This wasnt an event that i planned. We had just arrived to the local DMV-- a small, squatty building smaller than a gas station-- on a monday afternoon yesterday. A pronounced absence of cars was noticeable. We walked up to the tinted black door and read the sign: " closed for state holiday".
Well, fuck. We had to spend 30 minutes on the tuscaloosa city bus to get there and some type of state holiday existed in late april.
Immeidately i wondered if the budget crisis in alabama , exacerbated by years of Republican misrule and tea party politics, was cause for some type of furlough. We had a lot of those in california when i lived there . After a qiuick google search, it turned out the closure was due to ' confederate memorial day'.
Must be some kind of memorial day for rednecks.
What followed was a 10 minnute rant by me to my wife about the absurdity of closing the state government's offices due to demands from Southern demographics who dont even recognize the validity of any type of institutionalized government. In essence, those most hostile to government are dictating when its offices are open, in memory of a war caused by slaveowning traitors. No wonder a former white house advisor penned an op-ed this month about how blatantly contradictory it was for self-styled "patriots" to be fiercely protective of a Confederate legacy. THe governor of GA refused to answer reporters' questionsabout the holiday. To add insult to injury, alabama just jacked up the rates for DMV fees such as driver licenses. This is the type of governance that alabama republicans embrace, in a state where over half of The statewide offices are won by candidates without opposition.
The state university system has raised tuition 18 years in a row. The current budget deficit has resulted in new increases in state park fees, and threatens closure for some. The party of "fiscal responsibility" continues to oppose any tax increases, even on cigarettes, despite the extremely low tobacco taxes currently in place in alabama. Meanwhile, millions of us have no health coverage here because the GOP governor refuses Medicaid expansion, and a big chunk of us dont qualify for Obamacare due to income under $13-14k. Most retail/ service jobs are part time and pay under $10 / hour, and managers usually make $12/hour or less. According to most rankings, alabama is a third world country.
No wonder theres a memorial for the Confederates-- they left quite a legacy, indeed.