Volume 1 Issue 19...... Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race...... May 22, 1998

Retreat

by John B. Smith

Confederate soldiers nearly defeated Union troops during the Civil War, because they fought with an unspoken motto "Never Retreat." Facing overwhelming odds, they advanced against immured gun fire. For them, retreat was the action of cowards. Today, a new breed populates the South. They are neo-pragmatic conservatives, former segregationists turned Republicans who are pushing a color blind society as a means of eliminating affirmative action. This new breed has stood the "Never Retreat"motto on its head.

Segregation ended around 1970 for most, but vestiges live on in County Commissions, School Boards, Recreation Authorities, Regional Commissions and so forth. The significance of such vestiges lies in the word retreat. The Civil Rights Bill of 1965 sounded the death knell of segregation, forcing segregationists to develop channels to circumvent desegregation. DeKalb County, Georgia is a prime example of the slippery slope of integration. The Atlanta Journal Constitution ( 2/21/98 and 4/23/98) reported DeKalb's Board of Education and Commission violated the state's open meetings law by holding off-site rendezvous, thereby avoiding public scrutiny while discussing County business. Retreating is the new tactic white politicians use to facilitate defacto-segregation. Rencontres, like these, disguise clandestine gatherings used to plan ways to siphon revenue out of black communities and into white ones.

Commissioner Jackie Scott took the point in defending their surreptitious tete-tete, justifying it as attorney-client privilege. In her mind, an attorney's presence allowed her and Commissioners Elaine Boyer, Gale Walldorff, and Judy Yates to lock the public out. These Commissioners are all white; they always support projects benefitting rich whites in north DeKalb, although some represent the south end. Porter Sanford, the lone black commissioner on the board, while present, said nothing about the public's right to know.

DeKalb County's School Board is organized in the same manner; its at-large positions give the predominately white north end a majority vote in any situation. DISH asked commission and board members why such expensive off site huddles are necessary. Pres. Michael Usdan of the Institute for Educational Leadership said, "It's useful to get away from posturing and the politics of public meetings, and discuss the pros and cons of issues." Newton County and Buford City school boards used state staff development funds that must be used for training. Clayton County spent $ 6,440.86 on such a perk. This is where block grants are headed , and it is why white politicians demand block grants.

Retreats sound innocent, but when one looks at the funds spent on these weekend junkets, one understands why taxpayers always come up short. Conversely, these boards and commissions cannot find the funds to get black children out of portable trailers. DeKalb's Stephenson High is a new school, yet it has had students taking classes in trailers since it opened in 1997. As always, the explanation is no money.

Retreat, whether the military or the kind being used by local governing bodies, is a coward's way out. Hiding from one's real responsibility and oath of office, as well as, one's constitutional charge cannot change the stripes of this scramble to the rear. The real issue here is segregation and whites' efforts to maintain it. Segregation was never dismantled. It simply adapted to the constraints of not being able to openly deny access and legally discriminate against Blacks. An obvious truth is retreats are where the last vestiges of the Ku Klux Klan meet without hoods to plot violating citizens' rights.

These retreats are like church on Sunday morning. Blacks and whites meet separately supposedly for the same purpose. But, in the words of Loy Harrison, "Whites go to church to get together on how to keep blacks in their place." Loy was one of thirty white men at the Moore's Ford lynching in Walton County, Georgia. Stone Mountain, DeKalb County was the home of the Ku Klux Klan, until it found a more receptive residence in Newt's Marietta, Cobb County. One never respects opponents who only show you their backside. If these new sons and daughters of the Confederacy had been the ones facing the Union, the Civil War would not have lasted an afternoon. As long as citizens of DeKalb County elect politicians who retreat, rather than face up to the changing demands and complexion of DeKalb's electorate, the county will continue to run from its past.

Disgruntled Says: If police stopped spending time at restaurants and donut shops, policing and fleecing the po, more white collar crimes can be solved, i.e., like where my tax dollars go!

Disgruntled Wants to Know: How the hell can you be a health care professional and not feel it is your humanitarian duty to render medical assistance to anyone in need wherever they are? (Referring to Christopher Searcy)

Mailbox: E-Mail, Letters, Faxes and Calls "There is one set of rules in this world made by white people for minorities and whites are the first to break them." Debra, Atlanta, GA

"I recently went to court, make that traffic court, for no proof of insurance and expired tags. The judge refused my insurance card, the one used to obtain my tag and the same one that I would have given the officer at the time of the routine traffic stop had I had it instead of the registration. Now, the judge needs a certified letter from the insurance company. It makes you wonder: What's the insurance connection? And, why do routine traffic stops and traffic court resemble apartheid in action. Check out DeKalb traffic court for a first hand dose of double standard justice! Jay, Atlanta, GA.

by Yohannes Sharriff Smith

At Midnight

Everything changes. Click!

Tick tock...5 'til midnight.

The clock's still moving at light speed.

Trees burn providing heat for escaping thoughts. Desperation!

5 'til 12. Twenty dollars left in my pocket.

I holla, "Bills due with no food!"

My dizzy reflections bounce off chrome,

Like street life...like hungry days and sleepless nights.

Like bright search lights, sirens, and emergency medical units,

Like psycho-delic cisco Crisco burning disco ball glittering.

Glistening globe turning...metallic weapon drawn...palm flat spin...Hand on grip!

Tight. Target...confusion...Losing my college credit...Click!

Russian roulette...tick tock...

4 'til midnight. And everything changes.

I'm hustling to pay for classes.

I'm failing to pass the blunt.

Inhaling hellish fumes...Memories.

Choking on parents' dreams.

Choking on Smoke and mirrors...

Better shackles for my babies...burdens...maybe? Not so heavy.

John and Dot's eyes gleam with so much hope.

Riot in my soul. The whole world is on fire... Tonight! I'm surviving on lies...

Surviving on the acid grinding in my gut.

Drowning every time I hear the clock turn. Click!

I swear that damn...tick tock... burn!

3 'til midnight.

Burn Beautiful Black Ghetto Baby Boy...Educated...Missed.

In truth, the aspiring scholar hustles to pay rent.

Dollars spent...Heaven sent...I holla, "Jesus!" Smoking...thinking. Am I failing? The lesson exhaling...losing my balance...my focus.

Hocus pocus...hope is...hope seems hopeless...foreign.

Gun in hand...in darkness, lying on my bed.

Dreaded clock sounds...tick tock

2 'til midnight.

Room spinning by the light of a flickering candle.

Clock...tick tock...Innocence lost...Click...

1 'til midnight.

Tonight necessity might make killing convenient.

Convenient store clerk...jerk...

Jerked chain around my neck...noose forcing me..three.. two...

One second left 'til midnight. Click!

Clock...tick tock...Midnight.

Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Pow!

And everything changes.

by Dot Smith

According to the March 1998 issue of Georgia Trend, DeKalb County had the state's second highest property tax in 1996. Surprisingly, that same year, 70% of DeKalb's voters supported the Homestead Option Sales Tax (HOST). The measure called for a 1% sales tax increase and a 40% property tax decrease. Sixty percent of property tax revenues fund the public school system. HOST will eliminate the non-school portion of the property tax assessment. In July 1997, the 1% sales tax went into effect. It provides sufficient revenues to fund 100% of the Homestead Exemption, as well as, several new building projects, roads and sidewalks.

Total taxes increased with the higher sales tax implementation. The 40% property tax cut does not become effective until 1999. In April, DeKalb County issued reappraisals to many homeowners. Some of these reappraisals will result in a 15% or more tax increases. (Atlanta Journal Constitution, DeKalb Section, 5/14/98). These reappraisals come on the heels of property tax increases in 1996 for some homeowners. Clearly, these reappraisals nullify and/or otherwise marginalizes the promised 40% reduction in the 1996 tax level.

In adopting HOST, DeKalb's citizens ignored its most fundamental flaws. First, HOST is based on a regressive tax method. Second and more important, its success hinges on politicians fulfilling a promise to cut taxes.

Basically, HOST is a sales tax, a regressive method of funding government. Out of necessity, the poor spend a higher percentage of every dollar of income. Since most necessities are taxed in Georgia, including foodstuff, HOST is an especially regressive measure; government is literally funded on the backs of the poor. In adopting the measure, DeKalb citizens choose to shift the country's non-school obligations and future projects onto the backs of moderate to low income families. In the short run, without its accompanying 40% property tax reduction in place, HOST poses an even greater burden for low income homeowners. Moreover, in the long run, with the new reappraisals, there is the real prospect that many homeowners will have net tax increases. Perhaps, it is poetic justice that most homeowners will never realize a true 40% cut; morally and ethically, it is wrong to place the greatest tax burden on the poor.

An unethical proposition from the outset, few should be surprised by the DeKalb double cross. Increasing assessments before the 40% rollback reduces the size of any potential HOST tax cut. HOST makes suckers of DeKalb's low to moderate income homeowners; the double-cross hits them hardest. HOST shifts the tax burden from wealthy property owners to the poor and middle class; this is the worst sort of political dirty trick. In this case, the high value property owners in northern DeKalb are the beneficiaries, while poor and moderate income homeowners in old south DeKalb are the losers.

Adding insult to injury, some DeKalb County commissioners held secret meetings. In flagrant violation of the state's Open Meetings Law, they dissed the public and discussed divvying up the take with an attorney. There is no stopping politicians bent on economic exploitation. With the Home Owners' Sucker Tax (HOST), DeKalb residents will continue to pay high taxes. DeKalb voters will learn this lesson the hard way: One should not expect integrity from a politician when one is endorsing an unethical proposition to reduce taxes.

(Back to Vol.2 No 31) More Hot DISHes

ICIM Consumer Fraud Alert Boycotted Places & Things: Death penalty, tobacco company Executives and Lawyers, TAP, Carey Paul Ford, General Motors, Denny's, Winn-Dixie, Rich's, Eddie Bauer, Texaco, Nike, Wachovia, IRS, AVIS Rent-a-car, Wal-Mart, pharmaceutical companies, white psychologists, psychiatrists and other legal drug pushers like the Defense Department, ARC, Atlanta City Government, the Georgia State Flag, New York City, Wannabees and Jigaboos, beauty salons, fast food restaurants, Santa Claus, Meat, fake Christmas trees, Contract with America, privatization, Fast-track, NAFTA, neo-slave masters like Norrell Temporary Services, automobile insurance companies, unscrupulous car mechanics, Precision Tune, churches with fences, big business government subsidies, Greenspan's addresses on the robust economy when minorities are discriminated out of the economic equation, paid Newties- Speaker of the House, Mississippi Lotts, Hilfiger designer clothing, and other weapons of mass destruction.

Note: If you have something to add to this list, please feel free to contact DISH. The editorial opinions expressed are not necessarily published in the mainstream press. DISH provides a much needed service in bringing you "unbossed and unbought news and information you can use." DISH is based on themes from T.H.I.N.C. (Teaching Humanity In New Consciousness): The Chrysalis of Evolution ISBN 0966011090 $16.99 Intuit Publishing Company).

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