Sigh. And we’re on the national stage again.
“So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior…” I don’t even have to finish it, do I? We all know how that one usually ends up. In the Dexter Avenue Memorial Baptist Church—how stunningly, ironically appropriate—Governor Doctor Doctor Bentley informed all us non-believers that while he may be our governor, he does not consider us his brothers or sisters.
My brothers and sisters over at Political Wire are all stirred up by this report. Predictable comments, the kind that make you cringe, about “why didn’t we just let the South go,” etc. It hardly seems worth it to protest “Hey, I live here. We’re not all like that!”
So what’s the course for Alabamians like me, who find this kind of speech quaint at best, and abhorrent when it comes from the lips of an elected public official? Do we continue to stay here, feeling like Margaret Mead documenting the behaviors and social customs of an alien tribe? Assemble our tiny crowd of liberal friends and hope that perhaps our grandchildren will see a different Alabama (although that’s not likely since our children have all fled the state)? Or do we upturn our lives to make the difficult move to some state where a man like this couldn’t make the primary even as the dark horse that Bentley was?