Birmingham on the brink

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

~ Sir Edmund Burke

Many of my readership are aware that since January, in addition to my weekend column, I have endeavored during the week to present systematically proven, substantive policy ideas regarding the present crisis of leadership in Detroit and the legal battles of Mayor King Kwame Kilpatrick ("KKK").

However, since this epic drama of ghetto proportions has devolved recently into attempts by the prosecutor to recuse the entire judicial bench of the 36th District Court, alleging conflict of interest by being on Kwame's payroll, or which judge threw grapes at some other judge's wife, my editor has graciously given me leave of Detroit to allow me to roam around to other cities and towns throughout America to address this critical question: How has America's tragic love affair with socialism for the past 75 years, since FDR's "New Deal," worked out in America's cities, towns and villages in modern times?

My first stop in this new series of articles takes us to the city of Birmingham, Ala. "Paul," a poet and one of my most avid readers whose work I have cited before, has been a resident of Birmingham for many years. A few months ago when I told him of my intent to relocate to either that area or Atlanta, Paul strongly discouraged me from moving to Birmingham. Below is a summary of his reasons why.

"I know that Atlanta is the New York City of the Southeast. It rose from the ashes of the Civil War. The opportunities are more abundant there. In Birmingham, we were killed by racism, the Nazi George Wallace and ignorance. Birmingham proper is a ghost town, mostly law offices and accounting firms – and even those are moving. My daughter is an accountant at a former downtown office that moved from the city. Why?
"The first day Mayor Larry Langford was in office, he increased sales tax a penny and doubled all business license fees. Red Diamond Coffee Co., which has been a part of Birmingham for over 100 years, was denied a permit to expand its business. Why? Who knows? The City Council, I assume, wasn't extorting enough taxes from Red Diamond. Red Diamond moved its entire operation out of Birmingham and now they can't extort one thin dime.
"In these tough and uncertain economic times, Mayor Langford is voting himself a pay increase along with that of the do-nothing City Council. Not just an itsy bitsy raise, but from $88,000 a year to $133,000. Not only is the city and county bankrupt, but now he is trying to pull the whole state in.
"Langford has had four of his "Crime Summits," and murder rates have risen.
"Jefferson County, where Birmingham is located, is on the brink of bankruptcy. It had to get a second extension on paying just the interest, $83 million, on its sewer bond, which is over $3.2 billion. How did this come about? The City Council, with Mayor Langford as chief architect, played fast and loose with the bond rates so that their cohorts could receive the maximum amount of fees for working and re-working the angles.
"At the same time, Mayor Larry "Dome" Langford is going forward with the building of a $1.5 billion sports dome and a $55 million sports complex. As we both know, government estimates are rarely, if ever, accurate. One can always expect cost overruns. Birmingham has no professional sports team. That's like a homeless man spending $20,000 for a watch band when he doesn't own a watch."

Mayor Larry Langford

St. Augustine, in his magnum opus, "The City of God," said: "Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a vast scale? What are criminal gangs but petty kingdoms?" How does St. Augustine's prescient ideas play out in modern times? In a word, EDUCATION.

FDR, LBJ, JFK, RFK, Carter, Teddy Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, Clinton, Clinton, Obama or your favorite socialist have done very little politically in comparison to the inimical effects of our Stalinist public schools and college systems whose ideas sadly will outlive us all and curse future generations. How?

As Paul said, referring to an earlier article I had written about education, "By dumbing down children, you end with adults who think like infants. An infant is ego-centered and cannot think beyond itself." Paul is right on point. I would only add that the modern academy has effectively killed logic and critical thinking through moral relativism and egalitarianism. It is increasingly difficult to make ethical or intellectual judgments if everything is equal.

How else could any political figure attract over 75,000 people standing for hours in the hot sun of Oregon just for a glimpse of this false political messiah named Barack Obama? An utterly vacuous man who just the other day said these sinister words that would make Goebbels blush with envy as the multitudes of "useful idiots" hung on his every word, saluting him with multiple ovations:

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK."

If this one statement by Obama doesn't give a profound pause to every red-blooded American who loves the Constitution and respects the legacy bequeathed to us in blood by our forefathers and the Constitution's framers, then truly I can say without equivocation that you have been successfully self-indoctrinated by America's Stalinist public school and university education systems if you went to college.

What business is it to Sen. Obama (or anybody else for that matter) what I drive, what I set my thermostat on at my home, or most importantly what other countries (perhaps energy efficient countries like Russia, China and India) think about America's energy usage? This is classic socialist thought straight out of Karl Marx, views championed by the academy, and should be vigorously fought against on every front inside the arena of ideas.

America! If you can be happy with an Obama, Clinton or McCain presidency or with the leadership of Birmingham's Mayor Langford and his ilk ruining our major cities, then do nothing. However, if you love America and venerate her sacred Constitution written in the blood of our forefathers, then do as Burke implied – fight! If you live in or know of a city whose quality of life was destroyed by failed, unconstitutional socialist policies, then send me an e-mail with some of the details and I will endeavor to trumpet your ideas to the world.

Show me a monopoly (liberalism) and I'll show you a tyranny (Birmingham, Ala.).

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