When Mr. Nelson Mandela came to America in 1990 after his long imprisonment, he had a Town Hall meeting with Ted Koppel. Koppel asked him why his political organization dealt with certain other organizations during the “struggle;”—people like Castro and Gaddafi (Secretary Condi Rice met with that character this summer). Mandela said that a drowning man does not ask which hands pulled him from the water.
Georgia and the South are experience an unusual political season where neighbors and families are at odds over the leadership, temperament and direction of the nation. The term civil war is oxymoronic but it is starting to feel like a political civic war. The central theme of this centrist blog is bridge building—that’s why there is a southern bridge made from stone on the front page. When I picked that picture, I thought about Zell Miller’s industrious mother damming the stream on their land to get stones to build their house. Now, we throw stones at each other– moving Georgia backwards.
This year of political flux creates an opportunity for moderates and centrists to assist good members of both parties and foster cooperation. Right, sure, yeah, mmm mmm.
Both ends of the political spectrum jump on candidates who have functional relationships with the center and (dare I say) the other side. It’s the silly season where Republicans supported by moderate Democrats say thanks but could you go out the backdoor (and you know what our daddies said about the backdoor.)
Project Logic Ga 
Maybe all the things that have and are going on in local, state and national politics is the norm. Maybe it’s because I’m relatively new to the political landscape (since May 2005 when I put my hat in the ring to run for Mayor of Augusta, Ga.). You go to political party meetings and there’s so much negative talk about the ‘other side.’ These same candidates, when they win, work side by side as if all of the negative talk, rhetoric, fighting, hasn’t even taken place. Most of the time they’re friends. But the masses don’t see that. Many of them stay angry and upset. Many people stop speaking to friends who ‘happen to’ support the candidate opposite them. There’s so much for the average person to learn about politics and the things that go on ‘behind the scenes.’
The hate, venom, anger, nastiness slant this national race has lowered itself to, is sickening to my stomach.
This blog, for example, was designed to educate, inform, allow people to express themselves no matter ideology they represent. We want and are representing ideas that can make one say ‘umm..I haven’t thought of that before.’ The number of hits since our launch about 60 days ago is pretty impressive to me. Although it may not be to you. And it’s all good. However, if this blog was ‘nasty’, ‘vicious,’ hitting below the belt, ‘accusatory’ and you get what I’m saying, our number count would probably be over 10,000 and our online contributions would be breaking the bank.
But alas, that isn’t the case. But we’re going to persevere. We’re going to stay ‘true to who we are.’ At the end of the day, I want to be able to sleep at night. I don’t want ulcers and I don’t want to have to look over my shoulder everytime I’m out in public.
And so the struggle continues…..
You are 100% correct and I refuse to stop wishing for a better Georgia because the state that functions smoothly is the state that gets the new jobs, plants and economic opportunities. We keep doing the same stuff because it works or because that is all they know.
The battle continues but the war is not over.