This article by Audra D.S. Burch, is on the front page of the NY Times today. It is not a completely fair representation of our community. While there were some nativist goofballs who raged against it, the portraits were widely accepted in our community. The article neglects to mention that the night before the bozo Neo-Nazi’s came to town our citizens (black, white, hispanic, asian, and more) all flooded downtown merchants and restaurants with shopping/dining to support them because they would be closed the next day. To be downtown that night was to see a celebration of the diversity, community spirit, and integrity that is a hallmark of my hometown of Newnan. That is just one example of the diverse citizens of Newnan coming together. I posted about this celebration of our community back then: #NotWelcomeHere and the resulting embarrassment of the Neo-Nazi fools #YouCantFixStupid.
A bit more focus in today’s article on the positive race relations in Newnan would have made this article a shining example of what a community can be when it actually honors and respects the dignity of ALL of its citizens. By the way, the people depicted in these portraits are what makes Newnan so wonderful that the population has more than tripled in the 35 years I have lived here. The acceptance of this diversity is what makes our community thrive.
A Deacon's View 
I remember coming to Newnan in 1975 from Ohio. The warm caring Community welcomed my family.
It has been this way all these years. I worked in the Medical field for 23 of those years. It is outstanding and I couldn’t care more about the people in this great town. No matter what race or Religion we are a wonderful community. New York will never know.
LikeLike
Are we? I’m not sure. We continue to vote as if we still lived in some mythical past. There’s still a sign on the edge of town urging us to join the Sons of the Confederacy. There’s a monument – actually two – right there on the courthouse square to the Lost Cause, while one of the most horrific lynching in history goes unmarked and unmourned. Where’s the monument to Sam Hose? We’re cutting down our forests as if we didn’t depend on those trees for the very nice clean air we breathe…filling up every (empty) corner with another warehouse. Enjoy the trees that still remain on Bullsboro now, because it won’t be so very long before Bullsboro looks just like Buford highway. And I regret to say I sat in a Board meeting of a local charity and heard one of it’s members sniff and snort about those portraits – there were some she approved of, yes, and I bet you can guess which ones – but there were others ‘that weren’t our sort of people, not at all.’ I sigh, and try to remember to love.
LikeLike