If you're as confused as some of the rest of us are about what's going on at Ledge, consider running for the state legislature; you'd fit right in. To quote our Brian Fanney's lede about the latest conniptions in the General Assembly, "A legislative body on Friday gave final approval to a limit on a mental-health benefit for Medicaid recipients, but not everyone at the meeting knew what they were voting on," which left them in the same sinking boat as many another dazed and confused observer.
To quote state Representative Chris Richey of Helena-West Helena, "What happened was there was a group of us that had the understanding that there was going to be a motion made to submit back to Rules and Regs. When the actual motion was read to review the committee report--and something else had been delayed and was going to be heard at a later date--we misunderstood." Which was perfectly understandable amid everything else that, like the peace of God, surpasseth all understanding.
To sum up this whole ball of wax, can of worms or [insert your favorite banality here], few if any legislators knew what th' heck was going on, and others might not even have been able to bear trying to figure it all out, if at all possible.
Robin Raveendran, director of the state's Alliance for Health Improvement, said many of those who provide mental-health services in the state would have to shut down because of changes in the rules, whatever those changes turn out to be.
Nate Bell, the (very) independent state rep from Mena, said he was slightly in favor of the changes in the rules, but was refreshingly honest about the clouds of confusion hovering over the whole tangled subject. "I don't know exactly what went down," he admitted. But he came as close as anyone to summing up what had transpired: "The Republicans haven't figured out how to be the majority party and the Democrats haven't figured out how to function as the minority party. So the consequence of that is that both of them occasionally mess up." Which is what happened last week in as perfect a reflection of the country's Trumpian politics on the state level as any of the bizarre doings on the national scene just now.
There might not be an end to these doings for, as folks mistakenly say, the foreseeable future. American politics has seen many a circus, but surely this one ranks way up there with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Those attached to serious rules and precedents, let alone the whole two-party system, can only sigh at the familiar sight of chaos. Like one of those little cars crowded with clowns that drive into the center ring and begin emptying all their unlikely passengers.
Sure, all too many of us would like to stop watching the show and leave all the decisions to some Peron or Putin who would relieve us of having to think at all, let alone vote. But at least since the Spirit of '76 turned the world upside down, that way has not been the American way.
Yes, it's tempting to just turn things off for a few years and be absolved of any and all responsibility for our own decisions. But if we did that, there would be all too many would-be dictators who'd be more than happy to take on the job for us.
There's no fobbing off what must be our own job to some mythic hero. Not even a Washington or Lincoln, a Franklin Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan, can do the hard work of governing ourselves that is the fate of a true republic. So let us labor on, wince as we will at the work facing a free people determined to stay free. Much as the sight of these legislative shenanigans may depress us. Great men do not create a great people; they can only let its spirit triumph. Or as Mr. Lincoln said at another hour of decision: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. . . . The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation . . . . We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."
These are really blessed times when the only decisions confronting us are more comedic than tragic. To watch the state Legislature grapple with rules and regulations is a mild entertainment indeed compared to any true crisis. So let us be thankful that we live in these times, the Union still lives, and today's jibes are but a passing fancy compared to what America the Beautiful has already survived.
Editorial on 09/27/2016