The state's economy: ‘Two Georgias’ is one too many

“This is a courageous thing you are about to do. This is a beginning — stick with it.”

— Harold Hodgkinson, director, Center for Demographic Policy

It’s been said since biblical times that a house divided against itself cannot stand. And a fractured state most certainly cannot compete as effectively against either its neighbors or the world in today’s economy.

Georgians have seen the house that is our expansive state riven by a long list of rivalries. Choose one. Atlanta versus everybody else. Abundance versus lack. Water for people or crops. The list goes on.

If the Atlanta region and Georgia are both to progress, our intrastate battles should ideally diminish to the level of background noise.

Stoking divisiveness may help political parties win elections by focusing on — and even magnifying — differences, but our state’s economy deserves better as business people and government alike labor to lift Georgia out of recession’s mire. Improved coordination and understanding will aid that effort.

For that reason, we’re heartened that nearly 200 Georgians traveled to Macon last week to attend the inaugural forum of GeorgiaForward, a group that’s dedicated to pushing the “two Georgias” construct far enough away that it can do no further harm.

If Georgians fully embrace that the success of our state’s 9.8 million people is interdependent upon us all, then we stand the best chance at solving our biggest problems.

Amir Farokhi, a convener of GeorgiaForward, admitted to attendees that, “As we travel the state, we realize there’s a lot of fragmentation.”

More importantly, he added: “Despite all this, there’s a tremendous amount of common interests.”

Those interests seem remarkably consistent across the state. Top priorities identified by GeorgiaForward survey participants include education, jobs, transportation and water.

Common concerns should yield common ground. As state Rep. Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, explained, “I hope what the group can accomplish is [realizing that] we don’t all have to believe the same things ... when we’re trying to get to the same place.”

It will take courageous leadership in all quarters to get Georgia to that spot. During the meeting, GeorgiaForward attendees placed leadership first among the issues requiring improvement.

Georgia sorely needs leaders who can transcend political and geographic divisions. Transformative thinking is necessary to unite us around the work required to get our state rolling toward real, long-range solutions for the problems we can all recite in unison.

The gathering in Macon gives us hope that can yet happen. While in a Macon State College meeting room, business executives, nonprofit organizers, civic activists and political leaders discussed issues and how best to proceed in addressing them. The work will be ongoing, but it’s great that the conversation’s starting.

This coalescing of interests, however nascent, should give Georgia’s political leaders ample cover to begin envisioning and articulating a future that lies well beyond the next election.

More importantly, what can government, private businesses and ordinary citizens do together to craft a better Georgia over time? Anyone whose plan doesn’t extend beyond just cutting taxes should receive a grade of “incomplete” or worse from the state court of public opinion.

For Georgia to thrive will require, foremost, a longer-term view than our leaders have largely been willing to muster.

Our neighbor and competitor North Carolina proves that thinking and acting consistently over time can produce positive, lasting change.

Anita Brown-Graham, director of the Institute for Emerging Issues at North Carolina State University, told the forum that a long-term strategy on big issues was critical to her state’s progress away from an agrarian economy. “The No. 1 thing heard was that we wanted a place for our children to come home,” she said.

Improving education and remaking North Carolina’s economy required plain-spoken collaboration among the public, private and nonprofit sectors. “We need people who are not just willing to stand up and see beyond, but stand up and see around the next corner,” she said.

The Tarheel State’s visionaries “recognize the need for patient investments. ... It took time for the payoffs to become apparent,” said Brown-Graham.

North Carolina’s famed Research Triangle Park took two decades to produce financial results, for example.

Thinking ahead is a competence found often among successful enterprises, be they states or companies. Also critical is the ability to unite key interests around an issue and an action plan.

GeorgiaForward may well play an important role in teaching us all how to master this skill set. If we can do that well, our descendants may one day celebrate what we accomplished for the future.

Andre Jackson, for the Editorial Board

Atlanta Forward: We look at major issues Atlanta must address in order to move forward as the economy recovers.