19 JAN 07: ALL FOR ONE
The annual "One Columbus" recognition dinner was held Thursday night at the Columbus Trade Center. People who didn't know better about this group might have been disappointed - because tickets cost 40 dollars, not one.
Two people were honored at the banquet, for their efforts to promote "One Columbus." The "Unity Chalice" went to former City Manager Carmen Cavezza - who, from what we can tell, turned his back on the unpaid landfill fees of all ethnic communities.
I suspect Carmen Cavezza received the award for much more than his work with the One Columbus organization. His promotions of assistants at the Government Center led to Isaiah Hugley becoming the city's first African-American City Manager - and ensured someone would replace the Doziers as the city's most powerful political couple.
The other award at the One Columbus banquet was given to a Hardaway High School student. Philandria Williams won an essay contest, and summed up her submission this way: "If everyone was the same, the world would be a boring place...." And imagine the long line you'd face at McDonald's to buy dinner.
According to the One Columbus web site, the theme of Thursday night's banquet was "Building Bridges, Connecting People." This theme came very close to occurring in real life this week - but Mayor Wetherington prevented the handcuffing of homeless people under the Second Avenue bridge.
The overall goal of One Columbus is to promote and improve race relations. You can see and hear the impact of this effort all around town. For instance, Davis Broadcasting now has TWO radio stations where you can hear white announcers and singers.
One kind of "bridge-building" One Columbus praises is a program which might be called "pulpit swap," where ministers in different parts of town trade churches for a week. Yet I suspect even this has his limits. I doubt many rabbis would let firebrand Baptist evangelists come in and give a sermon.
One Columbus already seems to be taking bold new steps in 2007, to promote racial harmony. Did you notice tickets go on sale Saturday at the Civic Center, for a performance by Blue Man Group?
But the last year brought a few setbacks in the effort to build One Columbus. WRBL dropped an African-American morning news anchor. WRCG dropped its African-American co-host on "TalkLine." And I'm still waiting for the Cottonmouths to announce a "minority set-aside" program.
This week's issue of the Columbus Times came out Thursday, with an interesting column along the lines of One Columbus. It urges African-American people to stop using the "M-word." The M stands for "minorities." Shame on you old-time Southerners, who thought it stood for "Master."
The author of this column makes a good point, because Census Bureau numbers show there is NO majority ethnic community in Columbus right now. Each group makes up less than 50 percent of the population. So if there's any such thing as a "race war" in this city these days, it's happening in obstetrics offices and delivery rooms.
E-MAIL UPDATE: Someone in East Alabama has a lot on his/her mind - and for a change, Hurtsboro has nothing to do with it:
Phenix City Council Approves Widening of Stadium Drive
if I heard it right, the bids are not even to go out until late this year and work starts sometime in 08, buy that time -all of those new houses up on the hill should have been built and wondering on who(m) pushed to have the intersection redone...?
While listening to the news about Gov. Inauguration speech - the word Alabamians sure sounded a lot like ALIENS - maybe some UFO sightings in the speech would put it into perspective..
I say Alabamians should be replaced with Alanbaman's - more fitting for us Alabama Aliens
Mayor Hardin was on TV trying to explain his version of the water deal, saying mis info has been spread about what the deal really is..I watch and listened to it and could not understand it.
If I have told correct- that Phenix City water is trying to sell 1/3 to Fort Mitchell water and 1/3 to Russell county water and the 2 will have to come up with around 24 million dollars to give Phenix city and then Phenix City will be able to tell Fort Mitchell water and Russell county water what to do in their own territory..This is where that wrongful annexation to Phenix City is popping up. Will others tell me if this is Correct and if this not right - Please someone with the facts say it anit' so...
Seems that the east of river news paper agree's with many, that news on the west side of the river only needs a small section to be delivered mid week to us and no charge for the news. Does someone still live in the Smiths Station area work at the newspaper with a high ranking editors spot- you knowz - the one that keeps the news out of the paper. Yes, there Deadly car wreacks, house fires, disputes with guns, killings, robberies and unbelievable acts by elected officials,,does it make the news,,only when the east side of the river s low on reports to announce..
Well, at least I THOUGHT this had nothing to do with Hurtsboro. But then I started reading all the problems in that last paragraph -- and I wondered if the armed gangs had moved.
I would hope the widening of Stadium Drive is due to complaints by ALL drivers, and not only developers. After all, that street connects Garrett-Harrison Stadium with Phenix City Central High School - and some of those football linemen are pretty wide-bodied nowadays.
But we should note at a Thursday work session, Phenix City Council discussed a shortage of money to pay for improvements on Broad Street. That's a "streetscape" project where the road would be narrowed - and digging up those extra lanes to move them to Stadium Drive can't be cheap.
That's an interesting idea, for changing the name of an Alabama resident. Why, people with Irish heritage should have their own name - O'Bamas.
Let's try to sort out this "mini-water war" again. Phenix City, Fort Mitchell and Russell County would form a joint "water authority," each with one-third control. So Phenix City would not necessarily tell Fort Mitchell what to do, nor could Fort Mitchell necessarily tell Phenix City what to do. Think of it as a small-scale version of the United Nations Security Council.
I think the free "small section" newspaper this writer is describing is the East Alabama Journal, which is printed by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. It's competing against the Phenix Citizen-News, which costs 50 cents. So the question is whether Phenix City and Smiths Station are "four-bit" towns or not.
We're holding one other e-mail for another day - mainly because I want to take a break from the Hurtsboro debate. If "One Columbus" ever wants to expand to nearby towns, this would be a great place to start....
So let's call the roll of other Thursday news items:
+ Columbus Planning Director Rick Jones told WRBL a lack of investment capital is delaying the construction of a new marina. OK, Al Fleming! You've complained about this for years. Now put some of that nightclub money where your mouth is -- and maybe they'll name the marina in your honor after all.
(Rick Jones added construction of a "rails to trails" path should begin by summer. Eventually it will extend from the 14th Street Bridge downtown to Psalmond Road - making future Country's Midnight Express runs longer and more challenging than ever.)
+ Harris County School Superintendent Susan Andrews said the proposed Georgia education budget includes money for a third middle school. It would be built in Cataula - and maybe it should be a geography magnet school, dedicated to keeping Cataula on Georgia state maps.
+ A report from the Alabama Department of Education warned 16 percent of Russell County High School freshmen are projected to drop out in the next four years. Apparently no projections were made about the high school faculty doing the same....
+ Synovus reported its fourth-quarter earnings were up 28 percent from the year before. Yippee! The new "CB&T of East Alabama" in downtown Phenix City will have even fancier couches than I imagined....
+ A Georgia Public Safety official admitted to state lawmakers the State Patrol cannot fill its openings for troopers. Five graduates of last year's "trooper school" already have resigned - and if the patrol would kindly hand over those names to Mayor Wetherington, he'll track them down with nice contracts.
+ Time magazine announced its Atlanta bureau will close, in a wave of staff cuts. So how much champagne did they drink Thursday evening at "Columbus and the Valley?"
+ King Ford in Valley joined the infomercial wave, by selling cars for 30 minutes on WLGA TV-66. But the folks there have a long way to go to match the quality of Rivertown Ford in Columbus. "Bubba" in his overalls needs a supporting cast of people in funny outfits.
+ Columbus State men's basketball coach Doug Branson kicked three players off the team, for some kind of improper conduct. One of them is top scorer Alton Hart, who fractured an ankle last weekend - so he couldn't possibly have been caught in the wrong dance club.
+ Authorities at the Miami airport said they seized a water bottle with a secret compartment from Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick -- and the bottle had residue resembling marijuana. I knew the Falcons' season had gone to pot, but this is ridiculous....
+ Instant Message to the St. Luke United Methodist Church Fitness Center: Trust me from my own observations -- if someone has tuned one of your televisions to show the Weather Channel non-stop, he's NOT watching for the weather. He's probably sinning, by lusting after the good-looking meteorologists.
SCHEDULED THIS WEEKEND: We start a new series about a big upcoming event.... and you'll need your speakers on for it....
This blog had more than 28,000 visits in 2006, from people in Columbus and around the world. To advertise to them, make a PayPal donation, offer a story tip or comment on this blog, write me - but be warned, I may post your e-mail comment and offer a reply.
BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 3726 (+ 94, 2.6%)
If you mention this blog in public, please be polite enough to let me know.
© 2003-07 Richard Burkard, all rights reserved.