Franklin Deposition Postponed! What do I put you down for, TEAM GOLIATH?

The deposition of former Mayor Shirley Franklin set for Monday, November 29, has been postponed. The deposition impacts the lawsuit filed against the City of Atlanta and the RICO, racketeering, lawsuit against several parties which includes defendants Central Atlanta Progress, (CAP), Atlanta Downtown Improvement Development, (ADID). A.J. Robinson, Manny Fialkow’s Ichthus Community Trust, Inc., Emory Health Care, Inc. and others, already named and some not yet named.

Franklin’s tight relationship with Debi Starnes, Horace Sibley and other conspirators in these lawsuits make her a pertinent witness for those who have to defend themselves against civil and criminal charges. Water at the Peachtree Pine Community was turned off three times during Franklin’s tenure. Her Commissioner of the Department of Water Mismanagement, Rachet Rob Hunter will be deposed in mid December.

TEAM GOLIATH looks forward to serving the poor especially at this time of year. Think of the millions of good people who gave through their work place, $$$, to United Way of Atlanta.

Civic-minded men asking Scrooge for help in Charles Dickens,’ CHRISTMAS CAROL, said, “A few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is the time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”

“Nothing,! Scrooge replied.

The Peachtree Pine Community owes $30,000 to Georgia Power. It is an honest debt and The Southern Company has been generous and kind. We have no money; our funds have been cut to zero. Without a miracle The Pine will soon be dark and cold. We ask you as Scrooge was asked for a means of warmth, a little light. Please help.

What do I put you down for, Shirley Franklin? What do I put you down for, Rob Hunter? What do I put you down for, Debi Mae Starnes? What do I put you down for, Bonnie Ware? What do I put you down for, Bruce Gunter? What do I put you down for, Chris Allers? What do I put you down for, Milton Little? What do I put you down for Notip Biswax? What do I put you down for, Jack Hardin? What do I put you down for, Horace Sibley? What do I put you down for, Greg Pridgeon? What do I put you down for, Sam Williams? What do I put you down for, Peggy Denby? What do I put you down for, Rufus Terrill? What do I put you down for, A. J. Robinson? What do I put you down for, Rich Orr? What do I put you down for, Paul Kellman? What do I put you down for, Dave Wardell? What do I put you down for, George Wirth? What do I put you down for, Manny Fialkow? What do I put you down for, Pete Walker? What do I put you down for Nun Sister Jane Garety? What do I put you down for, Tom Cousins? What do I put you down for Dianne Leavesley? What do I put you down for, Kate Webb?

If you could spare a dime, just go to Paypal on the Task Force website: homeless taskforce.org. Better yet mail a check to Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless. Our mailing address is: 477 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30308. Best yet come by our coffee shop and have a cup and cupcake with me. We will give you a tour of the Community.

The Task Force is a 501 – (c) – 3 nonprofit organization registered with Georgia’s Secretary of State. Our tax ID # is 58 – 1715897. Your donation is tax deductible and deeply appreciated.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
November 25, 2010

stopthehateatlanta@hotmail.com is correct: I need psychiatric care!

Corporate America enjoyed the greatest profits ever in the last quarter! Did I hear that correctly? Have I lost what little mind I had? Most of us are gasping to stay alive and the profits for Corporate America are highest in history? Help me. Somebody tell me what I think I heard on TV is not correct. I will not publish your comment, and I will not tell TEAM GOLIATH or the Office of Circumlocution gang that you talk to me.

I published the response on November 8 of a reader who called me crazy, questioned my psychic stability. The energy in this bs piece is excellent with not one whiff of evidence to support its drivel. It contained one true assertion.

Two of my readers actually asked if I had written this hogwash that tried to make TEAM GOLIATH and City Hall and United Way and CAP and SAP andADID and The Chamber Pot and Fialkow and Fiaskow and the nun-run Mercy Housing Fund, Inc. and Gog and Magog and HAG and SAG appear to reputable. That writer of rubbish is blind to the Racketeering conspirators that they are.

I did not write that limp member. If I had I would blush to call the fellow mine. Nor do I know the maiden who did. But I would reiterate that Weylan Jennings truth, “”I’ve always been crazy, but it kept me from going insane.”

Charles Dickens upon reading a few pages of ADAM BEDE by George Eliot said that this book was not written by a man. Later Dickens met the great writer, Mary ann Evens, later Mary Ann Evans Cross. I pray that I am spared meeting the pen that gave us stopthehateatlanta@hotmail.com. Perhaps the Lord has a few mercies left.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
November 23, 2010

TEAM GOLIATH Under Oath Again!

Four members of TEAM GOLIATH have been subpoenaed for depositions on November 29, December 14, 15 and 16. The four to be deposed are former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, her familiar, Debi Starnes, soon to be FORMER City Commissioner of the Department of Water Mismanagement, Ratchet Rob “I’ll turn your water off” Hunter and recently retired after 22 years at City Hall, Bonnie Ware.

Ms. Ware upon retiring recently from the city became employed by Manny Fialkow, of Icthus Community Trust, who “purchased,” with a little help from his friends, the $900,000 notes from the nun-run Mercy Housing Fund, Inc. and soon thereafter foreclosed on the Peachtree-Pine building. Fialkow and at least 4 other conspirators are presently knotted in a RICO lawsuit.

Oh yes, don’t forget Chris Allers. He has served homeless people for years at United Way and other stops. Now, this week, he serves them under the lately philanthropic, Manny Fialkow. He became Fialkow’s employee at about the same time as did Bonnie “Did she write that memo?” Ware.

Remember R in RICO stands for RACKETEERING which is CIVIL and CRIMINAL. If found GUILTY, CIVIL = payback with $$$; CRIMINAL = payback in jail.

In a soon to be posted blog, I’ll comment on the relationship between Franklin and Starnes. A look at my blog on April 13, 2009, “The HAG Delivers Again,” you will read that I have touched on the long-time relationship between those two leaders of our City.

A second interesting configuration is the tangle that knots several parties named in the RICO lawsuit between Central Atlanta Progress, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, A. J. Robinson, Manny Fialkow and others named and not yet named in that RICO lawsuit. The links are endless. Connect the dots? There are not that many dots. The Milky Way has fewer stars than this conspiracy boasts.

For now, my readers need to know that the likes of Shirley Franklin, that champion of homeless people, will have the opportunity to join Starnes and Sibley and Robinson and Richard Orr who raised their right hands and repeated, “I do.” Perhaps you remember those harrowing words, “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God.” Please STOP for a moment. Note that these LEADERS above us have actually raised their right hands and swore before God and man to tell the truth. I have read every word of Debi Starnes’ first deposition taken on September 2, 2009. I have read every word of Horace Sibley’s deposition taken on January 10, 2010. I have read every word of Richard Orr’s deposition taken on February 22, 2010. I have read every word of A. J. Robinson’s deposition taken on February 23, 2010. I have read them and my response is, “So help me God!”

These buddies and their ilk have determined that my water bills every month of this year have averaged $225. But the horror of thinking on these people comes clearest when we realize that they hold the fate of poor people in their hands. They have joined nuns and Fialkows and “development” monsters like ADID and charlatans like Atlanta United Way to destroy ministries that help the poor.

That expression “to tell the truth” brings to mind the fact that this is Debi Starnes’ second deposition. That first deposition on September 2, 2009, lasted 5 hours. She has so much more truth to tell, this deposition may last 5 additional hours. And the beat goes on!

Stay tuned! You ain’t seen nothing yet!

Note: The last time I saw Shirley Franklin she was driving slowly down Pine Street that borders The Pine. She was writing on a little notebook resting on her steering wheel. She passed the occupied Atlanta Police Department cruiser and drug dealers on the corner adjacent to the Precinct Office of Zone 5 on Peachtree Street. She was at the time the Mayor of the 500 men inside. She never entered that building, to my knowledge.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
November 23, 2010

Can you hold?

I live in Atlanta, the city too busy to hate or to be rude? I am old and one eyed and bald. Today, I called my favorite hospital, needing to speak with a doctor in the Urology Department. Gruff-voiced Nurse Ratchett said to me, “Can you hold?”

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.26
November 19, 2010

The Joy of Keeping Score

On my bookshelf five volumes on baseball sit side by side. In the off season, like now, when I cannot hear the crack of the bat or exult in Brian McCann’s perfect swing, I read my baseball books. The second favorite of my baseball books tells the life and times of Casey Stengel The favorite book in my meager baseball collection is THE JOY OF KEEPING SCORE by Paul Dickson.

Two other books on another of my shelves are by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Of her many marvelous books on our Presidents, I regret that I have read and own only two: NO ORDINARY TIMES, on the Roosevelts,
Franklin and Eleanor. My second book by Doris Kearns Goodwin focuses on President Lincoln’s, TEAM OF RIVALS. Read Doris Kears Goodwin for enlightenment.

But better yet, let’s look at Paul Dickson, baseball scholar, on Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential scholar. On page 11 of his book, Paul Dickson writes, “Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, appearing in Ken Burns’ epic television series “Baseball,” talked about her own obsession with scoring. It all started when her father encouraged her to score games from the radio while he was at work. He would come home when she was five or six years old and ask her to re-create the game by going through it an inning at a time. “And he never let me know that in the newspapers the next day he could have found out what had happened,” she recalled. “I thought without me, he wouldn’t know what had happened in the game. And so I was like a little historian in those days and it was such a magic thing. When he would come home, I would sit on the porch, go over my meticulously kept game, and feel like I was saving it for him forever.”

I miss baseball. If I were Arthur Blank or President Obama I would make them play 365 days a year. Let me say, again, 365 days a year, every year, every day. When I see little boys and girls playing on a corner lot, I stop to watch. I remember Paul Suzie’s mother’s living room window that I knock out. It was a long home run. I hit it from the left side of the plate. I was 13.

B Wardlaw and that third baseman, Vincent, who pulled so gracefully for the San Francisco Giants still enjoy the last World Series. I enjoy their joy as I moan my beloved Braves. Look at that sweet left-handed swing of Brian McCann.

Keep score for fun: k for strikeout; bb for base on balls; wp for wild pitch; hbp for hit by pitch; 6-3 for a ground out from the shortstop to the first baseman; hr for Paul Suzie’s living room window.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
November 18, 2010

RICO, RICO, RICO…How long, O Lord, How long?

R in this acronym, RICO, stands for Racketeering. This statute was designed to imprison the five Mafia families in New York City. Other crime “families” across our great land are petrified by this statute. I hear from deep throats that RICO leaves some individuals with uncontrolled bowels.

RICO convictions are difficult, if not impossible, if a plaintiff is going up against money. Kids selling drugs on the streets are easy to bag, but not the gangs of big boys. However, that can changed.

The acronym RICO should be followed by the word Act. It is best stated The RICO Act. RICO stands for Racketeering Influenced Corrupted Organizations. There must be 5, at least 5 parties that have illegally, fraudulently wronged another party over a long period of time. There are additional criteria, but 5 conspirators working feverishly over a “long” period of time is a textbook start.

The wheels of justice turn slowly if they turn at all. Some of us in the homeless community, gasping for breath, wonder if those wheels exist at all. If the victim is looking for justice at all in the courthouse, he may be in the wrong building, a brilliant lawyer once told me. I asked where then is justice? In the BANK that barrister said. The banks get what’s coming to them, and that’s justice.

Walter Brueggemann, my favorite scholar of the Hebrew Bible, teaches that one definition of justice is the returning to individuals that which was wrongfully taken from them. Bobby Kennedy said that every baby born in America has an engagement ring on its little finger. And that ring promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for every citizen of our great land. Is this promise given to every baby born in the United States of America? Did I miss something? Is this where I came in?

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
November 17, 2010

PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE, Caldwell Esselstyn, MD

PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE, Caldwell B. Esselstyn, M. D., AVERY, (2007) ISBN 978 – 1 – 58333 – 300 – 6

I wish I had implemented Dr. “Essy’s” nutritional plan thirty years ago. I recommend this book to everyone I love, to every member of Team Little David, to every member of TEAM GOLIATH. Every word following this sentence before my note at the conclusion of this blog is quoted directly from the pages of the book cited above.

From the Foreword:
“This conference would be challenging to say the least. In my own academic environment, it was startling enough at the time (1991) even to mention a tenuous association of diet and heart disease. But the elimination of coronary artery disease? This was a paradigm shift. (viii)
“Dr. Esselstyn’s studies are among the most carefully conducted and relevant medical investigations undertaken during the past century. . . . His determination to pursue this research and to teach the rest of us, what he has learned, against formidable opposition in the medical establishment, is a testament to his personal and professional courage and integrity. (ix)
“People who ignore its message will do so at their peril. There is no pharmaceutical wonder or medical trickery, either now or in the future, that can match these findings. (ix)
T. Colin Campbell, professor emeritus of nutritional biochemistry, Cornell University, and coauthor of The China Study (2005).

From the Introduction:
“Most demoralizing for those who have been the beneficiaries of the clinic’s surgical interventions was the recognition that so much had been done to save them – – repeated open heart surgery, angioplasties aplenty, stents, and a host of medications – seemed no longer to have any useful effect. Almost all the men had lost their sexual potency. Most had chest pains, the terrifying condition known as angina. For some, it was so agonizing that they couldn’t lie down and had to sleep sitting up. Only a few could take long walks, and some couldn’t cross a room without excruciating pain. The fact is some were walking dead men. (xi)
“What they had to give up, I explained, would not be easy for any American accustomed to a diet flush with deep-fried fast foods, thick steaks, and rich dairy products. But if they were prepared to join me in a diet not unlike the one followed by two-thirds of the world’s population, I held out the likelihood that we could overturn the death sentences that had been delivered to them by their physicians. In the process, we could demonstrate that the leading killer of Americans, heart disease, was a paper tiger that could be defeated – – and without the use of a surgeon’s knife. (xi)
“Almost all of those who came to me, who had been told there was little hope, today – – twenty years later – – are alive, their arterial diseases receded. They stand as living proof of what is possible for you and anyone else who chooses to do what is necessary to become heart-attack-proof. And they gave me the invaluable gift of confidence as I went on to counsel and treat hundreds of additional patients. (xi, xii)
From Chapter 1 “Eating to Live”
“In this book, I tell Joe Crowe’s story, along with those of many other patients I have treated over the past twenty years. My subject is coronary artery disease, its cause, and the revolutionary treatment, available to all, that can abolish it and that has saved Joe Crowe and many others. My message is clear and absolute: coronary disease need not exist, and if it does, it need not progress. (3)
“But here is the really shocking statistic: nearly all of that money ($250 billion a year on heart disease) is devoted to treating symptoms. It pays for cardiac drugs, for clot-dissolving medications and for costly mechanical techniques that bypass clogged arteries or widen them with balloons, tiny rotating knives, lasers, and stents. All of these approaches carry significant risk of serious complications, including death. And even if they are successful, they provide only temporary relief from the symptoms. They do nothing to cure the underlying disease or to prevent its development in other potential victims. (4)
“Reforming the way you eat will end the heart disease. Here are the rules of my program in the simplest form:
• You may not eat anything with a mouth or a face (no meat, poultry, or fish)
• You cannot eat dairy products
• You must not consume oil of any kind – – not a drop. (Yes, you devotees of the Mediterranean Diet, that includes olive oil, as I’ll explain in Chapter 10.)
• Generally, you cannot eat nuts or avocados.

You can eat a wonderful variety of delicious, nutrient dense foods:

• All vegetables except avocados. Leafy green vegetables, root vegetables, Veggies that are red, green, purple, orange and yellow and everything in between.
• All legumes – – beans, peas, and lentils of all varieties.
• All whole grains and products, such as bread and pasta, that are made from them – – as long as they do not contain added fats.
• All fruits. (5, 6)
“Perhaps no area of medicine better illustrates the mechanical approach to disease than cardiology and cardiac surgery. Consider: the United States contains just 5 percent of the global population, but every year, physicians, in American hospitals perform 50 percent of all the angioplasties and bypass procedures in the entire world. (8)
“Modern hospitals offer almost nothing to enhance public health. They are cathedrals of sickness. (9)
“Dr. Lewis Kuller of the University of Pittsburg recently reported the ten-year findings of the Cardiovascular Heart Study, a project of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. His conclusion is startling: “All males over 65 years of age, exposed to a traditional lifestyle, have cardiovascular disease and should be treated as such.” (9)
“The larger lesson of that study (a 1999 study by cardiologist David Waters of the University of California) is that systematic treatment of disease through aggressive reduction of cholesterol is clearly superior to selective intervention at a single site where an artery has been clogged and narrowed. And it caused considerable uproar among cardiologists. As D. Waters observes, ‘There is a tradition in cardiology that doesn’t want to hear that.’ (10) Why? Money! For many years, I resisted that conclusion, but the weight of the evidence is overwhelming. Interventional cardiologists earn hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and particularly busy ones make millions. (9, 10)
“As a physician, I am embarrassed by my profession’s lack of interest in healthier lifestyles. (10)
From Chapter 5 “Moderation Kills”
“The key is plant-based nutrition. Let’s review what we know about the science. Heart disease, as I have already stressed, develops in susceptible persons when blood cholesterol levels rise higher than 150 mg/dL. The converse is also true. A person who maintains cholesterol under 150 mg/dL for a lifetime will not develop coronary artery disease – – even if he or she smokes, has a family history disease, suffers from hypertension, and is obese! One case in point: the Papua Highlanders of New Guinea. These people are traditionally heavy smokers. Even nonsmokers among them breathe in lethal doses of secondhand smoke in communal hutches. Not surprisingly, the Papua Highlanders suffer many lung disorders, thanks to the smoking. But studies of those who live into their sixties and beyond have shown that despite the well-documented risk to heart health that is posed by smoking, they have no coronary artery disease. They are protected by their diet, which consists almost entirely of nineteen separate varieties of sweet potatoes. (37)
From Chapter “Seeking the Cure”
“Not everyone was quite so open to my message. Take Evelyn Oswick, for example – – the group’s only woman. She had been 53 when she suffered the first signs of heart trouble. . . . ‘I had no pains scaring me, but there was a little pain in my left arm.’ The discomfort continued, and finally, Evelyn decided to go to the clinic. As she lay on the examining table, the doctor started yelling, ‘She’s having a heart attack.’ (“Those words once again!” Evelyn exclaims.) They rushed her to an angiography room, where she suddenly felt quite breathless.
The doctors told Evelyn that there was nothing they could do. Surgery, they said, was out of the question. Her primary doctor did mention a physician at the clinic who was doing a study and he called me in to see her. I told her about the nutrition program. Evely clearly remembers her reaction: “No way! I was very adamant. I loved my chocolate candy, cake, pie, and banana splits. I liked all the bad things. . . . (25)
“Evelyn Oswick, whose doctor had told her to go home, find a rocker, and wait to die, is now in her late seventies. Despite her initial skepticism, once she made up her mind about my nutrition program, she never turned back. And her heart disease, as a result, is completely under control. (52)

Note: Several sentences in Dr. Esselstyn’s book remind me of my dear friend, Jerry Farber. The comedian told me that he and his brother recently spoke of death and dying. Jerry asked his older brother, 80, if he was afraid of dying. His brother answered quickly, “Not at all, I just don’t want to be around when it happens.” Jerry Farber, is a member of the board of the Task Force. When Jerry learned from me that $25,000 is owed to Georgia Power, he said, “Jim, if I were Arthur Blank, the Task Force for the Homeless would never have another financial need.” And I say to you, my readers, that if I were Arthur Blank I’d buy everyone I know Dr. Essy’s life-changing, life saving book. Please read it and heed it.
Jim Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
November 15, 2010

CHAPLAIN: The Story Behind the Word

I found the following newspaper clipping today in an old book. I can give neither the name of the paper nor the source of the quotation. I know some of you will enjoy the content. The following words are printed in the article beside El Greco’s (1541 – 1614) painting, SAINT MARTIN AND THE BEGGAR.

“It may surprise you to learn that the word “chaplain” comes from the scene in this world-famous painting, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

There is a legend that a certain soldier of the Fourth Century named Martin of Tours was met on a bitter cold winter’s night, at one of the gates of the French city of Amiens, by a piteous beggar crying for alms. Martin reached into his purse – and found it empty. Touched with compassion, he took off his heavy cloak and, with his sword, slashed it in two – giving half to the beggar and keeping the other half for himself.

That night, so the legend goes, Martin dreamed he saw Christ wearing the half-cloak and was so moved by the vision that he sought baptism, and later abandoned his military career to devote himself to the Church.

In time Martin became the patron saint of France, and his cloak considered a sacred relic, was often carried into battle by the French Kings. The officer appointed to watch over the sacred cloak ( in Latin: cappa or capella) was known, was known, in French, as the “chapelain” – from which – according to the Encyclopedia Britannica and the official history of the Navy’s chaplain corps – the English word “chaplain” derives.

Note: Matthew 25.40 “And the king will answer them, Truly, I tell you just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (New Revised Standard Version)

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
November 13, 2010

Resident Artists, Chuck Steffen and Mario Robinson

The Auburn Avenue Research Library was the scene tonight of an exhibit named “Sheltering Justice.” Stunning portraits by some 5 resident artists who live at Peachtree Pine were featured. Thirty six black and white gripping photographs by Photographer Chuck Steffen featured people and life at the community at Peachtree Pine. Subjects ranged from death to picnics, from preachers to feasting.

One of the paintings by two of the residents, Greg Walcott and Tyree Malone, portrayed world-renowned figure and portrait artist, Mario Robinson. Mr. Robinson spent a week in June mentoring, encouraging, critiqueing the work of the artists in residence. Robinson flew in from New Jersey for the exhibit. He marveled at the work of his students of last June.

Robinson’s work today stands alongside Daniel Greene, Burton Silverman and Harvey Dinnerstein. Steffen’s 36 photographs juxtaposed with the portraits say much to debunk the inaccurate assertions that Peachtree Pine warehouses and imprisons its clients. Artists and Steffen and Robinson afforded 100 of us a classy evening.

Donations of food and drink were made by Cascade United Methodist Church, Chuck Steffen, Highland Bakery, Rhodes Bakery and Manuels Tavern. Thank you for delightful food.

Task Force board of directors present at this event were Myrtle Davis, Carl Hartrampf, Chuck Steffen and Vanessa Vadim.

Jim Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
November 10, 2010

Thank you, Georgia Power

Serious cutting of Task Force funding began over 5 years ago. The funds that have been cut or blocked during that period total in excess of $22,000,000: that’s 22 million dollars. Georgia Power has never, not one time, shut off the power to the shelter at Peachtree-Pine. The people that we deal with at Georgia Power have been understanding and gracious. Their responses to our negotiations show real heart for the Task Force and the 600 plus homeless men who live there. The only hot showers in the building are two that are heated electrically. Gas heated showers have been COLD for years.

The Task Force has been behind on power bills for much of the past 5 years. The dollar amount owed now is $25,000. The Task Force Board and staff and residents must raise and pay this amount by November 17. Georgia Power must shut off our power if this bill remains unpaid. We applaud their kindness, and we know they must be paid.

If 300 of my viewers will send a check in the amount of $25, I would see that your donation reaches Georgia Power. This debt is owed, and I plead your help. Please mail a check made out to the Atlanta Task Force. The mailing address is The Atlanta Task Force, 477 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30308.

The Task Force is a (501) – c – 3, non-profit organization registered with Georgia’s Secretary of State. Your donation is tax deductible and the Tax ID number is 58 – 1715897. The Board of Directors, the unpaid staff, dozens of volunteers and 600 residents appreciate you help. And if I could hug your neck, I would.

And I’d be good if only I could.

Jim Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
November 10, 2010