Lynda 4 City Council

I want to say thank you to everyone who voted for me for City Council, although we did not win this campaign please know I am still here to be a voice for Cookeville and appreciate all the support and love that was given.

We have good members on our City Council and believe we will be going in the right direction! I believe God has a plan for us all and right now is the time to lift up our city council members and make sure they know we back them 100%!

Congradulations Lauren, Luke, Eric, Ali & Chad! I will be seeing you at the meetings still! If you need anything from me let me know!

There are only a couple hours left to vote in the August 4, 2022 election!

This is a major local election ladies and gentlemen so if you have not voted and you are registered please get out and vote you still have time!

Thank you to Herbert and Clarissa Williams for having me on their show… I enjoyed the opportunity to share a little about my City Council campaign!

Take a little bit and listen to my interview and any candidate you have not got to met yet!

Lynda Loftis-Webb — Cookeville Now Privacy Policy | [email protected] | (931) 854-1313 | © 2022 Cookeville Now | Made by Hometown Digital Marketing Agency

Early voting is over, only 2,255 people voted early! That means that 32,000+ peoples voices have not been heard!

Cookeville Voters,
This is a call to action! Your community needs you to get out and vote and make your voice heard!

There are those who wish to impose their big city political ideology on our small-town way of life. To prevent it from devouring us, I say we eat the elephant, donkey, or even the RINO, one bite at a time. How do we do that? We put the political games aside and instead of petty partisanship we vote for the candidate who wants to effect real positive change for our community. I am running to impact real change and be a voice for every constituent in my hometown.

I consider it a blessing to have been born and raised in Cookeville. I have made Cookeville my home for most of my adult life as well. I live here, went to school here, work here and raise my family here. I work with a highly diverse population here. I work with people who are marginalized by most of society. They are discriminated against, threatened, arrested, and neglected by the current system.
While it looks a little different now, the reality is that people are still being enslaved by systemic prejudices. It has changed its face quite a bit since December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to adhere to the constitutionally unjust segregation laws at the time.

In the America of today, those most affected are our Indian/Alaskan Native communities, LGBTQ+ individuals, individuals with disabilities, undocumented migrants, runaways, homeless youth, temporary guest-workers, and low-income individuals. In America in 2022 we still have human beings being bought and sold. We call it human trafficking, and it has no color, age, gender, or socioeconomic preference. So, what are we doing to combat that? Are we just waiting and hoping it goes away? This is a major problem we are facing that I believe needs to be taking center stage.

When considering the proposition of incorporating diversity into the curriculum of elementary school-age children, it makes me pause and wonder what that would look like if used correctly versus if it were misused and abused. What is seen is that diversity training is only as good as the trainer and one’s willingness to accept ALL marginalized people as oppressed. When anyone uses superficial criteria (like race or gender) to make one marginalized portion of the population more "deserving" of reparation than another, then you need to call it what it is, "Racially Motivated Discrimination." Let us define it as this: treating someone unfavorably because they are of a certain race or behavior, or personal characteristic associated with race. So, giving someone a favor simply because they have black skin is as bad as excluding a white child from applying to a school because it is a person of color school. Now, let me add this; if your organization engages in "Racially Motivated Discrimination," own it - say you are a pro-black only organization. Then we have nothing to say about you. We have no bone to pick with you. Do not try to whitewash the reality and say you support minorities and marginalized people when you eliminate the ones who are genuinely being trafficked into modern-day slavery.

The modern-day enslaved person is most likely to be Indian/Alaska Native communities, lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-questioning individuals, individuals with physical or emotional disabilities, undocumented migrants, runaways, homeless youth, temporary guest-workers, and low-income individuals; racial influence and characteristics play no significant role in slavery in 2022 - unless you find yourself falling into the trap of division and pitting one race against another for the actions of men who were enslavers back in 1865 (15.7 generations ago).

I got the greatest letter! My heart is filled with pride. This is the best reason for me to run to be a person who can inspire other people!

Mrs. Loftis-Webb,
I want to say thank you. I am 22 years old and I voted for the first time yesterday. Voting was never important until I heard you say “I speak for ALL constituents not just the ones that act, look, and think like me. Every single person regardless of their status in our community deserve a candidate who will defend them vehemently and represent their true needs and accept their voice as vital to the Democratic process. Vote! Vote today don’t wait!”

I know you are a strong, confident woman who loves Cookeville. You have inspired me to become a voter! I thank you for being someone I can look up to in local government and I look forward to you being on our next Cookeville City Council.
Good luck and my mother, sister and I all three need signs to put in our yards.

August 2022‘s ballot today was 14 pages long with everything from Supreme Court election to local judges, our County Commissioners, and of course our City of Cookeville Council race!

Every election is important but now it is more important than ever! Get to know your candidates and VOTE! - as long as you are registered you have time!

Good luck to all the candidates on the August 2022 ballot. It takes commitment and dedication to run for office. Being passionate about one’s civic duty should be commended!

As a candidate the citizens we represent make up all cultures, ages, races, economic status, education levels and political affiliations. If we cannnot respect the wishes of of our constituents we will fail them. (*remember if we were all alike only one of us would be needed!)

Cadidates and Elected officials can not be reactionary when someone comes at us and says if you don’t do this I’ll do that: … we have to stand by convictions of the masses, which means we have to be a good listener and a critical thinker.

This week I have been asked by dozens maybe hundreads of people some tough questions. I have listened to why the individual(s) agrees or disagrees. We process it and I tell them to remeber to go vote August 4, 2022 - reguardless of the outcome of our talk.

*Actual Phone call from 7/15/2022
I have had 5 constituents call me to tell me they don’t like this one topic (+\- 60 supporters). I talked with this female and listened to her for 57:45. She was angry, called people I love names, cursed me a few times (which I had to set a hard line with) and at one point she threatened to “distroy me” (I assumed politically not physically). I prayed in my head multiple times - not for me, but for her.

She is so lonely and angry she is desperate to be heard and fell compassion from someone who she thinks she is so different from. It turns out in the end she was running off the adrenaline of a lie someone else had told her. As a counselor I felt sadness for the friendship she shared with the person gaslighting her on this topic. I walked her through what my point of view was and in the end she and I were laughing and cutting up about both our misunderstandings on some points and I told her…

“This topic arose and you called me first so you can share your truth and dispel the anger on someone who gets it but has good boundaries. Go share your truth with others not with anger but with self-respect and respect for your beliefs.” In all fairness we did have to agree to disagree on a small portion of what she called about but she is able to talk again about why she is upset over it and I respect her for having the strength to listen. At the end of the call she said “I’m going to vote for you, you make since. I’ll tell me family about you!” I may have made a friend today!

I don’t have to agree with someone, look or think like them, have the same money as them to love and respect them. I also don’t have to cave to their anger in fear of what they will say about me becuase I respect myself and them! I will hear them out but I will do it with boundaries! In the end I am not going to try and change anyones minds I am going to try and find a solution.

Early Voting starts today please get out and vote!

Thank you to Zimmer Broadcasting and The Herald Citizen for hosting last nights forum. Allowing the public access to these events is another reason Cookeville is so wonderful and can’t wait to see it happen again!

I will try and find the Facebook live like and share it as well for anyone who missed it last night.

https://zimmerbroadcasting.com/
https://herald-citizen.com/

Last chance to get registered for the 8/4/2022 election!

Come celebrate the 4th of July in Cookeville!

A couple of the girls and I are baking cookies for the Car Wash and Cookies fundraiser tomorrow from 10-2! At Out the Door Printing by Dairy Queen on Spring Street.

Everyone come out and support recovery from Human Trafficing, Domestic Violence, substance use and mental health!

100% of the proceeds go to support The Ladies to do recovery events.