WS Chronicle

By Dr. James B. Ewers Jr.

“Neon signs a-flashin,’ taxicabs and buses passin’ through the night. A distant moanin’ of a train seems to play a sad refrain to the night.” If you are in the fourth quarter like I am, you remember these song lyrics by crooner Brook Benton.

It was indeed a rainy night in Georgia for the GOP.

After the presidential election, arguably the most important election in the country, was the runoff election for the two senate seats in Georgia. The hype was incredibly high for the contest that pitted two incumbent Republicans against two upstart Democrats. The two Republicans, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, wrapped themselves in Trump’s blanket of deceit and dishonesty. They thought he could do no wrong. 

Interestingly, Loeffler is the co-owner of the WNBA team, the Atlanta Dream. The team mounted a huge voter turnout campaign designed to unseat her. 

The poll numbers said the race was too close to call.

Ultimately, the two Democrats, Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, won the race. Reverend Warnock is the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a former pastor there. Pastor Warnock is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. We are brothers in Alpha.

Jon Ossoff is a businessman who owns a production company. He defeated Perdue, denying him another six-year term in office. Warnock is Black and Ossoff is white. I can hear Dr. King singing “We shall overcome.” This is what happened in Georgia last week because the people did overcome.

The state of Georgia did what many political experts thought was impossible. They voted for a Democratic presidential candidate and two Democratic senators.

The Peach state has been mostly a Republican state in recent memory since 1972. However, they did vote for Jimmy Carter in 1976 and 1980 and Bill Clinton in 1992. Raphael Warnock is the first African American senator in Georgia’s history.

In my opinion, we are at a crossroads in American politics. Our political divide is evident and has been that way pre-Mr T. It has only gotten worse since he has been in office. He has created a bad example of leadership. In turn, this has created madness and mayhem for the American people.

With these two wins, it is hopeful that legislation will be enacted that will benefit all of us and not just some of us.

The new administration will have the advantage in both the House and the Senate. Now the question is how to use this  advantage for a change in attitude and in cooperation. I believe everyone can agree especially during the past four years there has been unprecedented meanness and ill will.

Men in the senate like Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell and Josh Hawley were problematic when it came to passing legislation for all Americans. Our healthcare was always at risk. Judicial appointments were given the OK by Trump and led by these political minions.

Senators-elect Ossoff and Warnock will go to Washington hoping to change the narrative so that we can regain trust in the American government.

Beginning January 20, America will be able to exhale. We have been in a coma of chaos. We were bent but we were not broken.

We have been distraught, depressed and disillusioned. The monarch who sat in the oval office carried the torch of racism and intolerance. Too many people believed in his hate-filled rhetoric.

While it was a rainy night in Georgia, joy did come in the morning. Welcome Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the United States Senate.

James B. Ewers Jr. Ed.D. is a former tennis champion at Atkins High School in Winston-Salem and played college tennis at Johnson C. Smith University, where he was all-conference for four years.  He is a retired college administrator.  He can be reached at  overtimefergie.2020@yahoo.com