Commentary
On his 99th birthday, Jimmy Carter is fondly remembered for hammering in the hills of Kentucky
The lively young girl was excited about her brand-new home, as well she should be. It had been built in a miraculous five hot and sometimes rainy days, by a gang of friendly volunteers with Habitat for Humanity. She was showing me what would soon be her very own room. Telling me where she planned […]
Bookman: Trump, ‘Cop City’ RICO cases show danger of such laws
Georgia’s wide-ranging version of an anti-racketeering act, or RICO, puts a powerful weapon in the hands of prosecutors. And like any powerful weapon, it can be used for good, or for ill. The best safeguards against its abuse must be judges and juries, and both will come into play in the two major RICO-based prosecutions […]
State leaders should pass gun safety laws to save Georgians’ lives
In the twenty years that I spent as a teacher and administrator in middle schools and high schools in Athens and Northeast Georgia before my time as Mayor of Athens-Clarke County, many students and families I knew had encounters with gun violence: a student shot in the knee during horseplay, one who shot a girlfriend […]
Trump’s trial will be televised. That transparency comes with a cost.
The first of the televised sessions in former President Donald Trump’s conspiracy trial in Georgia aired Sept. 5, and it was dull as a butter knife: Two of the 19 alleged conspirators arguing to have their cases separated from the mob and from each other. It was an inauspicious start to what is potentially the […]
Georgia Power must have taken lessons from Muhammad Ali
Here’s a question: “What does Georgia Power have in common with the greatest boxer of all time?” Huh? To be more specific: “What does Georgia Power have in common with Muhammad Ali?” Consider the behemoth utility’s tactics to wear down environmental critics by delaying doing the long-term and right thing with its millions of tons […]
Bookman: More evidence for Tooth Fairy than Georgia 2020 election fraud
According to a poll conducted last month by the University of Georgia, 63% of Georgia Republican voters still claim to believe “there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.” At this point, almost three years after the election, that’s like an adult believing in the Tooth Fairy, only worse. There’s at least some […]