Alabama’s Two Greatest Problems: Ignorance & Apathy

Not too long ago, I asked someone – just an average person, someone unknown to me – what they thought were Alabama’s two greatest problems.

Their amazing response was “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

Naturally, that was the correct answer.

The problem was, that those were the problems – ignorance and apathy.

Of course, that cute story can be quite true – and I have witnessed it being true, countless times – as all humor must have an element of truth to it.

The point which I hope to make may also be illustrated in the following email exchange – this one also a very real one.

Friend 1:
Alabama can’t seem to learn its lesson.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/11/roy_moore_bob_vance_chief_just.html

Friend 2:
What, are you not happy? You got the president of your choice.

Friend 1:
It seems to me to be a much greater issue.

First, Roy Moore is the ONLY Alabama Supreme Court justice to EVER have been so disgraced by being tried before a Court of the Judiciary, AND found GUILTY, which unanimous judgement against him was his OFFICIAL REMOVAL FROM OFFICE.

He is the ONLY Alabama Supreme Court justice to be so forced out of office during his term, EVER!
http://judicial.alabama.gov/judiciary/judiciary.cfm

His removal from office that way was much more than the legal equivalent of an impeachment. Alabama’s state law – Amendment 580 of the state constitution – places the Court of the Judiciary at a higher priority than impeachment, which is a legislative action.

Second, Roy Moore profited personally from what ended up costing Alabama taxpayer over $549,430.53. It’s difficult to imagine profiting from crime. Yet that’s exactly what Roy Moore did. He’s written books, gone on speaking tours – which pay him $$$.

Third, by campaigning for office again, he is figuratively and defiantly “thumbing his nose” at every citizen in Alabama over what happened earlier – his forced removal from office.

Now… regarding your comment.

Whether or not I “got the president of [my] choice” is neither the issue.

Why?

There’s a pesky thing called the Congress – which, as elected representatives of the people – is SUPPOSED to cooperate and collaborate with the president to get things done for the people. You know the phrase. Lincoln used it in his Gettysburg Address, calling it “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

This Congress is WORSE than the 80th Congress under President Harry Truman, who campaigned against them (to win his own re-election against Thomas Dewey), calling them the “Do Nothing Congress.”

This Congress – the 112th Congress – has passed approximately 173 laws, most of which dealt with naming Post Offices, including the Permanent Electronic Duck Stamp Act, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act, which mandated the production of coins to commemorate the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_the_112th_United_States_Congress

Standing in stark contrast is the “Do Nothing Congress” under President Harry Truman which passed more than 906 laws, including the Marshall Plan, Taft-Hartley Act, Presidential Succession Act, Federal Water Pollution Control Act, War Claims Act of 1948, and more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80th_United_States_Congress

This Congress – led in the House by Republicans, who have made it quite public that they intended to OPPOSE EVERY IDEA PROPOSED by the President and the Democrats – witness Mitch McConnell‘s infamous remark to the Heritage Foundation on November 4, 2010, that “Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term.”
http://youtu.be/W-A09a_gHJc

That’s TWO YEARS of DO NOTHING CONGRESS.

That’s TWO YEARS of OPPOSITION.

That’s TWO YEARS of OBSTRUCTION.

That’s TWO YEARS of NO.

NO to EVERYTHING.

NO to the President.

NO to the Democrats.

And most sadly, NO to the People.

Now… here’s the irony.

Politically, the nation is practically where it was before the election.

Stalemate.

Same Congress.

Same President.

But the overriding question remains: Will they continue to Do Nothing?

Friend 1:
Guilty of standing up for God.big deal

Friend 2:
I could be mistaken, but I had the distinct impression that he was politically ELECTED to serve as a jurist, NOT as a religious leader, to “stand up for God,” or to stand up or sit down for Jesus, Bhudda, Mohammed, Mahatma Ghandi, Bagwan Sri Rajneesh, the Great Spirit in the Sky, or any other religious character.

After all, our United States Constitution specifically states that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

The No Religious Test Clause of the United States Constitution is found in Article VI, paragraph 3, and states that:

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

Friend 2:
How bout you keep your shit to youself

Friend 1:
That’s the United States Constitution.

It’s not “my shit.”

And, I swore an oath – at least twice – that I “do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”

I have never forsworn that oath, nor do I intend upon so doing.

Note that the oath states “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

If the average voter in Alabama has no higher education, and cannot understand, or even recall parts of the United States Constitution, what does that say about the state?

It certainly bespeaks poorly.