‘Flaming moderate’ Bo Roberts asks readers to make pledge
Bo Roberts, perhaps best known as president and CEO of the 1982 World’s Fair but who’s had other management positions at the state and community level, has an idea for getting away from “clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,” as Stealers Wheel put it in “Stuck in the Middle with You.”
The self-described Democrat outlines it in a new book, “Flaming Moderate: A Riveting Journey and Quest to Save Democracy,” which he will talk about on Wednesday, Feb. 21, at the East Tennessee Historical Society’s brownbag luncheon program at noon. People can attend in person at the History Center on Gay Street or the Society’s online site.
In essence, it’s up to each of us to take center stage more, he says.
Roberts, who now lives in Nashville, has had to deal with Republicans and Democrats alike for some of his major accomplishments, and he believes the late Republican U.S. Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. of Huntsville, Tennessee, epitomizes the ideal moderate. But Roberts spent much of his early adulthood in Sevierville, where he got to know John B. “Johnny” Waters II, another elder statesman among Tennessee Republicans who was federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission and a Tennessee Valley Authority board member. Roberts should have dedicated the book to Waters, because he tells a number of stories involving Waters that make his points.
The “Flaming” part of the book’s title stems from Roberts’ experience as the young editor of a pair of weekly newspapers in Sevier County in the 1960s and his support for the Sevier County school board’s decision to integrate the schools. The Ku Klux Klan let him know what they thought about that decision by planting and igniting a cross that symbolized the organization’s racism at his home in Sevierville. Roberts writes that the burning cross became a life-changing flame for him.
The bulk of the book contains political columns that Roberts has had published in The Tennessean in Nashville (and occasionally in the News Sentinel). Most of his comments on Baker, Waters and other political figures are in a preface preceding the columns and an epilogue.
What Roberts asks his readers to do is sign a pledge based on the Declaration of Independence as imperfect people seeking imperfect solutions to celebrate the 250th anniversary of this country on July 4, 2026. He says the list of signees will be permanently maintained and he asks everyone to honor and celebrate the principles.
Here’s his suggested pledge: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all PEOPLE are created equal, that they are endowed by their CREATORS with certain inalienable rights, that among those are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness … we mutually pledge to each other our Life, our Fortune, and our sacred Honor.”
“I am hopeful that everyone signing agrees to honor and celebrate these principals. Participating is simple. Just visit flamingmoderatebook.com. Thank you,” he concludes. The pledge was scheduled to go up over the weekend.
WHO’S RUNNING FOR LAW DIRECTOR?: Incumbent David Buuck and challenger Daniel Herrera are the names on the Republican primary ballot in the March 5 primary election for Knox County law director, with Jackson Fenner on the Democratic ballot.
With Herrera being a no-show at a Feb. 8 forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Knoxville/Knox County and not attending Republican Club meetings, voters are getting to ask only Buuck and Fenner questions.
At the forum, moderator Maureen Dunn McBride, herself a lawyer, said Herrera did not respond to email or phone calls about his participation. He also has not responded to this columnist’s phone call or text message for comment.
In a financial disclosure reporting period due in late January, Herrera showed he had raised substantially more money than Buuck. Herrera reported raising $46,179 compared to Buuck’s $20,400, of which $15,000 was a loan by the candidate.