Team Goliath Weeps, Again–The WATER IS ON; Sorry,Sib

A staff member from the Sibley’s shelter, ole SS I call it, the Gateway, called Task Force staff members today to alert them that the Gateway staff would be coming over (Friday, October 30, 2009) to begin moving men out of the Pine as the WATER WOULD BE TURNED OFF AT 5 pm. Team Goliath has not a clue about our means. Little did the Phil Hunters and the like know that a check for the $6,100 had been cut and signed, ready to be delivered to the City’s Department of Water Mismanagement. Sorry! The vultures will have to wait another month before Ratchet Rob pulls the switch.

Incidentally the messenger from Gateway is Phil Hunter who lived at Peachtree Pine for many months. He became employed at the Pine. Before he left to work for Starnes and Sibley and United Way, he wrote a letter stating that he was moving on. He wrote that Peachtree Pine had been one of the greatest blessing in his life. He now is a member of Team Goliath, not a very important member but important enough to recognize a small smooth stone when he HEARS it. A note of irony. Staff at the Gateway call the Pine 5 days a week asking if they can send homeless people to us. We say YES every time and they are turning off our water. No weapon formed against….

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

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

Lawsuit Moved To Federal Court

The lawsuit posing the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless v. The City of Atlanta has been moved from The Superior Court of Fulton County to Federal Court. This move was requested by City of Atlanta attorneys. Evidently the City of Atlanta folks feel that this case is not developing “business as usual.” Perhaps the judge was not available for lunch. I for one am elated. The juxtaposition of Fulton County Superior Court and City Hall smacks of incestuous play among the good ole boys. Let us pray that the buddy system may not be as evident at the federal system. Justice, oh Justice, where art thou!

The Race Is On

This morning, October 28, 2009, I sat in a McDonald’s on Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta. I was waiting for my friends at Kauffman Tire to repair my ragged car. I usually carry Dickens or Shakespeare or Hardy or my mother’s Bible to read as I wait. Today I took nothing and decided to do something I rarely, if ever, do. I decided to purchase an Atlanta Journal Constitutuon (Hereafter called THE NARROW). I inserted my last four quarters hoping to purchase the daily paper. I pulled the handle as instructed. Nothing. I wondered if that piece of junk AJC machine had a camera. Could it possibly tell who was pulling? I pulled again and again. Nothing. I pressed the black button coin return, nothing. I shook the machine. Nothing. I thought of my sledge hammer in my red truck. I thought of Rhonda “the whole truth” Cook. I prayed for Steve “the Weasel” Visser. I gently pressed the coin return. Out came two quarters. I pondered these things in my heart. I paid one dollar. I got no paper. Therefore, THE NARROW had stolen only half the amount it could have taken. Why?

As I thought of other thieves and murderers, Pee Wee Gaskins, South Carolina’s most notorious mass murderer came to mind. In one of my fifty or so interviews with the little murderer, he talked about lying and liars. Pee Wee and I became friends, sorta. I asked him if he would ever lie to me. Without hesitating he said, “yes.” I asked him when. He said just as quickly, “Half the time.”

THE NARROW stole from me only half my dollar as I attempted to purchase one of their dying, lying papers. I thought, “This narrow thing lies about homeless people exactly as it steals, only half the time.” Pee Wee Gaskins taught me years ago, long before the state murdered him, that the effective liar lies only half the time. Steve Visser has been assigned to write for this Sunday’s AJC an article on the state of homelessness in Atlanta. I predict that whenever he publishes his article, he will lie only half the time. Half is more effective. Incidentally, Steve is not a weasel; he only writes like one as his editor and Central Atlanta Progress monitor and dictate his every word. Folks who know Steve tell me that he wants to be a real reporter. We’ll never know as he and Rhonda “the whole truth” Cook are beholden to a paper beholden to the status quo corporate community. Don’t forget the origin of CAP’s Richard Orr’s middle name. He is Richard “We’re in” Orr; he squealed those two O so telling words about THE NARROW. Correct that! He didn’t squeal those words. He wrote them along with hundreds of others to many, many readers.

Now for a word about the race. Atlanta’s righteous leadership at City Hall and Central Atlanta Progress and The Chamber and United Way and ARC and BARK and DARK and HARK and LARK and SPARK and Coke Cola and RC Cola and other centers of truth count the days until the Peachtree-Pine shelter might be closed to the 700 people who call it home. Dave “Great news” Wardell can’t wait. A. J. “We are all kind of mystified” Robinson is giddy. Richard “We’re in” Orr has the champagne chilled. Jennifer “Call off the boycott” Ball squeaks, “Now, coach, now?” Ratchet Rob “I’ll cut your water off” experiences a dark, purple hue atop his bald pate as the hour of water shut off draws near. About noon of the cut off water day at the Pine, his workers tell me that his face owns a beatific glow not unlike the winner crossing the finish line. If making human beings thirsty does this for the purple one, think what making them homeless will do for The Ratchet. He may ascend not unlike Enoch and Elijah. Debi “the Czar” Starnes gulps, “Time is running out, Shirley. Cousin Tom and A.J. the mystified are gonna murder us both. That damn Task Force still breathes.” The principalities and powers put Franklin in office to kill the emergency shelter. She failed to eliminate homeless people from downtown.

But the race against time is whether Franklin and Starnes can deliver the Peachtree-Pine emergency shelter by the end of their administration. The Pine that Sibley states is not fit for human beings is called “home” by 600 African-American men. The 18 men in transition and I have our money wagered that the Pine will be operating after the AJC is dead and buried and well after Shirley Franklin is no more than a painful hangover. Their days are numbered, and they are found wanting. AJC and CAP and XYZ do not know the millions that just came to the Task Force.

If you like country music you love George Jones:

Now the race is on
And here comes pride up the backstretch
Heartaches goin to the inside
My tears are holding back
They’re trying not to fall
My hearts out of the runnin’
True love’s scratched for another’s sake
The race is on and it looks like heartaches
and the winner loses all.

Some up-coming predictions will tell what the honorable Shirley Franklin will be doing when the next Mayor, Mary Norwood takes office. Many little old blue-haired Presbyterian ladies and Buckhead Bettys are so LIVID that they will elect the befuddled, barely lucid Norwood. Is she a republican or a Democrat? How could it possibly matter in Georgia? Rachet Rob “I’ll turn your water off” Hunter turned off water and over billed Bettys in BUCKHEAD. Stay tuned! Wait for the depositions of “We’re in” and “We are all kind of mystified.”

James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16

“Please, Sir”

In Charles Dickens’ OLIVER TWIST, Mr. Bumble is a beadle for the Church of England who answers to a committee. Fat Bumble reports on the behavior of ungrateful, trifling orphans like Oliver Twist who complain of the starvation diet in the parochial workhouse. In Chapter 1 Oliver Twist having eaten an ounce of oatmeal begs the overfed Bumble, “Please, Sir, I want some more.”

The Tender Laws of this Favored Country

The authorities in Charles Dickens’ England placed Oliver Twist in the workhouse promising two blessings, an education and a useful trade. Charles Dickens wrote in the 1830’s: “For the combination of both these blessings in the one simple process of picking oakum, Oliver bowed low by the direction of the beadle, and was hurried away to a large ward, where on a rough, hard bed, he sobbed himself to sleep. What a noble illustration of the tender laws of this favored country. They let the paupers go to sleep!”