It has been 49 years since I got my degree at Auburn University. I’ve spent 47 of those years in Alabama. Considering my roots, this does not seem odd or unusual to me.
My ancestors have been here for nearly 200 years. Three great-grandfathers served in the Civil War. One never came home, another was discharged at Appomattox, VA. My kin were Lees, Stuarts, Rogers and Paulks.
They survived plowing and planting the sandy soil of Covington and Butler counties and by pulling one end of a crosscut saw until sweat puddled in their boots. They lived in dog trot houses with a dug well out back and went to Primitive Baptist churches. They were neither landed or learned. One of my grandmothers could neither read or write. They dipped snuff and had an occasional drink of something besides water and when the weather was right, they listened to their dogs tree possums and coons. They butchered hogs when mornings were frosty and hung slabs of bacon in their smokehouse.
And today they rest in plots of earth called Bushfield and Elizabeth and Moriah and Fairmont. Their blood also runs through my brother and sister, both of whom live in North Carolina. A team of oxen couldn’t drag either back to Alabama.
But being just plain stubborn or hard-headed I’ve stayed. Always with the hope that the day might come when the people of Alabama might be wise enough to elect the political leaders they deserve. But for reasons I have never been able to comprehend we’ve allowed ourselves to listen to the wrong voices. Voices that played to our most basic fears and insecurities and turned us one against another. White against black. Rich against poor. Region against region. Country against city.
There are good people in Alabama. I meet them every day. Many of them work in schools, spending their own money so a less fortunate child will have a snack when their classmates do. Principals who are at school to greet children getting off buses and who lock their office door after the sun has set. People who still believe it is better to give than receive. People who sing in a church choir and work with Cub Scouts and Pee Wee football teams.
The cold, hard truth is that we’ve come to a juncture in the life of Alabama where our “leadership” is anything but. Montgomery is in shambles. The quest for greed, the thirst for power, the personal agendas overshadow any pretense of doing what is right and honorable and in the best interest of the majority. Recently a veteran of the legislature told me they are embarrassed that people know what they do.
Our governance now seems more reality show than anything else. Honey Boo Boo may show up at the Statehouse any day now.
We will soon try for the third time this year to cobble together a General Fund budget. One of the most prominent ideas floating around is to take millions from the educating Trust Fund to prop up the General Fund–even though education has not been adequately funded since 2008. And irony of irony, the cost for the special session will be paid for with education dollars.
But not once have I heard any of our “leadership” say, “What do we need to do to come up with long term solutions?” Who has shown the fortitude to assemble all the “players” in the same room and have a, as we say, “come to Jesus” meeting?
I have no doubt that were these Biblical times, we would now be organizing a march of six days around the Alabama Statehouse as the people of Israel did when Jericho stood in their way.
And today I think of my ancestors and their struggles. I think of daddy helping grandpa clear ground with mules and axes. I think of grandma picking cotton till she had to go prepare lunch on a wood-burning stove before returning to the field.
My family ate fried chicken on Sunday and went to work on Monday building houses, cutting meat at a grocery store, laying ceramic tile and stacking peanuts.
I think of how our “leadership” is betraying them and their work. And I weep for Alabama.
Great article! Brought back memories of my childhood. It is a sad day for Alabama educators when we are not supported by the Legislature. I, too, wonder when the people of Alabama will get the representation they deserve. The answer could be when they vote for those who truly care for this state and the people who live here, and not those who represent special interest groups. There’s no one with us when we go in the polling booth, the choice is ours to make.
Many of us share similar memories, maybe not quite as many. I feel the same way about someone showing courage and fortitude to challenge the status quo. I am not sure we have anyone who understands the phrase “long term solutions.”
Sadly, I feel there are too many who only think of themselves and their immediate family. I am not sure they even SEE other people’s needs. Sometimes, I think the “leaders” only want to keep Alabamians uneducated, poor, and dependent. That is how they make their money and keep their power.
Charlotte, lots and lots of truth in that statement. And it’s been this way for decades. A 100 years ago they were called Bourbon Democrats. Today they are called the super majority. But same mind set.
Great article with family history and values in contrast to the politics of today where as you stated greed and personal agendas dictate! Bravo to you.
Alabama politicians, like Governor Bentley, may talk Christ but they walk corporate. Values may matter most to those who vote for them but those same values ALWAYS take a backseat to the needs of money once the elections are won.
I wish my people would wake up and stop allowing their faith to be exploited on behalf of political power.
Larry, you already know that I think you are a wonderful writer. This time you have truly outdone yourself. Your words sound as if Rick Bragg’s prize-winning Alabama voice is rolling right off the page. (There can be no higher compliment.) Such a beautiful piece to describe such a sad state of affairs, in which both Alabama and its Legislature appear to be irreparably broken. God help us all.
Thank you kindly. Funny you mention Rick Bragg as every time I read him, always think, dog gone if that doesn’t sound just like me!!
And every time I read you, I think of that schoolbus ride & the first-aid kit!
I too graduated from Auburn 49 years ago. Due to my husband being in the military and with the FBI, we never came back to live in Alabama. Alabama voters have had the chance to elect a governor who would have put the people first—-her name was Kay Ivey. The voters have never learned what type of individual they need to lead their government. I have known Kay since we were in high school and while we were at Auburn. It is a shame the people of Alabama have over looked her.
I don’t recall that Kay ever ran for governor.
I love your article and its voice of wonderful reason! Such voices are often high jacked by an ugly louder voice that proclaims what “true southerns” would say or do! But we know that the same mothers and grandmothers that taught from their knee to respect, above all, the feelings of others.
The grace that is the south disallows behaviors’, once we know that they are hurtful.
Thank you again!
Thanks for stopping by. But my intent with this piece is not to laud “southern values” (after all, those who are refusing to lead in Montgomery are southern as well), but to point out that the people of Alabama are deserving of much more than we are now getting.
Larry as an AU ag alum that transitioned in to education your story is not only alarming but quite true. We have regressed in educating our students over the past 15 years. We’ve increased demands on our teachers while at the same time hamstrong their efforts with decreased revenues and resources, all the while making them out to be greedy and lazy. How can any legaslator look you in the eye with a straight face and say education is adequately funded. Yet we will raid the ETF to balance the general fund durning the next special session.
Why am I thinking your roots are in Marshall County? I speak Tuesday to retired educators in Lawrence County and on Wednesday to the same group in Covington County. So I’m doing homework right now. In 2014, Mike Hubbard’s Speakers office spent $962,936. That is 92% more than Seth Hamment’s office spent in 2009. Where is the Rolling Reserve Act for the legislature?
Larry, your article was spot on! I worked in a local school for 20 years (retired now 11 years) and the only mistake you make in your article is that “schools have not been adequately funded since 2008.” I began work in 1985 and at no time in my 20 years was our school “adequately funded.” For an example, for each child registered, we were allotted slightly less than $5.00 per child for janitorial supplies, per year. Teachers were allotted $500.00 of which $150.00 went for copiers and supplies for the copiers. Our PTO became PTSO so that we could keep all of the money raised in our school. Our employees went for 5 years without any type of raise. I don’t have much use for any of the people in the Montgomery State House. I have advocated for years that not only do we need to clean house in Montgomery, but Washington as well. Thank you for speaking out for our children.
No one says it better Larry, you are always “spot on”…Truth, facts, and always history…This is the quote stocked full of truth, “The cold, hard truth is that we’ve come to a juncture in the life of Alabama where our “leadership” is anything but. Montgomery is in shambles. The quest for greed, the thirst for power, the personal agendas overshadow any pretense of doing what is right and honorable and in the best interest of the majority. Recently a veteran of the legislature told me they are embarrassed that people know what they do”. Did I say thank you? Thank you
Teachers wish they got $500 these days. The principal at a Fayette County elementary school tells me she can only keep her phones and copying machines by having fund-raisers. Yet I just looked an between 2009 and 2014, spending by the office of Speaker of the House jumped 92%. Houston, we have a problem
Kay has never been a candidate for governor. She came close a few years back. 30+ years ago I would have been tempted to say something positive about about Ivey’s leadership, but I am afraid she cast her lot with the other crowd some years ago.
Larry you have hit the nail on the head, I can not imagine how any of them can hold their head up or lay it down at night. Yet they will throw their chest out and shout about being the reddest state in the nation, while making us voters look like the dumbest voters in the nation. I can only hope that the voters of our state can remember this and show these do nothing legislators the road at the next elections.
Larry I forgot to add, Thank you for your thoughtful comments about the state of affairs of our state. Will someone please see that every legislator gets a copy of Larry’s report of the sad decisions we voters have made. Let’s correct the disconnect in Montgomery, ASAP.
First I need to say that there are many decent and caring public officials who often fail to be recognized. But I also know we often elect leaders who mostly care about getting re-elected and pleasing special interest groups. Seems we have so many of them including educators and state employees that there is just not enough money to go around.
I am an old citizen who has been watching public figures for many years and just want to finally get some things off my chest. I don’t know if the Education Trust gets too much money or not, but I do know that politicians from all levels of government have been promising to “help the schools” for my entire life. Every election year, it seems that is their main concern. Schools have certainly improved from the days when one class might consist of 40 or more children. In those days, schools I remember were simple buildings with no air conditioning and rooms that smelled like coal tar, chalk and sweat. The basic tools were little more than books and pencils. But amazingly, some really brilliant people emerged from those schools.
Now, after 60 or more years of “improving education,” are the young people graduating from high school today as well educated as those coming from the poor schools from years ago. I think many of them certainly are not. Apparently, something other than more money year-after-
year is needed “to help the schools.”
Thank you for your thoughts. At age 72, I guess I qualify as an “old citizen” as well. And yes, we do have some good public servants. I can name a number in the legislature I think are honorable and try to do the right things. But when 105 House members are ruled by someone facing trial for misusing their office, we have a real problem. And when this body of 105 reelects this person as their leader when they know he has been indicted on 23 felony counts, we have a real problem.
Yes, we have turned out some brilliant folks in the past from Alabama schools–and we still do. But I have no doubt that the average high school graduate of today is far better educated than I was when I finished in 1961. Anyone who does not think so needs to look at the average ACT score of today’s freshman class at our major universities and compare to past years.
I live in Maryland and belong to the DC Auburn Alumni Club. I go to our events to see all those nice people and hear those Southern voices, which I miss terribly. I miss friendly strangers. I miss always seeing somebody you know whenever you step out your front door. My friends in the club miss these things too. Would then move back? The answer I hear is not just NO, but ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Alabama is a beautiful state. If tourism were our industry other than nuclear waste dumping, strip mining, and clear-cutting, we could make money hand over fist. It is easier to pick Yankees than to pick cotton (or live with pollution). The corruption is absolutely unbelievable. Benley’s MO is 1.Get a big company to come to Alabama by letting them pay no taxes. 2.Have absentee landowners who don’t care whether the children of Alabama get educated or not – their children don’t go to school in Alabama. 3. Boast about the jobs you’ve brought to the state. 4. Continue to put the tax burden on the middle class and the poor – sales tax on food and drugs – imagine! Exploit without shame. 5. State how Christ is your Savior while you run your government in a most un-Christian way. Not just Bentley, but over, and over, and over. See smart, educated people despair of making a living in Alabama and flee, all the while we still think of it as home. Alabama is in my blood, but the state isn’t going to change to accommodate people like me.
For so long as public school teachers are denied public funding needed to even minimally stock their classrooms with necessary teaching supplies, I will have to conclude that education is indeed under-funded in Alabama. And that is only one aspect of under-funding. The legislature is pursuing a shameful, nonsensical Norquistian, “no new taxes for anything ever” program of state finance that will make shipwreck of any reasonable goals for educational progress. Legislators , with their anti-tax mantra, have painted themselves into a corner with the electorate. Having contended slavishly and militantly (and most loudly at election time!), that no new taxes are needed, they now risk the worst of all horrors, the loss of their offices if they “betray” their brainwashed constituents by approving new taxes–even to bail Alabama out of the deep financial hole that they themselves have dug.
If some of the rumors about Bentley are true, Kay might be governor before the year is over.
Mr. Larry,
I’m Allen Lee’s Youngest Daughter And I Would Really Like To Know More About Our Family And My Family Roots.
Not sure I know much. Write me: larrylee133@gmail.com
The top students graduating are better educated than they have ever been. But the bottom students that manage to pass and graduate just above the bare minimums are as bad as they have ever been. And probably worse than any who managed to earn a diploma in 1961.
Not everyone who attends public high school in Alabama takes the ACT and goes to college. The opportunities are there if the students are equipped to take advantage of them. And the most important factor in determining a student’s chance of success is parental involvement in their education. No amount of money spent in the classroom can overcome parents who don’t care whether their children attend school and get an education or not. An exceptional teacher can, in rare cases, motivate and equip a student to do it. But even then that is the exception and not the rule for all of the similar students that pass through that same teacher’s classroom.
Thank you I am sharing this article. Every word is true and much kinder than I would write..
I am 74 years old and when I was a boy we had a saying “We are poor but proud people “. Now I think we have changed that to “we are poor and proud of it”.
There is a remnant in Montgomery, AL that pray for city, county and state government officials, issues and concerns. I ask all who truly want change in Alabama to come pray with us each Tuesday at noon. We have been praying earnest prayers of repentance, cleansing and purification for two years. We have no political affiliation nor specific denomination. We gather together from many churches in Montgomery and God brings others as the weeks go by.
It IS a Jesus moment in our state and has been for a long time. There is power in prayer and the good folks of Alabama do deserve better…………in Scripture we are told that to have better we, we the people, must seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways. We seek HIS face weekly, for you, for us, for them.
Before we cast the first stone, no matter how bad it seems, let’s ask God to cleanse our own hearts and show us what to pray. The question becomes, how many of us are willing to get on our knees and intercede for the people of Alabama? We can talk and write all day every day. Talk becomes cheap without solutions. Prayer is powerful and provides guidance and solutions. Let’s put our words into prayerful words and inquire of the Lord what He will have us do.
Please come pray with us. We need you to join with us and intercede for our state.
Actually it is my understanding that with our new testing program, ALL high school students do take the ACT. Whether they intend to attend college or not.
A well written article and my thoughts exactly. It is a sad day when power and personal agendas prevent the good people of this state from having Our leadership act to benefit the citizens.
When money is supposedly needed, why must it come from the section of the public that needs it most? We say that the education of children is most important. Then we do not practice what we preach!