Under the baobab: Georgia has changed. Here’s how it’s reshaping the country’s future

Congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the thousands of campaign workers and the over 77 million citizens who voted for the historic Biden/Harris ticket. Soon we can begin to construct bridges instead of building walls.

My wife and I spent Election Day as outdoor poll watchers. Then, like many of you, we spent the next four days watching and waiting for the dedicated civil servants to count the votes. In case you’ve been vacationing in Antarctica, Biden/Harris won by 5 million votes.

However, the struggle is not over. There will be a runoff election for two US Senate seats in Georgia in January. If the Democratic candidates win both seats, they will control the Senate. If the Republicans win even one, they will retain control of the upper house of Congress.

Georgia is the home of the longest living and one of my favorite presidents, Jimmy Carter. He also happens to be, like the present tenant, one of the few occupants of the White House who ran for a second term and lost.

The first time I met President Carter was at the United Nations in 1977. He had come to deliver his first head of state UN address. I was a legal research assistant for a UN Agency, the Centre for Transnational Corporations. Andrew Young, a former organizer from the civil rights movement, was the UN Ambassador. It was an honor to be included in that entourage.

The next time I met the president was during the 1980 Presidential Campaign. Along with my former boss, Congressman Charles Rangel, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and an obscure NY State Senator, I was asked to be part of the welcoming committee when the president visited New York.

The next time I saw him was also in New York. He and his wife, Rosalynn, were volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. A few years before, he had been the most powerful man in the world. Now with integrity and humility he was building houses for poor and working people on the Lower East. (Yes, children, we used to have presidents like that). He even took time to hang out with the gawking spectators. He recalled meeting me at the airport. I was thrilled to be remembered by the most important man in the world.

The power relationships in Georgia have changed. It is no longer Carter, Young, John Lewis, Maynard Jackson, MLK and his family. It is Perry, Abrams, Ossoff, Warnock, a group of relatively young people, black and white. They are reshaping the state and the country’s future. Tyler Perry built the largest movie studio in the country. Many films which would have been made in Hollywood or New York are now being made in Atlanta.

Stacy Abrams is the most important political force in the state. She nearly pulled off a major political upset. She came within a few thousand votes of becoming the first Black woman in America to be elected governor. She started Fair Fight Action, which has registered a million people. FFA is primarily responsible for Georgia turning blue in the recent presidential race for the first time since Clinton’s first term.

Ossoff and Warnock are the Democratic nominees for the two US Senate seats. With the support of FFA and other diverse, multicultural community organizations, they have an excellent chance of winning and switching the Senate to the Democratic side. This modern movement has historical roots. The Rev. Warnock is the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where another young African American activist once presided.

His name was Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

To paraphrase Gladys, “We are all on that midnight train to Georgia.”