Nonsense

Pallie was born in the last score of years before the turn of the century, in a world of milkcows, wood cookstoves and the daily work of a child that would make Cinderella tired.

Her father Atwood was a stern man who believed that one should take very seriously the passage of the bible about rods and children. His sister Aretha had married a Thompson man who ran a dry goods store in Tuscumbia.. A Hard days wagon ride from their home in Waco Alabama..

But the Mid South State Fair had come to Lauderdale County. A short spell from Tuscumbia if the Tennessee was down. Atwood, Pallie, Mary, Mattie and Celie rode to Tuscumbia to see the lights and rides and hucksters of the MidSouth Fair and stay with sister Aretha in the two story house on Water street.

The Fair had electric lights.. A Merry Go Round with a steam whistle and a Ferris wheel run by electric motors. A tiny train that took children around the fairgrounds and everybody got a roll of double tickets as big as a baseball with the price of admission. Tickets that could be torn off in pairs to ride and purchase sweets and drinks that foamed and tickled.

At the gate was a simple stage and wind up RCA record player, Deep Mahogany wood with gold gilded handles that stood a full four feet tall .. It was open and the Golden Speaker Horn was playing music of a band from a thousand miles away.

It was the most impressive thing Pallie Bishop had ever seen. The Huckster was crying "ten cents - for ten cents purchase a chance to win this beautiful RCA Victor Talking Machine"..Lesser prizes were to be given away with your ticket stub for admission but the grand prize raffle was purchased separately. Pallie looked at the coins in her purse.- She slid a dime into the man's hand.

The fair was the same as the fair today. Designed to splash color and move cotton picking money from your pocket into the pockets of itinerants who would be long gone in a week. Itinerants who knew and cared little of the sweat by which that money was earned. Pallie and the girls had what was known in the day as “a time “. They watched the displays of farm goods and prizes and local musicians and an artist who would paint your portrait while you waited if you had the money.

Pallie did not.

As night fell the drawing for the Victrola loomed near. Pallie made her way back to to the grandstand with Celie to watch the face of the lucky winner of the talking machine. The lesser prizes were drawn and Celie and the girls became more dejected as each prize was held up and lucky winner came forth to claim his or her prize. Then as the grand prize was being drawn the girls turned to walk away, Palie hesitated, and then heard her name.

At first she though it was Atwood, but realized it was coming from the other direction. it was coming from the grandstand. The man was calling Pallie Bishop. She screamed "Cellie, Get Pap!" and ran toward the stage and ran her hand over the polished wood.. Atwood came in a minute as the excited announcer tried to keep some interest in the crowd who had begun to mill away. "Here she is, all yours he said to Atwood, no cost to you at all but 15 cents each for a handful of recordings to play in your home!".. “15 Cents Bellowed Atwood! “ I wouldn't give fifteen cents for this thing for firewood.."

Pallie's world fell apart.. She began to cry. Then she got angry.. She screamed at her father "its mine”.. “I won it " take it home " .. "No! was the reply", his face redder by the minute at the insolent child embarrassing him on the grandstand stage. He did the only thing a man of his breeding could do. He took the pointer rod from the hands of he barker and began to bring blood from the legs of the almost woman child .. For a time she stood her ground. For the first, and last, time in her life she challenged her father.

They didn't take the Victrola home,

And things would never be right between them again.

Pallie saw eleven children. Buried four. Won and lost so many things so many times, and never in her life had a piece of furniture in her home so nice as a 1902 Victrola.. ..

And there in that hospital bed. 75 years later..on the last day of her life.

She sighed..

and smiled a weak smile.

And in that brief microsecond I knew her mind.

I knew that right now, she and Celie and Atwood and Mary and Mattie were loading up the Victrola.

Tonite, she would take the Victrola home.

Death is a mystery, the obvious and observable end of life that forces us to wish, or hope, or believe that there is something more.

Elementary logic says that there is not, yet a more complex evaluation makes us ask “ if there is no more then why are we here?”..

To ask “ if there is no God then we must be the most intelligent beings in the universe.?”

Now that is a scary thought.

More so than death itself.

There is a trigger within us that makes us fear death in our youth more so than in old age.

Perhaps an anticipation of things to come but more likely just an internal lethargy that comes with bewilderment that all the things we worked so hard to accomplish, struggled so hard to keep, will pass away like the dust in our bones, if it hasn't already.

My father, mother, grandfathers on both sides, my maternal grandmother, my best friend, a first girlfriend. All haunt my dreams from the other side. My aunts and uncles, most dear, some not so much, fade in and out of my conscious and unconscious thought. It is a frightening thing the day you realize that you have more friends below ground that above it.

So what is the point? Uncle Bartow, who left town to escape a murderous jilted lover. Said that life was about realizing that today might be your last day and living it thus.

Not always easy to do.. many people may not share your laze-fare attitude and require funds that require work which requires... Well you know.

Doctors are mostly religious but I often wonder how funeral home workers view the human condition. They say the right things but if you work on cars all day is it normal or abnormal to suspect the automotive souls go to a better place after the engine throws a rod.

I spend most nights studying the moons of Jupiter.. Any amateur astronomer knows where they will be and there are much better telescopes out there than what I might find on my shelf. But I feel a need to check and make sure they are where they are supposed to be. Somehow it is reassuring to know that something is more permanent than my physical self.

That they might appear to shift a little to the left or right is in some way proof that Palie is out there. Peeping around one of those celestial orbs.

Haley Barbour reads my blog

Haley Barbour, Mississippi governor reads my blog. Alabama legislators - not so much. The regular reader will remember that one of my off-the-wall ideas was a wood chip processing facility for District 6 to put some people to work. Work in a district where we have better (worse?) than 17 % unemployment in many areas.

Today Haley Barbour called a special session of the Mississippi Legislature to ask for $45 million in bond money, plus tax breaks, for a biofuels company; $4 million for related work force training; and $1 million for research to be conducted at Mississippi State University

The biofuels company, he said in a news release that the project would generate $85 million in wages and purchasing inside Mississippi and would create 1,000 jobs through the company and suppliers. The company would use waste wood and wood products as raw materials and convert the energy to fuel or electricity. The exact location of the facility is not yet known but I am told that It might be near Columbus just across the Alabama line. Less than 100 miles from one of those high unemployment areas I mentioned above.

Why Mississippi and not in Alabama?

Read more: NEMS360.com - News, Business, Classifieds, and Events in Northeast Mississippi

Alabama Candidate Questionnaire

1. Are you in favor of the Federal Government's program to encourage illegal immigration and guest workers?

I personally have no problem with immigration of hard working Christian people. Alabama can use all the help we can get. However,There are legal channels and it is the responsibility of the federal government to enforce the existing laws. Arizona is in the uncomfortable position of having to enforce federal laws. Alabama is not far behind.

2. Explain how you would solve the illegal immigration problem, especially by local or state governments in Alabama?

One has to consider the reach of the Alabama legislature on the issue. Currently it is not against any law to be "legal". So although we can detain suspected Illegals our local law enforcement is subject to the usual 48 hour rules and it my presently take more time than that for the NIS to respond. We can and we should make it a felony to obtain an illegal identification for a non citizen for the purpose of obtaining employment. And we can make it illegal to hire undocumented workers. This would make the activity we find most offensive, taking Alabamian's jobs, illegal. This is well within the reach of the Alabama legislature.

3. Should the government limit a woman's right to have an abortion and if so, what limits should the government impose?

Yes. Insofar as my authority permits me to say.

Comments? My response is threefold.

1. To the people who would allow abortion for rape an incest I say "What did those children do to deserve to die?"

2. We impose government limits on theft and murder, so why not abortion.

3. The economic burden of having a child is born at least partially by the public trust but there is still a significant cost in raising a child. To have an abortion to avoid paying that cost is offensive to me. To make me as a taxpayer pay for retroactive birth control is offensive to my pocketbook.

4. Are Abortions morally wrong?

Yes Insofar as I understand it murder is wrong.

Please explain your position on Abortion.

My position is biblical - Romans 12:19 -- Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,says the Lord. Deuteronomy 32:35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them."..

So I am opposed to killing babies.

Particularly if they send me the bill.

5. Should Homosexuals be permitted to join the Alabama National Guard?

   
   No, if only because historically there has been conflict within the ranks that distracts from the duties of the Guard. But remember public servants have to be concerned for the welfare of all the people they serve not the ones most like them. On the other hand one has to consider that the National Guard might be deployed to an area of the world where the lifestyle is a capital crime. A commander would have to take that into account on missions which would complicate an already complex situation.

6. Who are the other candidates in the race, Democrat and Republican?
Explain why you are the better candidate?

The Senate District Six race has a 25 year incumbent Democrat as my opponent. It's time for a change.

I am running against no one. I am running for the people of district six. I stand on using our TVA in lieu of Tax money, our ADECA money, and our Severance Tax money, to be used to attract industry or to provide tax incentives for small business. Instead of "discretionary money" to buy votes.

7. What are the 3 most important issues in your campaign, and your position on them?

a. The first issue is Jobs. Currently parts of our district have official unemployment rates at twice the state level. Close inspection reveals that many of the manufacturing facilities located in the adjacent states first considered Alabama but were scared off by the lack of support and interest at our legislative level.

b. We all have family and friends who are dead, disabled, or disfigured by the use of Methamphetamine and Crack Cocaine. Pills follow a close second in the death and destruction. Crime and pestilence follow. As your State Senator I would first introduce legislation that would make pseudoephedrine a prescription drug as has Mississippi. I would introduce a mandatory drug registry for the doctors and pharmacists for prescription narcotics.

The computer technology exists and reputable doctors already subscribe to it but it must be mandatory to take out the legal pill pushers.

c. Taxes.

Alabama is the only of the southeastern states that have

a Real Property tax,

a Personal property tax,

an income tax

and a sales tax.

People tout the "low property tax" while taxes on food for the poor are at a regional high.

I propose a tax abatement on all farm and food items produced in Alabama for resale in Alabama.

Taxes in general are regressive in a downturn economy. I support no increase in taxes.

8. Should public schools have public prayer and Bible reading?

Yes, I believe. and have publicly published that i believe that we can establish that a time of prayer and meditation in the schools every morning is socially beneficial. Even the counselor groups admit that daily prayer and meditation are more effective at lowering depression and suicide rates than professional counseling. I propose a law to provide such a time. In past decades the US supreme court was packed 5-4 and upholding such a law would be impossible. Now the court is 4-5 and i believe that a state's rights law providing meditation time in the public schools would be upheld.

9. Are you born again?Yes.

Please state your personal testimony?

Like many nine year old boys in the sixties I attended the annual revival services and upon the revelation that i was going to go home, die in my sleep and be dammed to eternal hell fire I, along with my two school friends sought out the quenching water of the baptismal pool.

I believed and i still believe that if i had died in my sleep my soul would have been in the hands of the lord. But something wasn't complete about the whole thing. In 1974 i worked at Federal Mogul in Hamilton Alabama on the night shift as a semiskilled machinist. Amid the oil and grime of manufacturing bearings I began to cry. I went out back behind that plant and fell in the mud and oil and prayed until peace fell upon me.

Following the message in my heart I sought our a place to be baptized. I found a local preacher with a line at Turkey Creek in Franklin county and I absolutely broke line to get into the water. As i came up from that cold water the world was anew. A place filled with colors and smells and feelings that were a gray blur before. A voice inside me said “ I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

“ I lost my father when i was 6 and from October 1960 till October 1974 my insides were hollow and I was alone. I have been baptized every time I changed churches since, to appease my preacher or the deacons or the congregation , but all those times it was just a bath.

Since that day in 74 I have never been alone.

10. What are your beliefs concerning the separation of church and state? As Mike Huckabee said Separation of church and State was never intended to include separation of state from church. We are a nation, under God, Undivided and we need to acknowledge our religious roots.

11. Did you support the Tax increase that was voted on September 2003, called Amendment 1 of 2003? Are there any circumstances that you would support a tax increase? Comments? I do not support tax increases in recessionary times. I oppose the creation of “fees” and mandatory services that are just taxes by another name.

12. Should we have annual reappraisals of property values as recently been imposed by the State of Alabama? The previous system of reappraisals based upon spot checks, an appraisal of the system as a whole which would trigger an appraisal only if the values were plus or minus 15% of the true market value was adequate. In fact one ponders with the number of foreclosures and the prevalent buyers market if perhaps a valuation 15% downward is in order.

13. What is the best way to improve public schools? Public Schools work best if they are small and local. Many consolidations have taken place and in many rural areas of my district students may spend as much time on the bus as they do in the classroom. (Maybe we should put a teacher on the bus?) Local schools have local support. Bake sales, and parental involvement. Distinct and county schools are isolated, run rampant with gangs and drugs and turn out mediocre graduates.

14. Are you willing to sign a "No Tax Pledge"? YES

15. What is your position of the rewrite of the Alabama Constitution? A rewrite of the constitution by trial lawyers would only result in a Constitution that made it profitable to sue your neighbor. We need some revision to the arcane and sometimes embarrassing Constitution but we need to make sure it is rewritten by ordinary folk not trial lawyers.
    Why do we need (or don't need) a new constitution? The constitution requires an amendment for all but the most trivial of local issues. This has resulted in the worlds longest Constitution.

16. Do you support the idea of a Constitutional Convention or favor rewrite by other means? If there is to be a new constitution it must come from grass roots constitutional conventions and it must be with agreement before hand that the legislators will be bound by the result before they give authority to do so.

17 Is Gambling morally wrong?If you had the authority to impact gambling activities, what would you do? Would you legalize and tax it, or would you suppress gambling activities?
Comments?

Robbing from Peter to pay Paul has no effect on the total economy. Taxing gambling, That is allowing the State to profit from gambling is the part that is morally wrong.

You know, A lot of teachers, including myself are historically Democrats. Supporting wage increases for teachers. Supporting the AEA. Supporting things like the issue of PreK that is before us today that fall under the purview of the Alabama Legislature . But I also know that most teachers are also Christian Conservatives.

I am running as a financially conservative Republican with a Baptist background. Often I get introduced as a former Democrat. Kind of a warning to the audience not to take too seriously what I might say. But in our district we have more than 120,000 registered voters only 1/3 of which will vote in the election in the fall. But we also have 8000 registered teachers and spouses of educators and you can bet that near 100% of them will vote. With near three decades of education under my belt you can know that I will always support public school teachers.

But I believe two things.

1 -Locally and nationally, the Democratic party has run out from under me.
2- The "Bailout" well can, and will, run dry.

I vote, and I run as a candidate on economic issues. Even hot button issues I step back and say " How does this affect the economics of our community". If it is morally acceptable and doesn't cost the taxpayer money then I will consider it. I believe we need, and we are going to get some fiscally responsible leadership in November. On a State level we have to be forward looking enough to open our eyes see the things that are a coming.

Things like record budget deficits. Unemployment levels at all time high. Medicaid shortfalls and education cutbacks.

Sometimes the answers are available but not always easy. But we need to be careful that we get people in the legislature this time who are going to take care of our teachers and the education system.

Energy costs will continue to rise. Our young people will die in increasing numbers from drug overdose and their children will go hungry.

With that in mind it is time to state a personal platform.

I ) I pledge to vote against tax increases and be ever mindful of the hidden tax increases in "fees" charges by government agencies.

II) I pledge to support our schools and teachers. If elected I will use every dime of my discretionary money in competitive grants for school supplies for our four to twelve year old's in public schools instead of handing out checks to a privileged few.

III) I pledge to go completely draconian on the drug issue. Seeking stiffer penalties for drug offenses, lock down rehab, and to go after drug dealing doctors.

IIII) And finally the main difference between me and the other guy. I pledge to vote against every and all gambling bills put forward by the Democrats. laws that could result in slot machines in your corner store right beside your church or school.

V) And finally, finally -Last but not least I will spend the next four years explaining to every legislator who will listen, That when we get a budget shortfall the solution is more income so the people can pay more tax, not more tax that will drive the people further down.

Sholanda Speaks!

Thanks to Sister Sholanda for the 400% bump in my web traffic this morning. Apparently there is some renewed interest in my piece of bewilderment on the state of the State when it comes to big money poured into projects that do little to create jobs. {http://shoalandaspeaks.blogspot.com/}

But for the reader who might be interested in a fresh correspondence I would like to mention my good friend Roger Bedford. Now I have pledged to say nothing bad about Roger for the duration of the campaign. And I mean it. But facts are neither bad or good, they merely are.

The facts, insofar as I understand it, are thus:

On the Tuesday morning 95.5 Radio show WFMH, I may have mentioned that the sitting State Senator had not attended the yearly get together at Northwest Shoals, The first Alabama Public Junior College, in my 25 year recollection. Twenty minutes after the show aired I got a call giving me a "heads up" that Senator Bedford would be attending. ( For newcomers to the blog, my 25 year Democrat, Incumbent, Opponent in the upcoming contest in November. AKA my DIO.)

On the same week as the radio show I met with the candidates for Fayette County school board to give them an opportunity to talk about the needs for schools to their Senate Hopeful. The issue on the table was books for the grammar schools.

Now I don't know all the particulars but it seems that the State Board has mandated a certain curriculum upon which the young students will be tested.

The public schools progress, and their ranking, will be related to how well those students do on this mandatory curriculum. The schools have no money for books. Particularly second grade math books. So the schools are in a position of having students tested on material the teachers cannot teach because funds are not available to buy the required books. Typical.

Also of concern were the amount of supplies the parents have to purchase each year. This is a problem. If you have a half dozen kids starting school then you need to be ready to fork out more than $100 per child for supplies for the school.

I truly expected Roger to show up at our inservice with a 6.6 million dollar grant to build a new building like he did for UNA, or $625,000 for another sewer system for another goat farm. or another 1.6 million for a new "spec" building for industries that ain't here and ain't on the way. But he didn't..

He showed up and raffled off six $250 checks to state employees. Some say four, some say two, I counted six.

Now, I know this money was not his personally. That would be vote buying which is illegal. As a lawyer he is not going to do anything illegal (cough-hatchact). And I know the money wasn't campaign finance money, that too would be illegal. So I suspect it to be that nefarious kind of money known among the taxpayers as

"Your Money".

Your tax dollars raffled off according to the recipient's birthday while seven year old's in Fayette county start second grade without the proper math books. The money apparently channeled through our Northwest Community College Foundation. That, gentle reader is the current legislative leadership's commitment to education.

Let the second grade in Fayette County do without math books so that a smiling Senator can hand a few dollars to folk that don't really need it.

And it is the fundamental difference between the incumbent and myself. I believe we need to put the money where it is needed. In the schools to buy scissors and toilet paper and even math books occasionally - Instead of handing it out willy-nilly to people who already draw a State check.

I invite you, gentle reader, to look into this. Call the director of the NWSCC foundation, ask where the money came from, Ask where it is going and what restrictions there are on people who received it. And while you are at it remind them that funny handling of the foundation money already brought down one President and ultimately a Chancellor.

So Roger, If you are listening, trot on down to Fayette and do your job. Raffle off a few second grade textbooks with that money instead of using it to buy votes in my home town.

Tell'em Jim Bonner sent y'a

Can I trust you?

Yesterday I met with a group from Fayette and after the speeches one gentleman, even older than I, walked up and took my hand, looked me in the eye and said " If we elect you - Can I trust you?"

I said yes. But he didn't let go. Holding my hand with the grip of a man 20 years younger, he said " Can you hold the public trust?" Looking me right in the eye to the point that it was getting uncomfortable.

He wanted more from me than a simple politicians' yes. He wanted a vow. He wanted to hear "To Have-and-to-Hold, from this day forward, I will hold the public trust!"

Like jilted lovers - the citizens of the counties in district six are so tired of being betrayed by their elected officials. They are sick and tired of being sick and tired of politics as usual. Being stolen from lied to and made to sit for re-election photo-ops to get back a fraction of their tax dollars. This resentment for the status-quo extends, I believe, beyond the seven counties in district six, beyond Alabama all the way from Canada to Mexico and Sea to Shining Sea.

The place that we have come to know as America is hurting.

I spoke to a bee keeper along route 129 about the drug problem in his front door. He held my hand in the same grip I had seen a few hours before and with pleading in his eyes asked me to do something to stop the drugs and corruption. I spoke to the Wal-Mart Greeter who took my card. Looked at it for a moment then in a flash of recognition, said " I know who you are running against -Give me a hundred cards!"

I am struck with the sadness and desperation of the people who remember having jobs, even jobs in the woods and coal mines and trailer plants. Jobs that fed the family without having to "sign up every week" for a handout.

I spoke to the mayor of one city and asked him if the town had a drug problem. He said "Only one" and started to cry. I didn't dig deeper. I didn't have to because I know the story. It might be his daughter, his wife, his brother. But I know the story.

Last night on my way home the immense responsibility of being the senator for these aching people struck me with such enormous force that I had to pull over on that dark backwoods stretch of highway 241 and get something out of my eye.

So there it is. My vow. If you will have me, I promise to have and to hold your trust above all special interest and above the desire to get re-elected for the tenure of my office and beyond. Until death do us part.

Signed and sealed this day August 11, 2010

Jobs for the comming economy

A few minutes ago a friend asked "what kind of jobs are you going to create?"
This is a valid question.

Many times I have said that if you plop down from your spacecraft in the middle of district six and open your eyes the first thing you see is trees..

Lots and lots of trees.

What I know about trees is that they contain lots of clean energy. Although a tree emits carbon when it is converted to fuel A tree sucks in whatever is belched out when it is burned during the time it is growing.

A tree mature typically contains 3o-50 cubic feed of wood, only one third of which is usable for lumber. A third can be chipped into building products and the remainder is just waste.

Waste unless there is a Electric energy plant in place to convert waste wood to electricity.

That one thing for which Americans seem to have a boundless appetite. " Is there enough?" my friend asked. "well," I reply " there are about 80,000 pounds of scrap wood per acre in a district five thousand square miles in area. Each 80,000 pound load contains 80 million BTU of energy. This is equivalent to 20 thousand barrels of oil. 20,000 times 640 acres per square mile times 5000 acres.. Check with the math department but the number boggles the mind. Boggles it a small amount anyway until you figure that amount is the 5% growth and cull trees that proper management of a forest requires you see the potential, in the billions, that our forest products can provide for energy every year. It becomes boggled squared plus one.

As a sawmiller I am often amazed that a load of firewood will bring more than a load of cut lumber. Energy is THE salable commodity in the new millennium.

Which brings us to the other hot commodity..

The Sun.

Solar radiation can be captured and stored on the grid using modern technology at reasonable prices. Add to that the 30% tax credit and energy incentives from the local electric company we see a potential of upwards of 50,000 home energy installations of solar power in district six.
All of these installations are going to require certified electricians (which coincidentally my department at the college provides) and licensed contractors to install them.

This could account for 150,000 jobs installing Photovoltaic generation equipment in zero energy homes.
But the panels also have to be built.

The manufacture of solar cells of silicon is a technical specialty products requiring clean room technology but those facilities exist and the raw materials can be purchased readily.
The assembly of these components into power producing units is a fairly low tech -high paying occupation.

A company to build such panels, along with the accompanying electronics to make them grid tie might employ 500 people in $25 per hour jobs. This plant could be put in Alabama for a reasonable sum.

Perhaps, what?

$1.6 million dollars?

What does it mean to be wealthy?

A friend from high school who attended the generic reunion in Phil Campbell said something bout the "Upper Crust" of Phil Campbell, "Society People", she said. I didn't make much of the comment but in my recollection of the small town America I grew up in I have to assume she was speaking of those citizens who had shoes in the summertime.

The question arises from time to time of what is rich, what is poor, middle class, and what is truly wealthy. I recall once in the middle seventies seeing a government statistic that put middle class at a certain dollar amount per household member. I immediately took out my pencil and checked to see if I was middle class.. "Whew" Just made it by a few dollars. Unfortunately by the end of the year a new child was born and according to the United States Government I was poor again.

Unsatisfied with that set of rules I set about to establish my own standard of evaluating the classes, and myself among them and I came up with these guidelines. Actual lines one can draw in the sand to find out where you stack up in the socioeconomic ladder. I did no better in the standing but I did feel ownership of the measurement medium.

Test one, The line between poor and middle class.
Walk into the supermarket, if there is anything in the store you cannot buy then you are not middle class. Sorry to be the one to break the news but many in Alabama look into over the meat counter and wonder who buys a ten dollar steak. I have been there. You likely have been too.

I admit living on that line of middle class and poor America most of my life. Fortunately I have never been in the situation where I couldn't get in the supermarket. (although I was asked at a steak house once if I knew what it costs to eat there) If you just can't get in the supermarket then you are not on the socioeconomic ladder, you my dear friend, are a brick they use to scotch up one side of it.

The next rung on the social ladder occurs in the car dealership. If, like I, you sometimes find yourself in the automobile supermarket and your your transportation selection is influenced by the sticker price instead of your desire - you my friend are not rich. If you wonder as I do how any person can be so wasteful to drive a land barge or a hummer or that little red number that whispers your name as you walk past. Then my dear, you are not rich.

And the final line, or at least the last line that I know anything about is the Realtors office. If you dear friend have to base your home selection on your income. If they "pre-qualify" you for purchase.. then friend, you are not wealthy.

Of course we know that true wealth, wealth beyond measure is internal but it is somewhat difficult to engage in existentialism when the whispers of your soul are drowned out by the rumblings of the stomach.

My youngest reported being shunned once upon a time because she said she was rich, meaning that she had all she needed, she had food and shelter and clothes and she loved and gave love. The doctors daughters she ran around with said " You don't even have a four wheeler."

So don't get me wrong, money is not everything. Not unless you don't have it and the baby needs milk and school starts next week and there are no new shoes and check is late and the rent is due.

This is the center of my concern about the social ladder. That the people who live within a fifty mile radius of me live on that line between middle class and poor. And the people whey continue to elect to represent their interest have never seen even the line between wealthy and merely rich. Truly wealthy lawyers who manipulate us into believing that they are doing us a favor by giving us back a part of the taxes they levied on us right after the past election.

My concern is for the people. People just like you. And me.

What Soviet Threat?

I recall in the late seventies I warned that the Soviet Union could collapse under the weight of its own debt.

I was told that the Soviets could require the workforce to work whatever hours necessary for whatever pay was available, they could be taxed at whatever rate necessary to support their military complex and that no free nation could compete. They could not "collapse". Today you will note that most of your incoming freshmen regard the Soviet Union, If they have even heard the term, as something of an anachronism. A state government something like the CSA, as remote in their thinking as the Civil War.

Alabama Education Association

I am a member of the Alabama Education Association. I am a member of a lot of other organizations and like you I’ll bet there are some things you support in the organizations to which you belong and some things that you disagree with, maybe even loudly and heartily. That, gentle reader is my relationship with the AEA.

For starters, the AEA apparently isn’t going to support me. Even though I’ve been a member for 27 years. Even though I have been an elected delegate to the the annual convention more years than not. I’ve sent in my dues regularly and enjoyed the benefits AEA provides to teachers. Nobody else is going to look after my well-being and my ability to survive in education like the AEA. One wonders then, Why won’t the Imperial Grand Poobah of the organization back me? AEA apparently does not even recognize my candidacy. Because I’m a Republican? Because of favors owed to other candidates? Who knows.

But, the AEA does have a couple of sacred cows which need to be de-horned. The first of these is serious review of the tenure laws. While I support the current laws for teachers in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, tenure for people who work for community colleges needs to be reformed. When I talk to people in the district the perception of teachers and administrators who remain on the payroll after they commit crimes seems to be a serious sore point with the working taxpayers.

I do have to agree with AEA's rules preventing the review of incompetent teachers who need to be removed by incompetent and overpaid administrators who also need to be removed. There is simply to much room for a qualified teacher to be removed simply because a brother-in-law needs the job. AEA can help with that but still, The tenure laws need a review.

Some years ago, Republican Representative Tripp Pittman, of Baldwin County, introduced legislation which provided for some improvement in the existing tenure law. Administrators—those people who run the colleges and their various divisions - could only obtain tenure as members of the faculty.

This meant that people responsible for academic, vocational, and technical areas would have to be members of a faculty first. My friends and I supported this portion of the measure. But hurtful to the entire concept of tenure lurked the idea that faculty members on continuing service, once fired, would place an unfair burden on men and women who can’t afford that expense.

AEA objected to this package and killed it.

In addition, community college faculty members should only be able to obtain tenure after five years’ service. And I think it ought to be expanded to require peer review evidence of superior teaching, community service, and professional growth in the teaching area.

Lost in the proceedings was a overly-wordy piece of legislation from the 1990s called “The Articulation and General Studies Agreement.” This agreement says that credit hours at our community colleges transfer to public four year institutions with the same status as if the student took the course at the senior institution. The other side of that coin must be that equal credit hours mean equal conditions of learning. First of these equalities should be the hiring, professional growth, and retention of our community college faculty. Second, but not less important is funding for facilities that are at least equal to the University setting. This is going to require a complete review of the regulatory body of the Community College System.

I’ll have more to say about the Alabama Education Association in the coming weeks. You can depend on me to stand up for honesty and ethics reform in every nook and cranny of government. That reform will start within the cranny in which I live.