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By Tom Scarritt
The Birmingham News
April 8, 2001

   Achilles, the great Greek hero of the Trojan War, sat out a big part of the fight. King Agamemnon had taken a captive woman away from Achilles, and the warrior sulked in his tent.

   Despite the pleas of his friends and followers, Achilles would not come out and lead the Greeks in battle. In his absence, the emboldened Trojans chased the Greeks back to their ships.

   However, after the tragic death of his dear friend Patroclus, Achilles emerged from his tent and led the Greek forces back to the walls of Troy. Although Achilles did not live to see the victory, the Greeks won that epic struggle. And the fame of Achilles, the hero, has endured through the ages.

   On Wednesday, Gov. Don Siegelman emerged from his tentativeness and formally joined the fight to rewrite Alabama's outdated and immoral constitution. The Don who once said he is no Quixote has decided to be a hero, after all.

   Like Achilles, Siegelman had been seen by many as the strong and skillful leader our people needed to prevail. Early in his term, though, voters took away his plan for a lottery to fund some important education initiatives. The governor didn't exactly sulk in his tent. As he reminded us in his speech, many advances have occurred on his watch. But he did retreat from confronting the need for fundamental reform in the way we run our state.

   Despite the pleas of his friends and followers, Siegelman would not come out and lead the battle for constitutional reform. He challenged the reformers to show him there was true grass-roots support for their cause. That groundswell, perhaps along with the tragic dearth of funding for education programs dear to the governor, persuaded him to reclaim his role as a hero of reform.

   "I pledge my time, my energy and my effort to help you achieve the reforms needed for education and economic prosperity," Siegelman told the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform at their rally in Montgomery.

   Of course, being a hero is a risky business. Even Achilles, whose mother dipped him in the River Styx to make him immortal, was vulnerable at the point on his heel where she held him. An arrow hit him there and killed him before the Greeks took Troy.

   Siegelman has taken a pledge of no new taxes to protect himself politically. However, the shortage of funds to provide basic services and decent education for the people of Alabama could prove to be a point of vulnerability. Proration may be his Achilles heel.

   Achilles deliberately chose the pursuit of glory over a long life. There may be a point at which Don Siegelman must risk his political life in pursuit of greater good. He may have to expand his vision of reform to include fair and adequate taxes, as well. Such courage is the essence of heroism.

   As Hector, the hero of the Trojan side, said: "Let me at least not die without a struggle, inglorious, but do some big thing first, that men shall come to know of it."

   Siegelman has taken the first step. He has joined the fight to do a big thing, a glorious thing that cannot be accomplished without the leadership of a hero governor.

   Governor, we salute you.

(Tom Scarritt is editor of The News. His e-mail address is tscarritt@bhamnews.com.)

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Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 34
Montgomery, Alabama 36101-0034

E-mail: accr@constitutionalreform.org