The Quitman 10 were arrested in Brooks County for alleged irregularities
with absentee ballots, the day after two of them were elected to the
Brooks County Board of Education.
Saturday (tomorrow) a statewide rally for them will be held in Macon:
When:
Saturday at 11:00pm – Sunday at 2:00am
Where:
Stewart Chapel AME Church, 887 Forsyth Street
Who:
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sen. Robert Brown, Rep. Tyrone Brooks, Sen. Vincent Fort, Rep. David Lucas, Ms. Helen Butler
I had
heard that some Board members were elected with intention to support
consolidation but that I hadn’t heard anything about that from any of
them when they were running.
They didn’t say much about it when they were running, either.
Back in 2009, the only one who got elected who was asked about this issue, Jeana Bealand, pretty
much dodged the question at AAUW’s
Lowndes County Political Forum on 15 September 2009.
This was the forum that was the day after the VBOE meeting that drew 400 people
because of Superintendent Cason’s decision about President Obama’s speech.
Very few of those 400 people showed up at the forum to ask questions of their
likely school board members.
Maybe more people should take an interest in who is going to represent them on their school board.
Jeana Beeland answers a question about school system consolidation
Lowndes County Political Forum, AAUW, 15 Sep 2009
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Tonight I went to the VBOE meeting and delivered the offical NAACP letter
stating our branch’s opposition to consolidation. I asked Chairman Warren
Lee if he would discuss with VBOE attorney Gary Moser and let me know
whether they are “allowed” to take a position on this. The reason I
asked this is because one of my friends says that Dr. Cason told her
that “they are not allowed” to take a position on this. To my mind,
employees might not be able to take a position, but elected officials
representing voters ought to clearly state their position on an issue
as important as school consolidation.
Continuing to see what “the indigenous” think about solar power:
Today, a number of Native tribes, from the Lakota in the Dakotas to
the Iroquois Confederacy in New York to the Anishinaabeg in Wisconsin,
battle to preserve the environment for those who are yet to come. The
next seven generations, the Lakota say, depend upon it.
“Traditionally, we’re told that as we live in this world, we have
to be careful for the next seven generations,” says Loretta Cook. “I
don’t want my grandkids to be glowing and say, ‘We have all these
bad things happening to us because you didn’t say something about it.’
Part of this family and spiritual obligation to preserve
Mr. John Robinson pointed out that school board problems and biomass
are not the only issues around here, and for example the south side
of town needs money so people there can become more productive citizens.
At the 21 April 2011 Valdosta City Council meeting,
He specifically recommended getting
Valdosta Small Emerging Business (VSEB) up and running.
Let us try to come together and find some method —John Robinson
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 April 2011,
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Debby Tewa spent her first 10 years living without electricity, water,
or a telephone in a three-room stone house in an isolated area of the
Hopi Reservation in Arizona.
Today, as a contractor to the Sandia National Laboratories Sandia
Tribal Energy Program, she provides technical advice about maintaining
photovoltaic (PV) units to people on Indian reservations who live remotely
like she did. For many, it’s the first time they’ve had electricity
in their homes.
“I can identify with the people I’m helping,” Tewa says. “Many
live the way I grew up, and I fully appreciate their excitement in having
electricity and light at night.”
LAST week authorities
captured two fugitives who had been on the lam
for three weeks after escaping from an Arizona prison. The convicts and
an accomplice are accused of murdering a holiday-making married couple
and stealing their camping trailer during their run from justice. This
gruesome incident has raised questions about the wisdom and efficacy of
private prisons, such as the one from which the Arizona convicts escaped.
In a facebook conversation, someone said solar was useless because
we should all live like “the indigenous” used to.
Well, let’s see what some of “the indigenous” think about solar power.
Zachary Shahan wrote 13 January 2010 in CleanTechnical,
Native American Tribe Going for Solar, and Money:
The 3,000 members of the Jemez Pueblo tribe in New Mexico are looking
to build the first utility-scale solar power plant on tribal land. They
are also looking to make some money on it.
It is no secret that Native American tribes are more likely to be
poverty-stricken and they generally have more than twice the unemployment
rate of the United States. Former Jemez Pueblo governor James Roger
Magdalena says, “We don’t have any revenue coming in except for a
little convenience store.”
It is estimated this solar power plant could generate $25 million over the
next quarter century and help create a sustainable revenue for his tribe.
A response to Leigh Touchton.
I’ve appended a couple of comments. -jsq
I said I wouldn’t reply… but I am! :-)
Ms. Touchton, your points 1-3 make plain what I mentioned witnessing
during my professional experiences. My feeling was that those facts
alone presented a strong case for dismantling the city system.
I do understand the desire for a disenfranchised group to avoid becoming
even more marginalized… my hope was that equally shared resources and
a uniform administrative/infrastructure system would create more parity
and greater accountability.
There’s a lot of info I don’t have, perspectives I need; I must say,
being a native Valdostan, I was BAFFLED
I can describe some reasons our members oppose unification.
We believe VBOE has discriminated against black students with
alternative school referrals.
We believe VBOE has discriminated against black teachers in hiring,
firing, promotions and demotions. I can’t describe the details of personal
cases, but last year when the RIF directive came down, nearly 60% of
those fired were black, and black professionals only represent 20-25%
of the employees.
The VBOE system is over 70% black students, yet the black students
are not given equal opportunities to achieve. I can describe issues
we brought to the Department of Justice, as well as issues about the
Alternative school, and a very serious issue about how the Alternative
school was given a different school code, which we believe was a ploy to
artificially inflate the test scores at the students’ home schools. We
have evidence that we gave to the DOJ that students were sent to PLC
based on minor infractions.
Many of our members went through the consolidation in the sixties and
don’t want to see their children put into a situation where they will be
even more of a minority. Our children are in the majority at Valdosta
City Schools, but yet we still fight serious issues of discrimination
and inequality in education.
Many of us attended the CUEE education session at Serenity Church,
and did not hear anything that changed our minds.
Many of us distrust an “education” initiative brought forth from
the Chamber of Commerce. Our branch is a member of the Chamber, and we
support Chamber events and some policies, but we don’t support this
one. I can’t remember a time when “business” thought it knew what
was best for education except when school privatization was going on,
and the studies indicated that there was no benefit to that direction
insofar as student achievement.
Mr. Parris and Mr. Rowell, come to some of our branch meetings and we’ll
be glad to talk to you about it, so you can hear directly from us, I
am unable to completely explain the many different opinions that were
presented at the branch meeting when this came up for a vote. Also,
a former teacher named Dr. Marilyn McCluskey has written about many of
the issues we were involved in, and these descriptions can be found at
her blog TheNakedTruth4U.
-Leigh Touchton
Note it was
Alex Jones
who commented on this blog today; I’m pretty sure Alex Rowell has
a different opinion.
