"My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6

SMI Analytical

Taxpayers who  live (if they have no alternative),  work (if they are lucky),  and play (at their own risk), in north Huntsville  are being systematically destroyed from a lack of knowledge, not by choice, by design.

The Huntsville City School Board of Education, enabled by the City of Huntsville, purchased 100 acres of land to build a new predominately African American high school less than a mile from an active rock quarry. 

The property, located just north of Pulaski Pike's intersection with Stringfield Road, began as one of four potential sites for the new school. Problems with two of those sites, a 78-acre parcel of land near the intersection of Jordan Lane and Mastin Lake Road and a 100-acre site across Blue Springs Road from the Richard Showers Recreation Center, quickly eliminated them from consideration.
Johnson High could have been rebuilt at its current location off of Winchester Road, but the Pulaski Pike site is twice the size of the current one. Laurie McCaulley, who represents Johnson High on the board, said the current site could become a training ground for public service officers.

Note the article doesn't state exactly what the "problems" were at the other two locations, nor does it state the property that was purchased is less than a mile from an active rock quarry.  If that's not a problem I don't know what is.

To add insult to injury, the BOE violated their own policy and renamed said new school after  Dr. Mae Jemison  despite a massive protest to keep the name J.O. Johnson. 

 Last night the Huntsville City School Board of Education violated their own policy on the Selection of School, Facility, and/or Property Name (Policy 2.9, presented September 5, 2013) by concluding the process and voting on the new names approximately three weeks before they were allowed to do so.

There  has been no coverage of this violation by the media. 

There are valid concerns adequate/aggressive testing of the air quality and the potential risk to students, administrators, teachers, and support personnel was not conducted prior to purchasing this property.  There is an increased risk of asthma, respiratory disease, and lung cancer; the same health risk as being exposed to asbestos.

 Mesothelioma (or, more precisely, malignant mesothelioma) is a rare form of cancer that develops from cells of the mesothelium, the protective lining that covers many of the internal organs of the body. Mesothelioma is most commonly caused by exposure to asbestos.^[1] The most common anatomical site for mesothelioma is the pleura (the outer lining of the lungs and internal chest wall), but it can also arise in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity), the pericardium (the sac that surrounds the heart),^[2] or the tunica vaginalis (a sac that surrounds the testis).

There was a huge public outcry, supported by city, county and state public officials when Vulcan wanted to operate a rock quarry in the affluent Gurley/New Hope community, citing air quality concerns for schools two miles away. Some of the same city, county and state officials are silent when it comes to air quality for schools in north Huntsville.  

Other elected officials speaking against the quarry were Mark Russell, president of Huntsville City Council, Madison County District 3 Commissioner Eddie Sisk, state Sen. Paul Sanford, state Sen. Shadrack McGill, state Rep. Wayne Johnson, Gurley Mayor Rob Sentell, Gurley Councilman Robert Wren.
Their concerns addressed environmental quality of Flint River and Hayes Nature Preserve, unsafe traffic with trucks crossing Norfolk Southern Railroad along a curve, heavy trucks sharing roads with school buses, air quality at two nearby schools and a lack of local governmental control of the quarry operation.

There was a huge public outcry supported by city, county, and state public officials when the superintendent wanted to change the name of Lee High School to the point of telling him he would be making a gargantuan mistake if he changed the name.

 "There's been any number of councilman and officials call to inform me that I've made a gargantuan mistake," Wardynski said, to applause from the crowd that made him smile. "Thank you for acknowledging my mistake."

Some of the same city, county, and state officials are silent when it comes to responding to public outcry against changing the name of J.O. Johnson.  As a matter of fact, they are planning a ground breaking ceremony using, I mean, inviting Mae Jemison to put a black face on their deception.
Dr. Mae Jemison's good name is being destroyed by a lack of knowledge.   

 Dear Dr. Mae Carol Jemison,

It's me, RedEye.  Have your ears been burning lately?  The reason I ask is because you are being talked about 24/7 in the Rocket City.  In case you haven't heard, the Superintendent and the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education, voted to replace the name James Oliver Johnson  with  your name, despite opposition  from the majority of Alumni, parents, students, and the community.  The reason the BOE states for wanting to replace the name  J.O. Johnson with  your good name is because you are well....black  and because JOJ is a so called  "failing" school. In other words, they don't want to fix the problem, they want to slap your good name on it and call it fixed.  Nod.  Nod. Wink.  Wink.

The public outcry by citizens in north Huntsville is being suppressed. 

Purposely withholding vital info from the people/community that will be affected is a nice nasty way of saying......"You are not valued as a person".......We know what is best for you, even though we need your tax dollars........We will do what we want in your community because we don't live in your community.

Lord, please help us.