Pay your taxes, shut up, and die

Happy birthday Gloria Richardson (5/6/22). “A first-class citizen does not beg for freedom. A first-class citizen does not plead to the white power-structure to give him something that the whites have no power to give or take away. Human rights are human rights, not white rights.” Richardson led the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (a SNCC affiliate) in Cambridge, Maryland to fight against institutional racism.

If you were meant to have a voice you would have been born white.  This is how I feel as I type this post in the wake of HCS superintendent Casey Wardynki's meeting with Southeast Huntsville residents, organized by Huntsville City Councilman Bill Kling and community leaders.   I would describe the atmosphere as....cordial.  Unlike BOE meetings, citizens comments/questions didn't have to be written down and read by the Director of Community Engagement, also, unlike BOE meetings, the superintendent answered their questions.

Several people expressed their love and support to the Superintendent for doing the job he was hired to do.

Casey you have to break the mold and prove you're not afraid of minorities, democrats, liberals, aclu (sic) types and the entire entitlement crowd! Do that, and you'll be doing the job you were hired to do! Oh yeah, not to mention striking down all racial transfers. And that includes allowing not allowing whites to racially transfer either. If you don't like where your child goes to school, move to where they can be zoned into a school of your preference, that's what I had to do!

One thing I did learn as a result of the meeting is although they can't disclose who the potential buyers are for Butler High School and some of the other vacant schools in the district, residents in these neighborhoods would be happy if these deals go through.

In addition to the interest in Butler, Wardynski said, there is also a buyer interested in both Stone Middle and West Huntsville Elementary. A portion of the Stone property has already been sold off, and the school itself is being used as a storage facility by the district.
Portions of the West Huntsville building are currently being used by the non-profit Free 2 Teach and The Pinnacle Schools, the outside company that, in 2012, replaced the Seldon Center as the district's alternative school.

The current Grissom High School campus may become the site of a new southeast library and a police substation.  The current J.O. Johnson High school  facility will be used as a public safety training facility when the new school is moved less than half a mile from an active rock quarry.  It's hard to see how a public safety (police and fire) training station slapped right dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood is going to improve the quality of life and property values in north Huntsville.  But hey, it's north Huntsville, who cares?

The superintendent and the councilman did all they could to assure southeast Huntsville residents they would be pleased by the purchasers of the properties in their neighborhood, and promised they would be safe from homeless vagrants, north Huntsville residents not so much.  Speaking of security, the superintendent must have been afraid for his safety because he was there with a full security detail consisting of a HCS and HPD detail.  I thought he was the Governor of the President or something.

So tonight, at a public meeting held in a church, Huntsville leaders claim they want residents to contribute to the cities future plans. Call me cynical, but I believe the plans have already been made, and I have no reason to believe north Huntsville is included in said plans.  We can't even get them to listen to us about  a name change.  Why should they listen to us about anything else?  Seems like to me all they want north Huntsville residents to do is pay taxes, shut up, support the status quo, and die.

I feel like an unwelcome visitor in my own city.  Marginalized, minimized, under estimated and under valued.
Remember when Huntsville was known as the Star of Alabama?  What happened to that bright star?

Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

—Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 1789