PART II

 

VALDOSTA – Sydney Files thinks 2020 is a year of revelations.

“In my opinion, this year is really showing us who we are as Americans. All the dirt that we try to cover up by saying that this is the land of the free is exposed,” Files said.

The 30-year-old, who recently graduated Valdosta State University, is one of several local residents who spoke to The Valdosta Daily Times for the regular Pulse of the Voters — a feature for readers to speak their minds on issues affecting the upcoming presidential election.

Participants spoke about how the COVID-19 pandemic and protests stemming from the death of George Floyd are affecting the election.

Files, who identifies as politically independent, did not mince words about her thoughts about how Donald Trump and his administration have handled the current protests during the coronavirus outbreak.

“We have a racist president presiding over a historically racist system, along with a pandemic in a time where all of this is preventable,” she said.

Lindsay Knight, a 31-year-old independent voter, has long been an active supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. She said she has noticed the uptick in attendance of local protests coinciding with the wave of protests across the nation.

“I feel like there’s something very much different about this because it doesn’t feel like the previous protests that we’ve held,” Knight said. “It feels like this was the last straw and people actually very much want change and people are just being galvanized the more brutal police are towards peaceful protestors.”

Not only active in person, Knight stays outspoken on social media addressing racist rhetoric head on, she said, and educating others about racist behaviors and attitudes.

She used to pay attention to only national and state politics, but both the pandemic and the George Floyd protest movement have focused Knight’s political involvement on the local level, meeting with local leaders and candidates such as Treva Gear.

Brittany Bell, a 30-year-old educator, hopes the protests can lead to concrete policy from lawmakers that enact real change.

“It’s too big of an issue for anybody to stand up in front of and say, ‘oh, I have the plan. I have the right way to do it,’” she said. “It’s impossible, so I think I would be impressed with them bringing together different people from different walks of life and saying, ‘OK, let’s not only come up with a plan but propose a legislation that could actually implement it immediately.’ This doesn’t need to be a 10- to 20-year process.”

For Lowndes County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter, he thinks it’s unlikely that the national protests will have much impact on Lowndes elections.

“I do not see any effect whatsoever in Lowndes County,” he said.

Lake Park City Councilman Tom Barr offered a different view from Slaughter about the protest movement saying its effect on the November election will depend on whether government leadership deals with protesters’ core issues.

“If the economy improves, if the state and federal governments come up with some sort of program to hold police officers to account … then the demonstrations wouldn’t have an impact,” he said. “But if none of that happens, I guess it could.”

Mitchell Bell, a 31-year-old owner of a local gym, said he wants to see candidates directly address racial inequities in America. An independent voter and husband to Brittany, he said he will pay attention to how candidates roll out their plans to improve policing.

“I would like them, one, to make it an issue. To say, ‘hey, let’s speak on it.’ I don’t think people should kind of hide from it, hide from the issues. Get it out in front street. Let’s address it,” he said. “We can talk collectively to see how we can try to make it better and to prevent it from happening again.”

A racial reckoning has been percolating for years, Files said, and it has reached critical mass.

“At some point we knew the pot would boil over. It’s like making grits. When the pot is too full (of oppression) and the stove is too hot (racism), it will begin to bubble, slowly at first,” Files said. “Next thing you know, grits are pouring out all over your stove (protests in the streets). You can try and cover it with a lid (arresting of the officers) but by then it’s too late.”

Knight expressed her distaste with the Trump administration’s handling of the outbreak nationwide. Originally on the fence whether to vote for Joe Biden or stay home, her frustration will bleed over into the voting booth in November.

“So up until the start of the pandemic and then recent events, I was very on the fence because I was Bernie (Sanders) all the way. I was very upset when he essentially kowtowed to Biden and endorsed him, but with the government’s response – I should honestly say the government’s lack of response because I feel like that’s what it is – Trump has to go,” she said. “So I’m very much locked in on voting Biden now but I wasn’t previously.”

When tackling the pandemic, Brittany and Mitchell Bell will look at how candidates’ rhetoric compare to their actions.

“Absolutely,” Mitchell said. “I think during these times what they do, how they handle this, things that they speak on, as well as there’s so many things that are going on.”

Barr has pondered whether the COVID-19 pandemic could affect November’s general elections but said he doesn’t know.

He did, however, mention how if the pandemic hasn’t been brought under control by November, voters will have to put up with longer lines due to such precautions as social distancing, Barr said.

“I like voting at the polls,” he said. “But people had better be prepared to stand in line.”

Massive lines did not pervade Lowndes, and Slaughter commended the Lowndes County Board of Elections with keeping lines manageable. The county did have to close four voting precincts for the June primaries due to a lack of volunteers from anxiety over COVID-19

Could the same problem occur in November?

“I hope not,” Slaughter said. “I hope they can find enough volunteers to solve the problem. I feel confident the board will make every effort to resolve the problem, since November should have a bigger (voter) turnout than the primaries.”

As COVID-19 cases continue rising both in Georgia and across the nation, Files viewed the current moment as an inflection point in American society. Elected officials must address protester demands or prepare for the protests to continue, she said.

“This is our last chance,” Files said. “If we do not change, the protests will not stop, there will be another pandemic (worse than this), and we will continue to see record-breaking summers and catastrophic storms.”