Home Depot's Bernie Marcus Goes From Goat To Glory After $20M Donation To Atlanta's Public Hospital

If you live in metro Atlanta long enough and keep an eye upon the Black Political establishment and Civil Rights operatives you are likely to see an abrupt change in fortunes.

• A race baiting mayor who after playing the 'race game' while in office and then runs afoul of of various groups within this city that is "too busy to hate". Despite their stated dislike for national adversaries because they are "too divisive" the mayor knows that he can always find a home with the bigoted race hustler bloc of Black ministers to defend himself against 'the White Business Establishment' who is out to get him, only to see the mayor go to jail for corruption. Their defense of him, never missing a beat.
  
• A potty mouthed rapper who proclaims himself "The King" as he gets caught up in an "life imitating art" conspiracy where he gets caught attempting to purchase a machine gun last seen in various "Al Capon" documentaries. Despite the fact that there is a 99% chance that the gun would have been used, if ever used, to kill another another Black man - the Black establishment who spits upon the Georgia native named Clarence Thomas despite the fact that he has never killed a Black man who did not go through a legal proceeding with massive checks and balances; they choose to take the rapper under their wings - allowing him to go into high schools to talk against gun violence and put him on stage to campaign for a Democrat because they realize that despite his list of offenses for which he has served jail time - he has a connection with 'the real Black people'.
• You can still hear the progressive forces within Black community (and a police chief of the 'second wealthiest Black county in the nation') talking about the innocence of Wayne Williams, the man who was convicted decades ago in the "Atlanta Child Murders' as I have heard on a radio show a few days ago yet not hear them say a damned thing about the "groundhog day" repetition of murderous violence in the section of this city built upon civil rights called "Vine City" where today massive civil rights violations go unchecked. Despite having a street named after a civil rights hero labeled "The Most Deadly Block In Atlanta" - this is not enough to cause these same protesters into action. It seems that since everyone knows that the tales of how "the Klan" had crept into the Black community and did these killings won't hold water - since so many Black witnesses saw that the actual gun men were Black........the killings go on but the protests are muted - there simply is no stomach among this group of actor-vists to protest their own.......unless the Black target is a Black Conservative sellout.
  

So it goes in Atlanta.

At the request of an anonymous reader on this blog (who I desperately wish would obtain an assumed name so I cam distinguish one 'anonymous' from another. This person is a 'good anonymous' where as some are foes) I bring you the story of one Bernie Marcus - a "Home Depot" billionaire.

To the outsider - the sight of a local billionaire donating $20 million to the local public hospital is a good news story without any strings of history attached to it. To a veteran of the local area who has watched events in this town - the irony of where we are today cannot be missed.



PICTURED ABOVE is the Georgia Aquarium.


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Take a look around the present state of development of this area known as the "Atlanta Centennial Olympic Park", in downtown Atlanta. Today this area serves as one of the two main civic and cultural areas of the city of Atlanta. The presence of the park and then the Georgia Aquarium sparked a massive development and revitalization of this area of the city. For a city who's bank vault was emptying out, challenging its ability to deliver needed services for the poor - this new source of tax dollars from the large bit of tourists and family reunion attendees was a breath of fresh air.

If you think that all of this is a "no brainer" - think again.

You see the spot where this multi-hundred million dollar facility now sits was "hallowed ground". Once there was a soup kitchen and homeless shelter on this northwest side of the park. Each day hundreds of homeless men would line up to receive their "3 hots and a cot" - as they lived - free to roam in society but locked within the prison of poverty and societal marginalization.

When Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus agreed to donate $200 million to kick off the construction of a world class aquarium for the city of Atlanta - this "no brainer" of an investment was met with resistance by certain segments of the community. In the minds of a group of actorvists that were affiliated witht he "Atlanta Concerned Black Clergy" this edifice was an attempt to "drive homeless Black men out of the downtown, high rent area of the city".

Their refrain at the time was "WHO is going to benefit from the construction of this facility? WHAT does Bernie Marcus seek to get out of the government with his 'purchase' of these government officials? HOW are the homeless men who are being chased out going to be impacted?"

Mr Marcus - a visionary in the local business establishment was pummeled by these actor-vists. While they didn't have the MONEY to stop him they sure had the MOUTHS to make him pay for doing a good deed. At the time I remember being embarrased for Bernie Marcus.

The aquarium was built. It hit the 1 millionth vistor mark soon there after. New hotels. New restaurants. Reconstructed residential developments. An area that is now safe to walk at night with the family.

GRADY HOSPITAL

Fast forward to the past 3 or 4 years.

Grady Hosptial is the public, "last resort" hospital. It is funded by the two large counties in metro Atlanta - "The Fulton-Dekalb Hospital Authority".

No one should sell Grady short. It has the best tauma care facilities in the region. When there is a shooting or a car wreck anywhere in the metro area - even beyond these two core counties - the patient has a good chance of going to Grady.

Grady has been a money losing venture for some time. Too many of their patients had no health insurance and thus the costs from the facility often exceeded the budget from these two counties.

The very same ACTOR-VISTS that were opposed to the Georgia Aquarium also are some of the loudest protestors and protectors at Grady Hospital.

They charged the state of Georgia - at that time, having just switched from 90 years of uninterrupted Democratic Rule over to a Republican legislature with "RACISM!!!!" Since so many Black folks who are poor receive their medical care from Grady - the "White folks in the state legislature" was not about to do anything to help Grady hospital due to their RACIAL HATRED of Black people.

For people who say of our national Republican leadership "you attract more flies with honey rather than vinegar" they sure don't operate with this theory as they work to ask the legisture which controls the funding that they are seeking for help. Clubbing the people you are ultimately dependent on "racists" seems quite counter productive.

Grady's dept grew to the tune of over $63 million. The hospital threatened to close its doors because the debt was so terminal. The news of this closure sent these operatives into action once again. They began to market the fact that in the absence of Grady other hospitals would be bombarded with the "poor and/or Black patients that Grady used to handle". This was to tap into to the "we don't want these people around here sentiment" of the racists.

The solution - Privatize Grady!! Make Grady into a private charity and replace its management. This added confidence would prompt donations as they knew they were not throwing 'good money after bad'.

In the racial tinderbox of Atlanta - these same activists saw this as "there are too many Blacks on the Grady board to attract White donors. They needed more Whites running things". To these activists - the unsavory motivations of the White donors was more damning than the actual financial balance sheet of the hospital that showed grave incompetence. "Putting your enemies on trial" is the way certain actorvists operate as a means of turning around the justified criticism of their effectiveness.

After several public meetings and arrests of these actor-vists that made the 6 o'clock news - Grady did indeed change into a private charity.

2 months ago when I attended the "Single Payer Health Care" symposium put on by the local progressives - they were STILL attacking the Grady privatization effort as a sham.


THE $20 MILLION DONATION FROM BERNIE MARCUS

Excuse my skepticism about this news. I do think that this is great.

I think that Bernie Marcus is a community asset.

Despite all of the unjustified attacks from the actorvists - Marcus chose to focus on the needs of the community rather than the assaults upon his character by those who CLAIM to be the defenders of Grady.

I only wish that some elements of the Black community would put these operatives in check. They have been wrong more than they have been correct.

They have insured that more poor people cope with their poverty than they have done anything in particular to allow them to become 'un-poor'.

Note - The Atlanta based "Woodruff Foundation" had donated $200 million to Grady Hospital last year about this time, right after the privatization.