News-Record.com

Welcome to the blogosphere. I look forward to reading your posts.

Please check my math:

ABC + SOS = several SOB's

ABC disavowing the SOS group is a joke! When the heat gets turned up on them, they claim there are actually two "separate" groups working....right. They have helped mobilize a large portion of the county on behalf of Dot Kearns due to their strategy of trying to tell Kris Cooke's district how to vote! The minority community knows what is at the root of the group and so does Jim Kirkpatrick. Having given them a sizeable donation, he now puts miles between himself and ABC of Guilford/Jamestown. I can't say that I blame him. Where is the activity around Garry Burnett's seat? They harrassed that poor fellow at home and at work. Now that the public is onto their tactics, they claim they are not involved with SOS...I say, BS!

It is BS! If you don't think their little charade backfired, call UNCG and ask them why they dropped co-sponsorship of the political forum alongside the ABC of Guilford. Seems they had no idea of how and why this group operates. From their own website, the ABC group has alluded to "midnite rides" which a thinking person could conclude have resulted in sign thefts---mainly Dot Kearns' signs. There is a saying in business, that "word of mouth travels fast, but bad word of mouth travels even faster"! High Point people not involved with ABC are now aware of how disrespectful this group is toward civil society. They may have had a noble genesis, but they have used up all their community goodwill.
Ry

The ABC or SOS, or whatever should put a full page ad in the paper disavowing all the sign thefts and the SOS ads they have been behind all along. Dot Kearns is a true public servant and they have tried to minimize her contributions to the community. If they have to play dirty to win, what lesson are they giving our children?

Home for lunch and saw this new blog! Love it.
Dot Kearns sign went up in my yard and was later covered by a "Get Terry Grier Outta Here" sign. Now I realize what this ABC group is all about. I removed the ABC's plastic and threw it away. The next day the entire sign was gone. No wonder the furniture market is thinking of leaving our area. This mentality gave us Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, and on and on.

Bill Davidson didn't even show up for the forum at the Congregational Church of Christ last week. Kris Cooke didn't either, but at least she had a spokesperson show up and give a firsthand story of how she had helped a school. The moderator told the audience that Bill Davidson had been invited but he did not respond. That should tell voters how much he values education. Coble, Brad Miller, Pricey Harrison, Dot Kearns, Jim Kirkpatrick...you name them, and they were there. That is, EXCEPT Bill Davidson!!

Glad to see people have caught on to the ABC/SOS group and their symbiotic relationship. They're not good for our schools, and not good for Guilford County.

I find it very interesting that just about all the letters against Kris Cooke and Dot Kearns are from Jamestown. Let's see...Jamestown = ABC = SOS = unhappy campers that won't quit until they get their way. Also I have to agree with the above comments. I think the folks in those groups (ABC & SOS) think we all must be a bunch of Pollyanna's to believe that they are separate groups!!!!! Charlotte

Yes, these ads are tacky but let's not lose sight of why ABC started in the first place. The parents who started ABC only did so because their concerns were ignored by the majority of the current school board. They continue to do good work for our county by making voters aware of the issues. The Board of Education must stop pouring scarce resources into "experimental" programs like the HP lottery plan and magnet school after magnet school and start putting money into the existing schools where students are sitting in rotting trailers every day. More students are in trailers today than before the 2000 bond!!! That is ridiculous!!! As a parent who has spoken to BOE members about the needs of our schools (only to have those comments ignored) I applaud the efforts of the ABC folks. I hope they keep up the fight because the parents need to be heard.

ABC may have originally had good intentions, but their methods are out of the mainstream. They prop up one candidate that has no support (Davidson) and they support another candidate (Kirkpatrick) by tearing down his opponent's signs. They set poor examples for their own children much less anyone else's children.

ABC/SOS is a one issue organization pretending to be an advocacy group for education. ALL the letters against Kris Cooke and Dot Kearns are from Jamestown vicinity. I live in Kris Cooke's district and she will WAX Bill Davidson up one side and down the other. Why? Because she is responsive to her constituents and because she represents one of the more educated areas of town. Voters quickly did the research on Davidson and found out exactly WHO he is and where he has been. As for Dot, ABC members have alluded that they take "midnight rides" removing signs as soon as they go up. That was even posted on their website a while back. I saw a car the other day that had a "Jesus" plate on the front, a "Get Terry Grier Outta Here" sticker on the back along with an NRA sticker. Enough said!

Regarding the comments from Biff, not ALL the letters against Kris and Dot are from the Jamestown vicinity. Many have been from parents throughout the county who have attended lots of BOE meetings and have not felt Kris' and Dot's votes have been in the best interest of the students. I just talked to a parent from the new Brown Summit magnet school. Boy, did she give me an earful about the horrible conditions at that school! How can anyone justify these magnet schools when we have so many existing schools that are in such terrible shape? Remember, the $300k bond was shaved down from a list of almost a billion dollars worth of projects around the county. The board continues to vote to spend leftover and refinanced bond money on new projects, not those projects that were left off the bond. That is not what voters signed up for when we passed that last two bonds. If these new magnet schools were so vital to our county, they should have been part of the bond forum discussions and included on the list of capital expenditures, not added after the votes were secured and the public discussions were over.

Biff, I don't know if Kris represents the most educated area in town, but based on your comments she certainly represents the most pompous area in town.

Well lots of math equations on this site so let me try one:

Kearns + Cooke + Sykes + Duncan + Mendenhall + Grier = Hundreds of Millions of Taxpayer Dollars Wasted = Busing Fiasco = Not Able To Read A Federal Grant Application = Innocent Students and Teachers that have broken bones and need to regain consciousness.

At least that is how we do math over in Sunset Hills.

How appropriate that a Dot sign was covered up with another sign; she's been covering things up in Greensboro for years. She probably taught Hillary how to make people bleed up-hill.

I remember the first time I met her back in 1978, I said thank God she is from High Point and not from Greensboro. Little did I know she would aspire to be the Little Miss At-Large of Guilford County.

It is so fascinating to read all these "opinions". Remember, opinions are like belly-buttons - everybody has them. It is so unlike things that school board members say, are quoted on and do the exact opposite!

Also let me remind all of you that "do not look at the splinter in someone else's eye while there is a board in your own eye!"

I have seen many, many, many Jim Kirkpatrick signs stolen and removed and torn down, mostly in High Point but in other places. Read the newspapers. Look at the Bush vs Kerry signs and Kerry vs Bush signs that are being stolen. I think that the "ABC outta here" group needs to fess up and run their own one page ad saying they didn't take Jim K's signs; maybe it was the Mafia?; maybe it was terrorists? maybe Aliens? Maybe the terrorists or aliens should run the one page ad and fess up. Okay who did this to Jim K now - come clean. Is it the folks who love to put kids in a lottery? Who did it? Was it Dot's real estate company? Do you see how ridiculous you all look accusing people?

I had a friend who while in a store in broad daylight in downtown High Point had a huge and deep key scratch put on her new car. Her Grier magnet and Jim K magnets were gone. I read an editorial in the newspaper that people have had their tail lights busted out of their cars if they had a Grier magnet on it and the magnet disappeared. So much for "freedom of speech" that Dot is preaching in the newspapers. So much for the "warm and fuzzy people" for Dot out there. This is not only wrong, but a crime and a costly one to these car owners.

Now on another note, I heard that on Saturday Dot's husband was standing outside cold campaigning for his wife and his sign blew away. A person working for Bill caught if for him and returned it. Now that is an ABCer!

IF by Kipling

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

hmmm...all these conspiracy theorists ...if you people spent as much time looking at what is wrong with GCS as you did looking for non-existent ties between ABC and SOS you would understand why there are so many people upset with the system as it is functioning today. The schools need help..they need positive change..not more of the same...The school boards function is supposed to be for oversight of the administration that works for them, not a rubber stamp for inept decision making. Remember that on Nov. 2nd

STOP this insanity. ABC, SOS, XYZ, PCP, blah, blah.....

Please can I take a moment to remind everyone that the bottom line is: Guilford County School system is failing our children. They are mis-using tax dollars and overlooking the BASICS in good education.

Go VOTE for whoever you think can be a positive asset to the School Board. The important thing is to VOTE. Most people have already made their minds up who they want to vote for so just please quit the schoolyard antics and put your vote where your mouth is!

If you're not sure who to vote for I offer these suggestions for School Board:

Jim Kirkpatrick
Loretta Jennings
Bill Davidson
Walter Childs

Most importantly--GO VOTE TODAY!!!!!!!! You don't have to wait until Nov. 2nd

Well said COMMON SENSE, your logic matches your name.

A clarification to "Biff's" comment of 10/20. Letter in the newspapers from Jamestown aren't all from Jamestown. The majority, in fact, ARE NOT. This has been clarified many, many times in school board meetings if you follow the issues. I have attended about every school board meeting since Jan. and then many more last year. You can also catch them taped on television.

"Jamestown" is just a mailing address for the sake of getting mail to homes. It includes the county where I live and neighorhoods below me on Guilford college that are only "county". We pay no city taxes. We have no city services. We are in the COUNTY only. Peninsula and Jamesford Meadows which is quite large and many other neighborhoods are in HIGH POINT. It even used to cost me a long distance phone call to call my friend 3 mins. away - go figure.

I have many friends who live on Penny Road. Their address is "Jamestown" for mail. They live in HIGH POINT. These are absolutely few letters from the town of Jamestown if any that I have seen. When you write in you must give you "mailing address" - this is not your MAP address, nor your tax address. I have discussed this several times with the editors of both newspapers as this being misleading to readers but you must give your p.o. mailing address. The letters you are reading are from HIGH POINT - 95% of them so I think they know there own issues, BIFF. They live here and pay High Point taxes. Many are corporate widows who cannot sell their homes now thanks to the "lottery" of children plan. I think they know where they live when they take out the checkbook and write two housing payments: one from their High Point home they are trying desperately to sell below market value and the other for the home their husband has moved on to. Just wanted to clear that up for you, BIFF.