Category Archives: Education

VDT on DoJ at SCLC

Reading the VDT’s editorial yesterday morning, DOJ’s lack of Judgment, I noticed this:
Given this era of YouTube, Internet blogs, and citizen journalists, we have to ask why only credentialed members of the media were asked to leave?

Some of the people in attendance during Sunday’s meeting have openly identified themselves in the past as active Internet bloggers.

For example when I stood up in the row behind the VDT reporter and identified myself as taking videos for LAKE for posting on the web? The editorial continues:
Any one of the people in attendance could have recorded the DOJ’s responses and posted them, but the DOJ didn’t ask to collect people’s cell phones.
I also said that due to the sensitive nature of the subject, instead of LAKE’s usual policy of videoing and posting everything that seemed interesting at a public meeting, at this meeting I was only videoing people who asked to be videoed. It wasn’t the DoJ’s responses that were sensitive (they said hardly anything after their introduction): it was what the people in the audience had to say.

I asked “the female DOJ attorney”, as the VDT calls her, Continue reading →

Video of Dr. Sammons’ talk at VSU

Here is a video of most of Dr. William Sammons’ presentation at the SAVE Biomass Forum at VSU. His slides from that talk are available on the LAKE web pages, so you can follow along.

Instead of dirty biomass we could have clean efficiency and conservation (retrofitting produces twice as many jobs as biomass) and solar power, which is booming nationwide, burns no trees, and emits no pollutants.

You can also contact your local elected or appointed officials.

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Due Diligence on Biomass Combustion, by Dr. William Sammons

Monday a week ago Dr. William Sammons, a pediatrician who has studied biomass plants nationwide, called them “a medical atrocity.” His slides from that talk are now available on the LAKE web pages.

For example, he demonstrated that burning wood is dirtier than burning coal:

This slide shows data taken from biomass plant permits. Also notice Continue reading →

VDT Elevates Biomass and Renewable Energy as Political Issues

The Valdosta Daily Times (VDT) has apparently decided biomass and real clean energy instead are political issues. As part of the VDT’s sudden turn against the VLCIA and its biomass plant, which was provoked by citizen and student activism, the VDT started a week of articles with the headline “Proposed plant said to be ‘medical atrocity'”, about Dr. William Sammons’ Monday talk about health problems of biomass and how solar is better.

The VDT then featured biomass in its reporting on the AAUW Candidate Forum: Continue reading →

“Proposed plant said to be ‘medical atrocity'”

Johnna Pinholster writes in the the Valdosta Daily Times (paper 25 Oct, online 27 Oct 2010) about the the SAVE Biomass Forum at VSU:
A medical atrocity.

That is the phrase Dr. William Sammons used to described biomass energy plants at Monday night’s biomass forum at Valdosta State University’s Student Union theater.

Dr. Sammons answered many of the unanswered concerns about the biomass incinerator, and, unlike the lack of peer-reviewed evidence from the plant proponents: Continue reading →

AAUW Candidate Forum Today, 7PM

Meet the candidates tonight:
AAUW Candidate Forum
7:00 p.m. – Rainwater Conference Center – The Valdosta chapter of the American Asso. of University Women will host the forum. It is open to the public. For more information, Dr. Martha Leake 229-333-5756
That’s the James H. Rainwater Conference Center, 1 Meeting Place, Valdosta, GA.

It’s for all candidates: Democrats, Libertarians, Republicans, and non-partisan; for statewide, congressional, and local. Attendees will have the opportunity to submit written questions to be posed to the candidates for their response.

Just before that, the Valdosta–Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce will host a Meet the Candidates Reception, for Chamber members and their guests, 5–7 P.M. Here is a list of the candidates who have confirmed (PDF). Continue reading →

Bigger Hall: SAVE Biomass Forum at VSU

Due to popular demand, the SAVE Biomass Forum has moved to a larger hall, the Student Union Theater. That’s on the east side of North Oak Street, across from Baytree Road.

It’s still Monday, 25 October 2010 from 7 to 9 PM, organized by Students Against Violating the Environment (SAVE) at Valdosta State University (VSU). The featured speaker is Dr. William Sammons, a pediatrician who has spoken nationally on the subject. Forum flyer PDF is available. See SAVE’s facebook event page for any updates. Continue reading →

Michael Noll: precious gifts to all of us

Dr. Michael Noll sent the appended message to all members of the Valdosta Board of Education yesterday, 13 Oct 2010.

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Dear VBOE members.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share some important documents with you last night. As we recognized during the invocation, our children (and grandchildren) are precious gifts to all of us, and those of us who have healthy children (and grandchildren) can count their blessings every single day.

As a parent of two school-aged children and member of the community, I feel it is my responsibility to bring the issue of our children’s health into a clearer focus. It is my sincere hope that once you have had the chance to reflect on the materials I handed out last night, you will realize just how serious the issue is. As a responsible parent I am compelled to advocate for my childrens’ health.

All of us, whether we are parents, educators or members of the VLCIA,

Continue reading →

STPP: Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline Symposium

Did you know that:
Children are far more likely to be arrested at school than they were a generation ago.

The vast majority of these arrests are for non-violent offenses such as “disruptive conduct” or “disturbance of the peace.” Five year olds are being led out of classrooms in handcuffs for acting out or throwing temper tantrums. Students have been arrested for throwing an eraser at a teacher, breaking a pencil, and having rap lyrics in a locker. These children do not belong in jail.

Why do we pay more to incarcerate people than it would cost to educate them?
Why is this happening? “Zero tolerance” policies criminalize minor infractions of school rules and high-stakes testing programs encourage educators to push out low-performing students to improve their schools’ overall test scores. Students of color are especially vulnerable to the discriminatory application of discipline and push-out trends.
Here’s a chance to do something about it.
The School To Prison Pipeline (STPP) refers to a disturbing national trend in which students are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Most of these kids are children of color, and many have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and counseling services. Instead they are punished and isolated.
The Valdosta Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline Symposium is one of a series throughout the state of Georgia. It’s 9:30AM – 4PM 30 Oct 2010.

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Michael Bryant: “the appalling silence”

Pastor Michael Bryant expands on his previous letter.

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Dear Pastors and fellow laborers in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior,

I was born and raised here in Lowndes County. Today I am as disturbed as I was in 1973 when I, along with 42 other students, four ministers and their wives, were jailed for protesting unfair treatment of students in the Lowndes County School System. We were arrested while standing in the parking lot awaiting to enter the building for a meeting called by the Lowndes County Board of Education at their office on St. Augustine Road. The meeting was supposed to be a good faith gesture designed to mediate an amicable solution to the picketing which had been in process for nearly six months. After being arrested, we were moved from Big 12 in a prison truck in the dead of night. We were to be housed in the Cook County jail and none of our parents knew where we were. When we exited the truck, both sides of the walk way upon which we had to walk were lined with numerous State Troopers and other Law Enforcement officers sporting riot gear and shotguns. On the following day they refused to feed us breakfast. We began to complain and the judge came upstairs dressed in his robe. He said “I want you to stop making noise, and if you don’t, I can make you stop.”

When we complained again, the cell in which we were jailed was sprayed down with tear gas. We had one toilet and one sink in which to clear our eyes. These are facts that went unreported by the papers. In fact they said we were rabble rousers. The late Ralph Harrington signed all our bonds, and we went through a lengthy trial, represented by the late Mr. C. B. King, Sr., of Albany, GA. At the close of the trial all charges were dismissed and expunged from our records.

As a student then, I witnessed the appalling silence of men and women of God who preached the hell out of people on Sundays, collected their checks, and went home untouched by the happenings in the community. This was much like the appalling silence of ministers who sat on the sidelines while Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., placed his life on the line for “the least of these.”

Some years ago, Rev. Floyd Rose, two of my sisters and several other

Continue reading →