A Political Hassle for Haskell: Minorities -“Out of my district”

Perhaps voters should psychoanalyze Douglas County’s District 4 school board member Dr. Sam Haskell, a retired psychologist. In October 2011, Haskell, a five term board member, resigned as vice-chairman of the school board citing he was under a lot of “stress”. We now know where some of the stress was derived.

He apparently was forced to resign by fellow board members because of racial comments he made at a public meeting.

At the Oct. 3, 2011 work session to discuss voter redistricting, Dr. Haskell dropped a stinky load in the board room by asking to remove about 100 “minorities” from his voting district.

Georgia is one of several states that require Justice Department approval of district voting lines under the Voting Rights Act due to the state’s history of racial discrimination.

In the 11^th hour of the process, Haskell asked the board if there was some way “small changes” could be made to his district, but he failed to bring any maps or details to explain these small changes. The room went silent. Board member Janet Kelly admonished Haskell for not addressing this issue at an earlier time, stating she would like to have time to review and discuss the changes.

Haskell said he wanted to see if some voters could be cut from the Golden United Methodist voting district. First term board member D.T. Jackson asked why?

Haskell: “Uhhh… It’s, it’s uhhh, it’s an extremely heavily minority district.”

Jackson: “Ok, sooo, where are you going to put them?”

Haskell: “Well, we have to put them either in Mr. Miller’s, uhhh, probably in Mr. Miller’s [district].”

Kelly: “I just wish that work had been done before this meeting so we could look at two different kinds of maps. This is the planning session for it.”

Haskell: “I am talking about small changes, maybe, maybe a hundred, something like that, voters, if it can be done. So I wanted to go back and see Mr. Summers and see if that could be done. I don’t know whether that’s something you at some point talked to Mr. Summers about.”

Jeff Morris: “Not particular… in any, uhhh, form or fashion.”

Morris then explained that the maps are lined and detailed based on census reports and said they could carve out a hundred votes in any particular district. But they would have to be careful in this process because it will have to pass the scrutiny of the Justice Department.

D. T. Jackson pushed Haskell to explain why he wanted to remove theses voters from his district.

Jackson: “I’m just curious to know why you want to eliminate a population of minority voters from your district.”

Haskell: “Uhhh…Because that district voted heavily against me.”

Jackson: “Unfortunately, we do vote and we live in various neighborhoods and we can’t just pick and choose who’s in our districts.”

Haskell: “That’s true but that’s what this process is about.”

Jackson: “I looked at this last night…and I was shocked. You can’t kill a district.”

Jackson stated that over 53 percent of the population in District 2 is black, but only 39 percent in Haskell’s District 4.

Jackson: “So you want to take some voters out so you can have votes to make sure you get reelected?”

Haskell: “Ohhh no! I’m just talking about moving over say, 200 population.”

Later, the meeting was recessed. When the meeting reconvened the racial redistricting was not brought up and the board expressed a consensus to the proposed district lines.

Perhaps during the recess someone took Haskell behind the woodshed and encouraged him to drop the issue.

Let’s cut to the chase. Mr. Haskell’s attempt to rig his voting district is precisely why Georgia is still under the careful watch of the federal government. I will not say that Haskell is a racist, but I can say that his unfettered fetish with the racial makeup of his district inhibits his ability to serve with credibility or honor. We don’t need this mindset in Douglas County.

In Douglas County, the minority has become the majority. Get over it! Perhaps Dr. Haskell should move to another county where minorities don’t pose a threat to his political career.

Haskell’s inability to understand his inappropriate political ponderings at a public meeting is beyond belief. 

For the good of our community, Dr. Sam Haskell should resign from the school board. Board members are elected to serve all students and all parents regardless of race, class or political persuasions.

Perhaps his calamity will motivate minorities to support and vote for another candidate. It may also be a painful wakeup call for white voters as to whom we have entrusted our educational system.

Unfortunately, voters will have to wait until to 2014 to decide if Haskell will serve another term.