For those of you who are not local - the irony of this event needs to be discussed.
Let me first say clearly - I WELCOME WITH OPEN ARMS any Black American who wishes to live in my community because they share my values and wish to maintain our community per the SUCCESSFUL POLICIES that have allowed Fayette County and Coweta County Georgia to remain attractive.
The irony of this story is that many of these people are the "Black Flight Progressives" that I speak of. Just like my neighbor - they fail to see the contradiction of their rampant criticism of Republicans/Conservatives yet they have chosen to move into one of their strong holds. In doing so they frequently exit their "Progressive Utopia" where "favorable people" are in power.
How many community gatherings have there been where upper-middle class Black folks gather in Cascade Heights as they are concerned about "home invasions" or street crimes caused by Street Pirates?
I ultimately support the congregation of our people anywhere they choose to meet to constructively discuss our political and economic future. My only demand is that some of these conversations contain more blunt honesty regarding the large gap between what we have supported because it looks good on paper and the actual results that have been delivered in support of our permanent interests.
These people need to go back and document the key reasons why they were attracted to live where they now live; detail the essence of the policies that allow these areas to thrive and then work with the areas that they have departed to make sure that they implement these policies in their progressive utopia.
Instead we see the "Black Flight Progressive" moving into "enemy territory" yet vote to "customize" the place to be just like the area where they where motivated to leave. This is called "drinking the milk but not buying the cow".
The one group who has the opportunity to bring more diversity amongst the ideological and political playing field of Black America PER THE PREFERENCES THAT THEY CLEARLY SHOW - and they figure that by retaining their entrenched ideological and political positions they are "reaching back" to HELP THEIR PEOPLE. In truth they merely removed themselves and their families from having "skin in the game" yet they vote in a manner in which the policies in the places that they departed become more entrenched rather than held accountable and subject to change.
The Story From the Fayette Chronicle:
By Trey Alverson
About 14 members of the Coweta - Fayette Chapter of Organizing for America gathered at the home of Fayetteville's Tish Naghise Wednesday night to watch President Barack Obama deliver his first state of the union address.
"Organizing for America has scheduled watching parties like this one all over the country," Naghise, a small business owner, explained.
"We promote positive leadership. Our main focus is to try to get people more involved."
Organizing for America is an offshoot of the original Obama presidential campaign. Those who gathered at the Naghise house Wednesday were by and large supporters of the president, although two Republicans did attend. Almost all of the activists had never met until the hour before the speech.
"You hear so much about the Tea Party movement and all the organizing going on with the far right, especially around here," Naghise stated.
"Coweta and Fayette are both very Republican counties, but there are those of us here who support our president and his policy goals. We're here and we're organizing too. We're just hoping the country and Congress can come together and rally around our president to affect real change."
The group sat attentively throughout the President's long speech, as well as Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's Republican response.
After the speeches concluded, most in attendance spoke highly of the President's address.
"I really liked the way he called out both the Republicans and the Democrats in Congress," said Anthony Blood of Fayetteville.
"That line about 'just saying no to everything is short term politics; not leadership' -- that was good."
Anthony's wife, Tracy, echoed her husband's sentiment.
"With the Republicans in Congress, it's all about 'No.'" she said.
"It would be different if they said, 'I don't like blue, but I like red and let me tell you why.' Instead, they just say 'I don't like blue.'"
Camera shots of stone-faced Republicans in Congress drew sighs and groans from the Democrats watching at Nighise's viewing party. The Fayetteville group chuckled when the Republicans finally started clapping.
"You knew they would have to stand up and clap when [the president] started talking about jobs," Anthony Blood said.
Glen of Fairburn, one of two self-labeled Republicans in attendance, said he was pleased to hear the president support some "idealogically Conservative" causes, like tax cuts for small businesses, additional oil drilling, nuclear power, tough foreign policy, free trade and education reform.
"As a Republican, I don't see Obama as the Marxist or socialist some others paint him to be," Glen stated
"He seems to be more concerned with being a true leader than being a successful politician, which is a good thing."
Glen also said he would have liked to have heard the president focus more on civil rights and civil liberties.
Those interested in getting involved with Organizing for America's activities locally can find out more information by visiting the Web site www.barackobama.com.
2 comments:
I served in the Navy. On my ship we had an Italian-made deck gun that was famous for being atrociously inaccurate during training exercises. It would routinely be off 1,000 yards from a range of 2,000 yards. This thing literally could not hit the broad side of a barn... All that is to say, I think you completely missed the barn with this one...
The policies pushed by the rich white power structure in America (which is increasingly simply just the rich power structure) exorbitantly widens the 5 mile physical gap between places like College Park and Fayette County -- the places your "black flight progressives" once called home and now call home respectively.
By suggesting that progressive politics somehow created or maintains Old National Highway's blight and Conservative politics and policies create and maintain Fayette County's prosperity is a gross oversimplification.
First, you're ignoring the fact that ideological or party labels mean little in regard to local politics. While Fayette county commissions and city councils are full of "Republicans," those in office routinely spend more money on public services than the nearby districts, like south fulton and Clayton, which are run by "democrats." In Fayette, you have more and better trained cops, stricter code enforcement, special funded school programs like fine arts, Peachtree City's famous golf cart path system, beautification projects, better road maintenance, publicly owned amphitheaters, better funded libraries, etc.
It all comes down to money. In Fayette there is more money for government to spend -- prosperity breeds prosperity. Conservative philosophy embraces this concept, pushes for more local control, shuns state funding for school systems, lashes out against busing, riles against public transport, etc. Basically, conservatives are against every mitigation tactic that may prevent the gap between Fayette and College Park from widening.
When parts of Fayette start to look demographically like Clayton or South Fulton (because the underserved in those communities want their equal slice of the American pie, so they move to where they can be better served by local schools and public safety), the whites (which usually means the money) pack up and leave.
See: North Fayetteville and the growth in Eastern Coweta and Pike Counties. White flight all over again and the cycle continues. It's all about the money and local control. That College Park's populace votes overwhelmingly for the Democratic party and the white areas of Fayette are overwhelmingly Republican when it comes to national politics just proves that people aren't as stupid as you make them out to be: The people who benefit from gross inequality vote to maintain it -- those that don't vote for people they hope (in vain) will do something to curb it. Some that vote against the inequality take matters into their own hands and move to where their children will be better served. You suggest that these "black flight" folks should embrace the inequality the moment they get on the "inside."
Anon:
You state elements of fact but fail to put the puzzle pieces together. I speak as a 21 year resident of Metro-Atlanta and a 15 year resident of the southside. You speak of the spending in College Park but don't note about the political struggles that transpired as the community flipped.
Look no further than the operatives on WAOK AM as the voice of the Black Establishment who executed their grand plan in Clayton County. You see - I recorded Coz Carson, Derick Boazman and others as they talked about how "the White Folks" (white Democrats actually) who ran Clayton County. It seems that these "White folks" had connections in Washington DC and the money they were bringing into the county (slide back to about 8 years ago) was focused on building up Clayton State University rather than helping "the people".
What you had was a biblical "Two women fighting over the infant" story. One was willing to slice it in half, destroying it -as they got their way.
Don't misunderstand me Anon - I understand the fact that Clayton was impacted by the influx of people who were cleared out of Atlanta as the housing policies change. This is not an attempt to thrown an over-generalized blanket over them. My point is that these operatives are allowed to run their schemes but never have to suffer from being called out by the Black Community who is screwed as a result of their antics.
I can't understand WHY you are focusing on the need to close the gap between Clayton and Fayette. They both are independent counties that are free to establish the policies that the balance of their residents choose within their domain.
I wonder if you focus upon the uplift of Clayton County by having it enforce the standards that have allowed Fayette County to prosper and thus be attractive to the "Black Flight Progressives"?
Liberal "Immigration policies" have impacted Clayton as the standards have been eroded as people have come in (and I am talking about Americans, regardless of their race) and the people who were their failed to have them conform to the standards.
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