Part I: Gone are the days when my heart was young, Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away, I hear those gentle voices calling Old Black Joe

"A tale of two Georgias" from The Valdosta Daily Times:

Only one thing is certain when the General Assembly gets to work this week on new district maps — South Georgia will not fare well.

Despite the steady growth of the region, the population simply has not kept pace with that of our northern neighbors. Valdosta used to be the 10th largest city in the state. Now it’s down to 15th. The Atlanta area boom and the new municipalities that have been created in the last 10 years have created a major shift.

Rural voting strength has been diluted for years. Atlanta is like a giant sinkhole in the middle of the state, sucking in new territory along with the lion’s share of federal and state dollars. But money follows people. And the new district lines will as well.

South Georgia is poised to lose four House seats, and that may just be the beginning. Unless the region can work together to recruit industries that will create jobs and bring in new blood, there will never be a way to counteract the population shift to the north.

The “two Georgias” saying may have started years ago as a jest, but it’s no longer a laughing matter. Unless a major economic boom happens in the next 10 years, by 2020, Valdosta will be just another small city in the Atlanta metro area.