Category Archives: History

Ansel Adams and LBJ on A More Beautiful America

A while back, while moving things from one place to another, my sister thrust a book into my hand and said something like “we think you should have this”.

I didn’t pay it much mind and the book ended up in a box with framed photos because it was of a large format and besides, most of my books had already been packed up and moved.

Fast forward to yesterday when I opened the box labelled “framed photos” and the first thing out was a book.

It turns out that the book was “A More Beautiful America”. Commissioned by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Nancy Newhall and Ansel Adams created a book that is as relevant today as it was in 1965.

Adams’ photos illustrate excerpts from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Special Message to the Congress on Conservation and Restoration of Natural Beauty

The speech is compelling from beginning to end.

The beauty of our land is a natural resource. Its preservation is linked to the inner prosperity of the human spirit.

The tradition of our past is equal to today’s threat to that beauty. Our land will be attractive tomorrow only if we organize for action and rebuild and reclaim the beauty we inherited. Our stewardship will be judged by the foresight with which we carry out these programs. We must rescue our cities and countryside from blight with the same purpose and vigor with which, in other areas, we moved to save the forests and the soil.

Please consider finding some way that you can be a good steward and help preserve the beauty of our beloved Earth.

—Gretchen

Pastor Michael Bryant: the benefits to be realized

Leigh Touchton sent me this today.

-jsq

John,

This letter is from Pastor Michael Bryant, Webb-Miller Community Church, Hahira. He would like to publish on the LAKE blog. Dr. Manning’s response to Brad Lofton is also for publication.

Thank you,
Leigh

Given the complexity of the issue facing us as a community with regard to the Biomass Project, it is incumbent upon all parties involved to recognize that while the populations ill-affected will primarily be our children and elderly, the most vulnerable among us, the real issue is the fact that only 25 job are going to be produced. Likewise, if the facts bear out as proclaimed by both or either of the parties involved, and I believe if an error is made, it should be on the side of safety, the benefits to be realized are not nearly as great as the alternative approach provided by a solar energy plant.

Continue reading →

Biomass plant air quality permit approved, but is that final?

Georgia EPD approved the air quality permit for the Wiregrass Power LLC biomass plant on Perimeter Road just outside Valdosta in Lowndes County, with an effective date of July 19, 2010 (PDF, Word). Somebody may want to do the exercise of comparing the approved permit with the application to see if the process was entirely rubberstamp or whether any changes at all were made after the many questions people asked at the public hearing.

Meanwhile, is that it? Will the plant be built? Not necessarily: Continue reading →

Sunset Hill Cemetery Interactive Map

Heard about this through the Valdosta Planners Post: Sunset Hill Interactive Web Site.
In April 2009, the City of Valdosta was awarded a Georgia Historic Preservation Fund grant by the Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, to produce a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-enabled web site to be used by family members, historians, genealogists, and anyone interested in learning about the generations of Valdostans laid to rest at the city-owned Sunset Hill Cemetery.
You can search for people by name, and it will show you birth date, death date, lot number, and pan to the correct location on a map. Quite a difference from when aunt Jane and I used to have to try to guess when the caretaker would be in to look up who was buried where, or just stomp around until we found the marker.

What’s Sunset Hill, you may wonder? About Sunset Hill Cemetery: Continue reading →