Continue readingLaws sometimes have unintended consequences, and laws hastily passed in time of high political passions inevitably do.
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 11, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Several hundred people, mostly labor union members, rallied Saturday at the Georgia Capitol against the state’s new law targeting illegal immigrants. It was the latest in a string of actions by opponents to protest the law.The Washington Examiner included a byline, by Kate Brumback, and an AP photo:The Rev. Al Sharpton told the crowd the law violates civil and human rights and will lead to racial profiling of U.S. citizens and others who are in the country legally.
“We’re going to stop it here before it goes any further to other communities,” the New York-based minister and civil rights activist said. “We cannot have a nation where, based on your language or your race, determines your rights. Your rights must be determined by the fact that we’re all equal.”
Weekly rallies; an interesting development on a subject that unites urban union members and rural farmers.Ben Speight, a local Teamsters organizer, echoed those sentiments and said labor groups must get involved.
“Let’s get in the way of hate. Let’s build a social movement,” he said, to loud cheers. “Labor cannot be isolated. We’ve got to reach out to the community and stand up against hate.”
-jsq
Marian Wright Edelman wrote 13 December 2010, Strength to Love: A Challenge to the Private Prison Industry:
Continue readingA few months ago a group of earnest and determined stockholders traveled together by bus from Washington, D.C., to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend a shareholders’ meeting for the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the country. The group included ex-offenders who now each hold one share of stock in the same prison company that once held them captive, and they attended the meeting in the hopes of sharing their perspective on how the privatized prison industry can better serve society by rehabilitating inmates, rather than just serving its own profits by perpetuating the prison cycle.
The group, part of Washington, D.C.’s Church of the Saviour, is named Strength to Love, after the title of one of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermon collections. Members explain their mission this way:
Sam Allen asked in various ways:
“What about the children?”He made it clear he doesn’t think school consolidation will help the children, and it will definitely hurt current Valdosta teachers and staff, so he says don’t do it.
Continuing the FVCS press conference, Sam Allen asked some good questions,
“If the school system was good enough for them, why isn’t it good enough for us?”and
“If there’s not going to be any change, why are we doing it?”
Here’s Part 1 of 9: Continue reading
I remember when Lowndes County consolidated two high schools into one, and the rationale was cost saving and more resources for science classes. What it was really about was football. And it worked: Lowndes High School now often wins the state championship, and Valdosta hasn’t in a decade. While education lags behind.
I think the Lowndes County Board of Education is doing the right Continue reading
3. Kennedy School in Portland, OregonThe school rehab could be an idea for pine grove school: closest hotel to the base with non traditional services.
You won’t mind staying after school at the Kennedy School hotel. A former neighborhood elementary school, the Kennedy was transformed into a luxurious and funky hotel, with guest rooms in former classrooms – complete with school-related décor like blackboards and coatrooms. After-school features include a restaurant, multiple bars,
a brewery and a movie theater. Set in an up-and-coming residential neighborhood, the Kennedy draws locals and visitors alike.
-gretchen
Sam Allen, former chair of the Valdosta school board and head of
Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS) held
a press conference
to announce opposition after
CUEE announced 9,000 petitions for a referendum to
combine the Valdosta and Lowndes County school systems..
Why so late with the opposition?
Sam Allen explained:
“We were scared. We were intimidated because we had heard about all these consultants coming down, and all these studies being done. So we just thought that we would just sit back and watch and this thing would eventually go away like a bad dream. But folks I want you to know it’s not going away like a bad dream. It’s becoming a nightmare.Guess they’re not scared any more.Now we stand before you with one purpose in mind: do not sign any petitions. … If it comes to a vote, we want you to vote no.”
He added: Continue reading
Judy Green, a prison policy analyst says:
“The very first contract for the first private prison in America went to CCA, from INS.”Hear her in this video Private Prisons-Commerce in Souls by Grassroots Leadership that explains the private prison trade of public safety for private profit:
A local leader once called private prisons “good clean industry”. Does locking up people for private profit sound like “good clean industry” to you? Remember, not only is the U.S. the worst in the world for locking people up (more prisoners per capita and total than any other country in the world), but Georgia is the worst in the country, with 1 in 13 adults in the prison system. And private prisons don’t save money and they don’t improve local employment. As someone says in the video, who wants to live in a prison colony?
We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education.
-jsq
PS: Owed to Jeana Brown.