Government takeover of the sheeple

April 20, 2012

By Katy Grimes

The unwavering fundamental of being American is individual freedom. Man is constitutionally free in America. And the only legitimate purpose of government is to preserve individual freedom. A government whose purpose has become coercive cannot be one based on the premise of the sanctity of individual freedom.

This is where we’ve been in America, and where we currently are. We went from inherent freedom, to living under coercive authoritarianism.

California is arguably the worst state in the country for violating individual liberties. Several things happened in the Legislature this week proving that California’s state government is out of control, and lawmakers disregard the rights of its citizens, as well as the state and U.S. constitutions.

Loss of liberties this week

On Tuesday, the Assembly Health Committee heard AB 2109 by Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, which would make it exceedingly difficult for parents to opt out of immunizations and vaccinations for their school-aged children. Parents were outraged and testified in droves at the hearing. But public health doctors, medical students, healthcare employees and their labor unions supported AB 2109.

Despite the violation of parental rights, or the 30,000 reported adverse reactions to vaccinations that the Centers for Disease Control admits, the bill was passed anyway.

The following day, the Senate Health Committee was presented with SB 1318 by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, which would require health care workers to receive mandatory vaccinations or wear facemasks.

What a change in attitude one day can make.

Labor unions for nurses and medical employees were outraged, and questioned the legality of the requirement. The Service Employees International Union, Califoria State Employees Association, the California Labor Federation and myriad other labor unions subtly threatened legal action.

The Senate analysis reported on the bill, “The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO (AFSCME) and the United Nurses Associations of California/Union Health Care Professionals write that it is unreasonable to mandate a questionably effective vaccine on onsite health care workers and that it is more sensible to work on educating workers on better infection control and improve screening and triaging of patients, families, and visitors who enter health care facilities”

What’s good for the goose apparently is not good for the gander. The unions even stated that the vaccines were “questionably effective.”

The day before, legislators, unions and public health doctors were fine with forcing parents into an untenable position where they would have to vaccinate their school-aged children, or forgo school. But these same groups were up in arms over a similar requirement for health care employees.

Both bills were passed. But many are saying that Wolk’s bill will be killed because the unions will not tolerate such a requirement.

Government jobs over products and services

If there was any doubt that parental rights are very far down the list of importance to lawmakers, it should be gone by now. The rights of teachers over children, health care workers over patients and the insured and government employees over the state’s citizens and taxpayers have never been so unbalanced.

The work product of government has taken a back seat to union jobs.  Even serious discussions about public health take a back seat to union jobs.

As I wrote earlier this week, “The unspeakable issue at the root of Pan’s bill is the influx of children from other countries into California’s public schools, who bring with them new strains of measles, mumps, chicken pox and flu bugs, among other communicable diseases.”

But it is not politically correct to talk about immigration. Instead the Legislature is proposing that everyone get vaccinated, whether the sheeple want the vaccinations or not.

With the health care lobby spreading big bucks around to legislators in buckets, it’s no wonder that mandatory vaccinations are a hot bill topic.

Hostility toward voters

Assemblyman Bill Monning, D-Carmel, the Assembly Health Committee chairman, clearly wanted no discussion to take place at the hearing about issues with vaccinations, or illnesses from immunizations.

There was a high level of hostility in the large committee room the likes of which I have never seen in a committee hearing. Sergeants-at-arms were nearly as agitated as Monning, and spent the entire hearing barking at the many mothers holding babies, and parents who showed up to testify. They forced people to sit, refusing to allow anyone to stand along the wall, or mill about the room, as is standard at most hearings.

But the next day in the Senate Health Committee hearing, with many of the same lobbyists and capitol regulars present, sergeants allowed a circus-like atmosphere in the same committee room to go on during the hearing. No one was required to sit quietly, and there was no hostility toward bill opponents.

I spoke to Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, after the hearings. The proper role of government came up because he questioned why the state was even involved with vaccinations. During the Assembly hearing, Nestande tried to get to the root of the controversy, but was shut down quickly by Monning.

Ironically, earlier in the week, Nestande had introduced the winner of his There Ought Not to Be a Law contest, his answer to Sen. Joe Simitian’s There Ought To Be a Law contest.

The winner of Nestande’s contest became AB 2585, which seeks to repeal SB 929 of 2011. SB 929 mandated raised to 8 years of age from 6 the mandatory age a child must be placed in a car seat. SB 929 penalizes parents who do not comply, but Nestande said that most parents are completely unaware of the law. The change would reduce government family life and restore parental responsiblity.

Nestande said that there is already too much government in our lives, and is looking to repeal other intrusive legislation. But after safety experts were trotted out one after another to provide grisly and emotional testimony about the awful things that have happened to children during auto crashes, AB 2585 failed to pass out of the Assembly Transportation Committee on a party line vote, 2-10. Democratic legislators didn’t find his contest or bill very funny, but maintained the existing revocation of parental rights.

Nestande said that  that the primary intention for the contest is to repeal laws that are ineffective and inefficient. He could be very busy in the next year with this excellent goal.

Regulate the sheeple

California lawmakers continue to further regulate people’s everyday life, despite other very serious matters in the state. California has the second highest state unemployment rate in the country. Public employees’ pensions are about to break the state’s budget. Prisoners are being let out of prison.

Yet legislators spend their time regulating car seats; mandating bicycle and skiing helmets, fitted sheets in hotels, clean light bulbs and electric cars; banning plastic bags; imposing a babysitter bill of rights; passing a state workers bill of rights; fighting trans fats; and banning Happy Meal toys.

But those issues seem like child’s play compared to the violation of parental rights with the immunization bills

Voters can do something about this, but only if they don’t want to be sheeple under total control of the government.