Not Too Bright, But Busy

Arlo Guthrie once said about Ronald Reagan that he doesn't mind our President nodding off because, "The more he sleeps, the safer we are."

These days I am wishing that folks like South Carolina state senator Lee Bright would take a few naps.  He has been using his pent-up anger and frustration at being passed over for Congress (in favor of the ultra-liberal Lindsey Graham) by redoubling his efforts to fill the state dockets with the same worthless bills he failed to get through in the last legislative session.  In fact, he has thus far already sponsored some forty bills.

Why this self-aggrandizing good Christian can't take a break for the Christmas holiday just defeats me.  He sure could stand to say a few prayers for guidance.

The bills he has sponsored (and co-sponsored with fellow idiot Larry Grooms) are mostly anti-abortion and pro-gun bills, with a smattering of anti-Obama.  Not too bright, and no new ideas, but enough vitriol to keep all his right-wingnut supporters happy -- well, actually, to keep them angry.  Maybe if he can raise the level of ugly just a little tiny bit more he'll be able to oust Graham in six more years.

Lee Bright's dream for South Carolina is a state where the fed'ral gub-mint keeps its hands off our weapons, and the state is free to stick its business in women's private parts, if you know what I mean.  Don't need the feds to help make sure the women -- and the girls -- stay pregnant and stay home; South Carolina has been fighting hard to maintain that status quo all by its own self.

No new ideas from Lee Bright

Here is what I want to know:  why do our reasonable legislators (and we really do have some) always seem to be in the position of chasing after the nutcases?  People like Lee Bright clog our legislature with destructive bills, bills that attack freedom of religion, right to privacy, the right of licensed medical professionals to provide the best care without government interference, the right to be safe from people of poor judgment carrying weapons, the right to vote.  We could wallpaper the State House with bills that seek to prevent the state of South Carolina from having to follow federal laws.

I would like to see our reasonable legislators (have I mentioned that we do have some?) pre-filing bills that would enforce federal health care laws and force the governor to accept Medicaid funding, assure voting rights to all, bills that would require that the government not invade the privacy of women in their doctors' offices, and that medical professionals are allowed to practice freely and without fear of government intervention.  How about bills that keep guns out of public places?  And bills that require additional police training in use of physical force and weapons so that citizens no longer risk getting shot by a panicked officer as they reach for their license and registration.

We don't need to always be finding ourselves on the defensive.  Our legislators need to be as passionate about protecting the rights of South Carolinians as are idiots like Lee Bright about taking away those rights.

So sharpen your pencils and get out the paperwork.  Maybe while Lee Bright is at Christmas mass schmoozing with the holy rollers we can get some good bills filed, and give him and his buddies something to keep him so busy he won't have time to file another stupid bill.

Praying for a good idea

Fun Home -- A Legislative Tragicomic

If you haven't yet read Fun Home, the graphic autobiographical novel by Alison Bechtel, you should be happy to know that the waiting list at our library is only 17, since they recently got in a slew more copies.  And even though this is a book we all should read, we owe its current popularity (its copyright is 2006) to our South Carolina legislature.

Just as they claim to be experts on medicine and science in general, this bunch has now weighed in with their expertise in literature.  Mind you, most of them haven't read the book.  It appears that out of 232 pages, someone was shown one of two pages that depicted a sexual act (and not all that graphically I might add).  And that's really all it took for idiots like Larry Grooms and Mike Fair to begin this newest battle in their war on education.  In defense of his position, Fair refers to a state law against "the abominable act of buggery," which a) gives you an idea of how backward and perverse the man is, and b) is proof that he hasn't read the book.

In fact, this is an award-winning piece of literature written by an adult who explores in depth her relationships with her family and particularly with her father.  Issues about belonging, trying to do the right thing, and those coping mechanisms we resort to when we are lost.  So many complex questions of sexuality that we should all think about, and discuss, critically and with sensitivity.  It would be a feather in the cap of South Carolina's legislators to promote the freedom of educators to include this in recommended reading.  And it sure wouldn't hurt anyone if it were required reading.

Because the people who force us to accept prayer in public places and legislate their faux science based on their right-wing interpretation of the bible don't think that professors should have the same right to expose students to different ideas.  I mean, of course, different from the legislators' own.  This controversy and the heavy-handed manner in which the most ignorant of our "representatives" have forced their opinion on our educational institutions should be a red flag.

Recently a bill to introduce the Columbian Mammoth as the state fossil was held up by religious freaks like Kevin Bryant who felt the need to add amendments recognizing God for creating the woolly mammoth.

While such stories are good fun to those who are peeking at us through the bars, being here and knowing that our legislators have so little knowledge and are so comfortable throwing their weight around is tiresome if not plain scary.  Raising children in a state in which our lawmakers want to be sure evolution is taught as part of a debate against intelligent design and in which books from Harry Potter to Fun Home have come under fire is tragic.  The great loss is that the world around us may be growing in insight and understanding while we stumble backwards, clinging fearfully to superstitions and suspicion.

And the fire that was started by the ill-conceived controversy over Fun Home is not just about reading matter.  It is about understanding and tolerance of life styles, recognition of our inter-relatedness, and inspiration through new ideas.  It is about living together and moving forward.  Sadly, our lawmakers are more inclined to attack those who are different or hold different beliefs.  In a very small way, it gives them power.  And makes us all feel that much more insignificant in the context of the world.

The way we here in the South have reacted to this rigidity is to cling even more fiercely to old ideas, become more defensive and hostile to other ideas, and continue to vote into office people who will protect us from the outside.  We do have representatives that speak out against dogma and for that I am thankful.  But more of us need to speak more loudly for reason and tolerance, for critical thinking and insight, for the freedom to seek and share other points of view.  And we need to elect more legislators who are proud to fight for those principles.