"King Willie" announces his decision to step down from the throne of Memphis

June 25, 6:59 PMMemphis New Age ExaminerJennifer Cannon

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This morning's resignation speech (myfoxmemphis.com)

Around eleven o'clock this morning, one of the best-known members of Memphis city politics, Mayor  Willie Herenton, announced his decision to step down from the seat he has had for eighteen years now.  He is not retiring from all political aspirations, however.  In the same speech, he announced his decision to run for higher office.  He has stated that his reasons for stepping down are his distate of watching other elected officials who run for higher office while still retaining their current position.

Citizens of his hometown and location of his current political seat might beg to differ however......

Mayor Herenton's term in office has been full of controversy.  He has been accused of numerous financial and legal scandals, most recently the big real estate scandal involving the Memphis Greyhound bus terminal (www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/apr/28/memphis-attorney-charles-carpenter-appears-grand-j/ ).  He appeared before a grand jury on the charges in that case just one week after his initial announcement that he was entertaining ideas of running for the congressional seat.

Memphis City Council meeting (commercialappeal.com)

This may very well be one time that  "King Willie's" well-known self-confidence and lesser-known alleged moral standing and loyalty to office will turn around to bite him.......hard and in a very uncomfortable place.  Perhaps all of those other politicians had smarter ideas on keeping their place before attempting to move up.  Especially since in his previous  elections he has won by a landslide thanks to other candidates continuing to run against each other rather than letting their supporters combine efforts to remove him from office.  If nothing else, he has definitely benefitted from others' selfishness.

 

Looking unhappy recently (commercialappeal.com)

Regardless of how things work for congressional future, July 11th will be both a beginning and an end for Memphians.  While it was a mark in our favor that we gained our first elected African-American mayor, when that same mayor states that it is not his job to assist in repairing racial relations of his citizens because someone else started it, it doesn't say much for the person who was chosen for the job.

Perhaps our next elected mayor will pay more attention to the racial and other prejudicial tensions sweeping our city.  We can all hope for a better  tomorrow.