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Two old statesmen gone
Alabama lost two former state attorneys general in recent days who together served 12 years, from 1959- 1971. Both ran unsuccessfully for governor and both were good public servants. McDonald Gallion died Saturday in Montgomery. He was 94. Gallion was an attorney when he went to Phenix City to help investigate and clean up crime and corruption there after attorney general nominee Albert Patterson was assassinated. Gallion would be elected in 1958 and served from 1959-1963. He was an unsuccessful candidate for governor against George C. Wallace in 1962. He ran again in 1966 and served from 1967-1971. He successfully litigated Alabama's offshore oil and gas rights. Today revenue from those rights constitutes a multimilliondollar trust fund for the state. Richard Flowers died Thursday in Dothan. He was 88. He ran for and was elected attorney general in 1962 when Gallion tried for governor. He served at the height of the Civil Rights movement. While other Alabamians, most notably Gov. George C. Wallace, fanned the flames that roared greatly then, Flowers counseled moderation and restraint. He prosecuted murderers of Civil Rights workers but in both instances jurors refused to convict. In one case, a federal jury eventually did return a conviction. Ironically, the 42nd anniversary of the murder of one of those workers, Jonathan Daniels, a white Episcopal seminary student from New Hamspshire, was recognized Saturday just days after Flowers' death. Daniels was shot and killed by a Lowndes County deputy in 1965. Flowers would run for governor in 1966. George Wallace could not seek re-election by law then and ran his wife, Lurleen. Flowers' gubernatorial campaign pledges sought to improve state schools and to fly the U.S. flag from the State Capitol. The Alabama state flag and the Confederate flag flew from the dome then. He said the action was a "gesture of defiance that must be put behind us." Lurleen Wallace would whip Flowers and the many others who ran that year and became Alabama's first and only woman governor. Husband George would be off and running fo president. She would die of cancer before her four-year term ended. Flowers would later be convicted for taking bribes while he was AG. He said it was the price he paid for his stands while in office. He served 16 months before President Jimmy Carter pardoned him. You have to wonder what turns might Alabama have taken had either McDonald Gallion or Richard Flowers been elected governor over George C. Wallace or his stand-in wife? What would have happened to Wallace? Would he have ended up a minor footnote in history books?
The strutting banny rooster Joe Reed had the audacity to send twoyear college system Chancellor Bradley Byrne a letter comparing Byrne to Adolf Hitler and calling him petty, insulting, vindictive, hateful, arrogant, unprofessional and a number of other derogatory adjectives. Dr. (yes, he has a Ph.D., believe it or not) Reed's letter was prompted by Byrne's dismissal of Bishop State Community College President Yvonne Kennedy. Reed has a right to disagree with Byrne. He does not have a right to call him a Hitler or to insult him the way he has. Dr. Kennedy (she has a Ph.D. too) was incompetent. Bishop State is in a mess as a result of her administration. Byrne tried to work out a plan for Dr. Kennedy to exit gracefully but she refused to do what he asked her to do so he speeded up her "retirement." Joe Reed is one to compare anyone to Adolf Hitler! He is the number two man at the Alabama Education Association. He and number one Paul Hubbert run that organization with an iron fist and dictate to governors and legislators. Reed is a big dog in Alabama Democratic Party politics and is one of the reasons that the party has fallen into disfavor in this state. He is also chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference, a predominantly black political organization that he runs pretty much as he sees fit. Reed is black. Byrne is white. Among the derogatory names Reed called Byrne is racist. Reed likes to throw up the racial wildcard and uses it to try and keep blacks and whites at odds with one another and to maintain his own Hilter-like dominance. We hope demagogues like Joe Reed - black and white - are on their way out in Alabama. Their messages of hate and division have long grown old.
I see that German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp's latest financial statement shows the mega company makes over $1 million a day in profit during the latest reporting quarter. I understand that states and localities must provide financial incentives to get industries to locate in their areas and I'm all for the ThyssenKrupp plant that will be located at Calvert. It will be a boom to our area. But $1 million a day? That is certainly richer than the state of Alabama. Looks like ThyssenKrupp ought to be providing incentives for us, not the other way around!
Jim Cox is editor and publisher of The Clarke County Democrat.
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