Publisher’s Positions
Woke Evil In Charlotte
For the better part of the last 20 years, Knoxvillians have heard of the wonders of Charlotte, North Carolina. Mecklenburg County has been held up as a beacon of enlightenment and progress to Knoxville and Knox County residents. Not any longer. Charlotte is sinking under the burden of leadership on its city council and mayor, which is far less enlightened than it is woke. Last month, Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old who worked at a local pizzeria, was riding the train home, minding her own business, looking at her phone when Decarlos Brown Jr. stood up and stabbed her several times from behind. Zarutska was an immigrant from war-torn Ukraine. And another oddity is the determined silence of those who insist we pay for Ukraine’s defense against the aggression of Vladimir Putin. None of them has a thing to say about Iryna Zarutska’s murder.
Oddly, the usual voices in the news media, which scream to high heaven whenever anything bad happens to an immigrant or illegal alien, are not just muted but utterly silent. Why is that? Likely because Iryna Zarutska was white and her alleged murderer is black. That doesn’t fit the legacy media narrative, and there is no honest person living today in the United States who would disagree that had the roles been reversed, it would be ALL we would read or hear about from our country’s mainstream media. It is yet another reminder that they not only don’t mean what they say but also lie through their teeth. Just like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez flies first class or in private jets and stays in ritzy and high-priced hotels while campaigning against “oligarchy.” Just like former Congresswoman Cori Bush hired her husband and others as a private security detail to protect her while at the same time crying to defund the police.
Iryna Zarutska came here, worked hard and had her young life snuffed out by a mentally ill person with a long rap sheet. We are long past the time when mental illness should be weighed against the scale of public safety. It may sound harsh – – – and kiddies, some of the facts of life are both unpleasant and harsh in reality – – – but there are some mentally ill people who should never be allowed to roam free in an open society. There used to be institutions for the criminally insane, and instead of relying upon mentally ill people who are dangerous to others to take their meds after giving us a pinkie promise, perhaps we should reevaluate a more realistic policy that protects the lives of the sane people who work for a living.
These woke governments who preach and practice “restorative” policies such as cashless bail, in truth, do not believe in punishing criminals. Some of those same people advocate emptying out our prisons back into our neighborhoods. They don’t care about the real victims of crime. There is no equity in criminal cases; we should be absolutely colorblind in assessing a case; whoever did it and is convicted should suffer the consequences. The idea of “hate” crimes is utterly unnecessary if we simply held criminals accountable for their crimes. The murder of any human being is reprehensible and hateful. Those especially evil and twisted murders justify the death penalty, as all hateful crimes do.
Iryna Zarutska lived through the hell reigned down upon her native country by Russia, only to come to America for a better life and have it brutally ended on a train in a city in a “sanctuary” county. Sanctuary for whom?
Kincannon’s Priorities Out Of Whack
It is interesting to note that, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which also collects housing data, there are 131.3 million households in the country and 146.5 million housing units. That’s an excess of 15 million units. The assumption that we need more and more is inflated. Much of the hue and cry comes from those like Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon and those soft-headed Leftists on the city council who are always squalling about “affordable housing.” First of all, we need a better definition of “affordable housing.” Is it housing for the homeless? Is it housing for the poor, or housing that is affordable for working families?
Keep in mind somebody pays for it, as nothing is FREE. In this instance, it means the taxpayers are heavily subsidizing the actual costs for those occupying the housing. Indya and the city council raised the property tax by 40% a year or so ago and are now asking the people of Knoxville to vote to increase the sales tax, which is already almost 10%. At a certain point, the City of Knoxville needs to come to grips with its spending policies. It provides little in the way of services yet is seeking to build more and more “affordable” housing while giving away $5,000 to neighborhoods to literally throw themselves a party.
There never seems to be any voice on the Knoxville City Council standing up for the taxpayer and seriously questioning the spending habits of the mayor and council members. Evidently, the notion of not being able to afford something has occurred to them. When taxes are paid all across the city, yet the spending is doled out to select constituencies, it begs a lawsuit charging discrimination.
Nor has any candidate for city council seemed to campaign on cutting back silly spending or questioning the continuous rise in spending by the City of Knoxville while cutting back services.
Now, tell me, as a resident of the City of Knoxville, would you rather have the Knoxville Police Department come to cover traffic accidents or spend $5000 a pop for neighborhood parties because some consultant, paid with your tax dollars, says it will help stop violence?
Too few people take the city council and city government seriously, as evidenced by the fact that virtually nobody bothers to vote. Eventually, should the city government continue on its present path, everyone who can will move outside the city limits. That has happened all across the country, leaving once great cities to become dung heaps of crime and poverty. Businesses will no longer invest in them and Leftists are such morons they never equate economic opportunity having anything to do with the safety of its employees and customers, much less the tax rate.
You get what you vote for, and sometimes you get something even worse when you don’t vote at all.
