Friday, August 10, 2007
So glad I'm gone!
| Yesterday I was reminded of another reason to be glad I have left Macon. I no longer have to refer to C. Jack Ellis as "my mayor." While term limits will prevent him from returning to the office of Mayor after this next election, the fact he is still legally allowed to hold an office is enough to make me glad I am not in Macon any more. I am ashamed to admit I voted for him the first time he ran for mayor. Everything he was saying sounded good for the city of Macon, and frankly by the time it got to the general elections he was basically running unopposed. It was the night of the election that problems started bubbling to the surface. At no time during his campaign did race enter into the election. Yes he is black, but no one seemed to care and I found that very refreshing in a racially divisive city like Macon. However almost the first statement out of his mouth after being declared the winner was about him being the first black mayor since reconstruction, and how he was going to finally address the issues that Macon's minorities have. I never voted him on the basis of race, but ht took his win as a race based decision. Since then, the black people of Macon have rallied around him as their savior. Instead of holding him tightly they should be holding him at arms length and booting him as far from town as possible. His out of wedlock child that he had to be taken to court to finally start paying child support? Absentee fathers is serious problem among the blacks in Macon, but their beloved "Black Mayor" has been doing it for years. Hiring people not qualified for jobs and paying them more than they are suposed to be paid. once caught he simply says the political equivalent of "oops!" or worse says things like there is no "controlling legal authority" to prevent him from doing what he's doing. It finally took an act of city council to get him to stop awarding huge contracts to friends and campaign donors. It almost appears that Ellis had sat down with his campaign workers and said "Lets make a list of everything we can do to shame, embarras and anger the people of Macon. Then lets see if we can do them all on two terms of office." I know this never really happened, because NO ONE could have dreamed up some of the outlandish things he has done and gotten away with. An example would be when he recently decided to change religions. Macon is an exceptionally religious town and they are proud of that. However, Ellis had to find a way to get attention: I know there are some who will cling to him and sing his praises until the day they die, but all you have to do is look around Macon. As the city's population drops, everywhere around Macon is having a population explosion. Just south of macon, Warner Robins has been undergoing exponential growth that their infrastructure struggles to support. Just north of Macon, Stockbridge and Forsyth are growing like weeds. Even similar sized cities have had population growths in recent years: Columbus, Augusta, Athens, Savannah. But not Macon. In fact the growth that Bibb county has had in recent years is inside the county but outside the city limites. Ellis has turned Georgia into a Population Donut. It's pretty sweet all around the outside, but utterly empty in the middle. The people who can afford to flee the city (like me) are leaving in droves. That leaves those who cannot afford to leave, and thus the city gets poorer and poorer. Thanks, Jack! They've used terms like "White Flight" (white folks moving out of the cities) they've used "Bright Flight" (educated people fleeing the cities for the burbs). I have a new term: "Spite Flight." People are leaving Macon in spite of all Ellis' claims of how great things are. He was a used car salesman before he took office, and I suspect he's never really stopped being a used car salesman, just without the cars. I still read the Macon paper online, and was greeted with a shock the other day: I feel sorry that I have friends who must suffer under Ellis, but I am comforted to know that he'll be gone soon. I suspect the upcoming elections will give Macon a chance to recover from the oppression they have been under for 8 years. It doesn't matter who wins the election, as I feel a half blind pregnant hampster could run the city better than Ellis. I actually had people in Macon once ask me about running for office. I promptly declined. I have way too much self respect to run for public office in Macon. History will show the folly of the Ellis Administration. Heck the last 4 years have already shown it. I haven't reviewed any more than a fraction of the incidents like when he had police lights installed on his government vehicle and then pulled someone over and tried to give them a ticket. When he was informed that pretty much all of that was illegal, he basically said "oops." Had I tried something like that, I think we have inpersonating a police officer, and either false arrest or false imprisionment. Frankly I don't have enough web space for all of his sad, yet hilarious escapades to fit. And I really don't want to have to relive those events anyway. I survived, and I escaped. I will eat my frozen Krystals in Burgatory and smile because I am no longer living in MaconGa, the center of the donut.  |
Labels: Macon, Warner Robins
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I am a doomed to damnation Maconite and have been since 1951. You are exactly right in every respect. There is so much potential here that will never be realized because of people like Ellis and if you dare to say it you are labeled a racist. Just wish that those that forums like this are aimed at would bother to read them. Fat chance. Thank you for caring.
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: 6:22 PM
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