Secretary Bennett’s Remarks at the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform Capitol Rally

Attention: State News Reporters / Alabama Media Outlets

Contact:
       David Azbell
       Secretary of State's Office
       334-242-7205 or alsecst@alalinc.net

We have been asked to speak briefly this morning on a rather lengthy subject, the 1901 Alabama Constitution.

At 315,000 words, it is the longest constitution in the entire world.

It is also the most amended, having been changed 706 times. It is my opinion that anything so out of step with reality it has to be changed 706 times, needs replacing.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we are talking about today . . . a state-wide, grassroots movement to give Alabama a new constitution, one that empowers rather than prohibits, one that enables rather than enjoins.

County officials must come to Montgomery now for the most mundane of tasks. They run with the promise of making improvements back home but soon find they have no authority to do so.

That's because our century-old constitution is a document that still chases carpetbaggers. Now, I don't know how many carpetbaggers still roam our county courthouses putting taxes on the plantation, but county officials still live under the same severe restrictions imposed after Reconstruction.

It is time for a change.

Give counties home rule, relax earmarking of revenues, strike racially-divisive language and give Alabama a constitution in keeping with the times of George W. Bush rather than Teddy Roosevelt.

We need a constitution that speaks more to the future than to the past, more to education and economic development than to dueling and bounties on beaver tails.

What we are facing is a horse and buggy constitution in the space age. Like many other states before us, it is time to bring the guidebook for government into the 21st Century.

This is a bi-partisan effort to give Alabama a new constitution for a new day.

And let me close by thanking Gov. Siegelman for becoming a part of this movement. His leadership is vitally needed. 

And to those legislators who have already stepped forward, Sen. Bedford and Reps. Guin, Venable, Greeson, Oden and Gipson, thank you for your courage and vision. 

Our old constitution is a patchwork quilt of quick fixes. There is no room for any more patches.

Alabama has had six constitutions in her past. It is high time we had a seventh.

We can't wait another 100 years to move on. Our state, our people, our children deserve better.

Let us leave this place dedicated to do just that.