Category Archives: Activism

2011 Economic Summit by VLCoC

Myrna Ballard (President, Chamber of Commerce), Michael Jetter (Interim Executive Director for the Valdosta-Lowndes Conference Center and Tourism Authority), Amanda Peacock (Valdosta Main Street Manager), Allan Ricketts (Valdosta-Lowndes Industrial Authority Project Manager), Jane Shelton (Valdosta-Lowndes Airport Authority Member)
“Transforming our local economy”
“It’s the Mix that Matters”

Amber Eady wrote for WALB 18 May 2011 about Economic Summit meets to discuss economic health:
Community leaders in the Valdosta area came together at the 2011 Economic Summit to discuss the economic health of Valdosta-Lowndes County.

Economic Summit participants raised substantive questions for the panel and shared ideas for moving forward during the facilitated discussion portion of the Summit led by VSU Center for Business and Economic Research Director, Scott Manley.

WALB then quotes the Chamber’s press release.
Dr. Cynthia R. Tori presented the VSU Center for Business and Economic Research study, Lowndes County by the Numbers: How Do We Compare With Peer and Aspirant Communities?
That study sounds very interesting. Can we see a copy? Continue reading →

States lock up less people, but Georgia increases —Pew

A Pew Center on the States report from 1 April 2010, Prison Count 2010: State Population Declines for the First Time in 38 Years:
For the first time in nearly 40 years, the number of state prisoners in the United States has declined, according to “Prison Count 2010,” a new survey by the Pew Center on the States. As of January 2010, there were 1,404,053* persons under the jurisdiction of state prison authorities, 4,777* fewer than on December 31, 2008.

This marks the first year-to-year drop in the nation’s state prison population since 1972. While the study showed an overall decline, it revealed great variation among jurisdictions. The prison population declined in 26* states, while increasing in 24* states and in the federal system.

*Numbers updated as of April 1, 2010. (Report originally released March 17, 2010.)

Guess which way Georgia went? As you can see in the map, Georgia increased by 1.6% while Texas, already leading in not wasting tax dollars on new prisons, decreased by 0.7%. Continue reading →

The Evils of For-Profit, “Private,” Prisons —Christians Against Prohibition

Another Sunday; another group of religious people against private prisons; a group that points out Georgia is already number one in locking people up.
Christians Against Prohibition is a nondenominational organization and website that welcomes everyone no matter what your perspective on God or the War on Drugs. Here at the website you will find educational materials — from an areligious as well as Christian perspective — as to why the Drug War and drug prohibition exacerbates every ill the prohibitionists decry, what can be done about it, and what you can do about it. (Hint: Legalize and Regulate.)
CAP has a three-point mission statement:
  1. Heal the Sick
  2. Free the Captives
  3. Shine Light in the Dark
  4. Deal with Dissent
They explain each point in practical and biblical terms.

And they spell out their position on the subject topic, The Evils of For-Profit, “Private,” Prisons: Continue reading →

Felony sentencing for possession — Are you high?

And now a word from the ACLU (yes, I am a card-carrying member):

As we watch the state budget crisis deepen, one of the most wasteful and harmful policies of our state government – felony sentences for simple drug possession – remains in place. We are spending unnecessary millions to incarcerate people who pose no threat to public safety.

Sentencing reform is the way to bring prison spending back in line with other priorities – like public schools and universities, social services, and drug treatment.

That’s actually from the ACLU of Northern California, but the point is the same for anywhere that locks up people for minor drug offenses, like Georgia.

We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County. Spend that tax money on schools instead.

-jsq

Expand the array, publish the minutes, private prison is a bad idea —John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA 17 May 2011

Here’s what I said to the VLCIA board on 17 May 2011. Notes are appended after the video:


Expand the array, publish the minutes, private prison is a bad idea —John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Congratulations on the Wiregrass Solar commissioning. Since this was not ever the largest array in Georgia let’s encourage Mayor Fretti and Commissioner Powell to help VLCIA expand the local array.

Referring to Mary Gooding’s comments about people who wanted to see minutes probably going to be frustrated, I pointed out that Continue reading →

Minutes online? VLCIA 17 May 2011

VLCIA is still indecisive about minutes online, but is at least talking about it. Support for publishing minutes came from a surprising source.

Col. Ricketts said he had been asked by Roy Copeland to look at putting the minutes online and had talked to local authorities (Parks & Recs, Hospital, Prison, Airport) and other economic development authorities around Georgia (Macon, Albany, Tifton, Columbus, Savannah, and Augusta) and found none of them publish minutes online. He said their concern was prospective project details.

Col. Ricketts said Chairman Jerry Jennett asked him to talk to former Executive Director Ken Garren. Ricketts said Garren said that even though Continue reading →

VSU Faculty Senate passes anti-biomass resolution

Karen Noll reported on WACE’s facebook page that the VSU Faculty Senate passed a resolution Thursday 19 May 2011 that biomass will not be considered renewable for VSU’s climate commitment goal.

Why? Because leading medical associations have identified woody biomass incineration as increasing risks of “a variety of illnesses, some life-threatening”, because biomass incineration produces more CO2, NOX, and fine particulates than existing coal plants, and because it “may lead to unsustainable forestry practices and a net increase in global greenhouse gas emissions”.

Who proposed this? Continue reading →

Solar power is the peoples power —Alden Hathaway

After he talked about expanding the Wiregrass Solar plant by another megawatt, Alden Hathaway of Sterling Planet said this:
Solar power is the peoples power.

Whether you’re talking about grid tied power here in America tied to the wire, or solar in the rural countryside of Uganda, it’s immediately available and accessible in all sizes. So I can use it to power a cell phone, charge a laptop, put light in a school, or pump water in a hospital. Solar is immediately available to do that, without massive which is a barrier to development in much of the developing world.

And to development in south Georgia, for that matter. So we can leapfrog that barrier with solar.

Here’s the video:


Solar power is the peoples power –Alden Hathaway
Commissioning Ceremony,
Wiregrass Solar, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

The illusion of knowledge —Michael G. Noll

This comment by Michael G. Noll, president of WACE, came in yesterday on The backfire effect. There are more comments on that blog entry, and also on Seth Gunning’s posts, a key to community organizing work and organizing and activism. -jsq
Not sure what started this particular post, but as Stephen Hawking put it: “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” –

We are where we are as a community in relationship to the biomass issue because of our holistic approach, and with “we” I do not mean WACE exclusively. There have been countless

Continue reading →

Protesters at VLCIA 17 May 2011

Those biomass protesters were back, playing hopscotch!

Industrial Authority board meetings have turned into sidewalk cultural events. This was outside the 17 May 2011 meeting.

A couple of different signs: Susan Wehling with her traffic signal stop biomass sign, and a Honk for Clean Air sign.

-jsq