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Just Saying No Keeps Charter Neat And Tidy

Published: Oct 22, 2005

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Boldly risking premature rejection by those they most hope to persuade, groups dedicated to lading the state government with ever more constitutional mandates are at it again, more than a year ahead of the next national election date.

You will find them at entrances to superstores and grocery markets, practicing their First Amendment guarantees with petitions clamped to clipboards, often with cryptic hand-lettered signs propped on rickety folding tables.

"Stop the evil of gerrymandered district schemes!" the signs proclaim. Or "Keep teens off habit-forming poisons!"

Listen, I'm as opposed to evil and poisons -- especially the habit-forming kinds -- as the next patriotic American. I'm also opposed to drive-time fog, $45-a-dozen golf balls, chicken wings without bleu cheese dressing, and too much starch in the collars of my laundered shirts. But does that mean government should have a role in resolving each of their societal impacts?

I'm thinking: Not so much. And even if there should be a law regulating any of the above affronts, it ought not be in the state constitution.

It's an old argument, the wisdom of which does not suffer simply because of its age. The state constitution is and should remain a philosophical document providing for the foundation and structure of Florida's government; the details -- to the extent that the details are worthy, helpful and not burdensome -- belong solely in the statutes.

Be Careful What You Sign

Proponents argue that ballot initiatives represent the truest form of democracy -- grass-roots political action crystallized. If only that were true.

Let's imagine the typical target of the determined, and frequently hired, petitioner, whose interest in the issues represented on his or her clipboard often begins and ends with the remuneration per registered voter's signature.

The petitioner's mark tends to be a shopper interested in the efficient use of time. Get in, get out, get home. It is not a schedule that allows for interruptions.

Furthermore, whether entering, list in hand, or leaving, plastic bags full, the shopper is, at minimum, distracted, his or her mind focused on topics other than political, such as: How's the best way to steer the first-grader in tow clear of the candy aisle?

These conditions produce a citizen shopper ill-equipped to apply critical thinking to the state's governance. Still, even when hurried we tend to be agreeable, and if a presentable person approaches with a smile asking for a signature on behalf of good things for everybody -- the standard pitch -- we usually oblige. Why not? We want to be helpful and, besides, probing the petitioner would put us off schedule.

We sign; we walk. Two birds, one stone.

Stop The Nonsense

Eighteen months later, we're wondering how pigs wound up with more rights than cocker spaniels, how we're going to pay for trains to nowhere, and how come we're paying $6 for a Value Meal (oh, yeah; it says in the constitution 17-year-old burger flippers get paid a buck more than the national minimum wage).

There are two places to stop the nonsense. One is at the ballot box; another is in front of the friendly neighborhood superstore. This petition season, I have decided to abstain, courteously. You are invited to join me.



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