Former Labor secretary sees great opportunities in Memphis’ challenges

October 21st, 2010 | by Velma Orr |

Former U.S. Labor Secretary Lynn Martin talks with Johnny Pitts (center) and Jeremy Park at a reception in her honor Thursday night at Kiesewetter Wise Kaplan Prather. She was the keynote speaker at the Lipscomb & Pitts Breakfast Club on Friday.

Displaying the same sense of pragmatism that punctuated her political career, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin on Friday said that Memphis is in a unique position to reinvent itself in the coming years.

But it’s going to take imagination and dedication to achieve long-term results.

“The fact that you’re not creating significant numbers of new jobs is dangerous and wonderful, because that means you can dare to be creative in finding ways to fix things,” Martin said. “You have a chance here. Your town is pretty terrific.”

Martin, who served as the nation’s 21st Labor secretary from 1991 to 1993 and spent a decade in Congress, was keynote speaker at the Lipscomb & Pitts Breakfast Club held at Memphis Botanic Garden.

Her advice for Memphis included improving public schools, continued revitalization of Downtown and the riverfront and increasing tourism.

Elliot Perry, retired NBA player, a local owner of the Memphis Grizzlies and community adviser for The Poplar Foundation, applauded the assessment.

“We’ve got to give young people reason to believe that education is important and help them overcome barriers to success,” Perry said. “We can also do a better job of creating a city where more people want to live and work and visit.”

Blair Taylor, president of Memphis Tomorrow, agreed.

“The message of recognizing what we have and striving for what we could be is powerful,” Taylor said. “To be effective, we must be authentic and concentrate on creating a better community.”

At a reception held in her honor on Thursday evening at the law offices of Kiesewetter Wise Kaplan Prather, Martin poked fun at her trademark Midwestern bluntness and elicited plenty of laughter from the Memphis crowd.

“My big mouth has gotten me into a lot of trouble, but I tell it like I see it,” Martin said. “People say they appreciate frankness in a politician, but what they really mean is that they appreciate it when it’s directed at someone they disagree with. If I’m frank about them, well, then all of a sudden it’s not so appealing.”

And on the state of politics in the Land of Lincoln: “It’s gone too far. What we have now in Illinois is pretty scary,” Martin said. “We don’t have a pension plan for politicians in Illinois because we don’t need one. We’ve got the federal prison system.”

Describing the federal stimulus plan as “poorly thought through,” Martin criticized lawmakers for trying to correct and control too much through massive spending. A better alternative, she said, would have been for Congress to initiate a manageable, albeit unglamorous public works project such as renovating the nation’s sewer systems and requiring at least one-third of the workers on those projects to be new hires.

As for President Obama, Martin said that the country is now paying the price for electing “an extremely bright young guy with no experience,” but added that economic challenges would also have surfaced under a Republican presidency.

“The president doesn’t have many options, and neither would (U.S. Sen. John) McCain had he been elected,” Martin said. “People keep asking if this is the worst recession since the Great Depression and the answer is yes. The fact is that it took us longer to get into it, it’s taken us longer to reach the bottom and it’ll take us longer to get out of it. Recovery is years away.”

But that’s no reason for despair, Martin cautioned. In fact, she argued just the opposite.

“Do not lose either faith or hope in this country or in your county or in this beautiful city,” Martin said. “The only thing worse than the taste of loss is the taste of not trying.”

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