Urges commissioners to cooperate

To the Augusta Commission:

Please do what you can to make intelligent changes in the city government as suggested by the Special Grand Jury in 2001 and by other community leaders in several other venues until the present. Very little is currently being done of a positive nature by the commission and all that we in the community hear about is argument and fighting - the normal activity of children.

As District 1 Commissioner Betty Beard said after the early January meeting - which didn't elect a mayor pro tem - commissioners' failure to make progress shows just how poorly they are working together. "And we should all be ashamed of ourselves," she was quoted as saying in the Jan. 10 Chronicle. "Everyone in this room. There is no need for this."

Congratulations to Betty for correctly addressing the behavior of most commissioners - white and black. (Of course, Betty had her points in the past too.)

Now if enough commissioners could honestly hear her criticism and make the changes required for a competent government, maybe Augusta can be saved. What we're living with now is a government that cannot govern structurally and groups that are so afraid of losing a little power to another that any change suggested leads to a situation in which nothing gets done.

On the TV replay of the early January meeting, it was embarrassing to learn just how little the commissioners know about government operations, rules, regulations and history. A monthly course in race relations or one in working together in groups would not be a waste of time for commissioners or the community.

We need more people who are less concerned with the color of their skin and more with the content of their hearts and the needs of all their constituents.

Sylvia Littlejohn, Augusta