ESTHER'STRUMPET

News & Views From The Black Belt

Sounding Off In Lowndes County, Alabama

Columns & Editorials

Letter to Congressional Leaders

Congressman Bright and Senator Sessions:  I am absolutely appalled at the behavior of some of our elected officials tonight during the President's speech.  I think the congressman from South Carolina should have been removed from the room after shouting "liar" to OUR president, and that you should have seen to it.  YOU should have stood up and demanded his removal.

  Published October 13, 2008

September 5, 2009

Op Ed

Don't Wear A Hood and Call It A Church Hat

On Thursday night, my son called me from his home in Union, Kentucky near Cincinnati.  He told me that he had received notice from my grandchildren's school that the parents had the option of keeping their children from hearing President Barack Obama's speech to be aired to the school children next week.  Worse, the school was not going to show it live, they would show it the day after.  They told my son that they couldn't get a preview copy of the President's speech.

Since that time, the President has agreed to provide a public preview of his speech to our children. 

This is the most disrespectful thing I have ever heard.  Disrespectful to the people, certainly disrespectful to our President.  Disrespectful to God. And country.  Published September 5, 2009

I am trying so hard to be fair here.  I have friends who are Democrats, Republicans, Independents and those who are members of the Green Party.  I really do vote for the person, not the party, and as a woman I would love to see more women in public office.  We are grossly underrepresented.

 

But that Palin woman got my goat with her hateful little speech at the Republican Convention.   Talk about elitist, and opportunistic, Sarah Palin fits the bill.  Although the plan was to show a tough woman who talks straight, Palin went over the line on her partisan attacks.  She ridiculed the honored profession of being a community organizer, and in doing, she ridiculed those of us who have made a life’s work out of making our local communities better places. Published September 4, 2008
 

A man goes to a Unitarian Universalist Church and kills people because he says he hates liberals and homosexuals.  Another man runs for Congress, calling himself a Christian Conservative, but preaches a message of intolerance for women’s rights and individual rights.  Talk radio, in the form of Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity spews hate and gets people emotionally whipped up with mis-information and twisted facts.  A nation elects a man as president based on his character and religion and then finds out he’s a pawn of the rich and dumb as a doorknob.

Our country is under a cloud of hate and intolerance.  We blame everyone but ourselves for our living conditions and for the economy.  We are busy destroying the earth, and hating each other because of perceived differences.

Where is the church?  Where are our church leaders?  Where is the love?  Published July 30, 2008

Op Ed

 

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

 

My son gave a talk recently in his church and he chose a section of Genesis in the Bible.  He  went through the personal history of Jacob, and Jacob’s legendary struggle with the angel.  Jacob had stolen the family birthright from his brother.  He had lied, cheated and stolen.  He had done bad things for profit.  But Jacob was a tenacious warrior, and in the struggle with the Angel, he would not give up.  Finally, not having the strength to keep fighting, he just hung on to the Angel.  The Angel demanded to know who he was.  Finally, he said, “I am Jacob”.  The struggle was over, and Jacob received his blessings.

 

My son pointed out that when Jacob said his name, he was saying much more.  He was saying “I am Jacob, the liar, the cheat, the thief”.  He admitted his sins, admitted his past.  When he did that, he was blessed.

 

When Barack Obama gave his historic speech on March 18, following a deliberate political attempt to discredit him by highlighting the words of his pastor in sermons, Obama took on the issue of race in the United States.  It is a sensitive subject; one that brings out the worst and the best in our people.  We have made some progress, but we keep holding on without facing the fact that we must admit who we are and what we have done to make real change.   Published March 25, 2008

 

Op Ed

 

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND THE ALABAMA STATE LEGISLATURE

 

While our elected officials duke it out over the budget, PAC to PAC transfers and other noteworthy legislation, thousands of Alabama citizens wait on the edge of their seats to see if our Alabama State Legislature will take a few baby steps toward leveling the playing field for Alabama’s families when it comes to environmental justice.  Published March 9, 2008

 

Op Ed

 

Ain’t Understanding Mellow?

 

Older R&B aficionados will remember that tune, but there’s a deeper message.  Understanding really does mellow you out; it takes away anger and hate.  Case in point is the mortgage crisis.

 

Picture yourself sitting before the television, trying to push your financial worries to the back of your mind.  You work every day, long hours, but you don’t get paid much, and there is simply not enough to pay for health care, utilities and food.  Your car payment is behind, and your kids need shoes. You are in a panic. Then this guy comes on television talking about how you can catch up all your bills and have some left over if you get a second mortgage on your house!  You can catch up your car payment!  You can pay up your bills!  So you make the call.

 

You are so excited that you have found a way out that when the paperwork arrives you just sign it and wait for the check.  Sure, you will have a larger house payment, but doesn’t God work miracles?  So you just know you will find a way to make the larger payment.  You are so relieved to have the pressure off.  But not for long.  This is how lower income folks get into financial trouble.  Published March 9, 2008

 

Op Ed

January 10, 2008

 

It all began when I was searching for a Father’s Day gift for my son and I ran across Barack Obama’s first book, “Dreams of my Father”.  Because I remembered Obama’s impassioned speech at the Democratic Convention several years ago, I picked up the book and then bought it.  But I had to read it first, and I was absolutely entranced.  Here was a young man with a bi-racial background whose wisdom was amazing.  A few months later, at a civil rights event in Montgomery, I got a chance to talk to him in person.  Published January 10, 2008

 

This column is for women, but men ought to read it as well.  You will take note of a mean streak in this column, and guys, if the shoe doesn’t fit you don’t have to wear it. Ok, there’s a woman running for President and most of us are still fixing plates for our men.  We attend churches where women are not allowed in the pulpit and cannot be pastors.  We keep the house clean, raise the kids and hold down a job.  Published Jan 6, 2008

2007 PAST EDITORIALS

Letter to Editor

 

Winter Brings Fascist Winds

 

The long awaited blast of winter air was welcome to many Alabamians this week.  But our Alabama Supreme Court stayed warm and cozy snuggled deep in the pockets of Exxon.  They took years, but finally figured out how to legally continue our long tradition of corporation worship.  It cost the people billions.  Just one justice, albeit the Chief Justice voted not to overturn the decision of more than one Alabama jury...  It was a financial blow and another huge blow to our jury system. 

 

Winter came to Prattville, Alabama, as well as the Prattville City Council passed ordinances defining how many non-related adults can live in homes defined as single-family dwellings.  They even took on the Godly task of defining what a family is.  Never mind that people living together often reduce escalating energy costs.  It seemed a thinly disguised attempt to drive low income people out of the “preferred community”.

 

Just a few months ago, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management cited Prattville for the second time for dumping sewage into the Alabama River.  “It’s one of the problems we have to deal with as a growing city”, said Prattville Mayor Jim Byers.

 

No small comfort to the people in Lowndes County living near the river.

 

Perhaps the Prattville City Council should put more energy into the problems of pollution and spend less time defining what a family is or is not.  Or, they could run for the Alabama Supreme Court and join the higher ranks of dictatorial corporate fascism that is permeating our society.

 

Barbara Evans

editor@estherstrumpet.com

334-284-0555 or 324-7222

Recently residents around Lincoln, Alabama got a nasty shock.  They discovered that they were at risk because of hazardous debris (lead, among other contaminates) had been discovered at a defunct brass foundry in their community.  And worse, they found out that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) knew about it for the past three years.  A report prepared by ADEM in 2005 said that “The debris piles and associated soil are of known contamination and are a direct exposure risk”. ADEM never told the community. Published Jul 9, 2007

April 28 is Workers Memorial Day.  More than 30 years ago, organized workers pushed Congress into passing the Occupational Safety and Health Act, promising every worker the right to a safe job. Although we have seen some progress, each year, thousands of workers are killed, and millions more are injured or diseased because of their jobs. Published April 2007

Special to Editor, Montgomery Advertiser

 

Dear Editor:

 

On the eve of Worker’s Memorial Day, you publish a news article and an editorial that are decidedly anti-worker.

 

The story that “350 Jobs Are Safe At GE Plastics” (Business Section, March 29, 2007) is so much bunk.  How can the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce make statements that the plant won’t close or that things won’t change for the workers at GE Plastics when the sale of the plant is not even complete?  It’s another “rah rah” to make workers feel safe when in fact their jobs aren’t safe at all.  It is down right irresponsible. 

 

In the same issue your editorial attacks Senator Larry Dixon’s bill that would remove an employee of the State from making decisions on state workers’ personnel challenges to being fired.  And you don’t even mention Senator Dixon; you make it seem as if the ASEA sponsored the bill.  Last time I checked they had not achieved “senator” status.

 

If you want to look at facts, look at Lowndes County.  GE Plastics got a real deal 20 years ago.  They got 40 years of tax free status because Lowndes County thought the jobs would go to local folk.  True, GE “donates” $900,000 a year to Lowndes County, but that is just a fraction of what a fair tax would have brought in.  Now that the plant is for sale, there is no indication that the new owners (which may be the Saudi Government)  will continue the “donation” that pays for, among other necessities, ambulance service.  So we wait on the edge of our seats to stand in line to beg the new owners for what ought to be ours in the first place.

 

As a resident of Lowndes County, I don’t feel that good about the Saudi Government owning a plant less than a mile from my house that produces chemical by-products that could wipe out my community. 

 

It’s great to be pro-business, but don’t help spread the anti-worker propaganda.  By the way, what’s the dismissal process for employees of the Montgomery Advertiser?

 

Sincerely,

 

Barbara Evans

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