Opinion
July
7, 2002
If
you live in Alabama, if you're proud of how far the state has come
but frustrated at how far it still must go, have some summer reading
for you. If you don't have time this summer,
fall will be OK. So will winter. So will any time. The subject matter
is that
important.
A new book, ''A Century of Controversy: Constitutional
Reform in Alabama,'' will be published Aug. 2 by the University of
Alabama Press. Just in time, I might add, to fuel the
constitutional reform debate in the fall gubernatorial campaign.
Make no mistake: This is more than a serious book; this
is a scathing indictment of Alabama's outmoded
and shameful constitution. The volume's 12 essays should dispel whatever
delusional notions may
remain that the constitution of 1901 can't be all that bad. Believe
me, it can.
The 12 contributing essayists are all highly qualified
and widely respected historians, political scientists and academics
in related fields. Their works are meticulously researched, their
suggestions on target, their conclusions irrefutable.
Edited by Bailey Thomson, a University of Alabama journalism
professor (and a long-time newspaper writer and editor whose career
included a stint at The Huntsville Times), ''A Century of Controversy''
does not equivocate. It cites a mountain of damning evidence as to
how the constitution came to be enacted, what it has done to this
state and how it can be replaced with a modern and responsible document.
The essays do not cover new ground but old ground too
easily forgotten. As you have no doubt read in this section and in
other state newspapers, the constitution of 1901 burdens Alabama with
a document that fails. It fails to treat all citizens equally; it
fails to provide the public or the Legislature the authority to enact
a fair and reliable tax system; it fails to break the stranglehold
of special interests and thus denies the state's communities the power
to decide their fate for themselves.
The conclusions of the authors are identical - or nearly
so - to the ones you have read on state editorial pages, ours and
others. But here the writers are not constrained by the deadlines
or space limitations of daily newspapers. They offer source after
source, footnote after footnote. No person possessed of even minimal
literacy could read such history and such analysis and not be outraged
at the bad things 1901 constitution has done to good people.
I won't name all the contributors, but in addition to
Thomson, they include Auburn's Wayne Flynt and Brad Moody and Jacksonville
State's Harvey Jackson.
For more information, visit www.uapress.ua.edu.
It should be available soon at many bookstores.
At $25, ''A Century of Controversy'' is not cheap, but
it's less than some popular novels - and it's a far better investment.
Ignore it at your peril.
John Ehinger's e-mail: johne@htimes.com.
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