Idaho legislator’s monuments bill is yet another distraction from real issues facing Idaho
CORRECTION: This editorial has been corrected to remove a reference to former President Abraham Lincoln owning slaves. Lincoln did not own slaves.
While reasonable people in Idaho are working to solve such problems as property taxes, education funding and the COVID-19 global pandemic, some Idaho Republican legislators are chasing after other perceived threats.
The latest comes in the form of a bill being pitched by Republican Rep. Doug Okuniewicz, of Hayden, who wants to make sure that anytime someone in Idaho wants to remove a monument or rename something that mentions a figure or event from history, they must first get permission from the Legislature.
Let’s put aside for just a moment the argument we chronically hear about Idaho being a bastion for smaller government. This bill would create a new layer of bureaucracy, with a process of begging for permission from the state government to take care of something.
Let’s take into consideration the argument for local control, another alleged tenet of living the free life in Idaho. “The government closest to the people governs best,” as we’ve heard oft-quoted in the hallowed halls of the state Capitol by those protectors of the principles of our Founding Fathers.
Not in this case, apparently. If a school district in Meridian wants to change a name of a school or remove a statue in the courtyard, it would would have to go get permission from a guy from Hayden, Idaho, whose legislative district is some 400 miles away.
Okuniewicz, in defense of his bill, said he wants to prevent local jurisdictions from making “rash” decisions, as if that were the purview of state government. “The government closest to the people governs best … unless it’s a rash decision, as deemed by a legislator from Hayden.”
It’s also a bill that chases a bogeyman, as supporters of it cite instances in other states and San Francisco, where a school district targeted schools that sported the names of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, among others.
Okuniewicz also raises the faulty argument that by getting rid of statues and monuments or changing building names, we are somehow “erasing history.” History is never erased. Robert E. Lee can be relegated to the history books, where students of history can still learn about the Confederate general who lost the Civil War. He doesn’t need an Idaho campground named in his honor.
Of course, this continues Idaho Republican legislators’ dumpster fire of a legislative season so far, focusing on a bizarre agenda instead of real problems that most Idahoans actually care about.
Rep. Chad Christensen announced that he wants to try to impeach the governor. Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, has spent his time urging the state Treasurer to invest in silver and gold.
Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, wants to get rid of all crowd size restrictions in Idaho, and Rep. Heather Scott declared that “the pandemic is over by all means of data” — something that would be laughable if the coronavirus were at all funny.
Sen. C. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, wants to make sure marijuana could never be legal in Idaho, even if voters approve it by initiative (like they did with Medicaid expansion). It seems odd, by the way, in a freedom-loving state for legislators to seek to limit even the future freedoms of its citizens.
Okuniewicz’s bill to protect monuments is just the latest in a long list of nonissues being tackled by Idaho’s Republican legislators.
We’re just wondering when are they going to get to some of Idaho’s actual problems.
This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 4:00 AM.