Jordan M. Poss, ABG Contributor

One night in April 1942, a German U-boat sighted and torpedoed the American tankers SS Oklahoma and Esso Baton Rouge. The two ships sailed unescorted en route to Europe, where, at this stage of the war, the Allies were still weak, holding out in Britain while the Nazi military prowled the Atlantic and Mediterranean and slugged it out with the Soviets thousands of miles away. Both ships sank, with a loss of twenty-two crewmen. The U-boat slipped away into the night to continue its raiding.

Fortunately, this incident did not occur in the frigid north Atlantic but in the waters just off the coast of St Simons Island, Georgia. The Coast Guard rescued the survivors and brought them to shelter on the island. Even the two ships were not total losses—both were refloated and towed into St Simons Sound to be repaired and relaunched at Brunswick’s shipyards before the end of the year.

Sam Burnham, Curator

​In volatile times it is important that we keep a grasp on what really matters. Without going into drama, I’ll say that this hasn’t just been a volatile time in general. It’s been volatile personally. So I’m having to slow down and focus on the things that are foundational, what keeps me anchored, what really matters.

The great philosopher Roger Scruton said it this way: “Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.” Basically it’s a lot easier to destroy something beautiful than it is to create it. This makes sense as the wrecking ball moves much faster than the mason’s trowel or the artist’s brush.

It is the same with communities and relationships. After all, a community is nothing more than a web of relationships. The visible elements of a community, arts, architecture, institutions, all of it presents a visible form of the relationships that lie underneath. Therefore a town is built over decades of interconnected relationships of family, friends, and faith.

We are limited in our influence. There is only so much in life that we can control. We cannot expect our society to be healthy if our region is not healthy. We cannot expect our region to be healthy if our state is not healthy. We cannot expect our state to be healthy if our town is not healthy. We cannot expect our town to be healthy if our neighborhood is not healthy. And we cannot expect our neighborhood to be healthy if our home is not healthy. But there is really only one of these that we can effectively control: our own homes. Building a better society starts at home and then spreads outward.

On Tuesday June 2 all of our ABG social media accounts participated in the Blackout Tuesday trend to show support for justice in the cases of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. We posted a solid black photo on each account and posted no other content for the duration of the day. It is important that Amendments IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII protect the the rights of all Americans regardless of race, sex, or class. That’s the promise of America.

Equal justice under law is a good start. It is pivotal in building healthy black communities. Rather than split hairs about statistics let’s just say these three people are dead and there’s no good reason for any one of them to be dead. Americans have to have a reasonable expectation of safety from police and vigilantes. We cannot have law and order when the enforcement is not subject to the same laws.

I say it’s a good start because there are other issues we need to consider.

Now would be an excellent time for McIntosh County to reverse their asinine property tax increases on the Gullah/Geechee people on Sapelo Island. A few years back islanders received notice of tax increases, some as high as 1000%. The island has no police or fire coverage, no schools, and the county does not adequately maintain the roads. But residents now have tax bills that they cannot afford. This is a shameless land grab. The islanders have tried legal avenues to defend their property but it doesn’t look good for them.

The Mississippi Delta is one of the richest expanses of farmland in the world. This alluvial floodplain was harnessed by plantation owners in the 1800s and a cotton empire was built with slave labor. These days the biggest landowners are Wall Street hedge funds. TIAA, Hancock, AgriVest, and other pension funds gobbled up this land and now rent it to farmers. While that’s building wealth for investors (quite possibly you and I via 401 accounts) it is doing little to build wealth for the farmers, many of whom had the land scammed out from under them or their ancestors. We’re not saying that the hedge funds should just give the land away but finding a reasonable deal to let these farmers purchase their farms would allow them to build wealth and have something of an inheritance to offer their offspring. I’m citing the Delta here because of the broad example it creates. This phenomenon is happening throughout rural America though.

​Honestly one of the biggest things that could be done right now is to get out of the way. I’ll use the example relayed to me by online food delivery service drivers in Atlanta. There’s a black-owned restaurant in Atlanta. You can’t go there to eat. They only operate via online delivery service. I’m not outing the restaurant, the delivery service, or even the drivers because the federal, state, and local governments will run this guy out of business for operating a restaurant out of his home. His customers love his products. More power to him.

We can build a stronger, broader economy by encouraging investment in black owned businesses. This means restaurants, banks, grocery stores, insurance companies, clothing stores, farms, whatever, you name it. This will solve food deserts and economic stagnation. It’s not only building the economy in black communities, more people in business is better for the economy at large. Yes, there are communities that have crime problems but they can be solved by better public relations by police forces becoming more involved in the community. Build trust, share respect, make progress.

Again, the best thing we can do is get out of the way. Let entrepreneurs, engineers, artists, and scientists do their thing. Let up on some regulations, don’t usurp attempts to build generational wealth, and for goodness sake, stop killing people.
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