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By Guest Columnist DOUG BEEBE, board chairman of the Georgia Solar Energy Association

On Saturday, Oct. 1, Georgians all over the state will have an opportunity to experience and learn more about how solar energy, America’s fastest-growing industry, is bringing jobs, investment and advanced technology to our state.

During the annual Georgia Solar Tour, commercial, agricultural and residential solar installations in every part of the state will open to the public for display with docents on site to explain the technology and describe its benefits. This event is part of the National Solar Tour, which this year will open some 5,500 installations in 3,200 communities nationwide.

By Guest Columnist DAVID KYLER, executive director of the Center for a Sustainable Coast in Saint Simons Island

In recent years we’ve witnessed increasing failures in political institutions brought by a reckless trend in the devotion to absolute positions that have little, if any, factual basis.

Moreover, these positions often work to undermine the well-being of the same people who promote them. Voters elect candidates who serve the special interests of groups that few belong to, and long-disproven claims about economic remedies continue to motivate political decisions, with disastrous results.

By Guest Columnist TAMMY HURT, co-president of Georgia Music Partners

Georgia’s internationally-known music industry is big business, and our creative community is unmatched. Based on 2009 data, there were 19,955 jobs in the state because of the music business. “Economic and Fiscal Impact Analysis of the Music Industry in Georgia,” recently published by noted Ph.D. in Economics, B. William Riall, also put state and local government tax receipts at $314 million.

Sounds like a nice contribution to the state’s overall economy, so what is the problem?

1. Other states, such as Louisiana, are doing a far better job attracting and growing music businesses. For example, Louisiana’s music credit incented our own R.E.M. to record in New Orleans,

By Guest Columnist SALLY S. BETHEA, founding director of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper organization

As president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Ivan Allen Jr. launched a “Forward Atlanta” campaign in 1960 to promote the city’s image and to attract new business and investment.

But, it was three years later in July 1963, after he’d been elected mayor of Atlanta, that Allen took the step that set our city apart from, and ahead of, our sister cities—as a progressive, forward-thinking place good for business and good for all families.

By Guest Columnist AMIR FAROKHI, executive director of Georgia Forward, a non-partisan public policy initiative working to engage leaders to address Georgia’s biggest challenges.

For decades, Georgians have known that ours is a state divided. Whether it is geography, economics, culture, politics or race, Georgia’s divides are frequently lamented.

While Georgia is not alone in this respect among states, other states, from Utah to North Carolina, have learned to silence their doubts and pull together with impressive

By Guest Columnist JENNETTE GAYER, policy coordinator for Environment Georgia, a citizen-based environmental advocacy organization

The disaster that continues to unfold in Japan has caused people to think a little deeper about the health and safety of their families, and what protections we have in place to keep us safe from dangerous pollution.

In Georgia, air quality is still a huge problem.