24 SEP 06: ACTION JACKSON

The barrel was sideways - not the direction it should be. And it was in the middle of the street, which was apparently not the place it should be. There was no pothole below it - even though it was on Dillingham Street, which has been so busy with construction this year that it's a wonder the east end of the old bridge hasn't collapsed.

I saw this woebegone barrel blocking the eastbound lane of Dillingham Street while making a Friday twilight run. I decided to keep running west, and fix things on the way back if no one else had. At 6:30 p.m. on a Friday, no construction workers were around -- and some probably were on their third rounds at Broadway bars.

When I jogged back across the Dillingham Street Bridge, I decided to stop for the barrel -- and the late Lonnie Jackson came to mind. He died Thursday of cancer, after spending years working to improve his part of Columbus. And now, I could be like him in two ways - solving a problem, then publicizing it in any way I could.

While Lonnie Jackson did a lot as head of the Combined Communities of Southeast Columbus, he also made sure people knew what he did. He was quite a self-promoter. When you fill out a "Nine Special Friends" application for yourself, as Jackson reportedly did -- well, self-promotion is one way to describe it....

If you've attended the Columbus International Festival, you may have seen Lonnie Jackson's self-promotion. He didn't have a single booth on the second floor of the Civic Center. He had two or three, with tables full of plaques and awards Jackson and his group had received. I sometimes wondered if Jackson kept them all in his trunk - ready to impress anyone he saw.

Working in television news, I took many calls from Lonnie Jackson. He wanted to be on newscasts talking about his group's next project. He wanted to make sure reporters went to his events. And if one ceremony at Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park was missed, he'd declare it an insult to every veteran in town - even if thousands of them didn't show up.

(Lonnie Jackson was SO hands-on that I called him in 2004 to ask about a Kenneth Walker protest event at Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park - and I was shocked when he didn't know anything about it.)

The last call I took from Lonnie Jackson occurred in August. He was taken aback to learn managers now had to approve all guests appearing at one broadcast outlet. Jackson's reputation truly preceded him - and he sometimes tried to use it to his advantage.

(So when Lonnie Jackson's death made the top of the front page of Friday's Ledger-Enquirer, I was NOT surprised when a co-worker said aloud: "Just the way he would have wanted it....")

Yet to be fair, Lonnie Jackson was so persistent because he was involved with so much. Consider everything Jackson and the Combined Communities of Southeast Columbus are doing:

+ Trash cleanup drives not for one day, but two months. That's the problem with having a "Can Man" in your neighborhood - he discriminates, by not picking up other stuff.

+ Tutorial programs in schools, on Saturdays and during the summer. At least Eastway School stayed off the "needs improvement list," even if others didn't.

+ Ceremonial programs before major holidays, such as Memorial Day and Independence Day. In fact, they're so far ahead of those holidays that I'm a bit surprised trick-or-treaters don't visit the Veterans Day programs.

+ Signs across town promoting C.C.S.C. projects, including one at the intersection of Wynnton and Buena Vista Roads - which I don't really consider Southeast Columbus at all.

Even though he sometimes seemed like a media hog, Lonnie Jackson stood out from other African-American activists. While the others threaten to take action if things aren't changed and improved, Jackson organized people to actually MAKE the changes and improvements. If Nike ever brings back the "Just Do It" slogan, you might see Jackson's face again on a T-shirt.

BLOGGER BEGGAR #6: As I walked up the short chute toward Front Avenue after fixing the barrel, a woman came up to me on the sidewalk.

"Do you have a cigarette I can have?"

"No," I answered. "I'm out running, and I never carry cigarettes with me when I run." Or any other time, for that matter.

"OK. Thank you," the woman said.

"They'd just get in the way," I added. And lighting up after running up probably would mean even more tar and nicotine in my opened lungs.

Too bad for me - I missed a second opportunity to "do good." Which really wasn't an opportunity to do well at all, but help someone else's deadly habit. That's why I turned down a beggar outside a liquor store years ago. He was too honest - and admitted he wanted my money for beer.

E-MAIL UPDATE: This message reached us before Saturday's newspaper came out -- yet you'll probably notice a connection:

Dude,

Why does it seem that no reasonable concerts occur in Columbus? I know there is some history behind this reason, but I am wondering why I've seen more acts come to towns with half the population of Columbus. Is there really some ban on pubic fun or something?

This could be a great political platform for any potential wanna-be candidates. Now this is an issue worth discussing!

Just thinking out loud,

m

So in other words, this e-mailer is saying the concert scene in Columbus is m-m-bad.

At first I thought "m" had misspelled a word, and was asking about a "ban on PUBLIC fun." But then I remembered that legendary night when Bobby Brown was arrested (ahem)....

The main question in this message begs a question in response -- what is a "reasonable" concert? Plenty of famous names have been booked at the Civic Center over the years, from Alabama to Bob Dylan to Hilary Duff. A concert with country singer Trace Adkins has just been announced for November 2 - but if he shows too much skin, we could have a Trace Arraign-ment.

The next big concert at the Civic Center will feature the Commodores, on the night of the Morehouse-Tuskegee football game October 7. Most of the fans under 40 probably will drive across the river -- to the big Club Roc "after-party."

The RiverCenter also has brought a variety of well-known musical acts to Columbus. Wayne Newton will perform there in mid-October - and I'm old enough to remember when Top 40 radio stations played "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast."

And don't overlook other concert locations in the Columbus area. The Phenix City Amphitheater has hosted singing legend B.J. Thomas this year. And Lynyrd Skynyrd performed at Fort Benning Saturday night - although singing "I'd be free as a bird" doesn't quite apply to soldiers with two-year commitments.

I've heard various theories about why Columbus doesn't attract bigger concerts. There's the "Atlanta's only two hours away" theory. There's the "we're not a college town" theory. And maybe deep-down, more people in this city are thrilled by the changing buffet at Golden Corral.

The thoughts of "m" were reinforced by Saturday's Ledger-Enquirer, which reported Riverfest has been canceled for 2007. Yet the Riverfest sign was still outside the Historic Columbus Foundation building on Broadway Saturday morning - so there apparently was no rush by angry residents to demand this change.

Riverfest brought big-name performers to Columbus for years - from James Brown early in this decade, to The Dixie Chicks before they became national stars. But then, maybe that's part of the problem. Brown was locked up for years, and plenty of veterans now want The Dixie Chicks kicked out of the country.

Civil rights groups sparked a firestorm last year, by calling for a boycott of Riverfest because of the Kenneth Walker case. The boycott was called off at the last minute, after it was rejected by even African-American members of Columbus Council. But now I have the feeling that Pastor Wayne Baker will somehow declare victory during his church service today.

It turns out Riverfest attendance has been declining for some time, dropping 70 percent in the last five years. Some complained about the lack of parking. Others said it was too noisy, and too much of a bother. And you should have heard what people said OUTSIDE the Historic District....

One area blogger warned about the trouble with Riverfest a month ago, and suggested it move to land along the Chattahoochee River around Port Columbus. There would be open space, but also potential problems. For instance, you'd have to guard that ship under restoration carefully - so no one borrows the wood for their barbecue cooking.

When I came to Columbus nine years ago, the city had two outdoor music festivals a year. Uptown Jam on Columbus Day weekend disappeared a few years ago. Now Riverfest is at least on a sabbatical, and may be gone for good. The only option left may be to hold "Family Day on the Park" over several days in June - and actually make it diverse.

It's interesting that the Riverfest announcement came only days before the opening of The Greater Columbus Fair. Will the news of a sabbatical inspire more people to attend the fair this coming week? And can "Pig Out" possibly replace the "Pig Jig" - without people in a Bible Belt city spreading curious rumors about it?

But back to our e-mail: Can Columbus city candidates really make the lack of "reasonable" concerts a campaign issue? Especially when the RiverCenter and Civic Center strive to act like private entities, separate from city government? Besides, at this point I haven't even heard Keni Thomas endorse a candidate for mayor.

Now for some other foliage we collected on the first day of fall:

+ Which Columbus man is telling people the Eddy Middle School fire on the night of the School Board Bible vote was no coincidence? He's calling it "a sign" of something. If every high school student takes this elective course, they might be learning under temporary tents.

+ My pastor at church warned more wars have started in the fall than at any other season of the year. He cited the start of World War II, when Germany invaded Poland. But then he noted the invasion occurred September 1, 1939 - so maybe the first day of autumn was three weeks earlier that year.

(If this comment by my pastor is true, it finally explains a couple of things - the U.S. attacks on Iraq in January 1991 and March 2003.)

+ A "gas war" developed in LaGrange, when a new station marked its grand opening with a sale price of $1.89 a gallon. The lowest price I'm seeing in Columbus is $2.18, at Fuel Tech on Milgen Road - so a round-trip in an S.U.V. actually might be worth the drive.

+ The Liberty Theater opened a two-weekend run of the Broadway musical "Dreamgirls." How many Fort Benning soldiers are embarrassing themselves, by showing up at this production with dollar bills to throw?

+ The Northern All-Stars Little League team was honored again -- this time at the Buffalo-Auburn football game. So their appearances are spreading outside Georgia?! When is Kyle Carter going to appear on the cover of "Tiger Beat" magazine?

+ The Georgia Bulldogs rallied in the fourth quarter to edge Colorado 14-13, and stay unbeaten. It's hard to believe the Bulldogs were so psyched out by what "Ralphie" the Buffalo might have left on the field.

(Colorado is now 0-4 on the season - and it began with a loss at home to Division 1-AA Montana State. I won't be surprised if Colorado changes things next year, and opens with Hannah Montana instead.)

+ Instant Message to Captain Tom's Buffet on Macon Road: I see from your sign that you're "under new ownership." But does this mean the business name will change? Will it become Captain Abdullah? Or Captain Kwame? Or Captain Pedro?

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