“A fifteen-page presentation, printed on top-shelf paper, slick as a country club dinner menu.”  That line creates an image, doesn’t it?  That’s the line Brady Flanigan gleefully used to open his second article on the decision not to locate the Arnold Innovation Center at Waggoner Park.  While I celebrate the public’s decision on the location, these articles, in their excitement to announce the victory of tradition over innovation, did little to explain what the Innovation Center is; what its purpose is; or what the pros and cons are.  The only discussion seemed to be “not in Waggoner Park.” 

There was no information on the project itself.  In fact, the articles didn’t even clarify that it’s a local, community project and not an Air Force one.  Now, with that behind us, I challenge the author of those two articles to do an in depth, fact based, series on what the Innovation Center is; what it is intended to do; and what its value to the community would be. 

Tell us, the readers, why we need innovation and why it’s good for our community and how things like Innovation and science and math are just as important as ball fields.  After all, those kids who play football and baseball on those fields today, will in ten to fifteen years be the young adults who will either need jobs in this community or move to Huntsville and Murfreesboro for those jobs.

Jim Burns

Tullahoma