After several queries to the Office of Communications regarding today’s editorial column, Mayor Franklin’s response to editorial writer Mike King is provided below.
After a written exchange with King and an apology for not offering her an opportunity to respond prior to publishing the piece, Mayor Franklin has agreed to meet with him at a later date to discuss this significant policy question and issue.
Pdf of Editorial
Mike,
I would have been more than pleased to talk with you about my comments and the panel hosted in New York City by the Milano School for Public Policy. You chose to assume the journalist reported accurately and completely. You can listen to the panel discussion on New York Public Radio who broadcast the panel live last Friday. It was a spirited, intellectual discussion of urban public policy.
Over the years and especially in the last six years, I have engaged in numerous lively conversations with some of the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s most celebrated commentators, Colin Campbell, Cynthia Tucker and Hal Gulliver. I’ve even had the opportunity to talk with Bob Herbert of the New York Times about child prostitution before he wrote about its prevalence in Atlanta and Thomas Friedman about his economic theories. Though we didn’t always agree, your colleagues (Tucker, Gulliver and Campbell) gave me the courtesy of dialogue prior to reaching their conclusions. I am comfortable in discussing the racial and political issues past and present because the discussion can inform the city’s planning for the diverse world we will live in whether we like it or not.
Atlanta has an international reputation for inclusion that predates my service as mayor. It is my job to be sure the reputation is enhanced by our actions and deeds. We are interconnected on God’s earth and our fate as a city and a nation depends on our recognition of our interdependence and our willingness to extend the opportunities of our time to everyone. You read my comments too narrowly and commented on them without the benefit of the full context or meaning and without offering me an opportunity to comment. That is your prerogative as a published social and political commentator. It just does not seem to be the most productive way to understand a complex issue or a public figure’s point of view.
It is too bad the headline and the short article did not fully examine or ponder the critical issues that prompted the panel comments. Headlines and one way conversations will not win the day for Atlanta, Georgia or America. The open, honest debate and recognition of our fears and opportunities will.