"Sweet Georgia Brown," "Georgia On My Mind," "Midnight Train To Georgia," "Walkin' Back To Georgia," "Oh, Atlanta," "Lonely Night In Georgia"-- These are just a few of the many songs that have spoken of Georgia as a desirable place to be.
No more.
Back in the divided-city era I was on a night train passing through Berlin. I wondered if I would be able to see when we passed from West Berlin to East. Soon I got my answer. In the blink of an eye we passed from the western section into the eastern, and it was as if a curtain had been drawn across the view. We passed from a brightly lighted urban scene with lots of pedestrian and auto traffic to a dark land with barely any lights other than streetlights and virtually no traffic.
That's how I'm now thinking of Georgia. As a bleak benighted blotch on the southeastern coast of the United States. A place that has welcomed Jim Crow back to the South and whose government wants to put people of color "back in their place." It is a shameful, hurtful, Trumpesque, racist, tyrannical government occupying the state capitol.
Should we be surprised? Governor Brian Kemp is a Trump sycophant of the first order, and he was badly shamed in 2020, first when Biden won the Georgia presidential vote, and secondly when two senatorial runoff contests elected Democrats, flipping power in the Senate.
It was interesting politics for a while, as a desperate lame-duck president tried every dirty trick in the book, including armed insurrection and bullying elected state officials. It was refreshing to see Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, demonstrate that some politicians do have spines, when he rebuffed Trump's order to "find" him nearly 12,000 votes so the state wouldn't fall to Biden.
But fall it did, just as surely as it fell to William Tecumseh Sherman in late 1864. Tyrants will always fall and Brian Kemp is no exception. Signing a shockingly restrictive electoral bill into law, Kemp made it a point to say how proud he was to have restored voting integrity to Georgia, meaning he has made it far more difficult for people of color to vote. Read his speech for a fine example of doublethink at work.
By now I'm sure you've all seen the video of state Representative Park Cannon, who is Black, being handcuffed and led away from the governor's office as she was trying to gain entrance. This in the midst of a crowd of other politicians and a lot of media representatives. Such blatant racism and barbaric behavior is a Trump legacy. Kemp is clearly following his master's wishes.
Republican-majority legislatures in 40 states are trying to pass restrictive electoral laws similar to Georgia's. That is why it's so critical that S.1, the For The People Act of 2021 be passed quickly. So once more I ask you to contact your senators, regardless of party, and urge them to work toward its passing. You should also contact Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, urging him to move quickly to disable the filibuster rule during debate on S.1 so it will have a clear path to passing. This single bill will quash the racist laws now gestating in several state legislatures. For the good of the nation, it must be passed.
Maintaining democracy is hard work. It is people like us who have to do that work by keeping our representatives in Congress focused. Please never lose sight of that.
We are the people. We are America.
--- Diogenes, 3/30/2021
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