Tag Archives: Chamber of Commerce

This is what democracy looks like at the Chamber @ Occupy Valdosta 14 October 2011

A gentle reminder to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce of

what just happened at the polls yesterday.

Myrna Ballard:



I understand that you have something that you’d like to say?

Occupy Valdosta:

This is what democracy looks like!

Here’s

the video:




This is what democracy looks like at the Chamber @ Occupy Valdosta 14 October 2011

We are the 99%,

Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

That’s Sam Allen, president of
FVCS holding the front Vote No sign;

Vote No for the Children is holding another one.

Greg Gullberg of WCTV is standing in front of Myrna Ballard,

Jade Bulecza of WALB has a camera in the lower right,
David Rodock of the VDT
is standing behind Myrna Ballard in the video,

Desiree Thompson of the VSU Spectator was there,

Valdosta Today was there,

George Boston Rhynes of K.V.C.I. and bostongbr on YouTube
was there,
and LAKE was there.

-jsq

Same old “unification” disinformation from the Chamber and CUEE

This is what
CUEE Referendum Supporters apparently support,


and why I call on them to stand up and say whether they are for or against it:
the same old disproved disinformation sent again yesterday by a
CUEE board member from
the Chamber’s own email address to Chamber members.
If you support CUEE, you support this disinformation campaign
instead of real research that shows consolidation would do nothing
to improve education, it would raise everyone’s taxes, and
it would not help attract industry.
Instead, it would seriously damage public education.

This is not a time to be silent.
Which side are you on?
CUEE and the Chamber’s propaganda campaign?
Or public education, and you will vote no?


CUEE Board Member “Jud Rackley, CPA”
emailed yesterday from chamber@valdostachamber.com, subject
“The Truth About School Taxes and Unification”, including:

I’ve heard several people say school unification will cause a significant tax increase.
Yet, no one seems to know why this would happen. It appears this rumor is based
on a document circulated by the Lowndes County Board of Education.



Dr. Troy Davis

spelled out why taxes would increase,
based on actual tax statements, plus information from the Lowndes County
Tax Assessors’ office and the actual budgets of the Valdosta and Lowndes
County School Systems.
See also former Valdosta


School Superintendent Sam Allen’s partial list
of massive layoffs, service cuts, and school closings
caused by reduced income because of less federal and state funding,
and increased costs due to bussing.


And the formal statements against consolidation approved overwhelmingly

by both school boards.
In addition to these statements by people with actual experience in school
administration, see also

the extensive statement against consolidation by the Valdosta City Council,
and

even the VDT turned against this consolidation effort.
If that’s not enough, David Mullis has compiled all the research
into a convenient

Grassroots Handbook Against School Consolidation.

Opposed to all this evidence, we have this undocumented letter

Continue reading →

The local “unification” attack on public schools is part of a nationwide assault

The “unification” attack on the public schools in Valdosta and Lowndes
County, Georgia is part of a nationwide assault on public schools,
which has nothing to do with improving
public education, and everything to do with private profit and private schools: disaster capitalism right here at home.
And it’s not government causing our local disaster: it’s local business interests.
What should we do about that?

Jeff Bryant wrote for Campaign for America’s Future 13 October 2011,

Starving America’s Public Schools:
How Budget Cuts and Policy Mandates Are Hurting Our Nation’s Students



Critics of America’s public schools always seem to start from the
premise that the pre-kindergarten-through-12th-grade public education
system in this country is failing or in crisis.

This crisis mentality is in stark contrast to years of survey research
showing that Americans generally give high marks to their local


schools. Phi Delta Kappa International and Gallup surveys have found that
the populace holds their neighborhood schools in high regard; in fact,
this year’s survey found that “Americans, and parents in particular,
evaluate their community schools more positively than in any year since”
the survey started.

The first factor: New austerity budgets passed by state legislatures
are starting to have a huge influence on direct services to children,
youth, and families.

Well, we don’t have that problem in Valdosta City and Lowndes Schools.
For example,

graduation rates in Valdosta schools have been improving year over year,
and both school systems are solvent.



So what happened instead?
Why, they made up a crisis instead!

A local business group

convinced enough registered voters to sign a petition to get
a referendum on the November 8th ballot
to decide whether to abolish the Valdosta City School System,
which would force the Lowndes County School System to take it over,
and also

would result in massively raised taxes, which still wouldn’t
be enough, so services would have to be cut.
Voila! Forced budget crisis!
Fortunately, the two school systems have seen through it, and

Continue reading →

For the second week in a row, protesters picket outside the Chamber of Commerce —WCTV

The news media might as well make Valdosta a regular weekend stop for
demonstrations. -jsq

Greg Gullberg wrote for WCTV 22 October 2011,

‘Vote No’ For Consolidation March,



For the second week in a row, protesters picket outside the Chamber of Commerce to the tune of: ‘No Consolidation’.

But unlike the
occupy movement, this rally has one message; one voice.

They say: ‘Vote No’…..

But what does Valdosta’s first black mayor say about it?

“Just Vote No,” the Mayor chants from a podium.

Mayor Sonny Vickers is one of the strongest opponents of the consolidation
plan. “The group that’s pushing this has no authority. No kind of plan to
tell us anything. Because they are not on the board. So they cannot tell
us anything specific about what’s going to happen,” says Mayor Vickers.

The Chamber hasn’t spent any money on a consolidation campaign? What’s this, then?



Etta Mims reports that Myrna Ballard told her on the telephone Thursday
a week ago that the Chamber hasn’t invested any money in
the school consolidation campaign.
Myrna did admit that she spent some of her
time and some time of one staff member.
Etta asked Myrna was not time money?
At that point Myrna stated Etta had hurt her feelings,
and she was going to get off the phone.

Etta wonders why, then, do we find the glossy advertisement you see
on the right here at

http:// www. chamberorganizer .com/ valdostachamber /docs/ October 2 News Ad Get the FACTS.pdf,
when www. chamberorganizer .com/ valdostachamber looks like one usual place
the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce puts web materials it funds?

We already knew Myrna Ballard advised Rusty Griffin
about that notorious fake-Morgan-Freeman radio ad.

I wonder, if the Chamber didn’t pay for that new ad, who did?
Ditto for the radio ad.
And who did Rusty Griffin have to get to sign off on it?

Also, I’m still looking forward to hearing any “FACTS” from the Chamber.
So far every alleged “FACT” from CUEE or the Chamber about “unification” or consolidation has been readily disproved,
and David Mullis has compiled the real facts.

-jsq

Occupy movement inspires Valdosta —VSU Spectator

The VSU Spectator posted the most detailed traditional news media report of Occupy Valdosta,
along with an excellently edited video.
Desiree Thompson wrote 20 October 2011,

Occupy movement inspires Valdosta,



According to Occupy Valdosta’s mission statement, the group exercises
their right to “peacefully assemble, to nonviolently occupy public
space, to create an open process to address the problems they face,
and to generate solutions accessible to everyone.”

In an attempt to raise revenue, Bank of America Corp. plans to charge
customers at the beginning of next year with a $5 fee every month they
use their debit cards outside of withdrawing from the Bank of America ATM.

Protestors demanded an answer from the bank downtown, but employees
refused to comment.

Here’s

the Spectator video:




Occupy movement inspires Valdosta —VSU Spectator

We are the 99%,

Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Extensive quotes from students:

Continue reading →

CUEE turns shy?

Does CUEE have defectors?

On

CUEE’s board web page
there’s a link,


See a list of community supporters

which we cited back in August.
It now gets 404 “No Such URL at This Domain”.

However, we know who they used to be, because that list got copied

by Vote No for the Children
to the two very interesting charts below, which show
real estate and
Valwood connections with CUEE.

So what’s going on?
Did CUEE’s website get termites, and we should trust the public schools to a group that can’t keep track of its own supporters?
Or have some of CUEE’s supporters defected

Continue reading →

Vote NO March & Rally

Text received Monday, poster received today. -jsq

From: JC Cunningham

Please read the message by Rev. Rose and then mark your calendar for
Oct. 22, 2011. On that day we will have the largest March/Rally in the


history of Valdosta. This will be the March that will show
everyone in Georgia and America that we the Citizens of
Lowndes-Valdosta, know how to come together and we will no longer stand
for the Lies, Greed, and Disrespect from Cuee. We will for once and
for all tell Cuee and the Chamber that “Our Children are not for Sale”
This March will show Cuee and the Chamber that when we all stand
together; Democrats, Republicans, NAACP, SCLC, White, Black, Hispanic,
Rich, Poor, Young and Old we show what true democracy is all
about. Cuee has tried everything to break our spirit with negative
campaign ads and misleading information, but they did not. They
cannot break the solidarity that has grown throughout this community
over the past two months.

To watch Republicans and Democrats set aside their

Continue reading →

WCTV says Occupy Valdosta made No Consolidation impossible to ignore

WCTV gets it right in most of the story:



A familiar scene from the Big Apple reaches Southern Georgia. It’s called
“Occupy Valdosta.” More than 100 protesters take to the streets to fight
corporate greed and social injustice.

Greg Gullberg wrote Friday for WCTV,

Occupy Wall Street Comes To Valdosta,

Chanting before banks, monuments and courthouses, the rally reached its summit at the Chamber of Commerce.



There the crowd cried two familiar words: ‘No Consolidation’.

In a demonstration designed to fight corporate greed and social inequality, the protest ultimately turned to the fate of the school systems and the children of Valdosta.

“My children go to city schools. I live in the county. I can’t vote. That’s not right,” said Susan Smith.

WCTV’s low estimate of 100 who chanted “no consolidation” on
the Chamber’s doorstep is several times

Continue reading →

Marching for rights —Mario Bartoletti @ MLK Monument Occupy Valdosta



Mario Bartoletti stood up at the Martin Luther King Jr. Monument in Valdosta and said to Occupy Valdosta:

I’m just shy of 79
and I’ve been out here marching all the way today,
and I’ll tell you why.


When I was your age, we were marching for civil rights.
We made it.
Now we’re marching for another kind of rights,
and I guarantee we’re going to make it!
I want you to promise, when you’re my age,
you’re going to be leading a demonstration
for those who march for those kinds of rights.

Here’s

the video:




Marching for rights —Mario Bartoletti @ MLK Monument Occupy Valdosta

We are the 99%,

Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq