The move to rename the Nashville Airport for what Governor Bill Lee termed “Tennessee’s favorite daughter,” humanitarian and entertainer Dolly Parton, is the right thing to do, and, for the right reasons. I can’t think of anyone who was more universally adored, kind, generous, or talented than the phenomenal Ms. Parton. She was in a league of her own.
Before we get too far gone, however, I’d like to offer some fodder for conversation. As a native Tennessean, I’m proud of our state’s beauty, hospitality, diversity, and friendly folks, but some days it seems we’re talking out of both sides of the mountains with no tolerance for valleys.
Yes, we embrace this gifted businesswoman, her generosity, wit, fame, and fortune, and it looks like we’re celebrating her beautiful heart too, but then we remember our legislators ignored the voice of the people and created a nearly undecipherable-district map intentionally designed to tip the power. Further, instead of making laws to support all Tennesseans, they exclude/disenfranchise/define transgendered people and erect barriers to public restrooms, restrict rules for immigrants, women and their bodies, support lethal injections and the death penalty, loosen gun laws—or, as former gubernatorial candidate John Rose proudly puts it, “keep Tennessee Tennessee.”
It will be important to her legacy that we check her nonpartisan and nonjudgmental stances on hot-button topics before we add her name to a place where people from all over the world come to make their dreams come true but may be restricted from doing so.
Our precious Daughter was offered the prestigious Congressional Medal of Freedom three times (Trump, Trump, & Biden) according to reports but chose not to accept because (1) she was caring for her beloved husband, and (2) she didn’t want to be accused of party politics.
I’m not saying anything and everything goes in Tennessee –there’s enough chaos in the world already but we are not God. We must have laws to set boundaries and standards but our cities and towns are richly and culturally diverse and we’ve already proven we can live, work and play in peace with people from around the world—and we want to do it.
I visited a Nashville school years ago for a kindergarten graduation and there were more Pedros, Hectors, Amirs, Omars, and Fatimas than Chads, Matthews, and Kevins, and inside it sounded like the United Nations. I thought about all the interesting and different experiences this young graduate would get in such a rich and diverse environment.
Every interview I saw with, on, about, or concerning this giant of a woman, all said the same thing–she loved everybody and shared her love, hugs, sensitivity, and caring always, everywhere, and with all people. I suspect this is what has prompted the international outpouring of love, tears, and the naming suggestion. We all loved her.
I am confident that her Imagination Library ought to make her a heavenly shoo in if doing good to do well really works; giving children their own books early is a surefire way to curb the poverty to prison pipeline and transform not just their lives, but their families.
Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean was not perfect but she was darn close and I pray if the airport’s new name is done in her honor, it will be a gentle but constant reminder every day to be more like her in ALL her ways.
