Dear Flagpole: Is it just me, or could the state of Georgia save itself a lot of trouble by not trying to cram a year’s worth of (mostly) important business into a 40-working-day legislative session? I know plenty of states do it the way we do, but plenty of states don’t. The point is, yet again this year we found ourselves with some big, big issues still hanging in the balance while the people at the Gold Dome burned the midnight oil and worked out God-only-knows what kind of last-minute compromises and backroom deals. It just seems like we could save ourselves from a lot of craziness by relaxing the schedule a little bit.

I know, I know - no man’s life, liberty or property is safe when the legislature is in session, so a longer session would only make our continued existence as citizens of the state more precarious. But come on! Can’t we lighten the intensity a little bit, spread out the pain to at least a few more weeks of the year?

The other big argument against this idea, of course, is that all the legislators from South Georgia probably don’t want to spend any more time than they have to driving back and forth to Atlanta. Who can blame them? Anyway, what’s stopping us from moving the state capitol back to a more geographically sensible locale in the middle of the state? We could move it back to Milledgeville, easily. An added bonus would be that there just might be a few less Atlanta developers lurking in the hallways of the legislature that way - right? Then again, Milledgeville would put the action next-door to Lake Oconee, and those Linger Longer guys would be running the place before we knew it. Oh, hell, I give up.

Isaac Boone

Athens