AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – To mark our nation’s 248th birthday, members of more than half a dozen civic and masonic organizations came together for the 14th annual Fourth of July celebration. 

It was held at the Signers’ Monument in Augusta.  

The monument honors the three Georgia representatives who signed the Declaration of Independence — George Walton, Lyman Hall and Button Gwinnett.  

Floral offerings were presented at the monument while music was performed by the Summerville Brass Quintet. 

“I’ve been doing this program for probably 13 or 14 years now. For me, it’s been a terrific way to kick off the July 4 celebration. Celebrating this country, learning a little about our history, but also making beautiful music,” said Fabio Mann with the Summerville Brass Quintet. 

Walton and Hall are buried under the Signers’ Monument. 

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The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) parliamentary assembly on Wednesday called for Russia’s immediate and unconditional withdrawal from the occupied Georgian territories of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali/South Ossetia in its 31st annual session that took place in Bucharest from June 29 to July 3, 2024.

The OSCE parliamentary assembly’s demand for Russia to adhere to the European Union-mediated ceasefire agreement of August 12, 2008 was stated in the Bucharest declaration adopted by it. These demands echo those made in the previous year’s Vancouver Declaration.

The hostilities in South Ossetia in August 2008 marked the beginning of the current occupation. On August 7, 2008, clashes broke out between Georgian forces and separatist authorities backed by Russian security agencies. By August 10, the situation had deteriorated significantly, prompting international calls for a ceasefire. On August 12, a European Union-mediated ceasefire agreement was signed, calling for the withdrawal of Russian and Georgian forces. Despite this agreement, Russian forces have remained in the occupied regions. The European Court of Human Rights recently ruled that Russia’s occupation in Georgia systematically violated Georgians’ human rights in April.

Nikoloz Samkharadze, chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Georgian Parliament, brought this issue to the forefront during the session. Addressing the General Committee on Political Affairs and Security, Samkharadze emphasized that 20 percent of Georgia’s territory remains under Russian occupation, with 300,000 citizens internally displaced as a result. Samkharadze underscored the pressing need for the international community to take more decisive action. “Negotiations through the Geneva International Discussions have been ongoing for years, including with the OSCE’s Co-Chairing, however the [normalisation] of the peace process still is not being achieved,” he said.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s resolution condemns the human rights abuses in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali as well as highlights the Russian Federation’s “Russification” policy, which has led to the alteration and obliteration of Georgian cultural heritage in these regions. The Assembly stressed the necessity of continuing active engagement within the Geneva International Discussions framework to achieve a peaceful resolution that respects Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

A new world is straining to be born, and at some point it requires new American leadership. Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the last of their generation, are both trying to stand in its way.

Trump hopes to block and even reverse the emergence of that new world through brute authoritarian force, trying to “Make America Great Again” by taking us back, back to a time in our nation’s history that never existed, that we should never allow to exist, that is contrary to our traditions. What Trump proposes is not conservative leadership but radical leadership, leadership in which his loud voice is the only one that matters.

By contrast, Biden seeks merely to extend that receding world, which is his world, the world in which he is comfortable because he helped to create it over a 50-year career in high office. He offers himself as a bridge from his generation to the next, from this world to that new world … but just not yet, he says.

Biden comes from a world of Corn Pops and punching time clocks, of formica kitchen tables on linoleum floors with an AM radio playing in the background. Trump comes from dark Manhattan restaurants and steaks covered in ketchup, of backroom deals and yes men and white men and compliant secretaries in a “Mad Men” world.

Trump has never googled, has never used google as a verb and has never asked Siri a damn thing, and I doubt that Biden has either.

For the moment, for now, that is not necessarily a disqualification. Biden has been a more-than-competent president during a difficult four years, but he has also given even his supporters cause to doubt whether he can do so for the four years still to come.

That concern is not a media fabrication, it is not a Republican psy-op. If Biden’s chilling performance in the Atlanta debate was an accurate indication of his remaining capabilities, then his time in a leadership role may be coming to an end.

So far, his aides and many Democratic officials keep telling us that the debate was a glitch, a rare occurrence. It would be a great relief if that proves true. However, their words of second-hand reassurance are not sufficient to overcome what millions of Americans witnessed firsthand a week ago.

Do not tell us; show us. And if you cannot show us, then arrangements should be made.

I do not know the logistics of trying to change horses in midstream; I don’t know the election laws and campaign finance regulations that would have to be navigated to pull off that feat. Few if any know these things, because it has never been attempted before.
And again, maybe that won’t be necessary. If Biden can still reassure the American people by his performance that he remains the best hope for defeating Trump, that he can still serve as the bridge to the next generation, then he should remain the nominee. However, those in the Democratic Party who bristle that the question is even being asked are doing their party, their candidate and the country no good whatsoever.

The question must be asked because four months from the election, six months from an inauguration, we have to know the answer.

The obvious replacement for Biden, should that become necessary, is Vice President Kamala Harris. Most of the criticism directed at Harris seems based more on her gender and race than on her actual performance in office, in part because the performance of a vice president is so difficult for outsiders to accurately judge.

Vice President Harry Truman was considered a non-entity when he took the reins from FDR; he went on to serve as a strong, even visionary leader. Much earlier in our history, Vice President John Tyler was also held in low esteem when he took office after the death of William Henry Harrison. In that case, the low regard in which Tyler was held at the time proved to be an accurate gauge of his capacity as president.

Either way, though, I have absolutely zero doubt that Harris would perform far better in the White House than the man who tried to cling to it through fraud and even violence, who has called for the termination of the Constitution itself if that means he can be returned to the power he craves.

If Joe Biden can demonstrate that he still has the capacity to serve as candidate and as president, he should remain in those roles. If he cannot, he should finish out his term and allow Harris to become head of the ticket, knowing that by doing so he gives his country its best chance to stay true to itself and its bright future.