Erin speaking at the organizational meeting today:It is time to Occupy Valdosta!
Friday October 14, 2011 BE AT DREXEL PARK @ 11:45am AND MARCH WITH YOUR FELLOW NEIGHBORS, CLASSMATES, COWORKERS, BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!!
We are the 99% and it is time to be heard!!!
Y’all come!
-jsq
Jerry Grillo wrote for the July 2011 Georgia Trend, Partly Sunny In Georgia: The state’s solar industry is growing steadily, but slowly, as the national industry explodes
“Georgia is shackled to the 20th century,” Peterson says.All it would take to fix this is the political will.“If all I did was look at Georgia, I’d think we were doing well. But I work all over the country, and I’m not kidding when I say we’re dealing with $500-million solar projects that have no chance of coming here because of systemic problems that keep Georgia from participating in the 21st-century economy, which has renewable energy as a major component.
“It’s disgusting, considering our potential, how much opportunity is lost, how much capital investment is passed up.”
Maybe if the people and elected and appointed officials look at the handwriting on the wall: Continue reading
Continue readingQuestions abound: Why is it that Lowndes County residents will not be voting on the most important issue to face their school system since its inception in 1950?
If I lived in the county I’d be mad that CUEE and the Chamber of Commerce chose to leave my vote out of such a very important decision.
Quick fact: Consolidation alone will not save money & Consolidation alone will not improve academic success, according to the Vinson Institute report commissioned by CUEE and the Chamber.
Further Query: Why would CUEE and the Chamber of Commerce spend $50 grand to collect the signatures for the petition causing the City of Valdosta to spend thousands of tax dollars (2 staff dedicated to task & 4 temps hired) to verify the signatures on the petition?
This is typical of all elected & appointed government bodies locally. The common opinion is citizens are only valuable for voting. After we vote we are to go home, never ask questions, never complain, & never comment until it is time to vote again. The common consensus is we are not capable of understanding what our elected/appointed officials are doing so we need to stay out of the process totally. This is nanny state government via local venues. We the people are reduced to you the unendowed & unimportant. John – Our political views are usually polar opposites, but we are always 100% agreed on shinning the light on government black-outs. Keep up the good work.
-Barbara Stratton
This is ridiculous.This comment came in yesterday on Proposed Lowndes County Budget published by LAKE.
- Why make it hard to obtain the budget?
- What is the “Bird Supper”?
- Why is the County Attorney $100k over budget?
- Why don’t I see those cameras listed for the Animal Shelter?
-Jessica Bryan Hughes
We already knew that, but JPI has quantified it: Continue readingYesterday, the Justice Policy Institute (JPI) released a report chronicling the political strategies of private prison companies “working to make money through harsh policies and longer sentences.” The report’s authors note that while the total number of people in prison increased less than 16 percent, the number of people held in private federal and state facilities increased by 120 and 33 percent, correspondingly. Government spending on corrections has soared since 1997 by 72 percent, up to $74 billion in 2007. And the private prison industry has raked in tremendous profits. Last year the two largest private prison companies — Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group — made over $2.9 billion in revenue.
JPI claims the private industry hasn’t merely responded to the nation’s incarceration woes, it has actively sought to create the market conditions (ie. more prisoners) necessary to expand its business.
Continue readingGreat article John. Thanks for turning me onto the research presented here, I’ll be looking into and using it. I’d also suggest a book called “Breakthrough: from the death of environmentalism to the politics of possibility”. I think you will love it.
Beyond changing the messaging on signs, which I think is a great idea, I think what the research reflects is a fundamental change in the approach to the work.
A key to community organizing work, as opposed to activism,
In Harrisburg, PA, same size as Valdosta, in a county of similar size,
a trash incinerator bit the dust once, but got revived anyway,
and will now probably only go away because:
Harrisburg, PA loses solvency and trust over incinerator.
There are many parallels here, especially the old boy network.
However, the main point I want to draw everyone’s attention to
at the moment is that although local activists may have gotten
that incinerator closed down once, it came back anyway.
Why? Because their local old boys thought it would make money, and Continue reading
Mr. Quarterman, what can we do, do we have to go to the state legislature to get a law passed to force these so-called public officials to answer questions and respond to the citizens?First of all, my compliments to anyone such as Leigh Touchton who has been doing politics around here longer than me for asking my opinion, because that indicates they are pretty good at it and are probably asking many people their opinions.
My answer: carrots along with sticks, and shine some light!
That all builds political capital, which will be needed for elections.
We need many people building a community doing many things. If I knew a simple answer that would change things magically overnight, I’d recommend it, but I don’t. I don’t even know if I know a long answer, but I’m pretty sure that any answer will require a community, because Continue reading
He said that Jerry Jennett took the biomass vote off the agenda at last Industrial Authority meeting (April 19) even though Mary Gooding and Roy Copeland wanted the vote to be taken ( a vote that was to oppose an extension of the biomass contract since the biomass incinerator had not met timeline benchmarks like having a buyer, etc). He said that Allan Ricketts, Industrial Authority attorney Steve Gupton, and Jerry Jennett went up to Atlanta to meet with Wiregrass officials and that’s when he (Chairman Paulk) got a call telling him all this and he said he wouldn’t keep quiet about it. He said the three men asked Wiregrass LLC officials to rescind their letter asking VLCIA for an extension on their contract and to substitute a new letter saying they were withdrawing their request for extension (or not going forward to ask for extension).This is in addition to what you can see him on video saying during the meeting. More after this picture of the cast of characters: Continue reading