The latest piece in the Asheville Citizen-Times from Lynne Harlan once again speaks so highly of the tribe's actions to take care of its future. Why the Citizen-Times can't tell when one of its columnists, who's the tribe's PR coordinator, is not writing merely to express opinions but in the capacity of public relations is a mystery to me. Evidently the Citizen-Times doesn't have a problem with posting material that's ethically questionable.While certainly Lynne is entitled to her opinion, the other side of her debate deserves to be heard.
Point by point refutations:
* "This year, the Cherokee Central School System will say farewell to aging buildings as it moves to the new multimillion dollar facility on Ravensford." While the schools needed a new location, and it's great that local input will be sought, the school system is a hangover of one designed to make Cherokee children second class citizens. It's a hangover from which Cherokee Central Schools has yet to recover. Too few children graduating from Cherokee High School have gone to college, and average SAT schools have been so low that they wouldn't even qualify to get in the bottom tier schools of North Carolina. That's a problem that won't be fixed with new buildings.
* "The tribe will open the Sequoyah National Golf Club. Much of the basic construction is completed. Sequoyah National will also mark a milestone in the tribe’s efforts to provide resources which can benefit our youth." This is a project that could've been done by private investors at no cost to the tribe. While they brag about Robert Trent Jones, II involvement, competition from a course designed by Tiger Woods near Asheville will be tough, particularly among younger and hipper golfers.
Harlan also speaks of language preservation, which is a good thing. But one particular aspect about language preservation, kids have to be immersed in it constantly. When they're in situations where they mostly speak English, that's what they'll learn. It's be great to preserve the Cherokee language, but it's an uphill battle, one that many among tribal leadership won't concede. We need to deal with the challenges in order to overcome them.
While writing pieces bragging on the wonderful things the tribe is doing is one thing, Harlan could at least could make them interesting. The boredom and trite verbiage makes them hardly worth debating. It would be nice if the Citizen-Times would actually seek out varying points of view other than those approved and advocated by tribal government.
Harlan also speaks of language preservation, which is a good thing. But one particular aspect about language preservation, kids have to be immersed in it constantly. When they're in situations where they mostly speak English, that's what they'll learn. It's be great to preserve the Cherokee language, but it's an uphill battle, one that many among tribal leadership won't concede. We need to deal with the challenges in order to overcome them.
While writing pieces bragging on the wonderful things the tribe is doing is one thing, Harlan could at least could make them interesting. The boredom and trite verbiage makes them hardly worth debating. It would be nice if the Citizen-Times would actually seek out varying points of view other than those approved and advocated by tribal government.
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A student that graduated from Cherokee High School in 2006 applied for admission at Western Carolina University and was denied as being academically ineligible. This was an above average student in Cherokee High School. The student was accepted in Southwestern ommunity College but eventually dropped out because they lacked the study habits that was never taught at Cherokee. Before a single penny was spent on the lavish construction project, perhaps several thousand might have been spent on a consuktayion firm to determine the shortfalls in our school system... that would have been alot more bang for the buck.
On January 12th, WLOS/ABC news did a story on bargains of the recession. They gave examples of designer purses and shoes, high priced properties, and a golf course.
The golf course was built last year for 20 million dollars and placed on the market for three million this year after six months of failure.
Is this our future? How long are we going to be willing to shore it up with cash so Larry and Jim can screw friends out of money?
Remember the 'successful' Tribal Pharmacy? It lost money EVERY YEAR and Tribal Council passed it off as an example of the tribe's business savy. Unfortunately, that was EXACTLY what it was.
I keep recalling the image of Rock Burgess pleading with the tribe to buld the rehab center that Tribal Council promise three years BEFORE the golf course came before them AND both projects cost twenty million dollars.
Guess which project got the priority?
With revenue falling at the casino, how is pulling the high stakes players out of the casino to spend a day on the golf course going to help us?
We can't play bingo in the community buiodings- how are we going to prevent the unsupervised, unlevied gambling on the golf course?
How are we going to enforce a no alcohol/drug policy there?
This is a money pit that didn't just cost us money, it has cost us gaming revenue, a rehab center, and several hundred housing sites.
Oh yeah, it has been more than three years now, and there is still no Walmart... why didn't Ms. Harlan address that?
We are being lied to and stolen from. All the sunshine blown up our bloomers isn't going to change that.
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