one, having the show all to myself. The center is immaculate and well landscaped.

The Atlanta Quilt Festival honoring John Lewis is a trilogy started in 2022 with "Good Trouble Quilts - Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Congressman John Lewis" followed in 2023 and 2024 by quilts focusing on the accomplishments and the life of John, and the power of joy and gratitude expressed by quilters who benefited from his work and sacrifices.

The side building had two large and sunny rooms with the John Lewis quilts.

Most of the quilts in these rooms had small labels next to each quilt with the quilter's name and the meaning of the work. (Please click on collage once or twice to enlarge and be able to read.)

John Lewis was a magnificent man, a good man, an inspiration, a Civil Rights giant. I believe he is one of the most admired and respected Americans in the nation, and frankly, he is a hero of mine. John Lewis (1940-2020) was among the original Freedom Riders (the Black and white activists who challenged segregation in the South in 1961.) He helped organize the March on Washington, where Dr. King was the main speaker. On March 7, 1965, John lead a group of 600 who were marching to demand the right to vote in Selma, Alabama. As they were crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge they were met by state troopers in riot gear. As they would not disperse the troopers threw tear gas and attacked the marchers with bullwhips and rubber tubing wrapped with barbed wire. There, a trooper cracked John's skull with a club and beat him again while he was on the ground. Some of the quilts below depicts this.

Between 1960 and 1966 John Lewis was arrested 40+times, and beaten repeatedly by Southern policemen. He was left in a pool of blood in Montgomery, Alabama, in a bus terminal where white people had beaten him. He spent many nights in county jails including 31 days in Mississippi's brutal Parchman Penitentiary.

Here in Nashville, John Lewis in February 1960 led a group of students to sit-down at the Woolworth's lunch counter, where only whites could be served. The counter was closed one hour later and the students arrested. John Lewis kept pursuing civil rights equity for the rest of his life. The early movement in Nashville was the start of desegregation of lunch counters and restaurants across the US. (Below vintage photo courtesy The Nashville Tennessean.)

A couple of years ago I had heard that this Woolworth building downtown Nashville had re-opened as a lunch and dinner restaurant after a $6 million renovation. The owner, a Nashville native, had found and assembled many vintage historical artifacts to place in this building, such as the "Black only" sign near a water fountain. The original mezzanine with terrazzo floors and metal railings had also be uncovered. Archival photos were hanged on the wall. I was going to drive there for lunch but then Covid happened. Just now, trying to see if it was still open for business I found out that it closed after the pendemic and was sold. It was re-opened by entrepeneurs after being remodeled into a theatre, Las Vegas style, with a "for adults only" show called "shiners," with some X-rated scenes, and all of it very much insensitive to minorities. Historic Nashville had recommended that a Civil Rights Movement trained preservationist be included in the remodeling to ensure that items of historical value be preserved. This was not done and most were tossed away in a dumpster. Last fall the building was even rented for the premiere of the controversial right-wing film "The Greatest Lie ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of the Black Lives Matter." Well, I have no words... Below top photo the building after renovation in 2018 then after remodeling as a theatre in 2020, courtesy Nashville Scene.

It is quite painful for me to see this happening to such an historical building, but then again I am not surprised. In Atlanta there are few historical Civil Rights buildings left, and those that are still standing have received little recognition and are in disrepair; not much for future generations to visit. After having lived in the US many years I realized that this country is not interested in preserving its historical buildings if they have to spend their money, and certainly not for Black History... I wish US tourists would stay here and spend some of their money preserving their own old buildings than crowd European cities like my home town, Paris, France. I checked and in 2022 the US Government funding for the arts (and that includes historic preservation, museums, theatres, etc.) was about $4.40 per habitat. Per comparison France in 2023 is funding the arts in greater Paris 139 Euros per habitat, or $150.21, and 15 Euros, or $16.21 for the rest of the country. If French tax payers did not pay for the arts, by now all the old castles, churches and all the museums would not be worth visiting, as entry fares alone are not enough to maintain them, and churches don't even charge. I have been a member of the American Historic Preservation for many years. Yearly membership is less than a fancy meal at a restaurant. I don't know anyone else who belongs. Here is the latest issue I received.

There were a large amount of quilts in the main building, and I'll show them in part two of this post. More to come ...

Indian Regiments marching in Paris Bastille Day Parade, 14 July 2023

(Notice: I have not written a post in almost three months, but am making up with this post...) Time has gone by very quickly since my last post in early May on my trip to the North Georgia Mountains. When I returned to my house in Cobb County, GA., the water heater needed to be replaced. Then in June I traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to spend time with my daughter Celine and her family. I had planned to write a post on this visit but had to return to my house in Georgia in early July because two trees had fallen on the roof.

As I am writing this post my air conditioning unit stopped working on Friday in the upper part of the house in Nashville. My bedroom temperature went up to 97 F (36 C,) making it difficult to have a good night sleep. The Weather Forecast Channel on TV just told us to expect more warm days coming up - feeling like 117 F (47.2C) in Nashville. Scientists are saying that this month of July 2023 has been the warmest on record so far and might even be the warmest the planet has experienced in 120,000 years! But, no fear, my hairdresser in Georgia told me last week that there is no climate change, it's just a "liberal" plot ... (Cartoon courtesy New Orleans The Times Picayune.)

Through the plantation shutters next to my laptop desk I can see little birds getting a relief from the heat in the small water dish I placed on the front porch. It is the bottom dish of a large planter. I also placed a "Mosquito Dunk" tablet in it to avoid mosquito larvae (non toxic to birds, pets, animals or humans) that I purchased on Amazon. I like watching all the different birds having a good time, sometimes up to 6 or 8 of them at a time.

In spite of my house problems I was able to watch the Paris 14 of July celebrations on the French Military Armed Forces website and also on the Mayor of Paris website. The French National Holiday is called "Le 14 Juillet" (14 July) but English speaking people call it "Bastille Day" after the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 during the French Revolution (however, in France, no one would know what you mean if you asked about Bastille Day.) What people don't realize here is that there were only 3 prisoners in the huge Bastille jail then. The people had stormed it because it contained arms and ammunitions, not to free the 3 prisoners. In previous posts I explained the history of the holiday; please look under Bastille Day on the right side of my blog.

The celebrations start on the evening of July 13 with a torchlight procession, that is, participants in many cities and villages walk down streets holding torches or lanterns/lampoons in their hands, following a local band, then go on to a public square for public dancing. On the morning of the 14 there is the traditional Défilé Militaire du 14 juillet, or Bastille Day Military Parade, down the Champs-Elysees. Started in 1880, it is one of the oldest military parades in the world. It is the main official event honoring French military regiments and includes each year different invited foreign guests and regiments. This is one of the main occasions when you will see many French flags all around. French people respect their flag but the rest of the time they don't have it on their cars, or flown from their houses, etc. You will see it in official places like schools, police stations, customs check-points, and in support of the national teams during international competitions but you won't find it in front of a commercial business, or on tee-shirts, baseball caps, clothes or other decorative objects. As in many European countries (apart from the UK that is a constitutional monarchy)people placing out too many national flags are frown upon and considered to be extreme-right extremists, or uber nationalists. In addition, there is no "Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag" in France like in the United States. Again, most European citizens of democratic countries would find it quite bizarre, not saying undemocratic, incredibly creepy and borderline fascistic.

For 2023, the Bastille Day parade included 6,500 people (5,100 of them marching,) 64 planes, 28 helicopters, 157 ground vehicles, 62 motorcycles, 200 horses and 86 dogs. Nearly 15 countries were invited to the parade including India, this year guest of honor. Prime Minister Norendra Modi watched the parade alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. It was also the 25th anniversary of the India-France Strategic Partnership and the 70th anniversary of the Patrouille de France. The Patrouille had their traditional aerial display that included French-made Indian war planes. Vehicles on display included the Caesar anti-missile batteries that France is providing to Ukraine, and Ukrainian officials were also invited to join Pres. Macron in the VIP seats. Below Patrouille de France (courtesy Ministeres des Armees.)

Another highlight were students from partner African military schools (Benin, Congo-Brazzavile, Gabon, Madagascar, Ivory Coast and Senegal) marching with residents of French military schools. Below photos of two of the African military schools in the parade, from Madagascar on top photo and Ivory Coast on the bottom. (Courtesy Madagascar Tribune.)

In tribute to the 80th anniversary of the disappearance of Jean Moulin, the French civil servant hero who created the National Council of the French Resistance, musicians played the "Chant des partisants," a song that is a symbol of indomitable spirit against evil. This was the French Resistance anthem during World War II. Jean Moulin, 1899-1943, the leader of the Resistance, was tortured by the Nazis in one prison after another and died in 1943 in a train taking him to Germany. An international orchestra, made up of 80 musicians from France and 14 partner countries (Canada, The Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States) played for the parade until the Patrouille de France flew over.

The parade included a 269 member tri-services contingent of the Indian Armed Forces with 77 marching personnel and 38 band members (including the Rajputana Rifles Regiment Band,) led by Captain Aman Jagtap. The Indian Navy contingent was being led by Commander Vrat Baghel, while Squadron Leader Sindhu Reddy lead the Indian Air Force contingent. The Punjab Regiment had been selected to represent the Indian Army for this Bastille Day celebrations. The Punjab Regiment, one of the oldest Infantry Regiments of the Indian Army that traces its origins to 1761, had participated in both World Wars as well as post-independence operations. Historically, 107 years ago, the Punjab Regiment had marched down the Champs-Elysees for the 14 July 1916 parade, after taking part in some battles of World War I. (Photos courtesy Ministere des Armees, La Ville de Paris, and the Élysée Palace.) Please click on collage to enlarge.

Below are vintage photographs and postcards of the Punjab Regiment at the 14 July parade of 1916 and at the rail station Gare du Nord (below right.) Top left photo is a French lady pinning a flower in gratitude on one of the Indian soldiers' lapel.

World War I began on August 4, 1914, after Great Britain declared war against Germany. When the British Army requested military support from their Indian colony, Sikhs, Pendjabis and Gurkas arrived in Marseille, France. On September 26, 1914, the British Punjab's 20th troop of the Lahore Division and of the 129th Baluchis of pre-partition India were the first colonial force to deploy in Europe. They trained in Marseille while waiting to be sent to the front lines. Below are vintage postcards of the Anglo-Indian regiments in Marseille, France in Sept. 1914.

Then these Anglo-Indian troops went to Toulouse and Orleans, France, on their way north. Between September 1914 and October 1918, 140,000 Indian troops arrived to fight in France and Belgium. Below are vintage postcards of them in France.

As you can see there were quite a few Indian troops in the First World War, but I have never heard about them in the US - they must have been forgotten here. I tried to find books in English on this subject, but could not, but I did find books published in France. Below a couple of them plus an article on the Excelsior Journal published in France on December 14, 1914, showing injured Indian soldiers.

In the north of France they took part in an offensive near Neuve-Chapelle from March 10 to 13, 1915, earning the Battle Honors "Loos" and "France and Flanders" - over 8,550 were killed and as many as 50,000 more were wounded. In total about 10,000 Indian soldiers died in France during the First World War. Several monuments in their honor were erected in France, notably the Neuve-Chapelle Memorial. It was inaugurated on 7 October, 1927, by Marshal Foch, and attended by the Maharaja of Karputhala, Rudyard Kipling and a large contingent of Indian veterans representing units that fought in France, including Sikhs, Dogras and Garhwalis. Marshal Ferdinand Foch (French, 1851-1919,) the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces (and generally considered the leader most reponsible for the Allied victory,) gave a speech, including this: "Return to your homes in the distant, sun-bathed East and proclaim how your countrymen drenched with their blood the cold northern land of France and Flanders, and how they delivered it by their ardent spirit from the firm grip of a determined army; tell all India that we shall watch over their graves with the devotion due to all our dead. We shall cherish above all the memory of their example. They showed us the way, they made the first steps towards the final victory." Speaking after the war, Marshal Foch said the Indian Army had delivered the war's first decisive steps to victory; they were critical in stemming the tide of the German invasion of Belgium and France. Without their early arrival, the port of Calais would not have been saved, the Western Front would have been breached and the British Expeditionary Forces annihilated. Below photos of the Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial.

Again in World War II, 1.5 million Anglo-Indian soldiers (including Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs) came to defend Africa and Europe. 130,000 of them came to France where thousands died or were wounded. They earned 16 Battle Honors and 14 Theatre Honors. On May 28, 1940, 300 Indian soldiers (all of them Muslims) and 23 British troops evacuated the city of Dunkirk, but their story has been mostly forgotten, as well as in movies about Dunkirk. Read about it here or on the BBC report here. (World War Two: The forgotten Indian soldiers of Dunkirk.) Numerous soldiers hailing from former French trading posts in India - now in present day Pondicherry/Puducherry - also fought in France. France never forgot the suffering and heroism of all these men. President Macron tweeted "This 14 July, soldiers and Rafale aircraft from India are marching and flying alongside our troops. We honor the memory of those who fough with the French in the two World Wars." Photo below British Indian Army Service Corps on parade in France in 1940 (courtesy Wikipedia.)

Another unsung hero coming from India was Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944) the descendant of Indian royalty. She was the daughter of an Indian Sufi mystic, Inayat Khan, born in Bombay. He lived in Europe as a musician and teacher of Sufism where he became the head of the "Sufi Order of the West." Her mother was an American, Ora Ray Baker, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Noor, also known as Nora Baker, was an SOE agent under the French Resistance, her code name was "Madeleine." She was the first female wireless operator sent from the UK to aid the French Resistance during World War II. She was betrayed, captured, tortured then executed at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. On January 16, 1946, French President Charles de Gaulle awarded her the Croix de Guerre (highest civilian honor.) She was also honored with the British S. George Cross. There is a plaque (shown below) outside her family home in Suresnes, France. A band plays there every year on Bastille Day. A square in the city of Suresnes has been named Cours Madeleine after her. Photos courtesy the National Archives and Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust: top left Noor and her mother Ora, next to Noor playing her veena instrument; bottom photo of Noor's family.

A school in Suresnes, a city 9.3 km (5.7 miles) from the center of Paris, is named after her.

French history with India is a long one, over three centuries, from 1674 to 1954. I remember when I was a small girl studying in Paris public primary school, France still had trading posts in India. I had to memorize their difficult to pronounce names. They sounded so exotic - I dreamed of visiting these far-away places. I have not yet, but it's still on my list... In 1673, under the reign of French King Louis XIV, France purchased Chandernagore from the Mughal Governor of Bengal. The following year France purchased Pondicherry from the Sultan of Bijapur, and other parts of south India. After the Treaty of Paris of 1763 France only kept five "comptoirs" (or trading posts) in India: Pondicherry, Chandernagor, Karikal, Mahe and Yanaon. (I still remember their names!) When India obtained its independence from the UK in 1947, talks were taken to return four of the French comptoirs to the Indian Union. This was done on November 1, 1954. However the people of Pondicherry were pro-French and feared the overpowering weight of the Indian administrative machinery. After several years of negotiations, an agreement was reached between France and India and a treaty was ratified by the French Parliament in July 1962. By this treaty Pondicherry became Indian Territory and its inhabitants Indian nationals. However, France gave them a six-month opportunity to obtain French citizenship - 8000 of them signed up. It was difficult for them to decide as they were Indians but also went to French schools, spoke French and had been imbued with French culture.

Of course, now sixty-two years later, the French influence in Pondicherry is fading away, but still...it retains some French culture, for example the headgear of the policemen represents the design adopted in France. There are many French-style houses left along the Bay of Bengal. Pondicherry has a large "French" area in town, with French city streets, cobblestones, restaurants, etc. French is one of the official languages of the Pondicherry's government. A French church, built in 1855, offers mass in three languages - Tamil, French and English. Many streets have retained their French names. There are still 5,500 French-Indian and French people living there, many retire there from France as well. A few years ago the film "The Life of Pi" was filmed in Pondicherry, starting with a scene in the shaded and peaceful Jardins Botaniques. (Photos courtesy Pondy Tourism.)

Pondicherry, Pondichéry in French, Pondy for short or Puducherry, as it is officially known, is not a large town. It is about 150 miles from the large city of Chennai (was Madras) on the south eastern coast of India. It's a little bit of France in India. The French Quarter is reminiscent of the New Orleans French Quarter. There is a French Consulate (see their sign in the heading photo) French school and college, The Alliance Francaise, French bakeries and shops and, of course, the celebrations of the 14 of July, or Bastille Day in India.

Bastille Day is a yearly festival in Pondy. On the evening of the 13th there is a lantern march along the Beach Promenade followed by a public dancing for 600 people. Several buildings are illuminated in blue, white and red after the French flag. The police band plays national songs of India and France as part of the celebration. On the 14th, there is a march to the monuments honoring French-Indians and Indians who died in the wars and also to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi (that is illuminated in the tri-colors.) In the evening of the 14th traditional fireworks are fired in front of the French Consulate. I don't think another foreign country in Asia (or anywhere else) sponsors an official French Bastille Day.

Meanwhile, in Paris, on this July 14, 2023, the crowd attended the usual free concert followed by the fireworks shot from the Eiffel Tower. (Photos courtesy City of Paris.)

Addendum to Nashville grieving and gun violence

This addendum was started several days ago. Then I stopped writing it thinking that most people would not be interested in reading it. Many bloggers prefer to talk about family, food, gardening, travel or other more palatable subjects than gun violence. I believe that if you are part of society, enjoying its pleasures and benefits is fine but remaining silent during its trials is almost being complicit. So I decided to finish writing it - if only one person in Tennessee changes their mind about voting for an extreme right-wing politician, then it is worth it.

Here is a continuation of my post of Thursday, April 6, 2023, Nashville grieving,explaining the shooting in Nashville at the Covenant School, a local elementary school. As I mentioned in that post I was trying to provide clear explanations to my family and readers from overseas in reply to their requests. Seen from overseas the US gun laws make no sense. They cannot understand why this country is unable to control gun violence. Please read my last post first then come back here to read the rest of the story... On Thursday March 30, 2023, three days after the shooting, a crowd entered the halls of the Tennessee Capitol where the lawmakers were gathered for a floor session. The Tennessee State Capitol was built on a hill in Nashville with the help of convicts and enslaved people and finished in 1859. See vintage postcards below. The picture on the right was the TN State Library until 1953 when it was moved.

The crowd of children, teenagers and parents came to demand action on gun safety and kept chanting "Shame on you" and "Children are dead and you don't care." Several lawmakers placed headphones on their ears so they would not hear, then microphones were turned off in the public areas to block out the chants and a 5-minute recess was called. During the recess, TN State Democratic Representatives Justin Jones of Nashville, joined Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, and Justin Pearson of Memphis, to the podium with a megaphone, to be heard and to conduct the "Gun control now!" chant with the people in the balcony where kids and adusts (even adults with babies) were chanting.

The rest of the lawmakers exited the chamber for about 1/2 hour and when they returned the Speaker of the House, Republican Cameron Sexton, said that this was "not acceptable behavior" and action would be taken in the next few days against the three Democrat representatives. On Monday April 3, 2023, the TN Republican lawmakers filed a resolution to expel those three, now nicknamed the Tennessee Three (TN 3.) They had already been removed from their committees and had their State Capitol identity badges deactivated. Speaker Sexton said they had broken "several rules of decorum and procedure on the House Floor." Below photo of floor of the TN State Legislature, courtesy ABC.

Speaker Sexton accused Rep. Justin Pearson of having given a "temper tantrum" like a spoiled kid wanting attention. Later he added: "What they did today was at least equivalent, maybe worse, depending on how you look at it, of doing an insurrection in the Capitol." Really? Worse than the insurrection on the Washington Capitol on January 6, when a horde armed with weapons stormed the Capitol looking to kill the US Speaker of the House, to hang the Vice-President, killing and injuring Capitol Police, and urinating and thrashing the building? Really? The Tennessee Three's violation of the rules of decorum was worse that this insurrection? Please... Dictionary definition of decorum "Decorums - the conventions or requirements of polite behavior." On Thursday April 6, 2023, the TN 3 were given twenty minutes each to speak and to answer questions. Then the Tennessee House voted to expel the two Justins (both 28 years old) but spared Gloria Johnson (aged 60) by one vote only. Photo below, courtesy WBIR.

By Thursday April 6th the US media as well as the international press were aware of the expulsion proceedings and were watching. I watched it also on television. The TN 3 gave amazing speeches with courage and eloquence. But to no avail. No surprise here with the Republicans having a supermajority in the TN House of Representatives. The political makeup of the 113th General Assembly is 75 Republicans, 23 Democrats and 1 vacancy. Tennessee is one of the reddest states in the union with only two blue counties: Memphis in Shelby County and Nashville in Davidson County. See map below of TN counties showing the 2022 gubernatorial election results, courtesy Wikimedia. I just read that Tennessee is the least democratic of the 50 United States.

It was noted how the Justin Jones and Justin Pearson (by then named the two Justins) were questioned in a demeaning and condescending way compared to Ms. Gloria Johnson. It sounded like "you should know your place and not have an uppitity behavior." When the expulsion was announced the crowd was screaming "shame!" Some wondered if it had not been "payback" for Justin Jones of Nashville who was leading a movement in 2019 to remove a bust of Confederate cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest, first Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard and trader of enslaved people. Finally in 2021 the bust was removed from its prominent place in the State Capitol. (Photo courtesy Tennessee Lookout.)

In the state of Tennessee expulsion or banishment from the Chamber has been used just several times since the Civil War. In 1866, six lawmakers were ousted for trying to prevent citizenship to formerly enslaved people as required by the 14th Amendment; in 1980 a member was convicted of taking a bribe to kill a bill; in 2016 a member was voted out after 22 women accused him of sexual misconduct and in 2022 a member was expelled after being convicted of using Federal Grant money on wedding expenses. These took a long time to investigate and were punishment for serious misconduct, not just for "violating rules of decorum." Speaking out of turn should be punished by censure, maybe, or a reprimand, but not expulsion of duly elected lawmakers who were voicing the requests of their constituents for reasonable legislation to reduce the killing of innocent children in schools. I read reports that the US public following the proceedings on television was outraged.

On Friday April 8, 2023, Vice-President Kamala Harris made an unscheduled and surprise trip to Nashville to meet with the Tennessee Three. She came to Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, TN (3 miles from my house.) Civil Rights icon, John Lewis (1940-2020) was a graduate student with a degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University. (You may remember that in September 2013, after meeting John Lewis in Decatur, GA., at a book signing I wrote a post "John Lewis and Richard Blanco at the Decatur Book Festival.") John Lewis was a Democratic US Representative for Atlanta, GA, for many years. He had organized the "March on Washington" with Martin Luther King, Jr. in August 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN, on April 4, 1968.

After Lewis died in 2020 officials of the Minority Caucus of Metropolitan Nashville started proceedings to permanently changed Fifth Avenue in Nashville to "Rep. John Lewis Way." This gained public support and in July 2021 it was made official. However, in January 2023, a TN Republican representative sponsored a bill to rename this street into "President Donald Trump Boulevard" after this representative had also suggested lynching and hanging by tree as an alternative for execution of inmates on death row.

Vice-President Kamala Harris met with the three expelled democrats and delivered an impassioned speech (I watched it on television; even my cat seemed interested.) Later than evening President Jo Biden held a conferance call with the TN 3 and thanked them for "their leadership in seeking to ban assault weapons and standing up for our democratic values." He invited them to the White House at a later date. (Photo credit @POTUS.)

Those junior Tennessee lawmakers were only known in the three city districts they represented and would have stayed unknown to the rest of the state (and the country.) But now they have been introduced on the national stage. Their expulsion backfired and made them known nationally, and internationally. Parts of Rep. Justin Pearson's speech before his expulsion are shown on YouTube (I show one below.) One extract shown on Twitter has been viewed, so far, by 9.5 milllion people. Both Justins have been interviewed on national television. On Monday, April 10, 2023, the Nashville Metro Council unanimously voted to reinstate Rep. Justin Jones as a representative (Memphis advised they would do so for Rep. Pearson on Wednesday April 12.) I watched on local news as Jones walked back into the House of Representative that evening. Will there be changes in Tennessee gun laws? Maybe, but the state is overwhelmingly Republican apart from a couple of large cities. Tennessee used to be politically moderate compared to other Southern states. In 2000 this started to change with the advent of extreme right propaganda TV networks and radio statons. The poor rural counties in Tennessee listen mostly to Fox News, launched in 1990. It was started by right-wing Republicans to intentionally air misrepresentation in order to exploit those who have been identified as easily manipulated. They pander to their implicit bias as well as sociopolitical and economic fears. In those counties health and education are below average. Many people working one or two jobs at minimum wage believe all the conspiracies and disinformation thrown at them and vote Republican. Photos below of Jones returning to the House Chamber, and meeting Joan Baez at the Nashville airport when coincidentally booked on same flight.

As I wrote in my first paragraph last Saturday April 8th, I had decided to stop writing this post and to return to Atlanta the next day. Over the weekend I thought better of it, so I stayed. Before I could finish writing it yesterday, Monday 10 April, there was another mass shooting. This time in Louisville, Kentucky, a city about 2 1/2 hour drive north from my home in Nashville (Atlanta is about 5 hour drive south.) A 25-year old portfolio banker killed 5 of his colleagues and wounded 8 others at Old National Bank, a regional bank in downtown Louisville. He used an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle, an assault weapon that was just used in the Nashville shooting. As Vice-President Harris said in her speech at Fisk Universithy last Friday, "Assault weapons ...are weapons of war,"..."These are weapons that are designed to kill a lot of people quickly. They have no place on the streets of a civil society." Kentucky is a southern state like Tennessee with a Republican majority unwilling to place any restriction on these weapons. The Louisville mass shooting is the 146th since the beginning of 2023 and the 15th since April 1st. This violence is uniquely found in the United States. You can be shot anywhere here, at school, a grocery store, a dance hall, in a farm, movie theater, beauty parlor, etc. and now a bank. (Photo of another flower memorial, courtesy KLKY.)

All this is quite sad and generates a pessimistic attitude. There is hope though, as Generation Z (10 to 24 years old) does not get their news just from national or local outlets but via digital sources. They can find the facts and verify them on the Internet and avoid biased networks. Most of them say they never or rarely trust outlets such as Fox News and conservative Sinclair Broacasting Group that owns a majority of local news stations and build "local reports" that are untrue and air them to folks that don't realize they're being subjected to Sinclair's right-wing agenda. Generation Z is more motivated and not afraid to demonstrate, as seen in Nashville in the last few days. I'll end this with a quotation from a French revolutionary stateman, Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) followed by a peaceful photo of spring in Jimmy Carter Presidential Library gardens in Atlanta, GA.