Clarksville Now publishes opinion pieces representing both sides of a variety of topics. Opinions presented do not necessarily reflect those of the newsroom or management. To join the conversation, email your opinion piece to news@clarksvillenow.com.
Contributed commentary by Charles Uffelman, chair of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, on the expulsion of two Democrats this week by the Tennessee General Assembly.
While thousands of students in Nashville were marching for their lives and asking the state Legislature to pass common sense gun laws, two of Montgomery County’s representatives, Curtis Johnson and Jeff Burkhart, were focused on silencing the opposition by working to expel three of their colleagues, Rep. Gloria Johnson, Rep. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson.
This could have been an opportunity for our elected leaders to come together and serve the people. Instead, it has become a national embarrassment. The Republican majority voted to expel the two Black members of the protest, but voted to spare Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white woman. This action is reminiscent of Clarksville’s dark history of expulsion when Montgomery County’s first Black state representative (Jesse M.H. Graham) was quickly thrown out of office in 1896, also with little due process.
We have two generations in this country that have grown up with the reality of an increased threat of being murdered at school due to lax gun regulation. This lax regulation allows for easy access to guns of all types, specifically semi-automatic assault weapons. Montgomery County Rep. Ronnie Glynn immediately joined with the Democratic Caucus to put forward five proposals to keep weapons of war out of the hands of dangerous people. Why couldn’t Johnson and Burkhart focus their energy and resources toward addressing the lack of legislation in the state of Tennessee to protect its citizens from gun violence? Instead, they chose to support silencing and removing two duly elected members of the Tennessee House of Representatives for standing to raise the voices of the very students who are most at risk of losing their lives.
The expulsion of these democratically elected representatives was an extreme move by an even more extreme Republican supermajority that acts as if it is drunk on its own power. The whole country watched as Republicans conducted the first partisan expulsion in Tennessee’s history. The country watched as a Republican supermajority voted to expel two young, Black men who stood to support the young voices that could be heard crying out for support from their Legislature. The same Republican supermajority voted to spare the seat of the white woman who stood with them.
Clarksville deserves better than this. Clarksville deserves representation by principled, caring leaders who will step up to run for election in 2024. Our community deserves leaders who will care more about solving problems than creating them. We deserve leaders who will be brave enough to be on the right side of Tennessee history. The very lives of our children will depend upon this.
Charles Uffelman