Wharton Calls School Merger “Shotgun Wedding”…Really?

“The Watchdog” Mike Matthews spent some time today with Shelby County Schools Superintendent John Aitken and Memphis Mayor A C Wharton. Video of the exchange is below.

Shotgun Wedding…really? The Mayor of Memphis is calling the legal prerogative of another body politic, as set forth by state law, a shotgun wedding? All I can say is wow.

Maybe the good Mayor is confused on what a shotgun wedding is. Here’s a helpful reminder…

A shotgun wedding is a form of forced marriage occasioned by an unplanned pregnancy. Some religions and cultures consider it a moral imperative to marry in such a situation, based on reasoning that premarital sex is sinful and unsafe. The phrase is an American colloquialism, though it is also used in other parts of the world.
It is based on a hyperbolic scenario in which the pregnant female’s father resorts to coercion (such as threatening with a shotgun) to ensure that the male partner who caused the female’s pregnancy goes through with it, sometimes even following the man to the altar to prevent his escape. Source

So, is MCS pregnant? Who is the father holding the shotgun? The MCS School Board? The voters? The same voters that will go to the polls in October and vote for Mayor?

Methinks the good Mayor misspoke.

While I don’t think anyone is really keen on the circumstances surrounding this scenario, they need not be in place for the remedy that we’ll be voting on in February. MCS could vote to surrender their charter at any time. The process is set forth in state law. There’s nothing in state law that pre-determines circumstances or any conditions of this action. State law is clear, it is within the power of the MCS School Board to put the question to the voters. Mayor Wharton has no say in the matter, except at the ballot box.

It’s a strange statement coming from Mayor Wharton. His record is that of a politician who has been very careful to manage his image and not cause too many waves. Perhaps the good Mayor doesn’t like the potential impact of the political scenario. Perhaps that’s why he’s chosen to use the bully pulpit his office affords him to mischaracterize this legal and democratic action.

I don’t know, but its pretty offensive.

Of course, if Wharton wants to paint MCS as the recipient of some kind of sexual congress at the hands of SCS that resulted in an unwanted pregnancy (or problem in this case) and that SCS was trying to shirk its responsibility…well, I guess that pretty well sums it up.

I hear wedding bells!

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