Volume 5 Issue 5…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…February 8, 2002

by Yohannes Sharriff Smith

Last night,

I touched the sun.

In a dream,

I reached into the heavens

and held the light.

Before me, my hand slowly opened.

There in my palm lay my dreams.

All I have wished for, all I had hoped to be

lie before me.

Oh, what fear did this heart feel.

My destiny is truly my own.

Any and all things are possible.

Excuses no longer bear credit.

The immature caterpillar must begin its great journey.

Out of the cocoon must emerge the butterfly that will take flight.

Our lives are the clay that must be shaped.

And, as the sculptor, we choose its form.

by Dot

2002 is an election year! Local issues, such as taxation without representation and environmental racism, are hot political topics. On environmental racism, U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), who is seeking reelection, recently wrote a letter to Harold Reheis, Director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GEPD) requesting a long overdue investigation into the adverse health and safety implications of living near landfills.

Home to more than a dozen landfills and waste treatment facilities, majority black South DeKalb County epitomizes the term 'environmental racism;' it is the funky hood. For more than a decade, area residents have complained about the stench and vehemently opposed, to little avail, public and private plans to build new or enlarge existing funk factories near residential areas.

In 1998, when DeKalb proposed putting a park and recreational facility near Ward Lake on land contaminated by leachate from Seminole Landfill, community residents turned out in force to voice their opposition and halted that plan. In addition, we voted County Commissioners Bill Brown and Porter Sanford, who supported the effort, out of office. Yet, for the most part, these meetings are little more than vent sessions and photo opportunities for aspiring politicians. At the 1998 meeting, current DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones put in a cameo appearance. In these public meetings, politicians make grand promises, then the government and private enterprise enact their original proposals.

Rep. McKinney is hosting a town hall meeting on DeKalb environmental racism Saturday, February 9^th from 10:00 A.M. until 12:00 P.M. at Georgia Perimeter College (Decatur Campus), 3251 Panthersville Road.

On February 26^th, the DeKalb Board of Commissioners will revisit the Hickory Ridge Landfill re-zoning application, which the Zoning Analysis and Land Use Department approved late last year over the strenuous objection of area residents. The meeting will be held at 10:00 A.M. in the Manuel Maloof Building at 1300 Commerce Drive, Decatur, Georgia. (Vol. 5 No 34)

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is a work in progress, who will go through many phases. For now, he jealously guards his private spaces. Claiming he had no comments this week, his sidekick tried to interfere in his business, so the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro demanded, "Move back mister and give me fifty paces!"

by John Burl Smith

It is said, during the reign of the anti-Christ nothing will be as it truly is. Justice will become injustice, thieves will become treasurers, liars will be judges and warmongers will be called peacemakers.

As many American families gathered around the TV to watch George W. Bush give his State of the Union address, we waited for the words from on high. I wondered what if we heard what we saw? Eyes glued on the tube were we simply watching a performance or did people actually hear what Bush was really saying? There was the perfect angle shot of the stern jaw. A tight frontal zoom in reflected his "furrowed brow." His close-set eyes peered unblinkingly into the eyes (Teleprompter) of America, as skillfully crafted words meandered across the airways. Then the clincher, a well-timed pan over the cheering lawmakers, resembling adoring fans at a Saturday afternoon homecoming football game watching their star quarterback parade up and down the field against less than worthy opponents. My question was what does it mean for America's lawmakers to cheer promises of more killing?

Suddenly, like a needle scrapping across Marvin Gaye's "Inner-City Blues," my grandson, Trevius, the Dark Knight-Batman/ White Ninja/Zorro, a third grader who has no patience with "big fat liars," blurted out, "But, he is the one fighting the war and dropping big bombs that kill little children. Is he talking to himself?" "Out of the mouths of babes," careening down the hollows of a boggled mind came the image of a king parading before his cheering subjects and a child saying, "He's naked!" Children see with a clarity adults have forgotten exists. Their keen sense of justice rejects bullying even when the bully is on their side. They may not intervene, but somehow their honesty blares out. If we could only see with these innocent eyes and understand with the clarity of children, "Thou shall not kill" may actually be more than a sound bite. John 2002

For the first thirty years of statehood, Georgia, the fourth American colony to become a member of the United States, was embroiled in conflicts involving state versus federal powers and Indian land disputes. Three decades of bloodshed led to the extinction of the Yazoo and the near extermination of Creeks. In 1838, federal troops removed the Indians to a Western reservation, finally settling Georgia's land dispute with the Indians.

In 1795, the Georgia legislature granted a large tract of Indian land to speculators. The next year a new legislature voided the fraudulent grant, creating the Yazoo land scandal. As a compromise solution, President Thomas Jefferson recommended using federal funds to compensate the speculators, many of whom were his Northern Republican supporters. Jefferson's compromise was bitterly opposed within his own party

The Yazoo land scandal was settled by the Supreme Court in Fletcher v. Peck (1810). In the Court's unanimous decision, Chief Justice John Marshall (1801-1835) held that a land grant was a contract and therefore, regardless of any corruption involved, the repeal was invalid. This was the first time the Supreme Court voided a state law in conflict with the U.S. Constitution. A conservative defender of property rights and believer in laissez faire, Marshall sought to make the court a sanctuary of the propertied classes. He sympathized with creditors and entrepreneurs who considered contracts sacred, but this did not apply to the Indian treaties. (Sources: http://www.newadvent.org, The American Experience and American History)

Disgruntled says: An election year, Resident Bush, Ralph Reed and Republican National Committee see the Homeland Security budget as campaign funds. Weighing the possibility of diverting American school children dollars sent to the White House to aid Afghani children, they hope to cover the shortfall created when Lay and Enron went out of the campaign contribution business.

Disgruntled feels: Confused! CNN stole Paula Zahn from Fox News. Out for revenge and armed with big bucks like Enron gave Bush, Fox seduced Greta Van Susteren. With her beak trimmed, eyes tucked and a Paula hairdo, Greta showed up at Fox looking like Zahn.

Disgruntled wants to know: This week Dubya met for the fourth time with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He has never met with Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The US is Israel's principal military and financial partner. How can the US continue to maintain it is an 'honest broker' for peace while looking like a hypocritical Israeli backer?

by John Burl Smith

In 1997, Vernon Jones was a legislator and Liane Levitan was CEO of DeKalb County. Voters passed the Homestead Option Sales Tax (HOST), a one-cent increase in sales tax for five years that, among other things, promised homeowners a 100% exemption on the non-school portion of their property taxes. Also, it was supposed to pay for curbs, gutters, sidewalks and other capital improvements. Following tradition, Levitan and County Commissioners allocated most HOST funds to improve North DeKalb, and with Jones CEO, this pattern has not changed.

Currently, the economic downturn has slashed sales tax revenues, leaving DeKalb with a projected $3 million shortfall. Jones' first act as CEO, at the beginning of a recession, was to increase homeowners' tax burden with a "Greenspace" tax referendum. Now caught between a rock and a hard place, facing a revenue shortfall, Jones plans to renege on the 100% homestead exemption. HOST ends in 2002. With homeowners in no mood for new taxes, Jones is trying to pass the shortfall onto homeowners by reducing the exemption and extending HOST.

At the first public meeting (1-22-02) on the 2002 budget held in North DeKalb, Jones pitched his proposal for homeowners to pay property taxes under HOST. Soundly rejecting Jones' appeal, even though they got the better of the HOST deal, North DeKalb residents feel Jones is going back on a county promise by restating the intent of the option. County politicians got what they wanted up-front, i.e., funding for capital improvements. Now tapped out, Jones wants South DeKalb residents to pay for their curbs and sidewalks.

Examining the problem from the South side of the racial, political and economic fault line running across DeKalb, homeowners see the situation very differently. Dubbed the HO-Sucker Tax, South DeKalb residents feel they never receive a fair share of the public benefits funded with tax dollars. Moreover, they believe their taxes subsidize improvements on the North end of the county. Whether it is the one-cent MARTA sales tax and the I-20 rail line, transportation funds and the Northern Arc, federal mass transit funds and buses for Gwinnett and Rockdale Counties or solid waste disposal in landfills, water treatment and other funk factories, controversies over taxes like HOST symbolize the disparity between North and South DeKalb County.

While campaigning for CEO, Jones pledged to eliminate the preferential treatment given the North. He committed himself to making sure South DeKalb got its fair share of tax-funded benefits. There has not been a 2002 budget meeting planned for South DeKalb and residents are screaming foul. They believe as they did with the "greenspace" tax that they are paying Jones' campaign debts. Residents continue to demand an audit of all county revenue to determine the total collected, where it goes and whether or not we are getting our money’s worth for what we buy and from those we pay. John 2002

by Dot

In 1997, in addition to approving the one-cent on the dollar Homestead Option Sales Tax (HOST) referendum, DeKalb County voters approved the Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST). While HOST was ostensibly designed to relieve homeowners of the burden of financing the non-school portion of county government, SPLOST provided the county public school system with revenues in addition to property taxes to build more schools and to modernize existing structures

Since 1996, annually property values have risen, increasing the county's tax digest. Over the course of this period, property owners experienced a tax increase every year except one (2001), because the school board did not roll back the millage rate on the school portion of the property tax. With SPLOST and a consistent failure to roll back the millage rate with rising property assessments, the school system received more tax revenues than expected. SPLOST expires June 30, 2002, but the school system is asking DeKalb County voters to approve an extension.

On March 19, 2002 in a special election, DeKalb voters will be asked to approve a five-year extension. To be eligible to vote, you must be registered by February 19, 2002. With the MARTA one-cent sales tax that helps fund public transportation, HOST, SPLOST and a newly enacted property tax under the Greenspace referendum passed last year to purchase land for parks and fund recreational facilities, DeKalb County has one of the highest sales tax and property tax in the state of Georgia. If you are not registered to vote, get registered and vote no to new taxes. Raising taxes in a recession is voodoo economics. Avoid its curses! Squash SPLOST!

by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

At the International Relations Committee meeting of November 28, 2001, which considered the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, I asked my colleagues: "Can anyone explain how the people in question who now have the land in question in Zimbabwe got title to the land?"

My query was met with a deafening silence. Those who knew did not want to admit the truth and those who did not know should have known - that the land was stolen from its indigenous peoples through the British South Africa Company, and any "titles" to it were illegal and invalid. Whatever the reason for their silence, the answer to this question is the unspoken but real reason why Congress is squeezing an economically devastated African state under the hypocritical guise of providing a "transition to democracy."

Zimbabwe is Africa's second-longest stable democracy. It is multi-party. It had elections last year where the opposition won over 50 seats in its parliament. It has an opposition press and an independent judiciary. Zimbabwe is not trouble-free, nor is the US. I have not heard anyone proposing a US Democracy Act following last year's presidential electoral debacle. And, if a foreign country were to pass legislation calling for a US Democracy Act, which provided funding for US opposition parties under the fig leaf of "Voter Education," this body and this country would not stand for it.

There are many de jure and de facto one-party states in the world which are the recipients of support of the US government. They are not the subjects of sanctions. To any honest observer, Zimbabwe's sin is that it has taken the position to right a wrong, whose resolution has been too long overdue - to return its land to its people. The Zimbabwean government has said that a situation where 2 percent of the population owns 85 percent of the best land is untenable.

When we get right down to it, this legislation is nothing more than a formal declaration of US complicity in a program to maintain white-skin privilege. We can call it an "incentives" bill, but that does not change its essential "sanctions" nature. It is racist and against the interests of the masses of Zimbabweans. In the long run, the Zimbabwe Democracy Act will work against the US having a mutually beneficial relationship with Africa.

by Greg Palast

In December in Buenos Aires, the Paris of Latin America, police gunned down 27 Argentines after they chose to face bullets rather than starvation. The nation's currency had crumbled and unemployment had shot up from a grim 16 percent to millions more than the collapsed government could measure. The economy had been murdered in cold blood.

The killers left fingerprints all over the warm corpse. A "Technical Memorandum of Understanding," with the International Monetary Fund, dated September 5, 2000, required Argentina to cut the government budget deficit from $5.3 billion in 2000 to $4.1 billion in 2001. Eighteen months ago, when the "Understanding" was drafted, Argentina was on the cliff-edge of a deep recession. One in six workers were unemployed. Even the half-baked economists at the IMF and World Bank should have known that reducing government spending in a contracting economy would be like turning off the engines of an airplane in stall. Cut the deficit? As my 4-year-old daughter would say, "Stooopid."

President George W. Bush backed the IMF budget-cutting advice -- the same week he demanded that the U.S. Congress adopt a $50 billion-scheme to spend the United States out of recession. Yet, Argentina's "Country Assistance Plan" for the next four years, signed by World Bank President James Wolfensohn and dated June 25, insisted that the World Bank-IMF scheme could work: All Argentina needed to do was "reduce the cost of production," a step that required only a "flexible workforce." Translation: even lower pensions and wages, or no wages at all. To the dismay of Argentina's elite, the worker bees proved inflexibly obstinate in agreeing to their impoverishment.

About Me: Greg Palast is an investigative reporter for London's Sunday paper, The Observer, and BBC TV's Newsnight. Read the entire article, view or subscribe to his column at http://www.gregpalast.com/. It is taken from his book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

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