By LEE N. HOWELL
Politically Speaking

No, it is not the Wabash Cannonball, coming clickety-clack down the track, belching steam and sparks from its inverse cone-shaped smokestack that you hear a-coming.

It is something far more powerful that is roaring toward us from the countryside.

The “it” is the first-of-the-millennium meeting of the Georgia General Assembly — and you might as well get ready for it, because there is no stopping this once-a-year constitutional tornado of humanity which descends upon us for 40 days and 40 nights every January.

If you have never witnessed this phenomenon in person, you have missed an experience every man, woman, and child in this state should have at least once in their lives.

Because of the profession I chose, it has been my privilege to see 15 or so of these sessions, including some special ones devoted to a single issue and even more limited in time frame than the regular ones.

As a scribe, I tried to decipher and portray what was happening for whichever audience I was serving at the time.

But, in reality, one can not begin to describe what actually happens under the Gold Dome in Atlanta when the state legislature is in session.

And, because that old saying about not watching as sausage and laws are made really is true, most readers of a family newspaper probably would not want to see a description of what goes on when these 237 pillars of their community get together and begin to suffer from “groupspeak.”

Simply stated, though, the annual meeting of a Georgia legislative session is most like a tent revival-civic club meeting-Jaycee Good Government seminar-Sunday School social-League of Women Voters-garden club flower show-historical society annual meeting-and-small town city council work session all rolled into one parcel and wrapped up with a bipartisan ribbon of red, white, and blue bunting.

But, that does not begin to describe it either.

Because in every legislative session you have the sincerely dedicated civic leaders who come to town to do the best they can for their fellow citizens who elected them working right alongside their fellows who are out to get everything they can for themselves and their special interest friends.

And joining them both in the lawmaking will be those partisans of either extreme who know that only they have the truth of God carved on stone tablets and handed down from the mountainside, alongside another group of true believers who don't want anything to do with any commandments carved on tablets unless they get a say in what those commandments prohibit (or don't prohibit, as the case may be.)

Now, all those colorful descriptions are written somewhat with my tongue planted firmly in cheek, because in my years of observing the Georgia General Assembly in action, I have seen far more sincere, hard-working individuals than I have clowns.

The connivers and the crooks who have occasionally served in those marble hallways were rarities indeed — and when they were found out they were quickly eradicated from the midst of the men and women who sincerely want to serve their fellow Georgians.

Some folks who have never been under the Dome — except when they served as chaperones on their children's school outings — probably don't believe that latter statement.

All they know is what they read in the newspapers — and we all know that daily and weekly publications write what sells!

So, clear the smoke away from your eyes and the cobwebs out of your brains — and watch closely what goes on when the legislators come to town.

You may be surprised to learn that a whole lot of those denizens under the Dome are doing exactly what you would do if you were down there receiving the same information they are getting.

And, don't forget: They are the ones with the courage to put their principles and their careers on the line in the communities from whence they came in order to face the lions in the arena.

[Lee N. Howell is an award-winning writer who has been observing and commenting upon politics and society in the Southern Crescent, the state, and nation for more than a quarter of a century.]

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