Legislature '14: It's For the Kids. Really?

Minnesota State Capitol (Photo credit: Mulad)

The Minnesota Legislature finished its 2014 session a few days ahead of the mandated deadline, but they did get a lot done.  (That's what happens when the House, Senate and the Governor are all from one party, which in this case was the Democrats.)  They agreed on tax cuts, a $1 billion bonding bill, raising the minimum wage, and a new Senate office building.

They also didn't approve Sunday liquor sales, restricted the sale and use of e-cigarettes, and required smartphones to have kill switches.

Other than that, this legislative session was all about children--or it sure seemed that way.  Minnesota passed the toughest bill on medical marijuana in the country, approving ways for people with certain ailments to take the drug that don't involve smoking it.  But the debate was framed in such a way that a vote for medical marijuana would keep all those sick children and their parents from fleeing to Colorado, where it is currently legal.  A vote against it meant siding with those meanies who happen to work in law enforcement, to which Governor Mark Dayton was staking his political future.

It wasn't a fair fight.  With the news media looking for stories that play to their 18-49 female demographic base, families turned up at the Capitol to push pictures of their sick children at TV cameras and any legislators who happened to be listening to their tales of woe.  Lo and behold, a compromise was worked out and flights to Denver were canceled.

The same scenario played out for the bullying issue.  This cause du jour prompted the Legislature to approve a bill that requires schools to investigate bullying cases, and to train teachers and staff to help prevent it.  All this after countless hearings in which the same tactics used by medical marijuana proponents to dominate the debate were used here.  Going forward, will these people realize that they themselves are just as guilty of bullying as the kid who demanded your lunch money?

Using children to further your political agenda is not a new idea.  They've been used to protest wars and abortion, create new traffic laws when none were needed before, marginalize sex offenders to places where no one else would want to live, turn schools into minimum security facilities, etc.
And not to sound too negative, children have also been used to justify tax increases to fund expansion of schools and athletic facilities.

They say that children are our future.  Yes, but right now they are children.  Every law there is that purportedly benefits children affects adults too, and not always in a good way.  The real problem is the adults who try to control other people's behavior through children.  Getting certain legislation passed has a better chance if that child is sick or dead, and the law is passed with that child's name on it.

That's why issues such as medical marijuana and bullying must be debated intelligently and seriously, instead of playing to the TV cameras as an emotional issue.  We can't have a democracy where everything is decided on a whim, right?  Isn't that how certain dictators did business?

Barbara Walters: Pioneer Woman

English: Barbara Walters at the Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark opening at Foxwoods Theatre, New York City in June 2011 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Barbara Walters wasn't the first woman to make her way into the world of broadcast journalism when she joined NBC's "Today" in 1961 as a writer.  Like many of her contemporaries, she was relegated to features, giving "a woman's view of the news", and asking questions of important guests only after the male interviewers had used up all the good ones.

Walters' career (and reputation) didn't really take hold until 1976 when ABC, which was desperate for any kind of foothold in the network news wars then dominated by NBC and CBS, made headlines and history by luring Walters away from "Today" (she was by then a co-host, the first woman to achieve that honor) to co-anchor its evening news for a then-stunning million dollars.  It did not go well.  Walters was paired with Harry Reasoner, who clearly didn't want her working there.

The network brass soon figured out that Walters was more of an interviewer than a news anchor.  So she scoured the world to question every world leader, celebrity and newsmaker she could get her hands on.  Depending on the question, Walters could be probing, silly, or succeed in getting her subjects to cry.  Hey, if you didn't do that, you weren't trying.

Walters and her style of interviewing have been criticized and lampooned for years, mot notably by Gilda Radner from the original "Saturday Night Live".  Her characterization of "Baba Wawa" was a revelation for those who were not aware or ignored the fact that Walters had a speech impediment.  Not that it made any difference.

For many years, whenever you turned on ABC, there was Barbara Walters.  She co-hosted the newsmagazine "20/20", mostly with Hugh Downs.   She interviewed celebrities and Oscar nominees on her prime time specials.  She's executive-producer and occasional co-host of "The View" weekday mornings.  And she remained a contributor to ABC News when the occasion called for it.

Now Barbara Walters, at 84, is retiring from television after a half-century.  ABC News is renaming its headquarters in New York for her.  But her real legacy lies in those who followed her.  Without Walters, there would be no Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric and countless other women in broadcast journalism.  Nor would there be a "Mary Tyler Moore Show", "Murphy Brown", Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Jane Curtin, and others who have portrayed journalists on TV and in the movies.  They all owe Walters a debt of gratitude.  And so do we.