N. Houston parks, President of the Middle Tennessee Legal Aid Society Board of Directors

The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee has announced the selection of its new president of the board of directors as, N. Houston Parks. Parks is Chief Financial Officer of First Farmers and Merchants Bank of Columbia, TN. He has a extensive association and record of service with the Legal Aid Society.

Mr. Parks has a distinguished career development path, having attained his B.A. from Rhodes College and his J.D. from the University of Tennessee. Additionally he has attended the Cannon Financial Institute and the Executive Banking Institute. His professional affiliations include the American Bar Association, the Tennessee Bar Association, and Maury County Bar Association. He has previously served as Board Vice President of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee. He has also serves on the Martin Methodist College Board of Trustees and the Maury Alliance Board of Directors. Prior to joining First Farmers, Parks practiced law in Columbia.

Parks joined the the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Society in 2002. He has served as a member of the executive committee as well as being on the endowment, audit, and compensation study committees. He has also served as the organization’s vice president prior to being named board president.

Other Legal Aid Society officers for 2008-2010 are:

• Kathryn Edge, immediate past president
• Susan Kay, first vice president
• Clisby Barrow, second vice president
• Jim Weatherly, third vice president
• Drew Goddard, treasurer
• Turner McCullough Jr. , secretary
• Charlie Warfield, at large member

The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands is Tennessee’s largest non-profit law firm. The Legal Aid Society gives free civil legal aid to people who have nowhere else to turn. It serves 48 counties from offices in Clarksville, Columbia, Cookeville, Gallatin, Murfreesboro, Nashville, Oak Ridge and Tullahoma. The organization is funded in part by the United Way. Additionally it welcomes private donations from the general public.

With the new “Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America” that has been released by Focus on the Family Action, an activist wing of Dr. James Dobson’s rightwing organization, we’re reminded of just how hateful such groups are when faced with the prospect of losing an election. I’ve often said that this election is literally between hope and fear, and I’ve never been more convinced of that than I am right now. With just over a week to go, the “fear” camp is pulling out all the stops.

Since it was released to the public last Wednesday, the now-infamous letter has stroked the breast of fear like no other document in recent months. The letter’s writer is unidentified (after all, who’d want to actually put their name to such garbage?). It is nothing more than one “horrible” example of “liberal policies gone wrong” after another.

It shouldn’t be any surprise to anyone that the first three paragraphs of the actual “results” of an Obama presidency point to the very core of Reich-wing fear: national gay marriage and gay men serving as scoutmasters. The very possibility of these two things is so frightening that they must be the first to rattle the cage. First on the list of possible liberal-stacked supreme court rulings would be the legalization of gay marriage:

President Obama repeated his declaration that he personally was against same-sex “marriage”, but he told the nation there was nothing he could do.  The Supreme Court had ruled, and it was now the law of the land. The president asked the nation to support the decision.

The most far-reaching transformation of American society came from the Supreme Court’s stunning affirmation, in early 2010, that homosexual “marriage” was a “constitutional” right that had to be respected by all 50 states because laws barring same-sex “marriage” violated the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. Suddenly, homosexual “marriage” was the law of the land in all 50 states, and no state legislature, no state Supreme Court, no state Constitutional amendment, not even Congress, had any power to change it. The Supreme Court had ruled, and the discussion was over….

…After that decision, many other policies changed, and several previous Supreme Court
cases were reversed rather quickly — raising the question, “Is America still the land of the free?”

(1) Boy Scouts: “The land of the free”? The Boy Scouts no longer exist as an organization. They chose to disband rather than be forced to obey the Supreme Court decision that they would have to hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys.

I rolled my eyes at the gay marriage “prophecy,” but they damn near popped out of my sockets when I saw the Boy Scout scoutmaster bit. Once I managed to keep myself from vomiting, I had to consider just what the hell it was suggesting. Of course, this ignores the reality that every major medical and psychiatric organization understands that gay men are not interested in boys. But hey, it makes for great fear-inducing politics.

Then there comes the simple reality that according to Boy Scout policy, even heterosexual men are not allowed to sleep in the same tents with boys that aren’t their own children. But no, we can’t be interjecting fact into this little romp of hate now, can we? The fact of the matter is that with just this one major glaring falsehood, it throws the entire document into question, and reveals its true, purely evil intent (isn’t it interesting that these people are the only ones who obsess about that kind of thing?).

Once I got through the next two-and-a-half pages of pure anti-gay venom (Gays in the military! Gay adoption! Gay weddings! Preachers can’t speak out against homosexuality!), it then launched into a classic tactic of telling readers that they might not be able to meet with their churches on school campuses, and horror of horrors, schoolkids won’t be able to have a “See You at the Pole” event.

Does this letter writer seriously think that the First Amendment would be tossed aside that easily? It even paints the tale that church ministries would no longer be allowed on college campuses. As if! This is Chicken Little at her best, really.

Then on to abortion. Nurses wouldn’t be able to refuse to give abortions anymore. No more conscientious objection. Out the door with you! Oh, and of course the “Partial Birth Abortion” ban would be overturned! Babies would be mutilated on sight! Once more, the taste of vomit entered my mouth. It’s this kind of hyperbole that would make anyone ill. Well, maybe that’s the point.

Pornography would go onto store shelves everywhere in plain sight! Guns are finally banned! Home schooling is severely restricted! The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

But wait, theeeeeeeeere’s more!

Now onto the really scary parts. The writer tells of how three cities in the US were bombed. “The entire country is fearful,” they say. And the seemingly-benign Obama might vow that he would in each  “pursue and arrest and prosecute those responsible,” with no results. All of this would be after the American pullout (that even President Bush now supports), which would result in Al Qaeda declaring our “defeat.” Blah, blah, blah.

Russia invades Georgia, Poland, and nearly retakes all of their other former USSR territory! US trades with Cuba and Venezuela! Cuban cigars for everyone!

Then finally, the real bombshell:

Israel: “The home of the brave”? In mid-2010, Iran launched a nuclear bomb that exploded in the middle of Tel Aviv, destroying much of that city. They then demanded that Israel cede huge amounts of territory to the Palestinians, and after an anguished all-night Cabinet meeting, Israel’s prime minister agreed.  Israel is reduced to a much smaller country, hardly able to defend itself, and its future remains uncertain. President Obama said he abhorred what Iran had done and he hoped the U.N. would unanimously condemn this crime against humanity. He also declared that the U.S. would be part of any international peacekeeping force if authorized by the U.N., but the Muslim nations in the U.N. have so far prevented any action.

Make no mistake about this one. This is what evangelicals and fundamentalists fear more than anything, because it would signal events of apocalyptic proportions. Never mind the fact that Israel would kick the living Shiite out of any invading country — nuclear or not. They’ve done it before, and they’ll do it again when provoked.

This isn’t even remotely close to Obama’s or even US policy. But then, we can’t tell the truth now, can we? We must spread fear! But on this note, wouldn’t people who actually believe this tripe -  want the world to end? I’m still scratching my head on this one. Even that’s not the end of this letter…

Union thugs will rule the workplace! Taxes wipe out businesses! Democrats celebrate $7/gallon gasoline prices! Power shortage! Talk Radio goes bland! Conservative talk show hosts get kicked off the air! Christian bookstores forced to remove all anti-gay books!

Bush officials are fired, bankrupt, and prosecuted! (Wow, really? Good!)

Among its final paragraphs was one last ditch effort to chastise Christians:

“Christians didn’t take time to find out who Barack Obama was when they voted for him. Why did they risk our nation’s future on him? It was a mistake that changed the course of history.

The message here is simple: Change is bad. Change is scary. Be afraid of change. Change will make you poor. Don’t change. Jesus hates change. He likes dollars.

Seriously, this entire letter is one psychotic fear-based rant after another, and is intended to do nothing but drive fear. Yet Jesus Himself said clearly, “Fear not!”

Dobson should be ashamed of himself for even allowing this letter to see the light of day. It’s not Christian, it’s not family-oriented, and it’s certainly not an accurate picture of what would happen if Obama becomes President.

It’s this kind of poison that will strike a chord of desperation in order to keep their well-fleeced flock properly submissive. After all, isn’t that just what any good propaganda does?

A final point: while the apparent need for tin-foil hats would surely drive Reynolds Wrap profits into the stratosphere, it’s interesting to see what this letter is all about. Terrorism gets a mere two paragraphs. Homosexuals get nearly three full pages.

Now we know what really makes Dobson and his ilk stay awake at night. And it’s not terrorism.

Here’s the actual letter – but don’t read it on a full stomach.

Alaska Governor Sarah Heath Palin

Please forgive my blatant pun on the central question of a great American novel, but it seems everyone is asking this question. Senator John McCain surprised almost everyone universally in his choice of the Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate for the upcoming election. I have to admit that my first reaction mirrored that of many people, a resounding, “What, in the name of God, was he thinking or smoking?”

However, as I’ve done some research and learned more about the Honorable Governor, I’ve discovered that I rather like her. It is true that she’s only been the Governor of Alaska for roughly two years, but we should note that she was first elected to public office in 1992 as a city councilor. She became the major of her town in 1996, and then Chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (a very powerful position in a state such as Alaska), all before she became the Governor. This resume compares favorably with that of Senator Obama. She is three years his junior but has served in public office five years more than he has.

Speaking of that career, she’s accomplished some pretty impressive feats during that time. When she first ran for city council in 1992 it was on a platform supporting a controversial measure to raise the city’s sales tax while advocating for a “safer and more progressive Wasilla.” She served two terms there before she was elected Mayor, criticizing the incumbent for his support of high taxes and extremely wasteful spending. As the mayor, she reduced her own salary and reduced property taxes by forty percent and became the President of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. She won reelection against the same opponent she had originally unseated by an even larger margin than her first victory.

During her time on the Oil and Gas Commission, which she chaired, she was its Ethics Supervisor. She then resigned from that commission, citing a lack of ethics amongst its Republican members. She leveled formal allegations against one of her Commission colleagues who was also the chair of the Alaskan Republican Party, who resigned and paid a record fine. As Governor she ran on a clean government platform and won handily and then immediately made good on campaign promises. While in office her approval rating has NEVER been reported to drop below 76 percent; most polls consistently place her in the high 80’s to 90’s. Show me a politician who wouldn’t be jealous of those figures. On that kind of look, it’s quite clear that, with no disrespect intended, Governor Palin has more experience as an executive than Senators Obama, Biden and McCain combined, though admittedly not on a national scale.

Governor Palin can also lay claim to doing something that should make Senator Obama green with envy. She’s actually taken on the culture of political corruption and won. She resigned from an extremely powerful position because of corruption, which she then brought to light. Immediately after becoming Governor, she sold the previous Governor’s state jet on EBay. She is also supporting the challenge to Don Young, citing his questionable integrity and pork barrel mentality. That vote isn’t over, but Young is only 151 votes away from losing his seat. As governor, she has issued 4 vetoes (actually  line item vetoes) to curtail pork barrel spending by more than $230 million. One could argue she’s been more effective there than Senator McCain, who makes it a key issue.

It would also be unwise to characterize her as an arch conservative. It is true that her position on abortion is extremely conservative, desiring illegality with the sole exception of medical necessity (an extremely rare event by the way). However, despite this, she has made no move, ever, to actually attempt to curtail abortion legality and in fact supports the use of contraception. On LGBT rights, the Governor is rather enigmatic. She supports the “traditional” definition of marriage and supported the 1998 amendment to the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage as well as a non-binding referendum to deny state health benefits to same sex couples. However, as Governor she issued the very first veto of her administration to block legislation that would have denied state benefits from the same-sex partners of state employees, in direct opposition to her personal beliefs. She justified her veto by saying that she would have violated her oath of office if she’d signed an unconstitutional piece of legislature. Hardly the staunch level of conservatism the religious right would like to see.

Governor Palin has many other interesting and complex views on issues that I encourage Republicans and Democrats alike to research and think about her views. What they will find is a woman who is neither an inexperienced neophyte nor a grizzled holdover from days past; well, actually, she is a holdover from days past. She still believes that a government should be run with integrity, balanced thought, and unobtrusively rather than rampant corruption, knee-jerk feels goods, and universal pervasiveness that defines the current state of affairs, something to which no proposal from Barrack Obama has put forward remedies. Governor Palin is a strong and vibrant woman who truly has an idea, and if for no other reason than that, I would be proud to call her the Madam Vice-President.

Could it be, after all these years of Republican (Read: Bush) bashing and whining about global warming, that it could really be right under their nose?

Sound bites.

That’s right. It’s politics, not Earth Science class, my friends. I told a friend of mine that politics is war without blood, where the casualties are still very real. It’s all about rhetoric and what you say.

In the end, it’s sales. So the question is… what are we selling? We democrats and liberals have a lot of great ideas as to how to run the country, but we are pathetic when it comes to actually trying to SELL those ideas.

And sell them we must.

What have we been doing so far? In 1988, we simply called George Bush a wimp. And to counter this great wimp (who still invokes that great “Read my lips-no new taxes” line) with a monkey governor in a tank while wearing a helmet that was clearly too large for him.

In 1992, our great victory was largely due to a Texan who split the vote. Bush’s “Read my lips” line was drowned out by the Iraq war (part 1) and the fact that taxes did, in fact, increase. Our victory was a governor from Arkansas who was as great of a speaker as Reagan ever was. Sold, kind of.

1994 brought about the great Republican Contract on America… er… Contract With America, and resulted in one of the greatest marketing strategies in recent American history. Not bad for a newt and a guy named Dole. We may not be able to remember what the details were, but we can sure remember the phrase, “Contract with America.” Sold.

1996 had our hero run against that silly Texan again and also against Bob Dole. Dole’s message was the weakest of the last 20 years, which is why he didn’t really have a chance. Dole’s message was: “I’m not Clinton.” Clinton’s message? “How do you define ‘is’?” Sold. With buyer’s remorse.

2000 was our great chance. We had yet another silly Texan come along, but we had a Vice President. Then he was a black preacher. Then a Union worker. Then a teacher. Then an environmentalist. Then he was… a fence post… who kissed his wife. Ew. But what was his message? “I disagree with my opponent, but he’s a heck of a guy. But hey, so am I.” He won by popular vote, but lost where it matters: The electoral collage. Even now, I don’t know what that message was. The Texan’s message was simple: “I’m a leader.” Sold.

Fast forward to 2004.

The Democrat’s message? Heck, even now I don’t understand what Kerry was trying to get across. But he sure did look a lot like Herman Munster. The one thing we had left from Kerry that we could comprehend was “I’m not Bush.” The Texan’s message was clear. There is a war going, so who cares about the economy or gay rights? “Stay the course,” he said. It was a message that anyone could comprehend. Sold.

Now here we are in 2006 with a classic opportunity. We have a Republican party that is licking some of its biggest and deepest wounds in years. We’re gloating and pointing with glee over the moral failure of the great party of morality… and what do we have to offer?

What’s our message? “We’re not Republicans?” That’s not enough, my friends. We must… simply MUST… rally around a single message, a message not of a mere alternative, but of a SUPERIOR alternative. Many of us will vote party line no matter what, but there are enough of us out there that want something or someone to believe in, so that we can not squander this clear opportunity.

Sell me, Democrats. Make me proud.