Bad Teacher?/Good Immigraton!

We present two views on recent topics. First the Tuscumbia School Board situation--as with any issue, there are always two sides. Failing to renew the contract of the current superintendent may have been done for the wrong reasons, or the right reasons; it is not micromanagement. Surely the superintendent of any system should be the utmost concern for that system's board of education. Here is a take from a regular Tuscumbia reader:

It is peculiar that the same Gene Balding who lives in Russellville and teaches for the Tuscumbia Board of Education is bashing the Board for Micro-management! Not too many years ago he was a member of 11 teachers at R.E. Thompson School who petitioned the Board of Education to over-rule Superintendent Royce Massey who wanted to tenure a principal (Gillespie). The Board over-ruled the Superintendent and Mr Balding's group got it's way. Urging Micro-management? The Pot calling the Kettle black? Hypocrite? Whose community is he talking about? He sends his kids to Russellville, shops there, and lives there. More to come on a similar circumstance at DHS during the Jim Berry administration.

We look forward to more from this concerned citizen and thank him for his input.

*****

We plan to feature several articles on both the good and bad sides of immigration in the days to come. Here is the story of Mary Carton's mother, originally published as part of a larger article in Grit Magazine. This is what our country is about. Mrs. Carton, we salute you.


My Mom was born in Yugoslavia. Her Dad was German and Mom Hungarian. After WWII broke out a German officer rode up to the door of their house and told my Grandfather that he was to report for duty, and if he didn’t, they would come back and shoot him. After much discussion with my Grandmother, he decided to report. He came home a few times, but is listed as MIA in the area of Yugoslavia now known as Bosnia. In the mean time, my Grandmother was taken to a Russian concentration camp. Mom at seven years old was left to fend for herself, begging for food, after her Grandfather’s death, her brothers took off for Germany. After a year on her own, she eventually found her Mother, who was rented out by the Russians to work in farmer’s fields during the day. She was then also placed in the concentration camp with her Mother for 18 months until they paid to escape with a group of 60 from the camp.

After going to Austria, somehow they were united with my two uncles and came to the U.S. as refugees aboard the troop carrier USS Hanselman. How did Mom and Dad meet? My Dad requested a family to come and work for him through the Catholic Relief Services. Another family was to come and work for him, but their children developed the measles, so Mom’s family was selected. After a brief courtship, mostly hiding and kissing behind a stack of milk crates, they were married and had five children.

Shoalanda