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VOLUME 20 NUMBER 1028
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~ Serving Metropolitan S Augusta, South Carolina and the Central Savannah River Area
District 1
candidates
square off
By Rhonda Jones
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Lee Beard is one of the more
reserved Augusta-Richmond
County commissioners. But when
District 1 county commission chal
lenger George Sanken Il touched
Augusta Neighborhood Improve
ment Corporation (ANIC), Beard
became downright animated.
It all happened at the candidate
forum held on Monday, Oct. 1,
hosted by the Augusta Metro and
Columbia County Chamberof Com
merce.
Responding to a question con
cerningthebuzzword of the night,
economic development, Beard de
fended the county’s performance.
He said it had formed valuable
partnerships throughout the city
like ANIC, which Beard called the
greatest thingheand his colleagues
had done in that area.
Sancken agreed that ANIC was
one of the best things to come out
of the county’s economic develop
ment initiatives, but didn’t feel
that the program had been mar
keted adequately. “I believe we're
atastandstill. I believe backin the
early ‘9os we sustained more eco
nomic growth than we do now!
Our economic growth in Augusta,
Ga., is zero, and we cannot keep it
that way.”
It wasn’t until the question con
cerning the county’s plans for in
ner city housing came about that
Beardbecameexcited.
“We have Housing and Neigh
borhood Development and ANIC,”
hebegan, remembering Sancken’s
earlier comment. “I understand
from what I heard a few minutes
ago that ANIC was not marketed
and was not moving. Evidently
some of us have not gone to that
area to see how fast they are mov
ing, because they are moving.” He
said that ANIC has accomplished
agreatdeal, especially considering
that it is a relatively new venture,
See CANDIDATES, Page 3A
S.C. NAACP has
conference in North
Carolina for third year
COLUMBIA, S.C.
(AP) The South Caro
lina chapter of the
NAACP will hold its an
nual state conference in
Charlotte, N.C., for the
third year in the row,
continuingits protest of
the Confederate flag’s
presence on Statehouse
grounds. :
About 400 people are
expected to attend the
Oct. 11-14 eventjustover
thestateline, said James
Gallman, presidentofthe
South Carolina Confer
ence of Branches of the
National Association for
the Advancement of Col
ored People.
Will blacks die
at higher rate
in the coming war?
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NOT TERRORISTS: These Iranian women are not Arabs, nor are they Afghani. Yet, most
Americans get the wrong idea when they see Muslims with firearms. They are police
officers displuying their skills during a commencement ceremony at iran’s police acad
emy in Tehran recently. AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
Afghan refugees fight
harassment in Georgia
By BARNINI CHAKRABORTY
Associated Press Writer :
CLARKSTON, Ga.
Two girls, ages 9 and 11, sit
side-by-side on their couch braid
ing their long, black hair and
giggling until shouts from a
group of teens outside silence
them and their father, a former
diplomat in Afghanistan.
The screams — “Go home!”
“You stink!” “We don’t want
you here!” — easily penetrate
the tiny living room. Hosai and
Zarghuna Aryobi grab their 4-
year-old brother before he gets
to the front door and put him
between them on the couch.
“It’s not so bad,” 11-year-old
Zarghuna says, patting her
brother on the head. “We’re in
Invited guest speak
ers include U.S. Rep
Sheila Jackson Lee, D-
Texas; Nelson B. Riv
ers 111, NAACP direc
tor of national field op
erations; and actor
CharlesS. Dutton, who
starred in the Fox com
edy series Roc.
Theorganization also
will hold a civil rights
conference,asummiton
racial profiling, a town
hall meeting on youth
violence and a tribute
to Leonard “Lenny” F.
Springs 11, senior vice
president of First Union
Corp. .
side. It’s much worse when we're
outside.”
Her 9-year-old sister, Hosai,
leans in and whispers, “You
should have seen what theydid to
the other Afghaniboy. They beat
him up so bad that his eye was
green.”
The Aryobi family is one of
many feeling the hate against
Afghansand Muslims brought on
by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“On the bus, they hit us and
kick usand spit on us,” Zarghuna
said. “When we tell them to stop,
they come and hit usand pull our
hair.”
Spencer Ragsdale, aspokesman
for DeKalb County schools, said
it’s nearly impossible to deter
mine that the children are being
picked on because hardly anyone
Post Office
unveils new
postage stamp
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FONITED WE STAND'
The U.S. Postal Service unveiled
Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2001 the new
34-cent “United We Stand”
American flag stamp. The ser
vice was besieged with calis
for a new patriotic stamp fol
lowing the terrorist attacks
Sept. 11. AP Photo/US Postal Service
OCTOBER 4 - 10, 2001
Court declines to take appeal over
Confederate flag waving in Mississippi
By GINA HOLLAND
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
A legal effort to resurrect the
wavingof Confederate battle flags
at college football games in Mis
sissippi died Monday in the Su
preme Court.
The court declined to take the
appeal of a tlag-carrying specta
tor who had been asked toleave a
University of Mississippi football
game in 1999.
The college, also known as Ole
Miss, banned flags with sticks
from athletic events in 1997. Be
forethat, football fans often waved
small Confederate flags, sang
along to the fight song “Dixie”
and cheered with mascot Colonel
Rebel, outfitted like an old South
erngentleman.
Atthetime, the team’s football
reports them to school officials.
“They are so afraid of the
police and authority figures,”
Ragsdale said. “We will not tol
erate thiskind of behavior. Kids
are supposed to be safein school
and on the bus.”
Sharon Aylor, a representa
tive from World Relief, a refugee
placement program in Atlanta,
said it is difficult for Afghan
families to ask for help because
they sometimes speak little En
glish and are afraid of author
ity.
“Most of the time they are
afraid to call the police because
in their countries the police are
corrupt,” Aylorsaid. “The thing
peopledon’trealizeisthat these
See AFGHAN, page 2A
coach complained that the flag
hurt recruitment of black ath
letes. The university had hired a
New York publicrelations firm to
help reform its image.
In banning all flag sticks and
pointed objects, the school cited
spectator safety.
“Fifty yearsofenthusiasticflag
waving experience have proven
stick flags harmless,” Jimmy
Giles, who sued the college, told
the Supreme Court. “While the
university’s pretext is slick and
clever ... it nonetheless is uncon
stitutional becauseitsintent and
consequence is to suppress free
speech.”
The Confederatebattle flagwas
a rallying point for segregation
ists during the civil rights
struggle. It has also been used by
the Ku Klux Klan and other white
supremacy groups.
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Atlanta
features
the art of
Wilmer
Jennings See ARTheat ~78
Businesses
here feel chill
of terror strike
By Rhonda Jones
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
It looks like a storm’s
brewing on Augusta’s
economic front, accord
ing to Dr. Jeffrey
Humphreys, who has
had his finger on the
pulse of the state since
1989. That is when he
became director of eco
nomic forecasting at
Terry College of Busi
nessat the University of
Georgia in Athens.
“Prior to the attack,
Augusta was actually
one of the stronger
economies in the state,”
he said. Before Sept. 11,
Humphreys would have
given the nation only a
45 percent chance of hav
ing a recession. Now,
however, he believes re
cession is imminent.
“The outlook for the
nation as well as for the
entire state has deterio
rated,” he said, giving
the. U.S. a 50 percent
likelihood of recession.
“And that is true not
only for the U.S., but
also Georgia,and I doubt
that Augusta willbe able
to-avoid a recession.”
The experiences of lo
cal businesses connected
with the travel industry
seem to bear that out.
On Sept. 24, Aviation
Commission chair
Marcie Wilhelmi deliv
ered thebad news tothe
Administrative Services
Committee of the Rich
mond County Commis
sion. She wanted them
to ask the full commis
sion to vote in favor of
letting go an “unspeci
fied percentage” of air
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AUBUSTA GA
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portemployces.
“As unhappy a thing
as this is for us to come
ask you to do...we defi
nitely need to be act
ing,” Wilhelmi said.
“And swiftly at that.”
Ifthe county commis
sion agrees, she said,
layoffs will begin
around the first part of
December.
The week before, Ra
dio Cab vice president/
general manager David
Fieldshad reported that
he was down to 65 driv
ers from 85. “Business
is down probably 40
percent,” he said a week
later. “There’s less
people coming to the
hotels. If they’re not
coming to the hotels,
then they’re not going
out to dinner.”
Notonly doesthelack
of in-town riders hurt
drivers, Fields said, but
theloss of big fares from
the long rides to and
from Augusta Regional
really puts a dent in
their pocketbooks. Even
the Fort Gordon fares,
another staple of the
taxi business in Au
gusta, can no longer be
counted on because the
military are on standby
and have not been able
to freely leave the base
since the attack.
Fields said it was im
possible to put a dollar
amounton therevenue
lost tothe cab company
due to people’s recent
unwillingnesstotravel.
Robin West, director
of public affairs at na
tional headquarters for
Hertz Worldwide
See, ECONOMY, 2A
Riots broke out at Ole Miss in -
1962 after a court ordered the
- of a black student.” .
About 20,000 federal troops were
sent to Oxford, where two people
died in rioting over the desegre- -
gation.
Thestate university dissociated
itself from the battle flagin 1983,
but spectators still brought flags
to games. Under the ban that
started in November 1997, police
can confiscate flags or ask fans
who bring them to leave.
Giles sued Ole Miss after he
was approached by police while
waving a flag at a 1999 game. He
left instead of having his flag
confiscated. Under the policy,
peoplecan take flags or signsinto
the football stadium, but not on
sticks.
See SUPREME COURT, 2A