Magnanimous

Good manners dictate those of us on the winning side of the SPLOST be magnanimous. But, should magnanimity prevent us from saying a few more necessary things?
Abraham Lincoln set the bar very high on magnanimous victories. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds,” he said in his Second Inaugural Address with victory assured in the Civil War.

That advice works well for the county and city after the debacle that was the SPLOST. As the mayor and Isaiah both might say, “Come now, let us reason together.” We should. The vote against the SPLOST, which was roughly 60 percent against it, makes clear voters really do want the “unity in community” so many in the pro-SPLOST campaign preached but did not practice.


It is time now to seriously consider consolidation. The people in this county appear ready for it. City and county leaders must work on a plan to either get Robert Brown’s support, or force the matter in the state Senate without his help. In the meantime, Commission Chairman Sam Hart should ask our local judges for an extension on the courthouse timeline to keep the courthouse from being a bigger political issue in November.
Many members of Macon’s City Council were appalled by NewTown Macon and the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce aligning themselves with the Lucases to try to pass the SPLOST. Councilwoman Elaine Lucas is an ardent foe of both groups on City Council and in their strategy, NewTown and the chamber have hurt their relationships with others on council and have failed to form lasting alliances with the Lucases.
We can, however, be glad the time for using the Lucases to race-bait issues in the black community is ending. Their support of the SPLOST helped kill the SPLOST. We can begin moving beyond “us versus them” to “we.”
There is a bigger issue we can no longer ignore. The largely independent boards, authorities and agencies largely fell in line with county. “There goes that city again,” they deluded themselves into thinking. The people who compose these groups will largely remain. When they part, some will even be replaced by their children. They will perpetuate the cycle of “we know best” to our collective detriment.
But while wagons are circling among these groups and scapegoats are being offered, we should still hold the architect of this debacle accountable: our chamber of commerce. The Telegraph reported, “[Chip] Cherry . . . said a lack of information was the cause of the tax failing, but he accepted more of the responsibility for not doing a better job informing the public.”
To its credit, had the chamber not pushed this ridiculous scheme, even NewTown Macon hiring David Lucas would not have been enough to sabotage the SPLOST. Adding the sports and music halls of fame was the perfect wedge issue. It translated well in the black community. It translated well in the white community.
Many of us have felt for a while that the chamber had become devoid of innovative thinking and new ideas to promote commerce in Bibb County. Its managing the SPLOST campaign reinforces that. Its promotion of a purchase scheme for the halls of fame reinforces that. Its betting the farm of the halls of fame as a vehicle for commerce reinforces that.