On Friday and Saturday the Allen Chapel AME Church coordinated a two-day community summit designed to effect positive change in the community.

What Lies Ahead?

The two-day think tank focused on economic improvement, jobs, and housing. There was a need for more mentoring. Much attention was on education, since our youth are this community's future. Then the impact of social media and the roll of media, especially with the area of music and its influence.

Reverend Jimmie L. Plummer told WGNS News . . .

Rutherford County Mayor Ernest Burgess focused on keeping Rutherford County financially solvent, especially in light of forecasters saying our population will more than double to over 600,000 persons within the next fifteen to twenty years.

Change

There was also a discussion of the growing senior citizen population and help for the challenged. The former head of MTSU's Disabled Student Service John Harris covered some thought provoking concepts.

Law and Order

(above photo L-R) NAACP President Rev. Kenny Williams, Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold, Murfreesboro Police Chief Glenn Chrisman, and Murfreesboro Police Sergeant Recco Hathaway.

Part of the summit focused on law enforcement, and Murfreesboro Police Chief Glenn Chrisman said, "We live in a different world today. A new word in our lifestyle vocabulary is active shooter. We heard of a recent beheading here in the U.S., and ISIS claiming they're coming to a neighborhood near you. Families need to be aware and pro-active on weapons, violence and parental accountability."

Murfreesboro Police Sergeant Reco Hathaway noted, "The three best ways to reduce crime are to confiscate weapons, try to prosecute criminals on a federal level--that way they spend more time locked-up, and focus on nuisance laws--especially selling drugs in condemned or abandoned houses."

Sheriff Robert Arnold said, "One of our strengths is how law enforcement in Rutherford County works together. You definitely don't see that everywhere. At least once a month, the heads of each law enforcement agency here, gets together for breakfast. This is an opportunity to discuss problems, figure how to solve them and get to know each other better."

Accentuate The Positive

Then Ms. L. J. Carr (left photo), one of the organizers, told WGNS News . . .

Media and You

There was interaction on the media today and a glimpse into the future. WGNS' Bart Walker represented electronic media and the Spiritual Herald's Angela Bingham told of the print perspective. Both agreed there needed to be more public input.

Ms. Bingham voiced a need for more positive news and unbiased reporting. While Walker claimed reporting should be neutral by covering all sides of an issue and letting the public make their own decisions.

When asked if reporting will changes in the future, Walker commented, "The way we receive the news may be different, but people will not change. When the publics wakes up, they still will want to know whether it'll be hot or cold, they'll want to know who has died and what is happening in our world. Whether they receive this from a radio, over your smart phone, the internet or some device we may not know about at this time--there will still be media that works like radio. In fact, you're seeing a leveling of the playing field with all media. Radio has its own electronic newspaper and print media is going away from paper editions to electronic formats. But again, no matter how much technology changes--it still will serve people."