Proposed Bill Of Keystone State Legislator Says To His Constituents: "You Have An Idiot In Pennsylvania!" by Doug Wrenn

Proposed Bill Of Keystone State Legislator Says To His Constituents:

"You Have An Idiot In Pennsylvania!"

By Doug Wrenn

November 26, 2007

Something smells rotten in Harrisburg, a city I have often visited, and I don't think it's the Susquehanna River. Pennsylvania State Representative Tim Solobay, (D-Washington County) believes that not enough Keystoners recognize their own state (actually, commonwealth) flag, so he has proposed legislation to modify the flag to give the citizenry a helpful hint. In the suggested proposal, pictured via a link on the November 23rd Fox News.Com piece by Melissa Underwood, "The Pennsylvania Flag Could Get A Name Change," the words, ""Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" surround the present logo in a circle-like fashion. I would only suggest that the word "Duh!" be added underneath it.

In a perfect world, children are disciplined, pets are leashed and legislators are part time, temporary, reasonably focused and ideally seldom heard from. Apparently, that memo never reached Pennsylvania. Laugh now, but the House passed the bill by a vote of 164-31 in June. Currently, the bill is sitting in a Senate committee, where it will hopefully soon find a quiet and permanent demise.

So why does this Connecticut Nutmegger care so much about the Pennsylvania flag? Because the flags of both states are very similar; a coat of arms-like logo, centered on a beautifully simplistic royal blue field. That's reason # 1. Reason # 2 is that in our liberal bastion, the many members of our Democrat-controlled General Assembly, and our "RINO" ("Republican In Name Only") Governor are loopy enough to think that this utterly inane and preposterous waste of taxpayer-funded government resources and time is a really nifty idea, and thus, should be a cause celebre' here as well.

I will accept the notion on face value that many, if not most Pennsylvania residents do not recognize their own flag. So what? Is this really the most crucial issue facing the Pennsylvania legislature? Somehow, I think not. Furthermore, most of the same dolts who don't recognize their own state flag would also most likely be hard pressed to name or recognize their elected local, state and federal representative and executive officials, so what else is new? But ask many of these same otherwise garden variety, clueless, mouth-breathing, wide-eyed Neanderthals with drool dripping off their chins almost any question about the Eagles, Steelers, Flyers, 76ers, Pirates, Phillies, etc. and they will most likely zealously and profusely inundate you with reams of worthless statistics by rote. Do we see a familiar pattern here, folks?

America is being dumbed down, and in all 50 states, not just in Pennsylvania, and not because of tyrannical oppression, but by grassroots apathy. We let it happen because we're lazy and don't care. Too many of our kids cannot articulately compose a written paragraph, cite when and why we seceded from England, find Chicago on a US map, name five signers of the Declaration of Independence, locate the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, or name three significant things Thomas Jefferson did besides own and supposedly fornicate with slaves, but they can properly apply a condom to a cucumber (and in Portland, Maine, the condom, if not the cucumber, is even supplied to them by school officials), or recite the many sound reasons why "Heather" has two Mommies and why the very evil and dastardly diabolical United States is the very core of all the world's current woes. Then when the little social engineering experiment subjects graduate from indoctrination camp, sports and reality TV erode the rest of their warped and atrophied minds that the socialist elite running (and ruining) our public schools didn't have time to get to.

Among the most abominable and gut-wrenching acts I so often see and hear is misguided citizens blathering on about alleged violations to their grossly skewed perception of their "rights." Rights are given to us by God, but can easily be taken by man, as we have seen countless times, both past and present in despotic regimes. Sometimes, however, rights are surrendered, which is what more typically happens in a representative republic like ours, in which the true owners of the government are asleep at the switch while incessantly molding a sofa cushion to the exact size and shape of our sedentary posteriors, as we continue clicking the remote to see and keep up with the latest pranks of the degenerate bimbo du 'jour between weekend rehab sessions, and the latest denigrating depravity and vile debauchery that sadly poses as entertainment for many on reality TV.

One such right is states' rights. Nowadays, thanks to the practitioners of political correctness, the term, "states' rights" typically conjures up foul images of brutal slavery and the evil southern Confederacy that sparked the Civil War. While slavery is an unquestionable evil, and one cause of the war, the northern states chose to become more industrialized while the southern states preferred a more agrarian society, and slavery was a big part of that way of life, nevertheless. We pushy, arrogant, know-it-all Yankees like to think we taught those evil, hayseed Rebs a lesson, but the fact is that most southerners were working folks with limited means and did not even own slaves. Then, as now, the middle class, or some semblance of it, was predominant of the populous, and the slave owners were usually in the more affluent minority. Most southerners fought us simply because we invaded their home and threatened their way of life. Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation said that the union is perpetual. That clause was never carried over to the Constitution, so the southerners even had legitimate historical documentation to hang their hat on in justifying their secession.

Our nations' framers intended for the central, or federal government to be restricted in authority, with more power rooted in the states. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution reveals the very few expressly authorized powers of the Congress, and Article 2, Section 2 cites the very few real powers of the President. The 10th Amendment states that powers not authorized by the Constitution are thus delegated to the states, and logically so, at the more local level, closest to the people, who better know their specific needs, wants and circumstances in the vast nation of 13 colonies, which has only grown exponentially since then.

Our bicameral Congress structurally reflects this mindset. The common people are theoretically represented by their fellow commoners and neighbors, other merchants, farmers, craftsmen, etc., who choose to serve their country by running for the "lower chamber," or the House of Representatives, and only for a short time, and specifically, in a term or terms not to exceed two years each. The reputed aristocrats (probably more so today) of the "upper chamber," or the Senate, serve longer, six-year terms, and these members of Congress are in place to specifically safeguard, not so much the rights of the people, but the rights of the states. Hence, they were elected by state legislatures.

I say, "were" because by the 17th Amendment, citizen as well as legislator, state as well as federal, all voted to transfer that vote for US Senators from the state legislatures to the individual citizens in 1913. The result, as could have been and probably was predicted, has ever since been a vast, unintended, and unconstitutional expansion of the federal government, which in turn has continued to increasingly result in an enormous, bureaucratic, unresponsive, reckless, wasteful, inept, expensive, carnivorous and almost predatory federal governing that has and does diminish the significance of the role of state governments while stripping liberties away from their citizens as well. States, which were actually intended to be the crux of our government, are now relegated to being little more than insignificant, scarcely even thought of subdivisions of it today. Let's face it, today, if somebody gets a hangnail and he or she typically dials the phone (with the other hand) to Washington for a solution to his or her miniscule problem from "Big Brother Government." So we are supposed to be shocked that citizens cannot identify their respective state flags any more? It is by our own ignorance, apathy and laziness that we have willfully surrendered away many of our rights and liberties, as well as the strength of our states to a mutated monster of a federal government that will never be transformed back to what it once intentionally was. As with previous failed free governments of history, our national fall will some day come from this wanton and ill-conceived transfer of power and liberty. As American citizens, our secondary adversaries, some indeed, utterly ruthless, may well be found in some other far away countries, but our most menacing primary foes, in many cases, can be more readily found in the nearest mirror.

In high school, I had an English teacher who said that we only forget that which is not important to us. If we hate English, but love football, we will forget that a paper is due in class on Wednesday, but we will be sure to bring our gear in for practice after school on Thursday. I don't think people of Pennsylvania are necessarily any smarter or dumber than any citizen of any other state, but why should they be expected to identify their flag if it isn't even remotely important to them? Cameroon is a country. Pennsylvania is only a state. With all due respect to the people of Cameroon, I don't have the foggiest notion what their flag looks like, and frankly, I don't care. Relevance is relative.

Part of the problem with the dumbing down of America (which by the way, also makes it easier for our liberties, and potentially, even our country to be taken from us) is that we continually lower the bar. Some school districts consider the use of red ink in correcting tests and papers to be akin to waterboarding. 2 + 2 = 5 if the kid wants it to be, and youth baseball games no longer have scores because they are potentially harmful to the delicate self-esteem of the darling and sensitive little cherubs who dwell in their synthetically created protective bubbles. Maybe so, but the absence of such clear distinction and definition of achievement and failure does a real number on motivation. The practice of denying both carrot and stick not only makes Johnny a dull boy, but an unproductive sloth as well. Welcome to socialism, the great but bland equal playing field that harbors good will for all but doesn't produce much of anything else for or from anybody. In automotive parlance, socialism is like accelerating while the engine is on but your car is still shifted in "Park." You won't go anywhere, but you won't wear down your tires, either. In this same kind of mindset, Rep. Solobay and his like-minded Democrat or Democrat supportive minions are again lowering the bar to accommodate ignorance, rather than raising the bar to reduce ignorance. In typical Democrat fashion, this is a handout instead of a hand-up, quintessentially ensuring dependence rather than spurring independence, as aptly depicted in the sage adage that teaches us what happens when you only give a hungry man a fish instead of teaching him how to fish. Here's a suggestion, Rep. Solobay, rather than wasting countless, hard-earned taxpayer dollars and precious but limited legislative time to tell the people of Pennsylvania in writing on their flag that it actually is their flag, try encouraging the increased flying of that flag more frequently and in more locations, and without the added and unnecessary label. In other words, don't make your flag recognizable; make it recognized. Any seasoned politician knows the prevalent psychological tactic during campaign season that his or her name must be repeated at least "X" amount of times to each voter before that name is finally well absorbed and recognized. That is the reason for all the obnoxious flood of phone messages with "robo-calls," billboards, lawn signs, bumper stickers, novelty items, TV and radio ads, etc. If Rep. Solobay applied his campaign strategy to his legislative agenda, he would have more time to devote to more substantive and appropriate matters, while also educating his constituents, and saving them wasted revenue.

To the extent that such widespread recognition of the flag is even necessarily that vital, the problem is not that the citizens of Pennsylvania collectively lack intelligence. The problem is that just like with citizens of the other 49 states, they lack inspiration, motivation and interest. Ending the trend of trite, wasteful, distracting legislative stunts like this, as well as the tenures of the elected grandstanding promoters who conspicuously demonstrate having more spare time on their hands than innovative ideas in their minds will be a couple steps in the right direction to remedy that problem.

In my home state, we already have more than enough of our own homegrown problems and government-spawned, lame-brained schemes without importing more. Please keep your wiz-bang, fly-by-night, seat-of-the pants, wasteful, bureaucratic, utopian pipedreams and brainstorms to yourself and down there in Pennsylvania, Rep. Solobay, and trust me, to paraphrase your state's former license plates, you will "have a friend in Connecticut."

Doug Wrenn