People Can Change Things

originally published October 17, 2001

pub-doughaines.jpg Sen. Doug Haines chats with Rex Gonnsen before riding on the Tour.

THE VISION THING

Former Governor Lester Maddox once said we'll never have better prisons until we get a better class of prisoners. The same can be said for our County Commission.

This past weekend Athens-Clarke County citizens turned out in large numbers for the well managed Tour de Sprawl to hear experts talk about stopping sprawl, protecting our water, enhancing our sense of community, managing traffic, providing affordable housing, developing the University and diversifying our transportation options.

All over town people were asking each other, what will it take to wake up Athens before all the beauty and livability are paved over?

The answer is really very simple, though difficult: a better class of Commissioners. It's a very simple political equation: at the present time, our Mayor and Commission are dominated by a majority that favors development over preservation, roads and cars over any other forms of transportation, and sprawl over neighborhoods.

The Mayor and five Commissioners will be up for election next summer and fall. Citizens concerned about the direction of their government rarely get such a clear-cut opportunity to do something about it at the ballot box. A President, a Senator, a Congressmen are so far removed that writing them or voting for them seems of little consequence. A Commissioner, on the other hand, is elected from a relatively small district, where individual effort can make a difference.

Last year political observers gave Carl Jordan little chance of winning a Commission seat, but people who believed in what he stood for got out and worked hard for him and got him elected. He is a major voice on the Commission for the Athens that people saw last weekend.

Carl Jordan's election was not easy, and elections won't be easy next year. The people who control things now – the banks, the big law firms and the developers they support – are already laying their plans to preserve their own vision of Athens that is profitable to them. You can be sure that they understand the importance of having friends on the Commission.

So often we see grand schemes of what our community can be, but the means of getting there are vague. The vision we saw last weekend can be reached by knocking on doors, licking envelopes, putting up yard signs and contributing money, time and effort to the election of good candidates.

Next year a citizen effort, with good candidates, can make a difference that will forever shape the future of our city. Electing a progressive Commissioner in even one district can change dramatically the stranglehold that hobbles our community.

THE SENATE THING

You can also be sure that the bankers and big lawyers and developers are already working to defeat our new State Senator Doug Haines, a Democrat who sits on the best committees in the Georgia Senate, but does not sit in the hip pockets of the banks and the lawyers and the developers. That he is bright, hardworking and effective means nothing to them, because they don't own him.

They say he should be defeated because he voted for a Congressional district that is not centered on Athens but puts Athens at the end of a long district that includes Augusta and Savannah.

That is a big, fat red herring. An Athens-centered district would be surrounded by conservative, rural, Republican counties. Those areas, not Athens, would make up the preponderant majority of votes. An Athens-centered district would mean that the vision of a progressive Athens would be totally submerged beneath the conservative Republican agenda that would dominate the voting in such a district. An Athens-centered district would be a Republican stronghold that would delight our bankers and big lawyers and developers but would be anathema to the vision of Athens that we saw last weekend.

On the national level, progressive Athens interests will be much better represented in a Democratic district sensitive to urban concerns. That's why the developers don't want Doug Haines. That's why we need him.

AND THE BOMBS...

Meanwhile, as we rode around on our bicycles and bus envisioning a better Athens, we entered the second week of urban renewal in Afghanistan.

Pete McCommons, pub@flagpole.com