I just read UnifiEd’s latest e-mail. It reads:
“Two Hamilton County Board Members say they reject idea of racial economic integration.”
“It’s 2018. This is unacceptable. This is dangerous. This is hateful.”
“We need your help to fight this. Spread this story far and wide. Tell your friends, family, and your community that this is NOT what you want for Hamilton County.”
And if you can, please donate. We need your help to continue fighting against this injustice and the rhetoric that fuels it.”
Don’t you just love the play on words? Or, as it is referred to in politics, “spin” or as we say in Soddy-Daisy “hogwash”. So, if you speak out against a proposed busing plan it is “unacceptable”? Well, I think it is unacceptable for a group of elected representatives to sit around waiting for a group of un-elected, unaccountable people, mostly from out of town, that have never proved anything, to tell us what we need to do.
If you are against busing students out of their neighborhoods you are “dangerous”? I think it is “dangerous” to put children on buses for hours a day so they can be used as guinea pigs in your latest social experiment. I will not allow my grandchildren to be used as guinea pigs and I do not expect anyone else to either.
Finally, I guess it is “hateful” to want to go back to the open enrollment plan Hamilton County had before another out of towner, Dr. Jesse Register, discontinued the program to save us from ourselves. Before Dr. Register, students in the Hamilton County School System could attend any school in the system they wanted to, provided there was room and they could provide their own transportation. Some say this is not “fair” because not everyone can provide their own transportation. Joe Smith had a great idea. Why not use all of the money you guys at UnifiEd are trying to raise to provide transportation for these students to attend the school of their choice, whether it be a school with available room, a magnet, charter or Future Ready Institute? By doing that you guys could really help students instead of trying to “control” the school system. Unless, of course, control is what you are really after.
I must say that I do agree with one of the statements in UnifiEd’s latest e-mail- “We need your help to fight this (busing proposal). Spread this story far and wide. Tell your friends, family, and your community this (busing proposal) is NOT what you want for Hamilton County.”
In my opinion, it is “unjust” to force families to send their children out of their neighborhoods to attend school against their will. As far as the “rhetoric that fuels it”, I plan to continue my 2018 “rhetoric” against this outdated, worn-out, disaster called busing.
Rhonda Thurman