Wow. I’m not sure local news gets much bigger than this.

KC alerts us on Twitter and sends along a note sent out by College Heights Principal Suzanne Kennedy to parents that President Barack Obama will visit College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center in Decatur this coming Thursday. City Schools of Decatur’s Community Liaison Courtney Burnett has confirmed the visit and says CSD is “honored”. This will follow a stop in Asheville, NC on Wednesday, according to the AJC and a stop in Chicago on Friday. Ms. Kennedy’s note said in part..

I have exciting news to share with you about an event at College Heights: President Barack Obama will be on our campus Thursday, February 14, 2013! President Obama’s visit is an honor for College Heights and the City Schools of Decatur.

The school system is currently on winter break, but according to Principal Kennedy’s note, the school’s pre-K and Head Start programs will reconvene for the day on Thursday to accommodate the President’s visit.

I didn’t.  But I’ve seen a couple reports on Twitter of Atlanta folk who said they felt it.

Jimmy Carter recently offers an apology to the Jewish community and all of a sudden the race for David Adelman’s District 42 Georgia Senate seat is news on The Atlantic’s website…

Jimmy Carter wants the Jewish community to know that he understands Israel’s travails, and that this new understanding is not connected in any way to his grandson’s quest to represent a partially-Jewish district in Atlanta in the Georgia state legislature.

In a recent interview with JTA, the elder Carter said…

“Jason has a district, the number of Jewish voters in it is only 2 percent,” he said, chuckling.

District 42 Candidate Jason Carter responded to his grandfather’s apology with the following statement to JTA…

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Remember that goofy fellow who showed up in Decatur a few weeks ago and requested a key to the city in exchange for a little community service?  No?  Well the Decatur Minute documented the whole thing.

That was comedian Steve Hoffman and now he’s now found himself on the CBS Evening News, speaking about the 95 keys and counting that he’s collected from city’s all over the country.

And while Decatur escapes exposure in the televised segment that seems conflicted between laughing along with Hoffman and feigning upset at the devaluation of the honor of key-bestowing, Mayor Floyd’s photo with Hoffman is front and center in the accompanying website article.  A similar photo below is from The Minute.

So, as only a national newscast can over-generalize, should a key to the city still mean something (in every single city across the country)?

Umm…well that sorta depends.  Did your city only reserve keys for burning-building heroes and eight term mayors up until Hoffman came a knockin’?  Or are keys kinda blase’ in your city these days?

In short, instead of asking “Should a key mean something?” perhaps the more appropriate question would be “DOES a key mean something?”

I mean, it’s not like Decatur gave him a Hometown Hero award.

Thanks in large part to a renewed energy brought to the office of Veteran’s Affairs by Secretary Eric Shinseki, ill and homeless veterans have more reasons today to hold out hope for a revived and resourceful department than any time in recent memory.

Among Shinseki’s most ambitious goals is the announcement to get all 131,000 homeless vets off the street in just six years.  If nothing else this tangible benchmark signals accepting recognition of the problem – which was strangely lacking in previous administrations – and shows that Shinseki takes the crisis seriously enough to be held publicly accountable for it.

And though things finally seem to be moving in the appropriate direction, the “sprawling” department must still make many great strides in reorganizing and rebranding before any verdict can be made on Shinseki’s tenure as Secretary.  Therefore, I’m reposting my call from Veterans Day 2008, hopeful that our country may finally be on its way to providing the needed care and support our nation’s veterans have long deserved.

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As “Rez” points out, Shepard Smith is appalled by the mere existence of these donut bacon cheeseburgers and gives credit to “a Decatur, Georgia bartender” for discovering them.  That would be ol’ Mulligans in Oakhurst if you’re wondering.

Of course, they probably just pulled the info off Snopes.

Decatur: Conflicted Home of the “Oakhurst Community Garden” and the “Luther Burger”.

Every year Veterans Day rolls around and media outlets around the county flood the news space with stories about homeless and ill vets.  With 154,000 veterans living on the streets and only 15,000 transitional housing beds provided by the federal government, news outlets have their pick of stories each year.

Though we often debate the size and competency of government and how much it should “influence” or “interfere” (depending on your position) in our daily lives, I can find few substantive arguments that claim it isn’t our government’s full responsibility to look after the men and women it sends to war upon their return.

But even though the issue seems so cut-and-dry, it is still generally unaddressed.  Even in the midst of two wars, we did little to address the needs of those returning home alive.  It wasn’t until Walter Reed Medical Center was exposed as the nation’s shame two years ago that Congress fully funded the VA and passed the biggest increase in veterans health care in the last 70 years. But we’ve gotta keep going.  This is an issue of national morality that can’t only be bandaged up when things get really bad.

In today’s tough economy, its easy to see how those homeless and ill vets might continue to be overlooked to deal with issues more threatening to the nation’s security.  But this is an issue where we can no longer afford to cut corners.  We must take responsibility for our country’s actions and the undue burden it has placed on a select few, making sure we provide them with the care they deserve.

A day of rememberance should not be the cornerstone of our veteran care policy…a day when we say “we haven’t forgotten you!”.  It should instead be merely a complement to the constant attention and great care that’s already being provided, a day when we recognize and celebrate the service of those that have given so much.