Dr. Bette Holland, Chair of the Dawson County Democratic Party and Founder of North Georgia Conservation Coalition

The North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble podcast covers democratic politics in North GA, the 9th Congressional District, and across the state of Georgia. The podcast comprises a Q&A/Interview format with various democratic politicos including county chairs, democratic operatives, politicians, and more. It is our mission to deliver crucial information to our listeners in a timely manner as we fight for community values and principles in the 3rd most Conservative district in the state. Our website is: https://www.fcdpga.com/podcasts

Our guests will highlight democratic activities and actions to work toward a Blue Georgia. The 9th Congressional District spans 20 counties across the region and covers a good deal of northern GA including Blue Ridge, Morganton, Fannin, Union, Banks, Athens/Clarke, Dawson, Elbert, Forsyth, Franklin, Gilmer, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison, Pickens, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, and White counties. 

Our democratic party podcast also disseminates information and interviews powerful Democrats across the state of GA who are working to overthrow the suppression tactics of the GOP and ensure democracy and our values, grassroots efforts, and goals remain intact. 

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Meral Clarke: 0:17

Hello, and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our guests Dr. Bette Holland, chair of the Dawson county Georgia democratic committee. Welcome to the show. Betty, we're happy to have you with us today.

Bette Holland: 0:38

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here to be wonderful

Meral Clarke: 0:41

just to let our listeners know something about you. Dr. Betty Holland has been the chair of the Dawson county democratic committee since 2010. She has also served as a state committee member on the Democratic Party of Georgia county Affairs Committee. She was corresponding secretary for six years for the Georgia federation of democratic women. She is also the founder of the North Georgia conservation coalition, or ngcc, which has been working for the past four years to educate residents of North Georgia about the effects of climate change and provide specific actions they can personally take to help mitigate the effects. The goal of the ngcc is to preserve the beauty of North Georgia and they have sponsored in earthday program for the past three years before moving to North Georgia. Dr. Holland taught business at Clarkson High School in DeKalb. County for 32 years. She was the work study coordinator and the chair of the career and technical department as an advisor for the future business leaders of America by the way of which I was a member of in high school, she helped lead her students to many local, state and national awards. She feels fortunate to teach in a school with a diverse population of African American children, but also 25% of the population which came from 41 different countries around the world. Dr. Holland has been involved in many activities throughout Dawson County. And although the county is represented primarily by Republicans, she feels she has a good rapport with these elected officials. She has always found local officials to be open to listening and discussing many ideas about taxes, education, climate and public schooling. Betty has also been writing either a column or letters to the editors for the local papers for the past 16 years and has over 250 documents that have been published. My goodness, Betty, I do love all my overachievers on this show. That is just tremendous. We're so happy to have you here. So a couple of questions for you. First, why are you a democrat? And Have you always been? And if not what led you to become active in democratic politics?

Bette Holland: 2:52

Thank you. And before I answer some of these questions, I just want to make mention that I know some of the things that I say and feel and believe maybe some of our listeners won't feel the same way about But as you'll see from the answers that I give, all of this is open to conversation. And that's what I think we need to be doing in North Georgia. I agree. It's every conversation so please call me or email me if there's anything you disagree with or that you'd like to discuss further. What is

Meral Clarke: 3:22

that phone number and email address, please? Okay, my

Bette Holland: 3:25

phone number is 404-312-8463. And my mail is b e. t. Holland one@gmail.com.

Meral Clarke: 3:39

Thank you. Thank you for sharing that with us and our listeners, we really appreciate it. So are you a democrat?

Bette Holland: 3:45

This is something that we all think about and try to explain to people, especially those friends that maybe aren't Democrats, but I'm a Democrat, because I believe that all people, no matter what race, socio economic background color, sexual preference, religion or non religion, immigration status or personal belief deserve to be treated with justice, fairness and respect. And they deserve the freedom, opportunity and security to be able to pursue what is best for them and their family and their country.

Meral Clarke: 4:19

We would have to completely agree with that as well. What led you to become active in democratic politics? Were you involved in politics when you were working full time?

Bette Holland: 4:28

Well, when I was working, I was not involved. And I will say that as a teacher, especially at Clarkston. Well, that's where I was, most of the time. I was two years in Atlanta, but right, two years at Clarkson and I was putting in 10 or 12 hours a day, not at the very beginning when I was new, you know, but as I grew to be more a part of the Clarkson community. Those days were long and I had a family and I needed to go home and cook and clean and play with my family. So I was not involved. Now I know there's many people that are able to do that, that are able to find the time or the energy to be involved even when they have children and families they must take care of my husband was always very supportive and helpful, but we just weren't involved. We were voters. We tried to keep up on the issues, but we weren't involved in politics so much.

Meral Clarke: 5:23

Well, was it always democratic politics for you

Bette Holland: 5:26

now? Yeah, that's another issue. Okay. You know, I grew up in an area of Florida that you are all well aware of and know of Palm Beach County, and I live not far from Mar a Lago where President Trump lived for years. In fact, my mother decorated mera Lago before he lived there when it was Merriweather estate. Wow. And in Palm Beach, it was very conservative. The children I went to school with it Palm Beach High School, where the children that lived in Palm Beach, some of them were West Palm Beach kids, but most of them were the children that lived in Palm Beach. So there was a little difference there are from up here in North Georgia. I did have an interest in politics when john kennedy was elected, because he had a winter home in Palm Beach. And so we got to see him come in in the airport and beat him on the road and wave and loved him. And at that point, I wasn't voting. I wasn't old enough, but I sure did love this democratic Irish Catholic president. But then you know that our schools were segregated. We never had any contact with black children. We knew nothing really about black history. We weren't taught that. And so I grew up not really having a political stance. My parents did not have a political stance. We did not talk about politics. So until I graduated even at college, I was not involved. And y'all This is during the height of the civil rights movement in the 60s, right. I was in high school in the 60s, early 60s in college in the late 60s. And it wasn't until I came to Clarkston that I became involved in politics met my dear friend, Heidi Kaplan, who is still a dear friend. And she and I started talking about politics. And so that's how I started to learn a little but our talking about it was mostly arguments that I was a Republican, and she was a Democrat. And I didn't believe what she was talking about. You

Meral Clarke: 7:24

were a Republican, because you were raised in a conservative area.

Bette Holland: 7:27

I believe so and because my parents didn't talk about it. I don't think they were that conservative, because I've heard stories of my mother and my grandmother, the things they used to do, and they lived in New York City, but they never talked about

Meral Clarke: 7:40

it. Interesting. So what was that moment? What was the epiphany that led you from conservative politics to more liberal politics? What happened?

Bette Holland: 7:49

I think, Well, I know, I know. It was teaching at Clarkston. Okay, when I went to Clarkston in 1970, it was all white. It was the first year of integration. And I think for the first four or five years, I kind of felt like I didn't understand the story of African American children and families because I had never been around it. So I was in a learning process of trying to learn about their history and their background and the struggles that they had been through. But it took time. It took time for that for me to learn that. And I think what one of the eye opening things for me was I was in charge of the work study program. And the students went to school until noon, and then left for work in the afternoons. And my job was to help those children find jobs. And when I say help, I went out and found the jobs and then sent them on the interviews. Incredible. Yeah. And it was every afternoon, I was out pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, trying to find jobs for children. Well, when the school became integrated, many of the employers would say to me, we do have some job openings that you might be able to send your children to, but we know you have black children there now and we don't want you to send us any of them. Utterly reprehensible, right? It really is. And that's the 70s. That's the late 70s, early 80s. Wow, it wasn't that long ago. No, really no. And so, you know, you start to think, well, this can't be right. But the idea of families being lazy or not working hard enough that was still in my mind is that's the republican genre, you know, sure. Oh, they're just lazy sellers that Yeah, they don't want to work hard. And that was still in my head. So it took me time to realize that, you know, these children weren't lazy, and their families weren't not working hard. They just had a lot of obstacles in front of them where they couldn't succeed. And then I had a child. And when I started to think about the things that I believed in about people, I realized that I was trying to tell my child things that maybe I wasn't believing in politically and as he grew older and asked questions that I realized again, that the republican genre just didn't fit you know, just didn't fit So right in fact, my son was a big influence in it even as a young child, because of the questions he asked, and he loved the school. He loved Clarkston, he'd go to the fbla meetings with me and be around all my African American and international students. And he'd go to the football games and go sit at the top of the stadium with the black principal who just loved him. And Brian loved him. And they just had a great relationship. And so he really was a big influence in helping me learn a little bit more about politics, and about my feelings about the people that I was working with. So

Meral Clarke: 10:40

he was clearly raised differently than you were. Yeah. And that's a good

Bette Holland: 10:45

thing. And actually, he continues to be involved mostly with climate change. But he's a family person like me, and can't do as much politically as he can. But he's very involved with climate change issues. So I'm proud of what he did. And he really wasn't helped to me to become a better person.

Meral Clarke: 11:01

It is a wonderful testament to how you've reared him as well. So since we're talking about education and facts, which is something that Republicans don't always believe in as an educator, what are your thoughts regarding critical race theory, or CRT? How do we ensure our kids learn actual history and not the whitewashed version that we all learn? How do we get that across so more people can understand and expand their thoughts in horizons on this issue?

Bette Holland: 11:30

Well, I thought about that, because there's, of course, been so much about it, and not just the last few weeks, but I will take you back to Clarkston High School in 1985. Okay, and we would slowly change to be majority black, but now we were also getting students in our school from all these other countries. And there were Vietnamese children, there were children from India, from Somalia, from Rwanda, from Iraq, from Iran, Bosnia, anywhere there was a revolution or a war, the children would come into Clarkston, their families were coming into Clarkson, because we had a world Relief Center there. And so back then, in the 80s, we were having a hard time with the black children getting along with the white children. And then of course, most of the white families left, and then we were having a hard time with the black children and the International children getting together. They were calling the Vietnamese kids Chinaman. They were you know, they didn't understand what why do these people from Somalia and Eritrea and Ethiopia look different from us, they will act but they didn't look the same. And they were talking to them, not treating them well. And so we got the Southern Poverty Law Center, which I'm sure most of you are aware of splc Yes, yes, to send us some of their information on teaching. They called it Teaching Tolerance back then they've changed that name now to send us some information about what we could do to try to help these children get along better. So we tried to and they did this actually countywide to begin a series of teaching children to understand some words that go along with tolerance, like understanding what is meant by empathy, what is meant by kindness, by caring, by loving by tolerance, by understanding by patients, and so on, so forth. And every week, the teachers were supposed to discuss these words in the classroom, one word a week, well, we got pushback from the parents, this is 1985. And they said, We do not teach our children values. I believe that these are the black children in the International Center that we're saying, No, we will teach the values. You teach them math and English. Well, that sounds familiar, I'm sure. Because listen to the news, you're hearing the same thing in 2022. Yes, I'm the parent, you teach my children rapid English, I will teach them the values I want them to know. And so that's the first thing that I think we have to understand is that you're not going to walk into a school system and say, Okay, we're going to start teaching critical race theory, and you better like it, because that's just not going to happen. The parents are not going to agree with that right away. And then, of course, critical race theory goes further than just teaching children to be more tolerant of each other, and patient and helpful with each other. But it goes into teaching children to understand the background of our history,

Meral Clarke: 14:12

which is critical, as far as I'm concerned, critical.

Bette Holland: 14:15

But thing is, and just to give you another personal example, I thought I knew a lot about black history. Because I taught in a black school, I've been involved with democratic politics for years now. I've been involved with organizations that are predominantly African American. But this winter, my husband and I had the opportunity because of the pandemic to spend a lot of time watching documentaries on black history, and reading books and reading books. And every time we did, we said, I didn't know that, right? I'm 75 years old, and I'm still learning about these things. And so again, you're not going to just all of a sudden turn schools around into changing the way they teach history. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done. It needs to be done. But it's going to be a process

Meral Clarke: 15:02

and a struggle. Because the struggle, I mean, the white kids just fled, right? Because they could afford to do so. But everyone else did not have that opportunity. So that makes a big difference. I can talk to you all day about this. But

Bette Holland: 15:16

I just want to mention one other thing too. Sure. This is a whole podcast that you could have on? Yes, absolutely. I did have a meeting yesterday with our superintendent of schools about some climate things, which I'm talking about later, but I just mentioned to him critical race theory. And I'm not going to tell you what he said. Because I think that's not right, right. At this point, I can tell you from the comments that we have some conversations to be had. And I believe in the idea of white privilege, I believe that is the reason why our African American friends have been discriminated yes against have been pushed back and not been able to be as successful as white people have. But it's something that you're not going to go to one board meeting and and yell and scream at them about how we have to teach critical race theory is not going to work. So and

Meral Clarke: 16:04

I have to ask this, because I spent the entire pandemic year last year reading about black history, actual black history that I was never taught in school and reading about all the obstacles that we've placed in front of our black citizens, which is horrendous. And still there. We've come a long way in some ways, but then again, in others, we're still not teaching actual facts in our history classes. So how do we go about convincing these people who don't know anything about CRT, who, maybe republicans that have not been exposed to all of the educational background that you and I have? How do we go about convincing them that it is a critical component of the curriculum?

Bette Holland: 16:47

Well, I think it's a process of conversation and talking, for instance, the example I gave with our superintendent in Dawson County, which is from his answer, I know that this is going to take some time to sit down and talk to the board, talk to him, because I did mention to him because even children all over this country, people all over this country need to know the history, absolutely, of the black struggle, and they're not being taught and they're not being taught and they're not being told about it. It's part of the idea that I got when I was first beginning at Clarkston. You know, they're just lazy, and they don't want to work hard.

Meral Clarke: 17:22

That's really a shame. Can you assign them some reading to do an educator? Can you give them assignments? Because that would be great.

Bette Holland: 17:29

We'll continue to talk to them. And I think that's what we need to do as Democrats is continue to go to board meetings, go and have individual I like individual meetings, and I'll talk about that a little bit later on. But I like to call and make an appointment say I have something I want to talk to you about. Can we have some time and I think that's more effective. People tend to say, oh, they're gonna listen to us anyway. They're just Republicans, they're not gonna listen to us. But if you don't try, then they're never going to listen to you. And I think a one on one or small group kind of thing before you go to the big meeting is probably a better way to do it.

Meral Clarke: 18:04

It takes a long time. And people are impatient at this point, which I don't blame them. But your rights. It's a long and involved process. So hopefully, as more people learn actual facts, and actual history, there'll be more amenable to be open to these ideas. But moving back to you. Why did you move to North Georgia? What What led you here from Atlanta?

Bette Holland: 18:29

Well, my husband and I grew up in Florida, and we were pretty much done with beaches. Getting ready to retired and not there's no way I was moving to Florida, right. But we always loved coming to North Georgia for build trips into the mountains to see the leaves change to you know, do whatever up in North Georgia. It's beautiful. Yes. And we both play golf. So when my son was ready to finish high school, and we had free time, we started driving around looking for the place that we wanted to move to when I retired, which I knew I was going to retire in 2002 at age 55. So we had several years to look and we happened upon a place here in North Georgia that we loved. We loved the look of it. We love the golf course we knew nothing about the politic, right, not right. And I wasn't that involved when I was working. Sure. I had no idea but we loved it up here. We loved the look of our neighborhood. And so we moved here and

Meral Clarke: 19:24

speaking of the politics, it's 80% republican and maybe 20%. Democrat, correct. And we we do reside in the ninth congressional district, we do reside in the third most conservative district in the country. So what do you think we should be doing up here in North Georgia to move the needle and obtain more democratic voters?

Bette Holland: 19:46

Well, I can tell you some of the things that we've done in Dawson County, I'd love to hear it and it pertains to all the other counties. There's 20 I think 20 counties in the ninth district and there's a whole group of new county parties They're working hard and doing a great job, including Susan and Fannin County, yes and Raven, no more leverage all over. People are stepping up their efforts.

Meral Clarke: 20:09

And you're referring to Susan demora, who is the treasure of our democratic party up here and our technical engineer and producer, this show, I am so grateful for her.

Bette Holland: 20:18

Yeah. And so I was very fortunate when I first came here that I saw an ad in the paper that there was going to be a Democratic Party meeting. And the reason I was needing to have that is because when I met people here in the neighborhood in which I live now and told them, they asked me, What did you do when you were working before you retired? And I said, Well, I taught at Clarkston High School in DeKalb. County, and the answers were, oh, no, that must have been horrible. How did you end it terrible? How awful I bet you were glad to be out of there. And I'm, oh, wait a minute, where have I moved to?

Meral Clarke: 20:57

culture shock,

Bette Holland: 20:58

I had no idea. And so after a year or so of that, my husband and I started saying, you know, we may have to move unless we can find some other outlet, like minded people, right? We found a like minded people. And it was a great group of people, mostly from the big canoe area, but out from all over Dawson County, who decided to restart the Democratic Party. And most of you know, the history of the Democratic Party and the republican party after Lyndon Johnson signed the civil rights bill and the voting rights bill and medic

Meral Clarke: 21:32

1964. In 1965. Yes, two critical bills that changed both parties

Bette Holland: 21:37

forever. And so you know, the democrats here in the 80s and 90s, step back and decided that we're going to be Republicans, and so there was a party for a long time. And then 2002 sensormatic, dark started the party up again. And he did an excellent job. He did it so that the bylaws were written correctly, so that from the very beginning, had contact with our republican board of elections, our republican Board of Commissioners that he was a talker, and he went out and talked to all of them to make sure that they knew that we were going to start a Democratic Party, and that we wanted to work with them as best we could. And in fact, this is one of the things that I think that we could do that all the counties should do. What he did was he went to the Board of Commissioners and the board of elections and said, according to the bill that established the board of elections for Dawson County, you should have two republicans and two democrats on your board of elections. And they looked at the bill. And I said, Yes, you're right. And he said these Democrats should be appointed by the democratic committee, and they said, Okay. He just he went, he said, This is what needs to be done. He wasn't afraid to go talk to him. Good for him. Yes. And so from the very beginning, we had that and Spencer was on the board, and Tom Foley, who has since passed away was on the board. And when they retired, Murray had from big canoe came on. And my husband Dale is now the vice chair of the board of elections for Dawson County. Wonderful. So we've got that connection right there. That helped a lot to get us up to a good start.

Meral Clarke: 23:13

So going back to the present, what do you believe is the biggest obstacle to growing the Democratic Party in North Georgia?

Bette Holland: 23:20

I think it is understanding that the people in North Georgia have been living the life they've been living for centuries, and we are not going to come in and all of a sudden change their feelings and their emotions. I read a book. I mean, I mean, I'm in the process of reading a book, and I'm not sure how many Democratic Party George's Booth School That was last weekend. But they had a speaker or Jamie qlab, who is the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, and she wrote a book about winning back rural America. And so the meeting was excellent. And one of the things that she said was, we have to find common ground with rural voters in North Georgia, we're not going to find it by having rallies that talk about how stupid they are, about how they're out of touch with reality about how they're voting against their own self interests. It's not going to move the needle, but she was able to move the needle. And I think we've been able to move needle in Dawson county by finding some common ground. That makes

Meral Clarke: 24:24

sense, and I've heard quite a few folks, actually, on our podcast, you say the same thing, right? Because they're only going to become more disengaged, more angry, more combative, but if we use that type of verbiage, so you are spot on, and hopefully we can start doing that. And I think it'll help with the current administration. And if we can keep the current iteration of the GOP camp down a bit because the GOP today is vastly different than the GOP was when I was growing up. So would you agree with that?

Bette Holland: 24:57

Oh, absolutely. In fact today, and I will On paper, there's a gentleman that writes a column every week. He's very, very, very, very, very conservative. But his column was about who is this GOP? And where did they come from? Because he has no idea who they are and why they believe or act like they do. Why do you suppose they've

Meral Clarke: 25:16

embraced he let's call it a trumpian philosophy and the refusal to believe in science or actual facts, what do you believe has led to that?

Bette Holland: 25:25

Well, a lot of it, I think, goes to the idea with the fear that they have of losing your importance as white people, yes, becoming a minority, right, and becoming a minority,

Meral Clarke: 25:36

which they are becoming a minority party, as the years go on,

Bette Holland: 25:40

it's not going to be able to be stopped. And so they are fighting against it to try to stop it from happening. And I guess they found Trump to be for some reason, when they found him to be a person that would support them. And he did you know, he's done that with inciting the insurrection. He's done it with the statements he's made about these good white supremacists, and what good people they are, and so they think he would be the one to help them stop the takeover by immigrants and people of color. Why do you suppose

Meral Clarke: 26:07

this minority has taken over the entire party, which it has, because most of the moderate Republicans that I know in Georgia are afraid especially if they're elected officials, they're afraid to speak out because they received death threats, and poll workers are being threatened. Why do you suppose they're allowing I mean, maybe there's a civil war, I've read that there's a civil war in the party, but it seems the trumpian philosophy maybe they're just more vocal and more verbose. But it seems they have really taken over the entire party at this point. Well, and

Bette Holland: 26:38

I think the entire party, but I think there's still a 10 or 15, or maybe even 20% that have not been taken over. That's the man that wrote the article today. yarbro Yeah,

Meral Clarke: 26:49

take care, bro. Yes, very familiar with him when he was with the AJC

Bette Holland: 26:53

irritates me so much, because he's so conservative, but he every so often, we'll come up with something like right like this, and then there's friends that I have in this community where that I know, not vote

Meral Clarke: 27:04

for Trump, but they're a minority. That's the problem. That's what I'm saying.

Bette Holland: 27:07

Okay. 10 or 15? Or maybe 20%. But a minority of the republicans who don't believe in the Trump john doe,

Meral Clarke: 27:15

agenda? Yes. And so

Bette Holland: 27:17

I think if for this next election, that for people we're going to have to probably focus on is to make sure that they get out and vote and vote to maybe change the state house and State Senate to help us change that. So we can get some of these these laws, because a lot of them don't agree with the laws that they're trying to pass like the voter suppression laws and the anti protest laws and all of these, I don't mean a lot I mean, the small majority. So we are a small minority of Republican right. So you know, that's going to be probably our focus is trying to get some of them. And y'all we did get some of them to change in Dawson County.

Meral Clarke: 27:54

That's great. That's wonderful to hear.

Bette Holland: 27:56

Yang club had a graphic that showed where the swaying was in North North Georgia. And there was a little bit of sway from Republican to voting Democrat in all of the counties. But in Dawson County, we had more in the county as a whole. But there was one little precinct the head of the dog. That's how Dawson county is outlined. It looks like a Scottish in the head of the dog turned medium blue.

Meral Clarke: 28:23

Wow.

Bette Holland: 28:23

Well, me is big time. It's a small group. It's not It's not the whole county, but they still that's a big deal for medium blue. And that's a group that work hard with postcards, phone calls, putting out signs, talking to friends and neighbors going to meetings and going to rallies and doing whatever they could. They've been doing it for 10 years, patiently, patiently continuing on and on over and over again, to do those things until they could get some people to change now. Trump cars some of that change

Meral Clarke: 28:56

a big part of it. Yes, I would, I would say so. So continuing on that line of thought, obviously, George's new voter suppression laws are are horrific for everyone, especially in metro Atlanta, where people have to stand in long lines for hours before they can vote. But how do we fight these laws? And how do we ensure all eligible voters have the opportunity to vote? And the second part of that question is how do we get the vote out in 2022, for the midterms, like we did in 2020.

Bette Holland: 29:26

Yeah, that's going to be an interesting thing. But I have faith in the Democratic Party of Georgia and I have faith in the ninth district because both of these groups have already begun studying and making plans for how we're going to get these votes out and get these people to vote. Even through these voter suppression laws. I was on a call with Sarah Draper who is the head of the voter suppression group for the Democratic Party of Georgia. And by the end of the hour of conversation, felt very confident that we will be able to get these people out to vote and I I know that June, Chris has gotten some can't remember the guys name Scott Scott, who is going to have the voter suppression fight here in the ninth district. But by the end of that call, I felt like, okay, they're working on it already, we're not sitting back and wait until next year. And it's basically going to mean changing the way we educate people, because we spent the whole year last year educating people how to vote by absentee ballot, right, and now they've changed that now we're gonna have to change, we have to change too, because they've made so many changes to the law that the absentee ballot application is going to be difficult to fill out and the absentee ballot itself is going to be difficult to fill out without making an error and therefore making the valid invalid. And so the new push is going to be to get the vote out early. And they actually did add a Saturday of early voting, right? I had read that yes. And then those courses Sunday added a Sunday to we won't do Sundays in North Georgia, but we can do two Saturdays and we can start to get the vote out early, but they shorten the window, they did shorten the window

Meral Clarke: 31:05

of time, which is a huge problem as well. And the drop boxes have to be inside now. So you can't go at seven o'clock and drop off your ballot after work.

Bette Holland: 31:14

With the absentee ballot. Yeah, that's why we're pushing for voting in person. But the other thing that we have to do is continue the education. And I hope that all of our counties will do this continue the education of our voters that this state and local elections that are coming up are just as important as the presidential election, you have to get out and vote and have to support these candidates, either financially, or through helping with phone calls, postcards, or volunteering, on doors, volunteering, doing all these things. And I think those two things, voting early and making sure that everyone understands how important these elections are. And we need to start now doing it not wait till next year.

Meral Clarke: 31:56

Exactly. And that's another whole podcast as well, which we'll be discussing at a later date. So with all your efforts and all your work, let's talk a little bit about climate change, and why it's our largest existential threat at this moment and how you became involved with climate change initiatives. We had Daniel Blackman on last week, who is the Executive Chair of the Sierra Club of Georgia, and He is a former candidate for the Public Service Commission and a longtime environmental justice activist. So what led you to become more involved with that starting the group that you did that we spoke about earlier? And why do you believe that we have to take care of that we have to work on it now.

Bette Holland: 32:39

And this again, I'll try to shorten what I was going to say because I have been involved in this for years. And again, goes back to my son, being interested in going to University of Georgia to study climate change mitigation and adaptation for him for it was even he had to make up his own program, because they didn't have that if universities in 2000. So that was the beginning of my interest in learning about climate change. And as the years go by, of course, I joined Sierra Club and all the other organizations. And I became very in tune to Al Gore, and the Climate Reality project and attended a three day conference in Atlanta three years ago. So I've been doing things with climate change. For years, I've gone to lots of meetings at the local level, too. And I left one of them and said, okay, they've told me all the things I already knew, because I've already been studying all this. But at the end of the meeting, they didn't tell me what I could do, what can I do to make a difference with climate change? And so I said, What we need is some kind of an organization that will give people ideas of personal things that can be doing like, well, there's a lot of things you could be doing. So I started North Georgia conservation coalition with the idea that we would give people ideas on how they could cut carbon emissions just themselves, in their families, in their personal lives, how they can reduce the use of single use plastics, personally, and then we're spreading out now. In fact, yesterday's meeting with our superintendent was to talk to him for the second, third or fourth time again, it's a process of installing solar on some of the buildings in the school system. That would be a great start. And he has a proposal coming to him from a group in Athens tomorrow. Wonderful because he's putting putting solar on one of the buildings in Dawson county then tomorrow, I have a meeting scheduled a zoom meeting with an organization called Clean Cities USA and they are going to be meeting with Billy Thurmond, the chair of our county commission and Bob bolts, the manager, city manager for the city of Dawson bill on the same issue. Where can we put solar on our buildings, we want electric vehicles, we want to put some charging stations in how can we get started, what can we do? So you know, it was a process of going to them and saying, I think there's some things that we could do to mitigate climate change, but they will also save you money. And that's where the issue is, is we have to come up with some common ground. And the common ground here is saving money, right? There's sure about climate change, but they are sure they want to save money. And if we can show them that they can save money by installing solar, and by using electric vehicles and so forth, we can do that. But the issue is why is it our biggest existential threat? And do you think it's too late? Okay. I think we we are reaching the point of no return. And that we do have to work quickly to slow down the effects of climate change, mitigate. And also to adapt because some of it can't be stopped now. And so there is going to have to be some adaptation. But I don't think it's impossible. But I think that what people have to do is understand that all of our work, working for justice, for health care for education, for all the things we believe in, is going to be for not if we don't take care of the climate change issue, because in 60 years, all we're going to be doing is fighting the damages that are coming about because of climate change. Because of the fires, the storms, the droughts, the floods, everything that's going to happen as it's happening. Now it's going to get worse, we can't stop it now from getting worse. It's too late to stop it from getting worse. But it is not too late from stopping it to get to the point where which we could be in 60 or 70 years,

Meral Clarke: 36:27

right. And you and I are not going to have to deal with it. But our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren are going to have to live in a completely different world where societies are going to be up ended, entire populations are going to be moved, there will likely be water and food shortages. So how are they going to have to navigate that hellish landscape? Life

Bette Holland: 36:50

on Earth is in danger? Yes, we are in extinction. And we have to face that fact. And start working really hard. If we want to stop it,

Meral Clarke: 36:59

I would have to agree. But more people are going to have to get involved. And more people in power, are going to have to accept the facts and do everything they can

Bette Holland: 37:10

we got us back four years from Trump. And now Biden is trying but he's still got politics pushing him back. So I think one of the other things that we could be doing in North Georgia and all over this country is finding ways to support Biden's infrastructure plan. Because the infrastructure plan has things about solar about electric vehicles. It's it's built in, right, we got to support it, we got to get it passed, I

Meral Clarke: 37:34

would have to agree. And hopefully we have the majority, but we don't at the same time and with the filibuster and the 60 vote threshold. So hopefully they will be able to work around that moving forward and not wanting to end our conversation on a negative note or a sad note, I have one more question for you. If that's all right, tell us a fun fact about yourself something that our listeners might be interested in that doesn't have to do with your career or your work as a Democrat something fun and personal that we may not know.

Bette Holland: 38:08

You know, sometimes I think my husband wishes I did have something fun that was

Meral Clarke: 38:13

your life is comprised of all of this, isn't it? You're so busy,

Bette Holland: 38:17

all the political stuff. In fact, yesterday, I needed to go see my granddaughter, my son has moved from California back to Athens where he went to college and his family's there and I needed to go see or there was something I needed to get back here at five o'clock for and I got over there and started having fun with her. And finally around five o'clock, I said I'm not going back. I just need to stay here. I'm hoping that my family will be something that keeps me fun. And I look forward to doing things with them. I love gardening. I love flowers. My yard is is like the Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do a lot in it. But my husband does. So he helps me a lot with the gardening and the things that we do in the yard. And so that's fun, wonderful, wonderful sisters that I enjoy visiting and spending time with

Meral Clarke: 39:03

75. You haven't slowed down one bit. Have you buddy? No,

Bette Holland: 39:07

no, we'll have to at some point, but not yet.

Meral Clarke: 39:10

Good is good for you. And of course that helps keep all of us young doesn't it being involved. Well, thank you, Betty for joining us today and sharing more about your critical work to maintain our environment and democratic initiatives and goals. It's so vital to our future and I can't thank you enough. I'm Meral Clarke and on behalf of our team, I'd like to thank everyone for listening to the North Georgia Blue Podcast. We hope you'll listen next time when our special guest will be Melissa clink Chair of the Forsyth County Democrats to learn more about the Fannin County democrats and the work that we're doing visit us online at Fannin County, Georgia democrats.com and consider sharing the North Georgia Blue Podcast with your friends and family. Join us again as we get into some more good trouble