Brand New Front Page Poster: Joni Woolf

Please welcome Macon's own Joni Woolf to the front page of Georgia Women Vote. I could not be more excited! Joni is a writer, editor and has blazed more trails for women than the rest of us combined. For years, Macon was Joni's home, but recently, she moved back to her beautifully renovated farm house in Schley County. I was privileged to spend July the 4th on the farm with Joni and some of her friends and family. The day included children, teenagers, bbq ribs, dogs and rooster and croquet. During her tenure in Macon, Joni served was one of the founders of Macon Magazine, served on planning and zoning, worked tirelessly for the Tubman Museum and back before women were allowed to be members of the Chamber of Commerce started a separate organization just for women business owners.

This year, Joni Woolf had been chosen to introduce Sen. Edwards at the JJ Dinner-before he suspended his campaign. She wrote the most eloquent introduction, and I have posted a portion of it below, just to give you a hint of what's in store from Ms. Woolf.

The first time I ever heard John Edwards speak—several years ago in Macon—he talked about growing up poor, and the hardships that his family endured as they struggled to put bread on the table, pay the rent, clothe the children. And I thought, “He’s one of us. He has been poor, and he knows how that feels to a child.” Like John, I grew up poor in rural South Georgia, where there was never quite enough of anything. But we were rich in promise: our parents assured us that life would be better for us, and they worked night and day to be sure that happened.

And it did. Their struggles, their sacrifices, their long days of sweat—and sometimes tears—guaranteed my generation a better life. And so we assumed, as our lives got slowly better, that OUR children would enjoy the prosperity that the United States was experiencing. It has not happened. Ever since the Reagan years, when greed became something to be proud of, the middle class has been in decline. My children—and YOURS—are struggling much as my parents’ generation did, just to keep food on the table. They are desperate for something, SOMEONE, to inspire hope in the future—not just their own—but the future of our beloved country which is becoming a country of the very rich, with a rapidly declining middle class—a country without a moral compass, without a president who has the integrity to face the harsh realities of our time....

Welcome, Joni! We look forward to your view from South Georgia!