Has Atlanta Seen the Light?

Every week I listen to the podcast from the Bible Project, and hosts Tim Mackie and Jon Collins are currently in a series exploring the theme of the city in the Bible. Confession: this hasn’t been my favorite series of theirs because they approach the subject from the perspective of urban dwellers, which doesn’t interest me as one who lives along that exurban line between the suburbs and rural areas.

The overarching theme of this series is that the city tends to represent both the best and worst aspects of human nature. (If you’re not interested in my theological columns, don’t worry. I’m going beyond the Bible in a minute, so bear with me.) We see the good of the city in Genesis in the way Joseph uses the urban structure as a way to help people from neighboring nations during a famine, and we see the worst nature of cities in the sins that plagued Sodom and Gomorrah just a few chapters earlier in Genesis.

Naturally, that theme extends beyond the Bible. Throughout history, we can see how culture and art flourish in cities; at the same time, we’ve witnessed how crime and corruption plague urban areas. It’s no secret that cities take the positives and negatives of the human experience and multiply them exponentially.

Of course, we know that many of the worst tendencies we’re seeing in cities today are the result of Democrats’ policies. George Soros-funded district attorneys are refusing to enforce laws and bring criminals to justice, while sanctuary city policies are bringing in illegal immigrants at the expense of law-abiding and tax-paying citizens. Racial and political animosity that groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa brought into America’s cities, short-sighted approaches to homelessness and drug addiction, and pandemic-era government intrusion did untold amounts of damage to urban areas.

The state of our cities has suffered tremendously on the heels of Democrat leadership. San Francisco has maps that help people dodge actual piles of crap in the streets. New York is putting illegals in posh hotels. Portland, Ore., and Seattle can’t get a handle on the problem of homeless addicts. And people are fleeing Democrat-run cities in droves.

That’s a trend that’s likely to continue unless the leadership in cities can get a handle on crime. But there’s a bright spot, and it’s taking place in the city that’s closest to me. Atlanta suffered under the woke leadership of former mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, but current mayor Andre Dickens has tried to get a handle on crime (despite throwing a few bones to the gun control crowd after a recent shooting in the heart of the city).

For months, I’ve been reporting on the controversy surrounding the proposed law enforcement training center that the City of Atlanta has been building. I won’t rehash everything — I’ll link my extensive coverage of the controversy at the bottom of this piece — but domestic terrorists linked to Antifa and groups that former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams endorsed have wreaked havoc on the city. It’s worth noting that the vast majority of them hail from outside Georgia, and they’re mostly young adults from privileged backgrounds.

Ostensibly, the protesters claimed that their opposition to the training center was on environmental grounds — they claimed to be “defending the forest” — even though the site actually served as a prison farm for decades. Multiple incidents involved domestic terrorists shooting a state trooper, firebombing a youth center, disrupting church services, vandalizing buildings in midtown Atlanta, and torching a police vehicle. Yet the Department of Homeland Security refuses to deem these people “violent extremists.” All the while, Dickens, a doctrinaire Democrat, remained vigilant that training for police and first responders would benefit the community.

Last week, the time finally came for the Atlanta City Council to vote on funding for the project. On Monday, the council listened to some 15 hours of public comment. The mostly minority residents of the area supported the project; many of them realize that training not only police but firefighters and EMTs will benefit everyone. The city council voted 11-4 to fund the project, even as leftist goons chanted “Cop City will never be built” during the early morning vote.

One of the themes in Mackie and Collins’ exploration of the city is what they call “the surprise of the city.” I don’t really understand it as a theological concept, but Atlanta has surprised a lot of people by not caving into the woke mob. We’ll probably have to expect more antics from the domestic terrorists, but the training center will proceed because Atlanta is doing the right thing to keep its residents safe. Maybe more cities will follow suit.

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Here are links to my extensive coverage of what has been going on in Atlanta:

Antifa Forces Lay Siege to Georgia County in Battle Against ‘Cop City’

While Friday’s ‘Night of Rage’ in Atlanta Remained Quiet, Saturday Protests Turned Violent

Atlanta Mayor Says the Quiet Part Out Loud About Saturday’s Terrorism in the City

Turns Out the Atlanta Terrorists Are Children of Privilege

District Attorney Recuses Herself From Atlanta Domestic Terrorism Case

Gov. Brian Kemp Declares State of Emergency to Deal With Atlanta’s Domestic Terrorists

Suddenly Domestic Terrorism Charges Are a Problem Now That Atlanta Is Using Them Against Antifa

Atlanta Mayor Neutralizes Protesters’ Concerns in Final Deal for Public Safety Training Center

Atlanta Police Department Releases Body Cam Footage From ‘Cop City’ Shooting

Antifa Thugs Firebomb Atlanta Public Training Facility Construction Site

Atlanta Police Arrest 23 Domestic Terrorists After Sunday Night’s Attack on ‘Cop City’