2Fast2Furryious
11-28-2004, 08:32 PM
From Yahoo! News, via the Washington Post:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&e=1&u=/washpost/20041128/ts_washpost/a16443_2004nov27
Here are some selected passages for those of you who do not RTFA:
p.3 "If Wallace could be brought back to life today to reprise his 1963 moment of infamy outside Foster Auditorium, he would still be correct. Alabama voters made sure of that Nov. 2, refusing to approve a constitutional amendment to erase segregation-era wording requiring separate schools for "white and colored children" and to eliminate references to the poll taxes once imposed to disenfranchise blacks."
p.7 "There are competing theories about the defeat of Amendment 2, the measure that would have taken "colored children" and segregated schools out of Alabama's constitution. One says latent, persistent racism was to blame; another says voters are suspicious of all constitutional amendments; and a third says it was not about race but about taxes."
Funny, I remember hearing the first and third reasons mentioned as causes for the Civil War. Economics vs. Race? What caused it?
p.8 "The amendment had two main parts: the removal of the separate-schools language and the removal of a passage -- inserted in the 1950s in an attempt to counter the Brown v. Board of Education ruling against segregated public schools -- that said Alabama's constitution does not guarantee a right to a public education. Leading opponents, such as Alabama Christian Coalition President John Giles, said they did not object to removing the passage about separate schools for "white and colored children." But, employing an argument that was ridiculed by most of the state's newspapers and by legions of legal experts, Giles and others said guaranteeing a right to a public education would have opened a door for "rogue" federal judges to order the state to raise taxes to pay for improvements in its public school system."
The "right to public education." Hmm. Doesn't it seem like all of the public should have a right to "public education"? Black, white, yellow, maroon, puce, flouroescent green...come on, we all pay taxes that go towards this system, so why keep this discrimination?
p.12 "Arguing that the amendment could lead to higher taxes is a potent strategy in Alabama, which is one of the nation's most lightly taxed states and which resoundingly rejected a record $1.2 billion tax increase proposed last year by Gov. Bob Riley (R), a conservative, to pay for school improvements and lessen the tax burden on the poor. But many blacks view the Amendment 2 opponents' tax pitch as a smoke screen."
Man, that Pub sounds almost...like he cares about the people in his state. Or, as many would suggest, a Democrat. I don't know what that resounding margin of defeat was, so perhaps blacks voted against it. Hm...
p.18 "It matters not at all to Killings and her friends that the amendment's opponents say they want to remove the segregated-schools portion of the constitution but cannot abide by guaranteeing a public education and fear mandates for higher education taxes. The people who are most affected by poorly funded schools are the same people who were affected in another era by poll taxes: poor blacks and poor whites."
OK, well...maybe not.
p.19-20 "This is not the first time that Steele has tangled with Alabama's constitution, a gigantic document that has more than 740 amendments and more than 310,000 words, making it the world's longest, at nearly 40 times the length of the U.S. Constitution. Four years ago, voters repealed a constitutional amendment banning interracial marriage.
The state constitution, which most historians agree was written to protect large landowners and to disenfranchise blacks, is so riddled with antiquated wording that some high school students in Birmingham make an annual trip to the city library for a project known as the search for "the loony laws."
Man, are they a little backwards or what? In 1999 if I was black and loved a white I couldn't marry him/her? And what about the remaining consititution? "Loony laws" are everywhere (i.e., the sodomy laws thrown out recently by the Supreme Court) but it seems surreal that kids are sent out on field trips to see how retarded their state government really is.
p.21 "Giles has said he would support taking out the passage about separate schools for "white and colored children" as long as the part about not guaranteeing a right to an education is kept."
Again, the public is denied an education by the public educational system. Doublespeak? Racism? Both? As a Virginian and thusly more northern than Alabama I reserve the right to make fun of their backwards ways. Before all the others get on me about this, however, I want you to know my family is Swiss and never owned slaves and came over in the early 20th century, so screw off with your cheap shots.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&e=1&u=/washpost/20041128/ts_washpost/a16443_2004nov27
Here are some selected passages for those of you who do not RTFA:
p.3 "If Wallace could be brought back to life today to reprise his 1963 moment of infamy outside Foster Auditorium, he would still be correct. Alabama voters made sure of that Nov. 2, refusing to approve a constitutional amendment to erase segregation-era wording requiring separate schools for "white and colored children" and to eliminate references to the poll taxes once imposed to disenfranchise blacks."
p.7 "There are competing theories about the defeat of Amendment 2, the measure that would have taken "colored children" and segregated schools out of Alabama's constitution. One says latent, persistent racism was to blame; another says voters are suspicious of all constitutional amendments; and a third says it was not about race but about taxes."
Funny, I remember hearing the first and third reasons mentioned as causes for the Civil War. Economics vs. Race? What caused it?
p.8 "The amendment had two main parts: the removal of the separate-schools language and the removal of a passage -- inserted in the 1950s in an attempt to counter the Brown v. Board of Education ruling against segregated public schools -- that said Alabama's constitution does not guarantee a right to a public education. Leading opponents, such as Alabama Christian Coalition President John Giles, said they did not object to removing the passage about separate schools for "white and colored children." But, employing an argument that was ridiculed by most of the state's newspapers and by legions of legal experts, Giles and others said guaranteeing a right to a public education would have opened a door for "rogue" federal judges to order the state to raise taxes to pay for improvements in its public school system."
The "right to public education." Hmm. Doesn't it seem like all of the public should have a right to "public education"? Black, white, yellow, maroon, puce, flouroescent green...come on, we all pay taxes that go towards this system, so why keep this discrimination?
p.12 "Arguing that the amendment could lead to higher taxes is a potent strategy in Alabama, which is one of the nation's most lightly taxed states and which resoundingly rejected a record $1.2 billion tax increase proposed last year by Gov. Bob Riley (R), a conservative, to pay for school improvements and lessen the tax burden on the poor. But many blacks view the Amendment 2 opponents' tax pitch as a smoke screen."
Man, that Pub sounds almost...like he cares about the people in his state. Or, as many would suggest, a Democrat. I don't know what that resounding margin of defeat was, so perhaps blacks voted against it. Hm...
p.18 "It matters not at all to Killings and her friends that the amendment's opponents say they want to remove the segregated-schools portion of the constitution but cannot abide by guaranteeing a public education and fear mandates for higher education taxes. The people who are most affected by poorly funded schools are the same people who were affected in another era by poll taxes: poor blacks and poor whites."
OK, well...maybe not.
p.19-20 "This is not the first time that Steele has tangled with Alabama's constitution, a gigantic document that has more than 740 amendments and more than 310,000 words, making it the world's longest, at nearly 40 times the length of the U.S. Constitution. Four years ago, voters repealed a constitutional amendment banning interracial marriage.
The state constitution, which most historians agree was written to protect large landowners and to disenfranchise blacks, is so riddled with antiquated wording that some high school students in Birmingham make an annual trip to the city library for a project known as the search for "the loony laws."
Man, are they a little backwards or what? In 1999 if I was black and loved a white I couldn't marry him/her? And what about the remaining consititution? "Loony laws" are everywhere (i.e., the sodomy laws thrown out recently by the Supreme Court) but it seems surreal that kids are sent out on field trips to see how retarded their state government really is.
p.21 "Giles has said he would support taking out the passage about separate schools for "white and colored children" as long as the part about not guaranteeing a right to an education is kept."
Again, the public is denied an education by the public educational system. Doublespeak? Racism? Both? As a Virginian and thusly more northern than Alabama I reserve the right to make fun of their backwards ways. Before all the others get on me about this, however, I want you to know my family is Swiss and never owned slaves and came over in the early 20th century, so screw off with your cheap shots.