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Moving Too Quickly In Government

During a one-week period earlier this month, I had to kill four editorials and one column on politics. I am getting very tired of calls from the office after I’ve left for the evening, informing me that events have made what I’d written for the next day irrelevant.

You should worry just a bit about that, too.

All five of the opinion pieces involved either state or national politics. Obviously, at the times they were written, they seemed safe. They were about reasonably weighty matters that the politicians involved could (I thought) be expected to take some time to consider.

But no. Within hours after I heard certain important steps had been proposed in Charleston or Washington, state or federal officials took action on them.

Here’s why that should concern you: At all levels, our governments are supposed to be responsive to the people. Most of us expect to have an opportunity to react when public officials talk about making a major change.

To their credit, most local officials seem to understand that. Think about Wheeling City Council’s proposal for an anti-discrimination rule protecting people of non-traditional sexual persuasions. It took months for council to act — and that was appropriate.

Now, this sort of behavior isn’t always the case. For example, most municipalities have rules requiring important legislation to be read three times on three different occasions before being adopted. Too often, we hear of ordinances being declared “emergencies” so they can be enacted immediately.

But on the local level, few actions by government are important enough to cause much worry. It’s different at the state and national levels. Millions, even hundreds of millions, of people can be affected in irreversible ways.

My bottom line is this: If I don’t even have time to tell you something is coming down the government pike before it’s a done deal, one way or the other, you don’t have time to raise hell about it with your legislators or members of Congress.

When I have to kill editorials or columns, it costs me only a bit of aggravation and a few hours of writing something else. But when state legislators or Congress pass laws and adopt budgets before you have time to react, it can cost you much more.

Myer can be reached at: mmyer@theintelligencer.net.

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