Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1640 - My last Sketches written as an Alabama Senator

  This is my last Senate Sketches. Wait! Wait! Wait. Don’t be disappointed. Sketches will continue, but Senate Sketches will cease. My tenure in the Alabama Senate ended on November 6, 2018. The new senator for Alabama Senate District 23 is Malika Sanders Fortier. I have written Senate Sketches for 1640 weeks over more than 32 years. That’s too, too long to stop now. Therefore, my weekly writings will be Sketches, not Senate Sketches. I no longer have the right to call it Senate Sketches because I am no longer a member of the Senate.

  I was elected to the Alabama Senate on November 8, 1983. As I recall, Gov. George Corley Wallace called us into Special Session immediately after the election. I had to hit the ground running. I have been running ever since for 35 years. I published the first Senate Sketches on April 29, 1987. I have not missed publishing Senate Sketches even once in nearly 32 years. I can’t miss now. It just will not be Senate Sketches. It will be Sketches.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1416: Don't stir in mess

  “Don’t stir in mess,” my mother said on many occasions. “It makes worse the sight and smell.” She did not mean just physical mess but any kind of mess. I see mess all the time.

  Every elected official encounters mess. Every public personality encounters mess. In fact, most of us encounter mess of one kind or another. We just have to remember not to stir in it.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1410: The Art of communication

  The art of communication is a well-worn term that means many things to various people. I want to share with you my personal perspective on the art of communication.

  I communicate in many ways. I speak to various groups. I write a weekly column. I write special articles, books, open letters and regular letters. I speak with radio and television news reporters; I host several radio programs from time to time. I appear on other radio and television programs. I teach Sunday School. I e-mail and text. I talk on the phone, in person and in meetings. Yes, I practice the art of communication in many mediums.

Mike Walker: Voter suppression – The Real devil in the details!

  Recently I was involved in a conversation on Facebook about voting rights. I had shared a link about Hank Sanders, a Democratic State Senator from Alabama, being denied the right to vote and I commented that this situation was the result of Republican efforts to limit voting by certain minority groups. Senator Sanders represents the city of Selma in the Alabama State Senate and has been a leader in civil and voting rights in this southern state for decades. As it turns out, in the cited case, Senator Sanders was not denied access to a ballot for identity or racial purposes, but was allowed to file a provisional ballot pending the resolution of a dispute regarding his place of residence. A good friend rightly pointed out my error and I apologized. I had failed to do my homework.