The government of Alabama needs a new heart.

   One which beats to the aspirations of a people who for a century endured their struggles separated from their state by the bad faith and belittling of democracy at its core. A heart for inclusion and nurturing. A heart for progress. A heart to renounce the diversion of our state's spirit 100 years ago.

   Alabama needs a convention of its best citizens to write a new constitution.

   The problems that thwart real progress in Montgomery are so massive, so systemic, it is the only solution.

   It is the only way to make sure there are safeguards against the unseemly influence of special interests that are not designed by those with special interests; to share power with local governments to nurture the flowering of grass-roots democracy; to unleash innovation and progress bound up for a century by a purposefully confining constitution; to achieve Gov. Don Siegelman's goals of more efficient government, better education and improved economic development.

   The arguments against a convention are no match for its promises.

The Legislature could do a better job of rewriting a constitution than the people.

   It will never happen. Look at history. Between January 1970 and May 1973, a special commission headed by then-Shelby County Probate Judge Conrad Fowler worked diligently to examine the manifold problems with the constitution of 1901 and offered a list of solid reforms.

   The only recommendations Alabama's elected officials adopted were those that made Alabama's elected officials comfortable - a judicial article supported by our judges (but greatly altered in the Legislature) and annual sessions of the Legislature. Never making it through even one house was a series of worthy provisions to set up home rule in Alabama, to streamline government operations and to establish a code of ethics for officials. In 1972, there were a few dozen lobbyists in Montgomery. Today there are almost 600. What are the odds of another attempt succeeding?

   Besides, a convention would focus people and the media on the proceedings like the sun's rays through a magnifying glass. Special interests would have a much harder time manipulating events to their liking than they do in a regular legislative session.

The constitution of 1901 is sacred.

   No. This is our sixth constitution, not our first. Calls for replacing this one were made as early as 14 years after it was written. The constitution remains because special interests have in one way or another gotten their own protections written into it, not because it is worthy of the people of Alabama. Indeed, it was never adopted by them, but was spewed out in one of the most glaring cases of voter fraud the state has ever seen.

The same people who run our Legislature would likely be elected as delegates to write a new constitution.

   Not so. Running for the Legislature requires someone willing to commit to four years of service. Constitutional convention delegates would be asked to commit to only 90 to 120 days. The most prominent names of Alabama would become involved, names you would never see in a legislative arena.

   Many of the interest groups that run our Legislature will vie to have the most influence in the convention. But that competition would be much improved. Instead of the handful of landed interests that took control of the 1901 constitution, there are thousands of elements of a much more broadly based Alabama economy that would be competing today.

Setting up a constitutional convention is too difficult.

   It's not true. Amending the constitution, which requires a three-fifths vote of the Legislature, is much more difficult than calling a convention for a full-scale rewrite. The convention can be set up by a simple majority vote. If you could push one button and make the problems of Alabama government go away, this is the button to push.

We could end up with something worse than we already have.

   What an insult. The 1901 constitution intentionally took away the right to vote from two-thirds of our people. It is absolutely unworkable. Section 93 had to be amended to allow the state to finance the building of roads and state parks. Had section 94 gone unchanged, local governments would not have been allowed to build sewer lines and schools. From 1819 to 1901, under our first five constitutions, the people of Alabama ratified six amendments. From 1901 to 2000, we've had to ratify 715 just to keep government functioning.

   How could we possibly do worse? Only if we allowed the most powerful special interests to write their own constitution designed just for them. But our people are better educated today than ever before. They have always been more compassionate, more ruled by spiritual values than their government. They would have the last word at the ballot box.

   There is a diluting of democracy in this country, as powerful interest groups bend Washington to their will. Americans have been turned off and tuned out by the cheapening of an idea once so precious it was unique upon the face of the Earth.

   The Alabama of the past 100 years made a name for itself with a callous system of segregation and an unseemly lack of services to its most vulnerable citizens. Let the Alabama of the 21st century make a reputation as a family of citizens that creates the finest example of participatory democracy ever seen. Instead of the fear and greed that built the constitution of 1901, we can build one on hope and pride.

   We can compose a new state; the state Langston Hughes envisioned when, a quarter century after the disfranchisement of our black and poor white citizens began, he wrote a poem while touring the unfulfilled promise of Alabama:

When I get to be a composer
I'm going to write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I'm going to put the prettiest songs in it
Rising out the ground like a swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew
And I'm going to put some tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain
And long red necks
And poppy colored faces
And big brown arms
And the field daisy eyes
Of black and white black white black people
And I'm going to put white hands
And black hands and brown and yellow hands
And red earth hands in it
Touching everybody with kind fingers
And touching each other as natural as dew

   "Daybreak in Alabama" is the name of his poem. We have waited 100 years for the sun to rise after a long night of division and dereliction.

   Let the people of Alabama begin to make a dawn.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Former Editorial Page Editor Ron Casey, who died Feb. 21, 2000, for more than a decade wrote dozens, if not hundreds, of editorials about the need to rewrite Alabama's constitution. He also conceived this series, and some of his writing appears in it.

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Reprinted with Permission from The Birmingham News