http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1153387350251590.xml&coll=2 – Congressman Artur Davis’ (D) contribution major factor in defeat of Rep. Eric Majors (D-Birmingham).

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1153386948251590.xml&coll=2 – Voting Rights Act Extension near final approval.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1153387062251590.xml&coll=2 – Candidate in House District 54 waiting for final results before accepting defeat.

http://www.al.com/opinion/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1153387121251600.xml&coll=1 – Editorial ponders implications of Tuesday’s election outcomes in selected races.

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/opinion/editorials/060720b.shtml - Editorial characterizes Congress, Bush administration as “way out of step” in refusing to increase federal minimum wage.

FROM TODAY’S ANNISTON STAR:

Editorials

Artur Davis pulls no punches

In our opinion

07-20-2006

Last Sunday night, at an event held at Auburn University Montgomery and sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Foundation, Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, addressed the problems facing the Black Belt and made it clear that until white and black leaders put aside their own agendas and worked together, none of the problems would be solved.

Frustrated by excuses from people who are supposed to make things better and don’t, Davis added, “Sometimes I wish they’d get one-way tickets and charter a bus to Meridian” — where (we suppose) they would get off and stay.

With that, Davis pointed directly at what has kept the Black Belt and its people at the bottom of almost every quality of life measure that can be made.

For years, white leaders ignored the majority black population and its needs. Then came the Civil Rights Movement and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which ushered in an era of black political power. And since then, black political leaders have done little to address the needs that whites ignored.

Both races make excuses and point fingers.

Whites say that black leaders are more interested in consolidating and holding on to political power than in improving the lot of the people and the region. Blacks say that whites control the economy and have no intention of allowing blacks to have a piece of the pie.

Both are right.

Both are wrong.

But until the two sides are willing to sit down together, admit their shortcomings to each other and acknowledge that there is more to themselves than concentrations of political and economic power, the Black Belt will continue to languish.

This is an Alabama problem. Take the Black Belt out of Alabama and you have a state with respectable student test scores, a pretty good record of economic growth and a middle-of-the-pack per-family income.

But you cannot take the Black Belt out. It is part of us, and its problems are our problems. So until state leaders, black and white, press Black Belt leaders to cooperate, Alabama will continue to lag behind the rest of the nation.

Beware of the ‘English only’ crowd

In our opinion

07-20-2006

It might have struck some folks as a little odd when the Alabama Republican Party Executive Committee meeting last Saturday unanimously passed a resolution calling on GOP congressmen to support proposed amendments to the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Not odd because the amendments would have ended special restrictions on Southern states or at least made the restrictions apply to other states as well. Not odd because the amendments would have ended the printing of ballots in languages other than English.

Odd because the U.S. House of Representatives had already voted on the amendments and rejected them.

We can only suppose, therefore, that the resolution was aimed at Alabama’s two Republican senators, Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions, who will be voting on similar amendments shortly.

The idea that Alabama and a few other states (including Alaska) have to seek federal permission to change voting laws does not sit well with state chauvinists. And there could well be reason for this issue to be revisited.

However, if anecdotal evidence is admissible, the issue of special state requirements was not as important to GOP delegates as the question of bilingual ballots.

Or more to the point, of language.

As the issue of illegal immigration heats up, the “English only” battle cry is fast becoming the centerpiece of the campaign. It is as if all that is needed to make everyone into an “American” is to require them to know English. No more alternatives. No bilingual signs, notices, instructions, tests, ballots.

You want to be one with the rest of us, speak the language. Until you learn it, you are not an American. When you do, you are.

It seems so easy.

Don’t apply for privileges or benefits until you can do it in English. It is a criterion that, on the one hand, discriminates against those who do not speak the language and, on the other, elevates the status of those who do.

It is also an approach ripe for populist rhetoric and demagoguery. It is an issue on which political careers can be built.

And surely there will be those who will try. Beware of them.