GULF SHORES, Ala. — It is my great honor to have been selected as House District 95 Delegate to the Alabama Mock Constitution Convention.

The purpose of this 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.

The convention will meet February 14-16 and April 25-26. The product of its deliberations will be unveiled on August 27. The process is under the sponsorship of the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform Foundation, and is supported by numerous highly qualified luminaries. 

The model constitution to be developed will have no legal status, but will serve to educate Alabamians as to how sensible constitutional reform can be carried out. In contrast to our current 1901 Constitution (now the longest such document in the world) it will illustrate how a modernized contract can guide our government more justly and efficiently.

It will show how we can rake out the injustices and inequities embedded in our present basic law.

The point is to help our state government and our citizens understand how citizen-centered constitutional reform can make substantial contributions to our economic development and greatly improve our quality of life.

The need for reform is brought on by the racist slant of a cumbersome and outdated framework that erodes our education systems, discourages citizen involvement, degrades our reputation among the other United States, and creates extraordinary inefficiencies in our system of government.

The current compact, amended over 800 times and counting, is stuffed and confounded with trivialities that rightly belong in the jurisdiction of local bodies.

It hoards decision-making into the halls of Montgomery, where lobbyists can focus overweening power that crowds out the concerns and drowns the voice of ordinary voters.

It locks in revenues to so many special interests that little is left in the treasury to respond to priorities of the Legislature and those who elect its members.

Opponents to reform argue that rewriting the Constitution will create confusion by voiding great volumes of case law and contractual arrangements.

If so, why has it been expedient in the past to write and rewrite this document six times — all since the adoption of our never rewritten U.S. Constitution?

It is claimed that a rewrite would eliminate many articles that already serve us well. How can such a claim be predicted, as if a convention would act in ignorance of good?

It is said that a rewrite would take God out of our Constitution. Indeed, God is mentioned in the current document about three times; but God would likely have not have written a constitution that — as stated in the convention proceedings — was intended to “maintain white supremacy in the State of Alabama.”

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

Opponents worry that a new constitution would open the state to gambling. How so?

We are told that a rewrite is cover for increasing our taxes. Again, how can this be imputed? True, Alabama has a warped system that disproportionately taxes the poor to support the wealthy. Is it not reasonable that taxes be rationalized and made fair? 

I personally look on the challenge of demonstrating the act of constitutional reform as a great adventure of mind and heart.

Many have said to me that the effort will come to naught, that our current power structure is too well emplaced to be dislodged. That may be so.

In my 75 years I have, however, been a champion of many “lost causes,” a number of which have managed to become found. It is clear to me that if we never try to make the change we guarantee that it will never occur.

So I ask this of you: Pray for me in this duty, and pray for a successful outcome of this mock convention.

Come to me with your questions and your comments, which certainly will be helpful. Invite me as a guest to meetings of your various associations, so that we may discuss the relevant issues.

And, most importantly, become informed through your own study. Go to the ACCR Web site: constitutionalreform.org/.

We still live in a democracy. Make your influence felt. Do it now.

Stan Virden 

Gulf Shores