The Model City Times
Kingsport turns 100!!
The name “Kingsport” is a simplification of “King’s Port”, originally referring to the area on the Holston River known as King’s Boat Yard, the head of navigation for the Tennessee Valley. Kingsport is a city in Sullivan and Hawkins counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Lying along the Holston River, Kingsport is commonly included in what is known as the Mountain Empire, which spans a portion of southwest Virginia and the mountainous counties in northeastern Tennessee. The city was developed after the Revolutionary War, at the confluence of the North and South Forks of the Holston River. In 1787 it was known as “Salt Lick” for an ancient mineral lick. It was first settled along the banks of the South Fork, about a mile from the confluence. The Long Island of the Holston River is near the confluence, which is mostly within the present-day corporate boundaries of Kingsport. The island was an important site for the Cherokee, colonial pioneers and early settlers, and specifically mentioned in the 1770 Treaty of Lochaber. March 2nd the city celebrated 100 years since it was recharted and named The Model City.
In a year that was particularly polarizing, the sun and moon provided a welcome distraction this summer when the solar eclipse captivated the nation. Millions of Americans traveled and camped out to be within the path of totality, which stretched from Oregon to South Carolina. Although the event itself only lasted for one hour and 33 minutes, the weeks and days of excitement leading up to it gave Americans something positive and uplifting to look forward to. Gone for a moment were the Twitter hot-takes and political bickering. The eclipse was just cool, and that’s something we could all agree on — even if only for a day.
Colin Kaepernick’s protest on the NFL sidelines had mostly faded from the national spotlight until September, when President Trump spoke about it at a rally in Alabama. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, “Get that son of a b—- off the field right now,'” Trump asked the crowd, which responded with loud cheers. Players, coaches, and team owners across the league denounced the president’s statement and defended players’ rights to express their views. The next weekend, the national anthem at the start of each game was almost more hyped than the games themselves. More than 200 NFL players kneeled in a show of solidarity. The Pittsburgh Steelers voted as a team to sit out the anthem all together, while the entire Dallas Cowboys lineup kneeled on the 50-yard line before their game began.
In early October, back-to-back bombshell reports in The New York Times and The New Yorker revealed that film mogul Harvey Weinstein allegedly lured women into hotel rooms and bars, and sexually harassed or assaulted them in what some have described as an open secret known for years in Hollywood.
Later that month, after a tweet from actress Alyssa Milano, who was one of Weinstein’s accusers, social media was inundated with personal stories of being the victims of sexual harassment or assault, all using the hashtag #MeToo.
Weinstein’s downfall has seemingly emboldened others to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against prominent men. In recent months alone, at least 30 powerful men in entertainment, business, politics and the news media have been publicly condemned for their alleged sexual misconduct and many have lost their jobs as a result, including Weinstein.
“The Silence Breakers” of the #MeToo movement, who gave a voice to sexual assault and harassment survivors, have since been named Time magazine’s 2017 Person of the Year.
Tennessee students can put away their checkbooks if community colleges are in their future. In May, the southern state became the first to offer a tuition-free education to nearly every resident without a degree. Even though Tennessee was the first state to pass the measure, it isn’t without precursors.
New York legislators passed a budget in April that covered tuition for families making less than $100,000 a year. In February, San Francisco voters passed a tax measure that would cover community college tuition for anyone who lived in the city for more than a year, though the state of California did not follow suit.
