… up among Black/African Americans: implications for the COVID … Training Course: Disrupting Institutional Racism. Lead an evaluation of … and Health Sciences Anti-Racism Coalition Grant Principal … and Health Sciences Anti-Racism Coalition Grant Principal … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
The Weeknd Comes To Gaza’s Aid By Donating Millions Of Emergency Meals
The Weeknd has donated $2.5 million from his XO Humanitarian Fund to Gaza relief efforts, which will equate to four million emergency meals.
Announced on Friday (December 1), the donation was made in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme. The organization will assist in the delivery of 820 metric tons (approx. 1.8million pounds) of food parcels that could feed more than 173,000 Palestinians for two weeks.
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In a statement, WFP’s Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe Region, Corinne Fleischer, said: “This conflict has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe beyond reckoning. WFP is working round the clock to provide aid in Gaza but a major scale up is needed to address the desperate level of hunger we are seeing.
“Our teams need safe and sustained humanitarian access, and continued support from donors to reach as many people as we can,” Fleischer continued. “We thank Abel for this valuable contribution towards the people of Palestine. We hope others will follow Abel’s example and support our efforts.”
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The Weeknd has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the WFP since 2021 and has donated nearly $2 million through his XO fund in that time.
It’s been a major year for The Weeknd, whose After Hours ’til Dawn tour just became the highest-grossing tour by a Black artist in European history, beating out a record previously set by Beyoncé.
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Over the course of 30 shows overseas, Abel raked in $158.1 million with over 1.6 million tickets sold. The France shows in Nice and Bordeaux as well as Madrid were completely sold out, with those for concerts alone banking The Weeknd about $16million.
While performing in Bogotá, Colombia in October, the international music superstar worked alongside 35 local companies in an effort to stimulate the economy, which created some 1,500 jobs.
Drake & The Weeknd AI Song ‘Not’ Eligible For Grammy, Says Recording Academy CEO
Back in July, the XO leader broke London Stadium’s highest attendance record during a two-night stint that drew in 160,000 fans total.
In a statement, Live Nation’s Touring President Omar Al-joulani told Variety that he was incredibly impressed with the record-shattering moment.
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“It’s incredible to see the Weeknd hit this milestone less than halfway through his massive sold-out European run,” Omar Al-joulani said. “This historic moment in London shows the global fanbase he has cultivated over the years.”
Then, in August, The Weekend doubled back and shattered another record while performing at London’s Wembley Stadium.
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According to Live Nation UK, the Grammy Award-winning artist “broke Wembley Stadium’s record for sales with their traditional concert set up with the stage at one end of the stadium with 87,000 tickets sold.”
The Starboy crooner isn’t done with the road just yet as he’ll be heading down under to Australia later this month for a slew of dates before hitting nearby New Zealand to wrap up in December.
RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment
Texas African American Museum in Tyler celebrates Rosa Parks Day
It was a typical evening on Dec. 1, 1955 when Rosa Parks boarded the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after a long day working as a department store seamstress. Parks sat in the fifth row, where people of color were permitted to sit; however, in accordance with the segregation laws in Alabama at that time, if the ‘white section’ was filled up, they could take over the row that people of color sat.
When she was asked by the driver to move to let a white person sit in the seat, she had simple response that still holds power today — “no.”
“I think just in that moment she made a decision, a conscious decision not to give up her seat,” said Denise Pendleton, a volunteer coordinator for the Texas African American Museum in Tyler and secretary for the Texas African American Advisory Board. “I think that she just was tired of the situation and just basically said, ‘I’m going to take it into my own hands and make a stand.’”
Parks wrote in her autobiography that “people always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in,” according to the History Channel.
After refusing to move, Parks was arrested then spent two hours in jail.
Thus, a revolution began and the civil rights movement was a continued history in the making with the NAACP and the rest of the country behind her.
In 2021, the Texas Legislature passed HB 3481, recognizing Dec. 1 as Rosa Parks Day in the state, and the Texas African American Museum celebrated the day on Friday.
“It wasn’t just her alone, she was representing a larger group,” Pendleton said. “I’m grateful to them because we had gone years after the proclamation that freed us as slaves right into another era of Jim Crow and of ‘separate but equal.’”
According to the History Channel, Parks’ actions inspired the leaders of the local Black community to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Led by a Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “the boycott lasted more than a year — during which Parks not coincidentally lost her job — and ended only when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional. Over the next half-century, Parks became a nationally recognized symbol of dignity and strength in the struggle to end entrenched racial segregation,” according to history.com.
In 2021, the Texas Legislature passed HB 3481, recognizing Dec. 1 as Rosa Parks Day in the state, and the Texas African American Museum in Tyler celebrated the day on Friday.
“Today is in recognition of Rosa Parks Day here at the Texas African American Museum,” said Gloria Washington, executive director of Texas African American Museum. “We are proud and happy to recognize this great day and celebrate a woman who simply said ‘no.’”
For Bullard resident Charlotte Adams-Graves, it was a flashback from when she lived in Waco around the same time as the segregation laws.
“I just remember the time where I did have to sit on the back of the back row of the bus, go across the line,” Adams-Graves said. “I was kind of nervous because I had to follow my mom and dad’s lead on where we had to go and sit. I was little and I didn’t understand why we had to go in the back.”
For many East Texans of color, the fight against injustice and discrimination is still very much alive today; however, they also believe there has been progress and strides made.
“I’m sure (Parks) would be well pleased with the organization carrying on her legacy portraying what she did to make life better,” Washington said. “I’m sure she would give a big thank you.”
Ahead of the program, students from Three Lakes Middle School, Tyler Legacy and Caldwell Arts Academy wrote essays about Rosa Parks. Of those essays, there were four different winners, including one winner from Tyler Legacy, one from Caldwell Arts Academy and two from Three Lakes Middle School.
Those winners will receive a monetary award and a certificate.
There were actors who portrayed Rosa Parks and the bus driver at Texas African American Museum’s first Rosa Parks Day.
Attendees also had the opportunity to sit in a bus with “Rosa Parks” and the “bus driver” — portrayed by actors.
“I think taking a page from that history and looking at women of color who are brave enough to stand up and do what needs to be done,” Pendleton said. “If we band together, we can make a lot of changes and it doesn’t have to be the president of this or the official elected officer. Everyday people make changes.”
The Texas African American Museum is looking for volunteers as well as donations to support the museum, which displays a myriad of artifacts honoring African American history and hosts a number of local events to educate and support the community. To learn more on how to get involved, visit the museum located 309 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Tyler or call at 903-283-6089.
A Fashion Designer’s Shrewd Eye for Curation
MOMA’s new show “Artist’s Choice: Grace Wales Bonner—Spirit Movers” includes thirty-seven objects from the museum’s collection, many of them no larger than a sheet of typing paper. Yet the effect of the exhibition is hardly minimal—not when its centerpiece is Terry Adkins’s soaring, magnificent sculptural ensemble “Last Trumpet.” Set against the gallery’s back wall, the piece lines up four eighteen-foot-long brass horns that reach nearly to the ceiling, as if ready for a celestial choir. It’s one of many musical elements in a show that Wales Bonner, a fashion designer with a curatorial bent, calls “an archive of soulful expression.” A more expansive view of that archive is available in “Dream in the Rhythm,” a book that accompanies the show. Together, the exhibition and the book are the product of a sensibility that’s both sophisticated and intuitive, making connections across periods, mediums, and styles which are so unexpected that every object seems new. Born and based in London, Wales Bonner is the first person in her field who’s been invited by MOMA to organize an “Artist’s Choice” exhibition. In a sense, finding new ways to rework familiar materials is a big part of Wales Bonner’s job in fashion. Still, the wit and intelligence she brings to curation never comes across as an extension of her brand.
W. Eugene Smith, “Rahsaan Roland Kirk,” 1964.Photograph by W. Eugene Smith / Courtesy MOMA
Michelle Kuo, the MOMA curator who oversaw the Wales Bonner project, has described it as “a deeply personal meditation on and around modern Black expression.” “Around” is the key word here. “Spirit Movers” is not a show of Black artists alone. Among the works drawn from MOMA’s permanent collection are lithographs by Jean Dubuffet, sculptures by Jean Arp, books by Richard Long and James Castle, a ring by Alexander Calder, and a fetish object by Lucas Samaras that began as a book but is now covered with pins and armed with a knife, open scissors, a shard of glass, and a razor blade. But the exhibition’s nimble braininess isn’t the result of some academic exercise, and neither the show nor the book strains to make cross-cultural and aesthetic connections. Her juxtaposition of Man Ray’s “Emak Bakia”—a sculpture sporting the polished wood fingerboard of a cello like an elegant erection—and Bill Traylor’s drawing of a man flipping over in ecstasy, feels at once surprising and inevitable.
RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment
Gay Bechtelheimer among 2024 Governor’s Arts Awards recipients
The Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, has announced the 2024 Governor’s Arts Awards recipients.
The recipients will be honored at a ceremony on March 8, 2024 in Little Rock.
Since 1991, the annual awards program has recognized individuals, organizations and businesses for their outstanding contributions to the arts in Arkansas. Recipients are nominated by the public, then selected by an independent panel of arts professionals.
“The Governor’s Arts Awards recognizes and honors the supporters, patrons and artists who have helped build and strengthen Arkansas’ thriving arts community,” said Shea Lewis, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. “This annual program gives us the opportunity to showcase their contributions to Arkansas’ arts and creative economy, improving the quality of life for all Arkansans.”
The 2024 recipients are:
Garbo Hearne of Little Rock, Arts Community Development Award
Garbo Hearne is the director of Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing and Hearne Fine Art. She has advocated for the advancement of African American culture through art and literature for over 30 years. Since 1988, Hearne has welcomed and promoted both local and national artists and authors to her gallery and bookstore, now located in the historic Dunbar Neighborhood of Little Rock. Hearne’s commitment to the promotion of African American art extends beyond Central Arkansas. The El Dorado native has organized and installed museum exhibitions at the Arts and Science Center of Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff and the Delta Cultural Center of Helena-West Helena.
She was appointed to the Arkansas Arts Council advisory board in 1990 by Governor Bill Clinton and reappointed by Governors Jim Guy Tucker, Mike Huckabee and Mike Beebe. She served on the council until 2013, including a tenure as chairperson of the board. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Mid-America Arts Alliance and the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. In 2014, Hearne spearheaded the creation of the statewide arts advocacy organization, Arkansans for the Arts. She is a member of the talent committee for the Six Bridges Book Festival, a board member of the Dunbar Historic Neighborhood Association and has been a key organizer in the Central Arkansas Community Kwanzaa celebration for over 30 years. Hearne is a certified member of the Appraisers Association of America with a specialization in African American fine art.
Virmarie DePoyster of North Little Rock, Arts in Education Award
Virmarie DePoyster, a native of Puerto Rico, is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and community leader whose work fosters creativity, healing and community engagement. DePoyster develops and implements art programs for adults and teens, as well as being a professional exhibiting artist. Since 2011, she has been instructing students as part of the Arkansas Arts Council’s Arts in Education Roster. She created a therapeutic art program for at-risk youth in rural Arkansas that ran from 2012 to 2018. She provided arts instruction to thousands of patients at The BridgeWay, an acute care mental health facility in Little Rock, where she saw firsthand the healing power of artistic expression. She has also facilitated professional development workshops and collaborated on Cornerstone Assessments through an artist-teacher partnership with The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards. In 2023, DePoyster started Healing Arts, a therapeutic art program for CARTI patients, caregivers and staff. Her dedication to the transformative power of art in both teaching and advocacy makes her an invaluable asset in the field of arts education.
General Mills in Rogers, Corporate Sponsorship of the Arts Award
General Mills in Rogers is a regional office of General Mills, Inc., an American manufacturer of branded foods sold through retail stores. Its local office has provided large-scale philanthropy along with employee volunteerism in the arts. General Mills has been a strong corporate partner of the Walton Arts Center for 21 years and has provided more than $4.8 million in corporate contributions.
General Mills is a leading sponsor of Masquerade Ball, the Walton Arts Center’s annual fundraising event supporting arts education initiatives. In addition, a pledge of $500,000 to the Walton Arts Center’s 2015 capital campaign supported the expansion of the performing arts center benefiting 100,000 annual patrons. General Mills pledged over $1.8 million to support the construction of the Walmart AMP music venue. The facility has become a premier destination for diverse, large-scale live music experiences in Arkansas. Walmart AMP named a portion of the seating area the General Mills Lawn. In addition, General Mills purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars in tickets to arts events for their employees over the years, boosting revenue for local arts organizations. General Mills of Rogers is a dedicated advocate for making Northwest Arkansas a destination for remarkable, world-class arts experiences.
Pam Setser of Mountain View, Folklife Award
Pam Setser is a traditional folk musician and vocalist. Born in Mountain View, she has been singing since she was 5 years old. She is among the last practitioners of the Ozark Mountain Dulcimers in Arkansas. Setser, a left-handed musician, also plays the autoharp, guitar, spoons and upright bass. Setser is a past winner of the Ozark Folk Center Musician of the Year Award and a repeat nominee in the Arkansas Country Music Awards. She has appeared on “Hee Haw,” “The Tonight Show” and “Nashville Now.”
Setser actively works to preserve traditional Ozark music through performing and teaching. She has served in leadership roles with the Committee of One Hundred at the Ozark Folk Center and with the Music Roots Program, which pairs school-age children with traditional instruments and mentors. She performs as a solo artist, but also with The Pam Setser Band, Apple & Setser, the Leatherwoods and Ozark Granny Chicks. Setser’s newest album, “Now,” is a mix of Americana folk, bluegrass, gospel, 1930s swing and country music. She participated in the 2023 Smithsonian Folk Festival, where she performed and gave interviews about the traditions and music of our region of the Ozarks.
Stephen Driver of Ozark, Individual Artist Award
Stephen Driver is an accomplished potter, mentor and retired university professor. He began his career as a production potter in 1973. Moving to Arkansas in 1976, he transitioned into being a university art professor and studio potter. Ten years ago, after retiring from teaching at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, he started building two large-chambered wood kilns. Most of the materials came from the old, historic Camark Pottery location in Camden, Arkansas. Wood firing has been a consistent thread in his professional work.
Driver has shared his knowledge of ceramics and building wood-fired kilns with local, national and international artists. He learned about wood-fired kiln pottery while he was an apprentice in York, England in the 1980s. He has worked and taught in Ecuador, China and the Republic of Korea. Driver holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Florida State University and a Master of Fine Art in Ceramics from the University of Georgia. His pottery had been exhibited nationally and internationally. He currently makes pottery and ceramic sculptures fulltime at his studio/home in the Ozark National Forest.
Gay Bechtelheimer of El Dorado, Judges Recognition Award
Gay Bechtelheimer is an artist, curator, educator and organizer of community art projects. For over 20 years, Bechtelheimer has been instrumental to bringing quality art experiences to El Dorado and the south Arkansas region. In addition to being a practicing artist working in pastel, watercolor and mixed media, she retired from a distinguished career as an art educator in the El Dorado Public Schools.
Bechtelheimer provided leadership and organizational skills to bring the “AstroZone: An Interactive Art Experience” to El Dorado. The project was the first traveling exhibition offered by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The exhibition, funded by the Murphy Arts District, was viewed by over 5,000 attendees and was free to all. Bechtelheimer designed educational programs for students in conjunction with the exhibition. She also spearheaded the effort to relocate a historically significant sculpture relief series, Arkansas History, to the Murphy Arts District area. During the pandemic, she developed a series of virtual art talks and collaborated with the South Arkansas Arts Center to create educational lectures on notable artists and art movements throughout history, a program that is ongoing. She continues to lead a studio class for adults at the South Arkansas Arts Center. Bechtelheimer is a member of the International Women’s Forum and has served on the boards of the Arkansas Arts Council, the Mid-America Arts Alliance and the South Arkansas Arts Center.
Tony Waller of Bentonville, Patron Award
Thomas Anthony “Tony” Waller is a spirited voice for arts, culture and access in Northwest Arkansas. He is the vice president of Constituent Relations and Racial Equity for Walmart in Bentonville. In his position, he works to expand organizational outreach and social investments in diverse and multicultural communities. He has been an ardent supporter of the arts since making Arkansas his home in 2006.
He serves on the Walton Arts Center’s board of directors and their corporate leadership council. He has provided key leadership at more than 20 fundraising events that benefitted arts education initiatives and made personal financial contributions to the arts center. He is also a board member for Interform, a fashion and design nonprofit in Northwest Arkansas which sponsors NWA Fashion Week. His philanthropic and advisory involvement includes nationwide organizations. He was the first man selected to serve on the Asian Pacific American Women’s board of trustees and National African American Women’s Leadership Institute’s board of directors. Waller was taught early in life that to give real service you must add to the world something that cannot be bought or measured with money.
Charley Sandage of Mountain View, Lifetime Achievement Award
Charley Sandage is a storyteller, songwriter and native Arkansan. He is dedicated to promoting and preserving the stories and music of the Ozark region. He began his “Arkansas Stories” project, which includes songs about people and events in Arkansas history, in 1995. He collaborated with the Mountain View-based musical trio, Harmony, to write traditional Ozark string-band style songs.
Sandage produced three CDs with song subjects ranging from prehistoric Caddo people to the beginnings of rockabilly.
He is a regular contributor to Ozark Highlands Radio, produced by the Ozark Folk Center. The radio show, featuring Sandage’s segments about area history, lore and interviews with local craftspeople and musicians, is broadcast to over 125 stations nationwide. Sandage has a background as an educator, school administrator and a documentary producer for public television. He was the program director at the Ozark Folk Center State Park when it opened 50 years ago, and later a music programming consultant for the center. In later years, he performed in old-time string bands onstage at the Folk Center and on the historic court square in Mountain View. He continues to work with the Stone County Historical Society to create story and song presentations about the history of the region.
For more information about the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Awards and a list of past recipients, visit https://www.arkansasheritage.com/arkansas-art-council/aac-programs/governor‘s-arts-awards.
RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment
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Inside the Woke Air Force
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December 2, 2023
Nearly two decades ago, I left my hometown for Lackland Air Force Base. Every enlisted airman since 1968 has completed Basic Military Training at this historic base in the Alamo City. First, trainees work to graduate from being a “rainbow,” referring to the mixed colors of their civilian clothing, which involves getting a free haircut, getting new uniforms, and learning how to move in a formation. Trainees are further unified by reminders from military training instructors that they are no longer “back on the block,” and from here on out, they “all bleed blue!”
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Trainees from across America are honed into a team of airmen. The military has always excelled at forming our diverse citizenry into a unified force — it embraced “E pluribus unum.” However, the U.S. Air Force is currently indoctrinating airmen in neo-Marxist ideology and creating activists thorough its Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE) programs.
Some will push back and claim that DIE is simply about being inclusive of diverse viewpoints, and if this were the case, there would be little controversy. Yet when senior leaders discuss diversity, as in DIE, the word has a neo-Marxist meaning. Herbert Marcuse in his 1969 “Essay on Liberation“ stated the following: “the familiar (used and abused) vocabulary of freedom, justice, and equality could thus obtain not only new meaning but also new reality,” with a “methodical subversion of the linguistic of the Establishment.” Today, diversity as part of DIE is in line with Marcuse’s subversive definition, which is used in Critical Theory and its offspring, intersectionality.
Critical Theory and intersectionality spawned out of Marxist scholarship and have grown into legal studies, history, education, social sciences, and military studies. It undergirds identity politics, which has been institutionalized into the Air Force through Barrier Analysis Working Groups, or BAWGs. The Air Force has established seven BAWGs:
- BEST – Black Employment Strategy Team
- DAT – Disability Action Team
- HEAT – Hispanic Empowerment Action Team
- INET – Indigenous Nations Equality Team
- LIT – LGBTQ+ Initiative Team
- PACT – Pacific Islander Asian-American Community Team
- WIT – Women’s Initiatives Team
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Through BAWGs, the Air Force has established political advocacy groups to advise the chain of command and make recommendations regarding equity and inclusion. Examples are optional pronouns in an airman’s official signature block or that males who identify as female can now complete the women’s Physical Fitness Assessment (ref. attachment 5). The force is also subjected to regular stand-downs and “bridge-chats.”
The 2021 extremism stand-down day is a good example of these sessions. Not once did they mention Islamic extremism or how support for the Marxist movement Black Lives Matter is incompatible with military service. Nor did the stand-down facilitators mention the airman in Utah who was caught in his military-issued gas mask throwing Molotov cocktails at a police car during a BLM riot.
During bridge-chats, airmen are organized into small groups to “lean in” and discuss “hard topics” such as race, sexuality, unconscious bias, microaggressions, and social-emotional learning. These groups, however well intentioned by some, are not talks meant to foster inclusion, but are “consciousness-raising” sessions.
In the last century, Marxists such as Marcuse sought to understand where Marx’s theory went wrong. The urban proletariat were supposed to naturally overthrow their bourgeois oppressors, but the revolution did not naturally develop — it had to be enticed. This led Marcuse and others to develop the idea of “false consciousness”: put simply, people raised in oppression are not aware they are oppressed. Marginalized groups had to be shown they are oppressed through a process such as Paulo Freire’s conscientization, enabling them to develop a critical awareness and see through the false consciousness.
The result of conscientization is activism, which is seen from the highest levels of Air Force leadership. For example, during the 2022 Air Force DEIA Conference, Secretary Kendall recommended reading Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist and promoted Kendi’s idea that “it’s not enough to just not be racist, but you must be antiracist.” Lt. Gen. Brad Webb, the former commander of Air Education and Training Command, stated that the “death of George Floyd” has “fundamentally changed the Air Force,” and Air Force leaders have been charged by the chief of staff of the Air Force to “engage.”
Activism has also been institutionalized into foundational documents, such as the Air Force’s Core Values. The May 2022 edition of the “little blue book” now includes calls to activism. In the section titled “CORE VALUES — THE WHY,” airmen are admonished to “accept accountability and practice justice,” and furthermore that “it is our obligation to understand and be advocates of the ethical demands these values require.” In the section on “SERVICE BEFORE SELF,” airmen are instructed to “recognize and root out prejudices, biases, and stereotypes … and honor the Air Force and others by following our words with actions.”
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It is a longstanding tradition for the military to “remain politically neutral and divorced from partisan politics,” yet now Air Force leaders are stating that airmen have an obligation to practice justice and be advocates. Over the last three years, we have seen the changes publicly.
In 2020, General Brown, in his former position as commander of Pacific Air Forces, released an official video where he states he is “full of emotion” and publicly shared his opinion about George Floyd’s death and alludes to “the many African-Americans that have shared the same fate.”
In 2023, Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt disparaged laws legally passed by millions of citizens at the state level as “anti-LBGTQ+” and a “dangerous trend.” She went on to share that she would make manning decisions, in part, if a family could be “denied critical healthcare due to the laws of that state,” referring to the restriction of surgeries and hormones to make minors look like members of the opposite sex in states such as Texas.
Also in 2023, Secretary Kendall undermined the will of American citizens and their state laws meant to protect children from abortion by implementing a policy to “ensure” that airmen and their families “can access reproductive health care regardless of where they are stationed.”
There has also been a regression with DIE. For example, the “first” all-female flight over the 2023 Super Bowl is a step back, as the WASPs already fought for true inclusion to fly alongside their brothers. Or consider the “first” all-black heritage flight compared to the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen. Why are we celebrating the resegregation of our formations? Wouldn’t true diversity and inclusion be represented in a flight with a mixed-race/sex crew? Isn’t this something we do every day in the Air Force, and have been doing for decades?
Yes, we have! However, DIE isn’t about diversity; it’s about indoctrinating airmen into neo-Marxist ideology and creating activists. The Air Force needs to disband DIE programs and get back to building true unity within the force. It needs to focus on what airmen have in common — our oath, the Constitution, and love of country — not on what makes us different. Let’s get back to “one team, one fight!”
Josh Culper (a pseudonym) is an Air Force officer. Josh is remaining anonymous after seeing how Lt. Col. Matt Lohmeier was treated for engaging in wrongthink.
Image via Picryl.
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Opinion: Atlanta, we need the new public safety training center
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
To be clear, Atlanta’s Public Safety Training Center project has been flawed. But it must be built.
Former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, current Mayor Andre Dickens and Atlanta Police Foundation President and CEO Dave Wilkinson share the blame for a process that has, at times, lacked transparency, clear communication and accountability.
These missteps don’t invalidate the need for the training center or justify the violent acts of extremists hell-bent on ensuring it is never built, but the result has been an erosion of public trust. This is unfortunate, since one of the primary fears of skeptics of the center is that they cannot trust public safety officers.
Reasonable critics have reason to be upset.
DeKalb County residents who live near the Key Road location were promised abundant greenspace in 2017. The city changed course.
The Mayor and the Police Foundation did not effectively explain the cost of the project or the sources of funding. They have since clarified the taxpayer burden, which remains roughly one-third of the overall budget, but the damage was done, in the eyes of a skeptical public. Failure to communicate was an unforced error.
Reasonable critics also have reason to be suspicious of the center – they have seen too many young, Black men fall victim to police brutality on America’s streets.
But reasonable critics are not the ones standing in the way.
Reasonable critics do not set fire to local businesses, as happened in Gwinnett County two weeks ago, they do not vandalize the homes and workplaces of community leaders, which has happened all year and they do not spew hatred. The diary of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, the young man killed in an exchange of gunfire with police near the training center site in January, included vitriol such as “kill cops, burn police vehicles,” and “cops love being on fire.” The death of any young person is tragic, but Teran’s worldview belies an antipathy for public safety officers that cannot be seen as reasonable.
Simply put, there is no place for violent extremism and acts of terror in our city. Period.
There is an irony to one of the fundamental arguments of reasonable and unreasonable critics alike. They fear the true aim of the facility is to train and equip a paramilitary force to quell dissent and victimize young, Black men in Atlanta. There is no evidence of such a plan; only social media conspiracies. The best way to guard against that concern is to have a modern facility with world-class instruction, to train our law enforcement officers. The remedy for poor policing isn’t to disband the police but to train officers to be better. Last year, 171 people were murdered in Atlanta, 83% of whom were African American males. Those numbers won’t improve if we take police officers off the streets or fail to equip them to do their jobs.
Much of the vitriol and violence in opposition to the training center has been driven by people who do not live in our city. They have come here to further a national agenda to “defund the police.” “Stop Cop City” has become a convenient rallying cry for the movement. It is understandable in a post-George Floyd world that some would fear heavy-handed policing, but the outside extremists don’t understand Atlanta. Our African American Democratic mayor, our white conservative Republican governor and our openly gay police chief all stood before community leaders at the annual “Crime is Toast” breakfast last September and sung from the same hymnal. They were joined at the podium by some of Atlanta’s most decorated public safety officers, a diverse group reflecting the community they serve.
What our city needs now is for reasonable people to separate themselves from extremists. The site has been selected, the funds have been deployed, construction has begun and it is set to conclude by the end of next year.
The police foundation, city officials and community leaders must work together to chart a path forward in the best interests of the people of Atlanta:
If there are concerns about training and tactics, the police foundation must address them. For their part, the foundation has pledged that the center will be open to the public. Critics should take them at their word and hold them accountable. Trust, but verify.
The city and the police foundation must ensure the project comes in on budget and they must continue to be transparent with taxpayers about the costs.
If local residents will see their home values or quality of life decline by living next to the training center, rather than a park, the city should make them whole, or help them move. The city and the police foundation should identify more greenspace for residents of DeKalb County and make good on the initial promise made to residents.
Mayor Dickens must make good on his promise that the city can fund the Public Safety Training Center and still address urgent issues such as health care, housing and education inequality.
We need to choose reason over rhetoric. The center is not being built to suppress the people of Atlanta, but to protect them. The site is not being constructed on a pristine forest, but rather a plot of land that has been used for multiple purposes over the course of the last century, including a prison farm and a burial ground for zoo animals.
And the city of Atlanta has not suppressed the rights of voters. The city clerk will soon begin the process of validating the 116,000 signatures organizers claim to have collected in favor of a ballot referendum on the training center. If the city can verify 58,000 signatures (15% of Atlanta’s registered voters), the measure would be put to a vote next March. Mayor Dickens has promised transparency in the process, but rightly reminded Georgia’s U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in a letter that “standing in front of your local grocery store to collect signatures from customers who may be residents, while commendable, is vastly different from registering to vote and casting a ballot.”
If the signatures can be verified, the matter should be put to a vote and the voice of the people should be considered. But if the petitions do not pass muster, critics must accept the outcome and move on. Short-circuiting the law will only serve to further undermine trust in our voting process just as Georgia prepares to once again play a critical role in determining the next president of the United States. This decision cannot be viewed in a vacuum. Not in 2024. Not in Georgia.
Eroding trust in our institutions does not serve our city. The people of Atlanta need to be able to trust their voting process. They need to be able to trust their public safety officers. They need to be able to trust their elected officials. And they need to be able to trust a free and independent press. Gov. Kemp continues to publicly blame “the media,” and specifically “the Atlanta paper” for pushing an agenda to support the protesters. That is no more productive than a call to defund the police.
The governor has taken a bold and commendable stance, calling for the community to support the training center and to denounce extremists who have resorted to violence, to the detriment of our city. I agree with him. Now is the time to focus on reason over rhetoric.
Eroding trust in our institutions does not make our streets safer.
Andrew Morse, President and Publisher. Email: LetterFromThePublisher@ajc.com
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com