Several days ago several of my friends lamented both the constant barrage of stories about abortion and the subject itself.  All averredly pro-life they are none-the-less tired of hearing about Planned Abor…Parenthood, pro-choice, pro-life, and broken Republican rhetoric.  One asked, “why doesn’t anyone just do something?”

Someone tried.  Oddly enough it was an elected Republican from Georgia who actually used his position of power to make a difference.  He tried time and again.  Failure to him only meant another chance to try again.

He was dead serious about protecting children in addition to championing various other causes of freedom.  He was one of the very few living politicians I admired. I knew the man personally.  His name was Bobby Franklin.

Robert “Bobby” Franklin represented Georgia’s 43rd House District (Cobb County) from 1997 until his death in 2011.

Bobby Franklin at work.  Google.

A self-made businessman he served on the House Banking Committee, among others.  At one time he was chairman of the House Reapportionment Committee.  He consistently stood for less government and more freedom.  He was never shy of controversy.

His most famous stand was for those unborn Georgians.  In 2011 he made sure the very first bill in the House hopper was one which would have made abortion a felony punishable by either death or life in prison.  See: H.B. 1, 2011.  He rightly considered the practice a form of murder.

His hardest critics, had they not been weak cowards, would have possibly tried to murder Bobby himself for his stance.  Of course, they resorted to base distortion and lying, going so far as to say Bobby would criminalize ordinary miscarriage. These were and are the same sort of satanists who laugh while discussing chopping up living babies and then selling the parts.

You can read and judge for yourself the would-have-been effects of H.B. 1 via the link above.  Here is the pertinent part of the Bill, concerned with protecting the rights of all citizens:

H.B. 1, 2011, GA Gen. Assembly.

Extreme, huh?

Upon his untimely death his detractors still mocked:

Bobby Franklin was the demagogue the Founding Fathers feared and warned us about, a perfect example of the excesses of democracy that would strip the common American citizen of his or her rights.

If you must have a eulogy from me this morning, it will be this, and this only: Bobby Franklin was a danger to democracy and a danger to women and now he’s dead.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, No Eulogies for Georgia State Rep. Bobby Franklin, 
July 28, 2011. 

Nonsense, all of it.  The free people of the state had no better friend.

Bobby did want to strip away certain things from out the overfilled lumber room of Georgia law.  He wanted to strip out taxes.  He wanted to strip away regulations.  He wanted to strip away government involvement in people’s lives – to include abolishing the requirement for a state-issued driver’s license.

Had the ultra-left not been so preoccupied with killing babies they might have recognized Bobby’s position of licenses as similar to those of the 1960’s counter-culture.

“Free people have a common law and constitutional right to travel on the roads and highways that are provided by their government for that purpose,” Franklin’s legislation states. “Licensing of drivers cannot be required of free people, because taking on the restrictions of a license requires the surrender of an inalienable right.”
In an interview with CBS Atlanta News, Franklin claimed driver’s licenses are a throw back to oppressive times.

“Agents of the state demanding your papers,” he said. “We’re getting that way here.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/georgia-republican-nobody-should-need-a-driver-s-license

TPM Muckraker, Feb. 2, 2011.

He further proposed other “unthinkable” freedom-centered legislation, to include:

*The sole use of gold or silver as currency (where did he ever get that idea???);

*Taxing and regulating the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta like any other bank;

*Banning forced vaccinations;

*Eliminating the state income tax;

*Eliminating property taxes;

*Banning eminent domain;

*Recognizing that civil government is last and least after family, religion, and community;

*Protecting the right to bear arms and to use them in self-defense;

*Making it legal to carry a firearm into a Georgia church (actually passed three years after his death); and

*Mandating that questions of Constitutional Law be settled by elected officials in the General Assembly rather than the Courts.

Bobby never quite trusted the courts nor lawyers (maybe to include me..).  He was not afraid of them and did not worship their decisions as most lawyers do.  In fact, his H.B. 1, supra, would have specifically banned federal courts from reviewing his law, as they lacked jurisdiction (true if moot today):

H.B. 1, 2011. Federal courts need not apply.

A little known fact about Bobby Franklin was that he actually wanted to become a Federal District Court Judge.  He once called me, during the early 2000s, to ask what the qualifications were and, specifically, if one had to be an attorney.  I explained to him he met all the (very few) technical qualifications.  There is no requirement that a federal judge of any sort be an attorney.  Some of the finest of all American jurists have been (long ago) non-lawyers.

We then discussed the political qualifications.  Politically, one does need to be an attorney.  One also needs to contribute heavily to a President’s campaign.  One must be capable of passing U.S. Senate scrutiny after securing a nomination.  I asked him if he thought George Bush (the dimmer) would nominate such an outspoken, relentless champion of liberty.  We laughed and he apparently dismissed the idea.  That was a shame.

I think what had stirred him to this unlikely career change idea was the flap over the separation of church and state caused by the public display here and there of the Ten Commandments.  I’m sure he had other reasons too.  He would have made a fantastic judge.

Bobby was a fantastic man.  A man in real life in addition to the newspapers and the state house.  We attended a men’s wild game dinner at the First Baptist Church in Woodstock together.  Then governor Sonny Perdue gave a short sermon before shotguns were raffled off.  Sometimes Georgia is a damn fine place!  Perdue actually gave a decent homily, concerning the wrath of the devil in our lives: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”  1 Peter 5:8, JKV.

That is a powerful verse and Perdue’s usage was well placed.  Powerful also was Bobby Franklin’s response to a joking question asked that night by another speaker.  Remember, it was a men’s group.  The speaker laughingly asked how many of us were “henpecked.”   A thousand or so of us sheepishly raised our hands.  Bobby did not.  Real. Man.

I found out he was gone one day when I was poking around my Facebook feed and realized Bobby wasn’t on anymore.  A Google search revealed his death to me.  As could be guessed from his legislative history, Bobby was a staunch Christian.  His death was discovered when he failed to show as usual at his church on Sunday morning.  He died of well-hidden heart problems.  One would have never suspected he took prescription medications of any kind – he was as physically fit as he was steadfast to his principles.

The popular press was a bit kinder than the lunatic left in its obituary:

“He was one of the few politicians who stood by what he believed in, whether you agreed with it or not.” …

“He would want to be remembered first as a person of faith and second as a person who loved his country and loved liberty.” …

“While he certainly was controversial, he was never vitriolic and was never mean. This is a very sad day for Georgia.”

Franklin could also often be a thorn in the side of Republican leadership. While his go-it-alone attitude was rarely problematic, he could tie up committee meetings for hours. A member of the Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, he would frequently attempt to add anti-abortion language to unrelated bills to the exasperation of his colleagues.

He also was unafraid to challenge the speaker of the House, an act somewhat akin to challenging a king. On several occasions, even challenging a member of the same party, Franklin would force a vote of the full House in an attempt to overrule the speaker. This was true under both former Speaker Glenn Richardson, R-Hiram, and current Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.

Franklin Remembered, AJC, July 26, 2011.

I suppose this is my belated good-bye to Bobby.  His loss was a sad blow to Georgia and America.  Also, sadly, we will not likely see his kind again.