The Importance of FOIA

While going throught FOIA which stands for freedom of Information, I wondered what was significance of this great freedom we have. I started to read a case from Atlanta which goes back to the lates 70s to the early 80s. The case file was about the Atlanta child killings. A string of 28 killings happened between 1979-1981 many of which were black kids. These murder had parents and kids scared and very hesitant to go outside. On may 22, 1981 Wayne Williams was arrested for the murders.
Now why is this important and how does benefit me? Well for one if im a lawyer or detective this would benefit me a great deal. If im a lawyer I could be trying to prove Wayne Williams innocence and find some type of evidence that could free him. Now if im a detective then if the same type of murders start to show up again then that be a big break because either the coperarte is not caught and has started up again or the it could be a copy cat killer.
Now if Im a member of the Atlanta community this could change my thoughts about living there. It make me have a broader mind and understand that anything could happen anywhere.
To have this type of freedom to go and find such information such as the Atlanta Child Killer is very relevant in many ways to lawyers to your everyday neighbors of atlantan and to other people as well. With FOIA there are not many secrets and grants us to do research on what we feel is important.

The Color of Money

Many say as time changes, people change. I wish that were true and I say this because I have recently read an article that decribes the one dimensional mind of racism. The article or articles I read was The Color of Money. This article focused on the presence of racism in the banks of Atlanta. After a census was taken 1980 Bill Dedman who recieve a Pulitzer Prize for his series of articles on the color of money started to to do investigative and found something out very interesting. I you were to got to powerreporting.com and click on the color of money you will see two different maps. One map will have shaded areas of black neighborhoods from the 1980 census and the other map will show where Atlanta banks rarely give out loans. The two maps are very close to identical. How would the banks explain this? In one of the articles it reads Atlanta Blacks Losing in Home Scramble, Banks Favor White area by 5.1. With plentiful facts within these article show how racism is still alive and taking a toll on blacks. For example Retired James Fletcher(black) a railway laborer spent more than he bargain for when recieving a loan from Atlantic Mortgage Co. He needed 5,000 to fix his roof. He lived in a lower income black neighborhood. So after all the calculations of Mr.Fletcher would owe the bank 31,ooo. Shocking! Evidence shows if that were a white person the payback would have been way lower. Racism is still alive and its sad. Lower income blacks especially, need loans somethimes to help with the everyday struggles. So why should an already wealthy person who can afford to pay back loans, owe the bank the minimum to a lower income family paying the max.