Will Rogers, that humorist of the early 1900s, would often walk out on stage with a newspaper and make amusing comments about some of its articles.
Occasionally, he would open the paper and say, “There’s not much humor in the paper today. Congress is not in session.”
I wonder what he might say today about our state legislature? There’s not much humor there. Many of its debates and actions are not funny because they result in real consequences for the people of our state.
There must be some lawmakers who are interested in the “public good.”
The development of programs to spend down some of our large reserve of federal funds and help our poor, working families is a good thing. And our governor’s push for reforms in criminal sentencing and incarceration is a needed initiative. However, the main resistance is coming from members of his own party who are fearful of being perceived as “soft on crime.” And there are proposals to provide more funds for education. But the few progressive moves tend to get lost in the ever-present labyrinth of absurdities.
Although a clear violation of the First Amendment, the effort to “make the Bible our official state book,” showed up again this year as a resolution rather than a bill. It was passed into law a few years ago but vetoed by then Go. Bill Haslam. Even members of the perennial proposer’s own party are beginning to roll their eyes on this one.
There have been lively debates on COVID-19 vaccines, mostly about crafting laws to exempt people from getting vaccinated. Religious principles, conscience, sincerely held beliefs and mistrust in the vaccine are just a few.
Why is there even a debate? I can remember when almost everyone was enthusiastic about getting vaccinated against smallpox, polio and other dreaded diseases.
All sorts of absurdities surfaced in these debates. One legislator stated that the vaccine could lead to genetic modification, which is absolutely false. Another lawmaker said that every person should have a choice of what is done to or put into their bodies, saying, “It’s our body.”
However, this same legislator sponsored a bill that gives a man who impregnates a woman the power to veto her abortion. I suppose, to him, all bodies are not equal.
Then there was discussion about proposing laws to forbid “vaccine passports,” i.e., a person having to carry proof of vaccination with them. This was an effort to solve a problem that did not exist. Coincidentally, just as I finished writing this article, this piece of superfluous legislation was passed.
Of course, the usual bevy of gun bills was dumped into the hopper. One was dubbed “constitutional carry” to afford it legitimacy it did not have. It passed and was signed into law by our governor, who said it was part of his “safety initiatives” and would make all Tennesseans safer.
Can anyone explain to me the warped logic that concludes that allowing most adults to carry a concealed handgun without any training, background check or permit is going to produce a safer society? And it will cost the state a lot of lost revenue from permits and fees.
To my knowledge, none of our mass shootings in the past 20 years have come close to being thwarted by armed citizens.
From the number of bathroom bills introduced each session, one would think that the general population needs protection from those in the gay and transgender community. For Pete’s sake, they don’t want to bother anybody. They just want to pee.
One hot-button issue this year is banning transgender girls from middle and high school sports. Our governor said allowing them to play would destroy girls’ sports.
Since there are no transgender girls playing sports in our state at those levels, this is another solution looking for a problem. If lawmakers are really interested in this issue, why don’t they talk to the NCAA or the U.S. Olympic Committee, which have guidelines in place?
Judging from their actions, it appears that our legislators’ first reaction to a real or perceived problem is “to pass a law against it.”
This “solution” was evident after the recent flooding.
Several homeless people, who tend to camp along streams and under bridges in low-lying areas, were drowned. One lawmaker’s “solution” was to propose outlawing camping on any public property (city, county or state).
He said, “We’re just interested in safety.” How ludicrous can you get?
This tendency to treat the symptom rather than the problem showed up after members of the East Tennessee State University basketball team kneeled during the national anthem.
All 27 members of one party’s senate caucus sent letters to all Tennessee public universities asking them to adopt policies against this. These legislators are slow learners if they have not figured out by now that kneeling is not in disrespect to our anthem, flag or country but is done to call attention to deeper, systemic issues that need to be addressed.
If our elected representatives could tear their attention away from these aforementioned things, maybe they could find time to deal with some issues that affect the lives of so many Tennesseans. Maybe they could find ways to get our closed rural hospitals back up and operating. Maybe they could devise a plan to provide health care for the more than 300,000 people who don’t have it.
They have been “studying” and “promising” this for several years. It’s about time they actually did something.
They have been elected to lead. Maybe every one of them should have a quote by Simon Sinek posted on their office walls: “Leadership is not about the next election, it’s about the next generation.”
It’s something to think about.
April 29, 2021 at 06:59AM
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Commentary: Lawmakers are being silly, but this is far from funny - williamsonherald.com
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Funny
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