MEMPHIS, Tenn —
This Memphis City Council meeting didn’t make any sense. Yes, that can be said about a lot of city council meetings, but it was true here. It just didn’t make sense.
They met to vote on something that they have no power over. The Shelby County Health Department already announced tougher restrictions on businesses and restaurants to deal with the exploding number of COVID cases.
According to Council member Worth Morgan, “We’ve been getting a lot of e-mails and calls about this issue because we are voting on it. I think a lot of the public think we have a direct say in what’s in this directive, that we have approval or disapproval, which we don’t. Whatever action we take here today is a support measure. It means absolutely nothing.”
That’s not true. City Council members votes would be public, and they were in a damned if they do, damned if they don’t situation.
According to Morgan “People are so divided on this issue...we’re either going to be voting one way, and they’ll think we’ll cause more deaths or vote the other way, and we’ll cause thousands of people to lose their jobs.”
One other thing. Officials with the Shelby County Health Department say there could be one thousand more deaths in the next month.
“For those who are questioning this,” says City Councilman Martavius Jones “...I’m just going to plain ask you which of your beloved ones do you want to sacrifice. There’s not a damn one I want to sacrifice.”
Council members voted to support the Health Department directives.