More and more these days, it seems like there are two separate and very different versions of Georgia in our state. Now, being different doesn't necessarily mean something is bad. It just means different. One version of Georgia is the one that's made up of the seven or eight counties squeezed in around Atlanta, and the other Georgia is everything else. I hear this comment from people who have lived in Atlanta all their lives, and I hear it even more from the others who haven’t. I don’t feel like the "Two Georgias" comment is demeaning, but I’m pretty sure it’s not something that's always intended in a complimentary fashion either. I have a lot of old friends and old fraternity brothers (most of whom are no longer on parole) in the Atlanta area that are wonderful people, but once you cross over the line from the Tanger Outlet Mall exit on 75 heading north, there is a slight but noticeable change in the barometric pressure and in the biorhythmic character of the indigenous inhabitants. For example, it is a fact that in South Georgia, if somebody doesn’t like you, but they can’t quite put their finger on why, they might say, ” well, he’s just a little curious”. That’s an old school form of genteel language they don’t speak anymore up there in the “other” Georgia, and that’s alright, as I said, those folks aren’t all bad. They like to come down here and visit our little “out-of-the-way”antique shops and rustic Mom and Pop barbecue joints (that used to be the old Texaco station). We appreciate that. But you need to know how to understand these visitors in order to get the most out of the experience. You can easily spot them by the emission sticker on their car’s windshield, and they definitely have just the slightest little Atlanta accent, and they look a little different, and act a little nervous, or as they themselves might say, “sketchy”as opposed to "curious". But, in the spirit of openness and unity, we are ready to embrace the idea of a "one-world Georgia" as the "hill people of the north" move on down south. There is some discussion however about the need for sensible, controlled migration especially if our northern cousins keep coming down here in groups on bigger and bigger church buses and such. We might need to think about putting up a border crossing facility somewhere around Lovejoy near that big American flag to kinda control things and issue temporary immigration visas. If our brethren are fleeing Atlanta on humanitarian grounds we might even grant them special immunity or possibly amnesty if they’re trying to escape the cruelty of economic and political oppression in Buckhead or Alpharetta. So, to all my A.T.L. people, we just say that our hearts are open and we are willing to work something out, because if there's one thing we know we like about Atlanta, it ain't crypto, and it ain't really wokeness, but it is definitely that mean,mean green,$. So let's get together. Ya'll come on down,now. Got plenty of room, Love Ya, Mean it!
