By Lucinda Coulter
Special to ACCR Foundation, Inc.
Restoring equity and fairness
to state government drove the message of impassioned speeches on rewriting
the state's 1901 constitution at an old-time, statewide rally on Oct.
22.
Speaking at Mobile's Battleship Park, more than 10 leaders from civic,
political, military and academic arenas stirred a crowd of about 500
to right the wrongs in the antiquated document. Of the four major
reform events held since April, it was the first at which leaders
announced plans of a statewide march to Montgomery next spring, in
the push for a self-governing constitution.
South Alabamians
from Baldwin, Mobile and surrounding
counties listened to speeches
offering a vision of modern
self-governance for 21st
Century Alabama.
Open-air tents swayed to gusts of wind from the
nearby bay while a volunteer band played "Stars and Stripes Forever,"
lullabies and "Big Band" music from the 1940s and 50s. The Daphne
High School color guard presentation and singing of the national anthem
prefaced the rally cries for a new constitution.
"Property, not people, have been our legislative priority,"
Harvey Jackson, chairman of the Jacksonville State University history
department, told the crowd.
"The time has come to write a document that liberates
rather than restricts, that points us to the future rather than to
the past," he said.
Reviewing the document's history, he said the constitution's
664 amendments have made "micro managing the state a rule" and that
Amendment 373, the "current use value" provision, has prevented a
modern democracy to function in Alabama.
"Current use and earmarking are the biggest obstacles
in the government," Jackson said.
Current use refers to Alabama's unique method of taxing
timber and agricultural properties so that owners pay the lowest rates
by far in the nation. Earmarking is pre-determining how revenues will
be spent without leaving the Legislature flexibility to address crises
or new needs. About 90 percent of Alabama's funds are earmarked under
the present constitution - the highest percentage in the nation.
Changing those obstacles may take time, speakers warned.
"Cynicism is one of the biggest problems in the country
today," Kettering Foundation CEO David Mathews said of the belief
that private citizens think they have no control in government. A
native of Grove Hill, the former University of Alabama president urged
reform advocates to relate people's basic needs to the constitution
and to involve people in the government's decisions.
"Legislators should listen to the people," he said. "The
constitution should be something the people can get their hands on."
Mathews argued for the power of a unified force, though
it may come from only a fraction of the populace.
"Never doubt that a small group of people can change
history. It is the only thing that ever has," he said of a friend's
advice to him.
A better educational system, fair taxes and the ability
to govern locally are reasons for writing a new constitution, no matter
how much time is required, leaders said.
"Fundamental change does not come easily in Alabama,
but in education we have raised standards," State Board of Education
member Bradley Byrne, said. He worked on the 1979 constitutional commission
led by former Gov. Fob James.
"Patience, persistence and a commitment to the public
good against all odds" are essential in constitutional reform, which,
he said, is needed for the state's funding of education.
Though its initiatives in math and reading have become
models for other states, Alabama does not have the required funds
to enact the plans. "
A simpler and fairer tax law is needed in the constitution.
It should provide a process to ensure our children's, and their children's,
education," Byrne, father of four children, said.
"We have the opportunity to right a great wrong."
Odessa Woolfolk, president emeritus of the Birmingham
Civil Rights Institute, advocated tax fairness as well, saying she
does not want her state to be 47th in education any longer, nor ranked
46th in care for the environment.
The poorest 20 percent of the tax payers pay about 12
percent of their incomes in local taxes in Alabama: The most affluent
20 percent pay 7 percent in those same taxes.
"No one wants to pay higher taxes," Woolfolk said. "But
most people want a better education for their children and more efficient
state government."
"We ought to look at taxes, at fairness, and see what
we want to do," she said, referring to Gov. Don Seigelman's recent
quotation in Governing magazine that Alabama needs to become a "catch
me" state instead of a "make me" state.
"We need 21st century thinking for 21st century opportunities.
It's time to let the 1901 constitution bite the dust," she urged.
A diverse group of retired citizens, families with children
and young adults attended, some in casual cut-offs and sunglasses
and others in traditional church clothes. Children rode ponies and
clustered around a petting zoo to watch goats, baby rabbits and chickens.
People ate roasted hot dogs and soda drinks provided at the rally.
A translator provided access to the speeches for hearing-impaired
listeners. Many at the rally cooled themselves with cardboard fans
under a brilliant blue October sky.
Reform is essential for basic civic health and safety,
area leaders said. Circuit Judge Herman Thomas of Mobile County, called
for inclusion in local governance for youth at risk.
"We can't build enough jails to help our youth. We have
to provide early guidance in schools," he said, comparing the present
constitution to one that excludes instead of including most people's
needs.
Mobile County Commission President Sam Jones said that
the county has very little control over local decisions and that special
interests clog efficiency. "You have to go to Montgomery for everything.
It hinders development of local communities and makes a long drawn
out approach to county government.
"Decisions are made by people who have no interest in
our local areas," he said. "We can hardly get by special interests
because someone has to go to the special interest first to get changes
made."
"Were self governance to become a reality, it would allow
legislators to spend their time on state issues," he noted.
For Vietnam War veteran Tim Russell, now mayor of Foley,
revising the 1901 constitution would strengthen Alabamians' basic
freedoms as Americans. Russell, who was a casualty officer for the
families of soldiers killed in Vietnam, said that the constitution
has no place in America's democracy.
"The constitution does not serve the freedom and equality
that our veterans and families deserve," he said. Alabama ranks highest
in the number of war veterans of all the states in the nation.
"It is not a matter of if but when we will have reform,"
he said.
Russell is the president of Baldwin Mutual Insurance
Co., the oldest property casualty company in the state, and he said
that the constitution is inequitable to small companies, about half
of which have left Alabama since mid century.
Samford University President Tom Corts argued for reform
because of the document's patchwork of contradictions in the amendments.
"It establishes state government all wrong," thereby disabling a democracy,
he said.
"What our state can do is not yet told," he said. "Let
Alabama do what it can do, unleashed to its capability." Serving as
chair of ACCR Foundation, Inc., Corts distributed copies of the old
constitution so that citizens may see the documents' flaws firsthand.
Dr. Bailey Thomson, associate professor of journalism
at the University of Alabama and ACCR Foundation, Inc. communications
director, told advocates that the rally's messages of hope bear in
them a "new movement sweeping Alabama."
"We can atone for the sins of the fathers in a constitution
that is democratic in purpose, broad in scope and conducive to good
government," he said. "We want one written in the full sunshine of
public scrutiny."
Thomson said the grassroots effort is essential for Alabama
to have a new constitution. "There is no substitute for leadership,
but we cannot depend on a political messiah."
"We are just realizing the potential force we can have
in our civic life," he said of the growing public surge to rewrite
the constitution. He noted that business leaders, citizens concerned
about urban sprawl and college youth are showing interest in the reform
process.
Thomson urged citizens to write their legislators, to
speak out on the importance of the issue and to involve civic groups,
clubs and churches in reforming the constitution.
"Expand the civic space and take back the democracy that
has been ruled by special interests that have had too much privilege
for too long," he said.
"What you heard about reform is the truth. I believe
the truth can set us free, for ourselves, for our children and for
our children's children," Thomson concluded.
Former Congressman Jack Edwards, vice chairman of ACCR
Foundation, Inc., moderated at the rally. More than 23 local organizations
sponsored the Sunday afternoon event.
Organizer Cathy Golden said that reform activists in
Baldwin and Mobile counties are preparing for the march to Montgomery
in April as a way to send a message to legislators that "the citizens
want reform.
Dr. Lucinda Coulter is a journalism
instructor at the University of Alabama.
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