Debate in the Legislature? Imagine that!

Yesterday, the Illinois House of Representatives had something extremely unusual, a free and open debate on a topic of great interest, including votes on individual components of possible legislation.   It was about gun control and concealed carry of firearms, and was caused by a December Federal Court decision that invalidated the State's existing prohibition on concealed carry of firearms.  I am not a fan of Democratic Speaker of the House Madigan and can't know what his motivation was for the unusual debate yesterday, but it is a welcome breath of fresh air.  

The Republican Party's collective head exploded because it, in their words, was all a publicity stunt.  The Republican minority complained that it was a stunt designed to force legislators to reveal their positions to the public.   Imagine that??

""This is a political stunt," said Rep. Dennis Reboletti, R-Elmhurst, a former prosecutor. "It demeans this process."

A stunt?   Legislators debating a matter of great import and trying to determine, in public what provisions might have enough support to become law?   A stunt?  Apparently being a former prosecutor is not great preparation for being a legislator.

The legislators debating an issue, as opposed to backroom discussions that lead to a final bill to vote up or down at the last minute, is the way legislative deliberation is supposed to work.  The fact that is was so unusual is a damning commentary on how our State government normally operates (I hesitate to use the term "functions").   I can only hope that our esteemed State lawmakers liked the experience and demand similar behavior on subsequent issues.

NRA lobbyists and their sympathizers complained that the list of possible exemptions to allowing concealed carry was so long, there would hardly be any place left to carry a concealed weapon in Illinois.   Pardon me while I shed a tear.  If Illinois was the only State that did not allow concealed carry of firearms until the Federal Court ruled that could not continue, what's wrong with Illinois being the only State with a very long list of places that concealed carry is not allowed?   Nothing.  Schools, churches, mass transit, malls, stadiums, movie theaters, grocery stores?  What the NRA just does not understand is that a lot of Americans do NOT feel safer knowing their neighbors may be carrying a deadly firearm in his/her pocket.   They feel LESS safe knowing that the public, including unknowable numbers of hot-heads and unbalanced personalities, are armed to the teeth.

Democratic lawmakers voted in favor of prohibiting concealed weapons in places like casinos, libraries, hospitals, mental health centers, child care facilities, stadiums and amusement parks.

"When they get done with this, you won't be able to carry anywhere," said Rep. David Reis, R-Willow Hill, expressing a frustration among many gun rights advocates as they watched restrictions get piled on.

Mr. Reis, maybe that's exactly the point.  

How Will We Remember Ohio?

I'm not sure what I want to accomplish in this post, but I think it's pretty modest.   I think I just want to make people aware of something, read a couple of articles about it, and think about it.  That's not so much to ask, I think.

In August 2012, in Steubenville, OH, a night of teen partying went horribly wrong.   If party after party of under-aged drinking wasn't bad enough, more than one of those parties apparently were the sites of repeated gang-rapes of a 16 year old girl.   Since that night, as the local law enforcement and civic leadership essentially decided to protect the student athletes rather than the female victim, the Internet has stepped in.   Publicity of the incidents, exposure of the students' web posts and tweets boasting of the repeated assaults, videos and photos of the attacks (including one showing the unconscious teen being carried from one party to another for more raping), and assorted other efforts to expose what Steubenville was apparently trying to ignore, have all occurred online.  

Two students have been arrested and are scheduled to stand trial in juvenile court in February, 2013.   None of the party-goers who witnessed the assaults, posted photos and videos of the assaults, and who failed to stop the attacks or report them to law enforcement have been charged.  The online hacktivist group "Anonymous" has gotten involved and leaked some of the evidence and Roseanne Barr has also gotten involved in applying pressure to political leaders in Ohio to ramp up the investigation.   Even porn actress Traci Lords has spoken about how she was raped as a ten year old when she lived in Steubenville, and speculated that the attack and "culture" in Steubenville must have had something to do with her embarking on a porn career.

The undercurrent to the entire sordid episode is that Steubenville has long revered their vaunted football team and is not likely to actively prosecute those students who participated in the rapes, observed the rapes, or failed to stop the rapes.  

Read about it:
New York Times article, one of the first mainstream news stories about the rapes
Boston Globe opinion column on "stigma shift" from victim to accused
The Nation blog on media explosion
New York Magazine story on threats against NYTimes reporter
New York Magazine story about Roseanne Barr involvement
Buzzfeed interview of Roseanne Barr


So, the question is, will Ohio be known as a place that celebrates gang rape, or a place where it is aggressively prosecuted?  I can't image what it must be like to be a female of any age in this town.