SOUTH KNOX VOL. 32 NO. 1
IN THIS ISSUE
It was a good bowl game
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Keep Knoxville – especially SoKno –
beautiful
There are good bowl games and bad bowl games and some that are irrelevant. Now and then one becomes far more meaningful than an ordinary bowl should be. This wasn’t Tempe 16 years ago. This wasn’t part of the new national playoff. It was just the TaxSlayer (Gator) Bowl, but it was really big for the Volunteers. It was double or nothing.
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Read Marvin West on page 4
‘Inherent Vice’ Betsy Pickle reviews “Inherent Vice” and “Selma.” About the first she writes, “Joaquin Phoenix would seem the perfect actor to play a stoner private eye in a ’70s-set mystery, and in many ways he is the right man for the job in “Inherent Vice.” But the twist on film noir – “Chinatown” with hippies – never feels comfortable in its own skin.”
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Read Betsy Pickle on page 7
South-Doyle rugby team is tops On Monday night, the South-Doyle rugby team gathered at the Bistro at the Bijou for its annual awards night. The players and coaches had much to celebrate, including winning the 7 on 7 team state championship on Dec. 6 in Murfreesboro. They also celebrated the growing popularity of rugby – did you even know that SouthDoyle has a rugby team?
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Allison Teeters, executive director of Keep Knoxville Beautiful, and Ariel Allen, KKB program coordinator from AmeriCorps Photo by Betsy Pickle
By Betsy Pickle As South Knoxville gets busier, it’s also getting trashier. The amount of litter along major and secondary roadways is reaching alarming levels. The subject of trash and litter comes up at nearly every community meeting across South Knox. It was a focus at the December meeting of the Chapman Highway Garden Club, where Allison Teeters, executive director of Keep Knoxville Beautiful, spoke about litter eradication and how to clean up South Knoxville before April’s Dogwood Arts Festival, which will spotlight all of SoKno. Teeters thanked the garden club members for their role in beautifying the community. “You guys help greatly to make Knoxville more
beautiful,” she said. “But Keep Knoxville Beautiful is about more than planting flowers.” The organization began in 1978 as the Greater Knoxville Beautification Board, formed to help the city clean up for the 1982 World’s Fair. The name was changed in 1997 to strengthen the branding of all Keep America Beautiful affiliates. “Our general vision is a cleaner, greener, more beautiful community,” said Teeters, who lives in South Knoxville. Teeters, who has been All kinds of trash ends up in South Knox waterways, includthe director for seven years, ing Goose Creek along Maryville Pike. Some of it is deliberand Ariel Allen, program ately tossed there. coordinator through AmeriCorps who started last year, are the only staff members 3,500 volunteers per year,” pounds of litter off our roadat Keep Knoxville Beautiful. Teeters told the group gath- ways.” While that’s an impresThey depend heavily on vol- ered at Woodlawn Christian Church. “Last year sive figure, it’s also “kind of unteers. “We typically have about they picked up over 97,000 sad,” she said. “Litter gets
there either on purpose or by accident. We’ve all seen somebody throw something out of their car, which is really just sad because they’re littering God’s creation. We are treating it like a trash can.” Much of the problem is that “we are a disposable society” – throwing away everything from fast-food packaging to refrigerators, and not always in landfills or designated trash receptacles. In addition to educating and encouraging people not to litter, Keep Knoxville Beautiful focuses on waste reduction. “We’re talking about reuse; we’re talking about recycling,” said Teeters. KKB has a recycling trailer that can be borrowed by any organization, free of charge. The 6x10-foot trailer comes with metal holders that can be set up and outfitted with clear bags to collect recyclables at events of any size. On average, Americans accumulate 4.4 pounds of trash per day, she said. “You can imagine a family of four – that’s almost 20 pounds of trash a day.” As a twist on traditional beautification projects, KKB has started organizing “beautification mobs.” The first took place at the corner of Central and Summit Hill in the Old City and took all day. At another “mob” in the fall, about 20 volunteers To page 3
See story on page 8
‘Selma’ movie, panel kick off
2019 is a long way off, says Pavlis Who will succeed Madeline Rogero? Betty Bean writes: “If past is prologue, the field will be crowded. A candidate or two will likely emerge from the business community, and, as observed above, several members of City Council are believed to be eyeing a run – most notably Vice Mayor Nick Pavlis, who has not only met regularly with his South Knoxville constituents, but also has attended neighborhood meetings all over town.” Get Pavlis’ response.
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January July 29, 7, 2015 2013
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Read Betty Bean on page 5
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city’s civil rights celebration Rights march changed a nation – and a minister’s life By Bill Dockery Four Knoxville veterans of the civil rights movement will gather for a special public screening of the new movie “Selma” as the city of Knoxville opens its celebration of the 50th anniversary of passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The celebration is called “Let Us March on Ballot Boxes,” and the program will begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 10, at Regal Cinemas Pinnacle Turkey Creek with the four civil rights leaders reflecting on the struggle for voting rights. “Selma” is winning praise for its portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. and for its astute re-creation of the politics and personalities of the civil rights campaign.
In this AP wire photo from Feb. 15, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. greeted two Unitarian Universalist ministers when they were released from jail in Selma, Ala. Gordon Gibson (right) and Ira Blalock (left) were observing civil rights actions for their denomination when they were arrested on the steps of the Dallas County (Ala.) courthouse. AP photo “We encourage everyone to buy tickets in advance,” said Joshalyn Hundley, city coordinator of the program. Tickets for the PG-13 film are $8 for adults and $7.50 for children and seniors. KAT buses will provide trans-
portation from the Civic Coliseum to the theater at 2 p.m. that Saturday. People using mobility devices should contact Hundley at 865-215-3867 by Jan. 9. The panelists include Gordon Gibson, a retired Unitarian Universalist
tions; and John Stewart, a member of Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s staff when the Civil Rights Act was passed. Fifty years ago, Gibson was sent by the Unitarian Universalist Association to observe civil rights actions in Selma being led by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. With a fresh master’s in divinity from Tufts University and only 25 years old, Gibson headed to Selma without a clear Judy and Gordon Gibson had sense of what was at stake been married only about 18 personally or nationally. months in early 1965 when “Don’t go to Selma unthe Unitarian Universalist As- less it’s more important sociation sent him to Selma, that you go than that you Ala., as a civil rights observer. come back,” one denomiThe couple, now retired, live nation official warned him. in East Knoxville. Photo by Bill That shocked Gibson and Dockery his wife, Judy – also a minister – into having their minister who was in Selma wills written. “In retrospect, I was as an observer; Harold Middlebrook, retired min- thinking only a fraction of ister who was active in Sel- what I should have been ma; Avon Rollins, who led thinking,” Gibson said. “I Knoxville civil rights acTo page 3
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