This is an opinion column.

Sim Butler’s the kind of Alabamian I know best. The kind, that is, the world knows least.

Smart, but not pretentious about it, despite the All-American debate cred at UA, the PhD and the new book. Capable of losing his Southern drawl for the outside world, but certain to drift South as the conversation progresses, to drop in a “God willin’ and the creek don’t rise,” to remind everybody where his heart is.

Butler can talk football or fishing, or how we belong to the land more than the land could ever belong to us. He is Alabama in his roots, to his core.

But not in his address. Not anymore.

The state Butler loved did not love him back. Worse, it did not love his child. So he did what so many people tell those with whom they disagree to do. He left to find a s

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