By Tom Scarritt -- The Birmingham News
Published: Sunday, December 25, 2011, 5:54 AM

Gifts come in many forms, from the welcome packages that greet us on a festive Christmas morning to the lessons learned from experience.

"O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us/To see oursels as others see us!" the poet Robert Burns wrote.

Our state received that gift this year, and the message was a mixed one.

The first view was a positive one, although it arose from an ill wind. The Alabama the world saw after the April 27 tornadoes was resilient, generous and, for the most part, united.

Those killer storms brought out the best in communities, as neighbors rushed to help neighbors and volunteers poured into the stricken areas. Old barriers of wealth and race and geography seemed much less important in the aftermath of the indiscriminate twisters.

The recovery has not always been smooth, but neither was it filled with the acrimony, rivalry and blame that can follow big disasters. Our elected leaders deserve some credit for that constructive response, but so do the caring and self-reliant people of Alabama.

Those same fine people are taking a beating in the way others see Alabama following passage of a harsh state immigration law. That may not be entirely fair. The intent may have been to protect state workers and taxpayers because the federal government has not done its job. The law itself may not be vastly more severe than the laws recently passed in other states. But because of the way others see us, the effect has been to tar us with the old brush of intolerance.

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men/Gang aft a-gley."

That may be the old Scotsman's way of describing what some lawmakers are calling "unintended consequences" of the law.

Whether our immigration law was a well-laid plan may be open to debate, but certainly it has gone awry. Business leaders, religious leaders and concerned citizens are seeking to exchange this legislative gift for a less burdensome law.

Gov. Robert Bentley and Republican leaders in the Legislature have agreed to take another look at the law and make minor changes to correct the unintended consequences that are causing a burden on law enforcement, local government, schools and other entities. They have made it clear, though, they will not repeal the law.

That is not surprising. There is strong support among voters for some action to address the issue of illegal immigration.

As they work to refine the law, though, legislators must be mindful of our state's special place as a defiant battleground in the civil rights struggle. Fair or not, our past is a lens through which we will be viewed. We are much more than our history, but it remains a part of how others see us.

One insight we may have acquired this year is our state has had more success in learning to deal with the merciless forces of nature than with the legacy of "man's inhumanity to man."

Tom Scarritt is editor of The News. E-mail: tscarritt@bhamnews.com.

http://blog.al.com/tscarritt/2011/12...me_in_man.html