This is an opinion column.
Robert Bentley told a lot of lies when he was Alabama’s governor, and except for the big one about his love life, he never caught so much hell for fibbing as he did the time he told the truth.
“Our education system in this state sucks,” he told a conference of regional economic developers in 2016.
The state school superintendent called Bentley’s remarks “unfortunate.” Lawmakers from his own party demanded he apologize for being so blunt.
Sure, Bentley could have been more tactful. He could have been more mindful of the teachers, staff and administrators throughout the state who work hard to make it better.
But few of his critics took issue with his most important point: There was hard, empirical evidence that Alabama’s education system, in fact, sucked.
“I don’t use that term very much, but let me tell you,” Bentley said. “I want to tell you this: When we are 51st on our NAEP scores in 4th-grade math in this state — 51st and we ain’t got but 50 states — that’s pretty sad. And it’s intolerable. And we’re going to do something about it.”
Only we didn’t do anything about it.
By 2019, Bentley was gone and Alabama had fallen to 52nd on those same rankings. Only Puerto Rico did worse and they had just been smashed by two major hurricanes.
Alabama lags in a lot of national rankings, usually landing at or near the bottom of basic, objective measurements of quality of life. The harder thing to explain is why people here accept this.
In a place that could face the truth, people might shake off that collective embarrassment and try to do something about it. Civic leaders, elected officials and public employees of every stripe would unite behind the singular goal of raising our standards. Citizens would expect better, demand better, and send anyone packing who didn’t do better. People would care.
There’s no reason we couldn’t do that right now.
But more often in Alabama, we care more about who brings these shortcomings up, and what can be done to shut them up. If you don’t think so, I’ll invite you to read my email after this column runs and you can count the invitations I’ll get to move to some other state. (And those of you, warming up your typing fingers can save your energy. I’m not going anywhere.)
Sadly, lots of good people do leave, making the hard decision that their families’ fortunes and futures are not worth sacrificing to fix what too many folks are fine with.
Only, I wonder what they find out there.
Being complacent in failure used to be an Alabama thing.
Now it’s becoming an American thing, too.
The United States has failed to deal with the coronavirus crisis. This week, the world passed 20 million confirmed cases. Even though we have just a smidge over 4 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. accounts for 25 percent of those coronavirus cases and 22 percent of coronavirus deaths. Every other wealthy nation is doing a better job getting this thing under control. But not us.
But what’s more remarkable is how many folks seem OK with these facts or are willing to pretend they aren’t real.
And before anyone starts with the “love it or leave it” nonsense again, keep in mind, most countries have travel bans in place and won’t let us in. We can’t escape the country any easier than we can escape the truth.
Our coronavirus response in this country sucks.
We’ve objected to proposals that might require sacrifice or hard work — or just mild, irritating inconveniences, such as wearing masks.
And we’ve tried to silence people who offered plans to do better or who have demanded better. Just ask Anthony Fauci, who had to get security last week to protect his family from death threats. Or that young woman in Georgia who got suspended for taking a picture in her high school’s hallway crowded with maskless students.
This isn’t American exceptionalism. It’s American acceptin'-ism.
We’ve become accepting of failure.
We’ve become accepting of being worse.
We’ve become accepting of lagging behind.
Because it’s easier to tell ourselves that we’re better than everyone else than it is to be better than everyone else.
The good news is that there’s a fix for this. Just as Mississippi came to grips with its sagging test scores and scrounged its way above Alabama in national rankings, we can change our mindset and our expectations. We can do the work. We can demand better.
Or we can surrender to the White House entertainment complex and its silly sideshows made to distract from its incompetence.
“Play College Football!” the president tweeted Monday.
Never has America felt so different and so familiar at the same time. It might not be the country I grew up in, but I feel like I’ve lived here my whole life.
Welcome to the United States of Alabama.
If you don’t like it, you don’t have to live here. You can’t leave, but you can make it something better.
Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.
You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram.
More columns by Kyle Whitmire
What the Alabama PSC doesn’t want you to see shows all you need to know
Good luck, America! Alabama’s given up.
Tuberville was paid $5 million to quit. Now he says $600 is too much for you.
Meet Alabama’s latest Lost Cause: Will Dismukes
Alabama Senate leader’s coronavirus plan: Get sick, try not to die
Trump ignored facts so he could blame the Black guy
Kay Ivey is not your Mee-Maw: What the governor needs to tell Alabama about COVID-19