Newspaper Page Text
Sibley, Gigi Lastinger, Cecilia Reynolds,
Particia Hopaluk-Gay, Brian Campbell,
Barndon Hicks, Gretchen Pearson, Betty
Schroeder, Jessica Burns, Hally DeMent,
Dan DaLamater, Sherry Mugovero, Kris
Rapp, Carolyn Dilon, Stacy Campbell, Jim
Gillis, Linda Jerkins, Deirdre Sugiuchi,
Sophia Estrada, Sis Bettress, Richard
Whitworth, Carla York, Micah Allen,
Jadon Allen, Maria Mueller, Elijah Allen,
Mickey Dillard, Joyce Allen, Katie Smith,
Rosie Alexander, Alice McMaster, Libby
Carson, Ginger Redwine, Andrea Lafera-
Bianco, Adam Kaluba, Eric Sewell, George
Schroeder, Charme Bradberry, Steve
Greer, Susan Ferguson, Ross Reynolds,
Emma Hunt, Braden DeLamater, Elizabeth
Milner, Elizabeth Earl, Michael Earl, Usha
Rodriques, Missy Hutto, Diego Labrador,
Aakriti Bhatta, Gianna Valdez, Zoe Wu,
Steve Middlebrooks, John Bellamy, Donna
Weekley, Chris Gilmer, Lauren Cook, Susan
McCullough, Jeffrey Trapnell, Christine
Howell, Ben Coppadge, Anamaria Nelson,
Lindsay Van Note, Lori Drake
BOE Should Respond to NAACP Concerns
As president of the NAACP Athens-
Clarke County Branch No. 5180,1 have
attempted to schedule a community meet
ing with Clarke County School District
Board of Education members since May
6. According to the board’s policy, this
request was appropriate. As a result,
the Athens-Clarke County branch of the
NAACP received on May 12 a response let
ter from the board’s attorney. It was a slight
improvement in approach to previously
received concerns expressed to the CCSD
BOE by our local NAACP branch.
Disappointingly, the response did
not provide the level of depth that we
demanded as the civil rights advocates for
the children of our community. Therefore,
the NAACP continued its pursuit to have
a community meeting with the Board of
Education.
The Board of Education knew there were
two pressing priorities that the community
wanted to discuss with them: reinstating
Demond Means from his status of adminis
trative leave back to serving as superinten
dent, and the Cognia report that threatens
the Clarke County School District’s
accreditation.
The BOE, in my opinion, has shown a
lack of integrity in addressing our concerns
by delaying the date to meet with the com
munity to give responses to our concerns.
They knew the community was desiring
for them to hear their voices in giving
responses to the above listed concerns.
After several changes in dates and proce
dures, the BOE finally settled on Aug. 4 at 6
p.m. to respond to some of the community
concerns. In the meantime, they scheduled
a called meeting to make a decision on
Means’ contract on July 23. At this meet
ing, five BOE members voted to buy out
Means’ contract for $637,500. This action
in reality probably has a cost that is closer
to $1 million when you add in the two
superintendent salaries and attorney fees.
This latest action by the BOE (exiting
the superintendent) is very disheartening
and could further increase the divide with
the community, especially with the all
the white members voting to exit Means
without cause, that was suggested by C. J.
Amason. We were hoping that our commu
nity discussion with the board would be a
trust builder wherein all of us could work
Tm% street scribe
You Say You Want a Revolution?
TRUMP FIGHTS PROTESTS WITH NIXONIAN TACTICS
together for all of the children. This is still
our hope for the Aug. 4 community meeting
despite this action that promulgates a clear
breach of trust. Finally, we are looking for
ward to this community meeting being the
catalyst to the BOE being willing to respond
to community concerns.
Alvin Sheats
Athens
Bookstores are a dying breed—in par
ticular, small, independent bookshops have
been eaten alive by the mega-giant amazon,
com. We used to have Jackson Street Books
downtown. The telltale smell of old books—
many of which were valuable collectors’
items—filled the air inside the store. We
still have Avid Bookshop, but their original
Prince Avenue location closed last year.
Their second location, in the vibrant,
affluent Five Points neighborhood adjacent
to our university, will now be the last one
standing in the disappearing world of small,
independent bookshops, for our college
town has lost our only other small, inde
pendent bookshop, situated in the heart of
Normaltown: our beloved Normal Books.
Normal Books, like many other small
businesses, was not able to survive the eco
nomic downturn caused by the COVID-19
pandemic. On Monday, July 20, Normal
Books closed its doors.
One of the best parts about living in a
college town is the unique character created
by the local businesses. In that respect,
Normal Books was truly something spe
cial. It was the only bookstore in Athens
that sold new books at used books prices.
They hosted events in the store—knitting
groups, book clubs, children’s activities and
our famous Athens Writers Association
public readings.
We, the Athens Writers Association,
were blessed when Chris and Mary got the
idea to open their independent discount
bookstore in Normaltown—one of the
few neighborhoods in Athens, other than
Five Points, where small, local businesses
have a chance to thrive. The west side of
town is becoming a hub of big franchises
and big business, much like you’d expect
to see in a larger city rather than a unique
college town. Normaltown was the perfect
location to open a store with the mission
to make new books affordable to everyone
and to become a living member of the local
community.
It took about six months for our Athens
Writers Association to catch on to the fire
of Normal Books. Chris and Mary opened
their store on Prince Avenue, across
the street from Piedmont Hospital, in
December 2017. Since we began our part
nership with them in early June 2018, our
Athens Writers Association wqs proud to
support Chris and Mary and their vision as
much as they supported our local authors.
Not only did they host our public readings
without charging us a dime to use their
space or advertise, but they also created an
entire shelf devoted to our local authors.
Much like Avid Bookshop, Normal Books
had limited space for inventory, but Chris
and Mary generously displayed and sold
copies of books written by Athens writers,
regardless of their fame or previous mar
ketability. They were our partners in every
way—the extraordinary and anything but
“normal” Normal Bookstore.
Jill Hartmann-Roberts
Athens
By Ed Tant news@flagpole.com
On July 9,1776—just days after the Dec
laration of Independence was signed—an
angry crowd of protesters in New York
City toppled an equestrian statue of King
George III. Revolution was in the air in the
American colonies, and protesters against
British tyranny struck at symbols of the
hated monarch of the British Empire who
ruled his colonial outposts in what would
become the United States. To the king and
his occupying troops, the destruction of
the statue was treason against the crown
by an angry mob. To the colonists then and
to historians now, the toppling of the regal
statue was a patriotic act that combined
symbolic protest with real resistance when
rebellious colonists melted down lead from
the statue to make bullets for use against
King George’s occupying forces of Redcoat
soldiers during the American Revolution.
Fast forward nearly 250 years to the
America of today. Revolution is in the air
again, along with the stench of tear gas.
Statues topple in cities across the nation,
and a despised and
imperious president
in the White House is
using fear and anger in
America as a prop for
his re-election campaign
to avoid being toppled
by American voters in
November. The upcom
ing presidential battle
between President Trump and former
Vice President Joe Biden promises to be a
bizarre and nasty affair in a nation gripped
by pandemic, protests and economic col
lapse. Violence and vandalism will play
right into the hands of Trump’s campaign,
and already his television and online ads are
warning that Americans will be unsafe if a
Democrat gains the White House. Trump
hopes to win a second term with a Nixonian
call for “law and order” and appeals to a
“silent majority” of voters. While President
Franklin Roosevelt told a worried and
weary Depression-era America that, “We
have nothing to fear but fear itself,” the
slogan for the lawless and disorderly Trump
administration could be “we have nothing
but fear itself.”
Trump is stoking fears of urban violence
to rally his base for the Nov. 3 election by
placing federal troops in Portland, OR and
other American cities where peaceful pro
tests and violent anger have flared in the
aftermath of the police killing of a black
man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis earlier
this year. In California, Oakland Mayor
Libby Schaff said, “I’m furious that Oakland
may have played right into Donald Trump’s
twisted campaign strategy. Images of a
vandalized downtown is exactly what he
wants to whip up his base
and to potentially justify
sending in federal troops
that will only incite more
unrest.”
Other mayors and gov
ernors in states targeted
by Trump’s troop inva
sions have decried the
administration’s actions.
Albuquerque Mayor
Tim Keller blasted the
proposed deployment,
saying, “There’s no place
for Trump’s secret police
in our city. If this was
more than a stunt, those
politicians would support
constitutional crime
fighting efforts that work
for our community, not
turning Albuquerque into a federal police
state.” In Seattle, Mayor Jenny Durkan said
of Trump’s troops, “There’s no question
that the actions in Portland have escalated
things, not just in Seattle, but nationwide.”
Meanwhile, across America, the same
self-styled “conservatives” who have long
claimed to be against big government and
for state’s rights seem to have no problem
with their president using paramilitary
forces against American civilians while
ignoring the wishes and warnings of gov
ernors and mayors. It
is telling that in 1994
the National Rifle
Association and the
American Civil Liberties
Union held a joint press
conference to decry the
militarization of this
nation’s police under
the “war on drugs” and
the “war on terrorism.” Today, the ACLU
has condemned the secret police actions in
Portland and elsewhere, while the NRA has
remained with the Trump camp.
Civil rights icon John Lewis was laid to
rest in a restless nation recently. His life
of nonviolent resistance to injustice and
fascist trends in America was an example to
citizens of every nation. In his 1998 autobi
ography Walking With the Wind, Lewis wrote
words of warning that apply more than ever
in Donald Trump’s America: “We cannot
let this continue. We cannot have a very
few people visibly and luxuriously living in
excess while the rest of the nation lives in
fear and anxiety. We cannot afford to have
two societies, moving further apart... such
disparity is a recipe for disaster.” O
This mid-19th Century painting by Johannes A.S. Oertel depicts American
colonists pulling down a statue of King George III.
Trump hopes to win
a second term with a
Nixonian call for ‘law and
order’ and appeals to a
‘silent majority’ of voters.
AUGUST 5, 2020 | FLAGPOLE.COM 7