Editorial #37 Legislative Season January 22, 2019
Every year in January a new season opens in Nebraska. It is a season like any other season, be it hunting, fishing, football or baseball but this season is known as the legislative session. It is a season where almost everything is fair game and where there are 49 elected hunters in Lincoln who are hunting to find something to fix, whether it needs fixing or not. There will be approximately 1000 bills introduced in this legislative session. It is hard to imagine that there are that many things wrong that need fixing.
Most of the time, as with everything in life, what needs to be done is not throw the baby out with the bath water, but maintain what we already have, that is working fairly well. As in life, nothing is ever absolutely perfect but I too am guilty of trying to fix things that are working fairly well until I break it beyond repair…… it’s my OCD kicking in.
But in government the fixing process does not tweak laws to address small mistakes or unintended consequences. It makes new laws that convert systems and methods that seemed to be working now. They want to make new regulations and rules that seldom makes things better or more efficient, but requires more permission to do things that were done before but are now abused by a small entity.
It is always a small handful of individuals that seem to make things difficult in life. They say that only 1% of us are robbed each year, but when you are robbed it is 100% of you and you then take extra measures to make sure it never happens again.
But when it comes to making laws, it is different. There are laws and regulations that impact a very small percentage of us, but when laws are introduced they apply to everyone, inconveniencing everybody for the sake of a situation that most of us knew anything about, causing all of us to adjust in some way.
Will Rogers said: The only time we, as citizens, really have to worry is when government is in session making laws and when congress makes a joke it’s a law and when they make a law, it’s a joke.
The bottom line is our elected official feel intense pressure to do something to justify their existence. Conservatives by nature are more likely to accept things as they are but liberals seem to want to change everything and are very outspoken about it.
So we must be careful for what we wish and realize that getting something done often comes in the form of doing nothing. Like the Hippocratic oath: do no harm. If someone insists that 2+2 = 6 we cannot accept 5 as a compromise.
All we can do as citizens is to not let apathy infect us and realize that expecting the government to take care of everything is unrealistic. We need to ask ourselves this question each day: If everyone did what I am doing, would the world be a better place? If your answer is yes, are on the right path and hopefully everyone will follow your example and the need for thousands of new laws would not be necessary. But until then we all need to stay alert and do no harm.
This is Keith Kube wishing you the best in making the world a better place.
