After my last trip to the North Georgia Mountains I was planning to write three blog posts: one on apple orchards in Ellijay, one on my trip up Fort Mountain State Park and one on Cherokee Chief Vann House Historical Site. So many photos were taken that my old laptop could not handle downloading them in a normal amount of time and, in addition, I was preparing my trip to Africa. I left for Addid Ababa, Ethiopia, in mid December, and then spent 10 days including Christmas in Cape Town, South Africa. After another week spent on a safari in Tanzania I was in Nairobi, Kenya for New Year. After another stop in Addis Ababa I returned to Nashville in early January (blog posts will follow when my laptop is set up.) Less than a week after my return to Nashville the weather turned very cold. It was a shock to the system to go from the mid to high 90 F (35C) in Tanzania to 7 to 10 F (-13 C and below) in Nashville, and below 0 F at night (-18 C.) Below is the view from my bedroom window when I got up on Monday January 15, 2024, next to the street view from behind my front room plantation shutters. (View in heading courtesy Parthenon Park, Nashville.)
It snowed non-stop that day, most of the following day, then it turned to ice. It did snow again several days later before the first snow had melted. In the South, winter season begins in October and ends in March. Data shows that in an average winter Nashville gets 4.7 inches of snow. From the night of January 14 to January 15 about 9 inches of snow fell in my backyard thus producing more snow that day than during an entire winter. This broke the previous 1944 record of 2.2 inches in one day. January 15, 2024, was very cold but it was just snow, ice had not formed yet. Some children, daring the cold, were sledding near the closed Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. Not many people have sleds around here, so the children used cardboard boxes, laundry boxes, flat boards, etc. (Photo courtesy WSMV News.)
Painting below is "Snowday, 1948" by John Philip Falter, American, 1910-1982.
The sun came up a couple of days later; it was pretty, but still dangerously cold and icy.
No cars were driving by on my road and no one was walking either; everything stayed white and silent. Only birds gave signs of life.
There was no mail for a week, no deliveries of any type. I would have liked to walk around town and take pictures, but I could not walk outside. I had planned to drive to Georgia to make sure my house there was fine, but was "ice bound" for that week. I was fortunate that my neighbor helped me down my icy steps so I could drive to Georgia on Tuesday January 23rd, a week after the start of the snow. The steps were still covereed in ice, as well as my walkway.
No snow plow cleared out my street, which is a "boulevard" and in the center of Nashville. The city has just several snow plows, 15 years old. They ordered 37 new snow plows last year but as a result of supply chain problems they only received one of them. Crews were out trying to clear the roads but only the interstate highways, highways and large main roads were serviced. No side street, subdivision or small connecting or secondary roads were cleared; they remained iced over the whole week. At least traffic was sparse as you can see below from the Tennessean newspaper's photographs.
The top left photo is of I-65 just past Nashville toward Birmingham, Alabama. Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north-south interstate highway connecting between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. Traffic on this highway is usually pretty steady. The bottom right photo shows runner Sam Skinner on a Brentwood road. Brentwood is about 15 minutes south of Nashville and is where my daughter and family live. Sam is a musician, a guitar player. One of the songs he composed is called "Cold." I wonder if he is from up north for running like this on an extremely cold arctic day? Actually, my daughter who went to Antarctica in 2022 told me that she had not been as cold there as it was in her backyard... Here she is below in Antarctica in 2022. The other two photos are from her backyard in Brentwood this January 19, a sunset photo and one of the frozen lake and golf course club house.
One of my neighbors who moved not long ago from the state of Wisconsin said it was so quiet and peaceful in Nashville when it snowed compared to northern states - no snow removing equipment, no electric snow blowers, no snow plow trucks, hardly any vehicles and no people walking. The snow stays clean and pure white. The City of Nashville gov. told us "Don't venture outdoors for fear of death" - adding that "One can die from hypothermia within one hour when exposed to temperatures below zero. Go out only in a true emergency" - no problem! Nobody was interested into venturing out and risking frostbites. Unfortunately 36 people still lost their lives and over 300 were injured in the state of Tennessee due to snow during that time. Some died of cold from being stranded in their cars or, of exposure after abandoning their vehicles and walking away but not equipped to fight the cold or snow. Antioch in photo below is a neighborhood of Nashville.
I read a blog from a lady in Chicago, Illinois, who moved to Tennessee. She wrote" "In Chicago, snow plows are out on the street as soon as it starts snowing. People put on their warm boots and give themselves an extra 15 minutes to go where they need to be. This is compared to Tennessee - everyone panics, "Snowday" is declared as soon as one snowflake falls from the sky, and they then hibernate until the dusting on the roads melts away." (Click on collage to enlarge.)
Some hearty souls did venture out as you can see from the photos above, courtesy the Nashville Metropolitan Police Dept. The top photo is a salt crew working near Vanderbilt University. The golf course and park were empty, though. Beautiful photos would have been easy to snap I'm sure, but I could only watch from my windows. Below is the sun going down from my back deck, and that was toward the end of the week (still a lot of snow...)
“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.”
- Carl Reiner, American comedian, 1922-2020.
Beautiful painting above from Claude Monet, French painter and founder of impressionist painting, 1840-1926, entitled Snow Effect, a street in Argenteuil.
This addendum was started several days ago. Then I stopped writing it thinking that most people would not be interested in reading it. Many bloggers prefer to talk about family, food, gardening, travel or other more palatable subjects than gun violence. I believe that if you are part of society, enjoying its pleasures and benefits is fine but remaining silent during its trials is almost being complicit. So I decided to finish writing it - if only one person in Tennessee changes their mind about voting for an extreme right-wing politician, then it is worth it.
Here is a continuation of my post of Thursday, April 6, 2023, Nashville grieving,explaining the shooting in Nashville at the Covenant School, a local elementary school. As I mentioned in that post I was trying to provide clear explanations to my family and readers from overseas in reply to their requests. Seen from overseas the US gun laws make no sense. They cannot understand why this country is unable to control gun violence. Please read my last post first then come back here to read the rest of the story... On Thursday March 30, 2023, three days after the shooting, a crowd entered the halls of the Tennessee Capitol where the lawmakers were gathered for a floor session. The Tennessee State Capitol was built on a hill in Nashville with the help of convicts and enslaved people and finished in 1859. See vintage postcards below. The picture on the right was the TN State Library until 1953 when it was moved.
The crowd of children, teenagers and parents came to demand action on gun safety and kept chanting "Shame on you" and "Children are dead and you don't care." Several lawmakers placed headphones on their ears so they would not hear, then microphones were turned off in the public areas to block out the chants and a 5-minute recess was called. During the recess, TN State Democratic Representatives Justin Jones of Nashville, joined Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, and Justin Pearson of Memphis, to the podium with a megaphone, to be heard and to conduct the "Gun control now!" chant with the people in the balcony where kids and adusts (even adults with babies) were chanting.
The rest of the lawmakers exited the chamber for about 1/2 hour and when they returned the Speaker of the House, Republican Cameron Sexton, said that this was "not acceptable behavior" and action would be taken in the next few days against the three Democrat representatives. On Monday April 3, 2023, the TN Republican lawmakers filed a resolution to expel those three, now nicknamed the Tennessee Three (TN 3.) They had already been removed from their committees and had their State Capitol identity badges deactivated. Speaker Sexton said they had broken "several rules of decorum and procedure on the House Floor." Below photo of floor of the TN State Legislature, courtesy ABC.
Speaker Sexton accused Rep. Justin Pearson of having given a "temper tantrum" like a spoiled kid wanting attention. Later he added: "What they did today was at least equivalent, maybe worse, depending on how you look at it, of doing an insurrection in the Capitol." Really? Worse than the insurrection on the Washington Capitol on January 6, when a horde armed with weapons stormed the Capitol looking to kill the US Speaker of the House, to hang the Vice-President, killing and injuring Capitol Police, and urinating and thrashing the building? Really? The Tennessee Three's violation of the rules of decorum was worse that this insurrection? Please... Dictionary definition of decorum "Decorums - the conventions or requirements of polite behavior." On Thursday April 6, 2023, the TN 3 were given twenty minutes each to speak and to answer questions. Then the Tennessee House voted to expel the two Justins (both 28 years old) but spared Gloria Johnson (aged 60) by one vote only. Photo below, courtesy WBIR.
By Thursday April 6th the US media as well as the international press were aware of the expulsion proceedings and were watching. I watched it also on television. The TN 3 gave amazing speeches with courage and eloquence. But to no avail. No surprise here with the Republicans having a supermajority in the TN House of Representatives. The political makeup of the 113th General Assembly is 75 Republicans, 23 Democrats and 1 vacancy. Tennessee is one of the reddest states in the union with only two blue counties: Memphis in Shelby County and Nashville in Davidson County. See map below of TN counties showing the 2022 gubernatorial election results, courtesy Wikimedia. I just read that Tennessee is the least democratic of the 50 United States.
It was noted how the Justin Jones and Justin Pearson (by then named the two Justins) were questioned in a demeaning and condescending way compared to Ms. Gloria Johnson. It sounded like "you should know your place and not have an uppitity behavior." When the expulsion was announced the crowd was screaming "shame!" Some wondered if it had not been "payback" for Justin Jones of Nashville who was leading a movement in 2019 to remove a bust of Confederate cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest, first Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard and trader of enslaved people. Finally in 2021 the bust was removed from its prominent place in the State Capitol. (Photo courtesy Tennessee Lookout.)
In the state of Tennessee expulsion or banishment from the Chamber has been used just several times since the Civil War. In 1866, six lawmakers were ousted for trying to prevent citizenship to formerly enslaved people as required by the 14th Amendment; in 1980 a member was convicted of taking a bribe to kill a bill; in 2016 a member was voted out after 22 women accused him of sexual misconduct and in 2022 a member was expelled after being convicted of using Federal Grant money on wedding expenses. These took a long time to investigate and were punishment for serious misconduct, not just for "violating rules of decorum." Speaking out of turn should be punished by censure, maybe, or a reprimand, but not expulsion of duly elected lawmakers who were voicing the requests of their constituents for reasonable legislation to reduce the killing of innocent children in schools. I read reports that the US public following the proceedings on television was outraged.
On Friday April 8, 2023, Vice-President Kamala Harris made an unscheduled and surprise trip to Nashville to meet with the Tennessee Three. She came to Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, TN (3 miles from my house.) Civil Rights icon, John Lewis (1940-2020) was a graduate student with a degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University. (You may remember that in September 2013, after meeting John Lewis in Decatur, GA., at a book signing I wrote a post "John Lewis and Richard Blanco at the Decatur Book Festival.") John Lewis was a Democratic US Representative for Atlanta, GA, for many years. He had organized the "March on Washington" with Martin Luther King, Jr. in August 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN, on April 4, 1968.
After Lewis died in 2020 officials of the Minority Caucus of Metropolitan Nashville started proceedings to permanently changed Fifth Avenue in Nashville to "Rep. John Lewis Way." This gained public support and in July 2021 it was made official. However, in January 2023, a TN Republican representative sponsored a bill to rename this street into "President Donald Trump Boulevard" after this representative had also suggested lynching and hanging by tree as an alternative for execution of inmates on death row.
Vice-President Kamala Harris met with the three expelled democrats and delivered an impassioned speech (I watched it on television; even my cat seemed interested.) Later than evening President Jo Biden held a conferance call with the TN 3 and thanked them for "their leadership in seeking to ban assault weapons and standing up for our democratic values." He invited them to the White House at a later date. (Photo credit @POTUS.)
Those junior Tennessee lawmakers were only known in the three city districts they represented and would have stayed unknown to the rest of the state (and the country.) But now they have been introduced on the national stage. Their expulsion backfired and made them known nationally, and internationally. Parts of Rep. Justin Pearson's speech before his expulsion are shown on YouTube (I show one below.) One extract shown on Twitter has been viewed, so far, by 9.5 milllion people. Both Justins have been interviewed on national television.
On Monday, April 10, 2023, the Nashville Metro Council unanimously voted to reinstate Rep. Justin Jones as a representative (Memphis advised they would do so for Rep. Pearson on Wednesday April 12.) I watched on local news as Jones walked back into the House of Representative that evening. Will there be changes in Tennessee gun laws? Maybe, but the state is overwhelmingly Republican apart from a couple of large cities. Tennessee used to be politically moderate compared to other Southern states. In 2000 this started to change with the advent of extreme right propaganda TV networks and radio statons. The poor rural counties in Tennessee listen mostly to Fox News, launched in 1990. It was started by right-wing Republicans to intentionally air misrepresentation in order to exploit those who have been identified as easily manipulated. They pander to their implicit bias as well as sociopolitical and economic fears. In those counties health and education are below average. Many people working one or two jobs at minimum wage believe all the conspiracies and disinformation thrown at them and vote Republican. Photos below of Jones returning to the House Chamber, and meeting Joan Baez at the Nashville airport when coincidentally booked on same flight.
As I wrote in my first paragraph last Saturday April 8th, I had decided to stop writing this post and to return to Atlanta the next day. Over the weekend I thought better of it, so I stayed. Before I could finish writing it yesterday, Monday 10 April, there was another mass shooting. This time in Louisville, Kentucky, a city about 2 1/2 hour drive north from my home in Nashville (Atlanta is about 5 hour drive south.) A 25-year old portfolio banker killed 5 of his colleagues and wounded 8 others at Old National Bank, a regional bank in downtown Louisville. He used an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle, an assault weapon that was just used in the Nashville shooting. As Vice-President Harris said in her speech at Fisk Universithy last Friday, "Assault weapons ...are weapons of war,"..."These are weapons that are designed to kill a lot of people quickly. They have no place on the streets of a civil society." Kentucky is a southern state like Tennessee with a Republican majority unwilling to place any restriction on these weapons. The Louisville mass shooting is the 146th since the beginning of 2023 and the 15th since April 1st. This violence is uniquely found in the United States. You can be shot anywhere here, at school, a grocery store, a dance hall, in a farm, movie theater, beauty parlor, etc. and now a bank. (Photo of another flower memorial, courtesy KLKY.)
All this is quite sad and generates a pessimistic attitude. There is hope though, as Generation Z (10 to 24 years old) does not get their news just from national or local outlets but via digital sources. They can find the facts and verify them on the Internet and avoid biased networks. Most of them say they never or rarely trust outlets such as Fox News and conservative Sinclair Broacasting Group that owns a majority of local news stations and build "local reports" that are untrue and air them to folks that don't realize they're being subjected to Sinclair's right-wing agenda. Generation Z is more motivated and not afraid to demonstrate, as seen in Nashville in the last few days. I'll end this with a quotation from a French revolutionary stateman, Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) followed by a peaceful photo of spring in Jimmy Carter Presidential Library gardens in Atlanta, GA.
This is not the post I was planning to write but a senseless tragedy took place in my neighborhood on Monday March 27, 2023, and the Nashville community is grieving. In addition, family and friends from overseas who translate and read my posts (even if they do not comment) asked me to tell them what happened and explain the gun violence issues in the United States. I'll try to do this. Last Thursday, March 30, 2023, I walked to the Nashville Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and took photos of the blooming tulips and spring flowers. Viewing scenes of nature does help cope with sorrow. I'll include some below.
After attending the Don Quixote ballet in Atlanta I returned to Nashville soon after. I then wrote the post Don Quixote at the Atlanta Ballet on March 25, 2023. I was supposed to spend March 26, my birthday, with my younger daughter and family but my daughter and 9 years old granddaughter had caught a bad cold and we decided to celebrate at a later date. Instead I had lunch at an Uzbek restaurant with my neighbor who came from Kashmir not long ago to study at Vanderbilt U for his Ph.D.
On Monday March 27, 2023, at about 10:15 am I heard numerous police cars, ambulances and fire truck sirens as well as helicopters above. I thought there had been a bad traffic accident nearby. Before going grocery shopping at the Whole Foods in Green Hills, which is about 2 miles from my home, I quickly checked online to see if the traffic had cleared up. That is when I found out about the shootings at the Covenant School, a private Christian school, which is less than a mile from that grocery store. I stayed home and watched the news the rest of the day.
A 28-year old woman carrying two assault type weapons as well as a handgun had shot out a glass door to enter the Covenant School. The school was locked down and the hallways deserted. The Nashville Police received the 911 active shooter call at 10:13 am, arrived about 8 minutes later at the scene. The shooter was on the second floor, was engaged by 2 policemen and taken down. She had killed three 9-years old children and three adults. The killer had fired 152 rounds of ammunition during the attack. She had legally purchased seven firearms from five local stores said the Chief of Police, and used three of those during the assault (an AR-15, a Kel-Tec SUB 2000, and a handgun.) She was a former student of the Covenant School. No motive as yet has been found for the shooting.
The local TV news coverage was continuous for the next couple of days. I kept watching. I think the whole city was numb with emotion and grief. Members of the community started to lay flowers, stuffed animals and balloons at the gate of the school as a makeshift memorial. First Lady Jill Biden visited the memorial on Wednesday 29 March and laid some flowers. Later that day she attended the citywide vigil at the Nashville Public Square Park. She was joined by hundreds of people clutching white candles in front of the Metro Nashville Courthouse. Several people addressed the crowd including Mayor Jim Cooper who said "The Leading cause of kids' death now is guns and gunfire and that is unacceptable." Being "Music City" several Nashville performers came and sang including Sheryl Crow, Margo Price and Old Crow Medicine Show singer Ketch Secor. Ketch, accompanied by his young son on the harmonica, sang with the crowd "Will the Circle be Unbroken." Then a small group of people dressed in black gathered for a "mourner's walk."
Thursday morning, March 30, 2023, was a bright and sunny day. I drove to Whole Foods as I was out of groceries since I had left Georgia and also to buy some flowers. I then drove the approx. 1/2 mile to the Covenant School and placed my red flowers by the gate on the memorial. The school colors are red and black. A few people were assembled there, some from out of state (I talked with a lady from Michigan,) some had brought comfort dogs. (Click to enlarge.) Then on my way later to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens I saw many red and black ribbons of support on people's mail boxes in honor of the victims (as shown in my header photo.)
Now I'll try to explain the US gun violence to my family and friends from abroad. It is not easy, and since I was born and brought up in Paris, France, until adulthood, the French culture is more natural to me even though I have been living here for decades, but I have studied US history. It seems to me that violence has been defining American culture; it's almost an obsession. It started with the violent appropriation of Native lands by white settlers, then guns and violence were used to control and terrorize enslaved people. As soon as a politician displeases someone, he/she receives death threats. (In addition, military conflicts make 93% of US history.) The gun is the ultimate expression of "rugged individualism." Kids' cartoons and video games show aggression as well as professional football and hockey. Generations have been watching violent cop shows and westerns on television screens and in theatres. The Hollywood formula to attract audiences to their films is to show them with intense violence with plenty of guns, body destruction and brutal deaths. Movies have perpetuated the myth of the old west and conquest with the brutal outlaw, the good cowboy on horseback, the brave sheriff, the savage Indian, the vicious villain who gets to be gunned down at the end.
The US has 57 times as many shootings as the other six G7 countries combined. There are about 120.5 firearms per 100 persons in the US; it is the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world. As quoted by Zippia, in 2022 16.4 million firearms were sold across the US which contributed $51.3 billion to the economy (45% of American households own at least one firearm.) Conservatives say that mental health is the culprit, but there are mental health problems in other countries and they do not have the rate of gun deaths as in this country. Below are the statistics as of April 1, 2023, since the beginning of the year, courtesy the Gun and Violence Archives.
For my family and friends who might not know - the USA has two major political parties, and a minor one, the Independent: the Democrats are considered liberal, but in Europe would be central right and the Republicans, considered conservatives, but along the years have turned sharply to the right and are now more like Orban's Hungarian authoritarian party. Many moderate Republicans of yore are now switching to the Independent party. States with a Democratic majority are called Blue and those with a majority Republican are called Red. Most Southern States are Red including Tennessee. There are Democrats in Tennessee (40%) but the ultra right Republican majority has gerrymandered (divided) voting districts so as to give an unfair election advantage to their party. For example, last year the TN Republican supermajority redrew Nashville's voting district ("blue" for nearly 150 years) into three districts extending into conservative rural areas so that Democrats, even if they all vote, would not be successful. Current Democrat mayor John Cooper has decided not to seek re-election as he knows he will be unable to compete and have a fair chance. (In addition there is a low voter turnout in TN which is ranked 49th out of the 50 states.) This is the way gun laws are passed by the Republican conservatives who favor gun ownership. Map below showing 2020 US election results, courtesy Shutterstock.
Blue states are trying to pass laws aimed at curbing mass shootings. Weapon manufacturers with headquarters in those state are moving to gun friendly Red states. TN Governor Lee has overseen the loosening of gun laws (with resulting increase in gun deaths) in Tennessee and offered tax incentives to gun manufacturers to move to our state. In 2021 Governor Lee signed a new law that enables residents 21 years and over to carry handguns permit-free without going through training or a background check. He proudly signed this law at the Baretta factory (as shown below) newly moved from the state of Maryland (blue) to Gallatin, TN (although there was much opposition from Tennesseans.) Beretta makes massive long arms and received several million dollars in tax incentives to move to Tennessee. Another handgun accessory, parts manufacturer and distributor, GSGlockstore (the world's #1 source for Glock parts and accessories,) moved from California (blue) to Nashville, TN. Mark Smith, President and CEO of gun manufacturer Smith and Wesson said "We would like to specially thank Governor Lee for his decisive contributions and the entire state legislature for their unwavering support of the 2nd Amendment" as they decided to move in 2023 to Maryville, a town close to Knoxville, TN, from Massachusetts (a blue state) their headquarters since incorporation in 1852, as well as moving their facility in Connecticut (blue state) to Maryville. Tennessee gave Smith and Wesson a 9 million development land grant, a $1 per year lease and 60% tax break for 7 years. (Photos courtesy News Channel 5.)
The National Rifle Association (NRA) was founded in 1871 as a recreational group. In 1977 it formed its Political Action Committee (PAC) to channel funds to influence government policy against gun-control laws. It supports legislation to expand "open-carry" laws and opposes any restriction to gun ownership. Their lobbying group provides millions to Republican legislators. That is why, red states like Tennessee, refuse to pass any sensible gun laws. When TN Gov. Lee was asked about the Nashville school shooting his answer was to pray. Later he announced proposed actions to provide safety to schools including "$140 million to establish a School Resource Officer (SRO) grant fund to place a trained, armed security guard at every public school." (In fact turning schools into fortresses) but without mentioning any new gun safety legislation. The state will have to buy more guns to arm a guard in every public school in the state, thus profiting the gun manufacturers. Tennessee receives too much funding from the NRA and gun manufacturer lobbyists as it is. I hope this explain a little bit why it is so difficult to pass gun control legislation in Tennessee and also in the United States. Changes are not forthcoming unfortunately.
"Many of us who participate in outdoor sports are dismayed by some of the more extreme policies of the NRA and by the timidity of public officials who yield to their unreasonable demands. Heavily influenced and supported by the firearms industry, its primary client, the NRA has been able to mislead many gullible people into believing that all weapons are going to be taken away from us, and that homeowners will be deprived of the right to protect ourselves and our families. There are no real threats to our "right to bear arms," as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution." Jimmy Carter in 2022, US President, born October 1, 1924.
An Ipsos 2022 poll shows that 70% of Americans think enacting new gun control laws should take precedence over protecting ownership rights. I have always wondered why Americans don't protest more. There are pockets of protests such as for gay rights or after another police shooting, but the main population does not protest much. They support the First Amendment's "the right of assembly, and the right to petition Government for a redress of grievances." In reality, they hardly use this right, at least nowadays. In Israel last month about 450,000 were in the streets (the same percentage by population number would place about 15 million people in the US streets.) When Germany announced job cuts worldwide, 15,000 German workers demonstrated at the GM headquarters in Germany. In the US, a few workers at the GM plant did some small "sit-in" but that's about it. I won't even mention France's many demonstrations over the years. Is it because American workers are afraid? Or apathetic? Or not interested in the common good? Or just thinking of no.1 only? I don't know. But I have hope that the newer generation, Generation Z as it is called, is more involved in their future and care about social issues and injustice. (Photos courtesy Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and Wall Street Journal.)
I'm optimistic because more than 7,000 high school kids from Nashville area schools as well as students from Vanderbilt and Belmont Universities walked out of their classes last Monday, April 3, 2023. They printed and distributed a flyer asking kids to join their march to the Nashville Capitol.
At 10:13 am, the same time when Metro Police received the active shooter call the week before, they sat for a moment of silence. Then they kept carrying signs and chanting demanding lawmakers pass gun safety legislation. Then hundreds of them, including parents with their young children, moved into the building on Monday evening before floor sessions.
"...the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." Senator Edward "Ted" M. Kennedy (1932-2009.)
Last Christmas morning, you may remember that I mentioned on my blog post "Cooking for the Holidays" that I had been surprised by a murmuration of starlings in my backyard. But this time the birds were robins, a flock of them. They flew on my back deck, so many I stopped counting at 45. They kept moving and it was difficult taking photographs. I decided to just concentrate on individual birds. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
I enjoy watching birds but am not knowledgeable about them. I read up on the robin - the American robin is a large songbird with long legs, round body and a fairly long tail. They are the largest of the thrushes here. American settlers named these birds "robin" because they looked like the European robins, but actually they are not from the same family. The American robin is from the subspecies of Turdus migratoris. The European robin is from the subspecies of Saxicolinae. They both have a reddish orange breast, although not as pronounced in the European robin. In winter the American robins form flocks (sometimes hundreds or thousands of them,) to avoid predators. During the spring and summer they are mostly independent. They came in my backyard two consecutive mornings, flying from the trees to my deck or the ground.
The third morning I looked for them, but they did not come back. But I have many postcards with robins on them. Robins were a favorite subject on vintage greeting postcards, especially during the winter holidays.
In January I missed my monthly trip to Georgia because I was waiting for the Covid vaccine. I finally received the first shot on January 28th. Then I drove to Georgia for about 10 days in early February, returning last Sunday. The trip to Georgia took 6 hours because of road work being done on interstate 24 close to Chattanooga. After driving for one and a half hour for what usually takes 20 minutes I took the side trip through the North Georgia Mountains. It took as long but I was rolling. Coming back last Sunday I was hoping the trip to Nashville would be faster, even though I am always apprehensive about the mountains near Monteagle, Tennessee. And sure enough - I drove through Chattanooga under overcast skies with no problems, but then as I ascended the steep incline towards Monteagle I entered the fog. The trees and vegetation had suddenly appeared covered with ice. As the fog kept thickening I decided to exit the highway at the travelers' rest stop. A good thing I knew its location, too, because the exit ramp was barely visible. As it is, a huge truck could not see it and at the last minute veered in front of me toward the rest stop (giving me a shot of adrenalin...)
Parking the car carefully I decided to take my time, eat my snack and drink coffee in the car hoping the fog would lighten up. There were only a couple of other vehicles and they departed. I kept watching the trees. I thought when I can see them better I'll start driving again.
About 45 to 50 minutes later I started seeing the trees.
I had heard sounds of engines nearby but seen no vehicles. I came out of my car to check. Surprise! I could count as many as 14 or 15 snow trucks parked behind me and more were coming. I became worried that maybe Nashville was under heavy snow. I asked one of the drivers where were they heading - Memphis, Tennessee he replied. Why? It's going to snow heavily starting on Monday there and they have hardly any equipment he said.
I forgot to ask about Nashville weather, so I decided to start moving down the steep downgrade. I did not need to drink coffee to stay alert while driving down that dangerous descent - it always gets my undivided attention. In the 1980s that stretch of east-bound I-24 was notorious for killing truck drivers. Later they improved the interstate there but crossing Monteagle is still one of the most notorious stretches of mountains interstate east of the Mississippi. With some trepidation I began driving following a couple of 18-wheeler trucks. Visibility became better as I came down the road.
Traffic close to Nashville was very light. Bad weather was forecast and motorists had been told to stay inside. It was dry when I arrived at my house but by evening it started snowing. On Monday the roads were covered with snow and it was very cold. It snowed during the night and today, Tuesday 16 February, 2021, not much is moving. The temperature is a frigid 13 degrees F (-10C) which is unheard of around here. It did snow heavily in Memphis - up to 12 inches yesterday (30.5 cm) so those snow trucks I had seen were certainly needed. I realized that today is Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday in French.) How I wish I was in New Orleans! Because of the virus they are not having their usual parades. The parades are cancelled, but not the Mardi Gras celebration. Instead the residents, who love a party, are decorating their houses to celebrate. I looked at the New Orleans site and a couple of newspapers. Photographs below courtesy the Gentilly Messenger and Allen Boudreaux.
Since there would be no parade this year, Megan Joy Boudreaux asked everyone to turn their house into a float, as a joke. But the idea took off and she started a Facebook group, the Krewe of House Floats, for her neighbors. Then 39 subgroups joined with more than 9,000 members. Thousands made "house" floats. Vive New Orleans and its great spirit that a pandemic cannot suppress!
It has been frigid here all day. It looked so pretty though that I thought I'd walk around the block to take pictures. A couple was coming down the road with walking sticks as I was taking pictures from my front porch. As they passed my house the woman fell in the snow.
I took pictures to my right and to my left, then gingerly walked to the road and took one photo. But then my fingers were numb from the glacial air.
After a nice warm cup of tea I ventured to the back deck for some pictures. My cat Mitsouko was looking at the deck, hoping to see a bird; too cold for birds and other critters, but a lonely fox was walking down the back alley.
My daughter and son-in-law went for a walk at the golf course near their home today and sent me the photos below.
They look like they are standing somewhere in Alaska, not just south of Nashville. Although today, Mardi Gras 2021, it was 28 F in Anchorage, Alaska, and 11 F (-11.66C) in Brentwood, TN... just saying... Here in my street the sun is starting to come back; next week hopefully it will warm up.
