Sen. Ed Jackson, R-Jackson, Rep. Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar, and Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County sat before community members and local leaders on Feb. 23 to answer questions about their legislative plans for the year.
Hosted at the Greater Jackson Chamber and moderated by Steve Bowers, the legislators each had three minutes for opening statements before they fielded questions from the public.
They fielded questions concerning infrastructure, new industry, hospital closures and reproductive health.
Senator Jackson
A community member inquired about the state-wide crisis of hospital closures. A topic of continued importance for Jackson, he said he’s working with several groups aiming to restore closed hospitals and prevent additional closures.
Of the 16 hospitals closed in the state since 2010, 13 closures have been in rural counties, making access to healthcare increasingly challenging for those residing in rural areas.
“Rural counties can least afford to lose a hospital,” Jackson said. “That’s vital for these counties to reopen these hospitals and keep our hospitals healthy.”
Jackson commended West Tennessee Healthcare for their partnerships with remaining hospitals in continuing to provide care to rural communities.
Representative Shaw
A perpetuating topic of conversation among the legislators was Ford’s Blue Oval City in Stanton. Located in Shaw’s district of Haywood County, discussions arose about how to maximize travel efficiency for those coming and going from the mega-site and how to improve Jackson’s McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport.
Todd shared that it is estimated that 250 flights per week will be directly associated with Blue Oval City.
“Haywood County happens to be the fastest-growing county in the state,” Shaw said.
This raised questions about whether Interstate 40 will be expanded into Memphis or Nashville and if roads will be made bigger to accommodate the semi-truck influx coming to the Brownsville area. Shaw said there has been talk about the implementation of choice lanes.
“I don’t think we really know exactly what’s going to happen, we just know something’s got to be done pretty quickly,” Shaw said.
Representative Todd
In his opening statement, Todd spoke to a bill he is spearheading, House Bill 2882, that would require firearm safety training in all public schools across the state beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. Todd compared it to the existing fire drills and safety training students already have to go through.
“The amount of fires a child will see and the likelihood a child will see a fire in their lifetime, even an accidental fire in school, is pretty slim,” Todd said. “The likelihood that they’re going to encounter a firearm somewhere along the way, laying somewhere or on a shelf or whatever it might be, is pretty high … .”
The legislation is not to be confused with how to use a gun, but rather what to do if a child encountered a stray one.
“We want to make sure they know what to do,” Todd said. “It’s not going to be political, it’s not going to be teaching them how to shoot or anything like that. It’s strictly what to do if you see a gun.”
Per the Feb. 16 Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) are considered children, one of the questions asked of the legislators was what that means for Tennessee moving forward.
“I think the court case centers around a basic principle that I have from my faith, and that is life is beginning at conception,” Todd said.
“Our constitution says we have to protect life, we have to protect every citizen as life begins there. And everybody’s got their own opinion about where life begins, and I think that’s really the crux of the matter, but for me, life begins at conception.”
