I came across an article on AL.com that has made me think about the future of this country. Many things in the past few months have made me think about this, but as January 20th gets closer, the thinking refuses to stop. My brain resembles a Farris Wheel that has jumped from its restraints and barreled down a steep incline.
The photo on this article, in the very beginning, pictures a group of tailgaters at the University of Alabama. Someone is walking around with a flag of the State of Alabama. The flag, however, has been desecrated with the phrase “don’t tread on me” and the coiled snake that generally accompanies it. I have my own feelings of the flag as it should be, resembling a white sheet with two red lines of blood splashed as a cross from corner to corner. Alabama doesn’t have the cheeriest history by far and this only reminds people of that fact. Alas, I digress.
People with dubious intelligence have taken the “don’t tread on me” slogan as some kind of battle cry. It baffles me that people try to use this flag today as some kind of calling for maleficent reasons. In its beginnings, during the American Revolution, it was used as a warning from naval ships and then from marines afterward, rightly so. It became a symbol of American revolution as an “assertive warning of vigilance and willingness to act in defense against coercion.” 1 Who do these people think are coercing them to do anything? Why do these people feel they need to use such a symbol against people of their own country who are just trying to live their lives? Does our votes for someone other than their “leader” mean we mean them harm? I thought that was the basis of American democracy.
The article continues to talk about how “woke” programs at universities are ending. This is happening in states that are led by conservatives who generally can’t give a clear, precise definition of the term “woke.” People on the liberal side of thought are concerned that this could be a trend that spreads across the nation as more and more people are feeling empowered by the orange gremlin to come out of the woods and down the mountain. The article refers to people who have considered dropping out of college or not enrolling because they feel underrepresented. They may even feel that their lives could be put into danger by simply attending.
“He who must not be named” campaigned on ending “wokeness” and “leftist indoctrination” in educational institutions and he stated that he wanted an end to diversity programs. Of course he did! Why would he want education to be made available to people that didn’t have rich parents and weren’t showered with money. One conservative being quoted in the article said that DEI sent a message that “white is oppression.” Hello there, truth speaker! I would like to find this dude and shake his hand. In many cases, that’s exactly what it became. It’s a reminder that at the University of Alabama, in the 60’s, a female black student had to find a place to hide to escape being harmed, if not killed, by ignorant white students that didn’t feel she had a place there. And then they ended up with a Bibb Graves Hall, just as many other colleges in the south, including the University of West Alabama where I attended.
Just as an educational piece, or a reminder if you already knew, Bibb Graves was the 38th governor of Alabama and the first person to serve two four-year terms. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1896 and moved back to Montgomery, AL to live the rest of his life. He was an elder in the Christian Church and married his first cousin. For Alabama at the time, and possibly today, that part of his life wasn’t strange. He himself attended the University of Alabama. One thing could be said positively about the man. He did oppose ratifying the Alabama Constitution of 1901 which basically codified white supremacy. But, while that was true, he was elected governor of Alabama in 1926 with the “secret endorsement” of the KKK as he was believed to be the chapter president of the Montgomery chapter of the KKK. He wasn’t the only person that used the influence of the KKK to further their careers. He was accompanied in that by Hugo Black, another Alabama Klan member who became a US Supreme Court justice.
Thankfully, the UA Board of Trustees made the correct decision to rename Bibb Graves Hall to Lucy Hall after Autherine Lucy, the first black student that hid in the library of the very same building.
At Auburn University (War Eagle!), the Pride Center was closed. It was a designated safe space for LGBTQ+ people and their allies. Because grandmaw…I mean, Gov. Kay Ivey…signed into law a bill barring state funding for public colleges that advocated for “divisive concepts.” She didn’t want people to “feel guilty for their race or their gender.”2 Um, sure….I guess. If Bubba is sitting in a place that is made for the safety of black students or LGBTQ+ people and he doesn’t feel comfortable, it’s either because he’s different than others or he’s afraid people might realize he’s just like them. Imagine that!
I’m not going to beat a dead horse, but I’ll say this much. Reading an article like this coming from Alabama doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Like many others, when I was offered a ticket to get out of that state, I ran with it. As the joke goes….What’s the best thing to come out of Alabama?
Interstate 20.
I left Alabama in 1999 and other than trips back to visit with family from time to time, I haven’t looked back. Sure, when life has handed me rotten lemons, I’ve contemplated moving back. Of course, I was also in a state of depression and having suicidal thoughts. I see a correlation between the two thought processes. I’m not naive enough to think or say that this is only Alabama. It’s happening in many other states where people are trying to beat down progress or the happiness of others. Why allow people to be happy when it might oppress someone else who is either too weak to progress themselves or are just plan hard-headed or ignorant? As I say quite a bit, and will always say, the intelligence of the few will never outweigh the ignorance of the many. Unfortunately, it’s sad, but it’s true.
Sources
- Benjamin Franklin on the Rattlesnake as a Symbol of America. https://greatseal.com/symbols/rattlesnake.html
- Trump wants to change US colleges. GOP-led states like Alabama offer a preview. January 9, 2025 https://www.al.com/educationlab/2025/01/trump-wants-to-change-us-colleges-gop-led-states-like-alabama-offer-a-preview.html
Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor