AN INTROSPECTION OF MCMINNVILLE BY MCMINNVILLIANS – WHAT UNITES US?

Sixth in a Series…

By Brad Durham

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

President John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961

Interviewing people about McMinnville made me wonder what I am doing for my hometown — not what my hometown is doing for me. The overriding impression of the interviews was that we live in a “giving town.” There are many volunteer groups, civic agencies, and random acts of kindness in McMinnville. Although we may not always feel it, McMinnville is more united than divided. Wanting what is best for each other is the tie that binds us.

Obviously, all the responses of the interviewees are not posted in these articles. Yet, I assure you that everyone mentioned in some shape or form about how people give money and volunteer their time to help others.

The genuine compassion and mutual concern people have for each other may be obscured by political rhetoric, various interests, social and physical distance, different places of worship, jobs, and all the other details of our collective daily lives. But a beating, caring heart is the central theme of McMinnville.

At the end of the interviews, Teddy Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech is placed as a reminder to not allow criticism to become an automatic response to our local government and leaders.

The following are answers from the 12 interviewees to this week’s question.

What do you think unites us in McMinnville?

We’ve got a good community. That showed up when we had the fire on the mountain. There was a world of people in McMinnville who called me and said if you have to evacuate people, we want to donate our church for staging areas if they have to be evacuated. In the long run I think everybody’s got the same goal. They want it to be a better place to live, and a better place to raise their children and for them to be able to work here.

Terry Bell, Warren County Executive

Probably our small-town values like family and friends. And faith, and I guess that could divide us and unite us. There are a lot of faith-based folks in this town. I think that has potential to unite us more than divide us.

Dr. Bryan Chastain, Doctor in private practice.

You know, from my experience seeing business growth downtown gets a lot of people excited and wanting to push for more. That was what I saw when I was at the Chamber.

Mandy Eller, Executive Director Beersheba Springs Medical Clinic; former Executive Director of the McMinnville Chamber of Commerce.

I think the fact that everybody knows everybody for the most part…

Everybody here is pretty generous. I know that when we post things on our social media page at work that we need, people drop them off. People are very generous here.

Judith Gomez, Forensic Interviewer at Children’s Advocacy Center.

It is a collective people. Schools and education, because that is a common denominator. I think we’ve done an excellent job in the last few years investing in education.

We have a great vocational education department out at the high school, and then Motlow is expanding that Robotics Center and all those things make us appealing as the job market goes. We’ve got the resources to train, and hopefully that’s going to continue.

Jimmy Haley, Former County Executive, former City Mayor, and retired educator.

Anger and love. There’s a fine line between love and hate.

Stacey Harvey, CEO of Warrior Precast, City Alderman.

Success is one (thing). If you have success, people rally behind that. I you have a cause that you are trying to get, like the Civic Center. If you have something that people can see and get behind, that helps. Again, I’ll go back. You’ve got the Civic Center project…you’ve got the Armory being built right now. Motlow is going to put a big building right behind the Robotics Center. You have the Bridgestone project going on, and you’ve got another one pending. That’s a lot of activity for a relatively small area. That will get people feeling good about Warren County.

Todd Herzog, Founder and former president of Accu-Router, Board member of of the Business Roundtable Action Committee.

I think that southern charm. You go to Walmart and you speak to people going up and down the aisles. It has changed a lot since we have started streaming our services. If you go to the gas station, the furniture store, you see people and speak to them. In other cities, you don’t have that type of interaction. That friendly hometown feeling. We are not Mayberry, but we are not that far off.

Tony Lawrence, Minister Church of Christ at Bybee Branch.

I think just a pride of being a part of McMinnville. I think the history sets us apart from other similar-sized rural cities. The school of photography, the Lively School. That was amazing that it was here. William Faulkner, prolific people like Tomas Savage that Savage Gulf is named after.

We have a ton of civic organizations that people get involved in. To me, if you want to do something, if you raise your hand, you are going to be on three to four organizations. You can be as involved as you want to be. The availability of those things allows for the community to get together and work on things like Hark in the Park.

Justin Tanner, Co-owner of Capital Real Estate and Property Management.

There are two factors that I see that are really uniting. There is a fervent sense of heritage and patriotism learned and practiced from generation to generation.

Volunteerism and community activism are strong assets here. There is a strong, mission-oriented volunteer base in Warren County and there are organizations that provide assistance as a part of their mission. There are a wealth of people in Warren County reaching down and giving a hand up to help people here. It is very quiet, very unseen. Meals on Wheels, Good Neighbors, The Hope Center, Habitat, Food Bank, Exchange Clubs, Lions, Rotary to name a few. There is a multitude of people working quietly, out of view, that are doing something every single day for those in the most need. You have that happening in other communities, but I see it happening a lot more here and I think we live in a very generous community.

Mac McWhirter, Retired after 23 years at Rhodes College as Comptroller and Associate Vice President of Administrative Services, former Finance Director for City of Memphis, former Chief Administrative Officer of Shelby County.

The idea of a person having a hard time, struggling, homeless, whatever; we don’t like to see ourselves in that light. We want to be at the point where we do not have to be in that situation. We want a roof over our heads, food on the table and that we can pay our bills.

Wayne Wolford, Founder, Curator of the Warren County Black History Museum, retired military.

Small town. I think we all realize that we all live in a wonderful community and that we are a small town. There are people who need help. I think when someone is in need, the community joins together. I think that makes us unique. 33 years ago, I did not understand all the fundraisers, all the events that were going on. I got acclimated to it pretty fast. People were coming in (the restaurant) asking for donations. I was asking why are we doing all of this, but this is a community that brings real meaning to the term “Tennessee Volunteer.” I know that I have volunteered that everything there is, and I have seen people doing that. I think that is what unites us.

Lisa Zavogiannis, Co-owner of Gondola Restaurant, Assistant District Attorney Bedford County, former District Attorney Warren – Van Buren Counties.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”