Colorful Cobb: There Are Reasons for It

                                Colorful Cobb:  There Are Reasons for It

                                                     Published in Marietta Daily Journal Feb. 7, 2016

                                                         

Let’s talk family a bit, or community if you prefer.  Because of the modern age we’re in, with its rapid-fire communications and fast moving screen images (even at the gasoline pump), we have all become close neighbors.  Indeed we are such close neighbors that whatever touches one of us affects all of us.

            To a large degree Cobb County is a homogeneous community.  To use a word I hate, Cobb has or is its own distinct “brand.”  There are reasons for this.  One is the leadership which voters in the county and its 6 cities have chosen over the years.  In recent times Cobb has provided the state a governor and now claims the state’s attorney-general as one of its citizens.  Whether or not you supported them, I’m only saying that Cobb produces leaders. 

Though free people will always have their differences, political rivalry in Cobb, at least in the last 40 years, has never brought things to a grinding halt as it has in other counties.  Cobb’s mayors, commissioners, and boards of education have kept the wheels of government and education greased and turning.  The decisions that elected leaders must consider will always be and should be debated.  In a free society, controversy is our lot.  Even when political rivalry runs deep, after elections Cobb has had a way of moving on.

            Another reason Cobb is distinct is that its citizens embrace the future without scorning the past.  Like the motto of a church in west Cobb, Keystone Baptist, Cobb’s motto could well be “Where Tradition Meets Today.”  I have always believed that one reason Cobb is a good place is that the majority of our leaders – political, religious, business, educational – and citizens as well honor the area’s past.  Perhaps we are all in agreement with one of William Faulkner’s best sentences, “The past is not over yet.”

            But our community doesn’t cling to the past either.  Over a decade ago at an institute for newly elected legislators, then-Governor Roy Barnes made a statement that I cannot forget.  For me the statement had moral and spiritual implications.  His statement was that he believed one reason Georgia had fared better economically than neighboring states was that we tried harder to do the right thing in regard to race.  “Doing the right thing bodes well for every area of life,” he said.  Seems to me most of Cobb’s mayors and county-level leaders have shared this outlook.

            In no area has Cobb been more blessed than in education.  Cobb schools are still strong. This, too, is in large part because of leadership.  Given the level-headedness and practical wisdom of Superintendent Ragsdale, it is obvious that, educationally, Cobb is experiencing an era of good feeling.  Educational leaders who preceded him, superintendents and otherwise, are numerous.  Some whom I particularly appreciated are Kermit Keenum, Larry Hinds, Don Murphy, Stanley Wrinkle, Stella Ross, James Wilson, Dexter Mills, and Dale Gaddis, all good people who enjoyed their work and gave more time and energy than any contract would ever require.

            From three members of the current board of education I have taken great satisfaction.  Two of them, Susan Thayer and Randy Scamihorn are former colleagues.  Like so many of Cobb’s teachers and administrators, these two are incurable “school people.”  They revel in seeing youth learn, mature, and set themselves on a good path.  Fairly new board member David Chastain is also eminently qualified to be an educational policy maker.

 A former English student of mine, Chastain’s humor and playfulness in class was matched only by that of Superior Court Judge Tain Kell.  Unlike Chastain, however, Kell never came to class with half of his face a neat beard and the other half cleanly shaven.  Unlike Kell, Chastain never made fun of the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

            No doubt due to their raising, these two current leaders never let their playfulness in class go too far.  It’s no surprise to me that, choosing to live and work where they were reared, they are now partly responsible for the type of community Cobb is.

            Today the world is in strife.  It always has been, but that strife is now being brought to our attention 24 hours a day.  In the midst of it we need some islands of civilization, that is, civility.  Whether it’s a county, a state, or a region, the world needs examples of places where civility is practiced, leaders are servants, and neighborliness is the norm.

            We might ask ourselves what we can do to make sure we remain a civil, well-functioning county even as we become less homogeneous.  That will be our test.

Roger Hines

2/3/16