From the right's

perspective, the biggest accomplishment is probably getting new special

automobile license plates supporting the National Rifle Association. That's

coming in 2003. We'll also have special auto tags supporting the neutering

and spaying of pets, and some for breast cancer programs for the medically

indigent. (To be indigent is to be poor. I don't know how anybody can

be "medically" indigent as opposed to being just plain poor.

But I am not here to argue with our state legislators.) It won't be long

before everyone can have a different tag, and every mile of highway will

have a different name too.

In past letters,

I have poked fun at our Georgia laws designating an official reptile,

an official insect, an official vegetable, and official barbecue championship

cookoffs (one for beef, one for pork shrimp and chicken should be on the

way, if someone can think of it). In 2002, our legislature designated

grits as the official prepared food of the state. There's yet no law forcing

anybody to eat them.

Many of us

wonder what the people we elect do out there, at the state Capitol. Well,

that's what they do. Now you know.

If and when

any candidates show up at forums for state office, it would be a good

idea to ask them whether they have supported any of these laws, or have

ever protested about them, or would support making some more.

One can find

these new laws in a just published Summary of General Statutes Enacted

at the 2002 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia, available from

the Office of Legislative Counsel.

You'll also

find there that this year the legislature exempted the Georgia State Society

of the Daughters of the American Revolution from having to pay sales tax.

If you're running for office, there's no point promising them to do it

to get their votes, it's already been done. A few years ago, a Republican

candidate in Cobb county promised to work to abolish the sales tax on

prescription drugs. The only problem was that prescription drugs were

already exempted from the sales tax at the time. (They still are. Don't

promise that.)

One interesting

new crime that might be of interest to many parents is the failure to

check in at public school entrance offices: that's now a misdemeanor of

a high and aggravated nature. Given the zero-tolerance propensities of

some of our school officials, it may be safer for parents to stay at home

eating grits than to pop in at the school to check on the kids. Don't

forget to check in, officially!

Another really

useful law sneaked in this year forbids the abandonment of corpses (before

cremating or burying them). One more crime to charge murderers with, to

add time to their life sentence.

I don't really

know what it takes to elevate the level of legislative debates to worthy

issues. Do you recall reading articles or letters in our local papers

from local legislators where they seemed to care about important social

issues beyond how their electoral district was carved and how it might

thwart their reelection?

I understand

some lawyers in our county are now pushing for our having our own judicial

circuit, so we would no longer share Superior Court judges and prosecutors

with Spalding, Pike and Upson counties. That's an excellent idea, worth

debating. It could do us more good than grits or auto tags for the NRA.

We need family courts, too, with judges different from those who handle

murder cases. The training and the approach ought not to be the same.

Too many candidates

for public office want to be elected so bad that they dare not come up

with any original thoughts for the citizens to consider in their voting

decisions. We need to prod them into being creative and forthcoming. The

fewer buffoons we elect, the better off we'll be. But we have to smoke

out the buffoons first, and to have alternatives.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayetteville

[email protected]