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Last time I wrote, I suggested using the Washington State Parks system to allow all the homeless camps that state officials tell cities they need to accommodate.
It would let them do what they want on property already owned by the state. But after reading a story from the Feb. 20 edition of The Chronicle, I kicked myself for not thinking of an idea that came from a lawmaker in Olympia of all places.
Republican Leonard Christian, from the Spokane area, proposed housing inmates on the state Capitol Campus in a building that is going to be demolished.
What a great idea.
But, piggybacking on his idea and mine to use state parks for homeless camps, let's just do both. There is a lot of open grass on the Olympia campus where the homeless tents could be set up as well.
If you think about it, Olympia must be home to every advocacy group for every cause under the sun. They’d all be in the same area, reducing travel, saving the environment, and the homeless constituency could meet with their elected representatives every morning when they go to work.
Another win-win situation.
But, as the infomercials always say, there’s more!
Since the legislators are only in session a few months per year, more homeless people could be housed inside the Capitol offices when they are not there.
Of course, there are going to be meetings and such, but with Zoom, they don’t have to go to the office at all.
Much less travel and more saving of the environment — what Olympia Democrat doesn’t want that?
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Meanwhile, it looks like the redesign of our state flag and the removal of the depiction of George Washington is not going anywhere just yet.
I still scratch my head on this because it's only projected to cost about $2.3 million to pull off. Come on, Olympia, what’s a couple of million bucks when we’re so flush?
After all, several other states have changed or are proposing to change their flags, so why not us?
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But, seriously, a couple proposals in Olympia are very concerning to me.
Initiative 2081 was an initiative on parental rights that was sent to the Legislature and passed.
I have my own thoughts on the matter, the most prominent of them being that they could amend it as they propose now, in the name of “cleaning up” the legislation, of course.
The so-called cleanup language in the bill “affirms a minor’s right to consent to certain health care services, including mental health and reproductive care, without parents notification.”
That seems curiously close to what they were doing in schools before the initiative.
That’s weird.
I know “reproductive health care” is code for abortion, but could it also be for transgender care? That is a far cry from “cleaning up” language. I’m not sure what they think gives the teacher or school either the right or the education to make those decisions and hide it from parents.
They shouldn’t be able to.
Another concerning piece of legislation is House Bill 1504, which would require gun owners to have liability insurance to own a gun. Each gun must have $25,000 insurance on it, proof of which is required to purchase one as well.
An associate of mine sent me an email copy of a letter he sent to his representatives in Olympia. It included Section 24 of our Washington state Constitution, which, in part, reads, “the right of an individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired.”
That seems fairly clear.
My associate went on and noted our state oath of office states, in part, "I will support and defend the Constitution of the State of Washington.”
After reading that, I of course was curious what our gang-banging, professional, armed criminal types would think of this intrusion in their chosen profession.
You might be surprised to know they didn’t care at all.
No effect. Zip. Nada.
How could that be, I wondered. After all, the proposal as written could reasonably make them safer as fewer people might own guns. They hadn’t considered that while disarming law-abiding citizens.
OK, I made that up, but it's absolutely true. Just like every other gun-grabbing proposition coming out of our elected officials everywhere, it only affects good guys. And what if they can’t get insurance at all? Once passed, it is just one bureaucratic regulation away from the insurance commissioner making it unaffordable or impossible to get insurance.
But they wouldn’t do that, would they?
On the bright side, higher taxes and more spending are likely on the way, along with making the initiative process more difficult so we stop interfering with Olympia with our silly demands.
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John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@gmail.com.
