A few thoughts on Alabama

[angrycarpenter]

Alabama's contribution to national politics has been a constant shame to me.

I was born there 43 years ago. My parents worked its hard, low paying jobs. I endured constant bully attacks in its underfunded schools. We moved to Fla. when I was 13.

I remember KKK members in robes, standing at an intersection collecting money as if they were some charity. Kids wore KKK T-shirts to school at the rural, all white High-school I went to.

I remember my mom hating George Wallace when everyone else seemed to think that he was great. My mom may be the least racist person I know, a miracle considering where she is from.

I remember being beaten because I said that MLK may be the bravest person ever.

I remember everyone young and old alike looking down without mercy at the poorest citizens of our town. My family was one.

I think what I am trying to say is that Alabama Is a world unto itself. Tolerance is in short supply there. Rumor seems to carry more weight than truth. Rationality is looked upon with suspicion. Politics is preached from the pulpit.

I love the state of my birth but I cannot say I love the people (excluding my family of course). They tend to be ignore the national news in favor of a local newscast that is 50% fluff and 50% fear with the weather taking up 10 minutes. They desperately cling to their isolationism. It's no wonder neo-cons took over the place.

There is no excuse for the way that Alabama conducts its politics, it is openly corrupt. It's police officers are some of the most underpaid and under equipped in the nation. They have to fund themselves by writing speeding tickets. Speeding in Ala. is risky.

It's schools are underfunded, a lottery would have worked wonders. Ga. has great schools now. The thousands of people who drive to Ga. to buy tickets fund the Georgia schools when they could have been funding their own.

I have given up hope that my beautiful home state will ever turn around. So for now I am a Floridian, Still not great but better.

[Warpy]

1. I drove the length of that state in early 2006

during the height of the Judge Roy Moore insanity. I have to say that Alabama took the prize for the most toxic radio in the south. It was everywhere, all over the dial. I felt relief as I drove across the line into Mississippi. Mississippi, ferkrissakes!

It is my fervent wish that the Siegleman case exposes the slimy underbelly of politics in that state. I want everybody who had anything to do with prosecuting him and with stealing the election from him to die in prison.

I don't want much, really, just long overdue disgrace for all the people who have so richly deserved it for so long.

Alabama will remain the national joke until people there wake up and demand real justice.

[TahitiNut]

2. I lived in suburbs of Mobile 44 years ago. It doesn't sound like it's changed much.

You describe it as I remember it. Incredible bigotry - open and ordinary. Hypocrisy - drunks in sleeping it off in their pickup trucks in the parking lots of the local long-neck chug-n-puke on Sunday morning while other family members attended the fire-n-brimstone services. Often within yards of each other. The corruption was rampant. Wallace was Governor.

[spag68]

3. Alabama is not all bad

Talladega is a really fun racetrack. My favorite rap on them is how they stole the union steel worker jobs from Pgh. Now those jobs are gone from there too.

[OwnedByFerrets]

4. That "they" brush you are using is mighty broad......

there are many progressive LUBRULS here....you just have to look kinda hard for us. And yes, we are outnumbered, but I do all I can to change minds and hearts and have done my share. The state is very brainwashed for sure, but dont put us all in that evil basket of repug'ism.:-)

[countmyvote4real]

5. There are still good people there, just not enough for now.

I agree with much of what you have to say about your experiences in Alabama. I’m about ten years older than you, but my Alabama time overlaps yours a few years by my calculations.

First, I should tell you that both of my parents are from Mississippi. (rim shot) However, my dad was in the AF and my wonder years were elsewhere, but I had enough encounters to pursue a music degree from a Southern Baptist university in Birmingham. (My sites were set on Berklee in Boston, but that was out of the question for my fundie parents.)

So, here are some of my recollections.

The first thing my roommate wanted to know about me was my preference for Auburn or Alabama. I was on the music track and didn’t have a clue about the importance of a position on the state’s football rivalry. I really couldn’t care less (and still don’t), but I think I agreed to go with the Tide. Whatever. Could we talk about something else?

Towards the end of my first semester a pledge brother for the music fraternity mentioned there were open chorus auditions for a prominent community theatre’s production of “Promises, Promises.” I didn’t know that much about dancing, but I could read a score and it was the music of Burt fucking Bacharach. I was young. It seemed like fun. And it was.

This was a semi-professional theatre that brought in out of state talent to star, direct or choreograph their shows. I got to meet a lot of really cool people from Birmingham that also volunteered their time for a nicely staged local theatrical production. I also found that smoking pot was not that bad after all.

Considering how repressed I was until then, these were really my wonder years. I began to question the relevance of the dissimilar communities that surrounded me during the day and then at night. That’s just a time reference. (I would remain a virgin for at least another year or two.) During the day, I felt like I was at a “Stepford” university and then the evenings brought me in touch with a vibrant community of individuals rehearsing and learning our parts; and the subsequent after hours cool downs.

It turned out that the community theatre was associated with UAB. (I guess I got good advice even if it was by extension of the tide brand.) So, my parents agreed to support my transfer to UAB for my sophomore year to study theatre. They didn’t feel that way after my mom discovered a joint I totally forgot about in the pocket of a sport jacket she sent to the dry cleaner.

Yikes. This is so about me and not about Alabama. Fast forward: Two years later I graduated from UGA (in-state tuition) and returned to Birmingham and the semi –professional community theatre.

Now, on to the Alabama recollections.

I think that the mafia was very big there at the time. Blue laws prevented alcohol from being served on Sundays. And yet there was a popular Italian restaurant where one could get wine served with a meal in a coffee cup on Sundays. That says a lot about the culture of corruption. And no wonder it was popular.

I recall that national media was blacked out way back then for corporate interests. There was a PBS program about the Saudi princess that was condemned to death. It was reported that it was not picked up for broadcast by the APBS because a company headquartered in Birmingham had many Saudi projects. This is the land of Jim Crow. This is how they do it down there and everywhere. Only now, it’s a bit more garish. It’s 12 minutes of black broadcast signal and seven years in prison for being a popular Democrat.

Yes, I met some good eggs, but most of the people down there are idiots. The good ones left and are thrilled to write about their escape.

Alabama is a foreign country. It boasts a Shakespeare festival, but it cannot count votes or play by civilized rules. I know there are more good people out there than the polls would allow. If not, why would any information be limited to Alabama citizens? They are literally dumfounded.

Alabama, say it isn't so. Vote. Write to your representatives. I know you are better than this. Do you support our Constitution or not? (Sorry, no football teams involved. It’s still a real issue for you and eventually for the rest of us.) We need to make it right.