Echols: ‘What am I doing to work in tandem with God?’
“So much of what I think about and talk about and write about and pray about has to do with the here and now. Who is struggling? What’s on my to-do list? What has happened? What’s up next?”
Topic: Guest Columns
RSSThere are 355 article(s) tagged Guest Columns:
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June 2026
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Opinion: As bus riders suffer, Memphis needs to turn MATA around
“Last year’s audit made people believe MATA cannot be redeemed. But it is imperative that we not give up. Memphis should be a world-class city. Quality transit attracts employers and gets people to work on time. It also keeps people from going into debt just to maintain a working vehicle.”
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Opinion: What Juneteenth teaches us about the America we’re still building
“Millions of Americans across racial and geographic lines are working harder and falling further behind. The basic infrastructure of a stable life is out of reach for far too many families. This is not a partisan talking point. It is the lived arithmetic of American households.”
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Echols: A celebration of architecture — right here in Memphis
“It felt as if someone was whispering good secrets to the rest of the world about my home, and I was the one caught unaware. Sure enough, that’s precisely what has been happening for about a decade now.”
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Opinion: Call it what it is — a tax increase
“If county government chooses to collect millions of dollars more than the state-certified revenue-neutral rate allows, taxpayers deserve the honesty of calling it exactly what it is: a tax increase.”
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Opinion: ‘No wonder we are so desensitized to the slaughter’
“We are more armed than other countries, and more permissive about how those arms are stored, carried, and used. Memphis knows this reality more intimately than most cities. Gun violence is not an abstraction here; it is a daily presence.”
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Opinion: James Lawson and how ‘the Civil Rights Movement will have to become revolutionary’
“With an iron-grip commitment to nonviolence, Lawson called for campaigns of civil disobedience that pressed the demands of the larger Black community.”
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Opinion: ‘The joy doesn’t lessen the grief’
“The universe isn’t obligated to make sense to us. There’s no requirement for rhyme and reason. Things just happen, be they good or bad, and the burden is on us to find a way to make it work.”
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Echols: Jaylen Wells’ assist that never showed up in the box score
Opinion by Candace Echols: “Behind the scenes — when no one is watching — that same man is quietly using his talent and fame to give attention to those who might otherwise be overlooked.”
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Opinion: ‘Poverty is never just economic’
Opinion by David Jordan: “If we align our efforts across sectors and remain rooted in both compassion and accountability, Memphis can become a national model for what human flourishing looks like in practice.”
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Opinion: Memphis’ zoning rewrite will reshape development, property rights for a generation
James Maclin says, “The best version of this rewrite would do two things at once: Modernize Memphis’ land use rules and protect the public’s trust in the process. That means clear notice, clear explanations, clear transition rules, and clear lines of decision-making.”
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Opinion: Memphis music depends on people willing to build something larger than themselves
Carla Thomas and Stan Bell are among the legendary artists who will be honored at the DOWD Awards ceremony Thursday at the National Civil Rights Museum. The event is free to attend with an RSVP at DOWD.WYXR.org.
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May 2026
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Opinion: People — not dogs — have created our stray problem
“There is no shelter system, rescue network or group of volunteers large enough to absorb endless human irresponsibility. Memphis cannot rescue its way out of this.”
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Opinion: Why is the state’s focus on redistricting not matched by equal attention to BlueOval City?
“The same people who can summon a special session to redraw congressional maps in service of a national political project have had remarkably little to say about how that same national political project cost thousands of jobs and four years of economic momentum in Tipton, Fayette, Haywood and Shelby counties.”
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Opinion: Redistricting highlights the real crisis — the ‘devastatingly low’ voter turnout
“People struggled, marched, bled and died so Black people could exercise the right to vote. They did not die for us to have the right to vote Democrat. They died for us to have the right to choose.”
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Opinion: ‘The Bible gives us good reasons to stand up for democracy’
“Opposing such blatant gerrymandering isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue. It’s a democracy issue.”
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Opinion: How connections between Memphis and Ireland give us a language for staying
“Ireland being honored in Memphis as part of Memphis in May looks like the usual cultural exchange on the surface. But beneath that is something more interesting: two vastly different places that recognize structure in each other.”
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Opinion: Beyond redistricting rhetoric are reality and results
“To hear many Tennessee Democrats tell it, partisan redistricting is some unprecedented assault on democracy itself — a historic political crisis unlike anything the state has ever experienced.”
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Opinion: With redistricting, ‘Memphis is defined by the people who stay and fight for it’
“Memphis has never been defined by the people who pass through it or pass judgment on it.”
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Opinion: Tennessee law — not federal lawsuits — may stymie redistricting
“The speed and confidence with which the legislature acted on redistricting does not guarantee the map’s durability. This time, state courts – not federal courts – may have the final word.”
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Opinion: Memphis is angry about redistricting, but secession is a ‘worthless’ suggestion
“If Memphis cuts ties with the state, where does anyone think we’re going? I can assure you Mississippi doesn’t want a Democratic stronghold on its northern border.”
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Opinion: Seeking answers on redistricting in the National Civil Rights Museum
“Studying history yields a dividend: It brings us to a clearer understanding of who we are, what we believe, and what we do when the promise of our national creed does not measure up to the reality of our lives.”
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Echols: Will we recognize each other in Heaven?
“The musicians among us will be familiar with the concept of ‘tonic chord.’ It’s that set of notes in a musical score that leaves the ear — and therefore the mind and even the body — feeling settled, complete, finished, at rest.”
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Opinion: ‘What have I learned today?’
“I don’t need to sing. I don’t need to dance. I don’t need to be the best writer. In short, I don’t need to chase who and what I’m not; it’s enough to be thankful for what I am and work to be the best I’m capable of being.”
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Opinion: ‘Uniting to create lasting change globally, locally and personally’
“What we gain instead is something far more valuable: purpose, friendships and the knowledge that we are making a difference.”
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