Remarks by Ron Sparks to the Marshall County Democratic Club
6/5/2007
Outlaw Steakhouse, Guntersville
Thank you for inviting me to Marshall county and let me tell you, you know the last time I was here I was in the campaign and I asked you to support me, and ladies and gentlemen, I got some large numbers out of Marshall County and I want to say thank you. Thank you for what you have done for me -- to allow me to be your Commissioner of Agriculture. Without folks like you, people like me don’t make it. Politicians don’t make it without your vote, your commitment, your trust, your believing in us, and with your help in Alabama, we were able to win 62 counties, tied 2 and lost 3. That’s a Democrat ladies and gentlemen. That is a Democrat. Don’t nobody tell you that Democrats can’t win in Alabama, statewide, because we can, and we’re going to continue. Because we’re doing the right things, we’re talking about the right things, and I hope -- before I leave tonight -- I hope I talk about some of those things that we’re doing right and they’re doing wrong.
But first of all I want to say, it’s always good to be in Marshall County. My friend Representative McDaniel, gosh knows I worked side by side with him on the hill. He is a great representative. He has been such a tremendous help working on projects that help North Alabama. Let me tell you one that we were able to push through, and I hope the governor signs it, and that’s the DOT. That is going to help a lot of small farmers and small businessmen to not have to jump through some of those hoops that you would have had to jump through to get a DOT, a number to go on the side of your pickup truck and all those things. So we were able to pass that law in Montgomery if the governor will sign it without putting an executive amendment on it, we’ll be able to bring that to the people of Alabama and it would not have been possible if it hadn’t been for folks like Representative McDaniel and the Democratic legislature that passed it. [Applause]
I don’t want to lose you. Let me give you an example. What we’re trying to do is a gentleman that wants to continue to go to a cattle sale with his pickup truck and a cow tied on to the back of his truck in a trailer shouldn’t have to get the same restrictions as a guy driving an 18 wheeler. And that’s what we’re trying to do. A guy that wants to go out and get him a lawnmower and a trailer and put it on the back of his truck, he shouldn’t have to go through the same hoops as the guy driving an 18 wheeler. And we’ve had the law on the books since 1989. They just started this year and said “well we think we’ll start enforcing it.” Well, that wasn’t something that we agreed with. There again I don’t want to talk too much about that, but. Another friend of mine that I’ve campaigned with a lot, matter of fact he started campaigning back when I did in 1978 and that’s Buddy Allen. Buddy’s been a great friend of mine. Good to see you. I know y’all doing a great job up here.. Circuit Judge Mitchell. I haven’t ever had a better friend than probates judge, Judge Mitchell has been a personal friend of mine and I know he does an excellent job here. I don’t get to see him as much as I like to, and I know he should be down there counting the ballots or counting the votes -- but I’m winning and it doesn’t matter. [laughter] But I know he’s probably going to have to leave to go do that. Certainly Judge Jolley, the service that he’s given your community and your Commissioner Martin. Thank ya’ll for being here. And the Coroner Mr. Killion. Thank you. Thank all of the elected officials. But thank you the Democrat party. Thank you for meeting. Thank you for talking about Democrat issues. Thank you for supporting Democrats in Alabama. Folks I was just sitting back there with Mr. Kelly a minute ago and as you know I started my political career – I’ll never forget it. I went to Skirrum (sp?) Alabama ‘cause back when I started running for office you’d get about 400 votes in Skirrum vote Democrat and 2 vote Republican. I went to Skirrum and announced the first time that I was going to run for public office. I got up and told them -- I was so scared -- I said I’m going to run for office and didn’t tell them my name. But, before I left -- it turned out to be a pretty good tactic -- before I left everybody there had asked me who I was.
But I was just talking to him -- he was talking about how he was still preaching in Crossville. My grandmother grew up in was raised in Crossville --??? This is like coming home. Being in North Alabama is like coming home to me. I don’t care if its Marshall County, I used to come to the outlets over here a lot. I used to come see a lot of car dealers. This is home. But I was talking to Mr. Kelly, we were talking about Republicans and Democrats. You know the Republicans nearly told us, nearly made us believe -- and the people of Alabama believe -- that we couldn’t be a Democrat and go to church. They took it away from us. They just nearly took it away from us. But let me tell you, it’s because of folks like Mr. Kelly and you, that told the people of Alabama we can live at the same foot of the cross that you can. And, and we’re turning that curve. We don’t have to sit back and let them tell us what we are and who we are and what we stand for and who we worship and who we don’t worship. Those are things that, we’ve got to take charge of. And we will. And we are.
Let’s talk just a second if I could about agriculture. As you know, this is probably one of the worst agricultural years that we’ve had in a long time and I’m not saying that to cry wolf, or scream wolf. I’m telling you that, early on in the year we had some of the high, above normal temperatures, which put a lot of our crops on the fast track. You know what heat will do to early crops, it’ll bring it on out. Our fruit crops, our peach crops were in perfect condition. And then we had the cold snap. The coldest snap we’ve had in that period of time since we’ve been recording it. It wiped out the peaches from Chilton County all the way up to north Alabama. If you had any fruit crops, if you had any fruit trees, you know what I’m talking about. The wheat crop, corn crop, we had about 100,000 acres of corn, more corn this year than we had last year. Because of the corn prices. You know farmers are gamblers, Mr. Kelly. I hate to admit it but we’ve been gambling all of our life. Putting agriculture in the fields, hoping that we get rain and that it comes up. But they gambled this time because corn prices were high. So they switched from cotton to corn and what happened? We, we had the cold snap. And it hurt the corn crop and it has hurt our farmers. And it’s devastating, but, you know the good thing about it is, they’ll be back next year. If we can get out there and get them a little bit of help to get them back up on their feet, they’ll be back next year. We were able to go to Washington, DC and get a disaster package passed and I’m not happy with it, I’ll be honest with you. Because they put a planting date of Feb. 28th. Tell me somebody that you know that plants their corn, in North Alabama, before Feb. 28th. That’s not going to help our folks. And I’m going to tell you something guys, ladies and gentlemen. How in the world can Aderholt [Rep. Robert Aderholt, R, AL-04] be in Washington DC and let them stick a Feb. 28th planting date on there? It don’t make good sense when you represent Alabama. Those are things that concern me. I don’t want to just bash one of our Congressmen or one of our Senators, but tell the truth and that’s what I want to do. Our, our peach crops and our apple folks, they’re going to get a little money. Our corn folks, may get, 30% of them may get some money. If you didn’t buy crop insurance, you will be totally out of the program. They will not give you any money. So, we’re going to be able to get them a little help but nowhere near enough help.
And that’s how we’re losing our farmers, ladies and gentlemen. You know today, we are buying 900 billion dollars more products from China than we’re sending. That’s what’s happened to us. We’ve got to change that. Agriculture is too important to Alabama. It’s our number 1 industry, 5.5 million dollar industry, 467,000 employees, 21% of our workforce. But the sad thing about it is that in the 50’s and 60’s we had 250,000 family farms. Today we’ve got 45,000 family farms. In the 50’s and 60’s we farmed 18 million acres. Now we farm 9 million acres. Are we going to sit around and let our farmers get put out of business and then let the folks of other countries put the food on our table like they’re putting gasoline in our automobiles?
And folks, if you’ve been reading the papers in the last year, you know that people of other countries don’t produce at the same standard that our farmers do. We’ve been very aggressive at the Department of Agriculture, and I’ll talk about that. But you’ve got to remember seed prices have gone up 73%, technology fees have gone up 50%, nitrogen that you, that you put on the crop has gone up 96%, diesel fuel has gone up 210%, and some of our farmers are still getting the same thing for their commodities today that they did 30 years ago. We can’t ask them to continue to go. We’ve got to put profitability back into agriculture. We’ve got to make it where a young man that goes to Auburn University or A&M University or Tuskegee University, we’ve got to make it to where they want to be in agriculture. So that they can help produce the food and fiber that me and you have the luxury of eating.
But some of the things that we’ve been able to do at the Department is – trade. We’ve been very successful, I did an interview today, one third of all the products that have been bought in Cuba come from Alabama. One third. Out of the whole United States. Come from Alabama. And, let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen, I’m not for propping up communism, I’m not for -- whatever. I’m not for all that. And what we’ve done in Cuba, has not changed the meals of Fidel Castro one bit. But let me tell you what we’ve done in Cuba. What we’ve done in Cuba has changed the lives of 11 million hungry men women and children. When we started traveling to Cuba they were buying a million dollars in poultry. This year they bought 60 million dollars in poultry. Everybody in Marshall County understands how important the poultry industry is to the state of Alabama. [applause] About 64% of our receipts in agriculture comes out of the poultry industry. We’ve sold them cotton, we’ve sold them mayonnaise. 90% of all the telephone poles that Cuba buys come out of Alabama. We’ve been very productive. 350 million dollars of economic impact has gone to Cuba. But not only to Cuba. We just got back from India. Opened a trade office in India. Why? Because India has 1 billion 600 million people. Now, let’s put that in perspective. The United States has 300 million. India’s got a billion, 600 million. And they’ve got a 300 million middle class and moving up. You’ve got to target those countries. That’s where we can gain some ground and some benefit because we live in a global world. And we can sell and make as good a product as anybody can make. We’ve been to Africa. I carried the first official delegation to Africa. We’ve been to India. I’ve been around the world -- Vietnam, China -- supporting Alabama, promoting Alabama, talking about Alabama. Alabama’s not hard to sell. We’ve got a great state. We’ve got great people. We’ve got great farmers. We do great work. Alabama’s not hard to sell, ladies and gentlemen. That’s the easiest part of my job. It’s that we get there. They like us. We’re not cocky. We have a heart. We have compassion. There’s just a lot of good things that you can say about the people of Alabama. And I’m proud to be able to go to those countries and represent Alabama.
Country of origin labeling. You’ve heard me talk about it a lot. I’m going to try to be brief because I’ve got a lot of stuff I want to say. A lot of stuff. I drove three hours. I got a lot of stuff. I take that back. I rode three hours – he (points to driver) drove three hours. I believe, you know, we know where our ties, our shirts, our coats, we know where everything in our house comes from. Our VCRs, we know where everything in our house comes from but our food. Ladies and gentlemen, you deserve the right to know where your food comes from. And I’m going to continue to do everything I can to push that. And it’s not against the grocery stores, it’s not against the grocery industry. It’s just the world we live in today. Who would ever believe you couldn’t eat spinach? Who would ever believe you couldn’t eat peanut butter? Who would ever believe you’d find bad stuff in your toothpaste? Who would ever believe your dogfood would kill your dogs and cats? Who ever believed they would send Chinese catfish in here with chemicals -- with uh, with chemicals in it that’s been banned by FDA? Folks, this is a serious matter. This is a serious matter. We don’t need to sit around and wait ‘til something bad happens, and then say “Whoops, we should have done that.” We need to start doing it now and that’s why we banned Chinese catfish from coming into Alabama. And they say, “Well, Commissioner, how are we going to change that?” I’ll tell you how we’re going to change that. Quit using it. Quit using those chemicals. Do it the same way that our farmers have to do it.
Alternative fuels, ladies and gentlemen. I believe that we’re going to turn the corner on alternative fuels. I believe agriculture is going to help us pave the way. Not necessary it will be by corn or it may not be by soybeans. It may be wood. Two thirds of our state is woods, we have a lot of excess wood. When hurricanes come through, we have a lot of wood for the first cuttings, but we do have soybeans and we do have corn. Poultry litter. We raise a billion chickens a year in Alabama. A billion chickens a year creates a lot of poultry litter. Let’s turn it into fuel. Let’s do things . . . Let me give you another example. I’m partnered with Auburn University right now. We’re doing a pilot project on an acre pond of raising algae. Algae. Everything that we’ve been trying to kill all of our lives. You can get 4000 gallons, Mr. McDaniel, 4000 gallons of oil off that one acre pond when you can only get 40 gallons off an acre of soybeans. We’ve got to use every ounce of technology that’s out there if we’re going to find a way … to become less dependent on foreign oil. And when I talk about oil, I’m not talking about filling stations and jobbers and distributors. They’re doing the best they can. And I … If you are one or you work for one or you’re kin to one, I promise you I’m not kicking you under the bus. But I can tell you, every gallon of oil that we can produce in Alabama is one less gallon we bring out of that desert. I think we all are in support of that. [Applause]
Let me tell you another quick positive news. They floated a bond issue. They gave me 13 million dollars to build one diagnostic lab. Okay? Not only have we built one diagnostic lab at Auburn University, we built two. In Elba. And what do you know? We’re going to build three. In Boaz. With the help of Mr. McDaniels, Senator Mitchem, and our Representatives, we’re going to build a new animal diagnostic lab in Boaz Alabama because it is important to animal health, the poultry industry, the cattle industry and it is going to be something that you can be proud of. Not only did we build three labs with one 13 million dollars, we’ve got a lab in Hanceville. That gets us four. We have got to stay on top of animal health issues, because if we don’t, if we have a disease, it can take us to our knees. And Boaz is going to be a big, big part of that.
Quickly, I want to say this about nutrition. We have been able to come from making an F in nutrition for our children to a B+. And after what we’ve done this year, we’re probably going to go to an A+. And this is out of a group out of Washington. But ladies and gentlemen, in Alabama today, we lead the nation in obesity. We lead the nation in diabetes. We’ve got 500,000 people in Alabama that have diabetes. 200,000 people that have it have not been diagnosed, and one out of 10 of those are children. To make it very quick and brief, we’ve changed the way we feed our children in our schools. We’ve changed the vending machines. We haven’t took them out. We want to continue to teach good health. We’re working with industry and we’ve got to continue to work with industry. We don’t want to be punitive, but we’ve made some major steps. Moving in the right direction, to help our young people grow up and be healthy, productive, young men and women. We started a farm to school program, where we buy Satsumas from Mobile and Baldwin. Everybody here know what a Satsuma is? The best Mandarin orange you can buy. We grow them in Alabama. We buy every one of them, so that we can put them on every child’s plate in Alabama. Peaches from Chilton county. Sweet potatoes from Cullman county. Apples from Crow Mountain. We put them on every child’s plate in Alabama. So that they grow up and be healthy. Not only have we been able to buy a lot of fruits and vegetables from our farmers, we put a million dollars back in the pockets of local farmers, Just by buying their products and putting them on our children’s plates.
Now we’ve talked about agriculture, let’s talk about politics. I had someone come up and ask me the other day, they said “Commissioner, what do you think about Dick Cheney?” Well, Dick Cheney’s got enough problems. You know his guy got what, 30 months today? Cause he couldn’t tell the truth? But, they said, uh “what about Dick Cheney coming to Alabama and supporting Jeff Sessions?” I said, I don’t blame him. If I had a Senator that tried to pass the estate package, that would only benefit 1% of the American population, that would benefit Dick Cheney 62 million dollars, I’d be flying to Alabama, too. [Applause] And that’s exactly what it will do. You know, and they keep flying all over the country, let’s just be simple and plain about it. When Bill Clinton left office, there was a 5 trillion dollar surplus. Ladies and gentlemen, we now have a eight trillion dollar deficit. That is 1.75 billion dollars a day. We’re going to have to pay that! Our children are going to have to pay that. But yet they run around -- and let me tell you something, folks -- they give these tax breaks and these tax cuts. You ask the working men and women if they’ve got any benefit out of it. Yeah, they’ve got a little small check. That’s not the folks that’s got the benefit out of it. We’re continuing to lose jobs.
CAFTA. I stood up and said no to CAFTA. The reason that I stood up and said no to CAFTA was because I was sick and tired of sending our jobs overseas. But your Congressman [Aderholt] voted yes. And he was a swing vote, ladies and gentlemen. And I’ve always said, that when you’ve got a piece of legislation, and the President’s got to come to the floor, and you only pass it by 2 votes, it’s a bad piece of legislation. I’ve watched hosiery mill after hosiery mill after hosiery mill in Ft. Payne, Alabama, where I grew up, close its doors and go to Honduras. We just had a company in Opelika last week, that closed the doors. We lost another thousand jobs. And let me ask you something. They talk about CAFTA. Now CAFTA is the Central American Free Trade Agreement. The average income for those countries is 2500 dollars. Now, what’s folks that make 2500 dollars going to buy from you? It wasn’t about what they could buy from us. It was about taking our jobs to where they have no labor laws, no environmental laws, they could do as they doggone well please and then send it back to you. That’s what’s happening to us.
Then we’ve got a President that – immigration – he has just absolutely been terrible. But you know, they continue to make sure that Halliburton, Halliburton, does everybody know who Halliburton is? Does everybody understand that Halliburton is Dick Cheney’s old company? Does everybody understand that Halliburton has had 15 billion dollars of building a Taj Mahal back in Iraq? 15 billion dollars of mine and your money? That’s terrible. Where is the American people going to wake up? My goodness. We’ve had a President that could see weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that weren’t there, but he couldn’t see a hurricane in Louisiana that was there. [laughter, applause] We ought to be ashamed. We ought to be ashamed that any American would have to go through what they went through in Louisiana. We ought to be ashamed. The mistakes that have been made with Homeland Security. My goodness. The mistakes. How many more mistakes can we afford in this country?
Now we’ve got to Gonzales. Our Attorney General. The eight guys that were fired. Let me tell you something folks. I’m not concerned about the eight guys that were fired because they wouldn’t play ball. I’m concerned about those 100 people that didn’t get fired because they did play ball. Folks I’m telling you – our judicial system – those guys are footloose and fancy free and if we don’t get it under control, we’re in trouble. They think you have a law and we don’t. I don’t care if you are a Republican, or you are a Democrat, or you are a Whig, or you are a – whatever you are, you shouldn’t be prosecuted just because of your party affiliation. And that’s what’s happening in this country. That’s what’s happening in Alabama. [applause] The only people that can make a difference is me and you.
Let me ask you a question. Ladies and gentlemen, our men and women in uniform – and I’m a veteran, and there’s a lot of you that’s veterans – and this is a very touchy subject. But our men and women in uniform have done just exactly what we’ve asked them to. They would do more, and deserve every bit of the honor that we could possibly give them. They sure don’t deserve going off to war and the administration wanting to cut their veteran’s benefits. They sure don’t deserve going off to war and not having the tools to fight with. And then they sure don’t deserve to go to war, and get shot, or wounded, and come back to this country and put them in a room with rats running around their head. We in America are going to stand for that? Our military men and women? We deserve better. They deserve better. And we need to demand it, to make sure that they get every ounce of credit they can possibly get. But we let it rub off of our back. It’s not a big deal. But folks, I tell you, it’s a big deal when a guy gets both of his legs blown off. His arm blown off. He’s got all the problems you could ever ask for and he’s in a room with rats? Filthy room? In America? That’s wrong. And we need to do everything we can.
But what can we do to say it’s a victory? What can we do? You got the Shiites. You got the Sunnis. You got the Kurds. Folks, they hadn’t got along in thousands of years. They’re not going to get along and we cant make them get along. We’ve got to find a plan. We’ve got to use the best minds that we possibly can in this country, and I’ve always said I’d call President Carter, I’d call President Daddy Bush, I’d call President Clinton, I’d call every Secretary of State, I’d come with a plan that’s ??? and I’d find us a plan and I’d move. This tit for tat, calling Republicans and Democrats … unpatriotic is wrong.
I’ll give you an example. When Hugo Chavez came to, uh, to New York, and he stood in the UN and he called our President the Devil. I didn’t agree with that. But let me tell you something. I don’t agree with President Bush coming to Alabama and calling Democrats the party of the cut and run. We’ve had just as many Democrats to die in harm’s way as we have Republicans. And we’ve got to stop those people from discrediting our men and women that fought in the Battle of the Bulge, Normandy, Vietnam and all around the world, so that we could be free, just so they can have a simple uh outtake so the press can pick up on it, as they did, and call us the party of the cut and run.
Folks, I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to roll up my sleeves. I’m ready to take ‘em on. Because you’re right and they’re wrong. You’re right and they’re wrong. When are we ever going to start talking about the war on drugs? And taking back our neighborhoods? When are we ever going to start talking about a war on 3 dollar a gallon gasoline? When are we ever going to start talking about war on health care? When we still got 48 million people in this country that don’t have health care? When are we ever going to start talking about executives at Exxon/Mobil that make 28 thousand dollars an hour? That took 400 million dollars home with him, just so he could retire? That come off the backs of the men and women that pump gas every day. When are we going to ever start talking about the 10 billion dollars of extra profits that they made? Let me tell you what I think – and I’m the only person I’ve heard say this. I don’t mind them making the profits. But we ought to put a cap. And the profits over that cap that we put on them ought to be invested in refineries and research, so that we can have more refineries so that you don’t have to pay 3 dollars a gallon. [Applause]
Folks, 3 dollars a gallon ain’t just 3 dollars a gallon. If you don’t think it’s making your food go up, if you don’t think it’s making your clothes go up, if you don’t think it’s making your building materials go up, if you don’t think it’s making your tires go up, if you don’t think it’s making everything that you touch go up, you’re in another world. Everything that you touch is going up because of 3 dollar a gallon gasoline, and I’ll say it again. It’s not your filling stations, I check them every day. It’s not your jobbers, I check them every day. It’s the big refineries. And, does anybody here make 28 thousand dollars an hour? [laughter]
I’m not telling you a story. That’s the truth. And housing, education and health care is becoming harder to get for an average American citizen. 37 million people are still in poverty. That’s a 5.4 million increase under Bush. 25 million people are still forced to use food banks every day. That’s a 9% increase under Bush. The United States is number 1 in developed nations in poverty. Number one in developed nations in poverty. But we’re also number one in billionaires. And the billionaires have gone up in this administration, not gone down.
Now, I haven’t told you nothing that can’t be documented. I haven’t told you nothing that’s not the truth. I haven’t told you nothing that I’m not willing to tell the TV station or a newspaper. It’s time we take America back. [applause] In closing – and Preacher, you ain’t got to worry about me coming to Crossville preaching any time soon. But, you know my question is what do we want to be as a nation? How do we want other countries to look at us as Americans? I look across this room and I see a lot, not a lot, a few, elderly people [laughter] and I know that you’ve lived in a time in this country that America was respected. That we were the power, and the leader. That people looked up to us for our guidance, our truth and our trust. That ain’t the way it is anymore, ladies and gentlemen. There’s a lot of people that want to kill us, every day. I believe that we should avoid war at all costs, and I remember the famous words of Donny Rumsfeld. They asked, “Mr. Secretary, what’s this war going to cost us?” And the Secretary said “about 50 billion dollars.” Does anybody know what this war has cost us? 500 billion dollars. Folks, go home, and take you a pencil and try to figure out how much 500 billion dollars is. Not only have we spent 500 billion in Iraq, we spent 250 billion in Afghanistan. That’s where we should have been. That’s where ??? was. That’s where we could have gotten bin Laden, and we chose not to go. We chose to go to a country that didn’t fire on us, that didn’t bust down the towers, and we chose to let bin Laden run footloose and fancy free. Now, that was his decision, not mine, but I can tell you, I would have been after those folks that broke those towers down, that killed over 3000 American citizens. That’s who I would have been after.
I believe that we’ve got to talk to all of our countries. We’ve got to talk to Iran. We’ve got to talk to Korea. We’ve got to talk, we’ve got to have dialogue. I’ve had the privilege – I don’t know if you remember – when I got sworn in as Commissioner of Agriculture this year I had the privilege of a great friend swearing me in, by the name of General Wesley Clark. General Wesley Clark, to me, is one of the great Americans. He was the Allied Command, the General of the Allied Command in Kosovo. Milosevich didn’t get much done until General Clark hit town. General Clark is going to go down as one of our great generals. I was able to spend some time on the plane with General Clark as we flew across Alabama, talked about people and ??? and General Clark told me – out of his mouth – you can’t run around this country with your chest stuck out, with an arrogant attitude, and get the job done that needs to be done. You’ve got to walk in with diplomacy and demand respect, but keep an honest and open dialogue. And I believe that. And I believe that anybody that don’t operate that way has us in the situation that we are in today.
So, with all that, I say this, I’m here today because the people of Alabama give me strength. I’m here today because I’m honored to be one of your seven constitutional officers. I don’t check the wind every day to see which way it blows. I started looking a few weeks ago at a very important race. That was the United States Senate race. And I’m going to be honest with you, and I want to be as honest as I can. I’ve been to Washington. I’ve talked to a lot of major groups. I’ve looked at poll numbers. I’m going to tell you something. I’m not going to lie to you. We’re within striking distance. We’re within striking distance of a man that’s voted 97% with President Bush. We’re within striking distance of a man that’s voted NO to every disaster package that’s ever been laid on the table for Alabama. Now, we’re close to a man that’s voted against our veterans. That’s voted against our farmers. That has stood up for Gonzales, said the president can’t do wrong. This man is beatable. [applause] And he’s not beatable because of what I can say about him, he’s beatable because of his record.
I said that I had an interest in looking at the United States Senate race, but I also said I would not run in a primary. And that’s where I’m still, that’s where I am today. We do have two individuals that still say they’re going to run. Senator Figures says she’s going to announce July the 24th. If that’s the case, I will not run as a candidate for the United States Senate. The reason is that, number one, we don’t need a primary in the Democrat party. The person who runs against Jeff Sessions needs every ounce of help and support they can get. He’s going to have enough money to burn a wet dog every day of the week. And I’m talking fifteen million.
We’re talking about a Senator in a red state in the South. That’s vulnerable. They know he’s vulnerable. And I’m going to tell you something, since I’ve started talking about the United States Senate, I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen more out of Jeff Sessions in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last 2 years. So, maybe I need to start running every year. So that he will do what he should have been doing for Alabama for the last 6 years.
But, I’m honored to be an elected official, I’m going to keep my powder dry, and we’re going to look at every angle that we possibly can, but I want to be honest with you. I don’t feel like it’s doing the party justice, I don’t feel like it’s doing the candidates justice, and – you know, what I said was let’s run a poll. And ever who leads in the poll, will be the candidate. But we don’t need to beat up on each other, folks. Let’s pick us a candidate, let’s get behind them and let’s try to win this race in November, 2008. Thank y’all very much for letting me be here as your speaker.
[Applause]
[Commissioner Sparks agreed to take questions.]
Q1: Question was about incentives for solar and wind energy for homes.
Sparks: I think there are some incentives out there. We definitely need an energy policy and I hope we get one in Alabama.
Q2: How do you differ from the President and from Jeff Sessions on the immigration bill?
Sparks: I think they should have done something a long time ago. I think we’ve let too many in already. But now that they’re here, we don’t need to criminalize them. We need to find a reasonable plan that would, uh, that would work. I personally think that all those that are here illegally ought to have to serve 2 years in our military as support personnel. Let them fight for our country. Let them help us.
I believe that in agriculture and in a lot of areas today, we have allowed our businesses to rely on immigrant workers, and if we took them every one today and shipped them back, agriculture and a lot of our businesses are going to be in extremely bad trouble. Okay? So, we have got to find a reasonable plan, I think there’s a lot of things that they’re missing. I think they’re, you know, we haven’t talked about immunization. They come to this country, they’ve never had shots. I mean there’s a lot of things that ought to be in this particular package. We ought to be looking at their records. What kind of criminal records. We ought to be looking at their records since they’ve been here. Those are things that ??? involved. I think the ones that should have to pay a price, they should be penalized if they’ve come here illegally, and they should have to meet the judicial system just like anybody else that breaks the law. But, ladies and gentlemen, we are a nation of immigrants, and if there’s anybody in this country that can raise their hand, that tells me they’re not an immigrant, the only people that I know of are the Indians. But – in parts I agree with the legislation – but in a large part, I don’t. I think there’s more that could be added to it. I think we need to explain to the American public all the situations that go along with it. Labor, illegal activities, those type of things and hopefully we can come up with a decent package.
Q3: Regarding Iraq. We are building the largest embassy in the world in Iraq and if you think we’re coming out next year … You don’t build the largest embassy in the world if you’re getting out and 2/3 of the world’s oil is buried over there. We are there and we are going to be there.
Sparks: And the big oil companies want us to stay there, because it puts a limited supply on the oil that was coming out of that region and it keeps the price high. It’s that simple. And you’re exactly right. We’re building a Taj Mahal. And it’s being built by Halliburton. All I want is this. I want a presidential candidate that will tell us the truth. I want a senatorial candidate that will tell us the truth. I don’t want all these spin doctors and these professionals trying to spin these things out of their mouth that sounds good. People in Alabama can understand the truth if you tell them the truth. That’s all I want. You’ve got to remember this about Iraq, too. That when we went into Iraq, 100% of their schoolchildren were going to school. Today only 30% are going to school. You’ve got to remember – of all the millions of people that have fled Iraq. Yes, we’ve got some problems. I don’t get the same intelligence – and I hope you write this down Mr. Newspaper Guy – I don’t get the same intelligence that the President and the Senate and the CIA and the FBI get, so my views may be a little different from the outside looking in. But I can tell you, we can’t stay on the plan that we’re on today because it’s been the wrong plan. [Applause]
Q4: When is Alabama going to allow the growth of hemp for clothing and ???
Sparks: You know, I get asked that question a lot. It’s agricultural and industrial hemp. There is a difference than (makes smoking gesture) that. [laughter] There is a need, but we live in a region that society is just not ready to accept it. Seriously. Just as society, a lot of – we have a lot of folks in our society that’s not ready to accept that agriculture is still our number one industry. We’re losing it every day, and we’ve got to find a way for farmers and citizens to coexist. Farmers have got to become better farmers, and I believe, I really do … [comment from questioner ??] Well, that’s a lot of our responsibility and we continue to try to do that, but that is a very big educational curve, and I don’t know that I could ever get them educated in the last 3 years that I’ve got to be the Commissioner.
Q5: On immigration. Gist of question was to change the laws so that babies born to illegals are not citizens.
Sparks: Well, you’re probably right. But we didn’t have the laws when they got in here, so we’ve got to make sure we get them right since they’re here.
Q6: I follow the political blogs and your name is on there a lot. Do you read the blogs?
Sparks: As a matter of fact, I’ve been on the blogs twice. I’ve met with Mr. Tester of Montana who was on the blogs. I’ve visited with Jim Webb, I’ve visited with Clare McCaskill of Missouri. The blogs are very encouraging. I’ve tried to be open and honest with all of those people I’ve talked to from Washington and California and all over the United States. It’s very humbling that they would say some of the positive things they’ve said about me. But, I love representing the people of Alabama. Y’all have been good to me. As long as y’all allow me to be an elected official, I’m going to do the best I can to make you proud of me.
Let me say this, I want to say it in closing, if I can. I know I’ve talked a long time. You know, she mentioned to you that I grew up in Ft. Payne, Alabama. My grandmother raised me. She’s 98 years old. Mr. Kelly, I can remember my grandmother on Sunday morning getting up and turning the radio on. She came from Crossville, and you could hear that Sacred Harp singing and you could smell that sausage cooking, and I’d want to sleep a little bit longer and about that time she’d open the door and whip back the covers and said “you got about 10 minutes.” And you’re out. She’ll drag you out of the bed, she throws you a sausage and biscuit, she wipes your eyes out and she grabs you by the hand -- we didn’t have a car – but she walked me to Mt. Carmel Baptist Church. She taught me how important it was to be honest and how important it was to tell the truth, how important it was to work hard for a days wage for 8 hours pay. She taught me that when people down the road are sick, that you help ‘em.
That’s why they call me a liberal. If they want to call me a liberal because I love my neighbor, then so be it. If they want to call me a liberal because I want to help somebody less fortunate than me, so be it. I don’t care what they call me. I know what my 98 year old grandmother has instilled in me. I know what I want to be and what I want to do for Alabama and I know the greatness of the people of Alabama because I’ve traveled to every county in this state. And I know what we’re capable of doing. When we have folks like you that are willing to come out on Tuesday night and sit and listen to a guy from Montgomery Alabama with a little interest, we’ve got better days ahead of us. And if you’ll continue doing that and rely on that little piece of what your mother, grandmother and the people of Northeast Alabama taught you, we’re not going to go wrong. I see it in action every legislative session in Representative McDaniels. I watch people from Northeast Alabama bring the heritage of Sand Mountain to the legislature. And it works.
So, I don’t have a magic wand and I don’t have a genie that I talk to every morning. I have the same God that I pray to as everybody else does. I live in the same country and pay the same taxes as everybody else. I’m not a millionaire, I never plan on being a millionaire. I want to pay my bills and I want to be able to feed my family, clothe my children, see my grandson grow up and have opportunities. I want to see children in the Black Belt have the same opportunity for education as people in Mountain Brook. I want to see people in the parts of this country that don’t have health care, have health care. There’s nothing wrong with that. I want to see people get fairness. I want to see people have hope. And that’s what the Democrat party has got to do. We’ve got to tell the people of Alabama “We care.” We care about your job. We care about your children. We care about fairness. We care. And we’ve got to quit letting people of other parties tell us who we are, and that we don’t care. That was a long answer, but thanks for the question.
[Applause]
Q6:Something about “if this thing with Sessions don’t work out, remember we’re going to have other elections and we’ll be electing another governor” and more that I couldn’t hear. [Loud applause]
Sparks: Well, if Mr. McDaniel and them would change the constitution, I’d be perfectly happy to stay where I’m at. I can’t run anymore. I am in my second term. It’s sad every day. I’ve got to be honest with you. It’s sad every day to think that I won’t be able to finish my career at the Department of Agriculture, ‘cause we have some great people. A lot of good people have come to the Department since I’ve been there and we’ve built a team that’s – Mr. McDaniels can tell you – I think the Department of Agriculture has really built a team of good qualified, smart, individuals who’ve stepped out of the boundaries of what the Ag. Department has normally been. But yes, Buddy, I can promise you that I want to continue to serve the people of Alabama and if the people will give me that honor, I’m going to go where they tell me. Thank you. [Applause]
Q7: What are you going to do if you are not going to be a candidate?
Sparks: Well, if I’m not running for United States Senate, I’ve still got 3 and a half years to be your Commissioner of Agriculture. Then you’ve got to remember that the Governor of the state of Alabama is term limited like I am. And you’ve also got to remember that we have a Lt. Governor, that has been Governor, that may want to be Governor again. Then you’ve got to remember that – I’m looking at a lot of different things. So, you have to really step back and look at it and see where the polls are and you’ve got to talk to your supporters and see where you are. But you can probably rest assured that I’ll be on the ballot. Somewhere.. [Applause]
Q8: Can you tell us more about the candidate who said she’s going to announce in July?
Sparks: Yeah. We have a lady by the name of Vivian Figures who has said she intends .. [Question from audience ?] Vivian Figures. [Question: Is she involved in the Jr. College ???] Uh, I don’t know. She lives in Mobile. She represents the Senate from Mobile. And you’ve also had a gentleman from Birmingham, a Judge Johnson that has said he has an interest in running. And, all I can say is this. Regardless of which one of us gets in this race, we need to be getting in it now. We don’t need to be holding anybody back. Because every day we’re not in it for the next 2 months, we’re losing ground.
[Applause]
Thank y’all very much
Post-meeting question: Question about the Center for Rural Alabama, of which Sparks is head. “Are you going to think about anything besides agriculture for rural Alabama? Like high speed internet access so ..”
Sparks: Amazing! You took that out of my mouth. We’re going after money in Washington. We want to put broadband high speed internet in every community in Alabama. If we don’t continue to do something for rural Alabama, we’re going to lose it. That’s my first order of business.
With Madison County Democratic Women chair Wanda McNeil.
With Judge Tim Jolley of Marshall County
Marshall County Democrats.
