Sullivan County Tennessee Exposed

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This picture almost landed a 12-year-old girl in jail!

Sullivan County Tennessee Exposed

by Lewis Loflin

Sullivan County has gone through a lot in the ten years I put up this website. There have been some positive changes, some old problems still remain. As of 2008 it's more of the same. The following are highlights of an old controversy that we all are glad is finished. As for the "fundamentalists" while I disagree with them on several issues, they are not monsters. I'm updating starting in August 2008.

Stupid Tennessee Government

Smoking ban costing some workers their jobs

Tennessee's nutty new smoking law will cost several worker their jobs. Any employee under 21 years old will be fired. The stupid state Department of Health made a decision to ban workers younger than 21 from working in smoking environments. Thus in the case Caitlin Grant,(20) and half the other workers at bars like the Electric Cowboy in Chattanooga, she gets the axe. To quote, "The bar continues to allow people to smoke inside by prohibiting anyone who is not at least 21 from entering, an exemption to the smoking ban." The company also has locations in Knoxville and Johnson City. Ref. Oct 06, 2007 AP

Target illegals, not cigarette buyers

While illegal aliens flood into East Tennessee and are ignored, buy cigarettes in Virginia and go to jail. In fact they have police patrolling the state line hunting for these violent criminals. The following from the local press says it all:

I read that Tennessee revenue collection was down the first month following implementation of the governor's cigarette tax increase. Sadly, the application of this irresponsible tax, in the face of well over a billion dollar revenue surplus, has caused Tennesseans to vote with their feet and go to Virginia to buy cigarettes, thus becoming "criminals" according to the governor and those legislators who supported his unnecessary and irresponsible tax. If they catch you with two cartons plus one pack of cigarettes, you can have your car confiscated and spend six months in jail. If you get caught with a couple of months' supply of cigarettes, you could lose your car, be made to pay a $3,000 fine, and be sent to jail for up to six years.

In the case of the felony charge, a mere $155.63 in tax savings is all it takes for you to be a felon. Wonder if this tax avoidance will also apply to tax savings experienced by grocery shoppers. Illegal is illegal, right governor? Isn't it time we deal with real crime and real criminals? These are serious times, and the governor should stop picking on Tennesseans and start protecting us from illegal immigrants who break laws, kill our children, bankrupt our medical system, and overburden our school systems. Irresponsible taxation makes criminals of hard-working Tennesseans, and the wasted revenue enforcement manpower could be better spent protecting all of us from illegal immigrants and the expense of paying for their abuse of our health and education systems. Ref. Tony, 10/13/2007 Kingsport Times-News.

Church faces legal problem over yard sales???

A Johnson City church, the House of Prayer seems to be in legal hot water. This small, non-denominational church like many in the region holds yard sales to pay for the many good things they do for our community. Yet Gary Barnett has found he is a criminal for having too many yard sales without collecting sales tax. (Reports claims they only make $100-$300 per yard sale.)

"We've helped people on their power bills. We've helped people that have lost somebody in their family." claims Mr. Barnett. Sale number three of the year has the Tennessee tax goons coming down on their head. To quote the press, "I said, 'you mean the church has to collect tax from the garage sale,'" Barnett recalled. "He (the state tax goon) said, 'yes, write down everything and charge them tax.'" Welcome to the People's Republic of Tennessee.

To quote, "Tennessee law, even tax-exempt charities are only allowed to hold two tax-free yard sales a year. If a person or charity wants to hold three or more, they are required to collect sales tax for every purchase." To which Barnett replied, "It seems like that when you give or try to help somebody, that they're trying to come in and trying to interfere with that." The law has been around for a while, but they don't enforce it unless there's "complaints."

With an exploding crime rate including drug and gang shootings in Johnson City, it seems they could find something more important for this tax goon to do. Ref. BHC July 29, 2008.

Near the bottom again in 2008

Tennessee's 1st Congressional District (a safe Republican district) ranks 421st out of 436 districts. Virginia's 9th District (a safe Democratic district) does little better with a ranking of 400, mainly because of more government spending. (Virginia is a wealthier state than Tennessee.)

To quote the press (BHC July 20, 2008): "Some of the districts that fared worse included the Bronx in New York, the greater Houston area, and, not surprisingly, the coal counties in Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. In general, under performing districts had a strike or two against them. Many are rural, all are poor, and in a number of cases, they are districts where the majority of residents are racial minorities." But that isn't true in West Virginia, Kentucky, or the VA 9th or TN 1st, which are 90% plus white. So what is the problem? "In general, residents in the low-ranked districts make less money, are less educated, are sicker and die earlier than their well-off peers. The particulars for this region include:"

"A life expectancy of 74.9 years for Tennessee's 1st District and 75.1 years for Virginia's 9th District. The national average is around 78 years." Note the region's workers have worked a lot of toxic manufacturing jobs in years past, plus coal mining, plus many are heavy smokers and/or are obese.
"Twenty-two percent of 1st District adults don't have a high school diploma. In the 9th district, more than 25 percent of adults lack a diploma." The press discounts out migration of younger people fleeing poverty, including tens of thousands of college graduates. That drives up the "uneducated" numbers, many of them older.
"In both districts, just 17 percent of adults have a bachelor's degree. A mere six percent of 1st District residents have a graduate degree; in the 9th, its 6.9 percent." We have colleges, etc. but it won't help unless we increase wages or provide better jobs outside poverty wage tourism and retirement industries. Most college graduates here work in government, that pays far above the private sector. In other words, it isn't we are stupid, there's just no reason to stay here and starve or flip burgers.
"In Tennessee's 1st District, slightly less than 77 percent of children under age 18 are enrolled in school. The 9th District does better, with 86.9 percent enrolled." That should be investigated, in particular the use of multiple and questionable diplomas. But it makes no difference in income and Southwest Virginia is even lower than East Tennessee.
"Median earnings are about the same in both districts - $21,639 in East Tennessee and $20,808 in Southwest Virginia. A family of four with an income of $21,200 or less meets federal poverty guidelines." These government figures are not realistic. See Family Income in Bristol.

Quoting the Kingsport Times-News (1-18-2004) on comments by Sullivan County Tennessee attorney Dan Street on the Ten Commandments religious plaque placed in the Sullivan County, Tennessee courthouse,

"It seems clearer and clearer and clearer that we are promoting a particular religion, and that's a violation of the Constitution. The Constitution is the one document that protects minorities, and just because most people feel the Christian faith or the Jewish faith is the right faith, that doesn't mean they have a right to impose it on everyone else. Plenty of Christians and Jews who may follow the Ten Commandments, but don't believe they should be displayed in public buildings. Most of the time, however, those people don't come forward with their opinion because they are afraid of being chastised. People think if you want the Ten Commandments down you're an atheist, and that's just not true.

In 2006 fundamentalist' fanatics are at it again. In response to recent Supreme Court rulings, have intorduced legislation in Tennessee to extend state-sanctioned religious bigotry into Tennessee law. Typical are these words from local politicians,

"We accept other cultures, we open our arms to them. But if they come to this country they have to accept where we came from...If they have a problem with that, that's tough. I'm not real sensitive about that. "As for the atheist perspective, I could care less how they feel,"

This law was defeated. Our community deserves credit for this positive change.

Sullivan County Schools

"I'm so frustrated with this whole mess...I've been on the board for 27 years, and I believe this is about the worst situation of the least concern by the County Commission that I have ever seen. I am very, very disappointed and frustrated that an effort has not been made by the funding body. If that bothers them, I'm sorry. I think we are putting ourselves in a precarious position that is going to affect children, and that's what we are in business for," Mr. C. Bridwell. (Kingsport Times-News 6/24/03) The saga goes on today in 2007. There has been fear of closing Sullivan North, it's still here. My guestbook (click here) has a lot of parent entries on the local schools.

Sullivan County police sued over a pet pig

Sullivan County and three of its law enforcement officers are facing a $4.7 million lawsuit when apparently they prevented Tim White and his wife Penny from rescuing a pig named "Fatty" from a Blountville house fire on Christmas Eve. According to police, "sheriff's deputy Joshua Ferguson tried to escort Penny White from the scene, she pushed him. And when an officer tried to arrest her, Tim White grabbed him by the jacket and continued to struggle. The couple was initially charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct. The charges were reduced to offensive touching when they pleaded no contest." The Whites got jailed on Christmas and felt this was unfair. Ref. 12/24/2007 AP

White is the co-founder of the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance and host of the PBS television series "Song of the Mountains." The Birthplace of Country Music Alliance recently hired a North Carolina firm to help raise $12 million for a cultural heritage center. They got an old building in building Bristol Virginia and thousands in tax dollars. They need another $10 million to fix the old building and another $2 million for the upkeep of this proposed "museum." At present they operate out of the Bristol Mall. Perhaps they could sell some cooked pork instead of receiving pork from the taxpayers.

Click above if you love freedom.

Why your college degree is worthless here

The refusal to pay better wages limits the labor pool. We have plenty of college graduates, but that isn't what they want. They desire better educated minimum wage workers to work all of the $6 an hour jobs this region produces. They won't get it.

Quoting a Sullivan County official, he confirmed again what most in power here will not address: "I was in no way casting dispersions on the level of education at ETSU. When I said that "we have ETSU students flipping burgers," I was pointing out that we do not have the level of jobs in this area to sustain the number of graduates from our local colleges. Therefore, they are forced to either leave the area or take what jobs are available to them, which in most cases are in the service area," The trouble is there are no decent jobs even in trades as the Tarnoff report revealed. See:

Fundamentalists have lost already

Printed January 25, 2006 Kingsport Times-News

Re: Sullivan's Ten Commandments display unchallenged, so far, the fundamentalists have lost whether the plaque goes or stays. Proof is the fact that many others challenge them in this space. Mr. Street can make excuses, but the public record is clear; in their efforts to silence me, they proved the plaque was designed to intimidate others. I gave them a way out by simply agreeing that all faiths have equal access; they shot themselves in the foot. The ACLU thanks them. They made a mockery of God. Claiming the purpose of the plaque is secular is insulting to God and violates His very commandment against false witness. Promoting a religion from public office to intimidate citizens is a direct violation of the U.S. and Tennessee constitutions.

Roger Clites (Dec 11) claims, "the Constitution �was not to be applied to actions of individuals � (and) � does not apply to the states." From section 1 of the 14th Amendment: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the U.S. nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." It does apply to you, Mr. Clites.

During the plaque dedication, Carletta Sims and I were threatened with arrest and barred from the courthouse. I met some of the participants after the ceremony, including a minister who in no manner was some hate-filled, fundamentalist fanatic, and we were shocked at how much we had in common. I believe he is more typical of many Christians. Leave the plaque where it is, along with Halloween, Happy Holidays, Harry Potter, evolution, and Merry Christmas. All are part of American culture, all correctness be damned.

Lewis Loflin
Bristol, Va.

Sunday, June 27,1999

Kingsport Times-News Our View

Commission should rescind vote on Commandments

Lewis Loflin, the Bristol, VA., resident, who represents something called the World Union of Deists of Bristol, may come across as a bit extreme. But the central point he made to the Sullivan County Commission last week is nonetheless valid.

Loflin told commissioners that since they had approved a religious plaque for the county courthouse, he wanted equal treatment. What he got instead was the threat of a lawsuit.

And so we now have in Sullivan County a government which is endorsing a particular religious belief in the form of a public monument to it, and which threatens legal action against those who object.

County residents should take serious note of this situation. It is not only frightening, but represents an attack on religious liberty for all Americans.

What if this were � as is the case in many locales in America � a region where the predominant religion was Buddhism? What if a majority of the county commission were Buddhists, and voted to place a bronze image of Buddha in the county courthouse? And what if a Christian resident appeared before that commission asking to be allowed to place a symbol of his religious faith in the courthouse? And what if the commission voted to entertain a lawsuit against that resident?

It is precisely because its Constitution prohibits government sanction of religion that America has avoided the religious wars, which throughout history have killed millions and destroyed nations.

In this country, no matter our ethnicity or faith, we have equal rights. Were that not so, America would not stand today.

County commissioners should know that.

They surely knew in resolving that a plaque containing the Ten Commandments be placed in a government building that they were endorsing a particular religious philosophy and violating the spirit and letter of the law. But they lacked the backbone to vote against it because they were afraid they would be painted as somehow godless.

That is why they sat silent last Monday as Commissioner Mike Gonce moved that the county attorney investigate legal action against Loflin's "lies."

It is why they have put at risk the right of all to worship as they choose: as do those who rail for prayer in schools when students already can pray in school or anywhere else they choose; or who preach the need for America to return to "religious values" � their religious values.

There is time for the commission to undo its terrible wrong and rescind its vote. People of faith �all faiths � should insist on it.

The next article was circa 1998. Today there is no Klan activity that I know of or at least in public. On the national scene, it's interesting as well the hysteria some Christians around here went into over Y2K has been replaced by hysteria on the political left with George Bush.

The Christian Reich in Sullivan County, Tennessee
Jerry Falwell, the Antichrist, attacks Jews

Fundamentalists failed

Re. the letter from Sharron Mahan (Times-News April 18), that's the reason and proof why Carletta Sims launched her lawsuit and why she should win. Statements such as "get a job in another area outside the Bible Belt" and "why should she be compensated for fighting against someone (God)" is telling of the mental state of the writer.

Sims draws more hatred than both the Combs Family and the Lillelid murderers combined. She didn't cause the huge loses at Eastman, Fingerhut closing, the wave of bombings in the area, etc. The real issue isn't Sims.

Fundamentalists have totally blown it and can only blame themselves. It never was about the SBC plaque in the courthouse or hanging "In God we trust'' on every outhouse, but their failure to reach people. 100 million Americans have no connection to any church. Atheism has had no growth in 11 years while the "unchurched'' have exploded by 110 percent, outnumbering even Catholics and Baptists who attend church. Church attendance is down below 40 percent. After Sept. 11, people went to churches looking for comfort instead found political rhetoric, hate and demands for money. Three months later, they all left and polls show fundamentalists now have a higher divorce rate than the general population. Seems family values are little more than just talk.

One can't achieve with politics what one refuses to believe enough to follow themselves. Faith alone won't cut it nor will demands for forced prayer in schools. Will God be harder on the atheists or the hypocrites? A lot of Sullivan County fundamentalists should be getting worried. Don't tell me to leave, Mrs. Mahan, I won't. Go get them, Carletta.

Lewis Loflin
Bristol, Va.

Grundy, Virginia and the $200 million Bridge to Nowhere

Self-Sufficiency Standard in the Bristol, Virginia Community

Article List

Baptists and Mormons call each other cults, again! One problem most people don't understand is these Evangelical Protestants don't consider many Christians as being Christians and target their members harshly to "bring them to God." This includes Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, and most small Christian groups along with "mainline" Protestants they consider "too liberal." They refer to these groups as "cults" only on theological grounds, not social conduct. Fundamentalist Christians in the social sense do operate as cults. Finally regardless of their "love" of Israel fundamentalists are anti-Semitic targeting Jews endlessly hoping their conversion will finally bring the second coming of Jesus.

What ING say about Tri-Cities

Catholics attacked in Sullivan County
Debate over religion killing children in Colorado.
God has a moral right to kill..so do we.
More quotes from fundamentalists.
The Old South and the New Religious Right
The Christian Right seeks dominion by Sara Diamond
The new fundamentalist Royal Race of the Redeemed. This is evil 101!
Christian Reconstructionists in their own words.
Interview with Gary North King of Christian Economics
There's something about Gary

Religion verses Science

25 Questions and answers for Creationism
Introduction to the scientific method.
The scientific method.

Humor

What Tennessee Law would be under fundamentalism.

Christian Confusion On End-Times Nonsense
220 Dates for the End of the world!!! Date Setters!
Baptists in N.C. aim to convert Mormon, Jehovah's Witness 'cult' members
Christian complains about cartton
Christian Fundamentalism and Science
Gate City Evangilist  attacks ACLU over school prayer
Religious Fundamentalism As Mental Illness
Christianity as a sect of Judaism?
Jews speak on y2k hype
Jungle of Christ
Article: EVOLUTION AND THE POPE
The Difference Between Science and Pseudoscience
Sullivan County emergency crews will be ready to roll in case of Y2K problems
How can a politician be a Christian, too?
No nudes in Sullivan, except for commission
Survey suggests teens not worried about Y2K

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