Robin SmithSometimes in a world that has supposedly evolved to unheard-of heights of intellect and advancement, it seems that too many times to count, our society acts the fool. For some of the pedigreed and multi-degreed leaders we have, this causes one to ponder.
- How many times have we heard, especially in Tennessee, that if you don't have a college degree or some type of post-secondary training, you will certainly find yourself underemployed or unemployed?
Yet nationally we're allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, who are not highly educated, to come through our porous southern border each year. In 2014, according to the Migration Policy Institute, 71 percent of foreign-born immigrants who are 25 years of age or older living in the U.S. did not have a college degree. About 30 percent did not have a high school degree or its equivalent.
Either we: A) want cheap, illegal labor, or B) want to spend resources that could be otherwise allocated to American children for their own education and on job creation on those here illegally.
- How can a candidate run with reducing crime as "job one" of his campaign platform, yet not be held accountable when results fail to appear?
On his campaign website, then-mayoral candidate Andy Berke declared in 2013: "With 5 days left to go in this election, I am closing out this campaign the way it started and continued throughout - with a focus on the issues that matter most to Chattanoogans and to our future as a city. Job one for the next mayor is to make sure that our neighborhoods are safe. Our crime rate is unacceptable and we will change it."
Not only does Chattanooga currently rank high on lists comparing crime to other cities in Tennessee, but it also is listed high nationwide.
RoadSnacks, in an article published in December 2015, reviewed the three most recent years of FBI crime data available to identify the "10 Most Dangerous Cities" by examining property crimes and violent crimes. Chattanooga made its top 10 list.
Then there's LawStreet's annual nationwide crime report.
The review of cities with populations less than 200,000, also based on FBI crime stats and published in September 2015, noted that Chattanooga had made the Top 10 (coming in at No. 9) and cited the "worrisome increase in its number of murders."
If a politician claims responsibility for a certain goal - in this case, reducing crime - but fails miserably, what is the consequence? Will Chattanoogans hold him accountable by replacing him?
- Finally, how does the country even contemplate continuing the type of leadership of a commander in chief who appears to be more committed to disarming law-abiding citizens than dealing with both the foreign and domestic terrorism in our nation?
We'll watch to see if Tennessee leaders keep demanding an educated workforce while allowing uneducated immigrants into our state; if Chattanooga wants someone to actually solve its crime problem; and whether Americans will support a "third term" of Barack Obama, who has delivered on his promise that he would spend his time in the White House "fundamentally transforming America."
Remember, "we the people" don't need to ponder. We need answers to give "the consent of the governed."
Robin Smith, a former chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party, is owner of Rivers Edge Alliance.