“Anything less would be uncivilized.” – Charles Barkley from 1990s-era deodorant commercials

We are now three weeks removed from the election, and it is my understanding discussing politics around Thanksgiving dinner can be considered uncouth in many circles.

But before we totally put the previous election to bed, I am going to try to slip in one more conversation before you reach for your first helping of dressing. In fact, I am going completely off the approved script of topics when it comes to social graces.

I am asking how you – yes, you, beloved reader – voted in the recent election on the ballot item that must have been important because it took up the most ballot space.

Of course, I am referring to the contest at the end of the ballot where we decided on an amendment to the Alabama Constitution, our state’s highest and most important governing document, outside of the U.S. Constitution. It required you to choose yes or no and read as follows.

“Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 2022, to grant certain sixteenth section and indemnity school land that is owned in fee simple by the Franklin County school system, is located in Fayette County and Walker County, and is for …”

OK, I could not make it to the end. Reading the entire thing is a more effective sleeping aid than the tryptophan in your grandma’s turkey.

What does it mean? I am still not entirely sure myself. As best as I could find out, somehow the Franklin County school board owns or controls a piece of property that is located in both Walker and Fayette counties and needs a constitutional amendment to sell or lease that property.

So, is this something that would be a positive for Franklin County? I don’t know. Is this a negative for Walker and Fayette counties? Not sure. How does the Franklin County school system have land in other counties? Can’t tell ya.

Did the amendment pass? I did not even know the answer until I stopped typing this sentence to check. It did pass, by the way.

Why are we voting on topics in northwest Alabama we know nothing about here in east Alabama? Ah, finally a rhetorical question I can answer. Alabama’s constitution was written to concentrate as much power as possible into the state government and as little as possible into local governments.

There are several reasons for this including: ensuring any counties with a majority Black population would not ever pass laws to which the state’s white majority population would object, limiting local government power to raise taxes anywhere within the state, and maintaining the Democratic Party’s stranglehold on the state by forcing any new local laws to be approved by statewide elected officials of the party.

When our previous constitution was passed in 1901, it was effective in accomplishing all of these goals for decades. Having to pass a statewide amendment for a local issue was just one more way to limit local government power.

Of course, this also meant Alabamians have voted to approve amendments on topics such as how dead farm animals are disposed of in Limestone County and flea markets’ ability to open on Sundays in Etowah County, as pointed out in an article written by former Gov. Albert Brewer for the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

In 2022, the Alabama Legislature passed and voters approved a new state constitution. This was a positive step to better organize the 1901 version into a somewhat understandable document, but the underlying issue of local governments having little ability to decide laws for themselves is still present.

How did I vote on the amendment? Awfully presumptuous of you to ask but, just between us, I left it blank. As someone who studies government for a living, not exercising my right to vote makes me feel icky, but how are any of us supposed to know how to vote on issues like this?

In earlier times, I had a stance to vote no on all constitutional amendments until the constitution was changed to allow local governments to decide most of their laws for themselves, but that could be punitive when local governments do try to pass good laws.

The goal of any constitution should be to establish broad rights and limitations on the government and its citizens. The legislature and local governments then pass narrower laws that fall within the guardrails of the constitution.

If the amendment had instead asked if a county government body or agency should be allowed to own land in another county, that is something that would apply to all state citizens and be worthy of attention. We should consider anything less uncivilized.