Letter to the editor Archive

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Letter to the Editor

– May 12, 2012Posted in: Letter to the editor

 

 

Dear Editor,

Right now in our community, there are abused and neglected children who live in the shadows of our lives.  She may be the little girl in your son’s kindergarten class who had to move from home and change schools three or four times in the last year.  He may be the lonely child at the park who does not join the game.

The foster care and child welfare system is full of compassionate lawyers, judges, social workers and foster families, but according to recent statistics each year more than 660,000 children are placed in foster care nationally.  This intense need can strain the system to the point where they are simply unable to protect the rights of each child.

So the little girl who already suffered in an abusive home enters the foster care system. This places her in three or four different homes in just a few months.  Or the two siblings who lost their mother to incarceration are split up and live on different sides of the same county.

This is not just a problem; it is nothing short of a violation of their human rights.  A child cannot defend his or her own rights, but a Court Appointed Advocate (CASA) can!

CASA is a national nonprofit organization-Dougherty County CASA trains and supports advocates, people like you and me, to speak and act as advocates for the best interests of abused and neglected children.  They are trained to work within the child welfare and family court systems and are appointed by judges to individual cases.  With help of a CASA advocate, a child is half as likely to languish in the foster care system, and that much more likely to find a safe and permanent home.

I have seen firsthand the transformative impact a CASA volunteer can have on a child.

But today only 36% of the children in need have access to a CASA advocate.  That is nearly 400,000 children who do not have that advocate.  We are dedicated to ensuring that every child in the foster care and child welfare system has a qualified CASA advocate looking out for their best interests.  To do this, we need to more than double the 75,000 current CASA advocates in 950 local offices nationwide.  Especially needed are persons with passion and a love for children.

Dougherty CASA has 67 foster children in care and 28 volunteers advocating for a safe and permanent home for our children.  This is a cry for help!

Every child has a right to thrive.  To be treated with dignity…to live in a safe and loving home…Every child deserves a fighting chance.

Once grown, these former foster kids could be our future doctors, teachers and leaders.  Coming through a period of vulnerability and fear, the child can then understand his potential and his rights.  She will believe in herself.  That is our opportunity and our challenge.

I invite the people of Albany, Dougherty County, Georgia to stand up with me and support these children.  Please call 229/435-0074 and see how you can help.

 

Sincerely,

Evelyn Moore-Cookley

Dougherty CASA Program Director

 

 

 

Tags: CASA, child care, child welfare system, Children's Advocate, foster care, human rights, letter to the editor
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DCSS needs to rethink its ‘whistleblower’ program.

– April 15, 2012Posted in: Letter to the editor

 

 

In a meeting years ago, a manager was relating why a costly Federal project had failed.  At the end, he summed it up with, “You don’t undertake a vast project with half-vast ideas”.  Well, the secretary doing the transcribing got the “vast” part correctly in her notes but the “half-vast” became an expletive that actually fit the whole situation better.   Recently, this event came to mind when local media reported on how the new DCSS “whistleblower” program will be structured—indeed half-vast.

Back in the day, as an auditor and investigator, I worked with those who blew the whistle and saw what happened after it was blown—the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Done right, the process identifies what goes wrong and, if corrected, may save taxpayers money.  Done wrong, it leads to little of tangible benefit and in the process may harm those who try to correct what they perceive as improper things.

Reportedly, the DCSS developed a complaint form requiring identification of the submitter.  However, without an anonymity option, it isn’t likely to work—been there, done that.  Although some may sign self-serving complaints, like “Elmer and Jamal got promoted when I was more qualified”, lack of anonymity will not produce “quality” complaints of potential wrongdoing or problems really needing attention—more than personal problems.   I could provide a lot of examples of what happens after a complaint is made but one really stands out in my mind.

At a military base, an anonymous complaint was made that activities, such as the golf course, were being supported in a manner that violated a Congressional mandate. It was verbally made on a phone recorder in the local “hotline” system by an unidentified male military member.   As an investigator, I was called to the office of the Chief of Staff who railed on about the “coward” making a complaint against his golf course and “not having the guts to give his name”.

So, what was the very next statement out of his mouth?  Well, let’s just say if he could find the guy, it involved a knife and making another gelding for the pasture—without doubt a career would have ended that day. And let’s just say this is not an exception where identification of the anonymous was desired and leave it at that.

Over the years, there were plenty of “searches” for those who dare complain. It seems management doesn’t like criticism and doesn’t forget where it comes from.   So, if there is no option for anonymity, the whistle won’t be blown very much or it will be feeble blows worth little.

With all due respect, having all complaints go directly to, and only to, Dr Murfree, who will also be the investigator, sounds like something right out of the script for “Dumb and Dumber”.   And this system is expected to produce credible results?   I would compare this to Bernie Madoff investigating his own ponzi scheme, Snuffy Smith looking for Col Sander’s missing chickens, and Dick Nixon searching for the missing audio tapes.

Now if this isn’t a half-vast idea I never heard one.   Good grief!   Isn’t this essentially what happened before the CRCT debacle came to light—a complaint was made to the prior Super that things weren’t right in Denmark?   If Dr Murfree had a part in making a decision resulting in, say, a loss of money, could the BOE believe the results of his investigation—if they ever even knew of it?

If the DCSS can do without the services of Dr Murfree while he personally investigates complaints, bear in mind some of these may be complicated, should we be paying him such a whopping big salary?   And what in the world does he know about how to properly investigate anything—like the “missing” lunch money of years ago or other matters outside his field of experience and training?

Putting pithy comments and sarcasm aside, I don’t doubt that the DCSS/BOE feels it’s dealing with an important but thorny matter in a reasonable manner.   After all, it should champion trying to do the right things to make the system more efficient, effective, and economical.   But this won’t work, so let’s do things that will lead to those objectives.

The anonymity option is a must or the process is DOA at the starting gate.  Complaints should go directly to the BOE who appoints an investigator to be given unfettered access to records and people and reports back only to the BOE.  Let it be policy that reprisals against those who submit complaints will be harshly dealt with, including dismissal if warranted.

The BOE and the DCSS in general have little to no credibility with the general public.  Thinking otherwise is foolish these days. So please, if you can’t do it right, just don’t do it at all—public tolerance for doing more “half-vast” efforts is at an all time low.

 

Robert Rehberg is a retired auditor with the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

 

Tags: BOE, DCSS, Dr. Joshua Murfree, Investigation, letter to the editor, Robert Rehberg, Whistleblower
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BABIES FOR SALE IN ALBANY GA…I.R.S. IS THE BUYER!

– February 29, 2012Posted in: Letter to the editor

 

I have just been shown the secret to LEGAL BABY SELLING and it’s so easy that any taxpayer can do it. One of my most trusted friends is among the working class poor. My friend has two legitimate jobs and has the many taxes and fees, conveniently withheld from his paycheck, much like most honest hardworking poor people. And like most of his countrymen he keeps very little of his hard earned money. But don’t feel sorry for him because every year at tax time he has found a way to get the last laugh. Every year he sells us (The US) someone else’s children to make ends meet.

It goes like this: Being a taxpayer he receives an earned income child credit (approx $1900/child) for every child he can produce. Apparently, produce doesn’t mean biologically anymore, because my friend simply finds a day-laborer with children, who gets paid “under the table”. As the man gets no taxes with-held and files no claim his children should go unclaimed by anyone. However, my friend (and many others like him) claims the stranger’s unclaimed child in order to receive the thousands in credit from the I.R.S. Of course he splits the money with the non-taxpayer, essentially selling kids to the government. “Find more kids; Lather; Rinse; Repeat. My friend does most things honestly but for 20 yrs he has learned to see nothing wrong with this process since it has been tolerated for decades by both Republican and Democrat Administrations.

 

Lane Rosen

Albany

 

Tags: Babies for Sale, illegal tax deductions, IRS, Lane Rosen, letter to the editor, Tax cheating
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Home-based agriculture is a right

– January 20, 2012Posted in: Letter to the editor

 

 

The United States Constitution as well as the Georgia Constitution lists the rights of citizens. Among the rights listed are the right of personal security, personal liberty, and the right of private property. The definition of ‘personal security’ is ‘The legal and uninterrupted enjoyment by a man of his life, his body, his health and his reputation’. Furthermore, the definition of ‘private property’ is ‘The tangible and intangible things owned by individuals’. Dr. Mark Cooray says, “Personal liberty means not only freedom from unlawful physical restraint or harm, but also freedom from arbitrary interference with one’s privacy and lawful belongings.”  Local governments should not have the ability to strip us of these rights as they do when local zoning ordinances ban us from the Right to Grow.

For a number of reasons, people are returning to their agrarian roots and growing their own food. Some people are doing it because they want to feed their families healthy food. Some people are concerned about genetically altered or virally tainted food. Some people are affected by the harsh economic times. Some people are doing it just because they want the feeling of accomplishment. Whatever the reasons, The Sustainable Food Movement is moving thru this country stronger than ever. However, some local municipalities are not happy about this.

Creative gardening techniques can clash with neighbor’s landscaping ideals. Some people think that chickens and goats cannot be pets but are signs of lower social status and poverty. Forsyth County has deemed honeybees ‘livestock’ and banned them from backyards. Marietta says you have to have five acres for a chicken that the Georgia Cooperative Extension Service says only needs around 4 square feet. NIMBY people like these are more concerned about “What about the property value of the neighborhood?” than the people that live in the neighborhood. They would rather ban such activities outright, lest take a chance that a few people could violate local nuisance or health laws. This is akin to outlawing dogs because some people cannot keep their dog on a leash or keep it from defecating in their neighbor’s lawn. If we outlawed banks, we would reduce the number of bank robberies. But we are not talking about dogs or banks; we are talking about people’s inalienable rights, which among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In 2011, Representative Bobby Franklin introduced House Bill 2 into the Georgia General Assembly. It reads: “No county, municipality, consolidated government, or local government authority shall prohibit or require any permit for the growing or raising of food crops or chickens, rabbits, or milk goats in home gardens, coops, or pens on private residential property so long as such food crops or animals or the products thereof are used for human consumption by the occupant of such property and members of his or her household and not for commercial purposes.” It goes on to state: “This Code section shall not prohibit or impair:

(1) The authority of a local governmental entity to abate a public nuisance;

(2) The authority of a local governmental entity to regulate or restrict the slaughter of goats;

(3) Any cause of action brought by a private citizen to abate a private nuisance under Code Section 41-2-4; or

(4) Any private covenant or other private agreement restricting the use of real property.”

Franklin argued that his bill isn’t the state overriding local control, its returning control to the most local unit: the family. “The whole concept is no level of state government should ever tell a person that they are prohibited from feeding their family. Chickens for the eggs and the meat, rabbits for the meat, goats for the milk and you can feed your family.” He passed on before he could see this bill through.

In 2012, this bill is still alive, but it needs help. We, the people of Georgia need to stand up and say, “Enough!” Our legislators need to know that we still value our rights and we want them back. We are up against some powerful lobbyists, who represent the cities and the municipalities. They say, “This law would tie the hands of local governments to protect the other property owners in that residential district.” They know that this is not true. The law specifically retains the ability of local governments to enact and enforce nuisance and sanitary laws. It restores sanity to our communities that have been overrun with superficial NIMBY’s and control-freak RINO’s. We have plenty of sheep in our neighborhoods; now let’s get the Rights to own gardens, chickens, and goats back.

 

Joseph Pond

Marietta, Georgia

www.gafoodrights.org

 

 

Tags: letter to the editor
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To chase or not to chase

– November 21, 2011Posted in: Letter to the editor

 

Over the past week and a half I have heard and read about whether the chase the resulted in the death of one of Albany’s finest was right or wrong.  Then there was the question over wither the people being chased should be charged with murder.

As a 23 year veteran of the Albany Police Department and serving 8 years as a Police Chief, I would like to respond to these questions.  First should she have chased?

First, the APD has a very strict policy dealing with chasing.  It addresses when to chase, how many cars can be in the chase, as well as public safety.  This policy is several pages long and very through.  This policy has been in effect since the early 1990’s

Second, this officer had a split second to decide if this situation called for a chase or not, start the chase, notify dispatch what was going on (where she was, direction she was going, and a description of the vehicle she was chasing.  She has to do all of this while driving at unknown speeds, keeping calm enough to be understood over the radio.

Should she have given chase?  The people in that van had just committed an armed robbery; she had every right to chase and really had an obligation to spot them.   Had she not chased, and they committed another robbery and killed someone the cries would be different.  The city would have been asking why she did not stop them when she had the chance.

I have also heard that she was not trained to be in a chase.  Every officer certified in the state of Georgia must take and pass a class on Emergency Vehicle Driving.  I challenge any of you to drive the course she had to drive to gain her certification.  Yes she was very well trained to be driving that Police Vehicle during that chase.

Yes, they most definitely should be charged with murder. She died because they were committing a felony.  Her death would have never happened it they had not started the chain of events.

Wake up Albany; we should be doing everything we can to make sure her children are taken care off.  The City of Albany has not accepted her as the hero she is, we should thank God that the city has officers who are ready to give their lives to keep us safe.

If the City is going to name a bridge after anyone then it should be a true hero like this.  Often we do not realize what we have until we lose it.

Chief Thomas (Barney) Knighton

Retired

Editorial Disclosure: Chief Knighton is the father of The Albany Journal publisher Tom Knighton. However, based on Chief Knighton’s experience with the Albany Police Department in particular and law enforcement in general, we feel his perspective was deserving of being published in its own right, regardless of familial connections with this paper’s management.

Tags: letters to the editor
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Letter to the Editor

– November 7, 2011Posted in: Letter to the editor

Students of today need to read news with a critical eye. It is vital to enhancg democracy and defeating narrow-mindedness. Students also need an understanding of the world’s economy, politics, social structures and environment in order to make the best decisions about how to live their own lives.

From Afghanistan to Iraq, current events have taken on special importance for young Americans living in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks. But, mounting pressure to meet state curriculum requirements and assessment tests means current events rarely get discussed thoroughly. Current events are something that can be used every day if a teacher has the skill and the imagination to connect the present to the past.

Being from a rural, high poverty area, it is not unusual for a student to let me know that he or she has never been outside of the county. Many times, the only window my students have to the outside world is in my classroom.

My students are trying to raise money for a weekly newsmagazine published by Time Magazine.  TIME For Kids is a weekly classroom news magazine that motivates kids to read! Issues cover a wide range of real-world topics kids love to learn about – and it’s the best nonfiction text you’ll find!   A powerful teaching tool, TIME For Kids builds reading and writing skills and is easily integrated across your curriculum, including social studies, science and math.

If you are interested in helping by either donating or spreading the word of this project through Facebook or Twitter- please go online to www.donorschoose.org/connell

We appreciate your help!

 

Ed Connell and Students

Pinegrove Middle School

Valdosta, Georgia

 

Tags: letter to the editor
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No Race Riots Here

– October 26, 2011Posted in: Letter to the editor, Outlook


Not to worry: The recent beating of a white football coach by 30 black people in Georgia was not a race riot. The Associated Press called it an “ambush.” A local TV station said a “fight broke out:” Maybe the coach attacked the mob, instead of the other way around.

Whatever. The attack left the coach with several broken bones in his face.

We know it was not a race riot because we would have read about that in the newspapers.

An almost identical incident last year in Florida was not a race riot either. Anyone who notices race is an organizing factor in in a growing number of robberies and assaults has problems, says an editor at the biggest newspaper in Chicago.

These non-race riots are not happening more often, in more parts of the country.

Just a few days ago, 30 black people surrounded a mobile beverage cart in Minneapolis and robbed its white occupants. That was not a race riot. I know that because the police chief in Wisconsin says crime is color blind.

If this were a race riot, we would have read about it.

A few days before that in Philadelphia, 30-50 black people stormed a house chasing two white teenagers. The teenagers may or may not have laughed at someone who fell off a bike at a nearby park. There was a gun. Later, another crowd of 30 black people returned, threatening the white homeowners with violence if they testify in court.

In the last two years, in hundreds of episodes in more than 50 cities, non-racial groups of black people — sometimes in the thousands — have been stealing, beating, threatening, even raping and killing. The victims are usually white.

If you don’t go to YouTube and search black mob violence, you will not see video news stories of hundreds of these non-race riots. So who are you going to believe: The media? Or your lying video tapes?

In Atlanta last summer, hundreds of black people beat and robbed and marauded through downtown during Screen on the Green night. Many of the victims of this non-race riot were gay — as is often the case in other non-race riots.

Local news stations did not notice. Local gay people and other residents did — all on YouTube.

And of course lets not forget the non-race riot on the Atlanta’s Marta line, where in the Spring, dozens of black people assaulted two flight attendants and terrorized the rest of the train.

In Philadelphia, Ground Zero for the new non-race riots, a liberal newspaper editor was hospitalized with a severely broken leg after 30 black people chased her and her friends into an alley and beat and robbed them. These 30 assailants were part of a crowd of more than a thousand black people on the streets creating mayhem.

As you can see, I am running out of ways to describe beating, robbing, looting, and other non-riot-like behavior.

For the next few days, the editor blogged that, despite the fact that the mob was black, race had nothing to do with the crime. And anyone who thought differently was creepy, she said.

After two years of denying that a tsunami of beatings and robberies in Philadelphia had anything to do with race, the black mayor of Philadelphia recently blasted the black rioters because they “damaged their own race.”

Standing next to him was the head of Philadelphia Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who said the mayor said what had to be said. The crimes were racial. The black web site Grio said the Mayor said what black people were thinking, but were afraid to say.

America is the most race conscious country in the world. That is easy to see every day in the newspapers with stories about black caucuses, black leaders, black unions, black teachers groups, black student groups, black awards.

Everything except hundreds and hundreds of cases of recent black mob violence — often targeted at women, gays and Asian immigrants.

Some of the biggest non-race riots happen in Miami Beach during Black Beach Week, in Indianapolis during the Black Expo, and in South Carolina during Black Bike Week.

Meanwhile, in El Paso, police are investigating white students for a hate crime after an eighth grade black classmate accused them of bullying. I know that was a crime of racial violence: I read it in the newspaper.

 

Colin Flaherty
Wilmington, Del.

 

 

Tags: race relations, Racial tension, riots
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Exorcise Blue Laws Once and for All

– October 21, 2011Posted in: Letter to the editor, Outlook

 

Any way you look at it, blue laws – which deliberately exist to enforce religious standards – are the end result of politics rather than logic, decency or good government. And any way you look at it, laws that exist because of politics are disgusting.

Southern and Midwestern states began passing laws to protect Sunday Sabbath during the 1800s, targeting saloon owners (those rascals!), sellers of pots and pans (scum of the earth!) Jews (later, the Nazis finally socked it to them!) and Seventh-Day Adventists (heaven forbid!), among other classes and groups. People were also arrested during those days of barbarism for blue-law violations such as  playing cards (sober or not!) or baseball (later nicknamed “America’s pastime”), and even fixing wagon wheels (the worst of all heathens!) on Sunday.

With the rationale being that people should be in church on Sunday, blue laws are expected to be found in religious cultures such as Israel, not in the U.S., where church and state clearly are Constitutionally intended to be separate.

If state-level politicians had gumption, Georgia’s prohibition of Sunday retail alcohol sales in stores would have been repealed long ago. Instead, the state cowardly decided this year to allow communities to vote on deciding the issue locally.

Outlawing retail alcohol sales on Sunday is as ridiculous as the government’s intrusion on liberty gets for two reasons: It enforces religious standards and it subverts commerce. As such, on Nov. 8, Albany and Dougherty voters should vote to repeal the local blue law prohibiting retail alcohol sales.

Tags: Alcohol sales, Blue Laws, editorial
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Campaign of Covetousness

– October 5, 2011Posted in: Letter to the editor

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s.” (Exodus 20:17 KJV)

It is now evident that President Obama has laid the foundation for his 2012 re-election campaign. In 2008, it was Hope and Change. In 2012, it will be to make the wealthy pay their fair share and “spread the wealth around.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Don Cole
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Baggy pants! Really?

– October 5, 2011Posted in: Letter to the editor, Outlook

 

I am Canadian reading about your ridiculous law by what must be a ridiculous local government, enforced by ridiculous law enforcement, and supported by your ridiculous municipal court.

Who on earth would visit such a place, let alone live!  This is so contrary to the very foundation on which your great county is based (For those that don’t know what I am writing about as clearly your officials don’t,  I’m referring to FREEDOM and your officials allowed a little more to be eroded in the name of an annoyance and $4,000-plus in city revenue.

Note to self and others, do not ever visit Albany.  There is a dress code!

PS: No, I have never worn baggy pants.

 

Ross Viner

Victoria, B.C.

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