The Year of Moving Forward

The Year of Moving Forward
At our 4 person wedding reception in DC

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Is today "crazy day?"


Where do I start?

Dorothy Davidson?

Louise Alexander?

Ed May?

By now, everyone has seen the digitally altered photo of mayoral candidate Dorothy Davidson with Alabama football coach Nick Saban. What can I say about this except...what were you thinking?

This is a picture (from the Birmingham News) of a campaign flier put out by her campaign.





Her campaign manager takes the blame.


Morris said he told Davidson the photo of the coach and his wife, Terry, was actually of Saban and his mother. He said he told Davidson that Saban had OK'd the altering of the photograph.
"I lied," Morris said. "She (Davidson) didn't do anything wrong."


I like Dorothy and she has done a world of good for our city through volunteer work and her service on the city council (although I certainly did not agree with her positions or votes, and she was the one that tabled the subject of dog abuse when the mayor (Ed May) shut me up when I pointed out that it was against the law to abuse animals and his Animal Control department was breaking the law).


Still, this just about does her campaign in, I believe.


Last night at the forum, I immediately noticed that two candidates were not on the program; Dorothy Davidson and Louise Alexander. I had walked in with Dorothy, and there was no to-do, so I figured she had just been late in paying the registration (another no - no in my book, ignoring protocol and procedure). But when Louise came marching toward the door, Chamber personnel (the event was sponsored by the Bessemer Chamber of Commerce) perked up, because she still had not registered or paid to participate.


When the forum began, she was seated at the table with the other candidates, and we heard that someone had coughed up the cash for her to participate.


Now we learn that Ms. Alexander accused the Chamber of being racist because they didn't include her (and Davidson's) pictures and information on the brochure. Of course, their pictures were not included because they had not registered before the programs were printed. Somewhere in this equation let me insert that Ed May's picture was also missing from the program, but his information was in there.


Ms. Alexander called the NAACP and vented on camera to the CBS 42 guy. Of course, other than her and Ms. Davidson, there are three other black candidates and one white one. Those four followed the rules and paid their fee on time.


I think antics like this, plus, oh, former indictments and such, just about do her campaign in.


Then there is Ed May.


Much was said at the forums for city council and school board candidates about the money that the city owes the schools. Some of that money is the result of ad valorem taxes passed in 2000.


An article in the Western Star on March 15, 2000, stated that on the April 25 ballot would be a vote for two renewals of taxes, and new taxes some of which would go to the schools and some to the library.

(the article is below the fold on the front page of the issue pictured)

In that article Ed May, who was an attorney doing some legal work for the city of Bessemer, spoke in favor of the tax.


That's kind of strange, since both the schools and the library didn't get their money easily. In fact, the school is still fighting for theirs. But in that same paragraph is this confession:


"When I was laying on my back in a hospital in Vietnam, I was mad at my father because he wasn't rich enough to get me a Yamaha motorcycle with saddle bags full of 30-06 shells so I could ride around and shoot white men."


He does continue, thanking God for saving him from that, and making the point, I guess that a good education is worth paying the extra tax for. It's kind of hard to think about what follows and what message is being broadcast after reading that.

I mean, good Lord, think before you speak, man.


(This paper can be found at the Bessemer Public Library, in the Western Star archives).


You know, this puts a whole new light on the abduction last year of a white man in Bessemer and Ed May's assertion that the victim must have been an "associate" of the perpetrators, who were black.

Sometimes deep seated hatred that one thinks they have overcome resurfaces.

At any rate, I think the city will be much better off if we send the current mayor to the fishing hole for some R & R.

3 comments:

Ben Mason said...

How wrong can you be? Ed May belongs in jail!

Anonymous said...

Bessemer citizens, think intelligently and vote for Ken2010. He is the only qualified candidate. City of Bessemer employees you should be tired of this corruption, no raises, unfair hiring. We need someone that will listen to their department heads and hire off the list. Felons working inside city hall, who started out as laborers and now have top paying jobs. Talk about fairness. A place that does not have their own Human Resources department. Stand up for your department. You should respect what someone does for you. Put your kids first, the board of education need their money. Vote for fairness. Vote to see a copy of your city's budget which is public knowledge. If they didn't have anything to hide, you would have seen it already.

Anonymous said...

So many ethnic laws have been runover by the crooks in City Hall, for instance paying department heads and Administrative I clerks to work inside the conference room for the counting of the absentee ballots when they should have not been present from the start. Only the poll workers, poll watchers, or whatever. The Acting City Clerk, Travis Brooks has spoiled this election. They were not even on post and you still paid them for their regular eight hours. Talk about stealing time.