Category Archives: Community

Occupy movement inspires Valdosta —VSU Spectator

The VSU Spectator posted the most detailed traditional news media report of Occupy Valdosta,
along with an excellently edited video.
Desiree Thompson wrote 20 October 2011,

Occupy movement inspires Valdosta,



According to Occupy Valdosta’s mission statement, the group exercises
their right to “peacefully assemble, to nonviolently occupy public
space, to create an open process to address the problems they face,
and to generate solutions accessible to everyone.”

In an attempt to raise revenue, Bank of America Corp. plans to charge
customers at the beginning of next year with a $5 fee every month they
use their debit cards outside of withdrawing from the Bank of America ATM.

Protestors demanded an answer from the bank downtown, but employees
refused to comment.

Here’s

the Spectator video:




Occupy movement inspires Valdosta —VSU Spectator

We are the 99%,

Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Extensive quotes from students:

Continue reading →

VDT announces anti-consolidation march

Brittany D. McClure wrote for the VDT today,

Consolidation opponents to march Saturday



Organizers expect hundreds to gather this weekend in front of the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce for a march opposing the
consolidation of city and county school systems.



Scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, the march takes the stand that
“our children are not for sale.”

“We intend to put hundreds of people in the streets,” said the

Rev. Floyd Rose, president of the Valdosta-Lowndes County chapter of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “We know and they know that
this has never been about consolidating the school system.”

Interesting that the VDT neither contradicts that nor finds a counterview
to publish.
Maybe since the VDT did an about-face about consolidation,
it’s been able to see more clearly….



The march will be led by Rose,

Sam Allen, former Valdosta City Schools superintendent,
and Leigh Touchton, NAACP president. Other community
leaders and representatives from both Lowndes and Valdosta high schools
will be present.

9AM Saturday at the parking lot across from the Chamber of Commerce.

-jsq

Private prisons —Matt Flumerfelt

Received yesterday. -jsq

Dear Andrea, We spoke not long ago by phone. I just want to let you know


that plans to bring in a private prison here are not going to sit well with
many of us. In fact, it will most likely bring about a repeat of the recent
Biomass issue. I don’t mean we are opposed to it. I mean we are vehemently
opposed to it. It seems that Allen Ricketts and the other Board members
don’t understand that Valdosta’s citizens don’t want to be informed of, for
example, what finished products and raw materials will be stored in the
distribution center slated to locate in Valdosta AFTER the contract has been
signed. We have a right to know beforehand what kind of facility it is and
what will be stored there. Informing us after the fact is not transparency.
This is an issue that will continue to be revisited as long as the VLCIA
continues to act unilaterally without considering the wishes of those who
live here. We don’t want to be presented with a fait accompli. Also, the
VLCIA is really not doing due diligence when it continues to court
businesses that raise concerns over the ethical standards of the Board
itself. Thanks. Matt Flumerfelt

Opposed to a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. —John S. Quarterman, et al.



A private prison in Lowndes County would be a bad business decision: it would not increase employment, it would be likely to close because of lack of “customers”, and it would drive away knowledge-based workers. The letter I read to the Industrial Authority Board and Staff Tuesday on behalf of some members of the community sumarizes

appended documentation of all those and other points.

If you’d also like to sign, I’m still collecting signatures,
and will periodically drop off more signed copies.
Or, even better, write your own letter and send it to the Industrial Authority.

Submit it to this blog and we’ll probably publish it.

Here’s

the video:




Opposed to a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. —John S. Quarterman

Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),

Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,

Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 October 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Text of the letter is appended; follow

the link for the documentation.

Continue reading →

Valdosta graduation rates

In his

updated Grassroots Handbook Against School Consolidation
David Mullis included
as new material

a revised response to CUEE statement #2 for graduation rates,
which contains these percentages:


He then asks:

Therefore, one must
ask, "Why would CUEE say the graduation rate for Valdosta High
School is in the low 50% range for all students and below 50% for
African Americans? The answer is simple. CUEE wants to mislead the
voters into believing that the graduation rate for Valdosta High
School is lower than it actually is. Therefore, not only does CUEE
make false statements, it also fails to state that the graduation
rate has improved significantly over the past 5 years for all
students and for African American Students. Again, this is an
attempt by CUEE to give the appearance that something other than what
is being done must be done. They do not tell us what should be done
other than to consolidate the school systems. The logic is
frightening to say the least.

Here’s a suggestion on
what to do about that.

-jsq

At the MLK Monument —Occupy Valdosta



Many people stood up at the Martin Luther King Jr Monument last Friday
and spoke.

Here they are (we may have missed a few).




At the MLK Monument —Occupy Valdosta

We are the 99%,

Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman

for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

CUEE turns shy?

Does CUEE have defectors?

On

CUEE’s board web page
there’s a link,


See a list of community supporters

which we cited back in August.
It now gets 404 “No Such URL at This Domain”.

However, we know who they used to be, because that list got copied

by Vote No for the Children
to the two very interesting charts below, which show
real estate and
Valwood connections with CUEE.

So what’s going on?
Did CUEE’s website get termites, and we should trust the public schools to a group that can’t keep track of its own supporters?
Or have some of CUEE’s supporters defected

Continue reading →

Update: The Grassroots Handbook Against School Consolidation —David Mullis

Received today. -jsq

Dear Media:

I am sure you are aware that the vote of whether or not to consolidate


the Valdosta City Schools into the Lowndes County School System will be
held November 8, 2011. The City only is being asked to vote on whether
to dissolve the Valdosta City School charter. The proponents of the
referendum had a choice between putting the referendum in front of the
county and city or the city alone. The Lowndes County Board of
Education asked

Continue reading →

No Private Prison —John S. Quarterman



At the MLK Monument last Friday, I brought up private prisons.
Most of the 150 people marching to
Occupy Valdosta
did not know that

the Industrial Authority is helping
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) build a private prison
in Lowndes County.
Even though it would not decrease unemployment, it would compromise
public safety, and it would probably compete with local labor.

We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.
Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.

Here’s

the video:




No Private Prison —John S. Quarterman

We are the 99%,

Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Vote No March —Floyd E Rose

Seen yesterday. -jsq

Never before in the history of Valdosta have its citizens been met with
a greater challenge. The most powerful business interests in our city
have conspired to deceive us with a scheme to dilute the black vote,
and thereby rob our community of the political and economic benefits to
which we are rightly entitled.

We make up 55 percent of the city’s population. However, we are only 34


percent of the county’s population. If the city and county governments
are consolidated, which is the real goal of the Committee for Educational
Excellence (CUEE), we will lose forever the opportunity to have access to
the millions of federal dollars that will come to Valdosta, with which we
can rebuild our community; monies that we are now going to the North side.

This is, and never has been, about school unification. However, legally

Continue reading →