Losing our Freedoms Every Biennium

Every biennium the Oregon Legislature, swimming in its own sea of incompetence, convenes to tackle the tough issues of the state.  And there are many issues to tackle, such as bloated budgets, deficit spending, public safety, mental health, education, taxes.  The list goes on and on.  

We've done ourselves a great disservice by calling the legislators "law makers."  These legislators, now with this fallacious title, take it upon themselves to create new laws.  More often than not, these new laws are feel-good laws that chip away at our personal freedoms.  These laws are created in lieu of tackling the tough issues.  

These laws are created under the guise that they will protect the people.  Society has recently come under the belief that they need to be protected by the government.  

This year we are trying to ban pit bulls, ban school bullying, and ban driving with cell phones.  In the past, we have seen 24/7/356 20 MPH school zones, silly crosswalk laws (the last two have been reversed), going out of business sale regulations, a law that makes it a tougher penalty once you reach 100 mph in a car.  As if by passing this artificial number in a unit created in England hundreds of years ago is some sort of magic barrier in the laws of physics. 

The smoking ban for all bars is a perfect example of a freedom restraining law.  On January 1^st, 2009, Oregon went smoke free in all bars.  Before this ban, bars and bar owners were allowed to choose whether or not to allow smoking in their establishments.  The bars were the last refuge for someone to enjoy a cigarette in a social atmosphere.  

Bar patrons were also allowed to choose whether they went to a bar with smoke or one without.  Non smoking bars here in Portland have been on the rise for the last decade, as there is a growing population of non smokers who enjoy going out for a cocktail after work.  Supply and demand was working, and everyone had their place to go and enjoy. 

This balanced system was going along swimmingly, until the Oregon legislature and the anti-smoking zealots got together and formulated a plan to ban smoking in all bars.  The angle that finally worked is that they were only doing this to protect the employees.    

When bar business is down due to lack of patrons, this does in fact hurt the employee. 

I do agree that second hand smoke does have negative health affects on the employee.  This person does have a choice, however, to be employed in a smoking environment. 

And perhaps there did need to be some measures to protect the employee from harmful work conditions, just as OSHA sets requirements for other occupations under dangerous situations. People who paint cars, or weld, use protective clothing, masks and breathing apparatuses to perform their job.  We didn't go out and ban welding in the workplace.  We made it safer. Perhaps we should have regulated the PPM of smoke content in a bar.  Bars with adequate ventilation would be allowed to have smoking.  There are many high ceiling bars, with wonderful ventilation and air scrubbers, where one cannot smell the smoke at all.  

Have all of these laws and bans made our life safer?  Have they increased the quality of life?  I would argue that no, they haven't.  In fact, they have made our lives less free, with fewer choices.  No one is asked or expected to have personal accountability.  We're now in an era where we feel government should tell us what to do.  Ask yourself; are you better off now than you were 20 years ago?  Do you find yourself saying "well, in the good old days, we used to be able to…"  I hope the pendulum swings the opposite direction soon, before it is too late.

The Disingenuous Street Renaming Project

As Portland elected Sam Adams by a landside, this left him with a lot of political capital. This capital was regarded with as much consideration as Adams has for our city's treasury - why be responsible when you can borrow and spend?

So instead of trying to fix the city budget, Adams decides to dig up the dead horse of street naming and, full of piss and vinegar, finds Marta Guembes and her boulevard committee. Promising a new deal, this time legal and following rules so there can be less interference.

Adams promised this time it is going to be different. The city is going to follow the rules. Well, follow them almost. Somehow someone discovered a loophole showing that all the committee has to do is get 2500 signatures and name as many streets as they want. They chose three. I don’t know why, they could have chosen ten or a hundred. The intent of the street changing ordinance was to get a majority of the businesses or residents of the proposed street on board, or get 2500 signatures city wide per street. The committee should have been required to obtain 7500 signatures for choosing the three streets, but because of a badly written ordinance this was not the case.

So here we are today. We have a very disingenuous Guebles, who cares more about getting even and sticking it in the eye of any Portlander that disagrees with her than she does about naming an appropriate landmark after Cesar Chavez. If Guebles were really interested in furthering the good name of Mr. Chavez's name she would have reached out to the folks on the affected streets. She did not. Her whole strategy and game plan is to force this down the throats of people who do not want it. The only supporters of her coalition are a bunch of leftist ideologues that are on the bandwagon because they despise anything to do with commerce or tradition.

Now the city of Portland is going to repeat this acrimonious exercise in futility. The only good sign of hope with this idiocy is that one of the losers is going to be Sam Adams who is going to gain more adversaries in the coalition for his recall.

Randy Leonard

Today, Randy Leonard expressed even more outrage towards the University of Oregon's plan to rename the Made in Oregon sign. It would seem that Randy Leonard has taken care of all other important issues facing Portland during rough economic times and now he's onto pet projects to keep him busy. Alas, this is not the case. There are many neighborhoods without sidewalks, many people out of work, there is a severe homeless problem in our fair city, and we face skyrocketing fees across the board. This doesn't seem to garner Randy's attention, however.

Regardless of this fatuous behavior expressed by Leonard, when one takes a look at this matter at face value, it should not even be an issue.

The University of Oregon has essentially revitalized this area by refurbishing a worn out building, in an area devastated by the aforementioned rabid homeless problems. This has made a difference in this corner of the city.

Currently the sign reads: "Made in Oregon." This is a corporate sponsorship of a small chain of retail stores that sell Oregon related items. Contrary to what one may believe, the items for sale in these stores are, more often than not, Made in China.

This is not the first time the sign is to be changed. The sign was originally White Satin, then White Stag and now is finally Made in Oregon. There was no outrage when the name changed the previous two times. These names were corporate sponsorships of willing companies who would agree to maintain the beautiful sign.

Now University of Oregon would like the privilege of maintaining the sign and the building beneath it. This will ensure a beautiful landmark sign, perfectly maintained without city cost. This not only upsets Randy Leonard because he obviously resists change -- he is also worried about hurting the feelings of Portland State University. Yes PSU, the glorified community college of Oregon. In terms of other major universities on the west coast, it is the laughing stock, run by incompetence while touting its world class "sustainability" program. It is a commuter school at best, and can never be mentioned in the same sentence with the likes of Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, WSU, OSU and Oregon for that matter. This inferiority complex is shining through with Randy's latest outrage. He may just very well abuse his power and have the city gain control of the sign. The Made in Oregon sign, under city control, will be grossly over budget and vastly mediocre, just as other city sponsored endeavors.