Rethinking your perception of Alabama
America has a problem.
I’ve been following the special election of Alabama for the majority of 2017 and I’ve noticed things that have been bothering me so much. I’ve written about this before during the Democratic primary. I’m not just talking about the allegations against Roy Moore.
I’m talking about the people who live outside of Alabama who:
1) Follow the news and see nothing but Roy Moore and bunch Alabama with people who support an alleged pedophile.
1a. If you know me, you obviously know that I believe the allegations are true because an entire city/town in Alabama would not lie. This is a republican state through-and-through. Everyone here talks about each other and knows what everyone is up to. For that big of a rumor to have spread means it’s glaringly, obviously true.
2) Expect everyone in Alabama to vote against Roy Moore/for Doug Jones, or else…
With regards to the second point, there’s an underlying assumption that people will all of a sudden start caring about Alabama if Doug Jones wins.
For example, there’s someone I follow on Twitter who said he would keep his 35 year streak of avoiding the state of Alabama if Roy Moore won. I called him out on this and said he wasn’t planning on coming to Alabama anyway. He responded that if Doug Jones won, he would promise to drive through Alabama at least once in his life.
Great. What I take away from this is that you expect Alabama to do right when it matters to you, but don’t care about Alabama at any other time unless if you’re betting on Alabama or Auburn football games. And if they don’t do right, you weren’t going to do anything differently anyway. But if they do right, you might entertain the option of potentially coming to Alabama once in your life.
I remember being in my World History class in 11th grade. We were somehow talking about Bangladesh, and I was half-jokingly/half-seriously defending it as a place to visit. My teacher said, “So you’re saying Bangladesh is a vacation destination?” I half-jokingly/half-seriously said yes. I feel the exact same way when people talk about Alabama.
Where does that leave us?
When I moved to Alabama at 15, I was an arrogant teenager who thought people in Alabama were like what I’d heard about. Those assumptions of being in a place of republicans, of people being like Forrest Gump, etc. etc.
Within a year, I realized how incredibly wrong I was. There were many people I went to school with who were way smarter than I was, and who I learned so much from and continue to learn from. They were just normal people.
At 27, I now prefer to live in Birmingham, Alabama over New York City and Washington, D.C. When I was moving from NYC to Birmingham, my friends were questioning why I would ever do that.
For personal reasons, I prefer Birmingham to a major city because at the heart of it, I am going to work Monday-Friday from 8 am until whenever I get off just like I would in any other city. The difference is that my commute to work is 15-20 minutes at most, traffic isn’t that bad on the way to work and back home. On weeknights and weekends, I hang out with my girlfriend. On Sunday, I get ready for the workweek by doing laundry and other things. Time flies when you’re a working adult. The difference is that living in Alabama affords me to have a relaxing lifestyle (I went to sleep at 10 pm last night and woke up at 530 am on my own will this morning!) whereas in NYC I feel like I’m constantly missing out on shit and am always adding to my sleep debt and taking away from my checking account balance.
To get back to my point, there are plenty of people in Alabama who are well-meaning, well-intentioned people. If they are Roy Moore supporters, it’s because society has failed them.
Society comes around when it needs Alabamians most. Then, Alabamians pick a side like they do with Alabama or Auburn. Alabamians stick to that side and defend it to death.
The problems of Alabama are the problems of America. If Alabama’s education is a laughing stock, it is highly probable that America’s education is a laughing stock. You just pick on it because it’s Alabama and you assume the worst, and then turn a blind eye because there’s no way your city and state could be anywhere near as bad.
If Alabama is on the wrong side of history in the Civil War and in the Civil Rights Movement, it is likely that your city and state dealt with similar issues of people being divided and having to overcome. Shit, there’s a reason Jordan Peele said “Get Out” is a documentary and not a comedy.
If Alabama’s voting rights/laws/gerrymandering is atrocious, it probably is in your state too.
These are just the obvious points that come to mind, I’m sure there are plenty more.
If Alabama has Roy Moore as a candidate, we have to ask why and how it got to this point.
The status quo Democrats have long written off any hope of winning Alabama (until Doug Jones came along) and the Right has long considered Alabama safely Republican. There is nothing wrong with being on the Right. In general, the Hillary Clinton Left is actually considered to be the Right in other modern, developed nations. There is something wrong with people having lost faith in their government and the media which is meant to hold the government accountable.
Congressman and 2018 Senate Candidate for Texas Beto O’Rourke said it best, “When we give Texas a chance to do right, Texas will.” I believe that also applies to Alabama.
This is all I’m asking of you: reword how you talk about us. Donating to and voting for Doug Jones is a great, moral victory, but that doesn’t solve the problem. What will solve the problem is actually listening to people here and getting to the core of what is bothering them and offering tangible solutions.
For example, in neighboring state Georgia, major scholarships funded by the Georgia Lottery for Education give high school students a chance to have 100% of their tuition and other fees covered if they get a 3.7 GPA and 26 on their ACT and maintain a 3.3 GPA in college. If they earn a 3.0 or higher, they’ll receive a scholarship as well, just not 100%.
In neighboring state Tennessee, the Tennessee Promise/Tennessee Reconnect, also funded by the state lottery, made Tennessee the first state to offer free community college.
I am a large supporter of legalizing all sorts of gambling state-wide because there are many benefits to it if it is properly regulated and we keep track of people’s gambling habits (I may write about the legalization of sports betting another time). The lottery system combined with education is proof. Students are incentivized to work hard so they don’t have to be burdened with student debt for the rest of their life. Georgia was worried that people would stop betting on the lottery and the scholarship fund would diminish, but that never happened.
Alabama isn’t New York and Birmingham isn’t New York City, but it doesn’t need to be because no one else can be. Birmingham has its own charm and there are many great developments happening here.
There are plenty of people here who want a better life, who want to do the right thing, who want the people around them to be living happy, healthy, meaningful lives. We just need to give them the chance to be heard.
We also need to respect them as people of America, otherwise Alabama’s problems will become your problems.