Capitol View We don’t know where we’re going...

We Don’t Know Where We’re Going, but We’re on our Way.

One of my late father’s favorite songs, from long ago. But very fitting today with the primary election behind us.

The election is over, the results are well known.

The will of the people has clearly been shone.

So let bygones be bygones and evil thoughts pass…

Another of dad’s favorites. I won’t finish it. You can plug in your favorite party mascot and use your imagination. But I digress.

Let’s move ahead to the task of supporting the people’s choice, or not. It’s going to be an interesting four years, perhaps totally different than what we might have anticipated. The one thing we do know, Big Money was at play. It appears that people are more interested in buying the governor’s office than building a strong platform and standing for it. Let’s hope we can get past that.

Then there’s the matter of 14 new faces in the 49-member Nebraska Legislature. Thirteen of those were planned and the death of a seated senator – Rich Pahls of Omaha – created an additional vacancy. A recent law change will allow anyone in Pahls’ district who gathers 2,000 legitimate signatures of registered voters to appear on the ballot. That could be interesting.

This is historic. The first time that law has been used. Moving forward with opportunity rather than being saddled with the choice of a lame duck governor. Let’s embrace this.

Just when it looked like it was going to be a smooth ride to the November election, talk of a special session of the Legislature has started. Given the leak in Washington – the supposed Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade – it has become apparent that states look to solidify their laws on abortion.

While the nation’s highest court tries to find out just who leaked the preliminary draft of an opinion – an historic event that has never occurred in the court’s history – battle lines are being formed state-bystate.

In Nebraska, Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers would obviously like to call his colleagues together to consider his trigger bill which would take effect if Roe v. Wade – which guarantees the constitutional right to abortion – is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. The bill was bogged down by filibuster during the recently completed session.

Given that Hilgers is the next likely Nebraska Attorney General, he’ll deal with the issue in the future. He’d probably like to get this one on the books beforehand. Again, let’s seize the opportunity as we move forward.

We don’t know where we’re going, but we are moving forward.

Let’s learn to embrace progress.