By Steve Hunley

Leftist Hypocrisy Out Of Control

The Left in this country never let a crisis go to waste.  Like Rumpelstiltskin, they try and spin a crisis into gold, albeit political gold.  The wildfires in Canada have leftists wringing their collective hands it's due to climate change.  Of course, these are the same people who simply make up things to believe; the same folks who advise the rest of us "to follow the science," yet with a straight face can nod their heads in the affirmative when someone says there might be as many as 72 genders.  They ride their own little merry-go-round of madness and insist everybody else hop on board, lest you be declared a white supremacist, transphobe, the Black or Brown (fill in the blank) of white supremacy, etc.  They are the same people in the media who stood in front of screens with people screaming as buildings burned to tell us the protests were "mostly peaceful" even when there were fatalities.  They have literally rewritten history as in the case of Nikole Hanna-Jones and don't have any idea what happened yesterday.  Evidently, they don't realize that Canadian wildfires occur regularly.  In Canada, they even refer to "fire season."  It's been going on as long as people can remember and there have been trees.  Goodness knows it couldn't be lightning striking and starting a fire, or even some careless person throwing out a cigarette butt.  Nope, it just has to be climate change.

They are the same people who want to exterminate cows for passing gas and want the rest of us to eat bugs.  You'll still find leftists in supermarkets shopping for meat, instead of worms or bugs.

They want district attorneys to ignore laws passed by state legislatures that would put criminals behind bars and protect society from predators but expect the rest of us to follow only the laws they choose.

They are the people who insist on stifling debate and discussion and ruin lives for the mere crime of disagreeing with them.  They talk about "democracy," squall about "fascism," and oppose free speech.  If they lived in a fascist state, they wouldn't be allowed to get away with stating their own views.  Ironically, they are the biggest threat to democracy in this country.

They believe in a society where nobody is rich and no one is poor; there is no such thing as private property or single-family homes.  Locally, the most notable proponents of decimating single-family neighborhoods in Knoxville and moving folks into multiplexes, duplexes, and just plain old apartments, are Indya Kincannon, Knoxville's mayor, Debbie Helsley, candidate for city council, and Hancen Sale, spokesman for the real estate lobby in Knox County.  All live in good-sized homes; Kincannon and her husband live in a sprawling mansion in North Knox while Sale and Helsley live alone in nice-sized homes.  Typical of the Left, who do have one deeply held belief: do as I say, not as I do.

They consistently defy logic, reason and plain common sense.  No parent in his/her right mind would take a child to a strip club, allow them to drink alcohol at 5 or 10 years of age, or smoke tobacco or weed.  Yet the Left in this country believes 5- or 10-year-old children should be able to decide they want to cut off their own body parts.  They believe children belong to the state rather than their parents.

These folks have yet to be mugged by reality and apparently live on their unicorn ranches, chugging pricey spring water, and chowing down on a bowl of bug-free rainbow stew.

There are some folks getting mugged by reality and the left-wing policies of the unhinged progressives.  That explains why a new poll shows a rise in those people identifying as socially and economically conservative.  A new Gallup poll shows 38% of Americans saying they identify as conservative socially economically, which is a high for the last decade.  Those identifying themselves as "liberal" has fallen from 34% to 29%.  31% of those responding identified themselves as "moderate." Every age demographic showed an increase in the number of people saying they identified as "conservative."

Perhaps the rise can be explained by the blatant hypocrisy of the Left.  The most recent example is Karen Johnson.  Johnson was Washington State's first Office of Equity director.  Ms. Johnson was fired last week by Democrat Governor Jay Inslee, no conservative, following an investigation that shed light on complaints about her behavior. She was dismissed due to a perception of "evidence of bias against Mexicans" according to a report by Jason Rantz of KTTH in Washington.  According to the investigation done by MFR Law Group one complaint from a "self-identified" Mexican said Johnson told her she has a "distrust" of "Mexican people."  The statement allegedly made by Karen Johnson was, "This may take some time for me because I generally distrust Mexican people.  Mexican people have the option of being White when it is convenient for them."

The Leftists are secure in their unicorn ranches and ivory towers, never thinking of the threat represented to our country and way of life by China and Russia.  It has yet to occur to them that neither would be tolerant, much less endorse the holy of holies, diversity and equity.  Neither would be accepting of many of the scripture according to the Left.  The thought has never crossed their minds.

The Chinese especially have a well-documented contempt for human life.  People these days forget the horror of Tiananmen Square when a courageous student stood in front of a tank, which never stopped, running him down and killing him horribly.

They will be the only folks surprised if the Chinese ever wish them a final bai bai.

Dwight Kessel: A Great Man And Public Servant

For quite more than 30 years, Dwight Kessel was one of the more prominent business figures in Knox County.  Kessel's life was an American success story.  Born in West Virginia, Dwight Kessel attended Duke University and the Naval Academy before getting an engineering degree.

Kessel was working for the Chapman Drug Company when he was elected to a seat on the Knoxville City Council in 1963.  When Republicans took back the courthouse in the 1966 elections, Dwight Kessel was elected county clerk, an office he held until 1980.  That year, Knox County changed the office of county judge to the county executive, which today is the county mayor.  The old commission form of government had three commissioners over three departments: finance, welfare, and roads, as well as a county judge and the members of the county court.

Three strong contenders fought for the Republican nomination to become Knox County's first county executive.  William "Bill" Tallent, who had served as commissioner of finance for decades, Kessel, and Sheriff Joe Jenkins.  To the surprise of many, Kessel won the GOP nomination and went on to win the general election.  The only defeat Dwight Kessel endured came at the end of his career when he lost the 1994 election to then-Trustee Tommy Schumpert.

There was nothing flashy or phony about Dwight Kessel; what you saw was what you got.  Kessel was low key, completely unpretentious, and easy to approach.  Kessel's administration of the county's affairs was conservative, but effective.  Kessel vocally took the part of the county when then-City Mayor Victor Ashe presided over the annexation of virtually every lucrative sales-tax producing area in the county, no matter how distant.  An engineer by profession and a successful businessman, Dwight Kessel personal popularity had much to do with his involvement in the community.  Kessel and his wife Gloria supported innumerable organizations and causes, including the Boy Scouts, the Girls Club, the East Tennessee Foundation, and the Knox County Health Council.  Dwight and Gloria Kessel also were quiet philanthropists, especially where the University of Tennessee was concerned.  Mr. and Mrs. Kessel established professorships, fellowships, and scholarships at the Tickle College of Engineering.  Gloria and Dwight Kessel also founded an endowment for the University of Tennessee's Institute for Public Service, which was created to assist county government in Tennessee.

Dwight Kessel once told Focus columnist Ralphine Major that he hoped to be remembered "as someone who was thoughtful, kind, and considerate of others."  Kessel summed up his life by saying, "When all is said and done, I feel like the Lord was looking after me and had more to do with what happened to me than I was ever aware."  For all his success throughout life, Dwight Kessel was a modest man who always looked to do what he believed to be right for the community.

A poor boy who made good, Dwight Kessel passed away Saturday, June 3, at age 96.  Knox County has lost a faithful public servant and friend.  Dwight Kessel was a good man and a steady and honest public servant.  We here at The Knoxville Focus extend our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to Mrs. Kessel and the Kessel family.

Rep. Beck's Passing A True Loss

State Representative Bill Beck died of a heart attack last week.  A Democrat from Nashville, Beck was an attorney who is mourned by his colleagues in the General Assembly who knew him best.  Representative Beck was a passionate advocate for his home city of Nashville, but he was a man quite capable of being a personal friend to those with whom he disagreed entirely, a trait almost impossible to find in politics today.  Representative Beck's passing is a loss, not only to his family and many friends but also to the State of Tennessee as well.

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