Happy/Sad

Happy:  Late last week, the City of Atlanta finally removed one of the last remaining legacies of the unpleasantries of the 19th Century, and changed the name of Confederate Avenue to "United Avenue."  The flag was corrected back in the 90s and most of the Civil War statues are now gone (although there are still a few of former segregationist Governors around the Capitol).  And then there's Stone Mountain, but that's a State Park and there's nothing the City can do about it (ditto the Capitol).  So Atlanta now has a Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, and monuments tributing Rep. John Lewis and Nelson Mandela, and no longer has a Confederate Avenue.  Progress . . . 

Sad:  As you know, Georgia lost the SEC Championship Game.  We're still recovering.  Georgia was supposed to lose by two touchdowns according to the odds-makers and no one really gave them a chance.  Alabama won all their games this season by more than 20 points and in fact have trailed during games only once all season and only for a few minutes at that before regaining the lead.   But the Bulldogs played great most of the game, leading by as many as 14 points until late in the 4th.  Alabama played better only briefly, but enough to win the game by a single touchdown, which made the loss that much more bitter.  We came SO close.  We could gripe about questionable officiating that reversed a Georgia touchback to an Alabama touchdown, and an even more questionable coaching decision to fake a punt in a situation where it wasn't really called for and the Alabama defense clearly knew it was a fake, but that wouldn't make any difference.  The real question now is do we cheer for the SEC's Alabama in the Playoff game, or swallow our pride and forget the lessons learned in the past and cheer for Chokelahoma?