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OPINION
THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 27, 2022
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Silly bills abound in current legislative session BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Tribune Columnist
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small oversight on my part that we should clear up. Writing last week about Arizona’s new laws governing sex education – and one school district’s kerfuffle over chicken breasts – I may have inadvertently given the impression that our state Legislature had descended to new levels of absurdity in passing House Bill 2035 last year. My bad. Forcing parents to opt-in to sex ed for kids isn’t silly at all when compared to some of the bills filed this session. Like HB2439, sponsored by Peoria Republican Beverly Pingarelli. This bill would force school boards to approve not just textbooks, but every single book in each of their school’s libraries. It would also give parents a 60-day window to review every new library book being purchased and the ability to request a list of every book their child has borrowed from the library.
On the bright side, given Arizona’s reading scores on standardized tests, I’m going to assume that would be a very short list. HB2597, another education bill, is the work of East Valley Republican John Fillmore. It would mandate that students in grades K-6 recite the Pledge of Allegiance daily, unless some Commie pinko parent requests an opt-out. But wait, there’s more: Schools must also create “a specific time each day” for students in grades 4-12 “to engage in quiet reflection and moral reasoning for at least one minute.” We do that at my house, too. Whenever a TV ad for The Husband and Wife Law Team comes on, I spend a minute trying to reason my way around the “Thou shalt not kill” commandment. Silly bills are not solely authored by the GOP. West Valley Dem Amish Shah – who contributed $22,000 of his own money to land a job that pays $24,000 annually – is the sponsor of HB2224, on behalf of … cats.
Shah’s bill would ban declawing the arrogant little beasts unless the procedure is for “a therapeutic purpose” – i.e., “addressing an existing or recurring infection, disease, injury or abnormal condition.” So no, Morris shredding your favorite La-Z-Boy doesn’t count. Legislators from both parties love creating new fake holidays in Arizona, meaning we don’t get days off from work, but they still get to make a political statement. Among the new “days” being proposed: Arizona Jazz Day on April 30th; a “national day of racial healing” on the third Tuesday of every January; and Post-Traumatic Stress Injury Day, which will make each June 27 a blessed event for every reporter who’s every covered the Legislature for a session. President Donald Trump may also get a day – June 14th, his birthday, courtesy of White Mountains Republican Wendy Rogers. Not content to stop there with the MAGA ass-kissing, Rogers also has authored Sen-
ate Concurrent Memorial 1001, which if passed would urge the Arizona Department of Transportation to designate State Route 260 as the “Donald Trump Memorial Highway.” Clever leader, this Sen. Rogers. She may have accidentally discovered a way to reduce weekend traffic up to Show Low and Pinetop by 50 percent – after all the state’s Prius and Subaru drivers boycott traveling on 260 for the rest of their lives. It’s unlikely any of these bills actually pass and become law in Arizona, which is both a frustrating thought and a cause for joy. Frustrating because you’d think this body of 90 elected officials would have better things to do with their time. Yet joyful because if this Legislature is busy debating cat claws, forced moral reasoning, fake holidays and highway names, they’re not busy screwing up our lives even further. I’ve heard it said we get the government we deserve. If so, Arizona’s 7 million residents must have been really lousy humans in our past lives. ■
And men of goodwill (not to mention similar political persuasions) looked, listened, voted, and said it was good…at least, when the female candidates they supported were elected to office. And in the fullness of time, there came a congressional candidate from unlikely origins, called “Sandy” by her family. Born in the Bronx, her upwardly mobile family moved to a prosperous suburb in Westchester County, New York when she was 5. Prosperity brought both opportunity and tragedy. Her architect father died of lung cancer during her sophomore year at Boston University; she went on to graduate cum laude with a double major in international relations and economics at B.U. in 2011. Sandy initially sought employment as a bartender in New York City—and despite other occupational endeavors (including in publishing and a post with the National
Hispanic Council), to a bar she returned— after a stint as a volunteer organizer with the presidential campaign of Socialist Bernie Sanders in 2016. No shame can be found in honest labor; indeed, many successful actors find work in bars and restaurants before their “big break.” And in a similar vein, Sandy auditioned with “Brand New Congress,” a leftist political action committee, for a role as a Democratic Socialist candidate for the U.S. House. Her successful audition—“nomination,” if you prefer— cast her into a primary battle against Rep. Joe Crowley for the 2018 Democratic nomination in New York’s 14th District. Crowley appeared to come from central casting himself. A big, bold Irishman, Joe enjoyed the support of labor and Wall Street. His colleagues had elected him to party leadership—chairman of the House
Democrat Caucus— and Joe had not faced a challenge since 2004. And Sandy, pouring shots instead of using a slingshot, was the female equivalent of “David.” Harkening back to her Hispanic roots, Sandy used her full name—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—to emphasize her ethnicity and appeal to voters of Puerto Rican heritage. Sandy pulled off the upset, winning the nomination by 4,000 votes, then won the seat in the heavily Democrat district. So in 2019, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, dubbed “AOC” by a worshipful, partisan press eager to place her immediately in the Democrat Pantheon of legends, made history as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. The 29-year old’s initials were mentioned in the conversational company of FDR and JFK.
AOC’s journey from bartender to congresswoman BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist
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ot exactly in the beginning, there was a “big boom…” the baby boom. And that boom gave birth to “boomers,” who thought it was good. And it came to pass that boomers begat Generation X’ers, millennials, and/or those of Generation Z…based on varying biological and chronological circumstances. And the boomers looked and saw that their own generation—the “Me Generation”—spawned a reaction called “Me Too” years later. And many of the male boomers were shamed and confused. But many of the female boomers felt both enraged and empowered. And both mothers and daughters arose, and said, “A woman’s place is in the House…and the Senate.”
see HAYWORTH page 29
