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Bottoms up: How the Alabama Legislature learned to love alcohol legislation
Few bills ever flamed out in the inferno that engulfed Mac McCutcheon’s homebrewing legislation on April 26, 2011.
The Monrovia representative s bill was modest. The bill banned homebrewing in dry counties and municipalities, and prohibited commercial sales. People making beer, mead, cider or wine would have to follow federal guidelines on production. But in that framework, it would be legal. That was a big issue in north Alabama, said Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur. We have so many engineers who had that as a hobby, and because it was illegal, they could lose their security clearance.
The outspoken yoga advocate and author of
Embracing Yoga’s Roots was responding to news reports that the Alabama legislature had passed a bill that would allow yoga to be taught in schools. This move would reverse a ban on the practice that had been in place for 28 years.
But what seemed like a win for proponents of yoga in schools turned sour when the bill’s full content became known. Students will be able to do asana and pranayama but they won’t be able to call it that. The bill stipulates that any school-based yoga practice would have to be devoid of Sanskrit terms. There’s to be no chanting, mantras, mudras, or mandalas.
The practice has been banned in schools since 1993.
Conservative Christian groups say allowing yoga in schools would promote Hinduism.
Legislation that would have allowed yoga to be taught in Alabama public schools died in committee Wednesday, stalling a years-long battle by one state legislator to bring the practice back.
Bill AL HB246 was put forth by Alabama State Rep. Jeremy Gray, who wrote that bringing yoga back to school would be voluntary. It sought to overturn a ban on the practice in Alabama schools in place since 1993.
Lawmakers in Alabama s state Senate voted on the proposal and decided against it, effectively endorsing the existing ban. Gray can attempt to pass the measure again later, but it is a significant setback.