September 6, 2007 Letters to the Editor

Dear Candidates for Roswell City Council:
    
Thank you for caring enough about Roswell to run for City Council.  I’m sure that you have some good ideas on how to make Roswell a better place to live. The City Council and I are struggling with a couple of issues which I would appreciate your help on.

Traffic Congestion:

How should the city raise the millions of dollars necessary to pay our share of the cost of needed transportation improvements?

We all agree that intersection improvements are needed throughout the city to eliminate traffic congestion and bottlenecks. Just one of these projects, improving the Holcomb Bridge/Ga. 400 road interchange could cost the city $20 million dollars, assuming the state pays 80 percent of the estimated cost.  Given that this year’s city budget was only $3.3 million for new capital projects, the city cannot pay for the needed transportation improvements unless we increase tax revenues or cut city expenditures.

I would like to hear your suggestions on how we should pay for these improvements.

Redevelopment:

What can Roswell do to convince developers to invest the millions of dollars needed to redevelop Roswell’s aging apartment complexes and shopping centers?

Redevelopment has been a top priority of the Roswell City Council for many years and we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on studies and thousands of hours of staff time to promote redevelopment in this city. During the same time period, no apartment complexes have been replaced by new developments, and vacancies in our old shopping centers have increased. What are your ideas to convince developers to invest in our great city?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how to address these and other issues facing the city of Roswell.

Jere Wood, Mayor
City of Roswell


Well, all I can say is “Thank goodness we have Elizabeth Clarke Price around!” Without her, who would we white people rely on to tell us how oppressed we are? Thankfully, her “Open Letter to The Atlanta Journal Constitution” has saved us before it is too late. Now let’s put aside the fact that her rambling letter tries to warn us about the radical liberalism of the AJC, the racism of Delta Airlines, the FAA, the Organization of Black Airline Pilots and the Atlanta Career Education Camp, and describe to us the horrible plight faced by white teenagers in today’s society – let’s just be glad that we have such a strong and faithful confederate to watch over our put-upon race and defend us against discrimination at the highest level.

Thankfully, we have her wisdom in race relations (and perhaps mathematics, too!) to explain to us that the forty-three years since the Civil Rights Act have completely erased and set right the cruelty, oppression and discrimination of the 345 years between that act, and the first recorded slaves coming to the land that would become America. And in that forty-three years, the pendulum has swung completely in the other direction and we whites are facing unprecedented levels of racism and discrimination, and horrors such as lynching, beatings, oppression, forced segregation and humiliation are becoming routine occurrences across the United States. It is indeed frightening for white America to consider how much we have to overcome now. How will white students at educational institutions like University of Georgia succeed when they face competition from a student body with a massive 5 percent African American population? Thank goodness the state of Georgia (with its 28.7 percent African American population) knows better, and has managed to keep its prison population at a healthy (read - safe for “White America”) and heartwarming 61.7 percent African American. I’m sure Elizabeth Clarke Prize can at least fall back on that comforting statistic and sleep well knowing those people will likely never be competition for the majority of whites when it comes to jobs, education or home ownership.

Most of all, I’m deeply concerned about white youth in America, particularly those like Mrs. Price’s son. How in the world will a young man with two physician parents and a father who is a U.S. congressman be able to overcome the many barriers placed in front of him by the rampant disregard for equality that is standard practice in America today. God help the oppressed white children of our once-great nation.

So again, I say thank you, Elizabeth Clarke Price, for pointing out the horrors of being white in America!

Eric Vassy


Your individual articles in the “News Analysis” section were excellent, timely, and on the money, as they say. My applause!

Of course, I'd be very interested to see in print any comments/responses from the AJC, or any other civic leader or spokesperson in our metro area.

Keep up the good reporting, Roswell Beacon.

J. Berea


While some may think Roswell East is deceased, the television ads are still running. This project leaves me with the feeling that it is akin to malaria. You think you are rid of it, however, it comes back to haunt you when you least expect it, and at the most inopportune time.

Under the magnificent auspices of Jere Wood, the Roswell I knew when I came here in 1984 has gone from a quiet residential community to a ill-managed traffic disaster. The rate of "in your face" blight seems to have become an exponentially increasing epidemic. Why is there no concern over the corridor between Highway 9 and Ga. 400 in Roswell?

There are sections of this area that resemble a slum in the making rather than the downtown section of a thriving city. If there is interest in doing a municipal facelift and makeover, let us start with the center of Roswell and work from there.

Since Jere Wood took over as mayor, Roswell has gone from a quiet, English-speaking suburb of Atlanta to a city that probably should be renamed Roswexico. I hate to think what any visiting business group thinks of Roswell when they call for a taxi. In most cities, the taxi cab is easily recognized by an expected standard – usually a yellow sedan of a company with some degree of accountability. In Roswexico, however, one never knows whether the call for a cab will get a little jalopy in questionable operating condition with magnetic signs, or a pimped out SUV with tires five sizes too small that makes one wonder what else is being transported besides passengers. Thank you, but I will walk – even if it rains!

The commentary in a recent edition of the Beacon attributed to Chief Ed Williams about City Council meeting security concerns causes some degree of consternation. In times past, I have had a number of occasions to talk one on one with Chief Williams. I have no question as to the man's integrity and, personally, have a great deal of respect for him.

One has to wonder whether his commentary is the product of a knee-jerk mentality in City Hall to the public heat and disdain turned against the shenanigans by City Hall over such things as Roswell East and Carl Black's Armed Forces Memorial Truck. Perhaps City Hall is reacting more out of fear of political backlash than anything of substance. Excuse me, but who was the doofus that gave the okay to cite Carl Black over the American Flag in the first place ? Those responsible should be working at McDonald’s, not in City Hall, but I digress slightly.

It is disconcerting enough to go into the Roswell Police Headquarters and be confronted by a defensive air that is considerably less than conducive to having the public feel welcome. Having that same aura descend over City Council meetings would go that extra mile to inciting public negativity to the judgment that prevails from elected officials.
Thomas Jefferson is reputed to have said that, "When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." Given that, when it comes to the notion of a faux fuzzy feeling of security, I am likewise reminded of the quote from Benjamin Franklin in 1759, "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Having said that, from my experiences with City Council meetings, the only thing Roswell City Council should be afraid of is boring people into a coma. Then they might need one of Roswell’s Finest to ascertain whether any of those in a coma have not, in fact, died of boredom – at least until the next episode of Roswell East.
 
Stuart H. Bond


Generally, actually for the most part, I admire your paper. It is vastly better than most local publications.

However, the aforementioned beef involves the airing of drug and alcohol arrests:
 
1) It is publishing arrests and not convictions. Hence, its accuracy could be considered suspect.

2) It reduces that section to the level of a gossip rag.

Are you sitting at home smugly knowing your neighbor has been arrested (yet not convicted) of a drug or DUI charge. Does your paper do an especially good job of publishing corrections in a timely manner? Are reputations fully restored?

Protect those within your geographical range. Don't embarrass people for your own gain. If they are guilty, then the authorities are dealing with them. If not, the authorities have released them and their names have not been tarnished.

And if someone on the Beacon's staff were arrested (or convicted, for that matter), would the readers ever know?
 
Stu Blandford


The “Crime Report,” often called the “Police Blotter,” is a standard part of local newspapers. It is not intended to embarrass anyone. It is intended to chronicle the activity of law enforcement, identify trends and give residents a window into their community. Suspects are, of course, innocent until proven guilty. If someone is exonerated – great. It was still accurate to report they were arrested. What we relay is taken from the actual police reports and is therefore a matter of public record.

I am sorry to say that two errors have occurred in the “Crime Report,” but proud to say they were both corrected in the next issue following their discovery.

The arrest of a Beacon staff member would be reported in the standard manner.

–The Eds.


In Roswell’s storied history the city has faced two crises that resulted in disaster for those who called this area home. The first was in 1838 when, at the insistence of white citizens, all the Cherokee who had lived here for countless generations were rounded up at gunpoint, imprisoned then shipped to Oklahoma on what their present day descendants call “The Trail of Tears.” While there were no doubt racial factors involved, the underlying motivation for removing the native inhabitants was greed. Gold and other natural resources on Cherokee land was coveted by the newcomers and since they held the reins of political power, the Cherokee were unceremoniously tossed out.

The second great crisis occurred in 1864 when General William Tecumseh Sherman and his bluecoat army occupied the city. Roswell was spared Atlanta’s fiery fate, but the women who worked in the Roswell Mill were rounded up and shipped north never to be heard from again. From a Southerner’s perspective, those women were casualties of aggression – one group of people brutally enforcing their will and way upon another.

Today, a new crisis looms for average Roswellians who stand in the way of ambition and greed. To some, your land and mine has higher and better use as high-rise, high-density development. The individuals seeking that change have the power of big money and office.

They know that if the question of whether Roswell should be redeveloped in the model of midtown were to be put squarely before the voters, it would fail miserably, because there is no benefit to the average citizen and we lose our way of life.

There is an unwritten maxim among trial lawyers that goes, “If you have the facts, pound the facts. If you don’t have the facts, pound the table.” Well, neighbor, the proponents of high-rise, high-density development are pounding the table. The candidates the mayor promised he would put on the Council so he could have a majority to approve his high-rise plans, (see Mayor Wood’s last State of the City address), won’t come out of the closet and forthrightly say they have the mayor’s backing. Likewise, the mayor has yet to identify whom he supports.

Since his candidates know they can’t run on the mayor’s “tall buildings or tall taxes” platform, the personal attacks on opponents have already begun. Standby for a lot more of the same.

Richard Arena