SENATE BILL 168 -    
A BILL THAT DESCRIBES EVERYTHING ABOUT ITSELF EXCEPT ITS PURPOSE

Whatever shall we make of this? It’s not a long bill, only two and a half pages. It goes into great detail on who shall appoint which members of the proposed “Task Force on Kindergarten through Grade 16 Integrated Data System.” It describes the criteria such a new  “data system” shall meet. It does not say a thing about what the new integrated data system shall do. Or contain.

We would call this bill a tease if not for the worry that what it hides is not enticing at all. The authors of this veiled totalitarianism cannot hide the intent behind a screen of “who shall appoint who“ and “this operating standard shall meet that functional criteria.” The intent is the further reach of the state into what used to be the private realm of hearth and home, the realm where parents work with, or fail to work with, their children. The nuclear family isn’t perfect - it is a reflection of the loves and hates, strengths and weaknesses of larger society, and of each human being. But it is a realm not to be quickly intruded into by the state. Oregon has gone too far in this direction already, and if this bill has one great virtue it is simply this: despite the lack of description as to what this Task Force is to do, its task is still crystal clear. It is to integrate all the data we have on children - and of course their parents, else how can we understand what drives the wayward youth? - into one gigantic database. Operated, no doubt, by people of worthy intentions, but people no less fallible than all others who arise in the flawed arena of the family. Only now, those fallible data managers (and their agency chiefs and staffs), will know everything there is to know about our children. And their parents. At the press of a button. Click! Watch Out! Big Brother is databasing you. 

Ed Johnston 541-336-1233