Louisiana Legislators Banning Our Liberties

Yesterday the State House in Baton Rouge passed a bill by State Representative Austin Badon (D-New Orleans) that will ban the use of hand held cell phones in vehicles. The bill now moves to the State Senate where it will hopefully die a well deserved death.

According to Badon, this bill will save lives and will prevent accidents on the roadways. Badon cited research that showed that 17 people died in Louisiana last year due to cell phone distraction.

The problem with this bill is that people will continue to talk on their cell phones regardless of the legislation. For example, does everyone actually buckle up while driving a car? In addition, talking on a “hands free” cell phone is distracting as well and research also shows that it is just as distracting as talking on a hand held phone. This is not surprising since the topic of conversation can easily distract a driver regardless of how a phone call is delivered.

What will be banned next since other activities in a car are also distracting? So, will the legislators ban eating in a vehicle, dealing with an unruly child, listening to music on the radio, putting on make-up, shaving, reading, among a host of other activities. In tongue-in-cheek legislation offered by State Representative Jeff Arnold (D-New Orleans), “brushing hair, painting fingernails or toenails….changing shoes, waving or talking to passengers“ would also be banned. Where will it end? Arnold’s ridiculous amendment strikes the right chord because this entire bill is ridiculous. State lawmakers need to stop making new laws that are unneeded and infringe on our diminishing liberties in Louisiana.

Once a person purchases a car, he should be allowed to do whatever he wants in his own vehicle as long as he does not harm anyone else. State government should not be regulating this type of activity. Police should have better things to do than ticketing motorists for driving while talking on a cell phone. It seems like this is just another ploy like red light cameras to extract more money from the suffering people of Louisiana.

If legislators are so bored in Baton Rouge that they have nothing better to do than ban hand held cell phones then maybe we need to shorten the duration of legislative sessions. As opposed to the bill by State Senator Ann Duplessis (D-New Orleans) to make legislators full time employees, it might be a better idea to follow the example of Texas and have legislators only meet every other year. This will allow them to do less damage, restrict fewer freedoms, raise fewer taxes and get into less trouble.

From urinals to state cocktails to saggy pants to cell phones, it seems like legislators have too much time on their hands right now. They are worrying about trivial matters, while the sad thing is that there is important business to conduct that is not getting the full attention it deserves from our legislators.

Jeff Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a Louisiana based program, “Ringside Politics,” which airs at 7:30 p.m. Fri. and 10:00 p.m. Sun. on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and 7 till 11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans and the Northshore. For more information, visit his web site at www.ringsidepolitics.com. E-mail him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com.

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