“Come On Georgia” This Hashtag Got My Dandruff Up First Thing in 2021

January 2, 2021 Off By Michael

Photo by Allec Gomes on Unsplash

Quit it! Stop it right now. I can’t bare to read or hear this hashtag one more time. It is denigrating to the southern spirit within me.

I’ve had about all I can take from people who do not live in Georgia using the hashtag “Come on Georgia” about the January 5, 2021 run-off election to fill two open seats in the US Senate. It’s as if the people of Georgia are too dumb to know what’s at stake in next week’s election.

Trust me, as peachy as it sounds, this is not a complimentary hashtag. Georgians know what they must do on the first Tuesday in 2021. Georgians realize they must get up, put their clothes and their shoes on, and hit the polls to push Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff over the top.

Since absentee and early voting started, the heavily Democratic strongholds in and around Atlanta, Marietta, Decatur, Macon, Augusta, Waycross, Brunswick, Savannah, and Columbus have had greater voting participation than in the November General Election.

We are keenly aware of Georgia’s pivotal role in shaping the third decade of the 21st century.

“Come on, Georgia” sounds so parochial, pejorative, so cynical, as if to say, Georgia is going to mess this up. Come on Georgia don’t drop the ball, you are on the verge of screwing us all out of a $2,000 stimulus check.

It would be beneficial if non-Georgians would support us with a new slogan, something perhaps, like “Georgia, you got this!”

In rural Georgia, where I’m from, we would say, “now that there is a dog that will hunt.” A positive affirmation of Georgia’s role in breaking the gridlock we have seen in the past ten years in congress is more likely to bring about the results we all are seeking.

Come on, Georgia, we got this!

Harold Michael Harvey is the Living Now 2020 Bronze Medal winner for his memoir Freaknik Lawyer: A Memoir on the Craft of Resistance. He is a Past President of the Gate City Bar Association. He is the recipient of Gate City’s R. E. Thomas Civil Rights Award, which he received for his pro bono representation of Black college students arrested during Freaknik celebrations in the mid to late 1990s. Harvey is an engaging public speaker. Contact him at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com.