ROAD KILL: Bigger issues confront us
As if Washington politicians don't already have the nation chanting, "Throw the bums out," politicians at home are giving us further reasons to increase the volume.
Though there are lots of choices, I refer specifically to Dick Harwood, a representative from St. Maries who is pushing a piece of legislation that would allow licensed hunters to legally tag road-kill in Idaho. That's right, road-kill.
Imagine that. In these troubled times when major issues keep mounting, Dick Harwood wants to use his limited legislative hours - and those of others we've elected to tackle serious problems - on what should be, literally, a dead issue. The budget? The state's infrastructure? Who has time for those things when we can be debating the various virtues of asphalt tenderized venison?
And just think of the additional revenue Idaho could generate if the bill is made into law. Can't you just see true sportsmen from all over America coming here to scour our roadways for a set of trophy antlers they can hang on the wall and brag to their grandkids about?
Maybe Harwood ought to slip an earmark or two into his bill. I've seen bloated carp rotting on the shoreline that might rival the state record.
In hindsight, this proposed piece of legislation should be no surprise to anyone, because you get what you vote for. This is, after all, the same Dick Harwood who came to our little town for a meet-the-candidates forum during his last campaign and opened his presentation complaining about "them environmentalists" protecting the whales. When I politely reminded him that, being an inland state, Idaho probably had more pertinent issues on which its legislators should focus instead of marine mammals, he switched to wolves.
That, at least, is an Idaho issue. But one has to wonder if Harwood can handle that or any other real issue. I mean, if the man hasn't the foresight to see the trouble and expense that passing a road-kill bill would cause for an already troubled agency like the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, we might be better off electing the squashed animals he wants to tag.
When wolves become a problem we can legally hunt them, but the best we can do with guys like Road-kill Dick is vote them out of office before they devise another waste of time for legislators who have more important duties.
MIKE RUSKOVICH
Blanchard