Pushing for Political Change in Tennessee with Gloria Johnson ConnectTheKnox

Episode Summary 
Gloria Johnson, State Representative in House District 90, is a former educator who ran for office after seeing certain political issues not getting the attention they deserved. On this episode of ConnectTheKnox, she describes what that journey was like and how important it is to get involved politically if there’s an issue that’s important to you. Gloria also reveals her deep roots in Knoxville, and shares wonderful insights into why people love our city.


Highlights

00:00 Intro
00:19 Julia introduces Rep. Gloria Johnson, who describes her Knoxville roots and why her and her family were eager to return to Knoxville
03:31 How Gloria went from being an educator to running for a seat in the state legislature
07:06 Ad - GoSeeDrJoe.com
08:30 Julia and Gloria discuss why it’s important to speak out about political causes you care about
12:20 How children’s mental health affects the classroom 
14:20 Gloria discusses the importance of teaching children how to think, not what to think
16:47 The big issues that Gloria is planning to push for this year in the state legislature
19:26 Ad - Just Homes Group
22:21 Gloria and Julia discuss the importance of women running for political office
23:50 Gloria’s favorite memory of growing up in Knoxville
24:39 Gloria describes some of her favorite restaurants and spots in Knoxville

 
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Transcript:



Julia: Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of Connect the Knox. I am your hostess with the mostest, Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation. Today’s guest is one of the top performing state legislatures in Nashville, Tennessee, the Honorable Gloria Johnson who represents Knoxville, part of Knoxville city. So, Knoxville has gotten so big now there are several people. We’ll let her explain that to you. Gloria, welcome. Thank you for taking the time. And if you don’t mind to introduce yourself, and your connection to Knoxville and just tell us your whole story here and how you ended up where you are.
 
Gloria: [laugh]. I don’t know we have time for the whole story, but thanks for having me on. I’m excited about doing this and having this conversation. Yeah, well, I am Knoxville. My family has been here for generations, my father’s family, and after dad graduated law school, they live down in Fort Sanders and then they lived in Norwood.
 
But when dad graduated law school, instead of going into practicing law, he went into the FBI. And so, when you go into FBI, they start you out in a large city and then they move you to—you have to go after that to a top ten city. So, we moved to Denver—or my parents moved to Denver—after law school with the FBI, and I was born in Denver. And then Denver was the large city we went to. Then he got transferred to Los Angeles, and that was the top ten city he got sent to.
 
And you know, my dad is a Tennessee—he was a Tennessee boy, and so his goal was always to get back to the city. And so, we went from Los Angeles to San Diego. There was an opportunity to come back to the southeast in Jackson, Mississippi, so we came back to Jackson. But we got back to Knoxville when I was in the sixth grade. So, I’ve been here since the sixth grade and my family’s been here for generations and Knoxville is definitely who I am.
 
I lived in Denver briefly and I love that, but I always miss the people. The thing that is so different are just the people here. And so, I stayed in Denver for three years when I moved th