Lester Miller Resists the Microaggression Posse

By Dave Oedel

Bibb County Board of Education member Lester Miller has incurred the ire of a local microaggression posse calling itself the “Concerned Clergy of Middle Georgia.” That group issued a flier last week complaining, first and foremost, that Miller shouldn’t be calling minority business owners “horses.”

During a BOE subcommittee meeting on May 21, 2015 about minority participation in BOE contracting, Miller used an idiomatic saying, “You can take a take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.” Miller was referring to the difficulties that the BOE has experienced in finding qualified local minority firms to bid on BOE contracts.

The “Concerned Clergy” posse took offense at Miller’s use of the phrase, as if Miller’s usage was, in itself, an affront to minority business owners. The flier bristled, “Minority Business Owners . . . Are not horses.”

By using the phrase about not being able to make horses drink, Miller was … Continue Reading

Is Johntellis Mathis Suffering Retribution for Speaking Out?

From Macon Monitor Staff Reports, supervised by Dave Oedel

Both the Georgia and U.S. Constitutions in theory shield individuals from governmental retaliation against those who speak out against perceived governmental indiscretion.

Macon citizen Johntellis Mathis, along with another Macon citizen, G-Rell, spoke out against prosecutorial over-aggressiveness with respect to gang affiliation last week in the Macon Monitor. Among other things, both men suggested that gang affiliation is not a fair basis in local context for holding people to lengthy prison terms in addition to the terms imposed for whatever crimes that those individual defendants may have committed. Mathis’ picture appears with this post.

Mathis, who noted his own personal affiliations with the GD and Blacc Team gangs, suggested in his interview with the Macon Monitor that the police and gangs in Macon might get together to rid the community of guns held by people without a legal right to wield them.

That olive branch was not picked up. Instead, Mathis became … Continue Reading

“The Tipping Point”: How a 1981 Macon Trial Exonerating a Black Med Center Nurse Showed a Macon Jury Rising Above Race Bias

By Dr. Fred Howard

“Deliberate Killings Suspected in Several Medical Center Deaths.” Residents of Macon stared at this front page headline over their morning coffee on August 4, 1979. There was suspicion that someone was sabotaging the medical equipment in the intensive care unit at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in ways that caused the death of several patients. Suspense built in the community about the investigation of these deaths until October 31, 1979 when Barbara Jean Williams, a nurse and – by the way – an African American, was publicly identified as the defendant in the case. She faced an indictment for murder in connection with one of these deaths and aggravated assault in the case of several others. The story developed into the top news story of the year in the Macon Telegraph and Ms. Williams would go on to endure a public ordeal spanning nearly two years.

Ms. Williams’ troubles began … Continue Reading

Senator David Perdue Contradicts Himself — Again

By Dave Oedel

This could be an awkward six years as Georgia citizens figure out who it is they really elected to the U.S. Senate.

Freshman U.S. Senator David Perdue, R. Ga., in his first speech from the well of the Senate in Washington D.C. on April 27, 2015,  said that we’re in the midst of a constitutional crisis. Why? Because, Perdue said, we have “allowed this President to run the country without Congress for the past six years.” Perdue said that, to “create a new beginning, we must get back to our founding principles, articulated in our Constitution.”

That rhetoric matched Perdue’s campaign statements, after which he handily beat Michelle Nunn, 53-45 percent, on November 6, 2014. Nunn had offered a more solicitous view of presidential authority – a view that Georgia’s voters firmly rejected.

This past week, though, Perdue again acted in apparent contradiction to his own early rhetoric when he voted to cede “fast-track” trade authority to the president.

The Macon Monitor already noted in prior editions … Continue Reading