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MONTGOMERY -- They are a diverse bunch -- old and
young, white and black, male and female. These delegates to Alabama's
first constitutional convention in a century look, well, pretty much
like Alabama.
They have worked and debated here for months in the Statehouse
building, drafting a modern charter of fundamental laws and human rights.
They now will ask voters to ratify it.
Lobbyists and other capital regulars had warned that citizens
could never do the work of politicians, but delegates surprised everyone
with their mastery of details. Most of them rose above petty special
interests -- again, defying the insiders' predictions.
Newspaper editorials credit Gov. Don Siegelman for
insisting that the Legislature call a citizens convention and for persuading
voters to support such a move. Earlier, he had been coy about reform,
but then he came alive to the prospects for changing Alabama forever.
Many say the state has never had a governor of such vision and vigor.
Polls indicate voters will embrace this new constitution.
Reformers expect a massive, last-minute ad blitz by offended interest
groups, but supporters appear to be well-armed with facts to dispel
scare tactics. They have crisscrossed the state to hammer their arguments
that this new constitution would make life better for Alabamians.
Supporters say they have been helped by news coverage around
the world that depicts their efforts as casting aside the racist, negative
images from Alabama's past ...
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This touch of fiction presents a grand dream, to
be sure, but certainly not an impossible one. Other Southern states,
such as Georgia and Florida, have written modern constitutions, and
they have prospered under them. Alabama can do the same.
A convention is the ideal way to proceed, but the present
constitution also allows the Legislature to rewrite the document article
by article for voters to consider. Regardless of the method, reformers
face the same challenge: They first must persuade the Legislature to
accept reform. And as sad as it sounds, many legislators refuse to surrender
the power they enjoy, under the 1901 document, as lords of the manor
over local affairs.
Thus citizens are compelled to organize and help their
legislators see the light. In the process, Alabama can enjoy a revival
of its civic life and begin reversing the tragic influence that the
present constitution has exerted, beginning when it stripped the vote
from African-Americans and poor whites. Many Alabama governors, beginning
with Emmet O'Neal in 1915, have championed a new constitution. But for
various reasons each attempt -- however noble -- failed.
These past reform efforts originated at the top of Alabama's
political system. Lurking to destroy them were reactionary special interests,
such as the Alabama Farmers Federation, jealously guarding their constitutional
privileges.
But what if a new movement arose instead from the grass
roots, gaining momentum as it grew? Could this crusade overpower the
special interests?
Equally important, would such a movement help reverse citizens'
alienation from public life? Could it become an antidote to the poisonous
and divisive politics that regularly roil our state and confuse our
people?
We often hear complaints that our citizens, if they show
up at the polls at all, can be motivated more easily to vote "no" than
"yes." The negative attack ad is widely reviled but remains crudely
efficient.
Yet let us be careful to assign blame where it belongs.
For almost a century, our state has endured a constitution written by
industrialists -- dubbed the "Big Mules" -- and rich planters, who vested
themselves with power and pushed citizens aside in the quest for cheap
labor and tax advantages. This alliance and its political heirs denied
people the education and economic opportunities they needed to be productive
citizens.
Only a few political reformers rose to challenge the oligarchy.
Others, such as Gov. George Wallace, posed as popular champions, yet
they practiced the familiar politics of hate, diverting public energy
into an ugly reaction.
In Alabama, we simply don't know what an enlightened citizenry
might produce. But times are changing. The former plantation counties
now cry for help to overcome the debilitating poverty that results from
generations of enforced ignorance. Many corporate leaders join in calling
for good schools and fair taxes.
Urban counties such as Mobile are ready to revolt against
the Legislature's despotism, which denies them local control. Citizens
resent the way that legislative delegations dictate how local taxes
may be raised and spent. These citizens want local officials to be able
to protect communities from runaway growth and other threats. The present
constitution denies such law-making power to counties.
And across the state, a growing and diverse army of young
new leaders is learning to work together for larger causes. They are
the nucleus of the rallies and forums now demanding constitutional reform.
In coastal Alabama, for example, a broad coalition of citizens has organized
a large event for this afternoon at Battleship Park on Mobile Bay. They
have engaged many volunteers to make this rally a milestone in the march
for a new constitution.
In fact, one would have to go all the way back to the 1890s
to find a more fertile time for citizenship. The Populists from that
depression-ridden era sent hundreds of speakers into the field, demanding
honest elections, fair labor laws and other reforms. They organized
study groups to educate citizens. No wonder the Big Mule alliance was
determined to bury this movement under the 1901 constitution.
Self-styled "realists" of the present day, who often represent
entrenched interests, dismiss any possibility that reform might bubble
up from below. These cynics claim to see the world as it is, not as
it might be or should be. Many of them are comfortable in the house
the 1901 fathers built, where they know how to open the doors to power
and influence.
Opponents' logic might sound impeccable, except they ignore
one important variable: the capacity of citizens to grow and change.
What appears to be immutable reality today may be but curious history
tomorrow.
Surely, Alabamians who came of age during the civil rights
struggle understand the power of a great idea to transform society.
A similarly idealistic movement sprang from the bloodstained earth in
the 1960s to challenge and ultimately overthrow segregation. This experience
suggests that an energized citizenry can create a new moral order. Moreover,
such activism can expand the size of the civic sector, which exists
in that important space between government and private enterprise. It
is in this vital civic center that citizens play their vital role.
It is true that we Alabamians have usually waited for Congress
and the federal courts to save us from our constitution's worst features,
such as its notorious voting restrictions. But many Alabamians believe
in redemption, even in politics. Citizens can make things right if they
can find the courage and the will to act for the common good.
They can join groups already forming around the state to
demand a new constitution. They can write or call their legislators
and urge them to act. Equally important, citizens can beseech Gov. Siegelman
to lead this movement and become the champion of a new Alabama in a
new South.
From the old must be born the new -- nova ex veteris, as
the Latin paradox says. Our challenge is no less than to transform Alabama's
civic life so that an age of possibility succeeds a century of shame.
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And someday we may read ...
MONTGOMERY -- A beaming Gov. Don Siegelman announced
tonight that Alabama voters had ratified a new constitution. The unofficial
count from the voting today showed overwhelming support, especially
among urban counties, where citizens demanded more responsive local
government.
Siegelman credited the victory to the careful work of the
convention that wrote the document and the tireless support of citizens
who campaigned for its approval.
"Let the word go out to the nation and the world," he declared.
"Alabamians on this day have blessed their state and prepared the way
for generations to follow."
Return to: Century of
Shame, Introduction
Return to: Editorial Series
Reprinted with Permission from the Mobile Register.
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