The ARENA: The Memoir of a Tennessee Politician, Judge and Reformer

In my personal life, I enjoy surprises.  Yet as a reviewer, I expect to have made a prior agreement with a publisher, editor or author regarding any book that I receive. If I have elected to receive an item in advance of publication from Net Galley or Edelweiss Plus, I know what I can reasonably be expected to do to promote them.

 So I have to confess that I was annoyed when The ARENA by Carol J. Chumney arrived in the mail unexpectedly. I felt blindsided.  I knew nothing of Chumney.  I wondered what sort of coverage would be considered reasonable for her memoir.  Did she realize that I am only a blogger?  I don't work for a major publisher or distribution network.  I am not a widely respected literary figure, nor do I play one on TV.  I sincerely hope that Chumney is not disappointed by what I and Shomeret: Masked Reviewer can do for The ARENA.                             

                                

I have never been to Tennessee, but I do know people who do reside in Tennessee or own property there.  Carol Chumney has been a Tennessee state legislator.  I also learned from her article on Wikipedia  that she is currently a Shelby County circuit court judge. 

On a recent episode of the public television series Finding Your Roots, one of the guests had ancestors from Shelby County.  I saw scenes that showed me what Shelby County looks like.  So I know a little bit about Chumney's context.

Chumney's political visibility increased exponentially when she invited country singer Garth Brooks to testify in support of her bill to prohibit ticket scalping in Tennessee.  Garth Brooks' appearance before the Tennessee House Judiciary Committee was in all the Nashville newspapers. Chumney got the anti-ticket scalping bill out of committee with an amendment to exempt college sports.  One legislator opposed the bill because he had a relative who had scalped tickets in Kentucky.  I guess family comes before ethics for many people.  The bill didn't become law at that point.

I found a web page that is a good overview on the subject of ticket scalping here.  Any time you buy event tickets from an individual, there is a possibility that the tickets have been scalped.  This means that they are being re-sold for prices that are higher than the individual had originally paid.  There are states where ticket scalping is illegal.

Chumney didn't support cuts to public schools to make up the shortfall in the Memphis budget.  Due to white flight to the suburbs, the student body of Memphis public schools had become primarily African American.  So I believe that any proposal to balance the budget by taking money from the public schools would be racist by intention.  I was glad to see that Chumney wasn't an advocate for private schools like those who'd left Memphis to become suburbans.

This is the memoir of a politician which contains a great deal of political content.  So I hope that I've managed the balancing act of reviewing this political book without being excessively political.  I found The ARENA far more interesting than I expected.