A GENERAL COMMENT - WHERE ARE WE HEADING?

There is a book entitled “Friendly Fascism” which warned, over a decade ago, that totalitarianism could arrive in America not with tanks and theories of racial superiority or class war, but by insinuating itself into our law and our lives via media consolidation, militarization of movies and other entertainment, and the enhancement of state power to combat undisputed evils like drugs, crime, and terrorism. The book worried about conservatives taking us down a happier road to hell, yet several bills this session make it clear that, in Oregon, totalitarianism is as likely to arrive in a Volvo or Saab driven by a well-meaning liberal or state social service agency, as in a tank or limousine. This is the third session in which we have reviewed bills. There were bills we disliked before, but nothing like the crop this year. In the previous session, our chief concern about tyranny was SB 742. This session, there are numerous bills that erode our freedom, attacking from the left, right and center, wearing happy-face buttons rather than Red Stars or swastikas. 

Here is a top - or bottom - ten. 

1. There is, first of all, HB 2101, creating an Oregon Homeland Security Department - a dangerous bill, for reasons we describe, offered not by one wayward legislator but the governor. 

2. Then there is SB 168, which would create an “Integrated Kindergarten through Grade 16 Data System” - as ugly an idea as any we have seen in some time.

3. SB 99, which would let a health care provider retain genetic information of a patient without the knowledge or consent of the patient.

4. SB 141, which, by authorizing employer bank accounts accessible by employees via debit cards, in lieu of wages, would give employers undue access to financial information about employees - and make it easier for Big Brother to obtain, without warrant, financial information of the employee, completely without the employee‘s knowledge.

5. SB 36, which would save on subpoena costs by using US mail, specifically when the information going to the accused is a change of time or date of his hearing - the missing of which can mean jail time.

6. SB 75, which allows ODOT to select any and all people it suspects might not have insurance for compliance checks, on no basis other than the fact that in the past the person did not follow the insurance law. Guilty till proven innocent.

7. SB 221, which, under guise of enhancing confidentiality, would close all hope of accountability by DHS and its agents in cases of child mortality or morbidity. What really happened to Ashley Ponds or other child victims? Sorry, can’t tell you. Something might come out that we might not like. 

8. SB 218, the Ed Johnston Prevention Act, to give public servants new protection against particularly harsh or repeated criticism (contrary to the usual theory that as public figures they may suffer greater public opprobrium than others, without protection of the libel laws) .

9. SB 153, which tries to protect us against friendly photo radar fascism, but only offers a weak-kneed, delayed attempt to stop an expanding intrusion of photo radar into our lives. 

10. HB 2363, which - unless we read it wrong - appears to grant attorneys, insurers and escrows the right to take property, and requires county clerks to record the transaction. 

Has our government gone mad in this state? We urge you, plead with you, to stop and think where these bills are taking us. It is no longer one or two bills; it is a flood of them. The danger comes from both right and left. The response must come from both right and left. This is not about conservative and liberal: it is about freedom and tyranny. Please, wake up!

Ed Johnston 541-336-1233