Sunday Reads – Jan. 9, 2022
We thought the new year and some vaccine boosters might cut our Covid fears, but that’s been a tough sell. It doesn’t help that the state department that is supposed to track cases isn’t reporting this week and may have been undercounting. It’s been an odd week in other ways as we’ve watched our state representatives jockey for positions on clearly conflicting issues before they start their 40-day gathering Monday, and Friday we experienced an earnest call to think clearly before we make scary assumptions about people we do not know.
Omicron and challenged data
Omicron seems to be winding its way through households across the state. Last week, Coastal Georgia was lagging the rest of the state, but it’s catching up quickly. It took a bit to learn that since the Georgia Department of Public Health web site hasn’t posted some results for cases since Jan. 5, citing a ‘coding error.” It also found a data error that appears to have been undercounting for more than 2 years. What we do know, according to the New York Times Covid tracker: Georgia has experienced at lease a 211% increase in cases over a 14-day period and set one-day records this past week. Granted, we aren’t in South Carolina’s league at a 652% jump.
Savannah will reopen its large testing site Monday at the Savannah Civic Center, as Chatham County reported an increase in cases by 818% over the past 14 days. We referred to the New York Times tracker this week because it relies on data from Johns Hopkins, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a group that calls various hospitals and clinics to verify and cross-check each bit of information. That seems to be the best way to provide timely data when state sources like those in Georgia and Florida are less consistent or nonexistent. It’s critical that we all understand daily the reach of the virus into our lives and that we trust the sources of information.
If you think you may have Covid — Omicron symptoms may first resemble a head cold — here’s the link for free testing locations in Coastal Georgia. Get tested and find out so you can take control of your risks and those of others.
Life terms and loss
The three men convicted of murdering 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced on Friday. The Glynn County man, who was Black, was killed as he went jogging on a quiet afternoon through a neighborhood where he did not live. He was chased and killed as white residents there suspected he was a burglar with no proof.
We’ve created a summary web page for the case, with stories and images as a reminder of a crucial time for Coastal Georgia. There is a timeline, stories, and a slideshow of scenes from within the courtroom. We urge you to look through it just once more to keep in mind what occurred and to help us all look for opportunities for change.
Betting the House — and the Senate
On Friday Georgia House Speaker David Ralston endorsed a constitutional amendment vote on whether to allow gambling in many forms in Georgia. That was long-sought news for Savannah Rep. Ron Stephens, who has been sponsoring and negotiating various gaming bills for a very long time. In the last session, it seemed one might pass, but that debate — like so many others — was smothered by the battle over changes to Georgia’s voting processes. The two-year session resumes for its 2022 chapter on Monday, so battle lines are already drawn over a number of issues. Here’s a list of topics already in discussion and with legislation proposed. You can consider which ones you’d like for them to handle first — after all, they work for you and probably need some feedback on your priorities. Here’s the list: mental health care, defining how history is taught, banning drop boxes for voting, legal gambling, crime, strengthening access for health care in rural areas, teacher raises, law enforcement raises, and loosening restrictions for gun owners.
Just for fun, here’s a link to a poll your Reads editor set up with these topics — humor her and let us know what your priorities would be for your elected state representatives. We’ll share the results with you and them.
A full arsenal of issues
As for some of those, it should be noted that Speaker Ralston has made it abundantly clear that he’ll be focused on mental health care and crime this session, two items also plowed under last year. He and Lieutenant Gov. Geoff Duncan, who presides over the senate, are having none of the politics that’s threatening to drown out the work this year.
Ralston has set the ground rules for sparring between factions of the state’s GOP, those following the belief that the state’s 2020 election was rigged and those who do not. Boiling it down any other way just isn’t accurate, even though taxpayers footed the bill for three recounts that proved the election results. In a state that ranks 9th for gun violence, Ralston will have to navigate the contradictory waters of gun rights advocates and those who worry about the soaring crime rate in cities throughout the state and others who are concerned about the high suicide rate. He’ll also have to do battle with supporters of gubernatorial opponents Gov. Brian Kemp and former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who’ve both endorsed loosening gun-carry laws.
For your second cup: Neighbors
We poke fun sometimes about the famous question from legendary, soft-spoken Fred Rogers, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” But, defining someone as a neighbor is a serious lens that determines how we treat a person. Granted, being neighborly is not a new concept, but it’s a hard one to live by. And that is so clearly evident in the sad circumstances of the death of Ahmaud Arbery.
Today, grab your coffee and take 12 minutes to watch the video of Judge Timothy Walmsley’s statement at the sentencing for Arbery’s killers.
“We are all accountable for our own actions,” Walmsley said, after he’d described the reasoning going into the sentences he was about to pronounce. As he urged everyone to expand our definition of what a neighbor may be and how we treat them, he said “Assuming the worst in others, we show our worst character. Assuming the best is always the best course of action. Maybe those are the grand lessons of this case.”
Georgia COVID-19 daily statistics
Today’s cases, change, deaths, hospitalizations, testing, vaccination sites and tracker
The death of Ahmaud Arbery: 3 men get life sentences
Timeline, with a daily compilation of news around the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery and the trial of three men charged in his killing.
Speaker Ralston endorses legalized gambling constitutional amendment
Longtime supporters of legalizing gambling in Georgia have come to agree with Ralston that lumping casinos, horse racing and sports betting into a single measure is a better approach.
Ga. legislators plan push to insure mental health on par with physical coverage
Federal law directs that an insurer offering mental health coverage cannot charge a higher co-pay for the same person to see a behavioral health specialist about anxiety or depression. The law applies to both mental health and substance use disorder treatment.
Bills for access to guns, voting become battlefields as legislature opens
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who presides over the state Senate, vow not to let politics get in the way of addressing mental health and crime.
Georgia school superintendent expects students back in class, teacher raises in 2022
Woods pledged to make school lessons more accessible to parents by requiring district officials to make annual reports on what third-party curriculum programs and assessments they are using and uploading those reports to a publicly available dashboard.
State lawmakers to take aim at racial history in public schools, partisan school boards
Teachers and administrators from across the state agree critical race theory is not discussed in Georgia grade school classrooms, and they worry more pressing problems like school funding could get short shrift.
State lawmakers poised to add expanded gun access to 2022 legislative agenda
Lawmakers in the House and Senate filed so-called constitutional carry bills last year that will remain alive in 2022. They would remove the requirement for Georgians to have a permit to carry weapons.
P.S. Don’t forget to fill out our poll on your priorities for the legislature. It’s HERE.
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