Yesterday Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler dragged one of Alabama's constitutional offices into the sewer of conspiracy theories and shameless race-baiting, made worse by the fact that Zeigler is little more than a glorified accountant.
Channeling those who dish tales of Big Foot, vaccines causing autism, and Elvis Presley currently working as a gas station attendant in Tuberculosis Springs, Wyoming, Zeigler claimed to Montgomery news outlet WSFA that the routine rotation of governors' portraits in the Capital Building - this time including George and Lurleen Wallace - amounted to a conspiracy being afoot to "revise" history, somehow spear-headed by a major motion picture and Oprah Winfrey.
Zeigler told WSFA:
"The timing of this right after the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement and the release of the movie 'Selma,' the appearance in Alabama by Oprah Winfrey just raises the question is there historical revisionism. Is there an attempt to remove certain parts of Alabama history?"
In fact, as new governors serve in Alabama and their portraits are added, older portraits are shifted from the rotunda to the first floor, according to the Alabama Historical Commission. It's a simple, logical and necessary practice that even a child should be able to grasp.
Zeigler's race-baiting and appeals to the type of people who are still standing in the schoolhouse door waving Confederate Flags are nauseating and not befitting such an elected office.
And Zeigler even flashed his ignorance by claiming a resolution was still on the books mandating that the Wallaces' portraits remain in the rotunda. As anyone with a grade school, rudimentary understanding of legislative government knows, resolutions do not carry the weight of law.
Have we mentioned that Zeigler is the state auditor, not the Portrait Police?
As Alabamians, we struggle daily with embarrassment, from top state officials shamelessly carrying a banner for bigotry and discrimination (see the ongoing drama over marriage equality) to our state routinely ranking at or near the bottom of a wide range of quality of life measurements. The last thing we need is a state official using his taxpayer-funded office to whip up race-based animosity and to concoct and spread conspiracy theories.
Copyright © Capital City Free Press
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