Why Marjorie Taylor Greene needs to be shunned
The worst thing to happen in my lifetime was the massacre of 20 children almost a decade ago. The current controversy of the Capitol riots, the Antifa uprisings this summer, the Oklahoma City bombing and even 9/11 don’t carry that same, crushing weight. The other tragedies were political reckonings, making us face the terror within, and without.
But Sandy Hook was what happened when we thought there was a bottom, a basement, a level beyond which we could not sink -- and then the floor crumbled. Disappeared. Evaporated like the tears of children when comforted by their parents.
Anyone who denies that it happened, who mocks the pain of parents is a vile creature that deserves to be shunned.
But a creature like that sits in Congress, and her name is Marjorie Taylor Greene. There is strong, credible evidence that she denied that Newtown ever occurred. She denied that babies lie in graves. She suggested that it was a conspiracy to take our guns from us, and thwart the mandate of the Second Amendment. She did that, and she sits, lawfully, in Congress.
One single representative can neither elevate or destroy the House. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is a lightning rod for anger from the right, but she is just a very young woman with exceptional skills at self-promotion and a huge cult following. Rashida Tlaib shows anti-Semitism with every sneered attack against Israel, but she is also just one person among many.
But Marjorie Taylor Greene is different for me, because of Newtown.
I honestly don’t care that she made fun of David Hogg, a young man who became expert at an early age at dealing with his critics. He gave as good as he ever got, despite the fawning concern from cable hosts, as in “Greene harrassed this child!” He is now poised to challenge Mike Lindell as the next Pillow King. Excuse me if I don’t feel bad for his bruised feelings.
And while her sometime devotion to QAnon is bizarre, considering the group’s participation in the Capitol riots, the majority of people who believe in crazy stuff don’t do crazy things. Tom Cruise is a Scientologist, which by every metric known to worshipers is crazy, and I don’t think he’s ready to take up arms against the government. Qanon is bad, but generally, the First Amendment protects crazy beliefs as long as they remain trapped safely in the mind.
But the thing you cannot sanction, or ignore, is the willingness to suggest that dead children are figments of a politician’s imagination. Greene has backtracked and even tried to deny that she said Newtown was a myth. Too little, too late. When even the Sandy Hook Promise founders, parents who lost their beautiful angels on that tragic December day, are convinced that she said it and have condemned her, we have no choice but to accept the fact that Greene swallowed the Alex Jones Kool Aid.
No one should be defending her. That there are some Republicans who are, in fact, doing so is abhorrent. That they allegedly gave her a standing ovation in secret committee is repellent. That they themselves refused to strip her of committee positions is almost incomprehensible.
I say “almost,” because I know what it’s like to feel as if the world is coming for you, and you need to fight back. The GOP has circled the wagons around this freshman congresswoman because of the attacks against the party in general from both Democrats, their allies in the media, and some disaffected members of their own party. Fight or flee are the responses people have when assaulted, and they have decided to fight. In many ways, I can’t blame them.
Any woman who has been credibly accused of slandering dead children and their parents does not deserve to be in a position of authority. It is ultimately up to the voters to cast her out, just as I hope the same is done with the toxic sisters on the left. But while she is in Congress, her voice, a voice that was raised in support of devilish and indecent conspiracy, must be muted.
I am only saddened that it took the Democrats to do the heavy moral lifting. But when faced with dead babies, political considerations should evaporate as quickly as the tears on my keyboard.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A number of state and federal judges and court staffers are getting some of Idaho’s limited doses of coronavirus vaccine even though they are not on the state’s priority list, jumping ahead of older people who are supposed to be at the front of the line.
State officials, health care providers and eager vaccine seekers have interpreted the rules differently in Idaho and nationwide, creating a hodgepodge of rules that leaves some court workers who interact with prisoners and the public protected from the coronavirus while others will have to wait months for a shot.
Workers at a federal court and a county courthouse in Boise, Idaho’s largest city, were offered vaccinations Monday, though state health officials say they aren’t supposed to be eligible until sometime in April.
“Vaccinators sometimes have to make judgment calls about who fits into which priority groups, but we are counting on them to honor the groups as recommended” by Idaho’s vaccine advisory committee and approved by Gov. Brad Little, state Department of Health and Welfare spokeswoman Niki Forbing-Orr said.
Courts nationwide have pushed for earlier access and have been turned down in many states, which decide how the vaccine is distributed. Many follow federal guidelines, which list court personnel as “other essential workers” along with clergy, census workers and election staffers. The guidelines say front-line health care workers, police officers, grocery store workers, teachers and people 75 and older should get access to the vaccine before legal workers.
But some states have handled the courts differently.
In the U. S. District Court in St. Louis, some employees got the option for the shot and received the first dose last month, U.S. attorney spokesman Venton Blandin said.
Federal and state courts in Alaska, California, North Carolina and elsewhere are following state guidelines that has workers further down the list. New York court officers and support staffers are eligible for the vaccine, but judges aren’t unless they’re over 65 or qualify for other reasons.
Some are feeling the pain from waiting. The U. S. District Court in southern Ohio has recorded 47 positive coronavirus cases at its courthouses. The chief judges of the two federal court districts asked Ohio health officials last week to consider judicial workers as essential employees eligible for a vaccine. No decision has been made yet.
Hundreds of court workers in Los Angeles County have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and three have recently died.
In Idaho, many court proceedings moved online, but jury trials are expected to resume in March. In December, the Idaho Supreme Court chief justice and U.S. District Court chief judge sent a letter to the governor and the state’s top health official asking for all judges and staffers to be placed in the first priority group for vaccinations.
They are still waiting for a response, state high court spokesman Nate Poppino said.
“The Supreme Court has been looking to follow the prioritization process through the vaccine advisory committee, and no final answer has come through that,” Poppino said. “I think it’s safe to say that we’re interested in getting a determination on this and therefore getting some consistent guidance statewide.”
There have been scattered reports of people jumping the vaccine line, but Idaho is relying largely on the honor system and hoping residents wait to be vaccinated with their group.
Little’s spokeswoman, Marissa Morrison, said the courts haven’t asked the governor’s office for permission for workers to get vaccines and the advisory committee didn’t approve it, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not supposed to be getting the vaccine. The onus is on them for their justification.”
Idaho is vaccinating people 65 and older, and many seniors are struggling to get appointments or they’re booked months away. Teachers, health care workers, law enforcement and some others are also eligible.
Confusion about who qualifies for the vaccine is prevalent.
U.S. District Court Clerk Stephen Kenyon said he believed all federal court staffers — about 70 people — were eligible because they all may be expected to interact with the public.
Fourth District Court Administrative Judge Steve Hippler said he thought the regional public health department had approved vaccines for judges, prosecutors, public defenders, court clerks and other front-line courthouse workers.
Meanwhile, in the same county, Emergency Medical Services Director Shawn Rayne, who directs vaccination clinics for Ada County employees, said he believed the health department only allowed vaccines for judges.
Christine Myron, a spokeswoman with the regional public health department, did not return a call from The Associated Press.
Kenyon said the federal court reached out to Ada County after hearing that county courthouse staffers were getting shots. He said federal court staffers interact regularly with inmates — who are at high risk of COVID-19 — and that the public would feel safer going to jury duty if they knew staffers were vaccinated.
He noted that jail staffers, correction officers and parole officers have gotten shots along with other law enforcement.
“Our courthouse staff are the last ones in this loop that have not been vaccinated,” Kenyon said.