WALKER: A vegetable soup column
This one is like vegetable soup: Throw all the remaining vegetables along with some leftover ham and a ham bone into a pot, cook it adding salt and pepper, and you have a mighty good meal. I hope you enjoy this vegetable soup column.
Gen. Braxton Bragg, C.S.A. Last week it was about Brax Bragg, author, musician, namesake for Bragg Jam and a "good one" who died young. Not surprisingly, at least to me, was talk the column generated about the Confederate general with the same name. My favorite was in an email from the brilliant Columbus trial lawyer, Jim Butler, as he tells about what his grandmother told him. "Granddaddy would sit me on his knee and tell me about the war (you can imagine how a lady from the Piedmont pronounced 'war' — sort of like how my friend Larry does). He said, Gen. Lee said, 'Georgia boys follow me! And we'd have followed that man straight into hell.'"
Rain. I like rain. I am amused (and somewhat perplexed) by people who always complain when it rains, and with comments like "we got bad weather, it's raining" or "I don't like rainy weather." Don't they know that rain is life? Still, I must say that we've had lots of rain lately, but not as much as some say: "The most rain I've ever seen." Don't they remember 1994? Let me remind people in Perry that the waters of Big Indian Creek were over the Hendricks Bridge and that an alligator was seen swimming just under the iron rail on the top of the bridge! I'll bet I'll never see anything like that again in my lifetime. Still, you can never tell.
"The Big Short." Have you seen this movie? If you suffered financial loss (disaster?) in the recent recession (depression?), you might want to see it. It's a movie and not a documentary, but it is unique in how it is presented. It will probably make you angry. It made me angry. Lots of people on Wall Street should have gone to prison. Only one did. Warning, there is lots of strong language (do those people really talk like that?) and it is R rated. This movie has been nominated for an Academy Award, and it could end up being the movie of the year. It would not surprise me.
Georgia's Fiscal Year 2017 Budget. This is Gov. Deal's budget to the Legislature for the year that starts on July 1, 2016, and ends on June 30, 2017. It is approximately $24 billion in state funds. If you add in the federal funds, it's about $47 billion. When I went to the Legislature in 1973, the budget was less than $2 billion (state funds). But, let me quickly add this: Georgia did not start prospering until it started paying its teachers a living wage and improved our highways and did so many other positive things that have improved our quality of life. I believe this proposed budget will pass, largely intact, and that Georgia will continue on its path to greatness. It's probably easier for most to pay today's state taxes than it was for most in 1973. By the way, I read recently that Georgia was now the eighth largest state in the Union. Somebody is doing something right.
Addendum Book Report. I left out two great books in my "2015 Books Report," which was on the first Sunday in January. The reason is that these two books were "loaned out" and weren't in my pile when I was stacking up my 2015 choices. They've been returned and were two of my favorite reads last year. The first is an old book by Paul Hemphill, "The Nashville Sound — Bright Lights and Country Music" (1970). I've read it twice and wrote in the front of the book "The re-read was better than the first." A 9.75 on a 10-point scale. Next, Rick Bragg's "My Southern Journey — True Stories from the Heart of the South." On Oct. 12, 2015, I wrote in the book, "I love what he does," and also gave it a 9.75. If you haven't already done so, read both of these. In fact, read anything Rick Bragg writes.
I hope you enjoyed this column as much as I do Janice's vegetable soup. Selah.
Larry Walker is a practicing attorney in Perry. He served 32 years in the Georgia General Assembly and presently serves on the University System of Georgia Board of Regents. Email: lwalker@whgmlaw.com.
This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 9:26 PM with the headline "WALKER: A vegetable soup column ."