The World Around You

My weekly column was published in this week’s Wednesday edition of the Prattville Progress and News Record:

According to the latest US Census statistics, Alabama may be facing losing one of its seven seats in the U.S. House of Representatives during the next reapportionment in 2010. It wouldn’t be anything new. Alabama’s delegation has dropped from nine representatives after the 1930 census, to eight in 1960 and the current seven in 1970. There is no doubt that Alabama is gradually becoming marginalized as a portion of the nation at large.

The same report from the census bureau indicates big growth in the south, with Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and South Carolina all projected to be in the top twenty growth states over the next 20 years. Meanwhile the report indicates that Alabama’s population will grow at a mere 9.6%.

The projections are based on mathematical models that assume fertility, mortality, and internal as well as international migration continue at the current rate. My concern with these projections is not as much about losing the congressional seat as it is being left behind by our neighboring states and the nation at large. Their continued growth will allow those states to prosper while Alabama stagnates.

Some say that more people doesn’t automatically equal prosperity and they would certainly be right, but if you fall behind the growth rate of other states in the region it is an indicator for a number of other issues. It could indicate that immigrants, from out-of-state and out of the country, are choosing those neighboring states over yours either because they offer better job opportunities, education opportunities, or other reasons. It could also indicate that your state has a higher mortality rate than others in the region, certainly not a positive attribute for the state. It could also indicate that families are not as large in your state because of their inability to sustain them. Any or all of these properties would be unfortunate circumstances for Alabama and would be harbingers for other negative developments in the future.

I don’t want to make too much out of one report, but there is no doubt the underlying issues that contribute to growth must be addressed. They are the same issues that have been recognized but left unaddressed for decades; inadequate healthcare and education systems, a repressive tax structure, poor economic infrastructure and lack of political leadership.

We want Alabama to compete. We want Alabama citizens to be the best they can be. None of these public structures can make an individual take action, but they do provide the mechanisms and systems that offer people the opportunity to succeed. Until we recognize that those systems are not working to their full potential in our state and do something about it we will continue to be marginalized in the nation as a whole and will find it difficult to attract anyone to live in this great state, nor to stay here. Other states will offer more and better opportunities and Alabama will continue to be left behind. The process is beginning to happen already and the only way to reverse the trend is to recognize reports like these as opportunities for change and take action.

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My weekly column was published in the Wednesday Edition of the Prattville Progress and News Record:

It looks like the Alabama legislature will once again fail to do its job and pass budgets for the General Fund and the Educational Trust Fund in the regular legislative session. Not only that, but as of the start of this week only two bills have passed into law this session.

The main blockade is occurring in the Senate, which has a history of passing a flood of bills at the last minute. However, there is an impediment that could prevent the traditional last minute catch-up. Under the rules of the Senate any bill passing in the final six days of the session must be unanimous. So, if any one Senator objects to a bill it will not pass.

Some will say, so we have another special session what else is new? Those who say this are correct, but they may not realize that a special session will cost around $500,000, and with the tight circumstances in the General Fund budget that money equates to the salary and benefits for a number of employees that wouldn’t have to be terminated or made up somewhere else in the budget if the legislature would do its job.

Senator Lowell Barron indicated in an article over the weekend that he believed there was a 50-50 chance of a special session. That is one of the more optimistic predictions I have heard. Most people who spend time in the legislature think there is very little chance of avoiding bringing the legislators back to Montgomery to complete the budget writing process. What’s frightening is how easily the words “special session” trip off legislators tongues. Many act as if it is something they would prefer to avoid, yet we continue to have them year after year. There are many explanations that will be offered, but the simple reality is that these elected officials have thirty days to complete a job and they didn’t do it.

Will there be consequences? Some would hope so, but most know that there won’t be. Everyone will go on about their business, a budget will eventually be passed and we’ll move on to the next legislative session, with the added interest of campaigns starting up for statewide offices to be contested next year. That is the way it will remain until constituents let legislators know that not passing a budget in the regular session is unacceptable.

There is little debate around the Education budget, the main point of difference is the size of a raise for teachers. It would seem that a reasonable compromise is very possible. The General Fund budget is trickier, but not impossible.

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My weekly column was published in today’s edition of the Wednesday (Prattville) Progress and News Record:

I am always encouraged when people feel the need to respond to something I have written, whether that is to agree or disagree. So, I read with interest the response to my column on the “Academic Freedom Act” by Robert Burton, published in last Saturday’s Progress. I believe Mr. Burton missed my point, because I took great pains to enter the debate about origins. However, since Mr. Burton obviously wants to engage in that debate I will be happy to respond.

Mr. Burton refers to 300 scientists who have signed on to a statement questioning only one aspect of evolutionary theory. This statement was circulated by the Discovery Institute, from whom Mr. Burton also borrows one entire paragraph of his column. What is the Discovery Institute? It is a think tank based in Seattle that according to the Washington Post spends over $1 million a year for research, polls and media pieces supporting “intelligent design”, the latest name for creationism. It is a political organization, not a scientific one.

I would offer this response by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS is a private, non-profit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars mandated by Congress to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters) to the question, “Don’t many famous scientists reject evolution? No. The scientific consensus around evolution is overwhelming.”

Mr. Burton cites polling data that Americans believe in creationism. I never said they didn’t, and I certainly don’t challenge that belief. What I challenge is the statement that the process of evolution has not been documented. Mr. Burton claims I was wrong when I stated evolution happens, but then goes on in a parenthetical to contradict that very point, admitting that evolution can occur within a species. So, I feel no need to respond further to that point.

Finally, my biggest concern with Mr. Burton’s argument is his thought that somehow “historical science” is less valid than “process science”. There are whole fields of science that are based almost exclusively on “historical science”. Astronomy, geology, and archaeology are all fields that theorize about events that have taken place in the past. Mr. Burton says that if you are not dealing in process science then, “No tests can be performed, much less repeated, to ever prove a particular view on origins because no human being was there when the universe was formed.” He is both right and wrong.

We will never know definitively how everything began because none of us were there. In fact, I said this at the end of my original piece. So, we are in complete agreement. However, it is false to say that you can perform no tests to support evolution. I return to the NAS, “Hypotheses can be made about such phenomena, and these hypotheses can be tested and can lead to solid conclusions. Furthermore, many key mechanisms of evolution occur over relatively short periods and can be observed directly–such as the evolution of bacteria resistant to antibiotics.”

I didn’t start a debate on origins. My original point is still salient, the bill that Senator Mitchell put forward and Mr. Burton urges you to support does not specifically discuss the teaching of creationism for a very good reason. Because that would violate established federal law. The bill is much broader and would allow any teacher or student to replace what science tells us with whatever their own beliefs are in any area, not simply in this ongoing debate. The “full discussions” that Mr. Burton indicates he desires are already allowed, within the bounds of established law, the bill as proposed is unnecessary and dangerous.

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My weekly column was published today in the Wednesday (Prattville) Progress

Seeing as it will cost upwards of $300,000 to fix the hole in Cobbs Ford Road that developed during last week’s rainstorms, I have some suggestions for alternatives to repairing the roadway. A hole is just a hole, but there are plenty of moneymaking propositions that would bring out the true potential of this unfortunate circumstance.

First, we must make the whole more than just a hole. The void could be put to many uses. We could obviously fill it with water and make it a new public swimming facility, but that lacks a certain flair. Though if we dumped some fish in it could provide another location for the Bassmasters tournament in a pinch.

We could turn it into an underground lair for our own superhero. Now there’s an idea with some punch. We might have problems with recruiting for the post though. It’s a dangerous job and not many people have the necessary qualifications or the wardrobe anymore.

I’ve even heard some talk about turning it into the largest mud bath in Alabama for our brand new full service spa. The potential is really only limited by our imagination.

What about turning it into a tourist attraction? People already seem fond of ÿ having their pictures taken in front of it. Why don’t we expand on that theme and just amp it up a little bit?

We need a catchy name. It’s not a hole, it’s a cave, no a cavern! Yes, that’s it. Welcome to Prattville Caverns (though if you want to get technical there is only one cavern). We’ll need a big sign pointing the way and steps leading down into the caverns and back out. Maybe a winding staircase, to add to the experience. We’ll also need the appropriate lighting, candle-like light fixtures alongside the staircase seem appropriate.

Now we don’t want people to leave Prattville Caverns disappointed, so maybe we could bring some beauty to the experience. How about hiring local artists to paint murals in the caverns that depict the history of our city? There would be depictions of Daniel Pratt and the other forefathers of our city, telling the story of the city’s founding and events since. This would add some artistic value to their visit.

We’d also need a gift shop selling t-shirts and appropriate trinkets. We could make a fortune. Prattville Caverns sweatshirts, jackets, hats, pens, toys and everything else that any good tourist attraction provides. We could even have a cave festival once a year that would bring in additional visitors and allow the community to appreciate our hole in the ground.

It could redefine the city. No longer would be known as the “fountain city” or the “birthplace of industry” in Alabama. We could be “those crazy people who turned a hole in the ground into a cavern”. Now isn’t that something worth investing our time and energies into while we save a few bucks?

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The roster of my hometown team, the Montgomery Biscuits, AA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, was released yesterday. I’m excited to see the returning pitchers, including Scott Autrey, Josh Parker, Chris Flinn, Carlos Hines, Jason Cromer, and Crhis Seddon. Chairon Isenia, Fernando Cortez and Eric Reece will also be familiar to Biscuits fans.

We will also have the pleasure of yet another of the top prospects in Major League Baseball at least beginning the season in Montgomery. Delmon Young, younger brother of Detroit Tiger Dmitri Young (who had three homers on Opening Day) will be starting in the outfield for the Biscuits. Elijah Dukes another top prospect will join Young in the outfield.

As the Advertiser points out, three of this year’s Biscuits also have Major League service time. Jason Dellaero, Jason Phillips and Jason Switzer have all spent time in the big leagues.

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There seems to be a number of these types of “mistakes” happening in the Governor’s office lately. Someone over there is trying to push an agenda, but if the Governor is true to the promises he has made about accountability he will find out who is responsible for changing the language and discipline them. We all know how these things usually work, you just copy the language from the year before when you are issuing this type of proclamation. It is obvious that someone purposefully removed the noted paragraph.

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The pricetage to fix Prattville’s sinkhole is substantially more than initially estimated. A bid was awarded for $506,000. I have some ideas for how we could have used the hole to our advantage and saved that money in this week’s column, to be published in the Prattville Progress on Wednesday.

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