posted August 8, 2008
Well, before all the letters rubbing it in about this minor election setback start flooding in, let me make something perfectly clear. We are proud that we supported three great candidates to try and change Hamilton County’s current path.
Unlike the selfish people who voted for Chip Baker and Debra Matthews, we can be proud of what we accomplished and the reasons we worked so hard. Think about it. Dumas and Juster ran against two power structure incumbents, with almost no money, and a biased newspaper working against us and almost pulled it off. Chip Baker had a pile of power structure money (four times the Dumas amount), hundreds of “Stepford” soccer moms and an arrogant attitude. In the case of Debra Matthews she had the same political machine that Bookie Turner and Ward Crutchfield used for years to keep the black community in check. She used the same racist playbook by starting a ridiculous lie about Gregg Juster wanting to bulldoze Howard and put up a golf course. Are her constituents just dumb, gullible, or both?
What we had was Rhonda Thurman, two great candidates, and 15-20 dedicated volunteers who are interested in honesty. We had a little money and a lot of heart. Our people aren’t going anywhere. We will continue to shine the light to force the roaches to run for cover.
It reminds me of a true story. While deer hunting with a friend, we saw a deer about 350 yards away walking at a fast pace across a field. My friend aimed and started firing his weapon. He missed that deer five times. While he was fumbling around in his pockets, I looked at him and asked, “What are you doing?” He said, “Reloading.” After missing five times, I thought to myself that he was wasting his time and ammunition. My friend aimed again and made a great shot and dropped that buck in its tracks.
If you ask me what we are going to do next after this little setback, my reply will be “Reload.” It ain’t even close to being over.
Tim Price
jat-55@msn.com
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I have no beef with the Back on Track members personally, and find many of their positions and points made to be interesting and having the potential to improve public education.
That being said, until their appointed scribe stops referring to people he does not know as "selfish", "dumb" and "gullible" - I doubt the train will ever reach the station.
Debate on issues, win arguments based on sound logic.
To demean folks out of hand with a broad brush will not win over the average public or the average voting populace.
C. Graham
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The public schools on Signal Mountain are not representative of our schools. As a ditch person, with a child and family that does not have Signal Mountain choices, it is very sad that Red Bank and North Chattanooga's representation is controlled by affluent people.
We do not have a soccer program, we have an SRO program. Children that are in a survival mode and disenfranchised do not behave as well.
The precinct results for District 2 paint a very clear picture of how affluence continues to control school representation. A review of the precinct numbers clearly show that Mountain Stepford soccer moms control the school board representation. The ditch people community is concerned with latch key children and working moms.
The people determining district lines know that affluent people vote in higher numbers, so they can control the less affluent areas such as Red Bank and the non-golf course sections of North Chattanooga.
Allison Graham
Chattanooga
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Maybe the "Ditch People" should have gotten out and voted.
Roger Southerland
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