Wise words about tomorrows election in Alabama, written by my friend and mentor, Jim McGee. Please take time read this. It actually applies to most of the Southeast. Thank you, Jim. Jim McGee 18 mins · Think before you vote... My heart aches for thee, Alabama. As I approach the end of my seventh decade on this old briny planet, I find that our relations with our neighbors are precariously pale and unhealthy. The current political season is nearing an end, and most will be glad. I will be glad as well...but an unhealthy pall has settled over politics in our state and nation. As a democratic republic, we should be concerned. Dirty politics are nothing new. Sadly, they have been a part of our electoral fabric since the beginning. What is remarkable is that they are still with us, even after more than 200 years. We apparently have learned nothing more about how to be honest and true. Alabama is a paradox. While many of its thoughts may be erroneous, it thinks them to be true. As this state is my home, I suffer from low self-esteem. Why? Because we are last in practically any denominator you want to list. We are generally a poor and relatively uneducated state. That doesn’t mean that there are not bright spots, and people who try valiantly under bad circumstances to excel and help others. We seem to be a gullible people, easily led by emotions rather than clear and thoughtful ideas. Because many of our folks were raised hard, we tend to be resentful, suspicious and antagonistic. We live only in today’s thoughts because we learned little of history. We are easily drawn to those who would focus this resentment. There are those who have learned to manipulate our feelings and use them to their advantage. And often, we are unaware. In order to really understand Alabama, you have to go back to the years before, during and after the Civil War. You have to understand the economy. You have to understand the origin and demographics of its people. You have to understand the complex idea of desertion for the poor, non-slave-owning, Jacksonian folks of northeast Alabama. Our opposition to almost everything came from this background. We were mostly Scots-Irish-English boxed in by slave owners to the south and Yankees to the north. Most of us were just dirt farmers scratching out a subsistence for our families and trying simply to get along. We had taken the land from Cherokees and Creeks, and were bound to hold on against others. There was no industry in our area in the early 1900s. The first in DeKalb County was around 1916 when the hosiery industry began. For the first time, people could come off the farm and earn money for their families. The great depression didn’t hurt us much because we were already depressed. TVA came and helped to rescue us. Farm programs began to make a difference. Social Security gave our elderly hope of some kind of dignity. We began to get telephones and water systems. Work programs took our young men from all areas and gave them purpose and income for their families. Today, strangely, we vote against our own interests. We are willing to let rural hospitals close for lack of funding. We are willing to let public tax funds be directed to private schools. We allow big timber interests to enjoy some of the lowest property taxes in the country. We allow public officials to profit from their posts. We allow our poor and elderly to suffer without proper medical care. We think more about our football teams than the brilliant students we may have. We are fooled into thinking all of our natural resources are for sale without regards to the environment. We are advised to think our teachers and support personnel are overpaid. We think men should be in charge of women’s health issues. Our legislature is allowed to go session after session without adopting any meaningful and worthwhile legislation, while their greatest plotting is done in the toney lounges of Montgomery. Think carefully before you vote on Tuesday. Do you want more of the same, or do you want to move forward? Be for something, not against everything. We can take Alabama into a prosperous future, but it will take a change in philosophy.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 18:56:42 +0000
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