Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley Campaigns in Downtown Birmingham
June 2nd, 2006 |
| Photo by Glynn Wilson |
| Lt Gov. Lucy Baxley solicits the support of Dennis Jemison II, 6, and his dad, Dennis Jemison, 42, who cuts hair at the Touch of Elegance barbership, as she campaigns for the Democratic Party nomination for governor Friday on Fourth Avenue North in Downtown Birmingham. |
Tags: Alabama Governor's Race
June 2nd, 2006 at 6:04 pm
For many years, Lucy Baxley has served the State of Alabama in various capacities; she could be governor, and maybe this state has evolved sufficiently so that she will be. I absolutely have no complaint with Lucy Baxley.
In the primary, I will vote for Governor Don Siegelman. Gov. Siegelman has proved that he is good for Alabama by helping schools and bringing jobs, for example. Just now, he is indeed being persecuted by the Bush Justice System, and what a hateful waste of taxpayer money that is.
Fortunately, I saw your announcement that Gov. Siegelman would appear on PBS’ “For the Record” earlier this week and did see that program, during which I learned the MOST AMAZING bit of information: A casino (yes, a casino!) is being built on the outskirts of Montgomery, ALABAMA! Talk about hypocrisy–Gov. Siegelman’s proposal for an education lottery was fought tooth and toenail by the so-called religious “right,” “Christian coalition,” and every wingnut republican that crawled out of the woodwork claiming that a lottery would ruin “The Family” and take food out of children’s mouths, etc., ad nauseum, and now under Riley’s stewardship, we are getting a CASINO! (Admittedly, I may well be the last to know about this, for I do not depend on the TV faux news outlets or newspapers for information.) I do NOT oppose a casino–it’s just that this is one more example of the outrageous hypocrisy of this bunch. Will the people of Alabama ever come to their collective senses and connect the dots? One can always hope.
One more thing about an education lottery: Our child worked, took classes as time and energy allowed while spouse attended college here in Alabama. Upon the spouse’s graduation, they moved to Atlanta, and then it was our child’s turn to attend college full time. Guess what–our child benefitted greatly and gratefully from the Georgia Lottery! That was some years ago, and you can be sure we always have a current Georgia Lottery ticket. You see, we are grateful to the State of Georgia for making something available to our child that we could not.
Sorry to digress from your fine article a bit.
Yes, those same people who can’t find their mouths with a spoon who THINK they are anti-tax because that’s what they are TOLD to think voted against Governor Riley’s tax proposal. Taxes are almost as necessary for the survival of this state and country as air. We all like traveling on roads (albeit bumpy at times) that do not ruin our cars, we like having water to drink that we can be reasonably sure won’t poison us, etc. There are no school-age children in my family, but we do not mind paying taxes so that others’ children can attend school. We do not mind paying taxes so that the relatives of those narrow-minded anti-tax people can receive Medicaid, Medicare, and nursing home care when they need these services. Do you see that this list can go on and on?
I do not consider myself an “Alabama” Democrat, and certainly the statement that elected Democrats in this State are “Republican Lite” is true, but at least those Democrats do not have as their core values the necessity to exclude and hate.
WAKE UP, Alabama!
(Thank you for your many efforts in educating us, Glynn, and for your venue that allows me to speak these truths.)
June 2nd, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Thanks for the comments A. Ware. I understand and appreciate the sentiments.
I too noticed the irony of the growing number of casinos and other gambling outlets under Riley, and have wondered why the church people don’t make more of a stink about it.
It’s amazing judge Roy Moore doesn’t already have a bunch of TV commercials pointing that out. The commercials he’s run so far only talk the same talk, about how he is obligated to “acknowledge God.” But anyone with an IQ over the average of 100 should be able to see that no one was denying his freedom to acknowledge God. He was removed from office for defying a federal court order - after a lengthy trial - which said he could not violate the First Amendment by sneaking a 2-ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments into the State Supreme Court building in the middle of the night.
I’ve known Don Siegelman and followed his career for a long time, and was excited to see him win in 1998. I had some hope that he would be a true “New South” governor. I even wrote a lengthy article about it in the first cover story for The Southerner magazine.
Alabama Gets Its First ‘New South’ Governor
I was not around in Alabama for his term in office, having worked on a Ph.D. at Tennessee and then moved on to New Orleans in 2000. But from everything I can gather, Siegelman did not live up to those high hopes as governor. This may be due mostly to the failure of the education lottery, a sad failure indeed. We now know about Riley’s role in taking money from the Abramoff crowd, who financed the anti-lottery campaign here in Alabama in part from funds raised from the Native American casinos in Mississippi.
That will be a campaign issue in the general election. And you can bet right now that you will see some original journalism on that subject when the time is ripe. We are keeping some of our powder dry until fall, if you know what I mean.