Employed CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT: Not Believed

Homeless Czar Debi Mae Starnes bears false witness. She remembers statements that didn’t occur, but under oath she can’t remember the hotel that pays $10,000 of her $90,000 salary. She has spewed all over Atlanta that the nightly number of residents at Peachtree-Pine furnished by the Task Force is incorrect. Read the following e-mail exchange between Czar Starnes and Carlos Banda, Deputy Chief Atlanta Police, Commander of Criminal Investigations.

From: Starnes, Debi
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 9:38 AM
To: Banda, Carlos
Re: PP

Starnes: What is the Peachtree Pine count????
Banda: 740 is the usual number 7 days a week. Supposedly the only time they go over that is when it is
real cold.
Starnes: I don’t believe that number….the CI is saying 740 SLEEP there each night???

If the TRUTH doesn’t please the Czar, she simply offers an alternative. She believes neither her Chief not her hired plant.

James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16

Franklin’s Reward Or Punishment For Her Failure?

Upon leaving office as Atlanta’s mayor, Shirley Franklin will not become the Secretary of HUD, a job whose paycheck she has long craved. She will not be running for any state or federal office: governor, lieutenant governor, U. S. Congress or U. S. Senate. She will not be anybody’s ambassador to anywhere outside downtown Atlanta. I predict that Steve “the weasel” Visser’s predicted November 1 article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (hereafter called THE NARROW) will reannounce her new position as dictated by the downtown business community through Central Atlanta Progress. She will appoint herself along with two others as the chair of The Mayor’s Commission to End Homelessness. This new three-headed joke will replace the sitting chair, the able King and Spalding retiree, Horace Sibley. And I mean “sitting.” Horace sits at lunch after lunch after lunch slandering Peachtree-Pine and cajoling ministers and persons from places of “worship” to get homeless people out of sight. The principalities and powers (Colossians 2.15) CAP and ARC and HARP and RAP and SAP and TAP and FLAP put Shirley Franklin in office to finish a job. Her responsibility was and is to disappear the homeless population and to crush the Task Force for the Homeless, Inc. In order to disappear homeless people, the shelter at Peachtree-Pine had to go. This chore articulated by Central Atlanta Progress was not accomplished. Franklin failed. Franklin’s familiar, Czar Debi Mae Starnes was employed by Central Atlanta Progress through the books of United Way to finish the chore. Starnes’ only raison d’etre was and is the homeless population–to disappear it along with the place 700 men call home. Starnes has used every means possible to obey orders.

So diligent has Starnes been that she finds herself and many of her fellow conspirators on Team Goliath in the middle of a serious lawsuit. For five hours she answered questions as part of her deposition; she had to be reminded several times that she was under oath. She was also asked if she was on medication or if she was under the care of a physician. Debi Mae remembers things that never happened and forgets the HOTEL that helps CAP pay her salary to destroy a homeless shelter. A Fulton County Superior Court Judge ruled in a HEARING TO COMPEL that the brass at Central Atlantic Progress cannot continue to ignore their subpoena to be deposed. Since those worthies believe that they are above the law (or is it below it), they believe in their darkness that they are Carl Rove. As devious, perhaps, but not as slippery. A myriad of questions awaits Starnes in a second deposition any good day now. Czar Starnes and frank Franklin failed.

Now comes Franklin’s REWARD. The mighty Shirley Franklin, the dictionary picture of arrogance, is appointing herself, ordered by CAP, as chair of The Mayor’s Commission to End Homelessness. I must pause to address my dear and not-so-dear readers. I say what Adam said to Eve in the garden, “Stand back, Darlin’, let’s take a careful look at this thing.” What a picture! Franklin appoints herself as chair of her own commission. This all takes place BEFORE Mary Norwood takes office. My deep throats in the bowels of the Outhouse tell me that Mary “not too bright” Norwood and Shirley “frank” Franklin despise each other. The present mayor has questioned publicly the mental acumen of the future mayor. I call this friction the “Buckhead-Bankhead mix,” the “Cherokee Club-Cascade Suburb divide.” When the dust settles after Queen Mary’s coronation, we might ask Nat King Cole’s question, “What will my Mary say”?

Is this reward or punishment for Franklin? You be the judge. Ambassador to the homeless is a far cry from HUD Secretary. What hotel will pay her? Does she answer to Mayor Norwood? Will Franklin keep her $100,000 advisor, Debi Mae? Is dear Jack Harden really one-third of this three-headed debacle? How did that good man get sucked into that snakepit? And is the Cobb County contribution present to fight for homeless men in his neighborhood? How will Horace Sibley be rewarded for his monolithic accomplishments? Will he continue lunching with pastors and church folks slandering Peachtree-Pine, committing tortious interference? Will he spend any more hours in the art studio at the hated Pine watching his daughter paint portraits of men who live there? Horace told me once as he was taking notes at the shelter that Peachtree-Pine would always have a friend in him. WOW! He lisped this comment while sporting a smirk not unlike those on the faces of the damned somewhere deep in Dante’s INFERNO. Having a friend like “Hosby” brings hypertension. Please, let us sing before we pray, “What a friend we have in ‘Hosby.’”

When the hag had a baby years ago, I wrote a piece stating that Woody Bartlett’s and Debi Starnes’ stupid HAP (Homeless Action Plan) would never fly. Not only did it not fly, the ill-formed thing never left the womb, alive. I’m not a prophet; my daddy was. But I make predictions from time to time. I made several at HAP’s birth that have all come true. Every weapon formed against homeless people that I saw then is now outed. Enemies of the homeless population stalk the Pine; some come bringing blessings; some come paid to take pictures; some come to pay clients to talk; Debi Mae sends and pays plants to gather information; some, like Phil Hunter, work the Pine and leave to join Team Goliath as paid sabateurs. Others hover in the art gallery. CAP was always there in the shadows but never blinded by the light of day until an honest volunteer focused the light called TRUTH.

I will attempt a few additional predictions. Let me predict that the “new” commission will accomplish the same as the old: NOTHING! Let me also predict that whenever the Pine is not operating, downtown Atlanta wll crawl with people made homeless by these buffoons in leadership. Horace Sibley doesn’t have enough jails! The police don’t have enough billy clubs. CAP doesn’t have enough crematoriums. United Way doesn’t have enough Internment Camps. THE NARROW doesn’t have enough ink. Franklin and her familiar don’t have enough paddy wagons.

I miss on some predictions. I said my Cocks would defeat Georgia by 3. That didn’t happen. I was wrong. I have said for years that the churches, synagogues, mosques standing from the capitol to Lennox Mall would never give financial help to a politically hot item like the Task Force. Why? Two reasons. One, those “organizations” are the corporate community; they are the governmental scheme. Parliament at prayer, if you please. Two, they don’t give a damn for the poor. How COULD comfortable, at ease “worshippers,” be expected to rescue homeless neighbors from the clutches of the likes of Central Atlanta Progress. These places of weekly social gatherings could never be diverted from their agendas. They massage each other AND only their kind. Why, I saw just the other a sign in front of a church on Peachtree Street that read. “Everyone Welcome!” I nearly wrecked my truck.

I wish my prediction about the “spiritual” community were as wrong as I was about its Bulldogs. I pray that ONE, just ONE worshipping “church” would call to bring help from the heart, the wallet, their place of worship’s coffers. What a treat to have one pastor write to say, “Sorry to hear that Peachtree-Pine is spinning down the toilet.” Just ONE would do. I hear that some shepherds of some flocks join the community to disappear homeless people. Perhaps churches and cathedrals and synagogues and mosques are more than extensions of Central Atlanta Progress and City Hall. Perhaps Atlanta’s MEGA churches are more than centers of entertainment that gather to applaud their favorite rock star, towers of Baal in place to give immediate gratification. I pray that I am wrong. I really pray that David holds five smooth stones.

I predict that Mayor Norwood will follow hard in the footsteps of her two predecessors with the same morally corrupt, empty leadership of Bill Campbell and Shirley Franklin. I predict that the garbage that will be uncovered following the painful hangover of Franklin’s administration will make Campbell’s disaster look like a Buckhead bridge club party. We’ll see. No weapon formed against thee….

James Wilson Beaty, PhD

TASK FORCE WINS TODAY’S HEARING TO COMPEL!

The weather was cloudy and bleak. Zeus had spoken earlier with flashing lightning and rolling thunder. He’s not happy. However poor little David walked away from court smiling with five smooth stones still at his side. The sun was shining everywhere. In the Superior Court of Fulton County, at 10:30 AM, Judge Ural Glanville denied a motion filed by Atlanta attornys to dismiss the case, The Alanta Task Force for the Homeless v. The City of Atlanta (Mayor’s office). A motion had been filed for this hearing to COMPEL Central Atlanta Progress to produce Documents and to produce A.J. Robinson, President and Richard Orr, Senior Projects Manager, for deposition.

The Judge having said that he found the information in the argument on the motion to COMPEL “relevant” ordered the attorneys, Steve Hall for the Task Force and Steve Riddell for CAP to meet. This meetiing lasted about fifteen minutes. Riddell did not want the Judge to give the order. This means that CAP lawyers will produce all previously subpoenaed documents and all previously subpoenaed persons to be deposed. Those persons so far who have been subpoenaed are Robinson and Orr.

Comes Now…Again! David holds five smooth stones!

On Friday, September 11, 2009, attorneys for the Atlanta Task Force for The Homeless, Inc. filed a
Second Amended Complaint against the city, the Mayor’s office. The entire document contains 51 numbered paragraphs covering 24 pages. Paragraphs 6 through 43 spell out in detail the basis for the Nine Counts against the city listed in the remaining paragraphs of the Complaint. I want to share some of the information gleaned from 5 1/2 hours of deposition with Homeless Czarina Debi Mae Starnes. Incidentally, Mayor Franklin’s guru on homelessness is only halfway through her deposition. She has at least one more opportunity, under oath, to tell the truth.

The following numbered paragraphs are quoted verbatim from the Complaint which is a public document. I have chosen only 16 of the 43 paragraphs that form the basis for this Second Amended Complaint against the city. I have written the paragraph numbers as they appear in the Complaint:

6.
Debi Starnes, the Mayor’s Policy Advisor on Homelessness, has acknowledged under oath that the Mayor has no policy for those people who have exhausted the limits of the service that the City affiliated agencies will provide even with respect to those who are profoundly mentally ill and unable to get themselves out of Homelessness:
Q: My question Ms. Starnes, is: what is the Mayor’s policy for those people who cannot get services
anymore from Gateway?
A: The Mayor does not have a policy about every single person in this City. The Mayor’s policy has
been to develop a continuum of care where people can come in and out. So there are individuals
that won’t avail themselves to the myriad of options that are offered them. That is correct, we
don’t have a policy for every single person in the City. (Starnes Dep., p. 177) (Draft Version) The
only place for that person to go is the street or private providers like the Task Force. (Starnes
Dep., p. 189)

11.
Despite the tremendous good done by the Task Force and its staff, the Mayor’s office for the City, a local business organization called Central Atlanta Progress, Inc. (“CAP”) and others seek to force the Task Force to abandon its efforts at the shelter and close it down. This is being done despite the dramatic increase in homelessness caused by the current economic crisis and despite the City’s or CAP’s inability to provide a solution to Atlanta’s homeless problem that would eliminate the need for the Task Force.

14.
Having been unable to close the Task Force by legitimate means, the City acting through the Mayor’s office, and CAP have sought to force the closure of the Task Force through improper, illegal and unethical means.

16.
The primary actor on behalf of the City and CAP is Debi Starnes, the Mayor’s purported Policy Advisor on Homelessness.

17.
Contrary to what would be expected by her title, Ms. Starnes is not a City employee. She is paid primarily by Central Atlanta Progress, Inc. with funds that are funneled through United Way, apparently to disguise their origin:
Q: I’ve given you a copy of what we have marked as Exhibit 17. Is that your contract with the
United Way, dated February–well, you dated it, it looks like January 31, 2009 and United Way looks
like February 5th, 2009.
A: That’s the original contract….

Q: All right. The original contract amount was $45,000. How much of that $45,000 came from Central
Atlanta Progress?
A: I believe $40,000.

Q: And the rest came from the hotel you can’t remember?
A: Yes. (Starnes Dep., p. 41)

18.

The incredible access to and influence on the City that CAP has obtained by the payments it has made to Debi Starnes is reflected in an email chain attached hereto as exhibit “A”. The email reflects Richard Orr, Senior Projects Manager for CAP, and A. J. Robinson, the President of CAP discussing a report Mr. Orr received from Debi Starnes regarding the City Law Department’s attorney-client thoughts and strategy on ongoing litigation against the Task Force.

19.

Acting in concert with CAP, the City has sought to drive the Task Force out of business by: (1) refusing to issue certifications of compliance with the Consolidated Plan that are necessary for the Task Force to obtain funding from federal, state and other governmental agencies despite the Task Force’s compliance with the City’s Consolidated Plan; (2) delaying the provision of certifications of compliance with the City’s Consolidated Plan: (3) defaming the Task Force to other government agencies, media and the public; (4) threatening organizations that seek to work with the Task Force; and (5) defaming the Task Force to private donors.

20.
The city and its officers are aware that private donors are unlikely to give donations to the Task Force if there are negative statements made about the Task Force by City officials in the press. Indeed, Ms. Starnes has a Ph. D. in community and organizational psychology (Starnes Dep., p. 10) and knows exactly the effect that statements made to (and) in the media by purported City officials will have on the people who read and hear them.

21.
To accomplish their goal, Ms. Starnes has repeatedly and consistently made knowingly false statements about the Task Force to media outlets with the hope and intention that they are repeated to the public. For instance, Ms. Starnes has repeatedly stated that the Task Force is the worst homeless shelter in Atlanta and allows people to simply languish in its facility like a warehouse. Although she agrees that the best measure of success for a homeless shelter is the number of people it moved to permanent shelter, in her deposition she admitted that she made the statements about the Task Force despite the fact that she had no idea how many people the Task Forced moved from homelessness to permanent housing last year.

Q: How many people did Peachtree-Pine move into permanent shelter–permanent housing last year?
A: I have no idea.

Q: Give me an estimate.
A: I don’t know. (Starnes Dep., p.80)

22.
Further demonstration that Ms. Starnes’ statements were false and defamatory, the Director of Atlanta’s Office of Grants Management, the body that even Starnes states is responsible for receiving applications for funding, stated under oath that the Task Force’s applications showed it was the largest provider of emergency shelter services in the City, served the most difficult population (chronic homeless, mentally ill and substance abusers) and moved the most people from homelessness to permanent housing last year of any provider in the City.

24.
Ms. Starnes has also repeatedly stated that the Task Force holds people in homelessness because it does not provide services to help them escape homelessness: “The culture of that agency and its management of that building is not one that helps people escape homelessness. What’s going on in that building is abysmal and shouldn’t be accepted. The City should be ashamed for having allowed it to go on for so long.” (“Atlanta’s Largest Homeless Shelter Could Soon Be Shuttered,” CREATIVE LOAFING, 12/14/08)

25.
However, in deposition Ms. Starnes admitted that she did not know any of the programs offered by the Task Force:
Q: Okay. You don’t know what the list [of programs they offer to end homelessness] is. So you say
they don’t offer any programs that encourage people to get out, but you actually don’t know as we
sit here today, what programs they offer?
A: I can’t recite the list, no. (Starnes Dep., p. 218-219)

26.
Here again, further demonstrating that Ms. Starnes’ statements are knowingly false, the Director of the Office of Grants Management has acknowledged that the Task Force provides broad programs to end homelessness.

27.
…Indeed, the actions by Central Atlanta Progress are so improper that CAP has refused to comply with subpoenas requiring production of documents relevant to the Task Force. It has also refused to produce its President, A. J. Robinson, and one of its officers, Richard Orr, for depositions.

28.
Examples of CAP’s efforts to influence the media against the Task Force through “off the record” communications with the media are reflected in the emails between Richard Orr of CAP and Rhonda Cook of the Atlanta Journal Constitution (“AJC”) attached hereto as Exhibit “B”. Another example is the email communication between Mr. Orr and isama@bizjournals.com attached as Exhibit “C”.

29.
As an example of CAP and it’s leadership’s desire to use the media as a weapon against the Task Force is reflected in the emails between Richard Orr and A. J. Robinson, attached as Exhibit “C” where Mr. Orr responds to an AJC reporter’s willingness to meet with him so that he can supply “off the record” background information on the Task Force by advising the President of CAP: “FYI–Rhonda’s [Cook, reporter for the AJC] response below. WE”RE IN! (emphasis added)

30.
An example of CAP’s malicious intent is contained in an email between David Wardell and fincjm@langate.gsu.edu where Mr. Wardell reacts to a news report indicating that the City has turned off water to the Task Force’s shelter as follows: “Thanks, Great news.” Id.

The NINE COUNTS named and explained in this legal document, I choose to put in another reading. If you have waded through these 1500 words you deserve a rest. In fact, if I can get personal it’s time for me to pray. An earlier blog stated that whenever I hear the name, David Wardell, I always pray for him. As a fan of Charles Dickens, I study characters in and out of literature. David Wardell of CAP gave us that program for homeless people called “Wake Up, Atlanta.” That was the program for homeless people where Wardell, accompanied by a policeman, strolled early morning Atlanta and kicked the soles of the shoes of sleeping homeless people. I pray for David “Great news! Wake Up Atlanta” Wardell. As much as I wanted, I did not offer any comment or commentary on this Second Amended Complaint. I will in another blog entitled, “Team Goliath: Dickens Would Have Another Heyday.”

James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16

Has Atlanta’s Leadership Gone Bat-Shit Mad?

Today, September 10, 2009, The Grady Coalition held a press conference on the steps of Fulton County’s Grady Hospital. Dr. Neil Shulman, other physicians, nurses and three kidney patients spoke passionately to 100 people. The press conference was called in order to beg the new privatized Board of Directors of the hospital to continue dialysis treatment for 90 patients. The Board announced several months ago its decision to close the Dialysis Clinic. No other hospital in Atlanta offers this treatment to indegent patients.

Anyone over 12 and awake in Atlanta knows that our City has not been “poor friendly” for the last dozen years. In fact, Atlanta’s leadership has labored to exterminate the homeless population since the Campbell Administration. The Atlanta Housing Authority headed by Renee Glover is yet another exterminator of housing for the under belly of Atlanta’s populace. AHA like housing authorities across America is no longer an organization that welcomes the poorest of the poor. And the “low lifes” that Glover’s regime has put on the streets are not considered worthy of the upgraded housing of the Atlanta Housing Authority. Thirteen housing communities under the umbrella of AHA have been leveled within the last 36 months.

But Grady Hospital! The last bastion of medical care for the poor! The latest victims of the War Against the Poor are not homeless people. It is understandable that Atlanta, the city too busy to hate, would do away with homeless people and the lower than low income renters. Those folks are unsightly. They are not pretty. There’s no place for them in Horace Sibley’s Tourists’ Triangle or Central Atlanta’s Sanitized Zone. The homeless folks from Peachtree-Pine smell bad. Ratchet Rob Hunter has seen to that as he has lived up to his name, Ratchet Rob “I’ll turn your water off” Hunter.

But not Grady! Reason dictates that a hospital would be the last place the corporate vultures would invade. WRONG. It is beyond imagination what has happened. Over the protest of a few Fulton Count Board of Commissioners, Grady Hospital has become a privatized business, answering only to a corporate board. The most recent result of privatization is the Board’s decision to shut down the Dialysis Clinic, presently serving 90 patients. The clinic according to the board is not economically feasible. The fiscally responsible board has counted the cost, a short fall of $4,000,000. To hell with the 90 people whose lives depent on this treatment. Besides 60 of them are from other countries, anyway. To be sure most of them won’t live long, anyway.

Tell that to the five-year-old boy holding a sign that reads: “Keep the Dialysis Clinic Open.” The little fellow’s 34 year-old mother will die if she misses one treatment. This five-year old will feel first hand the claw of privatization, the hammer of fiscal responsibility. Along side this lad stood eight adult patients whose lives will be snuffed out without dialysis treatment. The clinic is scheduled to close September 20. That’s TEN days from this writing.

What can be done? Public outcry may make a difference. Enough clamor just might bring about an injunction from, say, Fulton County Superior Court to enjoin Grady Hospital to continue dialysis treatment for all who need it.

Perhaps in a better world every board member who voted to close the clinic would be charged with attempted murder. And if one living soul dies from lack of treatment, let that charge be changed to MURDER.

Can you imagine that five-year-old boy having to hold that sign in a civilized country that has universal health care: Canada, Great Britain, Scotland, the Scandanavian countries and others.

I dedicate this “bat-shit mad” piece to the honorable U. S. Congressman Joseph “mind your manners now” Wilson of South Carolina. He’s the man who shouted, “You lie” during President Obama’s address to the nation on health care. Imagine if you dare an elected American official outraged that human beings, not to his liking, might receive health care insurance that would pay medical expenses. What have we become? Where will we stand at the day of reckoning? When will leadership ever take us back home again?

Is Atlanta the home of Dr. King? Who could ever tell it? Jeremiah 6.14 “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.” Should you read this blog I beg you to tell two people of the proposed Grady Massacre. Please shout from the housetops the outrage, one more atrocity committed by the city we love, the city we have lost. Tell you church. Tell your mosque. Tell your synagogue. Tell a judge. Pray for the 90 victims and their grieving families. Call the White House. Bombard the Outhouse. Ask every mayoral candidate what he or she would do to save the Dialysis Clinic.

James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16

Shakespeare On Social Injustices

Outside the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, I know of no statement exposing social injustices more powerful than Shakespeare’s Sonnet 66. He gave the world 154 sonnets, give or take a few, that some scholars believe might have been written by somebody else. Like the 150 Psalms of David, a few may have been set down by a second writer. I don’t care. For our purposes authorship is secondary; content is primary.

Sonnet 66 is unique for several reasons. First, ten of its lines begin with the coordinate conjunction, “And.” Ten lines beginning with the same word displays a regularity not to be found elsewhere in the remaining sonnets. I have not seen this regularity anywhere else in good writing. Shakespeare has a reason for his unvarying rhythm. He is creating a regularity that matches the monotony of the world’s injustice. And that monotony has its own dismal pattern of relentless repetition. A second unique feature of Sonnet 66 is its abandoning the three quatrains and rhyming couplet. Each of the “stanzas” forms a mini-poem while the couplet serves as a commentary on the fourteen lines. Not Sonnet 66.

For our accessibility and enjoyment I want to put the 14-line poem in front of us:

Sonnet 66
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry:
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,
And purist faith unhappily forsworn,
And guilded honor shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly (doctor-like) controlling skill,
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
And captain good attending captain ill.
Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that to die I leave my love alone.

Line 1 tells that the poet cries for death because he is exhausted by the injustices he’s about to list. Lines 13 and 14 which close the sonnet repeat that his devastated state remains, and his desire to be gone from “these” remains. However, his only grip on constancy is his faithfully loving those around him. He cannot leave them alone.

A litany of evil smudges the page from line 2 through line 12. A parade of victims and victimizers file before the eyes of the narrator. The first seven lines form a lament while the last five lines name the victims and their victimizers. Each of the five lines is an J’accuse.

Throughout the sonnet the single line does what the four-line quatrain usually does. It makes a complete statement. For instance the second line notes that a worthwhile person is born to be a beggar while line 3 finds a worthless nothing, unjustly raised up and dressed in jollity, in a merry mood. Line 3 reminds me of the fop, prominent in Eighteenth Century English literature. The fop is the vain, overdressed dandy unaware that he hopes to be avoided by everyone in every room that he enters. “Oh no, look who just arrived.” He’s the one who has just been promoted over three others more qualified than he. Line two brings to mind Bobby Kennedy’s proclaiming that every baby born of woman in any one of the United States of America has an engagement ring on its tiny finger. And that ring is a promise of citizenship that carries with it the full protection of the Constitution. That promise is the guarantee as an American to the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Shakespeare’s second line “As to behold desert a beggar born” deplores that in his world that right had not been granted.

Lines 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 move from lament to J’accuse. Each of these lines accuses a perpetrator. And each of these lines exposes a mover and a shaker acting CUI BONO, for whose benefit? for what use? of what good? Each victimizer has made a victim for fear of being removed, replaced. Shakespeare, the master of words hates most miscalling, misnaming. Secondly, he hates the pretense of learning, the novice pretending to be an expert. Look with me if we dare at the five victimizers.

Line 8 reads, “And strength by limping sway disabled.” “Limping sway” is defective authority; any citizen in Atlanta ever heard of “defective authority”? I remember some years ago the Task Force leadership was at City Hall pleading for something. We were actually casting our pearls before swine. Robert S. Cramer, Jr., Chair of the Board, said to Mayor Bill Campbell, “Mr. Mayor, we own a huge building on Peachtree Street; we believe we have rights.” Campbell’s response in front of 12 people was, “Bob, you have rights; we have enforcement.” In 1995 the Task Force had the strength to apply for and to obtain $12.4 million that was dispersed among shelters throughout the greater Atlanta area. Campbell held a copy of the check for the media lying that the city had applied for and had gotten the $12.4 million. A shelter provider in my hearing said last month that the Task Force’s dispersement of that money was the only time that the accounting was fair. The Task Force since 1995 has been “disabled” constantly, unremittingly since 1995. Debbie Starnes came alive following the Super NOFA federal grant in 1995; the present Czar was on City Council. She saw then that federal bucks were to be had. The calculating Starnes as member of the City Council had her work cut out for her. Starnes, like Bruce Gunter, that safe point of light, is always close to the money. The “sway” in Shakespeare’s sonnet is that unsteady authority that pulverizes threatening strength. J’accuse Debi Starnes; J’accuse defective authority mirrored in the likes of Bill Campbell. J’accuse Shirley Franklin. J’accuse them in the names of 600 men at the Pine who will soon be on the streets of Atlanta fulfilling the wishes of defective authority.

Line 9 reads: “And art made tongue-tied by authority.” The City of Atlanta has never, not one time, not now, not ever addressed the homeless population. Pages of discovery (evidence) showing that Central Atlanta Progress, the City of Atlanta and the sad Atlanta Journal-Constitution have for years plotted to overthrow Anita Beaty and the shelter at Peachtree-Pine. I’m under lock and key not to BLOG what I know and who I know e-mailed whom in order to block funding, coaching reporters, asking about lenders, speaking with mega-million bucks donars, etc., etc. In a few days when all the court stuff is on record, I can post and, honey, I will. But for now, “Art” for Shakespeare meant articulation, oration, expression and truth telling. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has lied incessantly. It is Debi Starnes’ newsletter slandering the Task Force. Reporters for the local newspaper are coached by the brass at Central Atlanta Progress on which “spin” to take. And all the while those of us who know the truth are “tongue-tied” without the resources to pay the water bills because the creditor to whom we owe the water bill has illegally (tortious interference) stopped our funding. J’accuse Central Atlanta Progress. J’accuse Deborah “the whole truth” Cook. J’accuse Debi Starnes. J’accuse David “Great News” “Wake up Atlanta” Wardell. And I accuse these leaders of our city in the names of the hundreds of homeless men whose hands I shake all the time.

Line 10 reads, “And folly (doctor-like) controlling skill.” Remember Shakespeare despised almost as much as lying with the language, miscalling with the inaccurate words. Some years ago I was an honorable member of the Atlanta Kiwanis Club. I loved my time there, and those good folks let me speak once, with some trepidation I might add, theirs and mine. Before I left (the Task Force nor I could pay the dues), Horace Sibley, Esquire, was the quest speaker. He was invited to speak because he was then (and now I think) the Chair of Mayor Franklin’s newly appointed Commission on Homelessness. Among other things this retired attorney said that the commission which he chaired would end homelessness in Atlanta in ten years. Sibley mosied around Peachtree-Pine for ten months taking notes while his lovely daughter painted dozens of homeless people in our little art studio. “And folly (doctor-like) controlling skill” portrays Horace Sibley talking about ending homelessness. I’m sure he’s a brilliant lawyer, but he knows as much about ending homelessness as a rabbit knows about teaching Sunday School. J’accuse Hosby in the names of the 600 men who languish tonight at the Pine wondering where Team Goliath will stab us next,

Line 11 reads: “And simple truth miscalled simplicity.” The first century Christians were first called Chrestians, or simpletons. Brilliant Atlanta attorneys will soon show the Superior Court of Fulton County that the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Inc. has methodically, regularly and unremittingly been depicted by the local paper, agents of city hall and the wise Central Atlanta Progress to be at best simpletons who harm rather than help homeless people. Misnaming! Why this lie? Let me count the ways. One answer is enough! LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! Bruce “safe point of light” Gunter sidled up to Anita Beaty years ago in order to deliver the building to developers. He couldn’t deliver; he’s been an enemy ever since. No money; no Bruce. The Task Force has told the truth about homeless people since its inception. Truth speaking to power rarely wins. J’accuse Debi Starnes for telling people not to buy the Pine because it would soon be foreclosed. J’accuse the local paper for consistently reporting lies about Peachtree-Pine from lice infestation to human squalor. J’accuse them in the names of the twenty men thriving in transition at the Pine.

Line 12 reads: “And Captain Good attending Captive Ill.” When Bob Cramer graciously asked Mayor Campbell for relief, we all went there trusting that ILL would help. After Andy Young and Maynard Jackson, the Task Force has approached city hall only with hat in hand. In fact, the only times we’ve seen Shirley Franklin was when she drove by the Peachtree-Pine facility, slowly, taking notes. I think Hosby did that for her (that’s Horace Sibley). One of our staff members named him “Hosby” because we love him so much. He’s our friend. And he bats cleanup on Team Goliath.

The Pretrial hearing in the Superior Court of Fulton County is set for September 21, 2009. I can’t tell you yet what I know. I yearn to talk about subpoenas and motions and possible sanctions and 4000 pages of stuff and city attorneys and other Keystone Cops stuff like that. I asked a knowledgeable person how in blazes could the city have 4000 pages that mentioned the poor little David, the ruined Task Force. One smarter than I asked me, “How long did you say Debi Starnes has been running her mouth?” Speaking of “dismal pattern of relentless repetition.” Incidentally those 4000 pages are now in the hands of Task Force lawyers, along with subpoenaed e-mails from Central Atlanta Progress. I’m permitted to write that. As the Reverend Joseph Lowry has said, “And the beat goes on.” Stay tuned my little ones. The fat lady has not yet begun to sing. Watch for “Does A Worm Squirm?”

James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16