Category Archives: Community

There is no question how the Law reads —Susan Leavens

Received Monday as a response to

Euthanization Violations at the Lowndes County Animal Shelter. -jsq

There is no question how the Law reads; the only question is who indicated
there no wrong doing? And they were questioning my character? I
question those people who indicated I had a bios opinion to read the
laws of Georgia. I am aware you can mirror laws and even add to them
in county ordinances but you cannot take away from the law in anyway.

From the
United States Department of Agriculture Web Site on Euthanasia

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=AZ_INDEX

Under
Guidelines for Euthanasia

When
performing euthanasia
in a shelter

Continue reading →

Real discussion for real education: Shanghai

Here’s how they do it in the best education system in the world:



Shanghai’s education system is distinctive and superior—and not
just globally, but also nationally. Hong Kong, Beijing, and ten Chinese
provinces participated in the 2009 PISA, but their results reflected
education systems that were still the same-old knowledge acquisition
models, whereas Shanghai had progressed to equipping students with
the ability to interpret and extrapolate information from text and
apply it to real world situations—what we would normally refer to
as ‘creativity.’ Twenty-six percent of Shanghai 15 year-olds could
demonstrate advanced problem-solving skills, whereas the OECD average
is 3 percent.

I do mean that literally, the best in the world:

Every three years, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) administers its worldwide
Programme for International Student Assessment
(PISA) to measure how well a nation’s education
system has been preparing its students for the global knowledge
economy. Nations such as South Korea, Finland, and Singapore have
traditionally topped the rankings, but, apparently, even they are no
match for Shanghai, which shoved the others into lower positions in its
very first year of participation in the programme, in 2009.

That’s according to
Jiang Xueqin writing in the Diplomat 1 August 2011,

How Shanghai Schools Beat Them All.

So, how did they do it?

Continue reading →

“Debate is not allowed.” Well, why not?

The real problem with education around here is the adults who refuse
to hold a civil discussion.

I hear this all the time around here:


“We’re not going to get into debate.”


“We will not, however, debate you over e-mail.”




“There’s been enough debate.”


“one more public meeting with 15 minutes of pros and cons and
then hopefully that will be the end of discussion.”




“I’m not going to debate you about that.”


“Debate is not allowed.”

Well, why not?
When did “debate” become a dirty word?
What if we call it a civil discussion, will that make it sound better?
Nobody seems to know how to do that, either.

And that, my friends, is the real failure of the local education system.

Next:
how they do it in the best education system in the world.

-jsq

Euthanization Violations at the Lowndes County Animal Shelter —Judy Haverkamp @ LCC 26 July 2011



Lots of “don’t know the results of that” for drug testing,
administrative review board, etc.
Why don’t we know the results of those things?

Judy Haverkamp talked about what she’d discovered through open records requests.

“It seems like there’s been the same violations still occuring at the shelter
even up to this year,
and it doesn’t seem like anyone is
trying to make an effort to correct these problems!”

She repeatedly cited Georgia code sections that had been violated.

This pretty much sums it up:

“Why would you not do the proper thing to make this process as painless
as possible?”

Indeed, why not?

-jsq

Here’s

the video:

Continue reading →

Lunch and Learn —Joe Pritchard @ LCC 26 July 2011



New program for the public to learn about Lowndes County government.

In his County Manager report, Joe Pritchard announced the first
first lunch and learn, which will be a discussion of general government,
noon ’til 1PM, 11 August 2011,
second floor of administrative complex.

“The lunch and learn program will take
various topics,
and allow the public to


meet for an hour,
ask questions,
interact on those particular topics.”

County Clerk Paige Dukes will be conducting this first meeting.

Commissioner Crawford Powell
asked

Continue reading →

Authorities are looking into employee complaints at a local animal shelter. —WCTV

Gabrielle Sarann wrote for WCTV 27 July 2011,

Deputies Review Employee Complaints at Animal Shelter



“Authorities are looking into employee complaints at a local animal shelter.”

And that’s all she wrote.
Really.
Follow the link.
There’s only that one sentence.

-jsq

I was told that these people were going to be prosecuted —Susan Leavens

Received 27 July on

Shouldn’t the people running the facilities … be held accountable? -jsq

Ms.
Jane Osborn,

I believe this was not meant to make the public’s attention. When I
was told to write statements I was told that these people were going to
be prosecuted. Several months went by and this remained silent, I waited
for the county board memebers to to do the right thing. What happened
was the infamous memo; which indicated we were not allowed to contact any
law enforcement agency about crimes or we would be held accountable for
discrediting a county employee. And it would be considered as an attack
against a county employee. Whoever if we contacted our county manager
it would be handled (I’m not quite sure how many times he needed to be
contacted about the issues at the shelter). As I clearly remember in the
first meeting he had at the shelter many years ago… Joe Prichard said
“I’ll fire everyone except Linda Patelski, Kay Jones and Michelle
Shultz” so I’m a little confused, the memo we got on September 22,
2010 said we wouldn’t be retaliated against if we followed the chain
of command (so does it mean if we report crimes to law enforcement we
will be retaliated against?) Clearly so, I assure you. The issues need
to be resolved.

-Susan Leavens

CCA and The GEO Group have been accused of human rights abuses —United Methodist Church

Methodists lobby private prison companies CCA and GEO
as shareholders about human rights issues.
Seems like this doesn’t help with the 2008 United Methodist Church
Resolution 3281, Welcoming the Migrant to the US, which advocated the
“elimination of privately-operated detention centers,”
but at least they’re doing something.
I expect what they’ll accomplish by such lobbying is to demonstrate
that private prison companies have no intention of addressing
human rights issues, because that would cut into their profits.

Published by General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church July 2011,

Faith-Based Investors Take a Closer Look at Private Prisons,

In 2011, members of the United Methodist Interagency Task Force on
Immigration approached the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits


(General Board) with concerns about two private prison companies in
the General Board’s investment portfolio: Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA) and The GEO Group, Inc. The United Methodist Interagency
Task Force on Immigration was created following the General Conference
of 2004. Membership includes representatives from the General Board of
Global Ministries (GBGM), the General Commission on Religion and Race,
the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), Methodists Associated to
Represent the Cause of Hispanic Americans (MARCHA) and two bishops. In
addition, GBCS has shared its concern that CCA and The GEO Group have
been accused of human rights abuses of young people, immigrants and
people of color.

CCA and The GEO Group are the two largest private prison companies in the
U.S., operating and/or owning, respectively, 111 and 118 correctional,
detention and/or residential treatment facilities. In 2010, CCA earned
nearly $1.7 billion; The GEO Group, $1.3 billion.

Investor Engagement with Private Prisons

Continue reading →

Quitman 10 host organization of NAACP in Brooks County



The Quitman 10 started out as activists, and now they’re
taking it a step further: they hosted an
organizational meeting for an NAACP branch in Brooks County.

George Boston Rhynes was there and made this video
of students singing about

education, not incarceration:




Education, not Incarceration

Organizational Meeting, Brooks County NAACP,

Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia, 18 July 2010

Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I.

George videoed the whole meeting and posted it on

his blog.
He wrote in

his introduction to this series of videos:

Continue reading →

School consolidation report: can cause irreversible damage

People ask me: why do the NAACP and the SCLC oppose school consolidation?
Well, here’s some recent research that backs up their position, followed
by their positions.
My summary: because it caused great damage last time, and this time would be no different.



Craig Howley, Jerry Johnson, Jennifer Petrie wrote 1 February 2011,

Consolidation of Schools and Districts: What the Research Says and What it Means:

…the review of research evidence detailed in this brief suggests that
a century of consolidation has already produced most of the efficiencies
obtainable. Research also suggests that impoverished regions in particular
often benefit from smaller schools and districts, and they can suffer
irreversible damage if consolidation occurs.

Isn’t such irreversible damage what

Rev. Floyd Rose got Mrs. Ruth Council to admit?

Rev. Rose: “…we were told about the world, where we came from, how we got here.”

Mrs. Council: “I think we did receive a better education.”

They are referring to black schools before desegregation in the 1960s.

Rev. Floyd Rose is president of the local SCLC,
and here is a statement by
Leigh Touchton, president of the local NAACP:

Continue reading →