Alabama Politics Week in Review

Article by Murray Edwards, Alabama Politics

It was somewhat busy across the state last week, here’s a quick rundown.

Junior Senator Katie Britt was released from the hospital after suffering facial numbness potentially caused by a fungal infection.

State Senator Tim Melson SD1, suffered a heart attack while in South Korea, he is expected to return home to North Alabama sometime over the next week.

The Biden administration cancelled the move of the Space Command from Colorado to Huntsville Alabama. The Alabama Congressional contingent as well leaders in Alabama are continuing the push to have the Space Command relocated to Huntsville. The initial approval was provided by the Trump administration.

Public libraries in Autauga and Lee Counties continue to reject the removal of sexually explicit and alternate lifestyle books from the shelves. 

Parents have made requests to the libraries 

committee, stating these are not appropriate for young children to have access to, but to date, those requests have fallen on deaf ears.

Mayor Gillespie of Prattville has proposed a clearer separation on age brackets in which the objectionable books are intended to be read. 

Board member Wayne Lambert suggested that a committee should be formed to address the Gillespie proposal.

It should be noted that Lindsey Milam resigned in June as the Autauga-Prattville Public Library system and has been replaced by Andrew Foster from the Montgomery Public Library System where he served as Director of Youth Services.

Ongoing discussions in Lee County to address the same issues have been met with little success as council members have attempted to shut down any comments made by concerned parents and citizens.

In Madison County, the “See You At The Library” event hosted by Kirk Cameron and the local chapter of Moms for Liberty created quite a controversy. 

It seems the  ”blame game” started from the beginning. The Huntsville-Madison Library had initially approved the event, then cancelled on concerns of potential protestors appearing, the next call-out was that the proper permits had not been obtained by the event coordinators as the number attending went from 20 to over 200, the library stated that they could not support an event of that size.

Reports that the American Library Association, ALA, has been pushing libraries across the country not to allow the “See you At The Library” events and provided methods in which libraries could use push back to stop or hinder the events from occurring.

It should be noted that the American Library Association has recently welcomed a new president, Emily Drabinski, who describes herself as a Marxist lesbian and an advocate of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, DEI. 

Since her appointment, many states across the country have been recommending that the public library systems in their state terminate their relationship with the ALA.

Ultimately, under threat of legal action the Huntsville-Madison Library System conceded and permitted the event to occur. On Saturday August 5th, approximately 500 parents attended the event, 225 at the library, the remainder were directed to The Rock church.

It was reported that nearly 100 protestors gathered outside the library.

Selma High School was granted $10,000 from the

“It Gets Better Project” to fund a book club that will read literature featured around LGBTQ themes. The school plans to use some of the funds to take a field trip to a “queer heritage site.”

The ALGOP held their summer meeting in Montgomery on Friday and Saturday. Friday night’s guest speaker was Donald Trump, fresh off indictment number 3. A record crowd of 2700 attended the dinner to listen to Trump discuss his plans should he be reelected in 2024.

From ending the Department of Education and other bureaucratic agencies to committing to widening I65 across Alabama, the crowd listened intently and applauded his future efforts.

Every member of the Congressional contingency except for Katie Britt and Governor Kay Ivey endorsed Candidate Trump. Both are on the Nationally GOP and refrained from announcing their endorsement.

During the business session on Saturday. The party passed resolutions that would prohibit certain candidates from accepting donations from the National Educational Association, NEA, and the Alabama Educational Association, AEA.

They also approved efforts to ban the Environmental Social and Governance, ESG, programs in the state. It should be noted that the party had also passed the same resolutions during their winter meeting, those also included banning CRT, DEI and stopping certain forms ballot harvesting. 

Unfortunately, the only bill to make it to floor during the 2023 session for a vote was Senate Bill 261 banning ESG, which after committee hearings and push back from some state organizations, a watered-down version of the bill was passed. 

Saturday night after the meeting adjourned, down on the waterfront of downtown Montgomery, a brawl broke out near Riverfront Park. The incident has gone viral across the internet showing a group of individuals, black and white, getting into an altercation. 

At least 4 individuals were arrested with more warrants expected to be issued once further analysis of the videos is reviewed by authorities.

That’s a quick recap of some the news events that occurred last week in Alabama.