{"id":1446,"date":"2011-10-03T10:33:48","date_gmt":"2011-10-03T14:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/how-did-we-get-here-jc-cunningham.html"},"modified":"2011-10-03T10:33:48","modified_gmt":"2011-10-03T14:33:48","slug":"how-did-we-get-here-jc-cunningham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/how-did-we-get-here-jc-cunningham.html","title":{"rendered":"How did we get here? —JC Cunningham"},"content":{"rendered":"Received Friday. -jsq\n
\nThings really have not changed have they? There are still people out\n\n<\/a>\nthere who believe they can force their will on the people regardless\nof the circumstances. I still cannot believe that we are here.\nConsolidation, Unification, where did this come from? What mind first\ncame up with this idea and what is the real motive behind it?\n

\nEight months ago when I heard that Rusty Griffin and his merry band\nof followers were once again trying to force unification down peoples\nthroats, I never thought it would catch on and would just fizzle away.\nOh, how wrong.\n

\nOver the months this consolidation issue that I thought would never gain\nsteam is now on the ballot and could possible pass this Nov. 8th.\n

\nI have seen this thing divide friends, families, co-workers and even\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\nchurches. Why? Why would anyone wish something so divisive on our\ncommunity? What is so important that we could not have had some open\ndialog within our normally tight knit community first?\n

\nHow did we get here? The words Greed, Power, Control, Spoiled, and\nSelfish come to my mind.\n

\nLast night\n\nCUEE held a public forum<\/a> and paraded several speakers who\n\n<\/a>\ntried to explain why School Consolidation\/Unification was vital to\neducation and economic growth. The educational component they claim\nis the reason for this referendum was nothing more than a smoke screen\ntrying to cover up their real motive.\n

\nIf I had not known any better I would have thought that Valdosta\/Lowndes\nwas in dire straits when it came to recruiting and then retaining\nindustry.\n

\nGreg Justice and James Bridges were almost convincing with the propaganda\nthey were spitting out. I guess they forgot about some of the companies\nthat have recently made Valdosta\/Lowndes there home with the past 5 \u2013\n7 years.\n

\nSteeda – Home Depot Distribution – Martin\u2019s Bakery – John\nDeere PCA Expansion – SAFT Expansion\n<\/blockquote>\nDoes CUEE really want the intelligent citizens of Valdosta\/Lowndes to\nbelieve that we are not getting our fair share of the pie because of the\nValdosta City School system? Did CUEE and the Chamber brain trust not\nread that Valdosta\/Lowndes was recognized as the third best metropolitan\narea for industrial recruitment and expansion by Expansion Solutions\nMagazine in 2008? According to the article that I read we are getting\nway more than most other metropolitans in the US.\n

\n(Read attached article)\n\nExpansion Solutions Magazine’s 2008 Awards of Excellence in the *** Advanced Manufacturing*** industry category.<\/a>\n

\n… The board is off\nto a great start with the recent announcement that\n\n<\/a>\nSteeda Autosports\nis joining companies like True Flight, manufacturers of Tiger Aircaft,\nand Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe in moving its corporate headquarters,\ndistribution and manufacturing facilities to Valdosta. These projects\ncombine to bring in 407 jobs and $43.8 million dollars in capital\ninvestment over the next three years.\n<\/blockquote>\nI look at the names of these companies, the employees they have hired\nand the revenue that they have generated in this community and I wonder\nwhat were talking about? Is CUEE trying to make us all believe that\nnone of these companies use work force from the Valdosta City Schools?\n

\nHow did we go here? Not because of education. If the Chamber of Commerce\nand CUEE were so concerned about the Valdosta City Schools why did they\nnot use some of that money to bring their concerns to the people first?\nWhy keep it such a secret, as if they had something to hide. Why it\nwas that no one from the Chamber or CUEE come before the Valdosta School\nBoard during a scheduled board meeting and publicly state their concerns\nabout the type of education our children were receiving?\n

\nHow did we get here? Not because of education. I have been volunteering\nand mentoring children in the Valdosta City system for over 19 years\nand with the lone exception being Dr. Mathis and Greg Justice I don\u2019t\nremember seeing any of CUEE\u2019S Board or referendum supporters on\nany rolls. Where was the Chamber and CUEE when we needed mentors for\nour children on the south side of town? Where was the Chamber and CUEE\nwhen the system faced cost cuts and had to lay off teachers and teacher\naids? (They sure could have used some that money)\n

\nHow did we get here? Not because of education. Last night in a most\narrogant tone Mr. Walter Hobgood had the nerve to say when asked about his\ncompany volunteering for\n\n<\/a>\n\nCommunity Partners In Education<\/a>\n\n(CPIE)<\/a> that he\nnever heard of it. He then went on to say no came to him to participate.\nYou\u2019re really about education aren\u2019t you Mr. Hobgood?\n

\nHow did we get here? Since we now know that it is clearly not because of\neducation, I must now go back to the buzz words I used earlier. Greed,\nPower, Control, Spoiled and Selfish.\n

\nBottom line is that since the early to mid 90\u2019s, the Chamber of\nCommerce, its Board and others have been consumed with consolidating\nthe City and County Governments. They have had their lawyers looking\ninto this for years. They have written letters to the Attorney General,\nthe Assistant to the Attorney General, State Reps and even had a former\nmayor (not John Fretti) to give their opinion on the matter. And the\none thing that kept coming from everyone was that it would be difficult\nif the Valdosta City Schools did not agree to in fact consolidate.\nThis is how we got here!! Creed, Power, Control.\n

\nThe sad part about what they are doing is that they are using education\nand their concern for our African American Children as their disguise.\nThe Chamber or its Board and CUEE have not shown any concern for the\nAfrican American community in the past. They have not invested any real\nmoney of any kind on programs that would insure success in the African\nAmerican community. But now they have the nerve to act like they all of a\nsudden care. And if CUEE and the Chamber were really concerned about the\nAfrican American Children being left behind why did they not come into our\ncommunities and speak was us directly? Leroy Butler, Dr. Ronnie Mathis,\nRuth Council are not the voices for the African American community.\n

\nIn closing, I have lived in this community for 20 years. I raised my\nchildren here and they have all attended Valdosta City Schools. I will be\nthe first to say that the system is not perfect, and I have had my share\nof concerns and had no problem voicing them. But I voiced them to the\nBoard and when allowed I worked with the board. Even though I did not\nalways agree with their decisions I felt it was my duty as a parent and\nas a citizen to continue to support our most vital resource our children.\nI can personally attest that there have been some gains and I believe\nthere are more to come. Consolidation\/Unification is not the way to go\nat this time. Don\u2019t allow Greed, Power and Control to prevail.\n

\nPlease Vote No!! On Nov. the 8th.\n

\n-JC Cunningham\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Received Friday. -jsq Things really have not changed have they? There are still people out there who believe they can force their will on the people regardless of the circumstances. I still cannot believe that we are here. Consolidation, Unification, where did this come from? What mind first came up with this idea and what […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,40,1376,3712,14,15,49,3305,19,21,22,178,332],"tags":[1487,1636,8829,3713,8704,1484,8869,8701,793,1703,7,1486,3643,1635,6,8749,8765],"class_list":["post-1446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community","category-cuee","category-cuee-27-september-2011","category-economy","category-education","category-elections","category-fvcs","category-history","category-planning","category-politics","category-vlcia","category-vlcoc","tag-ballot","tag-consolidation","tag-cuee","tag-divisive","tag-economy","tag-election","tag-fvcs","tag-georgia","tag-industry","tag-jc-cunningham","tag-lowndes-county","tag-referendum","tag-rusty-griffin","tag-unification","tag-valdosta","tag-vlcia","tag-vlcoc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-nk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}