Saturday, April 25, 2009
MORE THAN OUR FAIR SHARE
Many years ago we visited in my mother’s church back in the home country in eastern Oklahoma. We were relative strangers there, of course. Across the front bench in their customary position sat a row of 6 or 8 mentally challenged youth of some 10 to 20 years of age. We were in the next occupied row, which was the third row.
Unaccustomed to strangers, we were apparently the most interesting sight around for these young people, since they spent part of the sermon time completely turned around in their seats looking at us. This was a bit disconcerting to us and may have been a little distracting to some in the congregation.
During Sunday lunch, my stepfather, a part-time minister and ordinarily quite reluctant to make any sort of unkind remark about any person at the church, made a comment that we shall always remember. “Sometimes,” he said, “It seems like we have more than our fair share of those.”
His remark was accurate, I’d imagine, since that bench did indeed accommodate most of that entire sub-population existing in town. I have chuckled about that remark many times.
Looking at our Oklahoma legislature, and the bills introduced, debated, or passed this session, it seems to us that “we have more than our fair share of those.” As one might say, “There are a lot of villages in Oklahoma missing one of theirs.” They sent them to the legislature.
This has been a terrible year for dumb legislation being introduced, and a bad year for divisive and governmentally irrelevant issues being put into legislation and pushed. Time and energy has been wasted, while important matters dragged on.
First, we had the bill authorizing gun-toting on college campuses in a manner even prohibited by Wyatt Earp back in old Dodge City. Then we had a school deregulation bill, which as drafted would have sent our schools back into the academic dark ages. Two or three anti-science education bills would have substituted religious dogma for the teaching of science in schools.
Legislators have made their usual attempt to undermine the interests of their constituents with one-sided workers’ comp and tort “reform” proposals. Fair proposals might fly. They have pursued their animosity toward their nemesis (lawyers) with other measures thought to be unconstitutional.
The presiding officer of the senate, himself an apparent offender of tax law, introduced a bill which would take away the retirement benefits of other state officials or employees found with legal violations. A righteous crusade, no doubt.
Legislative proposals which will duplicate functions of the department of education and politicize the medical examiners’ office have been pushed, carrying out political vendettas by creating unneeded changes. Time has been wasted on an unnecessary state-issued photo ID requirement for voting, seeking to disenfranchise elderly, poor, and minority voters who lean democratic. This is a party agenda item.
There was that red herring of a harsh, likely unconstitutional “English only” bill contesting with a more reasonable bill, and with some moderation now headed for an unnecessary, distracting, “show” vote of the people.
Then there is the matter of the bill authorizing the placing of a monument on Capitol grounds displaying the Ten Commandments, leading us to wonder if we will have Capitol grounds over-run with such. A resolution addressing Congress admonishing that body as not staying within their constitutional authority and calling for rejection of federal funds, vetoed by the Governor, has taken unnecessary time for futility. Both appeal to a right-wing base, of course.
There has been the push for sending inmates to private prisons. The idea seems to be to warehouse them there for the private profit of political friends, although they will be getting few of the services needed to prevent recidivism.
As usual, we have a crazy tax cutting measure that would reduce state income tax rates by 20%. This was in the face of a budget shortfall of $900 million, of which $700 million was due to the fiscal foolishness of past tax-cutting the last three years. Only the new, “dreaded,” “abominable” federal stimulus money coming to the state will save us from utter disaster in education, some social services, and roads.
There was the usual measure seeking to restrict access to medical abortion. This time it required that doctors and clinics report all abortions performed for a master “scarlet list” record at the capital. Intimidation of women seems an appropriate description. Maybe all this pleased the religious right constituency.
One of the more offensive pieces of legislation introduced and passed has been the one criminalizing those doctors and other researchers at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, other private institutes, and our universities for their work for human cures using medical waste in the form of embryonic stem cells. Fortunately, this was vetoed by the Governor.
Such a measure places Oklahoma in the intellectual backwater of civilized society. As one friend said, “This confirms the common stereotype of “dumb Okie” that is held in some quarters around the country.” Criminalizing science reeks of the superstitious religious zealotry of the dark ages in history prohibiting study of a real human body.
Could it be that these “village idiots” are only faking it? Are they just playing the role that their financial supporters, right wing, and single-issue voters sent them to do? That is always a possibility. If so, then they are the most despicable of elected officials, hypocrites playing politics with the welfare of the state and its people – the present day equivalent of fiddling while Rome burns.
Either way, the circumstance of this legislature does not speak well for those Oklahoma voters who sent them there.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
Unaccustomed to strangers, we were apparently the most interesting sight around for these young people, since they spent part of the sermon time completely turned around in their seats looking at us. This was a bit disconcerting to us and may have been a little distracting to some in the congregation.
During Sunday lunch, my stepfather, a part-time minister and ordinarily quite reluctant to make any sort of unkind remark about any person at the church, made a comment that we shall always remember. “Sometimes,” he said, “It seems like we have more than our fair share of those.”
His remark was accurate, I’d imagine, since that bench did indeed accommodate most of that entire sub-population existing in town. I have chuckled about that remark many times.
Looking at our Oklahoma legislature, and the bills introduced, debated, or passed this session, it seems to us that “we have more than our fair share of those.” As one might say, “There are a lot of villages in Oklahoma missing one of theirs.” They sent them to the legislature.
This has been a terrible year for dumb legislation being introduced, and a bad year for divisive and governmentally irrelevant issues being put into legislation and pushed. Time and energy has been wasted, while important matters dragged on.
First, we had the bill authorizing gun-toting on college campuses in a manner even prohibited by Wyatt Earp back in old Dodge City. Then we had a school deregulation bill, which as drafted would have sent our schools back into the academic dark ages. Two or three anti-science education bills would have substituted religious dogma for the teaching of science in schools.
Legislators have made their usual attempt to undermine the interests of their constituents with one-sided workers’ comp and tort “reform” proposals. Fair proposals might fly. They have pursued their animosity toward their nemesis (lawyers) with other measures thought to be unconstitutional.
The presiding officer of the senate, himself an apparent offender of tax law, introduced a bill which would take away the retirement benefits of other state officials or employees found with legal violations. A righteous crusade, no doubt.
Legislative proposals which will duplicate functions of the department of education and politicize the medical examiners’ office have been pushed, carrying out political vendettas by creating unneeded changes. Time has been wasted on an unnecessary state-issued photo ID requirement for voting, seeking to disenfranchise elderly, poor, and minority voters who lean democratic. This is a party agenda item.
There was that red herring of a harsh, likely unconstitutional “English only” bill contesting with a more reasonable bill, and with some moderation now headed for an unnecessary, distracting, “show” vote of the people.
Then there is the matter of the bill authorizing the placing of a monument on Capitol grounds displaying the Ten Commandments, leading us to wonder if we will have Capitol grounds over-run with such. A resolution addressing Congress admonishing that body as not staying within their constitutional authority and calling for rejection of federal funds, vetoed by the Governor, has taken unnecessary time for futility. Both appeal to a right-wing base, of course.
There has been the push for sending inmates to private prisons. The idea seems to be to warehouse them there for the private profit of political friends, although they will be getting few of the services needed to prevent recidivism.
As usual, we have a crazy tax cutting measure that would reduce state income tax rates by 20%. This was in the face of a budget shortfall of $900 million, of which $700 million was due to the fiscal foolishness of past tax-cutting the last three years. Only the new, “dreaded,” “abominable” federal stimulus money coming to the state will save us from utter disaster in education, some social services, and roads.
There was the usual measure seeking to restrict access to medical abortion. This time it required that doctors and clinics report all abortions performed for a master “scarlet list” record at the capital. Intimidation of women seems an appropriate description. Maybe all this pleased the religious right constituency.
One of the more offensive pieces of legislation introduced and passed has been the one criminalizing those doctors and other researchers at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, other private institutes, and our universities for their work for human cures using medical waste in the form of embryonic stem cells. Fortunately, this was vetoed by the Governor.
Such a measure places Oklahoma in the intellectual backwater of civilized society. As one friend said, “This confirms the common stereotype of “dumb Okie” that is held in some quarters around the country.” Criminalizing science reeks of the superstitious religious zealotry of the dark ages in history prohibiting study of a real human body.
Could it be that these “village idiots” are only faking it? Are they just playing the role that their financial supporters, right wing, and single-issue voters sent them to do? That is always a possibility. If so, then they are the most despicable of elected officials, hypocrites playing politics with the welfare of the state and its people – the present day equivalent of fiddling while Rome burns.
Either way, the circumstance of this legislature does not speak well for those Oklahoma voters who sent them there.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
