Alabama State Senator Scott Beason should be stripped of his power to exercise racism

Again, I don't believe Scott Beason should resign from the Alabama State Senate in light of his *ahem* racially insensitive remarks which were recorded for all the world to hear (thank goodness for wiretaps), but he should most definitely be stripped of his power to exercise racism.

Key Democrats are pushing for Senate Republicans to ask state Sen. Scott Beason to resign and to strip him of his chairmanship of a powerful committee after racially insensitive comments he made were revealed last week in a federal corruption case.

Beason, R-Gardendale, is a key government witness in the case.

Beason is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules, which is the gatekeeper of legislation in the Senate and decides which bills come to the Senate floor for debate.

Can you imagine someone who doesn't see anything wrong with calling black taxpayers illiterate, "aborigines" in charge of what legislation and bills come to the floor? Shudder

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — As a Republican state senator who secretly recorded conversations for the FBI testified Thursday that he couldn't’t explain why he called black customers of a casino “aborigines,” Alabama’s Democrat leader called for his resignation and the Republican Party chairman defended his reputation.

“I don’t use that term normally. I don’t know where it even came from that day,” Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale testified Thursday in federal court, where he is a key prosecution in a statehouse corruption case.

He doesn't use that term normally because he probably uses another term that starts with the letter N.

This is the second time this year Beason has made *ahem* racially insensitive remarks (told us how they really feel).

Mark Kennedy, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, called on Marsh to strip Beason of his committee chairmanship.

“This is the second time this year Beason has made such racially inflammatory remarks, first suggesting we ‘empty the clip’ on immigrants and now calling black voters ‘illiterate’ and ‘aborigines’,” Kennedy said. “Beason has demonstrated time and again that he lacks the tact necessary to hold a chairmanship as critical as rules committee chairman.”

As I said previously, the voters in Gardendale gave Scott Beason the power to exercise racism, and they should be the ones to snatch it away. The Republican majority in the state legislature gave Beason the power to exercise racism in halls of the legislature. The question is will they continue to condone and excuse his behavior, or, will they do the right (pun intended) thing and strip him of the power to exercise racism?

There is a mean spirit on the loose.

“I heard if the Republicans win the election, their first act of business was going to be sending this monkey back to his cage …” These words were posted on a web site (ala.com) in response to a robo ad I sent. There is a mean spirit on the loose.

I am a history buff of sorts. I have pondered how the meanest of spirits are sometimes unleashed when people become fearful. The meanness is most often directed at those on the bottom of the totem pole, but the least responsible for the situation that gives rise to the fear. When the Great Recession hit three years ago, a lot of people became scared. People are scared of losing everything for which they have worked. They are scared for themselves, their children, and their children’s children. They are scared for the present and scared for the future. Fear is on the loose, putting meanness on the loose as well.

I referred to this mean spirit in one of my robo calls. In response to this spirit, I said, “Hell no, I am not going back to cotton fields and Jim Crow days!” That apparently incensed the above mentioned person. It is not enough for him to take me back to Jim Crow days but he wants to take me back to a monkey cage, a place neither me nor my ancestors inhabited. This response is symptomatic of the mean spirit now on the loose.

Amen and Amen.