By Staff
To everything there is a time and purpose. I've thought about those words a lot lately while watching the governor's race here in home sweet home Alabama.
Watching things progress from a tight race to a mud bog didn't particularly instill confidence in my opinion of politics in this great state and its ability to reach a point of turning things around anytime soon.
I agreed with Siegelman's decision to contest the vote. I agreed with the first recount and even a second for good measure, but after that enough is enough. It's time to move on and try to progress, even though a certain guy didn't win.
I'm glad that he's stepped aside and the process of running a state can continue. I may or may not agree with who won the election, but that's the way it worked out and I can live with a majority chosen candidate.
I definitely think there should be a mechanism for candidates to contest elections they think produced flawed results, but I don't think it should be allowed to drag through the court system to a ridiculous extent.
When a system of democracy is bogged down by bureaucracy to the point where nothing can be accomplished, then you have a serious problem and the future may not be so secure.
I think we need to draw in the large puppet strings the government now holds above our heads and put the power back in the people's hands.
The people voted on who they wanted to lead them. The vote was checked three times. That's enough for a test in math class and that's enough for an election. After all, most of the counting is performed by computers, eliminating a lot of human error to begin with.
I'm glad we live in a democracy where we have freedom to speak and stand up for what we believe in, but I think sometimes that can be taken too far and the democracy that provides the right to challenge will only suffer from the quagmire of a bureaucracy that has mushroomed beyond its ability to help the people who founded it.
James Crawford is News Editor of The Atmore Advance. He can be reached at 368-2123 or by e-mail at news@atmoreadvance.com.