Years ago, I was talking with a Georgia public health official about how to gauge population health at a local level. “Premature death,” he said. “It’s the Dow Jones Industrial Average of public health. If you want to look at one number and get a feel for the health of a community, look at premature death and whether it’s going up or down.”
Probably the biggest question spawned by the ever-widening divide between the two Georgias is, simply, how did this happen? What forces set in motion the economic deterioration that has seen so much of rural Georgia fall into the nation’s bottom ranks for per capita income and poverty?
Every once in a while, some South Georgia politicians get a wild hair and propose breaking away from North Georgia and Metro Atlanta. In 2018, the Pierce County Republican Party included the idea on that year’s county primary ballot. In a surprising display of good sense, Pierce County Republican voters shot down the idea by more than a two-to-one vote.
An introduction to the new column series by Charlie Hayslett exploring the challenges facing rural Georgia.
