Labor Day Musing

Fair Enough

We’re willing to support the Delta Fair and Music Festival – it’s a few minutes drive from most of us – but only when its organizers either put up or shut up about how unsafe the midtown Mid-South Fair was. It's time to produce the statistics to prove the point.

And we’re assuming that out in the green fields of Agricenter International, the fair has no vandalism, car break-ins or other nuisances. Apparently, unlike midtown Memphis, out there, all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.

Trouble Over Bridging Water

Newspaper coverage often makes for interesting juxtaposition. In one article in The Commercial Appeal last week, Airport Authority chairman Arnold Perl said a third bridge over the Mississippi River is needed because it would be economically devastating to the region if the I-40 (and I-55) bridges were knocked out by a catastrophe like an earthquake.

The headline on another article that same day: Seismic work will reduce lanes on I-40 bridge.

Making Our Own Talent

Reid Dulberger, manager of Memphis ED, was right when he said recently that once the recession is over, Memphis will have a talent shortage.

"We're going to be in a position much like the late '90s," he says. "Before the tech bubble burst, if you were in information technology, you wrote your own ticket. I don't know if the market will swing that dramatically, but it will swing in that direction."

He's right and it reminds us of how serious we need to get about developing our own talent, because unlike almost all of the 50 largest metros, we are not lacking the raw material. That’s because we have an aberration in our demographics here when compared to our competitors – we have a bulge in people younger than 21 years old.

In other words, while Mr. Dulberger is working hard to supply current businesses with the workers they need now, all of us need to get deadly serious about how we can move this bulge in young people into college-educated adults who can compete for knowledge economy jobs. If we can do this, while other cites are begging for workers, we would have ours.

Queries

If the founders of the nation had been conservatives, would we still be part of England?

Is it possible for either political party to be consistent? When the majority becomes minority and vice versa, they simply exchange talking points. They say the same things that their opponents used to say, and they do it without even a hint of irony, apparently depending on the rest of us to have 20-second attention spans.

Do most people have a clue what socialism really is?

What is the problem with Texas? Apparently, the anger and hostility that characterized the JFK era is still alive and well.

We thought it was good when President Bush I spoke to students, so we’re baffled about why it’s now such a big deal. Or is it because of the onslaught of talk radio and TV since the Bush era?

If the town mayors are so sure their citizens despise consolidation, why do they seem so scared of having a vote?

Is there any way that City Attorney Elbert Jefferson can now foresee an outcome that works to his benefit?