megankelly

Let's get real for a minute; I have lived here for a little over 3 years and I am leaving. Most people like me are transferred into Knoxvilel and are fortuante to leave in 3-5 years. Here are the facts:
1 Knoxville is one of the most air polluted cities in teh country. It is among the highest in aibrone LEAD pollution, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter. If lead paint has been banned what do you think of your kisd or yourself breathing in lead all day will do to your long-term health??
2. Is is among the highest crime rated cities in the nation for its' size: greater than Los Angeles, New York City and Housont. If you ask the stupid locales or the mayor they say it is localized in one place...yes where the blacks are. talk about racisim and bigotry. It is realted to poverty and the fact the schools, city, government have done nothing.
3. The Univ of Tn is ranked 88, a dismal 88 in the nation. If you do not go to a school in the top 50 your degree is not worht the paper it is printed on. The reason: the focuse is on sports not education.
4. Schools: If you do not live in Farragut there are no good schools. The reason there are so many proviate schools and long waiting lists is due to the poor schools. Some newer high schools, like Hidden valley could be referenced as ideals for concentration camps. Yes corporal punichsment is allowed in TN! Can you believe it is the 21st century.
5. Of the roughly 355,000 people in the workforce close to 20% are employed by government. that is ridiculous and a very bad situation.
6. Close to 25% of the population in the Metro area, a little over a million people, do not have high school educations...1 out of 4. That undereducation has led to the housing crisis, defaults, corrupt realestate practices and bank difficultes in the Knoxville area. It also will make it very difficult for you to manage and interact with a good majority of the people, "belief imples knowledge" when folks are undereducated, naive and isolated (Knoxville).
6. Racisim and discrimination is still rampant.
7. Relgious fanaticism is prevelant everywhere. About 65% of the people affiliate with mostly Southern Baptists. It is a very bad situation for education since creationism and intellgient desing tend to dominate. Everywhere in the world students are studing evolution adn science. In Knoxville, Dayton TN (Monkey trial of 1927) is still alive and well..in the 21st century.
8. Many people homeschool. If you have children plan to investigate home school.
9. Who cares about restaurants, night life, music, unless you are a student. The sconomy has lost double digit employment and stadn at about 10% unemployed with only a projection of future growth of about 12%. Comparable cities future growth is close to 22% or greater.
10. IMy position was as an executive in the area. I got to see things first hand: government, people, employees, UT graduates, schools, school board, teachers, et. al. I can only describe the area as dismal at best and sad overall. Primarily, because the people are so ignorant, ill-informed, and unable to think or inquire. The first element of a good social environmen to build a city and care for its' citizens is to admit to problems and issues that must be addressed. Knoxvillians fail miserably in this intention. The failure is driven by religious fanaiticism, rigidity, excessive materialism, selfishness, general stupidity, corrupt real estate agents, poor government, all casuing the population to be fat, dumb, and pleased with their present situation. As Plato said; " If a person is raised under a round table, that person will not know what a square table is." It is a quote suitable for the citizens, government, educational establishment of Knoxville. They do not know and they refuse to learn anything, since they "believe". It is a good experience to live (3-5 years at most) in Knoxville, preferably Farragut, to get a real eye-opening experience of the 1800s and what it must have been like when Clarence Darrow defended the teacher of biology for teaching evolution In Dayton, or when Bedford Forrest started the Ku Klux Klan, and moreover to learn how to effectively deal and interact with folks that come very close to pre-historic. If the citizens spent as much time on meaningful matters as they do on the ridiculous "Vols" sports, perhaps things would be improved. The UT bears a great deal of responsibliity for the Knoxville dump. That school, understandably poorly rated among USA academic institutions, has failed the local citizenry terribly and the citiznes are too stupid to realize it becasue they are caught up in the trivialty of UT sports. One must ask where are the incubators? Where are the start-up companies? Where are the new patents, technology, entrepreneurial activities that one observes, e.g. at Univ Minnesota, Univ Texas, Univ Penn., UCLA, USC, Vanderbilt,.......Coupled with the mayor's excessive defense of "how great knoxville is" it is a bad combination. For example, the mayor would have everyone belive that the crime statistics are invalid. In other words the rating for Knoxville should be based on something different than the FBI uses for all ratings; Knoxville should be an exception. Talk about cave man thinking! Why not admit the issue and address it like responsible government and citizens do?
- Only uneducated people come here and try to stay beacuse they are looking for the $12-14/hour jobs. If you are a professional and have a choice go somewhere else or plan only to stay a short while. If you have children you had better go somewhere else. They will be disadvantaged in the Knoxville area, even if they attend private schools like Webb.