Dear STEMS’ Parents, We need your help! I am Maryann Briley, a STEMS’ parent and the Chairperson of the STEMS Local School Council.  This letter is to inform you that our Principal, Ms. Gaynor, will not be given the opportunity to serve as Principal in APS beyond the current school year.  She has been denied a Principal’s Contract with APS.  This is a TRAVESTY and we deserve as explanation from the District!  We solicit your input and support as we plan a course of action to take our wishes and concerns before the District. We are all aware that STEMS at Therrell High School is performing …

Dear Friends,On April 19, 2013 I announced my candidacy for the Atlanta Board of Education, representing District 5. I have filed the declaration of intention to accept campaign contributions for the Atlanta School Board seat and I will submit the necessary forms to qualify to have my name placed on the ballot as the filing dates approach. I humbly ask for your support and your vote on Election Day, Tuesday November 5, 2013.As a lifelong resident of SW Atlanta, I am a product of the Atlanta Public Schools system, which I hope to be able to represent as one of your board members.From my early …

  Dear Cascade Patch: My name is Jean Cooper and I participate in Bettie Harden’s bridge class at the Ethris Community Center in Union City. I live in Cascade and I am also a member of  the Continental Societies Inc., a civic organization whose primary purpose is to promote the economic, educational and social welfare of underserved and disadvantaged children and youth. As a result of Bettie Harden training me to play bridge, I invited the Atlanta Chapter of Continental Societies to partner with the Junior Bridge League of which Bettie Harden, is a veteran bridge player and an ACBL Accredited…

Dear Cascade Patch: As president of the Southwest and Northwest Atlanta Parents and Partners for Schools (SNAPPS Atlanta), I want to encourage community members to attend the Atlanta Public Schools' Legislative Reception, 7 to 9 p.m. Tues., Feb., 7 at the APS headquarters, 130 Trinity AVe. This important meeting gives constituents a chance to discuss education issues with elected officials in a relaxed setting over dessert and coffee. The event is free and open to the public. Free parking is available, also. To access parking, please enter the APS Parking Deck from the Garnett Street entrance…

  Dear Cascade Patch: On Feb. 1, residents from Atlanta will deliver a petition to Douglas R. Hooker, Executive Director of the Atlanta Regional Commission and Nathan Deal, Governor of Georgia signed by 3200 people. The petition was created on the website www.SignOn.org and states, "Transportation is central to metro Atlanta's growth and success. As the federally-designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the 18-county Atlanta region, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) develops regional plans and policies to enhance mobility. Among other issues, an aggressive and principled …

Dear Cascade Patch: Members of the community are pulling together to save our landmark community schools and we need your help. We have learned from various public meetings the last few weeks, that we must organize our people—even though we represent some of the poorest in the city, many of whom have no transportation or adequate Internet access to stay abreast of the Atlanta Public Schools' plans and or proposals. To that end, we are spreading the word about our interpretations of the maps, charts and other demographic study information that translates to CLOSING or downgrading our precious…

  Dear Cascade Patch: Love your post. I never lived in Atlanta but had relatives there in the Cascade area, on Veltre Circle. I grew up in Greensboro, N.C., and attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., from 1956 to 1960. To get to to Nashville from Greensboro, I had to take the Southern Railroad to Atlanta and change to the L&N Railroad to go to Nashville. When I stopped in Atlanta, I recall there were two stations. I also recall that we were not allowed to ride in a white cab. If no colored cabs were available, we had to walk across a bridge to the other station. I don't know when this …

  Dear Cascade Patch: Thank you for sharing the picture and the case of George Stinney, 14, the youngest executed U.S. Death Row Inmate with your readers on Oct. 7, 2011. While I in no way whatsoever condone the actions of the killers who found themselves on death row, and my sympathies are always with the victims and their families, I believe the alternative of life in prison is better as it is more humane and can be corrected if an error is made, unlike the death penalty which is irreversible and unfairly applied. The problem as I see it is that there are some cases which are so horrific …

Dear Cascade Patch: Beecher Hills Elementary School is listed to be closed based on a demographic study initiated by APS school board. Beecher Hills is a historically high performing school, meeting AYP consecutively, and is due to meet AYP this year. Beecher Hills is an authorized International Baccalaureate school, one of two in the South side of Atlanta. As an IB school, Beecher Hills follows a rigorous set of standards and practices that ensures that all including Administrative, Teachers, and Parents must meet. That's why I created a petition to The Georgia State House, The Georgia State…

Dear Cascade Patch: Now is the time that Hosea Feed The Hungry is needed more than ever. With rising unemployment and people struggling to meet their monthly needs, we must increase our services to the poor and needy to assist the homeless and to prevent homelesness. This increases our cost and now we include tornadoes and disasters as well as help for people who never thought they would be in our lines. Please visit www.hoseafeedthehungry.com to give a quick credit card donation or send your check or money order to HFTH, P.O. Box 4672, Atlanta 30310. Any amount will help, really. Many of us …

Dear Neighbors: I am writing because I can no longer sit quietly and watch Byron Amos make a mockery of the responsible, servant leader our children deserve to have representing them on the Atlanta School Board at this critical time. First, he insists we should understand that it was just a job for him to be outside of a nightclub promoting gangster rap music that calls my nieces, and your daughters, hoes. Then he tells us that he shouldn't be held responsible for a negative campaign piece mailed to my home supporting him. Really? What message is this sending to our children? I will NOT vote …

Dear Cascade Patch: In a grass roots effort, we have collected over 4700 signatures for a petition asking E! Entertainment to remove the Kardashian suite of shows from their programming.   We feel that these shows are mostly staged and place an emphasis on vanity, greed, promiscuity, vulgarity and over-the-top conspicuous consumption.  While some may have begun watching the spectacle as mindless entertainment or as a sort of “reality satire,” it is a sad truth that many young people are looking up to this family and are modeling their appearance and behavior after them. (I’ll remind you here …

First let me thank you for providing me this layup opportunity to respond to American Black Conservatives (ABC) irrational, misleading to the point of deceitful and the insult of black people as a group with propaganda, for the sole purpose of political gain. Shelly, since your comments did not have any actual political policy points or a platform and their technical foundations, I only have to examine your anecdotal ideas and delusional conservative "mindset propaganda”  limitations to answer why the vast, overwhelming majority of black people distrust Herman "It's Just Sex" Cain. I think …

Back in July, the Cascade Patch reported that the United States Post Office had placed the Post Office on Herring Road (right off of Cascade Road) on a list of offices that would be closing.  On Friday (October 14) morning, I stopped by this post office to send a priority letter and learned from one of the clerks that the USPS had put plans to close this particular post office “on hold.”  I mentioned to the clerk that the Cascade Patch had published a letter I wrote asking concerned citizens in the area to mail or email the Post Master General’s Office to let him know that the Post Office on …

Dear Brother Cain: While I understand the point that you are attempting to make in your pronouncement that the “Black community (has been) 'brainwashed' into voting for Dems”, it so unfortunate that you would stoop to the level of so many politicians and suggest that the black community or African-Americans do not have the political, economic or intellectual capacities to know whom they should vote for. This is especially paradoxical considering that that every few years candidates such as you continue to make empty, seditious and counterfeit promises to this constituent voting block about …

Shame on Georgia. Today the state of Georgia, an overwhelmingly Christian state, will murder Troy Davis. Where does Jesus authorize this practice? Where is the outcry from the Christian politicians who visit our churches, mosques and temples each election season to remind us of their commitment to keeping God's word? Where is the prophetic voice of those religious leaders who have the ear of thousands each week? Capital Punishment is state sanctioned lynching. Capital punishment is the exact opposite of civilization. Capital Punishment is the admission of our immature and barbarous tendencies…

Dear Cascade Patch: “This is a sad, grim day in Georgia. It was so encouraging that over one million people signed petitions, that law-and-order officials like former FBI Director William Sessions and former Rep. Bob Barr, a conservative Republican from Georgia, Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican, President Jimmy Carter, even believers in the death penalty saw the error in executing a man who might be innocent. “But somehow those cries were not enough. Today we have confirmed that the administration of law in Georgia is more important than the search for justice, that the letter of the legal …

Dear Cascade Patch: Many of the black residents in Mableton are people who once wanted to live in the Cascade area but could not afford to live there. So we consider ourselves part of your community. With that in mind, I would like to share this message from a handout that the Cobb County SCLC distributed this past weekend in Mableton and Marietta. To my brothers and my sisters: it is our children who are dying in the streets of America. It is our people who are filling up the jails. We have more of our strong black men in jail and on probation or parole than any other race on the face of the…

Dear Cascade Patch: I really enjoy the feature stories by Kimathi Lewis and her style of writing. It feels that she really likes the people she writes about. The interesting thing about the Southwest community in Atlanta, is it richness in Southern folklore that continues to be the stuff that makes us feel connected to the South and to Southern culture. I really enjoy the three articles I read today. Were it not for these articles and for Cascade Patch, these stories would probably not be told. There are so many stories about our communities that never reach the newspapers or CNN, or anywhere…

U.S. Rep. John Lewis made these comments in response to President Obama’s speech Thursday tonight during a joint session of the U.S. Congress on jobs: “I think President Obama delivered a great speech tonight. He reached the soul of America and acknowledged the pain and struggles so many of us are facing. He let the American people know he has heard their cries for help. Tonight he offered credible, legislative action that Congress can implement to help resolve our problems. His speech was bold, thoughtful, and inspiring.  “I know many will say the proposal is too expensive, but he said it …