First of all, both opine on the pages of the P &C practically at will, promulgating their lockstep views on CCSD. The question becomes, is this access obsequious deference, or is it veiled support?
Second, both are stuck in the sixties on race relations. Both believe that by default any group of people not controlled directly by CCSD or the NAACP must be racist. Sure, racism still exists, perhaps especially in their own minds.
In Saturday's P & C Darby denigrates the motives of a diverse group of parents and citizens behind the Charter School for Math and Science, presumably Lonnie Hamilton among them. One wonders what universe Darby inhabits these days when he makes the following (serious?) comment on the new charter school's use of the Rivers High School building:
"Charleston and South Carolina will be set back a half century to the days when education was separate and unequal and when those of the right color and the right social class had their way without question, and the descendants of those who protected segregation 50 years ago will have succeeded in promoting not diversity, but re-segregation."
- Aren't we already there in District 20?
- And on your watch, Rev. Darby?
- Isn't District 20's education "separate and unequal"?
- Don't "those of the right color and right social class have their way without question" where Buist Academy is concerned while ignoring Charleston Progressive, thanks to the likes of Gregg Meyers?
- Where were you as Burke High School deteriorated to its present state, with students now lacking textbooks in core subjects?
So a charter high school's going to make that defacto segregation worse than it is now?
That's mathematically impossible.
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12 comments:
Well said, Babbie. Too bad the Post and Courier won't give you a spread like the great Rev. gets every 4th week. He makes my skin crawl...YUCK.
Bable wouldn't get a "spread" like that because she's a nobody.
By the way, for those of you who don't know who Bable is, her real name is Clelia Casey.
She "teaches" English at Bishop England High School (not part of CCSD).
And what does that have to do with this story 10:10 PM!!
Everyone who lives in Charleston County has the right to express their opinion -- just like you. I chose not to agree with you. Bable please keep up the good work.
Tomorrow’s school board meeting should be interesting. It starts at 5:15 pm @ 75 Calhoun. Please arrive early if you plan to speak.
I feel sorry for 10:10 pm. Maybe if you had a life, you wouldn't make such a fool of yourself on this blog on a Sat. night.
Hmmm...I wonder who YOU could be??
Public comments made at the county school board meeting on Monday may tell the story. Will there be grass roots support for building up alternative educational programs at Burke or will there just be a battle royal where a handful of charter school opponents play every sort of negative "I told you so" argument against a genuine parent initiative? Darby and others who would use this issue for their own policital interests continue to ignore the real issue: CCSD's failure to provide quality academic programs at Burke and at other downtown schools. If they attempt to limit the charter school's potential at Rivers without taking action to lift CCSD's limits on programs at Burke, then they have a lot of explaining to do.
Voting for CCSMS then lashing that support to an ill defined vocational program for "at risk" over age students is a veiled attempt to kill it. If High Tech High proponents were serious they would be calling for it to be developed as part of a major of Burke's academic offerings, that would include the Advanced Placement Academy and preservation building trades that would lead to the College of the Building Arts.
Oops, I left out an important word: "....as part of a major EXPANSION of Burke's academic offerings..."
Will those who oppose the charter school for math & science do what's needed to improve Burke or not? Why is it that when people with the most at risk come together (such as Friends of Burke, parents w/kids in the system & community based groups like CCSMS), Darby and school board leaders like Meyers always manage to say it's a bad thing or it's a step backwards? Darby and Meyers both are sounding just like those White Citizens Committees from the 1950's. Remember, those people wanted to close the schools & sell public school property just to keep certain people and their kids out. Oh, would those old closet Kluckers be surprised if they were alive today to hear (and see) who's carrying on their message. Joe Darby and Gregg Meyers are continuing the fight to keep our public schools "just as they are" SEGREGATED! (...and failing.)
According to Rev. Darby's op-ed in Saturday's P&C, "Charleston and South Carolina will be set back a half century to the days when education was separate and unequal and when those of the right color and the right social class had their way without question, and the descendants of those who protected segregation 50 years ago will have succeeded in promoting not diversity, but re-segregation."
Rev. Darby is trying to manipulate rivers of outrage among those who are unlikely to have even a glass full of memory. What we do have among downtown residents is a passion for better schools for our kids.
Rev. Darby needs to go sit in on a 2nd grade class at a Dist. 20 school(excluding Buist, of course) and then go sit in on a 2nd grade class in a Mt. Pleasant school and he can witness "separate and unequal" education right now. The man speaks without a clue.
Darby's own civil rights memory is selective. He should read again, if he read it at all, last week's Chronicle which published an historical account of what happened at Little Rock's Central High fifty years ago. The people and leaders of Little Rock were taking positive action to open their schools after the 1954 Brown Decision. Prior to 1957, they had already successfully desegregated many of their public places. The schools were next on their list. Instead, those with selfish political interests mostly from outside of Little Rock (led by the governor), used the school issue to try to stop those who were willing to move forward in Little Rock. The lines that separated the sides were not always as clear as white vs. black. (Thank you Mr. French and The Chronicle for that history lesson.)
Joe Darby and Gregg Meyers are an interesting pair of allies in the current fight involving Rivers, HTH, the charter school and Burke.
Darby is an AME minister sent to Charleston from Columbia who lives in the suburbs but uses his downtown church as a political platform from which to admonish his flock about the evil ways of the wolves that surround them. He reserves the right to determine when he should negotiate with those same wolves on their behalf. Meyers is Darby's limousine-liberal ally (not to be confused with a genuine liberal) charged with a missionary zeal to smite all un-Reconstructed heathens (a/k/a white southern wolves) who he alone has judged as guilty of preying on poor black sheep.
Like Darby, Meyers sees himself as a shepherd...and his constituents as sheep. Not being very good shepherds, both Darby and Meyers have shown contempt for the concerns and suggestions of downtown residents (be they white or black). To Darby and Meyers in District 20 they're all just wolves and sheep anyway.
Meyers is not unlike the arrogant and elitist carpetbaggers of the Reconstruction era. Most were self righteous opportunists who eventually moved on. Darby is more complex. He does serious damage with the distrust and suspicion he cultivates especially with the reverse racism that Darby spits. Darby’s bigotry should be of greater concern to downtown school supporters. He sows the seeds of future divisions and hatred while blocking attempts for reasonable moderates to cooperate.
No question, both Darby and Meyers are stuck in the 1960's. We've moved on. They haven't.
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