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Decatur ~ 4/17/03

click on an image below to see a full size photo

   A rare event occurred on the drive to my hometown of Decatur Thursday morning: I passed not one, but two vehicles on I-65! OK, so one was an RV towing an SUV and the other was a fully-loaded garbage truck. But nevertheless, I'm counting it and Dale Jr. better look out.

   I arrived at the Decatur Utilities auditorium well in advance and began to set up the ACCR table full of brochures, sign-in sheets, buttons, videos, stickers, info sheets, and more. Thankfully, I had a lot of help setting up from two volunteers (and great friends) Paul Thornton and Roz Sessoms. Actually, they did most of the setting up while I ran around in circles. I'll make a great supervisor one day.

   The forum began around 6:00 PM with John Seymour of the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce welcoming the 50 or so audience members and explaining the Chamber's support of constitutional reform. Mayor Lynn Fowler then spoke about some of the problems he has encountered in city government due to the constitution. Dr. Bill Stewart (a native of nearby Hartselle) was the first panelist and covered the history of the constitution. Dr. Thomas Corts went over some current problems of the 1901 constitution and then Karen Stanley (a member of both the Governor's and ACCR's constitution commissions) spoke on the work of the commissions that she has served on.

   My favorite part of the forum was the Q & A time. A group of organized opposition to ACCR asked numerous questions about ACCR's intentions and motives and it was a great chance to respond to their concerns. The crowd was very involved that night and continued to discuss the issue into the parking lot after the forum was over. It was a great scene of democracy in action made possible by the co-sponsors of the event, The Decatur Daily and the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce.

   After everyone was finished signing the bus, I was lucky enough to enjoy dinner with my parents and most importantly, sleep in my own bed.

• Legislature has no political incentive for mass reform
   The Decatur Daily, April 24, 2003
• Commission defends proposal to reform state constitution
  Decatur Daily, April 18, 2003
• State citizens group continues pushing for new constitution
  Decatur Daily, April 13, 2003

Go to: The Bus Driver Diaries ~ Part 2
Return to: Constitutional Reform ~ in the News