Mr. Forbes,
May I ask a question? Did you or your reporter actually visit here before the recent article was written? It might have been good for someone to actually come to our 'miserable' city and discover just how good misery can be.
Just a few examples for your consideration:
1) Consistently, The Chronicle of Philanthropy cites Memphis as one of the 'most generous' cities in America in terms of support for philanthropic endeavors. Much of that focus is the faith community giving time, money, human resources and love into the poor and under-resourced areas of our community. An example might be helpful. For more than 20 years a just one faith-based organization, Neighborhood Christian Centers (www.ncclife.org), has provided caring help and services to our city’s poor and marginalized. Currently serving more than 70,000 residents each year, this organization, for example, provides food, clothing, tutoring, prenatal services, and much, much more. Or how about The Church Health Center (www.churchhealthcenter.org), which serves our city by providing cooperative health care services to many, many people on a free or reduced cost basis? How miserable!
2) There are more than 25 agencies or charter schools in our city with laser focus on 'at risk' kids. Making a difference is proven. In fact, Bill and Mylinda Gates (Read More) determined the efforts being made to address education deserved a $90+ million investment in our education efforts focused on our core city children. Misery loves company, so perhaps you could join the Gates and make a family investment in us? Maybe just writing a fully factual article could be a grand start.
3) Crime is a problem in every major city! Anyone who will take the time to research and understand the subject of national crime reporting knows statistical comparisons of crimes between metro areas are misleading and not factual. Tennessee reports in a most thorough manner, not required in most other states, thus our numbers are more accurate and therefore higher. Not to worry, our miserable crime fighting efforts in Memphis (www.memphiscrime.org) has reduced crime more than 20% in the last year and more than 15% since 2006. (That should have been reported and it is factual!) Seems someone missed those facts in their rush to misery conclusions.
4) Come on down in May and join our miserable month long celebration called Memphis in May (www.memphisinmay.org). Each year for the last 20+ years we have joined together as a community to honor a particular country. This year the country of Tunisia will be honored. There is the International Barbecue Cooking Contest, The Blues Festival, and finally the last weekend The Sunset Symphony. All of these events occur in our miserable downtown (www.downtownmemphis.com) , where more than 28,000 people live in a vibrant and renovated district just south of St. Jude Childrens' Research Hospital (www.stjude.org) campus. St. Jude has more than 4000 people who show up each day for live-saving research and medical work for the children of the WORLD!
5) Almost forgot about our innovation and entrepreneurial environment. If you ever need a bio-device such as a joint replacement you should look closely because it will likely have been made in misery in Memphis by one of the companies which lead the research and innovation globally. Global logistics and transportation have been changed by another miserable business: FedEx. I assume you occasion a grocery store which was pioneered here by Piggly Wiggly or you stay in a hotel, which is an industry developed by another misery loving company, Holiday Inn. How about changing the car parts industry to a retail business—AutoZone? Or how about our biggest employers whose headquarters grow and thrive in this miserable place: FedEx Corp, FedEx Express, International Paper, ServiceMaster, AutoZone, St. Jude, Guardsmark, Helena Chemical, Hunter Fan, ACH Foods, Lucite International and others.
6) Greenbelts and parks are a priority here. Consider how miserable it must be to have 4500 acre public park operated by a citizens' board smack in the middle of the miserable metro area with trails soon to be connecting from all over the area and people using it every for recreation and exercise. Let's see...Shelby Farms Park (www.shelbyfarmspark.org) is five (5X) larger than Central Park. Or how about our zoo (www.memphiszoo.org) which is a critically acclaimed, world class zoo operated by a public-private partnership.
Mayor AC Wharton is a national leader in urban issues and he would be a great feature story sometime. If your reporter had been to Memphis and if he had toured and talk to us, I believe the article would have been more representative. It seems he just took a bunch of research statistics and the result was he wrote a most miserable article. In any event if you and the reporter would like I am certain we could arrange a 'miserable' all expenses paid trip on one of our corporate jets and you can probably stay in the world class, five star Hotel Peabody. We'll leave the welcome mat out for you!
Miserably yours,
Larry Jensen
President & CEO
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