The Montgomery Advertiser conducted an interesting poll last week.

The question was: &uot;What public controversy in our state would you most prefer to see come to an end?&uot;

The poll results were published this past weekend and the top two vote getters was the controversy over the Ten Commandments and the issue of adopting Amendment One to increase taxes.

There were several choices to choose from but it is not surprising to me that these two issues topped the list.

It is one of our oldest adages that when you want to start something, just get on the subject of religion or politics.

Something that struck me about this poll had nothing to do with the results.

It concerns the very taking of the poll.

Why are we, as a state, always embroiled in some public controversy?

I do not have a good answer to this question, but it seems that such has been the case since shortly after Alabama became a state.

It is often noted by historians that the Civil War began in Alabama and the Civil Rights movement had its birthplace here.

It goes without saying that these are two of the most divisive historical events in our nation’s history.

At the lower end of Dexter Avenue in Montgomery, there is an office which still houses the telegraph which sent the original telegram message to fire the first shot in the Civil War.

On that same Dexter Avenue there stands the church where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his first congregational sermon.

So there is a lot of truth that Alabama has been at the forefront of many controversial issues through the years.

I am certain I am not as widely traveled as many of you who read my column, but I have been in forty-six of our fifty states and I am yet to find an area of the country that offers a better quality of life than Alabama, all things considered.

There are many places in America that I enjoy visiting but I would not like to live there.

Senator Wendell Mitchell can

be reacjed at 334-242-7883, or by writing

to P.O. Box 225, Luverne, AL 36049.