“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began” –Michelle Alexander

Dick Price writes that More Black Men Now in Prison System than Were Enslaved,
“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began,” Michelle Alexander told a standing room only house at the Pasadena Main Library this past Wednesday, the first of many jarring points she made in a riveting presentation.
She’s written a best-selling book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness, and she discusses the problem: Continue reading →

Waste not, want not –Dr. Noll

Dr. Michael Noll advocated conservation and efficiency in the long-running Greening of America email discussion, responding to two messages by Valdosta City Council member James R. Wright. Dr. Noll cites our earliest American blogger. -jsq
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:55:16 -0400

Dear Councilman Wright.

Valid points and a great question to ponder. You may recall my quote from Benjamin Franklin: “Waste not, want not”.

Add to that a quote from the Sierra Club: “Energy use should be minimized through conservation and efficiency. In the near future, efficiency is the only “energy source” which does not incur some environmental damage and which is available immediately in generous supply. Sophisticated building construction, efficient appliances, recycling, modernized industrial processes, programmable thermostats, public transit supplemented by fuel-efficient cars, and many other innovative technologies can reduce energy use tremendously, while saving money.”

In other words, we are wasting enormous amounts of energy and money

Continue reading →

The Greening of Black America Initiative –James R. Wright

Here is the beginning of the long-running Greening of America email thread, a post by Valdosta City Council member James R. Wright. This is what Brad Lofton sent his non sequitur response to, and it is also what prompted my It’s an opportunity policy proposals. Here’s the powerpoint councilmember Wright seems to be referring to. -jsq
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:11:48 -0400

I thought you all might find this power point article interesting. It was sent to me by a group representing local small farmers who are looking into growing bio-crops for economic opportunities to feed their families. The information below is from the power point presentation.

THE GREENING OF BLACK AMERICA INITIATIVE:

Continue reading →

Lame-duck Lofton cranks the same old scratched wax cylinder

After he gave his goodbye speech, I wished him happiness in Myrtle Beach and thought maybe he’d make a graceful exit. Nope, he’s still cranking the Edison phonograph on the same old scratched wax cylinder. Here he is last week responding to James Wright and dozens of other people in the same thread to which I later posted It’s an opportunity. In Lofton’s case, he’s still fixated on the losing proposition of biomass fuels. -jsq
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:59:49 -0400

James:


© BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons.
Thanks so much for sharing this and for your continued strong support of our client’s green renewable energy project. In addition to assisting the country in reducing our consumption of middle eastern fuel and improving the environment, this project will provide a much needed economic impact for landowners of every race, and the Industrial Authority will assist in the efforts underway to assist local farmers. Google “benefits of biomass electricity,”

Continue reading →

April LAKE meeting: The owl returns to Valdosta.

We’ve rotated around the north end of Lowndes County; time to rotate down to the west of Valdosta.
Monthly LAKE Meeting
When: 5:30 PM, Tuesday 5 April 2011
Where: Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli
1407 W Hill Ave Ste 1
Valdosta, GA 31601
(229) 241-9944
That’s on Hill Ave just east of St. Augustine Road. They’re open until 9PM, and they’d be happy to push a few tables together for us.
Restaurant review and source of the picture.

Help cover food, water, transportation, incarceration, solar energy, biomass, and regular local government meetings: you never know when news will be made!

If you follow the LAKE blog, On the LAKE Front, which you can also see through the LAKE facebook page, you know what we cover, from protesters to private prisons to gardening, all of which turn out to be related. What else do you want to investigate? You can be LAKE, too! Continue reading →

Private prisons and AZ-style anti-immigrant bills in Georgia

While a private prison is top of the news, you’d probably never know what it has to do with this if you didn’t have the Internet, 8,000 Rally against Georgia Anti-Immigrant Bills, by Gloria Tatum in Georgia Progressive News:
Over 8,000 activists rallied outside the State Capitol on Thursday, March 24, 2011, to show their outrage and disgust over Georgia’s Arizona-type immigration bills.

As previously reported by Atlanta Progressive News, legislation, HB 87, has already passed the State House. A similar bill, SB 40, has also passed the State Senate.

While the vast majority of protesters at the Capitol were Hispanic, opposition to the bills came from a wide spectrum of constituents including immigrants, students, religious groups, peace groups, veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, Asian groups, GLBTQI activists, labor, artists, musicians, business owners, elected officials, and others.

What’s this got to do with private prisons? Continue reading →

Valdostans protest biomass –VSU Spectator

Molly Duet writes in the VSU newspaper today:
Protestors wearing respirator masks held signs reading “Biomass? No!” in front of the Valdosta City Hall building on Thursday. Members of the Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy, the VSU student organization Students Against Violating the Environment, and other concerned Valdosta citizens showed up to protest the construction of the Wiregrass Power: Biomass Electric Generating Plant.

“We already have solar power resources in place that we could be using and I feel like money should be directed towards that,” Ivey Roubique, vice-president of the Student Geological Society, said. “It wouldn’t be good for the community and even though I’m in college here it still matters.”

The Spectator article quotes from two speakers for whom LAKE happens to have video, linked below. Continue reading →

Why? There’s speculation about money — Stewart Emmett (?) @ VCC 24 March 2011

When public officials ignore objections for long enough, eventually people start speculating as to their motives, in this case about the proposed biomass plant. Here’s the video:


Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 24 February 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Solar and wind: All that is lacking is the political will

Mike Childs wrote in the Guardian on 27 March 2011, Our green energy potential is huge, but gets little support: The crisis at Fukushima calls into question our nuclear power policy
Nuclear power is a gamble we don’t need to take. Studies show that the UK can meet its energy needs and tackle climate change without resorting to nuclear power or burning fossil fuels – all that is lacking is the political will.
Studies like this one for Scotland and this one for the whole world.

And the U.K. is way north of Georgia. Georgia gets a lot more sunlight and has plenty of wind off the coast. All that is lacking here, too, is the political will.

If Atlanta won’t lead, why not Valdosta and Lowndes County?

-jsq

Georgia press complicit in promoting private prisons

The Augusta Chronicle puts it in the lede for the whole state, Georgia showing signs of recovery: Tax numbers give reasons for hope, Associated Press, Monday, March 14, 2011:
Hotels are hiring desk clerks and housekeepers in anticipation of a spring tourist boom in Savannah, while even a rural Georgia city devastated by manufacturing losses is putting some people back to work as construction begins on a $57 million private prison.
Where is that? Continue reading →