Who is Georgia?
I find it very interesting that Georgia’s elected leaders are so up in arms about Jason Spencer displaying his bare behind on Showtime. This sudden shock at his rhetoric on television is in complete contravention with the Georgia legislature’s tacit refusal to get rid of an antiquated Georgia law protecting the monuments to the traitorous confederate army. 
Georgians like Governor Nathan Deal, the Georgia GOP nominee for governor Brian Kemp, were taken aback, offended, and embarrassed because former Representative Spencer’s outward actions were a stain on Georgia. I can see Kemp grabbing his gun in one hand and clutching his pearls in the other. Give me a break.
If you think the call for Jason Spencer’s resignation was appropriate, then you should also agree we need to get rid of an outdated Georgia law protecting confederate monuments. Georgia law prohibits local cities from deciding what to do with confederate monuments that they no longer want to be responsible for. O.C.G.A. 50-3-1[1] Georgia has more confederate monuments than any other state. More than 170 monuments protected by state law.[2] Many of these monuments to the losers of the civil war are cared for with state and local tax dollars. For the local communities like Dekalb who would simply remove the statute but for the unfunded mandate, the state law is adding insult to injury.
Did you think Jason Spencer was a bad representation of Georgia? You didn’t like hearing Jason saying NIGGER? Did you also cringe when he yelled it four times with the long, hard, “er” at the end? NIGGER, NIGGER, NIGGER, NIGGER! Was it uncomfortable to watch him yell SAND NIGGER moments before the Georgia entertainment logo is flashed across the screen?[3] Does it make you cringe a little to even read it in this blog?
Newsflash!!! For many Americans, black and white, rich and poor, northern or southern, confederate monuments placed on display in our town squares causes the same visceral, uncomfortable, and unwanted reaction you had to Jason Spencer’s display of ignorance. We have been Jason Spencer level embarrassed by Georgia’s efforts to cling to confederate monuments. Even if it is someone’s great-great-great grandfather, confederate monuments scream NIGGERRRRRRRR. Every time. If it didn’t before, it will after you finish this sentence.
In fact, Stone Mountain still proudly flies three different flags belonging to the confederacy when you travel half way up the mountain. One confederate flag for each NIGGER Jason spewed. Can you hear his voice in your head as you take in each flag? All of America already knows we have the largest relief to the confederate army. All of America knows we still proudly fly several versions of the confederate army flag in our largest state attraction that receives thousands of out of state visitors a year – more than will ever see the Showtime performance.
The Civil War ended with a confederate defeat in Atlanta. Yet Georgia remains woefully and willfully behind all other states on this issue.[4] Georgia, we should be embarrassed, but not solely because of Jason Spencer.
Even if the confederate soldiers and flags represent your heritage and forefathers, you know, and I know, as does the rest of the world, that your symbols have been hijacked by tiki-torch carrying neo-nazis. Your image of a Gone with the Wind heroism was hijacked by people like the Douglas County terrorist who were prosecuted and convicted for using your heritage to terrorize children at a birthday party.
After waving the confederate flag while yelling NIGGER to the young party goers, these terrorists went to jail and took the stained image of your confederate flag with it. As did Dillon Roof and the Charlottesville murderer and his khaki pant militia. Yet you do not even bat an eyelash at the fact these same terrorized children will one day go on a school fieldtrip with flags of their terrorist in a place of prominence and protected by tax dollars. Those same children will one day pay taxes that will help upkeep those flags. How embarrassing!
Due to these individuals, America will always have etched into its collective mind that these state law protected symbols are also tools for home grown American terrorism. Good job Georgia! That will certainly attract Amazon.
Don’t get all up in arms and embarrassed by Jason Spencer yelling NIGGER on national television, when daily Georgians hear, see, and feel NIGGER each time they are forced to pass the state law protected monuments. Nope!!! In the same way you asked for the resignation of Jason Spencer, you should finally ask for the resignation of the law protecting confederate monuments. [5]
[1] https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2010/title-50/chapter-3/article-1/50-3-1 That was a compromise for the removal of the confederate battle flag as a part of the Georgia state flag. In exchange, all confederate flags, monuments and memorabilia was protected by state law. Only the state legislature, rather than the local governments where the monuments are located, can decide what to do with confederate memorials. Its criminal for anyone, including a local government, to remove a confederate symbol.
[2] https://politics.myajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/georgia-gears-for-fraught-legislative-debate-rebel-monuments/bjSfgYgpQAyLvMu5QLaqbL/
[3] The Georgia logo at the end of a show is an indication that production received Georgia tax credits for the production. Insult to injury! http://www.georgia.org/industries/entertainment/georgia-film-tv-production/production-incentives/
[4] South Carolina helps Georgia look like the slowest state in the south with a recent court ruling on a “heritage law” similar to Georgia’s law protecting monuments. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/south-carolina/articles/2018-06-03/sc-says-judge-left-170-confederate-monuments-not-protected
[5] Last year, Jason Spencer and I had a social media debate that went viral. The result of that debate was a discussion about this law. My former seatmate and I agreed to legislation that: (1) allowed local municipalities to decide what happens to local monuments, (2) moved unwanted monuments to stone mountain, and (3) that allowed for the preservation of history while providing for the mutual respect for all Georgians. Jason Spencer did not present this legislation as promised. He let me down in the same way as he as embarrassed Georgia. However, the legislature begins every year and there is always an opportunity to do better. This time without Jason.
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LaDawn LBJ Jones
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Back when the Spencer outrage first hit, I wrote a post asking for you to comment.
Glad to see it.
The only way forward is through telling the truth. Slavery was wrong and statues that glorify slavery are wrong. We have to own up to the fact that the south was wrong and fought for an evil. My greatgrandparents came here from Germany. More than likely I have relatives that were Nazis. There is nothing to be proud of about that fact and I’m certainly not going to make up lies about how they were grand and glorious warriors for the Third Reich when the Third Reich was an evil entity much like the confederacy was.
Damn, try decaf next time.
Comparing the Third Reich to the Confederacy is a big of a reach. The Southern economy was indeed built upon a horrific institution but it wasn’t genocidal. They weren’t trying to take over the continent, either. I think what is considered “treasonous” depends on who wins the war.
This crap about Stone Mountain is needlessly divisive and isn’t going to help any person’s lot in this state. The obelisk in Decatur is another case and I can see why its removal is justified.
Also, to Andrew’s claim about discrimination and racial violence, that was not at all unique to the South. I will agree that Jim Crow certainly was. The North fought to keep the Union together, not for the rights of black people. It gets a little twisted because the South did secede over the issue of slavery expansion but let’s not act the North was on some moral crusade.
I always find it interesting that people want to relitigate the causes for the civil war – as if there could only be one sole reason. Nonetheless, it was during Jim Crow as you mentioned, that confederate symbols were co-opted by true neo-nazi’s. I don’t say that as a comparison – I am saying from EXPERIENCE that the same people flying the confederate flag also fly a nazi flag. Have you never seen that? I can’t paste a photo here, but a quick google search of “confederate flag nazi flag” will bring you plenty of current modern day images showing this symbol you are trying to defend. TODAY in modern time, we are still debating whether or not Colin Kapernick is kneeling in protest or to offend the flag. Despite the fact the man has said his intent several times – we are still debating this issue around the nation. Trying to debate the causes of the civil war is the “true lost cause.” Treason is not defined by who won but rather what we pledge daily “ONE NATION, under God INDIVISIBLE!” Although the pledge was created after the Civil War I think it defines treason pretty clearly. FINALLY – I am glad we end on agreement. The Dekalb statute is different and therefore we should change the law so that Dekalb (and any other modern municipality) can use their tax dollars as they please. Please support changing the law this legislative session.
I googled “American Flag and Confederate Flag” and see lots of images of the Confederate Flag beside the U.S. Flag. Oh, the horror!
That doesn’t bother you. Some may be fine with nazi’s intertwining their evil message with the confederate states of america but I am NOT fine with it. You the nail on the head….if we don’t do something now – the idea of splitting our country will forever be intertwined with the image of our country. Who wants that?
What if I don’t believe in God? I think God is a product of Bronze Age myths. There is no “superpower” out there. The whole problem is that we are “divisible”. Why do you think an awful, wholly unqualified piece of cat-shit like Donald Trump won the election in the first place?
Matt_MD, You know where you lost me? Where you claim slavery wasn’t genocidal.
Genocide is defined as: the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.
By taking people from their home nations, cultures, ethnic groups and putting them in shackles halfway across the world, selling off their children, killing those who you felt like killing… you are committing a deliberate killing of a large group of people.
Slavery is one of two American genocides. We are not an innocent nation.
Ok, so are you really comparing the Holocaust to Southern U.S. chattel slavery? How many slaves were murdered? Compare this to the Holocaust. Slaves were property under laws in southern states so it wouldn’t make sense to kill them off.
I don’t think this country is innocent in any way. It is a product of its times.
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