ALLIANCE
FOR CITIZENS RIGHTS
ALLIANCE
FOR CITIZENS RIGHTS
THE SPEECH
I Wish I'd Made
by Ray Simmons
I attended a meeting yesterday where citizens were invited to present their views to the Governor’s Commission on Constitution Reform. Anyone desiring to speak was given five minutes in which to do so. I had not prepared to speak but signed up just in case. As it turned out I did address the committee with a few comments.
After listening to others speak their minds for about two hours I felt I wanted to at least get in two cents worth, which was about what I did. If there’d been time to properly reflect, assimilate and organize my thoughts, the following is the speech I wish I had made:
Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to address the issue of Alabama Constitution reform. I have been sitting here listening for roughly two hours to what others have said and have noted a few things. First, there seems to be two classes of speakers here today: those who are representing some group or faction within our society and those who are speaking for themselves. It seems to me that those desiring constitution reform fall into the first classification while those in the second classification are generally opposed to changing our constitution.
An early speaker pointed out that 21 of you are members of the so-called grassroots organization, Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform (ACCR). Several of the speakers also profess membership in that organization and they have generally expressed a desire that the scope of your consideration be expanded to include a constitutional convention. This organization seems to be quite well funded and has been generating considerable propaganda material. It is led by community leaders such as Dr. Corts and former Governor Albert Brewer and others whom I would hardly classify as grassroots material. It also seems to have the backing of the major news media in the state.
It was also pointed out by an earlier speaker that there is no one on your committee representing organized labor, but 14 trial lawyers are among your group and there are several business entrepreneurs and current or former elected representatives. There are no ranchers or farmers and apparently no just plain John Doe citizens. As the earlier speaker commented, it seems like we are playing with a stacked deck.
The farmers in the audience who have voiced their concerns seem to prefer that you leave well-enough alone. Other ordinary citizens, such as myself, have generally expressed that same opinion. It isn’t that we think our 1901 Constitution is a perfect document, the truth is we see the move for reform as a move to take power from the people and put it into the hands of politicians and special interest groups. We have watched as the legislature has passed bills in the House the last two or three years that would drastically reduce the citizens’ rights as they are now enumerated, would rewrite the state and county boundary lines or remove them all together and would give much greater control over personal property to government or quasi-governmental bodies. If a great majority of the population were not so uninformed of current efforts around the state I believe this building, much less this room, would be too small to contain the protesters.
The 1901 Constitution was drafted at a time when the federal government and state governments throughout our nation recognized that certain rights are given to men by their Creator God and that those rights are inalienable, not subject to revocation by the state. In today’s left-leaning liberal climate I doubt you could convene a constitutional convention that would be willing to even acknowledge that there is a Creator God, much less one who grants rights to the people. Much of what we see today called pluralism and diversity is designed not to unite in common cause but to divide and conquer. Our 1901 Constitution is a bulwark against the agendas being pushed by numerous factions. It therefore must be torn down.
I have also heard many references this morning to our need to restore democracy to the people through what is being called "home rule." God forbid! Our Founding Fathers fully understood the treachery inherent in a Democracy, that is why they gave us a Republic. Our government schools have so distorted the founding principles upon which our nation is based that college students and elected officials today believe we are a Democracy.
Even this "democratic" meeting to provide the people’s input is a sham, otherwise it would have been broadly publicized and not held at ten in the morning on a workday when the vast majority of grassrooters are working to make a living and unable to be here in defense of their rights.
Thank you.
March 8, 2003
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