Gone With The Wind Banned From Memphis Theater

When Vice News argued that perhaps Mt. Rushmore should be demolished, running a headline which declared without irony - "Let"s Blow Up Mount Rushmore" (a headline subsequently scrubbed) - we suggested that the fanatical push to sanitize all historic monuments and public references to past political leaders perceived as "tainted" or controversial "may have hit peak crazy here." Well, we were wrong - it appears the PC mob is now coming for the film industry.

The historic Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee has decided to censor "Gone With the Wind" from a line-up of movies it will show as part of its 2018 Summer Movie Series after dubbing it racially "insensitive". The 1939 classic film, based on the book by Margaret Mitchell, is set on a plantation in the American South during the Civil War and Reconstruction era, and is widely considered by critics and historians to be among the greatest American movies of all time. It broke Academy Award records at the time, receiving eight Oscars including a Best Supporting Actress for Hattie McDaniel, who became the first African-American Academy Award-winner. It also remains the highest grossing film of all time (with ticket prices adjusted for inflation) - beating out even Star Wars.

Memphis" Orpheum Theatre has included the movie as part of its annual local film festival featuring American classics for decades. But apparently this nearly 80-year old world renowned classic has been scrubbed for the first time based on some complaints the theater received after its last August 11 showing. “As an organization whose stated mission is to ‘entertain, educate and enlighten the communities it serves’, the Orpheum cannot show a film that is insensitive to a large segment of its local population,” the theater’s board said in a statement.

The theater indicated that for the first time this year"s screening “generated numerous comments” which led to the decision to drop it, adding that, “while title selections for the series are typically made in the spring of each year, the Orpheum has made this determination early in response to specific inquiries from patrons.” This will mark the first time in 34 years Gone With the Wind will not show. It appears that much of the negative feedback came via Orpheum Theatre"s Facebook page with some comments decrying the film as "racist" and leveling the charge that it"s a "tribute to white supremacy". 

Meanwhile Brett Batterson, the president of Orpheum Theatre Group, claimed in an interview that the decision was made before the tragic events of Charlottesville. “This is something that’s been questioned every year, but the social media storm this year really brought it home," he said. “This is about the Orpheum wanting to be inclusive and welcoming to all of Memphis."

The Orpheum Theatre in Memphis. Image source: Wiki Commons

Local media also referenced Memphis" "64 percent African-American population" as making the film"s inclusion in the festival "insensitive". Yet, if as Batterson claims the removal of the film was primarily due to negative social media response, this means the Memphis population may not have actually had much of a say. And of course the next logical question is: where was the outcry of "racism" while the film was featured every year for 34 years, and sometimes multiple times a year?

This would further imply that just about every film industry institution from the Academy Awards to the American Film Institute to the People"s Choice Awards to every critic that ever praised the movie is potentially a racist and paid tribute to white supremacy. But that is the absurd path we are headed down here: an American classic which goes back to the first part of the 20th century must be purged due to angry anonymous comments on social media. Orpheum"s president admits he cowered before what he called a "social media storm" and opted for censorship.

Orpheum Theatre Group"s mission is stated as "utilizing the performing arts to entertain, educate, and enlighten." But we wonder: if the very organizations claiming to safeguard and promote the arts are now purging classics like Gone With the Wind, are we now witnessing the start of a broader and vicious coming assault on art itself?

Officials Investigate Toxins in Water Under Tennessee Power Plant

State officials and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) have announced the discovery of high levels of arsenic and lead in groundwater beneath the Allen Fossil Plant, located in southwest Memphis. Officials found the toxins in wells where pollution from ponds containing leftover coal ash is monitored. The Allen Fossil Plant, you see, is powered by coal.

In one well, arsenic levels were found to be more than 300 times the federal drinking-water standard. The 50-foot-deep monitoring wells are about a half-mile from considerably deeper wells drilled by the TVA directly into the Memphis Sand aquifer. The TVA has a plan in place to dump 3.5 million gallons of water out of the aquifer per day in 2018 to cool a natural gas power plant that will replace the aging Allen plant.

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation spokesman Eric Ward says he is “confident the contaminants found in TVA wells at the Allen Fossil Plant are not impacting drinking water” because of a layer of clay that separates the groundwater from the aquifer.

Despite Ward’s assurances, the department asked the city’s water utility, Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW), to test drinking water. It further instructed the TVA, which has had problems handling coal ash in the past, to pinpoint where the toxins originated.

A TVA spokesman says the company doesn’t know where the arsenic and lead are coming from.

Mayor Mark Luttrell expressed alarm and anger over the high levels of toxins, saying:

“The levels of arsenic in the water samples are not acceptable to our community.”

The Sierra Club is calling for additional water testing and believes TVA should immediately contract MLGW to cool their new plant with municipal water.

Handling coal ash ponds is not the TVA’s biggest strength, to say the least. Environmental groups have sued the company over allegations that its coal ash ponds from its coal-fired power plant in Gallatin, Tennessee, are seeping pollution into the Cumberland River, violating the Clean Water Act.

Environmental groups want the waste at the Gallatin Fossil Plant to be dug up and transplanted elsewhere. TVA, however, maintains that it’s both cheaper and safer for the waste to stay put.

Fox 13 in Memphis took 2 samples of groundwater from an area of the city called Boxtown and had them tested in mid-July 2017. [2]

Michael Kauffman, the chemist who oversaw the tests, said:

“All we can tell you is there’s no arsenic that we were able to find. Beyond that, MLGW or someone else would have to provide you information with how good the drinking water is.”

MLGW is testing its wells, and the results should become available soon.

Sources:

[1] The Associated Press

[2] Fox 13 Memphis

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About Mike Barrett:
	Mike is the co-founder, editor, and researcher behind Natural Society. Studying the work of top natural health activists, and writing special reports for top 10 alternative health websites, Mike has written hundreds of articles and pages on how to obtain optimum wellness through natural health.

"It's Absurd" - 6 Baltimore Schools Have Zero Students Proficient In State Math, English Tests

Baltimore schools spend a staggering $16,00 per student - the fourth-highest rate in the nation - and still an investigation by Fox45"s Project Baltimore revealed that at six city schools, not one student scored proficient on either the statewide tests for English and math.

At West Baltimore"s Frederick Douglass High, one of five high schools and one middle school where not one student scored a four or a five on the state test, only one out of 185 students who took the test last year scored a three, while 165 students scored a one, the lowest possible score. 

The schools are:

• Booker T. Washington Middle School

• Frederick Douglass High School

• Achievement Academy at Harbor City

• New Era Academy

• Excel Academy at Francis M. Wood High

• New Hope Academy

"That"s absurd to me," says Janel Nelson, the mother of one Frederick Douglass student. "That"s your teacher"s report card, ultimately." Janel"s son Navon Warren lost his father when he was three months old, followed by two uncles and a childhood friend, all whom were gunned down in the streets of Baltimore by the time he was 18. But Warren is one of the lucky ones; a champion swimmer, he won a scholarship to Bethany College in West Virginia and is preparing to leave Baltimore in the fall, one of only a few dozen students in his class to go to college. In fact, only 50% of Frederick Douglass students ever graduate.

Baltimore is one of a handful of U.S. cities - along with Chicago and Washington D.C. - where violent crime is once again on the rise after a two-decade decline brought us to historic lows. Crime, fueled by the opioid epidemic and decades of failed liberal policies.

Now, abandoned buildings dot the landscape and drug addicts can be seen lying in the streets. Through the end of April, the city had recorded 118 murders - putting it on track to surpass 400 for the year, what would be a new all-time peak for the murder rate. But what"s worse, even more people are dying of drug overdoses, thanks to synthetic opioids like Fentanyl and Carfentanyl that can be 100 times more potent than heroin. 

Returning to the money for just a moment, it"s difficult to imagine how a school system can spend so much money and still be so ineffective. Warren, to his credit, has a simple answer, yet illuminating answer. “The tests are harder than what we’re learning in class.”