Alabama, I want to get to know you better…

A reader forwarded this story on the referendum that was on the ballot in Alabama. It appears that it failed (thus far, because they are demanding a recount) to eliminate segregationist provisions (to be fair – long-unenforced) from the Alabama Constitution. Close call though, 50% against, 50% in favor. [The problem? The referendum was tied to another provision, the removal of which threatened to raise school taxes.]

I was all ready to get on the Ocean blog and write – you wont get this blogger to venture to Alabama if my sun-deprived self depended on it!

And then I thought to myself: no, Ocean will rise above such sweeping, pernicious and defamatory condemnations. I have written earlier, after all, about the ability of honorable Europeans (even those who are in the Coalition of the Unwilling) to differentiate between Americans and their war-boy antihero. The Other Side of the Ocean should be at least as noble as those on the other side of the ocean.

And so I forced myself, here on Ocean, to make that gesutre. Reach out! Reach out to the heart of Dixie, I said, feeling magnimonious and resisting the temptation to pinch my nose. And what did I come up with? I don’t have county by county data on the Amendment, but take a look at these counties in terms of the Bush – Kerry election (source: CNN):

(overall state numbers: 37% Kerry, 63% Bush)
Macon – 83% Kerry, 17% Bush
Greene – 80% Kerry, 20% Bush
Lowndes – 70% Kerry, 30% Bush

By comparison, us smug Dane County (our little island of idealism in the vast sea of reality) voters have produced only this:
Kerry – 66%
Bush – 33%

Okay, I’m sorry Alabama. I will not make generalizations about the state and (all) its people again. Just get rid of that Amendment.