Georgia at a Crossroads

Injustice Revisited: MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail Still Demands Action

On Monday, as the nation marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we were reminded that though we are sixty years removed from Jim Crow laws, we have not escaped the lessons history has attempted to teach us. In revisiting King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, his warnings remain as timely and urgent as ever.

King was in Birmingham for a non-violent sit-in after a Commissioner of Public Safety Theophilus Eugene “Bull” lost the mayoral election to a fellow segregationist. In a one-sided standoff between citizens and police, King and many other protesters were arrested. But beyond his message of nonviolence, we must look deeper to his philosophy.

In his open letter, he reveres that we are all interrelated–that all communities, states, and countries, not just his home of Atlanta, Georgia, must be free of oppression. This is where he tells us that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It is unfortunate, he writes, that these demonstrations must happen, but it is more unfortunate that the power structure leaves the “Negro” with no other alternative. 

But in the face of injustice, King reminds us that we have a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws and notions presented to us. He is not arguing for anarchy. No, he is very specific that one must follow just laws, a law that degrades human personality, that distorts the soul from itself–that is an unjust law. 

We are standing at yet another precipice in history where we are tasked to fight for a better, freer world. We are living in a country with a schoolyard bully as president who wields the military against his own people, against the international community. It is important to consider how history remembers you–citizen or politician. 

People across the country are already standing up: protesting, organizing, and demanding accountability when federal power is abused. What remains missing are clear, forceful voices from Republican elected officials who know this is wrong but stay silent. In Georgia, that silence starts at the top, where Governor Kemp has yet to explain why protecting Georgians comes second to avoiding a confrontation with Washington.

Kemp’s State of the State: All Style, Little Substance

Last week, Governor Kemp delivered his State of State address, with several key promises and omissions. He focused heavily on tax relief and fiscal restraint, proposing a $1 billion tax rebate, roughly a one-time $250 rebate for each individual. He also called for accelerating income-tax cuts to 4.99 percent, three years ahead of schedule, and highlighted Georgia’s growing reserves.

For state workers, Kemp proposed a $2,000 one-time pay supplement for educators and public safety employees, a plan costing about $611 million, alongside a $325 million investment to create the new need-based DREAMS Scholarship, which would complement the long-running HOPE program. He emphasized paying for infrastructure projects in cash rather than through borrowing, reinforcing his administration’s preference for minimizing spending.

Yet several major issues facing Georgians received little or no attention. Kemp did not outline new proposals on healthcare or Medicaid expansion, even as Georgia continues to rank among the states with the highest uninsured rates and analysts warn of billions in potential future funding losses for hospitals. His remarks also sidestepped income inequality and housing insecurity, despite persistent racial wage gaps and rising homelessness across the state. Climate change and election administration, unpopular issues for State Republicans, were likewise absent from the speech.

Taken together, the Governor’s address offered a clear picture of how Republican leadership defines progress and what it is willing to leave unresolved. Kemp highlighted selective investments and short-term relief while sidestepping systemic challenges that shape daily life for millions of Georgians. What was promised, and what was left unsaid, underscores a broader reality: this session will not be defined only by the bills that move forward, but by the problems state leaders continue to avoid. As the legislature convenes, Georgians are left to consider whether these priorities reflect the state they live in or the one they are being told exists.

Kemp’s Georgia: Prosperity for Some, Survival for Most — and an Opening for Democrats

Governor Kemp’s State of the State rests on a central assumption: that Georgians are better off than they were seven years ago. While Kemp celebrates Georgia as “#1 for business,” millions of Georgians are living paycheck to paycheck in a state with the lowest minimum wage in the country. Utilities operate with near-total freedom to raise rates, healthcare outcomes rank near the bottom nationally, and rural hospitals continue to close as Kemp refuses to expand Medicaid. These are not natural failures. These are Republican choices. And they shape whether families can afford rent, see a doctor, or stay in the communities they call home.

Kemp’s emphasis on one-time tax rebates and fiscal restraint further exposes where Republicans are politically vulnerable. A few hundred dollars may cover a week of groceries or part of a medical bill, but it does nothing to address structural costs that keep rising year after year. Nor does it explain why, after 22 years of unified Republican control, Georgia ranks near the bottom for children’s wellbeing and public health. When a governor touts a $14 billion surplus while declining to invest meaningfully in housing, healthcare, or wages, it raises an unavoidable question: surplus for whom, and prosperity for whom?

Most striking is what Kemp avoids entirely. His speech offers no reckoning with the human toll of unchecked ICE enforcement in Georgia, even as the immigrant communities who power the state’s economic growth face growing harassment. That silence underscores the broader gap between Kemp’s Georgia and the reality of working class Georgians. Politically, this matters. Republicans are no longer campaigning as insurgents or reformers; they are the establishment, fully responsible for the outcomes voters see around them. 

All of this makes 2026 a true inflection point. Georgians will decide whether to re-elect Senator Ossoff, flip State House seats that have kept Republican control intact for more than two decades, and potentially even take back the Governor’s Mansion. Democrats have an opening if they are willing to meet this moment with courage by nominating candidates who speak honestly about affordability, healthcare, dignity, and accountability. Another four years of Republican governance would leave most Georgians exactly where they are now — scraping by, falling behind, and being told to accept it. 

But if there is one truth that should guide voters this election cycle, it is this: “We are not here to survive life. We are here to live it.” Georgia deserves leaders who believe that and are willing to fight for it.