Scary Stuff

The majority of this post will deal with recent events in Montana and South Dakota where some people are trying to scare other people into thinking and believing the things they do. If those people don't think as they do, then death would be an appropriate remedy to that problem. But I'll start with the note for Valentine's Day from the Stupidest Things Ever Said calendar that sits on the table beside my bed.

It reads, "If you had no idea what to get her for Valentine's Day...Give her the perfect gift, make pre-arrangements as a couple with the affordable funeral home." This was taken from an actual funeral home ad, one that really knows how to say "I love you...and I can't wait for us to die." Now to the scary and serious stuff.

This New York Times editorial does a good job recapping what happened last week in Montana when Montana's lone House member, Representative Denny Rehberg (R), proposed putting a federal judge "on the Endangered Species List" in a speech to the Montana state legislature. As the editorial points out, I'm sure Rep. Rehberg didn't mean that federal judge should be "protected and nurtured," which is what the Endangered Species List actually does. Shocking that he didn't completely understand what he was talking about. Even more shocking is Rep. Rehberg's decision to use this type of language after federal judge John Roll was murdered earlier this year in Arizona.

Then yesterday in Pierre, South Dakota, our own state legislature again made national news with state Rep. Phil Jensen's (R) amendment to House Bill 1171, which is "An Act to expand the definition of justifiable homicide to provide for the protection of certain unborn children," which as Mother Jones says, "could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions." No matter where you stand on the abortion issue, we can all agree that murdering a person who performed a legal medical procedure isn't right, or legal. And it isn't about self-defense or consistency in the SD Criminal Code, as Rep. Jensen told the Washington Post and would like you to believe. As the South Dakota blog Dakota Women points out, many co-sponsors of this bill were not aware of the changed language in this amendment, so the bill was deferred until today. I'm interested to see what happens next.

The main point I want to make about these two stories is that they are inflammatory distractions from actual governing, and that they continue to stir the pot of using violence against others to enact your misguided political priorities. The key players in these stories, Rep. Rehberg and state Rep. Jensen, both Republicans, are using reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous language against people with disagree with their ideologies. Neither elected official is calling for serious and sober discussion about the serious topics of their comments and bills, state's rights and abortion, respectively. We need more of that, not more people like Mr. Rehberg and Mr. Jensen making decisions that effect their constituents negatively.