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Opinion: Letters to the Editor
Supports the Community Trust Initiative
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Dear Editor,
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Augusta has long been home to a great amount of racial tension and it does not seem to be getting any better. The Community Trust Initiative group, with an idea of bringing an end to racial problems in the area, is newly formed and is a definite step in the right direction. With regard to our city’s struggling city council, the community appears to be divided, so therefore the concept of a commission deadlock appears to be in order. If the elected members represent those who elected them, then this is an accurate picture of how the community works. Therefore, giving the mayor any veto power would put him in a position to possibly go against the actual opinions and racial boundaries in the community. On the contrary, some believe that the racial issue truly lies within the local government and not in the city’s population. An example of agreement among the council would do a great deal
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for the public. It also seems, to some, to be more pride than race that divides the local government. It is clear that the blame for the deadlocked commission must be put on both the commission and those who elected them. The people of the city of Augusta have themselves to blame for a faulty commission because the community is not unified. Commissions, like the newly formed Community Trust Initiative, are a great way of making progress and need the support of everyone in the entire city. The commission must ignore outside opinion and resolve racial and possibly prideful factors and come to agreements that would better the city. Communication and humility must be displayed by both those in and outside of the commission to erase racial tensions in order to bring about a prosperous and successful Augusta. John Cates
Artist Responds to “Redneck” Letter Dear Editor, I would like to thank Mr. Walker B. McWee for taking the time to articulate his thoughts [letter to editor, Nov. 6th issue] about my woodcut entitled “Redneck,” which was reproduced on the Metro Spirit cover recently. I appreciate his interest and his concerns. He sees the term redneck as a badge of honor, proud symbol of physical labor. It appears he and I agree about the honorable nature of hard work. I quite like his idea of reclaiming this word redneck as an honorific for people we can admire for their labors. But I have noticed people using the term in less than complimentary contexts, and the word seems to bring up issues for Mr. McWee as well. He men-
tions “hicks” and hangings, poverty and lack of education. If I had titled the work “Man With Sunburn,” I wonder if these same issues would have arisen. My woodcut is simply an image of a man. In fact, I tried to carve him as a nice man, an individual man, a man one might like to know. I crafted his features to reveal a working man, yet contemplative, even sensitive. It is when a term or title is applied to him that one can lose sight of the evidence of his character and begin instead to rely on the term. His individual value is reduced to a stereotype. Maybe labels matter. Maybe it’s necessary to think about their usage. Maybe that is why I made this piece. Sincerely, Kristin Casaletto
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