Atlanta Flooding

Four people dead so far. This is terrible!

My mother just sent me this picture she took.

Hilarious for Locals

The city-data.com forums are great if you want unvarnished information about any geographic area. Of course, mixed in with that, you will also get unvarnished racism and unvarnished stupidity.

SouthernExplorer
Junior Member
Looking for majority white areas of the Metro
I am from New Orleans, and my wife is from Memphis. After we got married, we tried living in New Orleans. It was ok until Katrina hit, and it became too ghetto and distressed. We then moved to Memphis, and we just did not like being white minorities. We want to stay in the south, close to Memphis and NOLA but want a big city feel. Atlanta fits the bill.

We just want to be in an area with our own kind. Moderator cut: Please no stereotyping individual races.

So, as we look to move to Atlanta, we want a majority white area. Ill be working in Midtown, and my wife is getting a job in Sandy Springs. Our price range is a maximum of $550,000. I do not mind a long commute. Thanks!

gt6974a
Senior Member
1 post huh? In that case, I'd say the Bankhead area b/t 285 and downtown. Most of the affluent live there.

SouthernExplorer
Junior Member
Great, thanks so much for your reply. Do you know the name of some of the subdivisions in that area that would be in our price range?

skipcromer
Senior Member
I second! Bankhead would be perfect.

Bankhead is.... not a serious recommendation.  But the poster did end up getting a lot of really serious recommendations. This  great explanation was given for complying with his request:

RoslynHolcomb
Senior Member
Personally I'm delighted to help these type people find that which they seek. Goodness knows I don't want them living anywhere near me or mine.

The poster is so archetypal of the plight of the Southern upper-middle-class white flighter.  Can't live in the country because they loathe lower-class white people.  The Southern cities are full of black people.  Can't move out of the South because the Yankees might look down on them.  And nowadays... can't live in the dying exurbs because they're filling up with Latinos and other immigrants.

He will eventually retire to South Carolina.  But even there, he will die frustrated.

The Eagle Raid

This is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard of.  I was actually thinking about going to this rally, but other things came up.

Hundreds rally against raid of gay leather bar

Patrons and supporters of the gay leather bar the Atlanta Eagle are gathering today at 5 p.m. in the parking lot of the establishment to hold a rally to protest a controversial raid where eight employees were arrested by Atlanta Police on Sept. 10. The Eagle is located at 306 Ponce de Leon Ave. and remains open.

The rally will be followed by a short march to City Hall East, located at 675 Ponce de Leon Ave.

The APD released a terse statement why it raided the bar on Friday. On Friday night, supporters gathered at the bar in a support of solidarity and held hands and raised their arms in the air to show their strength as community. Attorney Alan Begner is representing the Eagle and expects some kind of legal action to take place, but he was not sure as of Saturday.

[...]

Ramey, who was not at the bar when the raid began arrived after being called, described how police brought three paddy wagons to the Eagle Thursday night and there were 62 patrons in the bar.

"There were 62 victims, not including the staff. And not one person had a weapon or drugs on them," he said. "When they couldn't find anything, an officer said, 'I guess we have to go through IDs' and he brought in a laptop. All of this was against their civil rights. There was no probable cause. Why did they have to have up to 30 police officers to control 62 homosexuals?"

All I know about The Eagle is that it's been around forever, and it's very gay. It certainly doesn't have a reputation for being dangerous. Despite this, the APD decided to send three paddy wagons and THIRTY POLICE OFFICERS on the raid. The planning resources must have been enormous. And now, they're going to have to spend a lot of money in legal fees, because they're just about to get hit with a flurry of lawsuits. I'm sorry for the patrons and employees who were humiliated during this homophobic raid and I'm also sorry for the Atlanta taxpayers who are going to pay for this mess.

Here's an idea. After they got the mysterious complaint, the APD could have sent one or two undercover police officers to the club to investigate. Then, the next day, they could have talked to the owner, and said, "Based on the results of our investigation we're going to have to cite you for breaking code number [insert code number of whatever frivolous nightclub rule that deals with go-go dancers] unless you do such-and-such to get into compliance."

Instead, they just went completely nuts.

One good result... all the Atlanta mayoral candidates have felt obligated to release statements against the raid. The gay community has enough clout that this sort of stuff can't be swept under the carpet anymore.

A Fork to the Head

Sunny loves wrestling. Guy occasionally shows him Youtube clips of the pro wrestling stars he remembers from the 1980s, and whenever Guy and Sunny play-wrestle, Sunny always wants me to call the matches. I'm supposed to yell in Vince McMahon style, "AND IN THIS CORNER, THE UNDERTAKER!"

Once we heard that the Decatur Book Festival would be featuring a "literary wrestling match", we had to go check it out.

The Decatur Book Festival has built on partnerships with artistic, educational, business, and governmental organizations from Atlanta and all over the nation, and is now the largest independent book festival in the country and the fourth largest overall.

At this point, we could just keep doing what we’ve been doing and call that “good enough,” but where’s the fun in that? Here are some of the new and unique programs we’ve added to this year’s festival:

Wrestling Match: Is the pen mightier than the sword? Novelist, writer, and journalist Michael Muhammad Knight and legendary professional wrestler Abdullah the Butcher face off for the first time. Abdullah is widely known for his brutal fighting style.

The match was short but intense.  First introduced, the young Michael Muhammad Knight danced around the ring wearing a fancy cape embroidered with his initials.  He sounds like an interesting writer -- I think he's pioneering a sort of "avant-garde American Islamic" genre.

Then Abdullah the Butcher was introduced. He's a local hero, even though he always played the villain as a pro wrestler. In his heyday he was billed as the "Madman from the Sudan" but was actually born in Canada. He semi-retired to Atlanta, where he runs "Abdullah the Butcher's House of Ribs and Chinese Food".

It took a while for Abdullah to walk up to the ring. Once he reached the ring, I had serious doubts as to whether he would be able to climb up into it, due to age and weight considerations.

Before he could attempt the climb, MMK attacked him from inside the ring, and tried to kick him in the head. Abdullah grabbed MMK's foot, dragged him out of the ring and onto the ground, got him in a headlock, threw him to the ground again and bashed him on the head with a chair.  Then he bashed MMK with the chair a couple more times.  Then he stabbed him in the head with a fork.  Copious amounts of bright red blood covered MMK.  At this point, disregarding Dekalb Medical's sponsorship of the event, all the onlookers began screaming, "CALL GRADY!  CALL GRADY!"  I reassured Sunny that the blood was fake.  Abdullah wrapped up the short but intense match by bashing the prone MMK with a large water cooler jug, then turned around and headed back to his House of Ribs van.  I think the whole thing lasted about five minutes.

When I told Ojiichan about the event, he immediately recognized who Abdullah the Butcher was.  "He is very popular in Japan," he said.  Apparently the fork to the head is a classic schtick.

Sunny did have a nightmare last night that someone stabbed him in the head with a fork, but he said it wasn't too bad, because he was OK afterwards in the dream.  I hope I haven't scarred him too permanently.

Dekalb County Taxpayers Paid $389,161 to Cover Up Jaheem Herrera's Suicide and Blame His Mother

I'm so disgusted right now.

I don't know if I wrote about this before here, but I'm somewhat close to this case. I know the school in question (Sunny does NOT go there). I know kids who were classmates of Jaheem Herrera. I know parents who witnessed bullying first-hand there and told me how bad the problem was.

I know enough that this is a cover-up. A very expensive cover-up. School officials need to take responsibility.  Instead, they're scapegoating his poor mother. I'm disgusted with them and I'm disgusted with Moore. I feel terrible... I'm going to look up Masika Bermudez' address and send her a sympathy card.

Homophobic bullying (with a nasty added dose of race-related anti-immigrant hate) was what killed Jaheem Herrera.

Report: Family violence, loved one’s death affected 5th-grader before suicide
August 26, 2009 --

Domestic violence and the death last year of a beloved grandmother may have played a role in the suicide of a DeKalb County fifth-grader, according to an investigative report released Wednesday.

Jaheem Herrera, 11, hanged himself in a bedroom closet April 16 after coming home from school. His mother, Masika Bermudez, alleges that Jaheem had been bullied and that school officials did nothing even after she complained six to eight times.

But an investigation by retired Fulton County judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore found “no evidence that anyone told administrators or teachers about other students teasing or harassing Jaheem.” A written copy of Moore’s findings, summarized at a May 20 news conference, was made public today.

School records show Bermudez visited Jaheem’s teacher and principal only once each during the school year, Moore said. Neither said Bermudez complained of bullying to them.

In an affidavit, Jaheem’s homeroom teacher said Bermudez “has at no point ever come to me to express any concerns about bullying, threats, physical violence or name calling (being called gay) in relation to her son.”

The teacher said Jaheem “never withdrew from the other students, never isolated himself and never ceased activities he enjoyed. He simply did not show any symptoms to me of sadness or depression.”

Bermudez’s attorney, on the other hand, said students called Jaheem “snitch, gay, virgin, you ugly … They threatened and attacked him in the bathroom in December 2008, choking him until he passed out.”

Moore noted that Norman Montgomery Keene, his mother’s “significant other,” had pleaded guilty twice to domestic violence charges. In 2006 in Rockdale County, Bermudez said “he lunged across the kitchen and grabbed her by the throat, shoving her against the east wall.” She told police he hit her with a kitchen chair and kicked her in the throat after she fell to the floor, Moore said, quoting from the original police report.

Keene was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to battery and obstructing a person from making an emergency phone call, Moore said. A decade earlier, she said, Keene pleaded guilty in the Virgin Islands to a gun charge and to beating Bermudez and kicking her in the chest.

Moore also noted that Jaheem was extremely to close to a grandmother who reportedly raised him. After her death in October 2008, she said, a teacher heard Jaheem say he wanted to be buried next to her.

The judge found school officials responded appropriately to two fights involving Jaheem that were reported to them. Two other incidents, one of which involved a schoolmate placing Jaheem in a chokehold, only came to light after the boy’s death, she said.

In the week of Jaheem’s death, Moore said, some students teased him for carrying a pink bookbag, which they described as “gay.” Other students said Jaheem shrugged off the name-calling.

On the day of his death, she said, Jaheem’s mother sent him to his room after he got involved in a disagreement with his sisters. “When it was time for dinner, his mother sent his sister to get Jaheem. His sister found Jaheem’s lifeless body hanging in the closet,” Moore reported.

Moore noted that Bermudez’s attorney would not allow the judge to speak to his client. He did provide written answers to Moore’s questions.

ETA: Can you believe this woman?  From Southern Voice:

Moore made an oral presentation to the media and the members of the DeKalb County School board about the factors contributing to Herrera’s death at a press conference in May. At the time, she stated the school system was not at fault in Herrera’s death, including that he was not bullied and that when students called him “gay” they meant “happy.”

Deny, minimize, lie, lie, lie. A very familiar pattern from my own experience of being bullied.

Dekalb School Blog Charges Black Racism

I just read an interesting post at the Dekalb County School Watch: SPLOST Spending for High Schools is Racially Imbalanced. The racial imbalance is supposedly black people denying money to whites and Hispanics.

I don’t know if people in south DeKalb know or realize this, but schools in north DeKalb are totally integrated and highly diverse. Conversely, schools in south DeKalb are almost completely homogenous as they are nearly 100% African-American. Ironically, north-end schools that are integrated have been ignored as far as repairs, additions and remodeling with SPLOST dollars, except Druid Hills - which has received some remodeling to their nearly 100 year old facility - and Tucker High School, which is being torn down and completely rebuilt - but then again, Tucker is 72% African-American. That is the only school in the north end of the county to be given attention beyond the standard auditorium/career tech packages promised, some even drawn, but not yet built. Chamblee, Lakeside, Cross Keys and Dunwoody still wait for their share of SPLOST construction. Lakeside at least has architectural drawings, but those have taken years to develop. Dunwoody and Chamblee have heard rumblings, but seen no action whatsoever. Cross Keys, built in 1958, is a disaster of a building and was apparently given all of the equipment and students from the torn down HS of Technology North - but no guidance or program director. Ironically, when we voted for SPLOST 3, Cross Keys was #2 on the list of priorities - just after SPLOST 2 carry over - and well before Tucker HS.

Yes, this post is interesting, but also chock-full of racist resentment. I've been subscribing to this blog for a few months in the hope that it would actually cover real issues over ALL Dekalb's schools, but I guess not. It's another "let South Dekalb rot" person. I've unsubscribed.

I agree on one point. Cross Keys High, which I think is the only predominantly Hispanic high school in Dekalb, has been royally screwed. Most of the Latino population in Atlanta are very new arrivals and need extra language services and supports that are just not being provided. For example, I met one woman, a Mexican immigrant, who was totally unaware that her son with a learning disability had the right to an IEP.

The educational power structure in Atlanta consists of entrenched elite white minority interests contending with newer-to-power elite black majority interests. Latinos are not even at the table yet.

Beyond the Cross Keys point, which I'll grant, all the statistics and SPLOST funding breakdowns simply obscure the fact that those high schools in South Dekalb are TERRIBLE, and the African-American parents are very, very unhappy with them.

So what if the whiter North Dekalb schools don't have a newer pool? Most South Dekalb parents would LOVE to be able get their kids into Dunwoody or Druid Hills. In fact, one of the main reasons those schools are so overcrowded is that people move to those areas in order to enroll their kids in school there.

Last year the (black) superintendent eliminated paid busing to charter, magnet, theme or out-of-neighborhood schools, as a cost-saving measure, so South Dekalb parents now have even less options for their kids to receive a quality education.

If real reform was carried out, and South Dekalb schools improved, there would be no imbalance. However, I doubt that the blogger wants to see that happen.

The serious problems in the Dekalb County School System are not rooted in reverse racism. It's an easy direction to point the finger, though. "Those minorities -- they take and take and just keep asking for more!" And if Latinos didn't happen to be convenient to the argument, they would probably be lumped in with African-Americans.

If these people are not willing to pull together with everyone else in the county, I wish they would just leave Dekalb and move to South Carolina or Cobb County or something.

I also really hate the way they appropriate the word "diversity". South Dekalb schools would be a lot more diverse if it wasn't for white flight. And Clarkston High School, one of the schools on the blog's hit list, is probably the most diverse school in the system. It's listed as 80% black, but because of its location at the center of the refugee community, that figure covers an wide array of African countries as well as native U.S. African-Americans. The other 20% is also incredibly diverse. Clarkston is an underfunded, dangerous school with substandard education known for warehousing refugee kids and graduating functionally illiterate students. I would definitely not want my son going there. But according to the blog, Clarkston gets more money than its benighted students deserve... how dare they have a new pool!

Hank Johnson Healthcare Townhall Meeting Was Great!

As far as I could tell from outside, that is. I didn't actually get into the townhall. I went with a contingent of other people, but although we were an hour early, there was no way we were getting in. The line was already around the block. There must have been thousands of people.

We stood outside with signs: large, simple, direct, polite signs. We got some good attention, and maybe some media coverage.

Supporters of healthcare reform outnumbered opponents by a lot, maybe 5 to 1. There were a couple whacko screamers. Someone yelled "YOU'RE NAZIS" at us. Another man yelled "you want to send all our money to Kenya!" However, there were so many supporters that the really rude people never achieved critical mass, and the atmosphere outside remained calm. I saw a ton of people I knew, including our old therapist!

There was heavy security, and apparently the rules for the townhall were very strict and carefully explained at the beginning. People who yelled or were disruptive would be escorted out. I can't wait to read a summary to see how it turned out.

In related news, there's been a lot of local coverage on how Rep. David Scott, of the neighboring 13th District, supposedly "lost his temper" at a non-healthcare townhall when he was asked a healthcare question. I saw a video clip in question, and I don't believe he loses his temper. And I'm not saying this because I like David Scott, because I can't stand him. I think his political career is full of corruption, and he's nowhere near the caliber of, say, John Lewis. But in this case Scott is right. The media coverage surrounding the video clip was ridiculous and racist. Whatever the man's faults, he's a slick politician... he wouldn't freak out in front of a camera. If he was white, the headlines would have said "strong words" at the most, not "loses his temper".

Here's what he has to say in his defense:

"The first question that comes out of his mouth, 'Why did you vote for this?'" Scott said. "Wait a minute -- I didn't vote for anything. We haven't had it to vote on."

What you didn't see in our original report was the three minutes Scott spent answering the doctor's question before he raised his voice.

Watson asked Scott, "In hindsight, seeing those clips, did you lose your temper?"

"No, I did not lose my temper. I was very firm and I talked very firm -- and if you looked at that, my words were there. I didn't bite my tongue about it. I was very, very disturbed with him," Scott said.

But Scott is even more disturbed about mail he has received in the days since the story aired.

Scott held up a sheet of paper to Watson that had a picture of President Obama on it, his face made to look like the joker in Batman, a swastika on his forehead. Then he read what it said.

"They address it to n----- David Scott, 'You were, you are, and you shall forever be, a n-----'," Scott said, reading from the letter. "I got this in the mail today. Somewhere underneath this, bubbling up, is the ugly viscissitudes [sic, because 11alive.com hasn't discovered spellchecking] of racism. We should be proud we have an African American president and celebrating him willing to take on the difficult issue of healthcare, an issue that reflects 19 percent of our economy. Here we are in Congress trying to grapple with an almost impossible task -- almost two improbables together, bring the cost of healthcare down while expanding the coverage of it. That is a difficult assignment and it should not be relegated to these mobs of people who will come and hijack a meeting, and you expect me not to stand up to that and not to show that we're not intimidated?"

Scott is hosting a health fair and healthcare forum at which he will do questions and answers on the topic of healthcare reform.

It will be held on Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm at Mundy's Mill High School in Jonesboro.

I'll be there!

Thank goodness Hank Johnson will never be accused of losing his temper despite incontrovertible blackness. Maybe it's all the "Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō"s he recites... he projects an almost supernatural (though slightly gawky) aura of calmness.

Hank Johnson Healthcare Townhall Monday Night August 10th

I'll be there. I'm sick of this whole debate, and it won't be fun at all. I'm also sick of hearing about the people who have been disrupting these events with their screaming.

Monday, August 10 from 7 to 9 p.m.
Georgia Perimeter College Clarkston Campus
Cole Auditorium/FineArtsCenter
555 North Indian Creek Drive
Clarkston, GA 30021

This country desperately needs healthcare reform. My family desperately needs healthcare reform. My mother is currently uninsured and uninsurable. We're just hoping she makes it to Medicare age without a recurrence of her breast cancer.

When the insurance-company-funded right-wing hooligans try to disrupt Hank Johnson's townhall, I want them to fail miserably. The only way to ensure this is to get so many of us reform supporters into the event early that there's no room for the shouters when they show up.

Please come if you're a local supporter. If you're not a supporter, I despair at convincing you otherwise. I have nothing to say to the other side anymore. A red mist comes over my eyes and I start thinking "YOU DON'T CARE IF MY MOTHER DIES". I'll leave the job to other, less emotional debaters.

Police Complaint

I have just not been feeling very inspired about personal blogging lately. I'll get back into it soon, I promise... this is the latest occurrence I've felt inspired to write about. It just happened today. I'm still steamed!

--------
Email sent to Burrell Ellis, CEO of Dekalb County:

Hello,

I was driving down North Decatur Road (on the stretch where it crosses under I-285) this Sunday afternoon when I noticed a turtle crossing the road. There weren't a lot of cars on the road, so I decided to stop and help the turtle before it got run over.

I turned around, drove back to where the turtle was, stopped my car, put on the hazard lights and quickly stepped out. I was planning on taking the turtle to the other side of the road and then jumping back in my car. Just when I stepped out of my car, a police car happened to come up behind me, and turned on the siren... I pointed to the turtle I was picking up. The police officer screamed at me "GET THE FRIG OFF THE ROAD" over his loudspeaker. I put down the turtle a couple feet away on the side of the road and got back in my car. I was too scared of the police officer to actually take the turtle to the other side of the road, so the turtle probably tried to cross again later and got run over.

I was really upset by the officer's rudeness. I understand that given the terrible crime problems that Dekalb County faces, the fate of a turtle is not very important. However, a police officer with such a short temper that the sight of a car stopped for a turtle causes him to freak out and curse... this kind of behavior is very unprofessional and ineffective. I understand you have done a lot of work to fix up the police department mess that Vernon Jones and Terrell Bolton left. I just hope that future police training will also include lessons on how not to alienate the people they are supposed to protect. Thank you for considering my perspective.

Regards,
____

--------
Edited to Add: I just drove to work today along that same stretch. I kept my eye out for a horrible bloody stain on the road, but didn't see anything. So I guess the turtle made it!

I didn't sign up for this!

Atlanta thundersnow? I've lived here for more than a decade but I still haven't come to grips with the fact that we do sometimes have a snow day in winter. It just doesn't seem fair.

Guy phoned me last night to ask, "do you think it's really going to snow tomorrow?" I said, "No way. It's 60 degrees right now, the weatherman must be on crack." Then around noon today a bunch of nasty wet snowflakes started cascading down. Argh!

I HATE snow. I prefer climates where there are only two seasons, a wet season and a dry season, and absolutely no "winter" allowed. Sunny wanted me to play with him in the snow... ha! Not likely. I watched him play for a while, but the snow was so muddy and slushy that he and the other neighborhood kids couldn't really do much with it.

We couldn't do any more activities today because the roads are a huge mess. In order for Sunny to get his requisite physical activity, I had to resort to chasing him around the house in endless circles while trying to "whip" him with a fleece scarf. We tried it the other way around, but he's too fast. It's exhausting, but since my alternative is being woken up at 4 in the morning, I had a strong motivation to keep staggering after him.

Besides the snow, another annoying aspect of this weekend is the nasty little burn I got on Friday. That's when I went to sleep with a Sunbeam electric heating and massage pad at the foot of the bed to keep my toes warm. Something horribly wrong happened and I woke up the next morning with a second-degree burn on my ankle. It soon swelled into a burn blister the size of a dollar coin, protruding about half an inch upwards. To keep the blister from painfully bursting I've been jury-rigging protection for it. I create a thick square of padding from tissue and gauze, cut a hole in the center the size of the blister, tape the padding over the blister and onto my ankle, tape a carefully-cut-out plastic lid onto the padding and onto my ankle, then wrap a flexible fabric bandage around my ankle. I air it out for an hour every morning and night, replacing the whole thing each time. I'd put up a picture of the burn blister, but it's just too freaky.

I've decided what we're getting Sunny for his birthday. Infrared stealth goggles (surprisingly cheap!) and a keytar. Soon, he'll be able to sneak up to people in the dark and assault them with loud, tinny power chords.

Email to Sonny Perdue our Idiot Governor

I just can't word this in any more diplomatic way.

You are already a terrible governor, but even for you, this is a new low. I can't believe you are going to put your bankrupt party ideology above the benefit of all Georgians and turn down stimulus money. Is this what you want your legacy to be? I will be protesting your ridiculous decision loudly and through as many venues as possible.

AJC article: Perdue may turn down some funds

Dekalb County Goings On

Right now Dekalb County is getting a lot of attention because of the feud between the new CEO, Burrell Ellis, and the Chief of Police, Terrell Bolton.

Police chief, CEO feud embarrassing, familiar

No one other than Bolton and Ellis can say exactly what caused the dispute that erupted last week in a public relations disaster for DeKalb government.

Ellis fired Bolton’s top civilian aide and put Bolton on leave pending an investigation into unspecified allegations. He said he is not satisfied with Bolton’s practice of taking comp time, his frequent trips to his family home in Dallas or his job performance, including Bolton’s efforts to reduce crime.

Bolton labeled the investigation a “witch hunt” and asked the GBI to take over that probe and investigate Ellis as well. The GBI said Friday that it could not do so based simply on Bolton’s request.

Among Bolton’s complaints was the conduct of county sheriff’s deputies in Ellis’ security detail. The presence of those deputies — from the independent Sheriff’s Office rather than the county government’s own police force — has its roots in DeKalb’s history and Ellis’ political experience.

I know which side I'm on. I don't agree with the "you should all get along like adults" finger-wagging. So far, I have faith that Ellis is doing his best. He needs to clean out Dekalb, which is rotten with incompetent Vernon Jones cronies like Bolton. I read Dekalb Officers Speak so I get a sense of what's going on behind the scenes; yes, it's a highly biased blog, but I've followed their links to read what mainstream media in Houston has said about Bolton, and none of it is flattering.

Even though Bolton is really a Texas outsider, maybe he'll decide to follow an old Dekalb tradition and assassinate Ellis. I'm sure Ellis has had the same thought, which is why the separate security detail is an excellent idea. I just hope Ellis can fire Bolton as soon as possible and get further into the serious work of cleaning out Dekalb.

Worried about Atlanta

Jim Martin's loss to Saxby Chambliss was disappointing. I worked for the campaign, but I still had a feeling he was going to lose. The state of Georgia remains firmly in the control of Republicans who are strangling Atlanta... and local Democratic politicians are by and large a mediocre bunch. At least Hank Johnson and John Lewis are doing a good job, and I'm desperately hoping that Burrell Ellis is going to turn things around in Dekalb County after the embarrassing reign of Vernon Jones.

Georgia's unemployment rate is now higher than the national average. Our crime is rising too. It's been rising for a while, in part due to horrible police leadership, and the economic climate is only going to make it rise much faster. A pizza place near where I live just got robbed during dinner peak.

I've always been upbeat, overall, about where I live: Dekalb County, to the east of Atlanta, a large county with a higher population than quite a few states. Living here means I can afford a nice big solid house with a real yard. My commute time isn't bad. I have quick access to the best food from all over the world, and this is really crucial for my quality of life! My son's friends are also all over the map, and he sees lots of examples of successful African-American professionals.

The downside is the crime, and the bad schools. This area is all over the spectrum not just in race and ethnicity, but also in terms of income. There are lots of apartment buildings and residency hotels, especially around the Memorial Drive corridor, where something bad is always going down. I know people who live in these buildings, and they suffer the worst of it, of course. 95% of the residents are in working families, but since they have to work so incredibly hard, while they're out working their two or three jobs the other 5% runs around drug-dealing and shooting their guns and causing general nastiness. Rising unemployment is only going to make it worse for everyone.

As for the schools, there is one thing I know for sure: Sunny is NOT going to junior high school in any of the local public schools. I may write about this later but things are pretty dire. I'm in the same boat as many other people. My neighbor, for example, is gaming the system by using his sister's apartment as an official residency so that his son can go to a safer, better junior high. That's a very common tactic.

I am going to do what I can politically to try and improve the public school situation, but it's my responsibility to try and help fix things... not Sunny's. In the short term the situation is only going to get worse due to the recession and massive budget cuts, but in the long-term, I'm hoping an Obama administration, combined with better local leadership, may turn things around.

I don't have many alternatives for places to live. I need a big cheap city and I can't stand cold weather. The West Coast is still too expensive. I'm scared of Texas. Culturally, Miami and New Orleans are two places I'd consider. But Miami probably has worse traffic than Atlanta, the same crime, and is more expensive. New Orleans has worse crime and fewer jobs. Guy is even more picky than I am, too. He has never really lived away from Georgia and I think he'd be almost incapable of moving. As a final factor, my mother and stepfather moved halfway across America just to live next to us... so I don't think we'll be moving soon. Anyway, things are going to be tough all over for a few more years at the very least.

ETA: I can't believe I forgot to mention one huge advantage Atlanta has over New Orleans and Miami: the absence of killer hurricanes.

Why Some Residency Restrictions on Sex Offenders can Backfire

I never thought about the issue of residency restrictions on sex offenders before reading this story, "Life in the Shadows." Like most everyone else, I thought sex offenders were scum who had to be kept away from children at all costs.

It's a bit more complicated than that.

In short, when she was 17, the woman from the story gave oral sex to a 15-year-old on school grounds. An insanely stupid teenage thing to do. But as a result, she ended up on the sex offender list. It's also very likely that her harsh punishment had something to do with the fact that she's white and the boy was black. Newly stringent laws on where sex offenders can live means that she can hardly live anywhere. She can't even go to college.

The article argues that strict residency restrictions 1) unduly punish people like that woman, who have almost no chance of offending again 2) drive worse sex offenders underground or off the radar so that they can't be tracked at all 3) do not protect children that much because only 10% of sexual abuse is committed by strangers.

The woman is facing eviction again today. I hope she wins her case and can finally begin her life.

Who to Vote for Tomorrow...

We have an important election tomorrow. The Democratic primary is going to decide a lot of local leaders (there are so few Republicans that the general election isn't meaningful).

Hank Johnson, my rep, doesn't have a challenger this year, since Cynthia McKinney is off running for president. Usually this district is a hot primary contest. On the other hand, John Lewis DOES have a challenger, which is an amazing event. Everyone thought he would die in office without ever having to run for his seat again. He's not going to lose it this time, though.

The most important post for me is Dekalb CEO; this is a powerful position in charge of the populous area of unincorporated Dekalb. Vernon Jones, the misogynist, warmongering backstabbing all-around nasty human being, is leaving this post. I remember when he was first elected and there were high hopes for him. He was known as "an a**hole who got things done". But then he stopped getting things done. Dekalb County is still in a terrible situation as far as crime and school quality.

Vernon Jones is leaving to run for Senate. He's not a good candidate and there were rumors the Republicans were paying him to run. On the other hand, I've heard he might do well in south Georgia, where people don't yet know how much of an a**hole he is.

For Senate, we're trying to defeat Saxby Chambliss, a loathesome Bush puppet. Some people think that because Jones is black, he will be in a good position to take advantage of the new wave of Obama voters that are going to the polls this general election. If I believed that, I'd vote for him in the primary, because even Jones is better than Chambliss. However, he has such an evil reputation, especially among women, that I bet many people will simply not vote for that Senate position, even if they're voting a straight Democratic ticket otherwise.

So for Senate primary, I'm going to vote for Rand Knight. He seems intelligent, likable and has a decent chance. Josh Lanier is admirable but doesn't have the money. Dale Cardwell hates immigrants and is totally nuts. Jim Martin waited too long and is not energetic enough.

For Dekalb County CEO, I'm torn between Stan Watson and Burrell Ellis. I was leaning to Watson, but I have started to hear good things about Ellis. I will probably go for Ellis after doing a bit more research.

A Lazy Tour of Atlanta and Georgia Rap Songs

Courtesy of Youtube and the Dirty South, here's a few highlights with my comments. Please keep in mind a lot of these songs don't have bad words bleeped out.

I moved to Atlanta 12 years ago, just when Outkast released ATLiens. Me and you, your mama and your cousin too... This song says it's about movement, but then refuses say where it's going. It's an aimless, winding, cruising song. It's like a sequence of incomplete impressionist paintings.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyPKvpfyKWU

ATLiens was a huge landmark. Other Atlanta rappers started getting noticed. A friend of Outkast and the Goodie Mob, rapper Cool Breeze put out this massive local hit, packed with guest stars, in 1999. You may recognize Cee-Lo, now with Gnarls Barkley. I cannot stress enough how awesome this song is. It's frenzied and bursting with energy but in complete control at the same time. It's ridiculously ambitious and richly cinematic. You get an amazing sense of multiple stories all weaving back and forth, destinies colliding, a crisis upon us. Brotherman!


http://youtube.com/watch?v=aUQ3uSNXb2Q

In 2002 Nappy Roots, a Kentucky/Georgia group, has a breakthrough summer hit. This is a beautiful, soulful, plaintive song. It's intellectual and earthy at the same time; deeply southern, anti-materialist, multiracial. It's not just all about fast life in the big city. Them country boys on the rise...


http://youtube.com/watch?v=U5jybNySBmo

Here's the last flowering of truly good and innovative Atlanta hip-hop. The Dungeon Family album is full of incredible songs. This happens to be my favorite, mainly because of the monstrous beat with the scratching.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=YpWMRkilki0

Here's another Dungeon Family offshoot, the Purple Ribbon All-Stars. The hook spirals into your brain, and from there the song goes straight to the lungs and the groin.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7228o6cF1Y

The Ying Yang twins are good at party anthems. Their music is rather brainless and clownish. I have a soft spot for this early song of theirs, however. I think it's because it's about being stupid and jerk-ish solely for the sake of being stupid and jerk-ish. Plus, the part in the video where Big Gipp is rapping on top of plastic-covered furniture is hilarious. If you're getting tired now, skip the video.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=B_GrT-p5c_A

This is Bonecrusher (what a silly name), T.I. (recently jailed on a machine gun charge) and Killer Mike. It's one of those really violent songs where the whole point is bragging about big, big penis-guns. Nevertheless, I'm going to include it because it was a huge hit, and represents the newer kind of Atlanta song. I hated this song when it was on the radio, but sometimes I feel a bit nostalgic for it. Why? I guess it's the cinematic feel, and the bells. This song is about urban violence, but it could just as well be a gothic tale... the hero standing outside the ruined mansion under a full moon with a shotgun in one hand and a chainsaw in the other, screwing up his courage to kick down the door, yelling to himself, "I AIN'T NEVER SCARED"...


http://youtube.com/watch?v=fF6UYdZASc8

Here's an earlier Ludacris song. I don't think he's ever done a truly excellent or important song, although he gives it a good try here, but his delivery is always perfect and his stuff is really, really fun. This is his funnest and most Atlantaest song.

(No Embedding)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KpKZ1aWB_OE

Here's T.I.'s newest song. I heard he's going to fulfill his 1000 hours of community service by going around telling kids not to make the same kind of mistakes he made. That's the kind of stupid decision we've come to expect from the Dekalb County criminal justice system. That's not punishment, that's a publicity tour! I'd like to see him in an orange vest by the side of the highway picking up trash. Then I'd roll down my window and bonk him on the head with a well-aimed apple core. That being said, I actually like his new song. It's the organ sample and the drumbeat that make it good.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=mLVycH6w8FM

That's it for now... and I'm not going to put any crunk music up, I can't stand that stuff!

Analysis of a Local Public Disturbance

What makes a viral video?

Here are some qualities I've noticed.

1) They show a human or animal engaged in some unique or extreme activity
2) They exhibit noteworthy artistic skill or cleverness
3) They greatly reinforce prior beliefs
4) They greatly challenge prior beliefs
5) Newsworthy: they show something that connects with our sense of the local and the current, the here and now. We can relate the narrative of our lives to what happens in the video.

These videos also generate mountains of racially-based commentaries wherever they're posted. Actually, it's often more a spittle-flecked monologue than it is a dialogue.

I'll talk about two other viral videos before I show the Soulja Girl one.

I remember a video from last year that showed a high school fight. Two young men take off their shirts and square off. It's a white kid and a smaller, shorter Asian kid. The crowd is yelling their support of the white kid; they're on his side. It begins. Whoever uploaded it has added a soundtrack: Rick Ross' "Everday I'm Hustlin" booms over the fight. The Asian kid moves like greased lightning and after a few punches, the white kid is down. He gets up and walks off. The Asian kid drops him again; this time he can barely stagger away, blood and bits of teeth spraying from his mouth. The video ends.

This video was popular among Asian-Americans, for obvious reasons. A narrative built up around it. The white kid was the bully. The Asian kid was the hero. The narrative had dubious authenticity, but it felt right, it fit with the video and it fit with many of our experiences. I've certainly had the experience, multiple times at school, of being surrounded by a circle of hostile white kids screaming at me. I watched the video several times. It created a strong surge of mixed emotion. I couldn't think straight while watching it. I loved it and hated it at the same time for making me romanticize the violence.

Another example is a popular video I saw last year that's much less violent but seemed to arouse equally strong emotions. A young, pretty, blond white girl sits in front of the camera and talks about her infatuation with Arab men. Nothing is pornographic or poetic; her tone is quite flat and even bland. Arab men are handsome. They're sexy. They're romantic. They know how to treat women well. They're fun to hang out with. She only goes out with Arab men now. Her current boyfriend is Arab. She's learning Arabic. She's converting to Islam. That's it, really.

You can imagine how the typical anti-Arab commenter reacts to this. Her positive stereotyping sends them into a frenzy. What she believes is the exact opposite of what any white, presumably Christian woman is supposed to believe about Arab men. It's a huge challenge to their own beliefs, and they have to deal with it by turning her into a non-representative freak, someone who's not deserving of the title of woman, even.

If it was a more common fetish – for example, a white man giving similarly bland reasons for liking Asian women --- there is no way the video would have gotten the same attention and reaction.

I first saw the Soulja Girl video at the Creative Loafing blog. It's a local Atlanta blog. There are other local sources for the video. It's viral because it's current, it involves something that almost all Atlantans are familiar with (the MARTA train), it shows an extreme of human behavior and it reinforces some prior beliefs for a lot of people. I have to warn viewers, the video is quite depressing and is going to arouse a lot of negative emotions. I'm going to talk much more about those reactions than about the video itself.



Here are some comments from the initial Creative Loafing post. There's a good dialogue in that the stupid comments do not go unchallenged.

Reason #3,129 guns should be kept off MARTA

# Jill Chambers Says:
May 7th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
It's just one more reason why MARTA needs to have their police actually riding on the trains. How sad that someone would so rudely disrespect the elderly woman and that all those other riders did not even try to come to her defense.

# Cricket Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 6:46 am
This is a perfect reason that people with concealed carry permits SHOULD be allowed on MARTA. If I had seen this, and it had escalated to actual physical violence, I would have no problem giving that ghetto wh*re two in the hat.

# Ken Edelstein Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Cricket, you make the point of gun control advocates everywhere.

# DaleC Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Cricket it DID escalate to physical violence when the guy finally stood up and stopped the aggressor. No weapons needed.
That poor old woman. I can't believe it took that long for SOMEBODY to stand up to her being assaulted.
Notice how rapidly Soulja Girl's attitude changed when she was confronted by someone who showed force in an appropriate manner.
Bullies fold when someone calls them on their crap. It's a shame it took someone that long to stand up to her.
As an aside, don't you just LOVE the beautiful world of Hard Core Hip Hop culture.

# Roxie Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Dude, Dale, did you just call "superman" Hard Core HipHop?
Please, appropriately hang your head in shame.
The woman in the video was not a life threatening individual. Although, she is severely testing sanity and patience, being horrendously disrespectful, aggressive, and antagonizing..It was NOT dealt with appropriately by the young man, as you can see, it only escalated the situation. There are better ways to deal with something like this that do not involve HITTING.
Of course, armchair quarterbacking is so easy. It took so long for ppl to respond b/c they couldn't believe what was happening and certainly didn't expect it to last as long as it did.

Hilarious.
# nast Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Seeing as how this incident was defused by a simple act of wig pulling, perhaps Gov. Perdue should sign a bill that protects individual rights to pull others' wigs in restaurants, parks, churches and other public places.
"A wig-pulling society is a polite society."

In the next update to the story, the spittle-flecked monologue begins.

MARTA statement regarding videotaped lunacy


# troy c Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Is she an Obama superdelegate?

# LMM66 Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Not one of those losers tried to help an elderly woman. Everyone there was dumb*** you-know-what. As people have mentioned here already, THIS is how stereotypes are formed. And whether folks like it or not, THIS is the norm for "them".

# Weary One Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
M.A.R.T.A.
Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta

# Roxie Says:
May 11th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Wow. I didn't know so many racists liked CL.

MARTA actually stands for Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (although everyone knows the other five words). It's a contentious intersection of race and politics in Atlanta.

Compared to better-known train systems, such as New York City, the trains are very limited in the ground they cover. The crime rate is low and the trains and stations are extraordinarily clean. Everyday users of the MARTA trains are predominantly working-class/middle-class African-Americans. All other Atlantans take the trains periodically, usually to go the airport or to attend special events held downtown.

Central Atlanta is a diverse mix, with the largest bloc being native (Atlanta-born) African-American. White people who live inside Atlanta are comparatively progressive in their politics, especially because of the huge GLBT community. They're not a choir of enlightened angels, by any means, but one thing is sure: if they were scared of seeing and talking to black people every day, they wouldn't be living where they do.

The suburbs to the east are where many richer, non-Atlanta-born African-Americans have settled. And to the far north, the suburbs trace the arc of white flight. The iron claws of the northern suburbs have had a pretty bad effect on the development of public transportation in Atlanta. Their politics, plus the road-construction lobby's dirty money, ensures that Atlanta's traffic congestion and air quality get worse and worse every year. MARTA's system is funded only by the two counties of metropolitan Atlanta, although people from the surrounding counties frequently use it for park-and-ride. The counties of the northern suburbs refuse to link their own systems to it, for fear of getting too many undesirable people in their neighborhoods. A well known fact: "MARTA is unique in that it is the largest United States transit agency not to receive state operational funding."

The comments to the video illustrate an intense fear and loathing of public transportation. This fear and loathing feeds from racism, then back into racism, in a vicious feedback loop. "If only I could never leave my car," they pray. But parking is limited at their sporting events and their centers of bureaucracy. Every once in a while, they have to bravely step onto a MARTA train. And they're not even allowed to carry their guns on board! They resent that.

Anyone who is passionate about Atlanta and knowledgeable about Atlanta and lives inside it, no matter what their race, knows about this dynamic. We're all hostages to it.

Getting back to a more personal level, what do viewers feel about the woman?

I didn't think that drugs were involved. It definitely wasn't crack. People on crack aren't that fluid and expressive and coordinated in their movements. I think a lot of people on the train had the same visceral reaction I did… the fear and awe of the mad. If you don't look at them, maybe they won't notice you.

In fact, that's what happened. I read it first at local videojournalist A.Man.I's blog: Soulja Girl Turns Herself In. The fuller story was reported here and on local radio stations.

MARTA's 'Soulja Girl' Getting the Help She Needs

She's only 25 years old, but the dark bags under Nafiza Z.'s eyes tell the story of a young life blighted by psychosis, delusions, hallucinations and mania that are the hallmarks of her mental disorder.

Yesterday afternoon, Nafiza, was in the DeKalb County jail receiving the psychiatric treatment she desperately needed. But on April 7th, Nafiza was spiraling out of control on a MARTA train traveling through Atlanta's east side.

The scenes captured on another passenger's cell phone of Nafiza aka "Soulja Girl" terrorizing an elderly passenger - caused a sensation on the Internet and embarrassed MARTA officials who quickly issued a warrant for her arrest.

People with bipolar disorder aren't usually that violent or aggressive even in their manic phase. They are usually more of a danger to themselves than they are to others.

Nafiza's boyfriend Dee, with whom she has a baby son, said it more eloquently when he called into the Ryan Cameron Show on Friday, "If she wasn't bipolar she would be the good a person on earth," said Dee.


"That girl got a good heart. The city don't help her, man! They just kick her back out on the streets. The city don't help [black mentally ill] folks like that. Once you get in that [manic] stage you can't help yourself. It mess with your mind, man. Once your mind gone it's a wrap!"

I don't know exactly what it's like to be in the grip of clinical mania, adrenaline coursing through your body, other strange chemicals surging through your brain. But I know what it feels like to be a witness to something like that. Perhaps the awe and fear of the bystander is partly because of our empathy with mania... as if we're seeing the dial turned up to 10 on an experience we've felt at level 3 or 4.

It reminds me of a bizarre experience I had when I was in college in Miami. I was at a donut shop late at night, studying with some friends. An older white man walked in and set down at the booth next to us. He started talking very loudly to the air in a sharp, agonized tone. It was a monologue about being a Vietnam vet and how he was betrayed and how it was all the fault of the gooks. That sentiment, those words, over and over again.

My friends were shrinking into their seats. They were all foreign students and terrified of getting into trouble and getting deported, especially the one from Iraq. I had the opposite reaction. My skin was on fire, there was a buzzing noise in my ears, my body started shivering and trembling as if someone had plugged me into an electric current, and everytime he said the word "gook" the current spiked. After a couple minutes of this, I couldn't take it anymore. I got up and faced him and started yelling back.

There was chaos after that point. Another older white man came over, said he was also a Vietnam vet and then took my side of the loud, disjointed argument. The staff of the donut shop got involved. There were numerous threats of ass-kicking. The police came. They tried to talk him down but eventually arrested him after he got into his car, because he was obviously in no condition to drive.

My friends, who hadn't moved during the whole time, told me I was crazy. Yes, my actions were pretty irrational, but I didn't feel like I had a choice. I'd waded up to my knees in something that the mentally ill man was drowning in. I suppose I won, but my victory was pretty hollow.

This was the first narrative that I connected to the video I watched today. But after that man went out into the parking lot, I have no idea how his story began or ended.

After I read a bit more of Nafiza Z.'s story, I feel almost guilty for writing this analysis. I still empathize with the bystanders and the poor elderly lady, but I also empathize with her terrible struggle. I hope these words will go to show how the hatred expressed toward her has more to do with a complicated web of politics, race and resentment than it does with her actual actions. I hope she can transcend the person shown in that video and become the person she wants to be.

Interesting Local Blog

I've written a bit about crime in Dekalb County before.

Last year I witnessed a terrible incident of domestic violence and could not get anyone to answer my 911 call. A few years before that, in my old apartment, I was threatened with sexual assault, and the initial police response was frankly pathetic.

The leadership in Atlanta and Dekalb County has been pretty bad in this area. I believe a lot of individual police are trying to do good jobs, but they're not getting enough help. The husband of one of my mother's friends was a policeman for a while, but quit because his working environment was so horrible. He said he was actually losing his sanity.

I just found a fascinating window into the problem: an anonymous blog called "Dekalb Officers Speak".

Here's an example. T-Bo is what they call Terrell Bolton, the scandal-ridden Chief of Police.

MESSAGE FOR BRASS

T-BO OR T-BO MAJORS, DEPUTY CHIEFS, ETC...WE JUST WANT ALL OF YOU TO KNOW THAT NOBODY LIKES YOU. WE PUT ON SOME GREAT SMILES AND CONVERSATIONS BUT WE DON'T LIKE YOU. OK THATS ALL I HAVE.

Damn!

Viiiiiiiine City (Tornado Cleanup)

I've been in a photo mood recently.





There were local volunteer groups plus other groups from all over the country. The debris is getting cleaned up pretty quickly with so many people on the job now.

Yardwork

My husband and I signed up with a volunteer group and did some tornado clean-up this morning. Then we did some yardwork at home. I'm going to install rain barrels tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from my garden. I need to work harder this year and concentrate heavily on natives and drought-resistant plants.