I’ve started writing a new column called Fine Print for The Georgia Trust for Local News (GTLN), a network of community newspapers serving Middle and South Georgia. These are the hometown papers that tell the truth about what’s happening in our schools, our neighborhoods, and our local governments — the stories that too often go unheard beyond county lines. Through this column, I’ll be sharing perspectives on the policies and power structures shaping everyday life across Georgia, and the people fighting to make things better.
My first piece went up earlier this month. It looks at the devastating cuts to Georgia’s education system and the escalating attacks on our state’s safety net — policies that don’t just strain our classrooms and hospitals, but threaten the very foundation of opportunity and fairness. Here’s a glimpse of what I wrote:
“…SNAP — one of the few successful tools we have to respond to Georgia’s unacceptably high rates of child hunger. One of every five kids sitting in a classroom is likely facing inconsistent access to enough food. It is a moral failure, and it’s a barrier to learning, growing and thriving — another way to weaken trust in government and to undermine who is prepared to demand more.”
You can read the full column below ⬇️
I hope you’ll follow along. Each column, and each conversation is part of a larger effort to remind ourselves that Georgia’s story isn’t written by those in power alone. It’s written by the people who refuse to give up on the promise of what our state can be.
This week on our podcast Assembly Required we sat down with Erica Chenoweth to talk about civil and nonviolent resistance and how the act of protest is a vital, visible, and essential tool in resisting the fall of democracy.
Read our breakdowns of Steps 7 and 8 in the autocrat’s playbook
