The spread looked great.
There was a sandwich the size of 5 larges at Mighty Subs, cakes, chicken and when that started to run out Pizza. A steady stream of people came in to greet Doraville’s newly returned police chief.
John King had been had spent his time in Afghanistan training Afghan police, trying to change the a group from a society that is tribal in nature.
The Civic center was filled to hear his presentation and a great chunk of that group walked down the hill past the library to the City hall to join in the celebration.
It was the single most diverse group I had seen in my entire time in Georgia, White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Mixed, all paying tribute to the chief who had returned alive from the war zone. I was told that the stereotypes of the south often portrayed in the North isn’t the reality. That day I saw a group of young white children gathered around an elderly black veteran of World War 2 talking about his time on the beaches of Normandy. The only thing I saw in their eyes was awe.
It was a good moment for a town that had come on some hard times. With the closing of the GM plant a source of jobs and tax funds had been cut off. The current mayor Ray Jenkins had high praise for his predecessor who had during those good times stockpiles millions for the city in CD’s in case of a rainy day. It had kept them going but with the county government also in tight straights the city was finding itself taking care of more and more duties that the county normally would.
It meant some hard times and people disagreed on how it was best to be handled, but those disagreements would be for another day. Today was for celebration and welcomes. the official one for Col King, but the people there were so friendly, so accommodating, and just so nice to a stranger with a strange accent who had come 1000 miles away to report on a political race that I it was almost as if the party was for me.
The Party went on for two hours after I left, I’m sorry I couldn’t stay but I look forward to seeing Doraville again someday.
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