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is expected to be in the river during a dry year.
That budget will decide how much water can be
used by municipalities, industry and agriculture
on a year-to-year basis, the goal being to maxi
mize returns into the watershed. Of course, for
aquifers, into which water cannot be returned,
the goal would be to minimize withdrawals. To
find out more about the Water Council's proposed
plan for your watershed, visit www.georgiawater-
council.org.
As for the public meetings, you're in luck:
there will be more. Next January, there will be
another round, presenting a more complete draft
of Georgia's new water plan. It is possible that
we could get a meeting in Athens, so fire an
email to watercomments@fanning.uga.edu be
fore July 31 (the end of the comment period for
this round of meetings). There is no reason the
future of Georgia should be decided by a bunch
of white guys wearing cell phone holsters.
Jesslyn Shields
Gapito! Impact
This is Madness
They call what we have had last week an elec
tion, but a better name for it might be a hate-
fest, or a looney bin. Honestly. I get the distinct
impression that politics in the stzte of Georgia
has driven some people stark raving mad, or into
a near-homicidal frenzy. Consider some of the in
cidents in the campaigns leading up to the July
18 primary election:
It. Gov. Mark Taylor's campaign ran a radio
commercial on African-American stations that
said Secretary of State Cathy Cox, his Democratic
primary opponent for governor, would stomp on
the rights of black people to vote. This is the
same Cathy Cox who for the past two years has
spoken out against the law passed by legisla
tive Republicans that would require voters to
show government-issued photo identification at
the polls before they can cast a ballot. Cox op
posed the law because she said it would deprive
African-Americans of the right to vote. She spent
several hours testifying to that point at a federal
'■ourt hearing last week—helping persuade the
judge to overturn the voter ID law.
Taylor's campaign also ran an ad claiming Cox
voted against the Georgia lottery and HOPE schol
arships in 1992, basing that assertion on an old
article from a south Georgia newspaper. Cox was
not a member of the legislature, however, when
it adopted lottery legislation. The journalist who
wrote the article in question said that Taylor's
people took the article's wording out of context
and distorted it to make their attack on Cox.
Sen. Casey Cagle ran a TV spot implying that
his opponent for lieutenant governor, Ralph
Reed, was responsible for child prostitution and
forced abortion in the Mariana Islands. Reed
accused Cagle of promoting legislation backed
by "Bill Clinton and union bosses" that would
have done numerous dire things to the Mariana
Islands, including the granting of amnesty to for
eign workers. Neither Reed nor Cagle, of course,
have ever set foot on the Mariana Islands and
what happens on that obscure U.S. territory has
little or nothing to do with the issues facing
Georgia citizens.
Greg Hecht mailed out a flier to prospective
voters that claimed his Democratic primary oppo
nent, Jim Martin, was responsible for the deaths
of 72 children while he was commissioner of the
Department of Human Resources several years ago
and asks, "Why Should We Trust Jim to Protect
Our Kids Now?" Child care experts called the
charge absurd and immoral. One advocate who
has never been hesitant to criticize DHR for its
administrative bungling said that Martin, during
his tenure there, "made a concerted effort to ad
dress the problems of DHR and bring in some real
solutions." Automated phone calls have also been
made by parties unknown—no one will confess to
doing it—in which a man with a feminine-sound
ing voice urges people to vote for Martin because
he had the courage to support gay marriage and
the right of people to commit sodomy.
Up in the northern end of Fulton County, a
homeowner displayed a sign in her front yard
opposing an upcoming vote to incorporate the
Johns Creek community. Someone evidently felt
so strongly about the issue of home rule that he
tried to deface the woman's yard sign. When she
caught him in the act and chased him to his car,
he ran over the woman, causing her to suffer
bruises and a broken wrist. Police charged him
with felonious aggravated assault.
None of these incidents, by themselves, would
be that noteworthy or surprising. Politics can
be rough, and some people will get so desper
ate in their desire to win that they will say or
do anything to advance that cause, even to the
point of telling bare-faced lies. But it seems to
me that Georgia politics has become vicious and
hateful to a degree I've never seen before. Maybe
it's a reflection of the polarized state of the elec
torate. Perhaps it's because Georgia is finally a
two-party state and the stakes are so high in de
termining which party controls state government.
When it gets to the point where people are
being physically maimed for expressing a politi
cal view, however, and despicable lies are being
routinely repeated, then it's time for all of us
to take a close look at what's going on. This is
madness.
Tom Crawford tcrawlord@capitolimpact net
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