This MLK Day think of Gov Bob Riley – Better yet …

[panzerfaust]

Send him this reminder excerpted from Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech:

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

Sadly, even now, over forty years later, Dr. King’s dream has not come true in Alabama. Remind the good gov that they rest of the nation watched as his state, once again, voted for segregated schools this past November.

I think Dr. King might appreciate it.

Of yes, on the contact form take note of the proudly displayed Alabama state flag ... least we forget, I suppose.

[GreyPilgrim]

1. Uh..

I live in 'Bama and voted for the amendment change... It was a rather close vote, if I recall. Too be honest, I don't think the people knew what they were voting for. Everyone was so focused on this Presidential election, that items like the change to the constitution was lost in the scope of things. At least that is what I like to believe. Also I think it has more to do with lack of support for the public schools here rather than race. Although, that tends to go hand in hand.

No excuse for keeping that in the Constitution, that's for sure. While Alabama has its share problems for sure (we seem to have a surplus of Republicans for one), it's not all THAT bad. :-)

[panzerfaust]

2. Sorry Dude: it was, and is, that bad.

I live more or less next door in Texas, where I was born. I remember the Jim Crow laws when I was a kid. I remember the three restrooms: “Men, Women, & Colored”, I remember the two drinking fountains “White” and “Colored”, the back of the bus signs. I could go on. The point is that most Southern states – including Texas – have moved beyond, or at least are trying to move beyond the racism of the Very Recent past. Several, including Alabama, are severely lagging, and I think it fair to remind the current Governor of that.

I surely also remember another Alabama Governor standing tall - George Wallace: “In March, 1965, a violent confrontation between Alabama state troopers and peaceful civil rights marchers horrified the nation. The troops that beat and tear-gassed the demonstrators were under orders from Governor George Wallace ...” I saw this. So did the rest of the nation, just as they saw Alabama voters support segregation in the last election: as though the last 50 years had never happened. It is past time that Alabama, and a few other states (Mississippi comes to mind) moved into at least the twentieth century, much less the twenty first.

Just think how appalling it seems to the rest of the world that 40% of Alabama voters think that inter-racial marriage should be a crime. Forty percent (Well, really 41%, if one is rounding off). And that is in this century, when Alabama's “miscegenation” laws were finally overturned - Alabama being the LAST STATE to do so. In the twenty first century a very substantial minority of Alabama's voters still see inter-racial marriage as something that is so abhorrent that it should be against the law.

Perhaps, if enough people actually complain, Gov Riley will push though legislation allowing this unbelievable affront to be removed the laws of the “Heart of Dixie”. Sadly, the “Heart of Dixie” seems to be the “Heart of Darkness”, and it seems there are many – a majority in fact in this last election – who wish to return to segregation, to return to the brutality of the recent past.

Dr. King had a dream. That dream has not been realized in Alabama.

Not that bad? Is there ANY other state that still has laws on its books mandating racially segregated schools? Not laws there because they just never got removed: but there because by vote of the majority of Alabamans they were not removed.

There is a reason that Dr. King named Alabama in his speech. Sadly, that reason still exists today.

[GreyPilgrim]

3. Sounds like

You make it sound like as if every other state is free of racism and ignorance. This clearly isn't the case. Perhaps you missed what I said in my prior post, but I honestly don't think people know WHAT they were voting for.
While I've only been out here for 10 years or so, it's not what I imagined it to be when I first moved out here.

Ignorance is everywhere, not just Alabama. If you have never lived here, then it's hard to take what you are saying seriously. Yeah, the laws suck here, and the strong conservative base here is what keeps these laws around. But to generalize an entire state is flat out stereotyping, something it sounds like you normally disapprove of.