Their arguments so often start out logically and agreeable. Then they discredit their argument because they seek to hide one point of painful TRUTH:
In as much as they failed to develop an infrastructure WITHIN the Black community that can more easily compel the balance of our people to work in a manner that benefits the COMMUNITY - their only option is to get our people to PROTEST - their angry resolve covering from the fact that the establishment powers is unable to organize ORGANIC development out of our perpetual behavior.
I am not satisfied with what you view as "slander".
Below is the fruit of the time that I have invested to MODEL the behavior that I have noted.
USE CASE OVERVIEW:
The State of Georgia has the "Hope Scholarship". It is a state lottery who's proceeds go to fund early childhood and college education for Georgia students. As educational costs skyrocket the state is forced to alter the rules so that their dollars can be stretched further to meet the demands.
Right now there is conflict over the application of money in the Pre-K space and the university space. I will only focus on the university education space for now.
While it is likely true that the revenues generated from the lottery has more or less remained consistent despite the recession (as the callers claimed) the fact is that education costs have increased. Tight budgets at the state treasury has meant less state funding for college operation. This has triggered tuition increases. The resulting increase in fiscal demands upon students has increased the demand for funds from the Hope Scholarship.
The Republican lead Georgia Senate on yesterday passed a bill that plans to give a full scholarship to those students who have a 3.7 GPA or above and a 90% ride for those students with a GPA between 3.0 and 3.69. Those who are below 3.0 receive no funding.
To be clear - I BELIEVE THAT THEY SHOULD ALSO DO "MEANS TESTING" - allow more funds for all by removing wealthy people from their eligibility. (My views on taxation and Social Security differ greatly than this position).
The combination of the new Republican domination of all state-wide seats of power and both houses of the GA Legislature has reinvigorated the "Fight The Power" coalition to take to the streets more often to get their "progressive" viewpoint presented to the public square.
As I listened to the impassioned arguments of some of the callers I was made to map out the models that appear below.
| Position | Representative Model | The Unspoken Truth In Their Words |
| "Poor Black People contribute a disproportionate amount of funding to the Georgia Lottery". The new Republican leadership is exploiting our people. We are giving money to the lottery and WHITE PEOPLE are receiving educational scholarships. The Tea Party is in power and they are erecting new financial distribution policies that favor wealthy White people - while the poor Blacks who fund the money pool are being left out. SOLUTION: We should picket the lottery - not purchasing any tickets for a given period of time so that the powers that be see the impact on the funding and choose to rebalance the funding formula. |  | What they are loathed to admit is that the people who play the lottery are motivated to leverage their $1 with the hopes that they will score a larger amount of money - whatever the lottery game of choice dangles in front of them. The sad truth is that in as much as this type of CONDITIONING was orchestrated with respect to the ballots that Black people cast - why is there any surprise that the portion of our community that also seek to "score the jackpot" are not prone to use their money strategically? They fail to see that when it comes to TAXATION - the people seek to maximize the input of funds so they can REDISTRIBUTE these funds per the legislative process. As many times as I have heard that the lottery is a "tax on poor people" those who advance "societal engineering" through redistributive policies fail to see that the lottery is an inducement on the front end but these funds go into the hands of Republican controlled legislative chambers and are subject to their priorities. |
| "We need to have RACIAL DISTRIBUTION QUOTAS for Hope Scholarship funding". White, Black, Asian and Hispanic should all be guaranteed their "fair share" of funding for their racial group so that no one is left out. |  | A compromise position - as they acknowledge that IN AS MUCH AS they do not have control over the CONSCIOUSNESS of the people who "invest" their money into these big dreams - they might be able to impress upon the Republican legislators the negative RACIAL impact that a "3.0" minimum GPA and the 1,200 minimum SAT (on the new 2,100 scale) will mean to "The Least Of These" people. Again - not only are they not able to compel "their people" to use their money wisely they also transact upon the "Inferiority of Black People" - in our ability to maintain a 3.0. Their speeches made to our young people focus on their SOCIAL JUSTICE RIGHTS to this money. They are loathed to tell the people that WE NEED THEM TO FOCUS ON THE PRIORITIES, forsaking the time wasting activities as these are "confiscators of their potential". Failing their ability to empress upon the young people - they get the young people to stand against the POWERS who are about to alter the funding distribution rules. |
| The Fully Actualized Model That No One Mentioned on "Fight The Power" Radio |  | It is clear that the quest for the jackpot pay off - one "scratch off" at a time is a SELFISH act. If indeed 35% of the money draw into the lottery actually goes for scholarships (the rest for payouts and administrative overhead) then the waste of one dollars worth of money is both the low odds of winning and the fact that only 1/3rd of the money goes to actual education. I was listening out for any of the "conscious callers" to talk about removing the spirit of SELFISHNESS from the people. If they were to explain to the people that closer to 100% of the money directly invested in the education of a young person in their community would have more traction in lifting up the "former gambler" and the young person that is in need of funding. More effective and enduring than a protest rally at the state capital is the consciousness movement which connects the students needs with the "former gambler's" dreams of a pay off. If they paired these two up and worked to build up the community fabric - that student, upon being honed at graduation time would be far more likely to recycle his new found mental discipline and the money that it attracts to him - back into the community. The cycle - rinses and repeats. |
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