Antone's Nightclub
Legislators Not Doing Their Job
RECEIVED Fri., May 6, 2005
Dear Editor,
Perhaps since legislators continue to avoid making decisions on such urgent issues as school reform, financing public education, sky-high property taxes, doubled cost of homeowners insurance, escalated tuition costs of higher education, etc., they appear compelled to sweep away their own inadequacies by telling Texans how to live.
One legislator wants to shut down nudie bars, while another wants the responsibility to choreograph the moves of young cheerleaders. My 8-year-old son likes to drink Nestle's Quick with his milk – will legislators soon demand that he use only Hershey's?
It's getting pretty scary out there in legislative land. Maybe it's the drinking water at the Capitol that affects the thinking patterns of elected officials? Pretty soon some swaggering legislator is going to propose that instead of growing wild flowers on our property, Texans must grow daffodils and pansies – and make it a law!
Historically, the great thing about America – and in Texas specifically – is that we're pretty much an "independent," resilient breed. We don't want people to tell us what we can or cannot do. In the past, the Republican platform was always to "Keep Government Out of Personal Affairs.” So what's changed?
One thing is certain. Legislators have forgotten why they were voted in by the people they serve and have lost their bearings on what their responsibilities are. It's not to tell people they have to eat right and not supersize orders, or to make folks go to church on Sundays if they don't want to, or to close down nudie bars, or even to tell cheerleaders how not to "shake their thang.” Maybe it's elected officials who need to be shaken up a bit?
In fact, if legislators had been doing the job they were hired to do, perhaps the financial and social lives of hard-working Texas families wouldn't be in such shaky shape. Maybe officials need to "bite the bullet,” make the hard decisions, and let the rest of us go on with our hard-fought-for/hard-won independent American way of life.
Perhaps since legislators continue to avoid making decisions on such urgent issues as school reform, financing public education, sky-high property taxes, doubled cost of homeowners insurance, escalated tuition costs of higher education, etc., they appear compelled to sweep away their own inadequacies by telling Texans how to live.
One legislator wants to shut down nudie bars, while another wants the responsibility to choreograph the moves of young cheerleaders. My 8-year-old son likes to drink Nestle's Quick with his milk – will legislators soon demand that he use only Hershey's?
It's getting pretty scary out there in legislative land. Maybe it's the drinking water at the Capitol that affects the thinking patterns of elected officials? Pretty soon some swaggering legislator is going to propose that instead of growing wild flowers on our property, Texans must grow daffodils and pansies – and make it a law!
Historically, the great thing about America – and in Texas specifically – is that we're pretty much an "independent," resilient breed. We don't want people to tell us what we can or cannot do. In the past, the Republican platform was always to "Keep Government Out of Personal Affairs.” So what's changed?
One thing is certain. Legislators have forgotten why they were voted in by the people they serve and have lost their bearings on what their responsibilities are. It's not to tell people they have to eat right and not supersize orders, or to make folks go to church on Sundays if they don't want to, or to close down nudie bars, or even to tell cheerleaders how not to "shake their thang.” Maybe it's elected officials who need to be shaken up a bit?
In fact, if legislators had been doing the job they were hired to do, perhaps the financial and social lives of hard-working Texas families wouldn't be in such shaky shape. Maybe officials need to "bite the bullet,” make the hard decisions, and let the rest of us go on with our hard-fought-for/hard-won independent American way of life.
Jim Larouche