As a community activist who has interacted with Clarksville Mayor Johnny Piper on several important issues, I have found that he sometimes lacks overall political manners. He also tends not to show respect for anyone who disagrees with him.
I have also dealt with Clarksville-Montgomery County Director of Schools Michael Harris, who continues to ignore the fact that while black students comprise 27 percent of the students attending the Montgomery county school system, they are being suspension and expelled at almost twice the rate of the white students who comprise 62 percent of the population.
So in my opinion the listening and communication skills are not always the best attributes exhibited by either of these public leaders.
I will say that Director Harris has shown remarkable courage and promise by bringing to the public, via the media; the implied threat that he felt the Mayor was delivering, after Michael Harris declined to discuss the reassignment of the Mayor’s wife CMCSS Psychologist Donita Piper, to different schools within the system. The Leaf Chronicle article stated Michael Harris as saying and I quote. “He went on to say that he knew people at the local and state level, and he could make things difficult for me.”
Mayor Piper’s statement translates into nothing more than gangster type tactics and quotes, like those used in movies like The Godfather. “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
I do however agree with the Mayor when he states that he is not motivated by politics concerning this issue because he is not running for re-election. He’s right; these actions are more gangster and bully in nature than political.
In the 2010 race for Mayor in Clarksville, TN I personally support and endorse Gabriel Segovia for Mayor of Clarksville. He is the change in leadership we need and deserve.
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