Both the
VDT
and the
Spectator
got the route backwards. Not their fault; although the route has been posted since last Saturday, it hasn’t been easy to find.
This is a peaceful nonviolent exercise in assembly for redress of grievances and celebration of community. Bring a sign or we’ll help you make one. Talking, chanting, singing, and music are encouraged. Stay on the sidewalk except in the parks; no littering; ask for help if you need water or assistance; feel free to discuss and agree or disagree, but please no name calling or the like.
CUEE can attribute the source of this ad to another committee all
they want to. I know that I personally overheard Rusty Griffin telling
Myrna Ballard about the ad last Thursday night at the CUEE Education
Task Force meeting which I attended as a concerned citizen. Rusty was
very excited about the ad & said he expected it to greatly enhance their
campaign to unify the black community for consolidation. I told Sam Allen
what I heard, but neither of us knew what would be in the ad until it
aired Tuesday. Rusty said he had to get a final OK so I was hoping that
person would be smarter, but evidently not. Another thing I noticed at
the meeting where everyone but me was part of the task force only two
people out of the fifteen were from the black community. How does that
represent the diversity they preach?
I personally appreciate all the times over the past months
In the paper paper today,
David S. Rodock wrote, “Occupying Valdosta: Protesters to hold rally in Drexel Park Friday.”
The pullquote top center of the page is:
“We initially wanted to go out and target corporate greed
and get the corporations out of the government.
There needs to be a separation.”
Erin Hurley
Occupy Valdosta event coordinator.
You can see it here, thanks to Michael Noll:
Y’all come:
“Basically, we want to exercise our right to peaceably assemble,”
said Hurley,
“We want everyone to join in and let their voice be heard.
I feel a lot of people have lost that sense of freedom we once had.”
Meet at Drexel Park before noon.
The VDT got the route wrong, but just come along and you’ll get there.
If you aren’t able to walk a few miles, head directly to the Chamber of
Commerce around 1:30 PM, and we’ll meet you there a bit later.
Yes, I’m one of the organizers, in case I haven’t said that before.
Here’s the Facebook event.
A new radio ad from the Community Unification for Educational Excellence,
Inc (CUEE) has sparked a lot of controversy in the few days it has
been
running in local media.
…
The ad, voiced by an actor who sounds like Morgan Freeman but is
not, encourages Valdosta city residents to vote “Yes” on school
consolidation November 8th. The commercial claims that Valdosta schools
are “once again segregated” and ties the success of the vote to
Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision.
Callers to the Chris Beckham Show, which airs from 3PM to 6PM each weekday
on WVGA 105.9 FM, were overwhelming in their condemnation of the ad.
Yes, that’s what Chris Beckham told me when I talked to him today.
I’ll be on his radio show on WVGA 105.9, tomorrow, about 4PM.
Already more people have signed up to march Friday than showed up
at the Chamber’s event last night.
Here are
some flyers.
There’s an Occupy Valdosta organizational meeting tonight;
more in the blog after that.
The traditional media are starting to flock around, as well.
Mayor Sonny Vickers said he thought it was important for children
and grandchildren and proper for the City Council to take a stand
against school consolidation, and City Manager Larry Hanson read
the statement (transcript appended).
For:
James Wright
District 1
Hoke Hampton
District 3
Alvin Payton
District 4
Ben Norton
At Large
Didn’t Have to Vote:
Sonny Vickers
Mayor
Against:
Robert Yost
District 6
Tim Carroll
District 5
Missing:
Deidra White
District 2
After very brief discussion, the vote was 4 for
(James Wright of District 1, Hoke Hampton of District 3,
Alvin Payton of District 4, and Ben Norton At Large)
and 2 against
(Robert Yost of District 6 and Tim Carroll of District 5).
Valdosta City Council voted to oppose school consolidationo
education, consolidation, resolution,
Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Here’s the statement transcribed as accurately as I could from the video:
Continue reading →
On Thursday 9/29/11 CUEE called a special meeting of their Education
Task Force at the City Hall Annex. Reading on and between the lines of
the VDT article it appears the new, more agressive tactic is to call
into question the conduct and accountability for goverance of education
of the Valdosta City Board of Education. Under the leadership of Steve
Prigohzy they seem to be heading toward usurping this goverance from
the elected school boards to another entity they can control. This is
hauntingly familiar if you read an article titled Tennessee Waltz from
the Education Week Teacher.
Leadership for the post consolidation planning was forcibly taken from
the county superintendent and given to the Public Education Foundation of
Chattanooga, TN, which was headed by CUEE’s own Steven H. Prigohzy. His
specialty seems to be powering school consolidations and overseeing the
resulting planning which does little to improve the academic or financial
conditions of the public schools (actually these get worse). It does
however provide the perfect climate for pulling grant monies to establish
the magnet schools he also specializes in.
Grady Blankenship wrote a LTE in the VDT Wednesday, in which he asked
“do you have solar energy yourself?”
Why yes, yes, I do.
And I have some questions for everyone at the end.
Please note that
the following was inspired by a letter (attached as a
photograph) that appeared in the Valdosta Daily Times in response to my
earlier piece on
“Solar: Infinite and Clean”. The Valdosta Daily Times
seems to enforce a quota of sorts at this time, so they won’t publish
my additional information for Mr. Blankenship and other “skeptics”.
Sources for the Skeptic
I have no idea why anyone would call companies in Mexico or Canada to
research the feasibility of local solar energy projects. I also do not
know what type of freezer the writer of “Seeking affordable solar
energy” has. Either way, I will be happy to share more information,
so that anyone interested in solar energy can do more research and
educate himself.
At the state level you can contact the “Georgia Solar Energy
Association” (www.gasolar.org/)
to learn more about the viability
of solar power in 2011, which is quite different from the situation
in 2001. A larger solar firm our community
Continue reading →
Both the
VDT
and the
Spectator
got the route backwards. Not their fault; although the route has been posted since last Saturday, it hasn’t been easy to find.
