Governor Riley Says Boycott Aruba: That’s like Taking Marital Advice from a Twitty

by: Steve Yuhas

This week Governor Bob Riley of Alabama joined the chorus of disc jockeys calling for the boycott of Aruba because Natalee Holloway is still missing.  In what was little more than a move to make the talk show circuit, the governor of one of America’s poorest states, flanked by Jug and Beth Twitty, told his poor constituents that they should not visit Aruba.  One can only assume he was talking to the people of Alabama because nobody else would care what a governor of a poor and violent state says about going on vacation, but for the most part the poor people of Alabama cannot afford to go to Aruba so his speech is curious.

Alabama is home to some of the poorest people in America; coupled with one of the greatest disparities between rich and poor in the country.  Their crime rate rivals that of Eastern European and Asian capitals and one would think that Governor Riley would have something better to do than tell a bunch of poor people not to take a luxury vacation that they cannot afford.  You can’t blame the governor for wanting to be on television, but you have to question the logic of his proposition: criminal activity and unsolved crimes equals boycott.

It would have done Riley well not to open his state to this kind of scrutiny given the problems that the chicken pluckers and cotton farmers already have, but he did so let’s compare the crime rate of Alabama with the rest of the world and decide if it is safer to go to the Holloway and Twitty home state or van der Sloot's Aruba.

The annual budget in Alabama is pretty depressing: it is dependent on uneducated poor people doing menial labor and they make a little less than $26,000 a year doing it.  It is unlikely that Riley’s appeal will convince many Alabamans not to go to Aruba because most of his constituents cannot afford it.  It is equally unlikely that other Americans will listen because nobody cares about what the governor of Alabama has to say, but more importantly is that the Riley test makes Alabama more of a risk to visit than Aruba and just about the same risk as visiting Russia or Colombia (and not as cultural, unless you count trailer parks).

Someone from Aruba or Holland needs to hold a news conference begging people to stay away from Alabama and to visit Amsterdam instead.

There are 85 people missing in Alabama, fifteen of them minors (one doesn't know for certain that these are accurate, but we'll give Alabama the benefit of the doubt since a very public case is missing from that count) and the state has more than a dozen missing felons (the Twitty’s are upset that Natalee got lost in Aruba, but Alabama is losing convicted felons!), 191 people are on Alabama’s death row (probably not there for petty theft) and 4,757 registered sex offenders call the Yellowhammer State home (contrast that with 3,237 sex offenders in all of the United Kingdom where more than 60 million people live compared to the 4.5 million in Alabama).  Overall, Alabama is not safe and certainly not safer, statistically, than Aruba or almost anywhere else in the world.

The good news is that Governor Riley can call Tony Blair and brag about having more perverts than all of Great Britain; the bad news is that Riley opened the door to this scrutiny and when you look at the facts – Alabama should be boycotted.

Riley holds court in Montgomery, Alabama and using his logic everyone in the world should stay away from there as well.  In 2004 in every category, except aggravated assaults, Montgomery ranked as more dangerous than the United States national average.  You are more likely to be murdered, raped, burgled, pick pocketed or have your car stolen in Montgomery, Alabama than anywhere else in the nation except Detroit or Washington, D.C. (and some other much larger cities with much larger populations, but population to population it is simply unsafe to go to Alabama).  The people of the world have a right to know that using Riley-Twitty boycott logic (if they planned a trip to watch poor people pluck chickens) that Alabama should be taken off of their destination list.

Speaking of which - to stick it to the people of Alabama, go to the Alabama Travel Council and order the free visit Alabama materials (paid for by the people of Alabama): make them pay for the printing, binding and postage for all of the jobs that the people of Aruba will lose over the 12 people from Alabama who won't go to Aruba becuase of the governor's obtuse logic.  Their website is HERE and order as much as you can; send them everywhere and since the holidays are coming - don't forget grandma and grandpa; aunts and uncles and for good measure throw in your neighbors.  Make the people of Alabama pay for their governor's mistake and throw the stuff away when you get it - be sure to check every box - make them think you can't wait to get there!

It is telling that to deflect attention from the fact that Montgomery is more dangerous than Moscow or Bogota and someone has a better chance of being the victim of a violent crime in Alabama than Aruba; Governor Riley had to hold a news conference to talk about boycotting a place where crime is virtually non-existent.  It seems like Riley should be working on the violent crime and sex abuse in Alabama instead of giving the world a lecture on the dangers of Aruba.

Not that what he said matters anyway because Aruba’s tourism industry is booming and one has to believe that Riley and the Twitty family had something to do with it.

Hotels in Aruba are full and the lucrative winter season is actually better this year than last; flights into and out of Aruba are full and people who know Aruba is safe continue to return. 

Governor Riley may have national ambitions one day, but nobody knows or cares who he is, today.  He certainly should not get into the business of calling for boycotts of places with criminal records that he would be bragging about if they happened in his state.

The Natalee Holloway case is like a billboard for the Aruba tourism industry and Governor Riley along with the Twitty family are doing a lot to keep Aruba at the top of travel agent lists of places people inquire about.  The story of Natalee Holloway is still a tragic one, but more tragic is the fact that a governor of a crime ridden state compared to anywhere else in America or the world has joined radio DJs in calling for a boycott of a nation because of a single instance of what may or may not even be a crime.

Listening to Governor Riley talk about boycotting Aruba over crime is akin to taking marriage advice from the Twitty family.  Neither are authorities on the subject and both are proven failures. 

Don’t boycott Aruba: go there, have fun and spend a lot of money.  The people of Aruba who work in one of the safest places in the world should not suffer because a grown woman got into a car with boys she didn’t know while drinking the night away in the tropics.  If you don’t do anything stupid, and don’t send your broken home daughter off on vacation alone, you and your family will be just fine.

My advice to you, though, is to stay away from Montgomery, Alabama – it is obvious that it is not safe to be visit, but then again, who would want to?

Steve Yuhas is a columnist and radio talk show host on KOGO AM 600 based in San Diego.  He may be reached at steve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com