Opinion
January
13, 2002
Thoughtful Alabamians - there are more every day - who
understand the desperate need for a new constitution have found reason
for hope in the political developments of the last fortnight. They
have also found, to their surprise, ominous signs that give the reform
movement a new sense of urgency.
Before the regular session of the Alabama Legislature
convened last Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Steve Windom came forward with several
proposals for constitutional reform, the most significant being his
call for a constitutional convention. Windom believes, as we do, that
the task cannot be left to the Legislature. It’s had 100 years
to do the job, and it hasn’t.
Windom’s convention would consist of 105 delegates,
one elected from each of Alabama’s state House districts. Elected
officials could not be delegates; contributions to candidates for
the convention would be severely limited.
The lieutenant governor’s ideas are important because
it was not long ago that he was expressing doubts about both the failures
of the present constitution and the need for a new one. He’s
now on board; so are all the Republican gubernatorial candidates,
save one. As a partisan issue, constitutional reform, fortunately,
is receding daily.
Then, on Tuesday, Gov. Don Siegelman in his State of
the State address to the Legislature said he intended to push for
a ballot measure in November to ask Alabamians if they wanted a constitutional
convention. The details are expected this week.
While the flurry of rhetoric was unfolding, Windom and
legislators were introducing proposed amendments to correct some of
the flaws in the infamous 1901 constitution. It remains to be seen
whether these proposals - some with real merit - seek to further the
cause of reform or merely to defuse it. Certainly, they acknowledge
the growing conviction among the voters that the time for change has
come and that the need for change is real.
Judicial agendas
Alas, for every elected official who comes around,
a few others decide to march the other way. On Friday, the state Supreme
Court - five of the nine justices - ordered attorneys to reopen the
equity funding lawsuit in education. (No one asked the justices to
do this; they did it on their own.) They question whether state children
have a basic right to an adequate and equal education and whether
a shamefully racist constitutional amendment seeming to assert otherwise
is valid.
Justices, in the name of conservatism, decry judicial
activism but apparently see little wrong when they use it to further
their own agendas.
The outcome may be unclear, but a course of action is
not: A new constitution should establish or re-establish once and
for all the fundamental right to a decent education. (If such were
not the political will in this state, why is school attendance required
of children?)
Folly, political and judicial, is not new to Alabama.
But we have suffered under it long enough. It’s time for the
people to take back their government and to shape their own future.
There is one way - and probably only one way - to do that, and it
is through constitutional reform.
We delay further only at our gravest peril.
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