Auburn and Bama Presidents have a Good Word

Would be great to have one of these discussions in NE Alabama
I had short but fascinating chat with Dr. Muse a couple years ago after a Kate Campbell concert.
Wayne Flynt was there.


From the Sunday, May 24 Bham News Oped pages:




Alabama Teachers' Institute: Schools must teach responsibilities of citizenship
Posted by David Mathews and Bill Muse May 24, 2009 2:04 AM
We aren't doing a very good job preparing young people to take on the responsibilities of citizenship. A recent report shows a majority of Americans failed a national test of civic literacy. And in 2002, a group of scholars, as well as the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement and the Carnegie Corp. of New York, voiced a clarion call for the need to revive a richer civic education in our schools....

Learning to be a citizen involves more than knowing how a bill is passed or the role of the various branches of government. Young people need to learn how they can be effective political actors themselves. Democracy isn't a spectator sport. A veteran of the American Revolution was asked how the experience had affected him. He said it made him realize he was part of the sovereignty of his country. His citizenship wasn't just a word; he had lived it.
Birmingham can be justly proud of leading the way to making citizenship a part of the life of every student.
For years, young people have had opportunities to develop deliberative skills in its classrooms, youth clubs and churches. These projects have used guides to public deliberation prepared by the Kettering Foundation for the National Issues Forums Institute. NIFI works with local organizations around the country to conduct deliberative forums in which citizens can learn about the difficult issues facing their community and the nation, and express their views about the most appropriate action to take. Students in our schools are a critical audience for these forums, as their teachers use deliberation to help them gain the skills they need to be effective citizens.
We are heartened by this new initiative in Birmingham. It holds much promise for energizing the national conversation on educating young people to become active citizens.
David Mathews is president of the Kettering Foundation and a former president of the University of Alabama.
E-mail: dmathews@kettering.org
Bill Muse is president of the National Issues Forums Institute and a former president of Auburn University.

Dom Dimaggio dead at 92; The Fox Connection

Leon Culberson of Rome Ga went in for Dimaggio in St. Louis in 46. Culberson almost married my Aunt Virginia Fox Richey, my dad's oldest sister.

From the NY Times:

He enlisted in the Navy after the 1942 season, then returned to the Red Sox in 1946, hitting .316 for a team that romped to a pennant by 12 games over the Tigers.

DiMaggio had a moment of exhilaration, but then intense disappointment in Game 7 of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park.
In the eighth inning, he hit a two-run double that tied the game at 3-3, but he injured a hamstring rounding first base. The Cardinals won the Series in the ninth inning on Enos Slaughter’s “mad dash” from first base when Leon Culberson, having replaced DiMaggio in center, made a weak relay to shortstop Johnny Pesky after fielding Harry Walker’s drive to left center, and Pesky hesitated before throwing home.

“Slaughter would never have scored if I’d been in center field,” DiMaggio maintained in “When the Boys Came Back” (Holt, 1996) a history of the 1946 season by Frederick Turner. “In fact, I might have had a play on him at third base because I’d have played that much farther over, and I’d have been charging the hell out of that ball.”

Great story easily googled up in today's NY Times; and Marshall Frady's great friend David Halberstam had a great version of the Culberson story of 46 in The Teammates.

Bama SBC, Crawford Broadcasting, and Future of Alabama

Rick and Bubba appear to me to be the biggest impediment to the candidacy of Artur Davis for Alabama's next governor and I doubt The Alabama Baptist Bob Terry nor http://www.alsbom.org/ Ex Dir Rick Lance will ever admit as much.
Birmingham Southern Proff Natalie Davis who teaches a course at Birmingham Southern on Bama Politics was spot on in an oped in yesterday's May 3, Bham News.
Here is what I said about that at bl.com. Just click on the link to see if anybody picks up the discussion there

Obama's 100 days in Alabama
by Stephen Fox » Mon May 04, 2009 3:16 pm

http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2009/05/first_100_days_show_obama_is_s.html

I think a lot is to be made of Natalie Davis classroom discussion with radio talk show host Lee Davis (click on link above) of Crawford Broadcasting.She mentioned Pam Huff, a major ABC affiliate anchor in Bama and member of same church as Rick of Rick and Bubba who is a bellwether of Bama SBC politics these days, something of a poster child for the Convention, tilting away from OBama.This column is gonna have some legs.So here is the crux of character of Alabama.Will Rick Lance and Bob Terry speak as strongly to Crawford Broadcasting as they have to the Sweet Home Alabama Plan.
Will Pam Huff read Natalie DAvis's colleague Glen Feldman on Religion in the White South in the published collection of essays by that name which also includes Billy Graham political analyst on Nixon and Race in same collection.While at Crawford, Check out The History as well as The Stand linked below:http://www.crawfordbroadcasting.com/thestand.htm

And here is great link to Glenn Feldman's look at the way Crawford Broadcasting worked in an earlier reform movement in Alabama
It ain't hard to fill in the blanks and it ain't rocket science.

Scroll down to about page 297 for the Feldman article in this collection
Steven Miller's book on Graham and Nixon is a template for the current Gube race in Alabama with this time RickNBubba playin the Graham card of 1972.
Again it ain't rocket science to figger it out, and sad thing is Bob Terry and Rick Lance should know better.


http://tinyurl.com/calely