You Never Know What the Folks Will Talk About

Walking the halls of the State Capitol, this week, I heard more than a couple of comments regarding a Missourinet story.  No ... it wasn't one of those major hard news stories dealing with such issues as taxes, drugs, abortion ... whatever.  It was a story that Bob Priddy did on the growing number of bills pertaining to state symbols.

In particular, it was a story stemming from an effort launched by a group of St. Louis area youngsters wanting to make the ice cream cone the official state dessert.  Legislation to that end easily passed the Senate.

But it wasn't the ice cream cone bill, itself, that garnered the attention.  It was the comments of State Senator Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) who offered some interesting thoughts on kids organizing to have the state embrace new symbols.  Let us go directly to Bob Priddy's story:

"Farmington Senator Kevin Engler is fed up with teachers thinking it's a good teaching idea to come up with new state symbols and have their students convince lawmakers to pass a bill for them. "These things are stupid," he has told the Senate.

He argues the legislature is not a teaching tool for fourth graders...and that it demeans itself by creating new state symbols when it should be addressing instead of doing things of importance.

He and some other senators say it might be time for fourth-graders to learn some other things about the legislature---such as filibuster and defeat."

Those are the coments that prompted so much reaction this week.  I had a chance to run into the Senator and he informed me that he had received more reaction from those comments than from just about any other statements he has made on the floor of the chamber.  Many of the people Kevin represents heard the comments on Missourinet affiliates in that part of the state.

Ah ... the power of the media ... (and it's great for guys like us to get instant feedback like that!)

- Steve Walsh