Newspaper Page Text
2A
FEBRUARY 14, 2002
ity / Region
Tuskegee airman speaks at Fort Gordon
By Shun Norris
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
FORT GORDON
When one hears Tuskegee
Airmen, there’s a slight pos
sibility that flying planes and
broken barriers comes to
mind. A small part of that
history visited Augusta’s
Fort Gordon in honor of
Black History Month.
Major General Lucius
Theus of the United States
Air Force paid a visit to the
men and women of the armed
forces Thursday, February
7. A member of the 332
Fighter Group of World War
II also known as the
Tuskegee Airmen, Maj. Gen.
Theus urged the audience to
remember those who made
contributions to the United
States, whether the task was
big or small.
“Let’s not forget those who
made contributions and sac
rifices and provided indis
pensable support to this slow,
but steady march,” he said.
Theus’ speechincluded the
accomplishments of Rosa
Parks, the Little Rock Nine,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
the March on Washington,
and Crispus Attucks. He
stated that without various
accomplishments by many
peopleincluding the military,
the way of life in the United
States would not be possible.
Addressing a great deal of
the military, but only a hand
ful of civilians, Theusreferred
to those of the military as
“modern day volunteers.”
“You here in this room are
the modern day volunteers
who’ve done so much for our
nation, our heroes. You have
made the United States of
America the finest and most
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powerful nation on the face
of this earth.
“You are the Minute Men,
you are the Buffalo Soldiers,
you are the Tuskegee Air
men, you are the multitude
of unnamed heroes. I say to
you, be proud, stand tall,
you'veearnedit. And remem
ber America is stronger be
cause of men and women like
you.”
Theus concedes that the
journey of integration in the
military hasbeenlengthy and
well deserved.
“Well, there’s no question
in my mind that we have
come a long, long way. You
see, when I first entered the
Army Air Corps, all the units
followed the pattern of soci
ety at that time: segregation,”
he said. “We now have the
military as the most inte
grated segment of our Ameri
can society. There are some
things in which more
progress can be made and
we’re working towards that.
I think that this is good and
speaks well of our society.”
Major General Theus’ mili
tary career spans over 36
years. Heis the first African-
American combat support of
ficer tobe promoted to Briga
dier General, one of only
three members of the
Tuskegee Airmen to be so
honored. Heisonly the third
African-American in the his
tory of the U.S. Air Force to
become a general officer. Ma
jor General Theus is the re
cipient of numerous awards
and honors including the
USAF highest peacetime
award —the Distinguished
Service Medal with Oak Leaf
Cluster, Legion of Merit, and
Bronze Star Medal.
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Major General Lucius Theus Photo by Shun Noris
Springfield
From page one
they went down both into
the water” which will repre
sent baptisms performed in
the Savannah River in ear
lier times.
The park, set for comple
tion in May 2002, will show
case the historic Springfield
Baptist Church along with
Richard Hunt’s two sculp
turesaswell asinformational
plaques. Mr. Hunt’s sculp
turesareto “awaken thepast
by rendering a sense of the
lives and events that shaped
Springfield Village from co
lonial times to the present.”
Theparkalsofeaturesawind
ing path leading to “Towers
of Aspirations.” The path
mayrepresent the “longwind
ing uphill struggle to over
comeracial discrimination.”
Rev. Emmett Thomas Ma
rtin Jr., pastor of Springfield
Baptist Church, feels as
though the park is animpor
tant part of black history.
“This will help us as Afri
can Americanstounderstand
our history and serve as an
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opportunity for the commu
nity to be enlightened about
black history,” he said. “It
has really been an asset to
our church and the city of
Augusta. Weneeded torelive
black history in the black
community,inan area where
free blacks lived. This is the
place and the ideal timing to
relive that history.”
Mr. Hunt’scareerincludes
more than 100 large-scale
public art commissions cre
ated for American cities, cam
puses and corporations. In
1971, Hunt was the first
Black American accorded a
retrospectiveat the Museum
ofModern Art and holdseight
honorary degrees.
Hisappointments havein
cluded serving on the Na
tional Council on the Arts
and the National Board of
the Smithsonian Institution.
A U.S Army Veteran, he
served on the selection com
mittee for the Veteran Me
morial in Washington, D.C.
Springfield Baptist
Church, founded in 1787, is
the birthplace of Morehouse
College, the Georgia Equal
Rights Association, and the
state Republican party.
et el B e Soe
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706-737-0455
Budget still not in place
From page one
rored those of several of his
colleagues.
District 6 Commissioner
Andy Cheek expressed concern
about the city’s spending hab
its. “Are we still at the point
wherewe’re takingmoney out
of our savings accounts, our
contingency, to balance this
budget?” he asked, calling that
a “formula for disaster.”
Another catch-phrase Cheek
has been using over the past
fewbudget discussionsis “false
economy.” He revisited that
idea Monday with complaints
that the maintenance and re
pair budgets, for several of the
major city-owned facilities, had
been eliminated.
“This is one commissioner
that is strictly against that
typeof tactic and plansto vote
against that,” Cheek said.
District 2 Commissioner
Marion Williams worried about
the depth of the cuts in the
original plan. “This Decem
berbudget that we’vegot leaves
a lot of people without ser
vices, lays off some employ
ees,” he said. “If you cut out
those services that we have in
the Dec. 27 budget, we’re go
ing to leave a certain area of
Augusta in a bad position ...
We’re going to end up sending
some clients to that colleague
of his (Shepard’s) if we’re not
careful.”
Williams said that, as much
as some of the other commis
sioners would like to avoid it,
a tax increase was inevitable.
District 10 Commissioner
Bill Kuhlke disagreed. “Those
tax increases don’t do a thing
inthe world for this economy,”
SHOP AUGUSTA FOCUS CLASSIFIEDS
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he said. “But they do hurt
business.”
He doesn’t like dipping into
the fund balance, though. He
calls it a “scary” trend. “So in
my opinion, while it hurts and
it’s tough — we have to make
tough decisions —the most
prudent budget that we have
in front of usright now, which
is goirig to hurt, is Column 1
(Dec. 27).”
He suggested that in the fu
turetheymightbeableto“come
back and rebuild.”
“But for the time being,”
Kuhlkesaid, “we’vegot totake
care of business.”
Shepard also wanted to go
with the Dec. 27 budget, but
withafew adjustments. These
adjustments involve using
$965,000 from the retirement
of the COPS debt, which had
not been taken into account
during the preparation of the
Column 1 budgét, and $85,000
in additional UDAG funding
toboost the senior nutritional
program scheduled to be gut
ted by the Recreation
Department’s budget cuts,
Riverwalk maintenance, the
boxing bid, and to add some
safety padding to the contin
gency fund.
Other plans were also
broached. District 9 Commis
sioner Willie Mays wanted to
passthedJan. 17budget, which
did not feature the cuts of Dec.
27, but instead even promised
some salaryincreases. District
5 Commissioner Bobby
Hankerson wanted topassdJan.
17, but hold off six months on
any spending increases.
As a body, the Commission
didn’t like any of the sugges
tions. The budget defaulted
back to the Dec. 27 plan.
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