2008
Week 13
April 5, 2008

Hi

We did an amazing amount of heavy lifting this session. How did we do that? Most of the grunting was done off stage. For example, we decided to move the state fair to Grand Island in two years, to make way for a university research park -- a place where businesses can build labs, use grad students, etc. The fair has only been there for 100 years and we conservatives do not like to change. A great amount of negotiation and push and pull took place off camera, so on the floor all we did was a blessing.

The five-school lawsuit against the state, which has run for years in some states, was dropped twenty minutes after we changed the funding formula to provide more support for schools which have an overload of low income and second language students. Good work, with a lot of grunting and agony by teachers and committees. On the floor we tried several amendments but they would not work because the formula is so complex. You jigger one part and you will create a ripple in a distant section. The tedious work had been done well.

Then of course we spent hours on subjects not worth that time. As, should mental health be a part of workers compensation? Obviously, yes. A person can suffer mental trauma on the job, as well as a broken leg. However, this one is still bouncing around.

How about flouridation of water? I thought that was a done deal long ago, though I remember that those who supported it fifty years ago were called communists. The nasty reds had this devious plan to poison our water and slowly drain our brains. Wimpy as wet noodles we would be. We finally got past that and have flouridation in most cities. It works, as childrens teeth are much improved. The weird discovery: too many parents now give their children so much bottled water that we again have children with cavities.

Another issue that had us puffing was whether to finish out the plans for the internal courtyards in the capitol building. They ran out of money in 1930, so maybe we could do it now. After endless talk, maybe not. Nasty rumor is that it would still cost money.

Or how about a law that drivers on the Interstate move over or slow down when someone is stopped alongside the road? Sounds simple, but a really bad idea evidently, as we could not get 25 senators to agree how to do it.

Hey, we changed something about the state song in ten minutes. The threat was that if we took longer someone would decide we should sing it. Threats work.

Major time was given to considering a replacement for a citizens initiative of 25 years ago, which limited outsiders from owning and operating farms. Big farmers want less control. Small farmers hope for some protection. Guess who won.

We did do a grand thing for our future. We authorized matching money for a gift to the Nebraska Humanities Foundation. Interest income provides small grants across the state to do that special program in schools or the community to remind us of our history, our art, our music. Not only does the private donor match, but communities must also match to get a grant. So our set aside of a bit of reserve funds has a big multiplier effect.

I must admit that when I was younger I did not think that much about the tremendous value of the arts in our lives. If I had been raised in an unpainted cement block room, with no pictures or windows, and with no music -- you add to the arts deficit possible -- I would be a very different person. I would have learned to grub out a living, but caring about the community would be thin indeed. It would not be pretty.

 

Personal Note: Bev passed this week. I like the Black language, which acknowledges she passed from the room that we are in. That is all we really know!

Bev was one of the most remarkable persons I have met. In her we had a family member who never had a sharp comment about anyone. Not ever. She was pure in her love for a new grandchild, for example, as though this was the only grandchild in the world. There were others! Her sons called her home “Bev's Roadhouse.” Restaurants were closed at 2 a.m., the time they often came back from a trip, but the Roadhouse never closed. She would get up, fix a meal for whoever was there, topped off with big dishes of ice cream -- and then go back to bed because she had to be at work in the morning.

When you walked in her door, as Ruth and I often did, you were the only person in her world and she wanted to know how to serve you. It was not some gracious act. It was Bev. We will miss her but we will forever be less judging of others because of Bev.

Thankfully,

Lowen