On the LAKE Front

NAACP calls for end to War on Drugs

Nafari Vanaski, wrote for Gateway newspapers 18 August 2011, NAACP calling for truce in nation's drug war

If you grew up at the same time that I did, you'll remember the "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign that became popular in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.

It manifested itself in many ways, from the posters and talks in class to the "very special episodes" of shows such as "Blossom" and "The Facts of Life," where a character encounters a kid from the wrong side of the tracks who is pressuring him or her to try drugs. Inevitably, good prevailed and the druggie turned out to be from a broken family and needed only a good face-to-face with Nancy Reagan, the driving force behind the campaign, to overcome his addiction. (She appeared on "Diff'rent Strokes," and considering the real-life histories of Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges and Dana Plato, she probably should have stuck around for a five-episode story arc.)

"Just Say No" was part of the larger war on drugs the Nixon administration declared in 1971. For grown-ups, that war symbolized a lot more than sappy primetime television. Especially for black adults. For them, it meant stricter laws for those found buying, selling and distributing illegal drugs.

To that end, the NAACP took an interesting step at its national convention last month. It approved a resolution to end the war on drugs because of its devastating effect on the black community.

Interesting how the headline writer watered that down: NAACP called

Locals speaks to Senators

Two local Lowndes County people spoke to Georgia's Senators at their town hall meeting in Fitzgerald about the recent debt ceiling legislation.

J.D. Sumner wrote for the Albany Herald 9 August 2011, U.S. senators meet with public about concerns:

Gretchen Quarterman, a Lowndes County Democrat who drove from Valdosta to participate in the meeting, asked both senators if they were committed to bringing U.S. armed forces abroad home, thereby saving money; money, she said, that could be spent on much-needed domestic programs like infrastructure improvements here.

“Everything has got to be on the table, and yes, defense has got to be on the table as well,” Isakson said. “But we have to make sure that we don’t slight the veterans who are coming home and will need proper care.”

Then he grossly underestimated the military budget and said Congress wouldn't tell the Pentagon what to do.

George Boston Rhynes spoke:

You can't get rid of the War on Drugs unless you end Prohibition

Video from the NAACP Criminal Justice Summit in Chicago, thanks to LEAP:

We cannot duck this issue. I couldn't duck it any more. I couldn't sleep, if I wasn't out advocating getting rid of the War on Drugs. You can't get to end the War on Drugs that the whole bureaucratic institution of the United States of America has declared, unless you end prohibtion. They couldn't do it with alcohol, and you can't do it with drugs.
—Alice Huffman, President, California NAACP

Here's the video:

Quitman 10 host organization of NAACP in Brooks County

The Quitman 10 started out as activists, and now they're taking it a step further: they hosted an organizational meeting for an NAACP branch in Brooks County. George Boston Rhynes was there and made this video of students singing about education, not incarceration:

Education, not Incarceration
Organizational Meeting, Brooks County NAACP,
Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia, 18 July 2010
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I.

George videoed the whole meeting and posted it on his blog. He wrote in his introduction to this series of videos:

School consolidation report: can cause irreversible damage

People ask me: why do the NAACP and the SCLC oppose school consolidation? Well, here's some recent research that backs up their position, followed by their positions. My summary: because it caused great damage last time, and this time would be no different.

Craig Howley, Jerry Johnson, Jennifer Petrie wrote 1 February 2011, Consolidation of Schools and Districts: What the Research Says and What it Means:

...the review of research evidence detailed in this brief suggests that a century of consolidation has already produced most of the efficiencies obtainable. Research also suggests that impoverished regions in particular often benefit from smaller schools and districts, and they can suffer irreversible damage if consolidation occurs.

Isn't such irreversible damage what Rev. Floyd Rose got Mrs. Ruth Council to admit?

Rev. Rose: “...we were told about the world, where we came from, how we got here.”

Mrs. Council: “I think we did receive a better education.”

They are referring to black schools before desegregation in the 1960s.

Rev. Floyd Rose is president of the local SCLC, and here is a statement by Leigh Touchton, president of the local NAACP:

Three things to actually improve education —John S. Quarterman

People ask me why I oppose CUEE. It's because I'd rather actually improve education instead.

It seems to me the burden of proof is on the people proposing to make massive changes in the local education system. And CUEE has not provided any evidence for their position. Sam Allen of Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS) pithily sums up CUEE:

"It's not about the children. It's about somebody's ego."

I don't think the children should have to suffer for somebody's ego.

CUEE's unification push isn't about education. It's about a "unified platform" to attract industry. That alone is enough reason to oppose "unification". It's not about education!

As former Industrial Authority Chair Jerome Tucker has been heard to remark on numerous occassions, "nobody ever asked me how many school systems we had!" The only example in Georgia CUEE points to for this is the Kia plant that came to Troup County, Georgia. It's funny how none of the locals seem to have mentioned any such connection in the numerous articles published about the Kia plant. Instead, the mayor of the town with the Kia plant complains that his town doesn't have a high school. That's right: he's complaining that the school system is too consolidated! The only actual education between Kia and education in Troup County is with West Georgia Tech, the local technical college.

CUEE has finally cobbled together an education committee, but it won't even report back before the proposed ballot referendum vote. CUEE has no plan to improve education.

If CUEE actually did want to help the disadvantaged in the Valdosta City schools,

The health of the community is way more important than the job —Leigh Touchton

Leigh Touchton, president of the Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP, says the local and state NAACP are opposed to the biomass plant because the community that is most affected is the minority community. She referred to her previous presentation of a letter from Dr. Robert D. Bullard.

She also brought up an incident with Brad Lofton and recommended that VLCIA hire an executive director who wouldn't act like that.

And she said she deals with VSEB all the time:

I've taken men through there, I've signed them up.

She referred to me when she said that, so what I said before is appended after the video.

Here's the video:

The health of the community is way more important than the job —Leigh Touchton
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

What I actually recommended regarding VSEB, in response to a specific request from Leigh Touchton for recommendations, was maybe schedule a meeting with Roy Copeland to talk about VSEB and solar job opportunities:

Biomass down for now: next?

Congratulations to all who worked against the biomass plant: today was the deadline on its most recent extension, so it's gone for now. Congratulations to WACE and SAVE and NAACP and New Life Ministries and everyone else who was involved, especially Natasha Fast, Seth Gunning, and Brad Bergstrom, who were working against it before almost anyone else.

Congratulations to those who were instrumental even though they were not exactly or originally biomass opponents, especially Ashley Paulk, who came out and said what needed to be said, and George Bennett, who was willing to admit in public that he was one of the earliest proponents of the biomass plant but new knowledge caused him to think differently.

A big shoutout to the VSU Faculty Senate, the only traditional non-activist body that went on record as opposing the biomass plant with an actual vote before the extension deadline. The VSU Faculty Senate did what the Valdosta City Council, the Lowndes County Commission and the Industrial Authority Board would not. Go Blazers!

A special strategic mention to Kay Harris and David Rodock of the Valdosta Daily Times, who came to realize they were not being told the whole truth by the Industrial Authority. The VDT even gave a civics lesson on how to stop the biomass plant.

And a very special mention to the people who did the most to make the name of biomass mud in the public's eye: Brad Lofton, Col. Ricketts, and the VLCIA board. Without their indoctrination sessions and paid "forum" and stonewalling, people wouldn't have been turned against that thing nearly as fast!

Yet it ain't over until it's over.

According to David Rodock in the VDT today:

Do you miss him yet? Brad Lofton in SC

He may be gone, but he's still up to his old tricks, and he's using us for a reference.

Adva Saldinger wrote in The Sun News 8 May 2011, Lofton hits ground running in new post; CEO asking taxpayers for $1.6 million:

The new Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. president and chief executive is by many accounts aggressive and personable, and he says, ready to take charge and bring much needed jobs to the area quickly.

Brad Lofton said he will bring 500 jobs in the first 18 months, and an average of 500 jobs each year over the next five to 10 years.

And a pony!

Has anybody verified the jobs Lofton claimed he brought to Lowndes County?

How to get public officials to respond to the citizens?

Leigh Touchton asked me,

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