Voters can't afford to sleep during session

Watch what they do, not what they say.

Many Idaho legislators talk freedom talk, and yet they act to restrict freedom. They are voting now in Boise on freedom-stunting measures such as SJR101, which effectively makes pointless our constitutional right to generate ballot initiatives and referendums. These will remain on the books but be impossible to use because of new petition requirements. HB205 eliminates most mail-in voting. Voting by mail is a valuable, even necessary, choice for many of us. HB179 prohibits ranked-choice voting in all counties, municipalities or school districts, thus taking away local autonomy. This is similar to HB154, which will make it a crime to provide or administer any mRNA-type vaccine anywhere in the state. Likewise, HB71 and SB1009 will strip away access to expertise from health care professionals and will hinder individual health decision-making for our children and us. These are only a few examples of pending bills that can be tracked in real time on www.legiscan.com/ID.

There is hope. For SB1038, constituent outcry prevented a siphoning away of funding from public schools. Alert Idahoans didn’t buy the “freedom of choice” rhetoric, flooded lawmakers with protests and the measure failed.

If we voters sleep during this Boise “day is night and night is day” activity, we will wake up with fewer freedoms and be sorry. Let’s watch what legislators do, provide them with our guidance, keep track and remember what they did at re-election time.

CHRISTINE MOON

Sandpoint