Newspaper Page Text
8A
November 18, 2004
Upinion
Woody who?
Recently, members of a group calling itself
the Citizens Action Committee appointed
themselves as guardians for Richmond Coun
ty. We don’t know what or who they are, but
we do know that they don’t speak for a major
ity of citizens in Richmond County:
In an e-mail floating around, the group’s so
called leader, Woody Merry suggests they
might start a political action to remove com
missioners who do not respond to their
demands. Who is this group? Of all the things
we do not need in Augusta is another group
trying to tell the voters who to elect and our
elected officials what they should or should
not be doing. We can see the negative fallout
from this kind of citizen vigilante group.
Our system of government gives the voters
an opportunity every two years to elect half of
the county commission. That system appears
to be working well. Are we going to allow
every splinter group that comes along with
demands to dictate to our local elected offi
cials? Or will we throw them out? Where does
it all end? Everyone has an opinion. The best
way to express that opinion is to vote, better
yet, run for public office.
We don’t know who this Woody Merry is but
he sounds like a loose cannon. Our commis
sioners are correct to ignore hifn. Comments
such as “Augusta is not stagnant. It is dying’
attributed to Merry are in the poorest of taste
for someone who professes to want to pro
mote the county — to be a part of the solution.
It appears that the group is not trying to help
Augusta but rather they are trying to kill it.
Some of the suggestions coming from the
group boarders on insanity. You can’t force an
elected official to vote on all issues. Nor can
we reverse the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one
man, one vote. We do not need the return of
the old “Cracker Party” where everybody lived
in wards but ran at large. Under that system
we had no minority representation. Or is that
the intent of Woody Merry and company?
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Colin Powell is off the plantation
The press is reporting the
cabinet departures in the third
Bush Administration as if they
are normal. Yes it is true that
every administration has
changes in leadership but the
difference in Bush Three is
who is leaving. Those leav
ing the White House aren’t
leaving because private life is
calling. With the exception
of John Ashcroft, who was
simply incompetent, the
others are leaving because of
significant differences with
President Bush and the Bush
Gang. Two cases in point are
Rod Paige and Colin Powell.
Colin Powell used his
credibility to defend the ill
planned war that President
Bush was intent on launch
ing as he entered the White
House. To be frank Colin
Powell was pimped by Bush.
He was sent to the United
Nations to defend a lie and
embellish questionable intel
ligence. To add insult to
injury Bush launched a
poorly planned war. Colin
couldn’t take anymore. He
had to leave. Colin Powell’s
Universities retreating from Affirmative Action
Few universities have
pursued racjal diversity
with as much vigor as the
University of Michigan.
It spent more than $lO
million defending its
affirmative action pro
grams for undergraduate
and law school appli
cants, challenges that
were ruled on last year by
the U.S. Supreme Court.
University President Sue
Coleman is an ardent
supporter of affirmative
action. And the school
was among those that
blacks turned to during
the Jim Crow era when
universities in the South
refused to enroll them
because of their race.
Even so, over the past
four years, both the
number and percentage
of black students accept
ed by Michigan has
declined in each succes
sive year.
AUGUSTA FOCUS
T T TSR Y
Black inthe oty
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departure isn't just anybody
leaving the White House.
Colin Powell represented
reason in the foreign affairs
arena. He was the voice of
restraint. He wasn't afraid to
stand up to the Baby Bush
Gang and tell them the
truth. With his absence and
the elevation of the Princess
of War, Condoleezza Rice,
the question becomes where
will reason come from now.
The second major resigna
tion came from Rod Paige,
Secretary of Education. At
some point I am sure that
Rod Paige realized that Baby
Bush’s No Child Left
Behind scam was leaving
many children behind. It
was leaving inner city
African American, Latino
and working class white
oof
I Geordé Curry |
According to figures
made public by the uni
versity, black freshmen
enrollment at UM
declined from 499 in
2001 (9 percent) to 443
in 2002 (8.5 percent), to
410 in 2003 (7.4 per
cent) and to 380 (5.8
percent) in 2004.
President ~ Coleman
attributes the decline
this year to fewer
African-Americans
applying to Michigan.
However, officials say
they don’t know why
fewer Blacks are applying
to Michigan and have
youth behind. It was leaving
rural whites behind. He saw
that these poor children
would continue to be left
behind. In a battle with his
conscious ] am sure Rod
Paige said, “I must leave this
job behind.” Rod Paige and
Colin Powell leave behind
the lone brother Alphonso
Jackson who is still serving
as the Secretary of Housing
and Urban Development.
Alphonso Jackson is doing
so little that few people even
knew he was the third
African American male in
the Bush Cabinet. In essence
Jackson’s blackness is equiva
lent to the blackness of
Clarence Thomas and Arm
strong Williams. Urban
America continues to decay
while Alphonso Jackson
takes a back seat in a room
full of white-men. In the
final analysis the Bush Cabi
net is whiter, more conserva
tive, and full of compatible
ideologues.
There are no true voices of
color in the Bush Cabinet.
There are no voices of
pledged to step up their
education and outreach
campaigns. A similar
approach was used to
attract Latinos and
Native Americans to Ann
Arbor; their numbers
increased slightly this
year.
It would be easy to sur
mise that the drop-off
was caused, in part, by
confusion over the twin
Supreme Court rulings.
Last year, the ! gourt
upheld the UM Law
School admissions
process that was less
numbers-oriented than
the undergraduate pro
gram that was struck
down. But two years
prior to the eagerly
anticipated court ruling,
black enrollment figures
were already headed
south.
If the University of
Michigan, with its
descent in the Bush Cabinet.
In essence it is a cabinet that
is set up for group think.
The last cabinet to be so
fraught with this frightening
mindset was the Johnson
Administration which led us
straight into to Vietnam. As
we look at our new Vietnam
we now see the overseers
being put in place. Since his
reelection Baby Bush has the
renewed swagger of an old
cowboy. I tried to figure out
which cowboy he reminded
me of, I know who it is, it is
John Wayne. You remember
the people John Wayne sur
rounded himself with. They
always did what John Wayne
said without question. My
question is what is Bush and
his posse gping to do now
that Colin is gone?
Dr. Watkins is a sociology
professor at Augusta State
University and he can be
reached at: www.ralph
watkins.org.
enlightened leadership
and willingness to stand
up to Right-wing legal
firms, is having problems
attracting black appli
cants, what does this
mean for universities
that don’t exhibit a
strong commitment to
diversity?
Other universities
report similar declines
this year, especially in
the enrollment of
African-American males.
If this becomes a trend,
it could have a profound
impact on our communi
ty and our families.
Though we celebrated
the narrow 5-4 Supreme
Court ruling upholding
the concept of affirma
tive action, we didn’t
realize that some univer
sities, still facing threats
from Right-wing think
tanks and law firms,
Sec Crack, page 10A