Readers of 1819 News react to recent stories or current events:
Caylah Coffeen’s column on Why did Gov. Ivey win? as well as Jusin Bogie’s column on What to expect from four more years of Ivey, both received considerable response from readers.
Starr Hudson felt the columns were unnecessarily critical of Ivey.
“Just a few brief comments on Gov. Ivey.
The governor is very personable and had some great TV Ads. I feel her main positive accomplishment is the unemployment rate. This is important to me.
The other comment I have is that in a time when everything we know has been challenged or denied, maybe people want a known personality. Something certain and familiar.
We are told men are women, George Washington was a bad person and his name must come off everything, and that being a white man makes you automatically ‘privileged.’ Is it any wonder that depression rates are up, that suicides are up, that children are more anxious? We have sacrificed what we know to be true in order to keep the peace and now we have mental health issues and high suicide rates.
People are tired. They want stability.”
Karl Bast of Enterprise wrote:
“I returned to Alabama from Hawaii on February 14 past, after 30-plus years. I’m proud to be back. I also voted for Kay Ivey in the recent primary. I must tell you though, if I had read the recent articles from Caylah and Justin, I most certainly would not have voted for Gov. Ivey.
Like too many people perhaps, I was trying to form opinions from campaign adds. I know better than to believe those ads but I had little else to go on. I’ve been reading (skimming) 1819 News but somehow failed to see any articles as concise or precise as the two mentioned. I kept telling my 91-year-old mother, 'I can’t see any real reason not to vote for Ivey.' Mom likes her. The only two things that came out in the ad campaigns was that Gov. Ivey closed churches, etc. and appointed “liberal” judges. Like Caylah, I can forgive Gov. Ivey for the “heavy handed” COVID response, because darn-near everybody was doing it… at first. There were no specifics with the other accusations. I might have taken Lindy Blanchard more seriously, but she seemed to put too much weight in a closeness with Donald Trump and (not too cutely) joking about driving illegals to the airport. If Caylah and Justin had been preparing Blanchard’s scripts, it would have made a difference to me.”
Don Childress had this to say:
“The other candidates were not truthful in their ads. Alabamians don’t like negative ads. Just tell me how you will do things right. When Ivey decided if the people of Mobile and Baldwin didn’t want what she decided she wanted us - to have for a bridge across Mobile Bay - I said I could not vote for her again. But [then] the other candidates went negative only, and on incorrect information, I decided I could vote for her again. Will we get a bridge? Probably! But not in my lifetime.”
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