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ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS
Krazy Korner
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THens.Ga
HALF MARATHON
AthensGaHalf.com
4 FLAGPOLE.COM • OCTOBER 19, 2011
Mic check! The Korner is now occupied.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has taken parks and
streets across the country to provide a voice for the 99 percent of
Americans held in various degrees of economic thrall to the wealthi
est 1 percent. This Korner is now occupied for the people.
There is something very wrong in the United States. Over the past
30 years, an economic and political elite has commandeered the ship
of state and engineered policy which benefits the very wealthy at the
| expense of everyone else. Corporations and banks now own your govern
ment. It is not only Congressman Paul Broun who has done the bidding of the elite; it
has been both Republicans and Democrats, Bushes and Clintons, who have presided
over this unprecedented flow of wealth and power to the top. The middle class is dete
riorating by the day. Nearly everyone is drowning in debt. Nearly one in four American
children lives in poverty. Meanwhile, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans are doing
better than ever. Wealth disparity is at levels not seen since the Gilded Age.
So, while it’s fun to issue potshots at our particularly elite-serving Congressman,
more is needed. Joking is fun, but this is no joke. This is bigger than Broun and his
friends in Washington. This isn’t about him. It’s about you. [Matthew PulverJ
SPONSORED BY:
Redistricting Redux, Again; The committee
recently appointed by Mayor Nancy Denson
to address questions of how minority voting
influence in Athens-Clarke County is affected
by the county's two commission “superdis
tricts’' hasn't yet begun meeting, but it will be
something to keep an eye on when it does.
Whatever findings the committee comes up
with will be presented to the mayor and com
mission, and if they include recommendations
that any actions be taken, the M&C will have
to vote on whether to pass them along to
the local legislative delegation, since altera
tions to the ACC charter must be approved
at the state level. Sounds
simple, right? But Denson
says she will also pass
the committee's recom
mendations along to the
delegation—for “informa
tion" purposes—regardless
of what the commission
decides to do.
Without ascribing any
motives to Denson, who has
repeatedly said she has no
preference as to whether
the superdistricts are kept
or eliminated, this could
put the commissioners in a
tricky situation. They had
no input on the appoint
ment of the committee,
despite the fact that they'll
be asked to endorse its findings—or not. At
least one of the committee members, Charlie
Maddox, is on record as a strong advocate for
eliminating superdistricts. If the committee
goes Maddox's way, the commissioners will
have to seriously consider whether the results
of its deliberations were predetermined by its
composition, and evaluate them accordingly.
If the commissioners were then to decline
to accept the committee's recommendations,
they would likely have a problem on their
hands with the delegation. Representative
Doug McKillip's recent interest in remapping
the county's electoral districts, including
eliminating superdistricts, has been well
documented, and the commission's overrid
ing of a citizen committee's recommendations
could give him just the cover he needs to take
charge of the process after all.
This is high-wire politics right here, folks—
watch it closely.
From the World of Responsible Journalism:
In a development that's even more depress
ing- and for the opposite reason—than it
purports to be, the national news media last
week picked up the “bizarre" story of the ACC
Commission's consideration of whether to
include public art in the construction budget
of its enormous new jail. Or rather, a semi-
accurate version of the story whose sole pur
pose was to point out what a travesty it is for
communities to allocate fiscal resources to art.
Those hippies in the spaced-out commune
of Athens, 6A are at it again, and this time
they're totally out of control! Somehow, those
whackjob peaceniks Nancy Denson and Kathy
Hoard have gotten it into their heads that
a civilized society should aspire for its cor
rectional facilities to be something other than
brutalist, medieval structures designed to
punish fiercely all who gaze upon them. And
Kelly Girtz and Alice Kinman have finally lost
all their marbles: imagine suggesting that the
jail is a public building where humans will go!
Reality check, wingnuts: things like art and
compassion and humanity are for societies
that are soft—and we can't afford to be soft.
Only by squeezing those decadent preoccupa
tions from our collective consciousness like
pus from a cyst can we hope to eradicate the
evil of government interference with our God-
given prerogative to eat one another alive.
Welcome to our cultural moment, suckers-
hope you enjoy your stay.
Dave Marr news@flagpole com
Is Occupy Wall Street working* Is Occupy Athens* As long as we re talking
about it. the answer is “yes." See Miscellany on p. 9 for more information
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