FOLEY, Ala. — Alabama No. 1?

It’s happened before … in football.

But the state has a No. 1 distinction that creates not cheers but chagrin for many. Annually, as sure as the azaleas bloom, chatter starts rising in certain circles about the state’s oversized — even bloated — 1901 Constitution, the biggest, most amended Constitution in the U.S. if not the world.

And, annually, nothing is ultimately done to change the multi-volumed, amendment-heavy, thousand-plus pages that represent the laws and principles of government of the people of Alabama.

Yet, again this year, some people are trying to address the unwieldy document that governs us. Like Sisyphus rolling that huge stone uphill, only to have it roll back again, they struggle for some measure of constitutional reform, knowing full well that powerful state entities and companies and corporations with political clout oppose their efforts.

Stan Virden of Gulf Shores is one of those people who spend time and energy trying to muscle the 1901 Constitution uphill; get it into a better position where, as he puts it, “It will be clean, easy to read, and sufficient to act as a basis to govern the State.”

Virden has been selected as House District 95 delegate to the Alabama Mock Constitution Convention. The purpose of the Convention is to “demonstrate that committed citizens from around the state can gather to engage each other and the issues to formulate an improved governing document for our state,” Virden said.

Virden pulls no punches in his assessment of the 1901 Constitution. It has a racist slant; an outdated framework that erodes the state’s education systems; it discourages citizen involvement; is inefficient and choked with trivialities; and it keeps the power in Montgomery where the buzz of lobbyists, like bees in the azaleas, drowns out the voices of ordinary citizens.

Virden is keenly aware that powerful and influential groups such as the Alabama Farmers Federation (Alfa) oppose constitutional change by convention. Alfa’s Web site notes it supports a “limited revision” of the 1901 Constitution. Alfa would go along with what it said is “recompiling” sections of the Constitution that are “currently unchanged.”

Alfa would support changes “dictated by the courts and the U.S. Constitution,” an “arrangement of amendments in alphabetical order by county,” and amendments regarding statewide issues left “numerically arranged, along with a brief subject explanation.”

For Alfa, a constitution convention might result in a “take-all or leave-all vote.”

So, with powerful opposition to the kind of constitutional reform the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform (ACCR) Foundation desires, and with the Alabama Legislature refusing year after year to seriously address the issue, how does Virden assess the mindset of the delegates to the Mock Constitution Convention?

“There is a certain amount of skepticism whether we can get this done, but there’s hope too,” he said.

Actually, the mock delegates are in an interim period at present. They are resolving some of the issues that came out of their February meeting in Prattville, Ala. There, they divided into “teams,” with each team in charge of an article in the Constitution.

For example, Virden’s team dealt with the executive article describing what the governor does. Then, the delegates attempted to re-write the article as they thought it should be using the existing Constitution and ones from other states. Virden admits to an element of surprise.

“The 1901 Constitution was really pretty solid in the part I was working on if it was brought up to date.” His team did “tweak” the article, he said.

The other teams did the same with their articles, and then all came together for comments.

“We were trying to make each paragraph more relevant to contemporary circumstances,” Virden said, noting “archaic language” and “archaic phraseology,” as in convoluted sentences, were just a couple of challenges delegates faced.

He calls the delegates that met in Prattville a diverse group — “a real mix of people. I thought it was a good representation of the public. They were dedicated and intelligent.”

The next time the mock delegates reconvene will be in April in Montgomery at the Alabama State House. Then, on Aug. 27, 2009, the finished product of delegates’ deliberations will be unveiled.

TOO MUCH POWER

IN MONTGOMERY

Alfa advocates amending the 1901 Constitution by means of a bill in the Legislature. Upon approval of both the House and Senate, the amendment would be submitted to the people for adoption by majority vote. Virden, however, has questions about the whole Montgomery thing.

“We’re not convinced the Legislature should be writing the Constitution anyway,” he said. “It requires a broader gauge of intellectual activity.”

Virden also believes the current Constitution concentrates too much power in Montgomery.

As for Alfa and other’s opposition to constitutional reform, in the case of Alfa, Virden said, “It upsets their current system of control over the Legislature.”

State Rep. Steve McMillan (R-Gulf Shores), who represents House District 95, said the State Constitution needs to be reformed but on an article by article basis rather than by convention.

The House of Representatives has passed constitutional reform bills a couple of times “but they never get any attention in the Senate for some reason,” McMillan said.

State Sen. Trip Pittman (R- Fairhope) of Senate District 32 said he supports the Mock Constitution Convention and debate concerning constitutional reform. Realistically, however, reform won’t happen in a “vacuum,” Pittman said, calling the issue a “Pandora’s box” what with the influences that would be brought to bear on attempts to reform the 1901 Constitution.

“I favor amending it article by article in the Legislature and letting the people vote on it,” he said this week.

GOD, GAMBLING

AND TAXES

According to Virden, some opponents of constitutional reform argue that rewriting the Constitution would take God out of the document. To that Virden points out that God is mentioned in the Constitution “about three times,” and it’s hard to imagine God as the author of a document that seeks to maintain white supremacy in the state.

“In my years of association with the ACCR, I never heard it said that we would close our ears to divine guidance,” Virden said.

Some have said a constitutional rewrite would open the state to gambling, but Virden asks how so. As for constitutional reform being a cover for increased taxes, Virden calls Alabama’s a “warped system that disproportionately taxes the poor to support the wealthy. Is it not reasonable that taxes be rationalized and made fair?”