The Equality Question
By Ken Willmott, Editor
The NewsMoose
LAKE CITY - I have read with considerable personal interest regarding the recent establishment of the citizen's group C-E-E-E -- Coalition For Equal Education & Employment, as not only described in
The Lake City News & Post, but also in the group's own paperwork and appearance last Thursday before the Florence District 3 School Board.
In essence, their focus is on achieving racial balance in the hierarchy of the school district office administration, redressing mishandled affairs involving minority students and staff at local schools, and attempting to enthuse parents to take a more active interest and role in the education of their children.
Such a group provides a welcome echo to some of the very same issues that have been carefully brought before the school board for years by veteran members T. R. Cooper and Bernard "Chuckie" McIntosh. These are two men who have made a singular point of attending statewide conferences afforded board members, and imparting some highly interesting reports aimed at putting rubber to the road in channeling both the realities and dreams of the best education into a single path for all children in our district.
Where my alarm goes off with the C-E-E-E is the unmistakable targeting of Beth Wright, the current district superintendent, as the ultimate culprit for a variety of real and perceived ills relative to equality of education in the district. Frankly, I never dreamed this district would warm as it has to the selection of a woman at the helm of such a diverse district. Early on in her initial meetings with the school board after coming on line, we detailed the uncanny grace and humbleness with which she reacted to a variety of her challenges on a variety of issues.
Further, we and other journalists have noted over these few years, Wright's seemingly unbounded energy to be in as many venues as possible, her absolute love for children of all colors, and her ability to do the homework and go the extra mile to keep this district on a pro-active, progressive path to a better and brighter future.
Like the trap that befalls too many folk of light skin, including myself -- it is entirely possible Beth Wright comes off as too polished, too smooth, thus appearing a bit "too haughty" (my term) when dealing with a population of students, parents and citizens who are finally awakening to the fact they do have a voice, they do have a place at the table -- but their seat has been vacant so long, they themselves need time to get up to speed.
In the same breath, that I welcome the C-E-E-E into existence, I have also in my last conversation with Mrs. Wright invoked a phrase of caution that harkens to those Tennessee hills from when she came. Those are shared hills with the mountains of North Carolina, where I myself emerged into the world of labor and maturity, and where I learned the phrase imparted Thursday evening to our superintendent: "Don't get above your raisin'." Translated: Don't let go of any of the humbleness it took to get your feet on the ground here in Lake City.
That said -- I have to admit there is not a jealous bone in my body for the incredible work Mrs. Wright has done to not only salvage incredible budget shortfalls without dismissing staff, solving the issues with bus drivers and including a betterment of their lot in an ensuing budget, negotiating with a variety of parents on a variety of issues, and making a point to keep education on the front burner across a wide spectrum of this community and district.
All political correctness aside - Lake City and environs has long been dominated as a "white man's world." My perception after five years is that no matter who sits in the front office of anything, whether City Hall or Blanding Street -- nothing moves without the blessing of the "city fathers" who pull every string they can to "keep things in line." The time has come when such perceptions need to be redressed and put out to pasture.
The enemy of our collective future is not the person standing in your pulpit, sitting in your mayor's office, sitting across from you at breakfast, manning your cash register out front, handing out those food stamps, -- or even administering the dearest duty of all in educating our children.
The enemy is us -- both white, black and Hispanic, and a high variety of others -- who have abdicated for too long our collective responsibility to be totally informed, to totally share, to totally communicate, and stay totally focused on rolling up sleeves and working together.
I've never believed the chain of command to my child's future ran from Washington to Columbia to Blanding Street to the local principal to the local teacher to my child. If we all read from a Good Book -- "Children are a heritage of the Lord." I translate that to mean that as parent -- I am held totally responsible for every act of my child. It may appear that my child is bullied by either peers or teachers -- but my mother taught me something intrinsically different by asking: "What did YOU do to tick them off?," and... "Why are you constantly injecting yourself into the line of fire?"
If I failed or fell off into a slough of depression, mother was immediate in trying to spark within me the perseverance to overcome -- no matter who I wanted to blame.
The same Biblical Psalm that speaks of children as a "heritage" also warns: "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. A house divided against itself cannot stand."
Like the dear Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- I have a dream. I must day by day, progress step by step up the rough side of this mountain day by day to reach the top and see that Promised Land.
I am prepared to be totally misunderstood along the way -- yet I acknowledge all others who are making steps on that journey, though each may be embarking from a separate starting point. Just remember -- be you parent, student, teacher, administrator, or citizen's group --
this is the same mountain upon which we struggle. If we truly believe all are created equal, why must we struggle with each other?
