Trustees

This presents the opportunity for me to talk about two things. The first one is the issue of  these tattoos. At first it was the athletes now it's the rappers. Wiz Khalifa and Waka Flocka have covered their whole upper bodies. They look like walking pages from a book. I thought Matt Barnes was bad enough, but at least he can cover his lapse of sanity up with a long sleeved, collared shirt. Chris Andersen was an eccentric white guy that went to the  extreme, but it's safe to say he wasn't starting a trend among white children. The trouble is Andersen won't be out here looking for a job with Coca Cola or selling cars.  I'm not sure but I think the NBA has addressed this. They didn't want the games to turn into ink contests.

People like Gucci Mane, Birdman and The Game have gone too far. They're putting these signs and symbols on their face. They do know these things don't wash off. It doesn't matter with them, they're already rich. But what about the young lady working at McDonalds who saved $75 to get her boyfriends name put on her neck? Don't even mention those with big money and thresholds for pain to match. Like Shawty Lo's ex E'cretia or Stevie J's new artist Che Mack. The women are as bad as the men. They just can't take their tops off. They've made it to the neck so far, luckily they haven't  reached the face. Most women don't want to be that different. They just want to be the best. With all these injections and piercings they're doing now. That might not be too far away.

Which brings up my last point. As a city I don't want to embrace this culture. People in Memphis are always longingly looking at Atlanta. This is the part they're getting they don't see. Welcome to the fruits of Bankhead. Gucci Mane is as big as T.I. in the city of Atlanta itself. He represents what's going on in the streets. "I got a Bentley mosullan it look just like Tips but I never went platinum do you catch my drift" -GUCCI. He attracts trouble just like Yo Gotti. Every time Yo Gotti performs somebody gets shot. Is this the element we want to attract? The young people that are going to run this city are already here. It's about raising their level of expectation. Don't let the trustees run the jail. They are inmates too.