This episode examines a local woke initiative called Regionsmart that is being rammed through the Tennessee General Assembly. In the interview section of the show, we interview Josh Abbotoy about the success he has had helping students, parents, and faculty fight a recent emergence of wokeness at Grove City College. Mr. Abbotoy is the Executive Director of American Reformer. He is also a Managing Director at New Founding, a network designed to serve the American people. A seasoned private equity lawyer by background, Josh is the grateful beneficiary of Christian education, having been homeschooled, then earning his B.A. (History) from Union University and an M.A. (Medieval and Byzantine Studies) from the Catholic University of America, before attending Harvard Law School. He is a member of University Park Baptist Church and lives in Sugar Land, Texas, with his wife and three children.

Monologue

Tennessee’s General Assembly spent a lot of time last year banning the elements of critical race theory from being taught in our state’s public schools. This was good and right, and we supported this effort. We were thus shocked to find out that SB1915, sponsored by Senator Page Walley Fayette County and HB1989 sponsored by Representative Kevin Vaughn of Collierville worked to establish a regional economic, infrastructure, and transportation authority built around a University of Memphis entity called “Region Smart.” We were shocked because Region Smart pushes critical race theory, and that when we pointed this out, the CRT elements began to disappear from the RegionSmart website. Fortunately, we had receipts, which we supplied to other media outlets in the midsouth, including PDF’s we had generated of the websites.

Senator Walley and Representative Vaughn’s bills are dangerous and represent the worst kind of “Conservatism,” which is the “string me along because I’m a nice guy” type of conservatism. It appears that these men pushed a bill empowering an unelected entity driven on race based revenge - “equity.” The empowerment comes from, among other things, the power of eminent domain. That’s right, this bill gives regionsmart, a CRT driven entity, the power to seize property for the public good. Since CRT driven “public good” is the equalization of all results, we see theft and the redistribution of wealth as a very probable outcome. This, of course, violates God’s law against theft.

Lack of accountability is also an obvious flaw to this system. Shelby County suffered greatly under the reign of terror implemented by the county health department - an unelected group with appointed leadership. A regional economic authority would be similar - except every county under its authority - Fayette and SHelby in TN, Desoto in MS, Crittendon County in Arkansas - would suffer if and when abuses began to emerge.

As citizens began to express their concerns, replies from legislators pointed out further problems instead of calming our fears about initial problems. One legislator said “this is similar to other regional authorities, like the New York Port Authority.” That is terrifying. The New York Port Authority has been heavy handed and abusive in its use of eminent domain. And, most terrifyingly, it has a multi-state empowered police force. CCOT supports Sheriff’s as our first and best law enforcement agencies. A new police force that is more like a private army is unamerican. It violates the principles upon which the states of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas were founded. And to have it driven by race based vengeance as envisioned by CRT proponents should have you up in arms.

Rep. Kevin Vaughn’s office number is (615) 741-1866. Sen Page Walley’s office number is (615) 741-2368. Please call these offices and ask that they withdraw HB 1989 and SB1915, respectively.