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ALERT: Memphis - Save the
Parks Guidelines - Letters to the Mayor
Ladies & Gentlemen,
You are aware that the Memphis City
Council may shortly undertake a resolution to rename the city’s
Civil War parks: Confederate Park, Jefferson Davis Park, &
Forrest Park. Certain factions want to obliterate Civil War
history in Memphis, especially anything Confederate, including
removing the monuments and statues to Southern heroes. If it
starts here, nothing is sacred or safe.
The “Citizens to Save Our Historic
Parks”, along with Forrest Camp 215, our area brother SCV camps,
and several other historic groups, are mounting a counterattack
and publicity campaign to thwart this tragic attempt on our
heritage.
We need your help !!! General Forrest
and President Davis need your help. They never turned their
backs on us and now we must step forward and do whatever it
takes to preserve those parks. Help save our history and our
heritage, our parks and our monuments.
The mayor of Memphis, W. W. Herenton,
has not yet entered the fray but is expected to do so with a
press conference next Wednesday, Aug. 3. He is expected to renew
the attacks on our parks, statues, and heritage.
Please write to Mayor Herenton:
Mayor W. W. Herenton
125 N. Main St.
Memphis, TN 38103
When you write, your first sentence
should say in bold text:
"Please do not support a proposal to
rename any of our Memphis parks or remove any historical
statues."
If he is bombarded with a lot of
correspondence, he may only take the time to read the first
sentence of your letter. You need to get your point across
immediately. Keep in mind you're dealing with government
officials, so please remain professional and refrain from using
any language or name calling that could be used against us in
our efforts. Your help is critical in the fight.
This applies whether or not you live in
Memphis. One concern expressed by the sub-committee is that
these Memphis Civil War parks and statues reflect negatively on
outside visitors and businesses. So the Council is interested in
everybody’s perception, inside and outside visitors.
Here are some issue points that you can
use. You don’t have to mention all of them:
-
These parks are actually a
draw to outside visitors. Civil War tourism is a big business.
-
The positive attraction to
tourists of these historic parks
-
Your family, relatives and friends
specifically come to Memphis on occasion to visit these parks
-
People and businesses don’t
NOT come to Memphis because of these parks
The importance of Memphis
history to quality of life
-
The importance of “roots”
and history to the fabric of life
-
The significance of these
parks
Other possible points:
-
The city should be concerned
with more pressing city issues (high taxes, crime, drugs,
failing education system, gangs, etc.
Letter-writing guidelines:
-
Be gentlemanly
-
Stick to one page
-
Be brief and concise
-
Make your point in your
first sentence. That may be all they read.
-
Don’t be negative or
apologetic
-
Don’t get into long historic
discourses
-
Mention how the parks
benefit Memphis
Don’t let them take our Southern parks
and statues !!!! We will fight them all the way.
As General Forrest would say: “Always
show fight” !!!!! And fight we will.
Lee Millar
SCV Community Affairs Officer
Help spread the word:
Email
This page
We are
providing a letter writing tool to assist in formatting a letter
to the Mayor of Memphis. Just click on the "Take
Action" button and follow the instructions to generate draft
letter. You can then edit the letter to include your personal
comments (be firm but polite, no profanity or other derogatory
comments - the Mayor has taken to action yet). Then you can
email it to Mayor or yourself.
We recommend that you
send both email and send a letter by regular mail. It does require
you to register an email and set a password of your choosing.
We also recommend that you send one to each of
the members of the City Council click here.
Ron Paul President
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