As a group of 4th Graders sat in the gallery, the bill they had proposed — as an educational experience — to name the red-tailed hawk the New Hampshire state bird instead became springboard for a Republican rep to attack abortion ("It grasps them with its talons then uses its razor sharp beak to basically tear it apart limb by limb, and I guess the shame about making this a state bird is it would serve as a much better mascot for Planned Parenthood.")
The bill was eventually voted down because it was considered frivolous (quoth another GOP lawmaker, "if we keep bringing more of these bills, and bills, and bills forward that really I think we shouldn't have in front of us, we'll be picking a state hot dog next").
So perhaps the fourth graders did get a good intro to civics and lawmaking.
NH lawmakers brutally kill 4th-graders’ bill in front of them | NH1
Some elementary school kids from Hampton Falls get a harsh lesson in civics at the State House when some lawmakers ridiculed the students over a bill they proposed. The abrupt exchange was caught on video.
…dear god.
I was just about to post a link to this myself. This is revolting in so many ways. I suppose now we can't have the bald eagle as a national symbol because it's a predator.
I wish I had a list of everything the N.H. state Senate has voted on in the last decade or two. I bet they wasted a lot of time on things more frivolous than choosing a state bird (which wasn't deemed frivolous in 1957, when they chose their current state bird!).
But by all means, start turning people against politicians when they're 10 years old. The extra years will no doubt help when they vote in 2024. They'll already understand how many politicians will turn anything, no matter how innocuous, into a platform for their personal issues.
A better lesson than one could ever hope for indeed.
Actually this was a horrible lesson, damage done. Now these kids are going to walk away thinking the gov is incompetent, arrogant jerks, and can't get anything right. This is what the small gov folks want everyone to believe. The more they destroy our faith in the gov the better for them.