Dublin Core
Title
Box 9, Folder 3, Document 59
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
i ATLANTA VRBAN CORPS
30 COURTLAND STREET, N.E. / PHONE. [404} 524-8091 / ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30303
August 28, 1969
Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr.
Mayor's Office
City Hall
Atlanta, Georgia
Dear Mayor Allen:
As we sat in your office Tuesday telling you about the Urban Corps, its
fulfillment and its frustrations and tried to answer questions you posed
to us about Atlanta's problems; you kept quietly shaking your head saying:
"Write it down. Write it all down." So I am taking you for your word and
I am writing it down.
I don't know exactly what I want to say to you, Mayor Allen, but I know there
are numerous things which need to be said-if only for my own peace of mind,
You must not let the Urban Corps fail. I'1l try, as best I can to tell you
why.
First, I am a college student. I am what some would call a privileged child-
because I am getting a college education. But I think this is a misconception.
College today is not a luxury, as it once was; it is a necessity and every
year its need becomes greater. No longer will college educated people become the
upper and upper-middle classes. They will be the middle class-the backbone of
our country=the inhabitants of our cities. But these college students=this
emerging middle-class will be different from the one which exists today. They
will be more intelligent, more aware, and more concerned. But why and how?
This is not something which happens spontaneously. This is something which
happens when a student is able to realize himself as a person...when he is able
to realize that those around him are people...and finally that even those he
doesn't know, those whom he'll never see are people too,..and he will appreciate
them as he appreciates himself,
At a campus college, a student can feel a part, he can start to feel these
realizations much more than a student who is not on a campus.
Allow me to give you a case in point. Now I speak for myself and from personal
experience=but I think I speak for a vast number of todays college students.
My first year at school, I was at a campus college. It was a new and a
broadening experience and I loved it. But then financial problems arose and
I had to come home to Atlanta and find a job. The first year it was not too
bad. I was still experiencing "newness" at a new school and a new job.
My mind was open and I was intellectually aggressive, But then something
happened. The "newness'' wore off and I found myself trapped. I was in a
non=-stimulating job and my college courses were becoming more and more
mundane, By the time I reached my junior year=-it took me almost 4 years to
do so=-I realized that I was intellectually and even socially retarded. I
was like a middle-aged spinster at the tender age of 22 and I did things more
out of habit than anything else. And then it happened, I had a sociology
course in which I was required to do "field work." It was great-it was
relevant-it was exciting and it was stimulating. So much so that I worked
part-time on the project while holding down a full-time job and carrying 10
hours at school. About the time this project ended, I inadvertently became
involved in another "field work project" indirectly related to a course in
which I was required to do a child study. Then things began to happen. I
began to attend "inner collegiate meetings" with others who were interested in
"community service."' At one of these meetings I was introduced to the Urban
Corps concept.
I was immediately sold. Coming from a conservative, middle-class family and
never having the opportunity to be influenced by "liberals" on a campus I
frowned on things like VISTA and the Peace Corps=but the Urban Corps=it
sounded great,
T love Atlanta, Atlanta is my home and I hope it will always be. I want to
see Atlanta grow and prosper and I want to help it attain its goals. What
better way is there, I thought, than to become involved in Atlanta now-
constructively involved and be more than just a voting citizen.
Well, in this summer in the Urban Corps, I haven't done anything earth shaking
in Atlanta. But Atlanta, and primarily a group of concerned students in
Atlanta, have done something earth shaking to me, They have made me become
aware. Aware of myself, aware of my city, my state, my country and "my" people,
I will no longer be content to sit around and bemoan my fate and the fate of all
as I did for six years in school. I'11 want to do something=-as little as it may
seem-as little as it may be-at least I'll be doing something.
This summer I did something small. I helped to plan the Service-Learning
Conference, The conference which you and the United States Commissioner of
Education attended, I helped to promote the service-learning concept. It
seemed like such a small, such an insignificant thing, But it has people all
over the country buzzing. People are looking to us-to Atlanta...asking us
gestions, seeking material and information. "Service-Learning" has become almost
a "household term" amd people want to know about it and find out how they can
apply it.
When we can tell them about the Urban Corps and show them that the Urban Corps
is embodying and emulating the service-learning idea they are satisfied. They
understand and they want to try it themselves. From California to New Jersey
people are looking to Atlanta=looking to something which is being done.
Small as it may be it is something. It is a start. It is a way to make
students-college students-those who will someday be the backbone of America-
beome invilved-constructively-rather than destructively, as they are in so
many places. They are envious of Atlanta-and now-as so many times before
people are looking to us as the leader.
Maybe, Mayor Allen, the question is not so much=Can the City of Atlanta afford
to have the Urban Corps-as Can the City of Atlanta afford not to have the
Urban Corps?
Sincerely,
Bahr Ki Suchage
Babs Kalvelage
Atlanta Urban Corps Intern
BK: blu
30 COURTLAND STREET, N.E. / PHONE. [404} 524-8091 / ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30303
August 28, 1969
Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr.
Mayor's Office
City Hall
Atlanta, Georgia
Dear Mayor Allen:
As we sat in your office Tuesday telling you about the Urban Corps, its
fulfillment and its frustrations and tried to answer questions you posed
to us about Atlanta's problems; you kept quietly shaking your head saying:
"Write it down. Write it all down." So I am taking you for your word and
I am writing it down.
I don't know exactly what I want to say to you, Mayor Allen, but I know there
are numerous things which need to be said-if only for my own peace of mind,
You must not let the Urban Corps fail. I'1l try, as best I can to tell you
why.
First, I am a college student. I am what some would call a privileged child-
because I am getting a college education. But I think this is a misconception.
College today is not a luxury, as it once was; it is a necessity and every
year its need becomes greater. No longer will college educated people become the
upper and upper-middle classes. They will be the middle class-the backbone of
our country=the inhabitants of our cities. But these college students=this
emerging middle-class will be different from the one which exists today. They
will be more intelligent, more aware, and more concerned. But why and how?
This is not something which happens spontaneously. This is something which
happens when a student is able to realize himself as a person...when he is able
to realize that those around him are people...and finally that even those he
doesn't know, those whom he'll never see are people too,..and he will appreciate
them as he appreciates himself,
At a campus college, a student can feel a part, he can start to feel these
realizations much more than a student who is not on a campus.
Allow me to give you a case in point. Now I speak for myself and from personal
experience=but I think I speak for a vast number of todays college students.
My first year at school, I was at a campus college. It was a new and a
broadening experience and I loved it. But then financial problems arose and
I had to come home to Atlanta and find a job. The first year it was not too
bad. I was still experiencing "newness" at a new school and a new job.
My mind was open and I was intellectually aggressive, But then something
happened. The "newness'' wore off and I found myself trapped. I was in a
non=-stimulating job and my college courses were becoming more and more
mundane, By the time I reached my junior year=-it took me almost 4 years to
do so=-I realized that I was intellectually and even socially retarded. I
was like a middle-aged spinster at the tender age of 22 and I did things more
out of habit than anything else. And then it happened, I had a sociology
course in which I was required to do "field work." It was great-it was
relevant-it was exciting and it was stimulating. So much so that I worked
part-time on the project while holding down a full-time job and carrying 10
hours at school. About the time this project ended, I inadvertently became
involved in another "field work project" indirectly related to a course in
which I was required to do a child study. Then things began to happen. I
began to attend "inner collegiate meetings" with others who were interested in
"community service."' At one of these meetings I was introduced to the Urban
Corps concept.
I was immediately sold. Coming from a conservative, middle-class family and
never having the opportunity to be influenced by "liberals" on a campus I
frowned on things like VISTA and the Peace Corps=but the Urban Corps=it
sounded great,
T love Atlanta, Atlanta is my home and I hope it will always be. I want to
see Atlanta grow and prosper and I want to help it attain its goals. What
better way is there, I thought, than to become involved in Atlanta now-
constructively involved and be more than just a voting citizen.
Well, in this summer in the Urban Corps, I haven't done anything earth shaking
in Atlanta. But Atlanta, and primarily a group of concerned students in
Atlanta, have done something earth shaking to me, They have made me become
aware. Aware of myself, aware of my city, my state, my country and "my" people,
I will no longer be content to sit around and bemoan my fate and the fate of all
as I did for six years in school. I'11 want to do something=-as little as it may
seem-as little as it may be-at least I'll be doing something.
This summer I did something small. I helped to plan the Service-Learning
Conference, The conference which you and the United States Commissioner of
Education attended, I helped to promote the service-learning concept. It
seemed like such a small, such an insignificant thing, But it has people all
over the country buzzing. People are looking to us-to Atlanta...asking us
gestions, seeking material and information. "Service-Learning" has become almost
a "household term" amd people want to know about it and find out how they can
apply it.
When we can tell them about the Urban Corps and show them that the Urban Corps
is embodying and emulating the service-learning idea they are satisfied. They
understand and they want to try it themselves. From California to New Jersey
people are looking to Atlanta=looking to something which is being done.
Small as it may be it is something. It is a start. It is a way to make
students-college students-those who will someday be the backbone of America-
beome invilved-constructively-rather than destructively, as they are in so
many places. They are envious of Atlanta-and now-as so many times before
people are looking to us as the leader.
Maybe, Mayor Allen, the question is not so much=Can the City of Atlanta afford
to have the Urban Corps-as Can the City of Atlanta afford not to have the
Urban Corps?
Sincerely,
Bahr Ki Suchage
Babs Kalvelage
Atlanta Urban Corps Intern
BK: blu
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