I love Alabama. I really do.
My parents moved to Huntsville for 2 ½ years when I was in college. It was a
great town, full of scientists. I worked the summer after my first year of
college-it was the summer of '65- as 'common labor' in a lumberyard In Huntsville. It was me and 25 black men,
hauling sheetrock and other building supplies. I got along just fine with the
men, and felt honored to be accepted by them. They worked hard and I valued
their respect. However, the work was hot, dangerous, and dirty. Oh-and I got
paid $1.15 per hour, with mandatory overtime on Saturday. I was a visitor to
this life. My colleagues were stuck in it, with no visible escape possible. I
went back to Vanderbilt at the end of the summer and doubled my GPA. I also
ramped up my already heavy involvement in the Civil Rights movement.
The second summer I got
smart and applied for a competitive position as a mathematician at NASA (!?!).
I got the job and spent the summer wandering around Redstone Arsenal looking for
Werner Von Braun and the other former Nazis who ran the American space flight
program at the time. No disrespect to these German scientists intended. They
saved our butts, not to mention our national space flight honor, from the
Russkies. Lynyrd Skynyrd was on to something good about the state, or so it
seemed. I must admit to losing track of Alabama for the past 40 plus years. Now
I read this article and it appears the place has gone completely bonkers.
Enough is enough. Come on, now! What are ya’ll thinking?
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