Archive: Opinions

EditorialWhen I moved to this area over 20 years ago I rented an apartment near my job in Cortland so I could scope out the area and find the best place to live.  I was immediately attracted to Tompkins County, focusing on Lansing and Ithaca as possible places I would enjoy living.  It came down to this: Lansing seemed to have a reasonable government that takes care of its people in a sleeves-up, get-it-done way.  High on services, low on taxes.  Ithaca -- not so much.

Everyone told me that Ithaca was 'stuck in the 60s'.  Tax and spend, too many social programs, not enough focus on basic services.  Even when that's good during the rest of the year, it's never good at tax time.  As I have continued to live here the bumper sticker 'Ten Square Miles Surrounded By Reality' does seem apt as the Common Council comes up with odd laws that really don't seem to have anything to do with running a city.

Just as Jay Leno loves news stories about stupid criminals, I like stupid legislation stories.  The Common Council (and sometimes the County Legislature -- remember how they wanted to legislate NSA wire tapping policy in 2006?) periodically decides to legislate something of national significance that they don't actually have jurisdiction over.  The 'Community of Sanctuary' resolution 'respecting the rights of its residents to support lawfully and proactively military personnel and veterans who are organizing to stop the wars in and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan' fits the bill.

Last time I checked freedom of speech was already part of federal law, and one of the basic precepts of our nation.  We're already bound by federal law, or at least that's my understanding.  Yup, there it is in my handy little pocket version of the 'Constitution of the United States.  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

My understanding is that there are lawful limitations on public statements made by those serving in the military.  Again this is on the federal level, and while I suppose an argument could have been made that it is unconstitutional when the draft was in effect, I can't imagine an intelligent argument against it now that military service is voluntary.

Have a look at the September 16th Common Council agenda.  It uses almost as much ink on national items as on city ones.  It includes a petition declaring the Iraq war illegal, and a page outlining President Bush's so-called illegal activities.  Two full pages of anti-Bush material.  Three pages dealing with items like pavement, business district revitalization, fire protection infrastructure and the like.

My first reaction when I hear about these stories is to laugh and think, 'Heh heh, they've done it again!'  My second reaction is to thank God I live in Lansing, not in Ithaca.  My third is to seriously wonder why legislators would confuse their passions with doing the work of their constituency.  Do Common Council members think they were elected to enact national law?  Whatever your political persuasion, is that really helping to make a city a better place for people who live there?

Why don't they do something about the miserably unsynchronized traffic lights on Fulton Street instead?

To be honest I prefer stupid criminals to stories like this.  Stupid criminals who do things like tell a bank teller to send a check to their home address, or who wear their name tag from work while robbing a convenience store have very little impact on other people besides themselves.

Legislators, on the other hand, are given a public trust to do what is best for the narrow scope of their constituency.  If they can't find it in themselves to find other outlets for their moral and political passions and concentrate on what is important for the people who elected them I don't think they should run for office.  It's not fair to the people they represent.

It's fun to point out the absurdity of these legislative antics, and pretty hard to take them seriously.   If lawmakers want to be taken seriously they should act seriously.  In this case that would mean running for federal office where they can make a difference on these issues that they care about.  But I would hope that if they did succeed in such a campaign they wouldn't try to legislate traffic lights from Congress.

On the other hand, most comedians aren't that funny any more.  Too few of them use humor to make you laugh.  Funny stuff just isn't that funny, a national crisis that, in my opinion, is ruining comedy.  I guess there actually is some justification for government to step in.

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