One year ago , on the occasion of my Jinni's birthday and Valentine's Day, (which are separated by only 24 hours) I posted a picture that shows two people very much in love.  Check it out.

One year later I find that my love has only deepened as I continue to learn more and more about just what kind of woman I married just over 20 years ago.

So I ask... my dear Jinni... will you be my Valentine?

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As is her way, Jinni thinks of others before herself.  Many years ago, she started a Valentine's Day tradition that is playing out again tonight.

We have several dear friends who are single, and as such, don't get the kind of attention that Valentine's Day is purported to to bring to those of us who are paired-up.

She has set the table with our wedding china and crystal, cooked a fabulous meal, brought out the wine, decorated the house with hearts and such ,and lighting the candles throughout the house.  A romantic dinner for nine.

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"The City staff is racist."

Now, let that settle in just a moment.

County Commissioner Skip Alston didn't say, "Some people who work for the city are racist."  Nor did he qualify the statement by adding, "might be" or "could be" or any other tempering of his words.  No, he said flatly, "The City staff is racist" in trying to explain the downfall of St. James Homes II in yesterday's N&R article about the public housing fiasco. 

Alston's fellow Commissioner Billy Yow rightfully got put through the ringer for his promotion of a T-shirt that portrayed a little boy taking a pee on the NAACP.  Alston should be similarly reprimanded by his peers, both black and white, for making such an outlandish, hurtful, unfounded, all-encompassing, and asinine remark.

How in the world are we ever going to get past our problems with race relations here in Guilford County with one of our most prominent black leaders acting like he has absolutely no sense or sensitivity when it comes to race relations?  (Never mind that a large percentage of "City staff" is black, they were painted with the same racist brush).  Black leaders can't continually be allowed make unchallenged and unsubstantiated charges of racism when things don't go the way they wanted.  Doing so only divides us further.

I sincerely hope our City Council takes this matter up during tomorrow night's meeting.  They should demand an apology from Alston.  The North Carolina NAACP, of which Alston is president, should also publicly censure their elected leader over this.

Someone needs to more securely affix Alston's racist-are-everywhere spewing cannon so that it fires only in a more constructive direction before he loses all credibility within this community.

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I guess I need to check on Tom Phillips' blog more often.  The City Councilman has been sporadic in posting so I just haven't gone there in a while.

I have been posting about a zoning dilemma here in the Aycock Neighborhood that got turned down by the City Council a couple of weeks ago.  The city staff's recommendations to landlord John Mandrano caused quite a lot of hard feelings.  Come to find out, there was no reason for any of it.

Tom actually read the ordinance to the City's staff and showed them that there was nothing to preclude Mandrano from adding the two meters to his property under the current zoning.  He has already been issued the proper permits for the work.

Good work Councilman Phillips.

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