Applauding businesses that boycott Stone Mountain’s Confederate imagery
Like the NAACP and Stone Mountain Action Coalition, the SPLC wants “to see a wide-ranging transformation” at Stone Mountain. We want the Confederate figures on this massive monument sandblasted off the mountain. Therefore, we applaud Herschend Family Entertainment’s decision to end its partnership with Stone Mountain. And we hope other business will follow their lead, boycotting Stone Mountain’s deeply offensive Confederate imagery.
The Stone Mountain carving was erected as part of an organized campaign waged by heritage groups to valorize the Confederacy’s values and oppose Black Americans’ attempts to gain civil rights. It is a symbol of hate and white supremacy. There is no other way around it.
KIMBERLY PROBOLUS, Ph.D., FELLOW, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER
Tax commissioners should not get ‘windfall’ when doing their jobs
For any law to be unconstitutional in America, it must effectively violate the Constitution’s provisions. The current lawsuit involving Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner Tiffany Porter claims that a new Georgia law targets only herself and Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand because the law only applies to counties with at least 14 cities or at least 50,000 taxable parcels. State Attorney General Chris Carr argues that the law is constitutional. This law would apply to any county reaching either one of those provisions (and probably coming, in future growth.) There should either be an allowance to charge per-parcel fees or not, regardless of the number of cities and taxable parcels involved.
However, an employer has the right to determine an employee’s duties, as paid by the base salary. Other individuals do the bulk of work in billing and collections -- not the commissioner. This situation should not grant a windfall to a commissioner who could choose to work elsewhere.
TOM STREETS, ATLANTA
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