Louisiana Voice

If you are hellbent on watching a sh*t show featuring a cast of complete idiots who would rather spew their own misinformed brand of Trumpism than to give any consideration to science, I give you the Louisiana Legislature.

How people like Valerie Hodges got elected to the House is beyond my comprehension. This woman is the Livingston Parish version of Marjorie Taylor Greene – full of crackpot opinions, but woefully short of common sense.

This is the same nutcase who back in the Dark Ages of the Bobby Jindal administration, voted in favor of Ruston’s New Living Word school which was founded on the principle of teaching creationism on DVDs. She likewise had no problem with “teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools.”

Somewhere along the line, as observed by writer Jarvis DeBerry, she overlooked that little part of the Constitution that says government should take a hands-off policy in favoring one religion (Christianity, for example) over another like say, Judaism – or even supporting the religious over agnostics or atheists.  

But she did apparently have a big problem in 2012 when the director of a Muslim school in the New Orleans area voiced interest in the state’s voucher program that Hodges had championed on its way to passage. She went absolutely bonkers, proclaiming the voucher program was intended for “Christian schools.” Can you say “double standard”? Hodges certainly can.

Fast forward nine years and she’s baaaaack.

To first put things in perspective, it’s important to know that there is a dedicated horde of Trump supporters who bought into his stolen election B.S., who subscribed to the shopworn rhetoric of Qanon, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Andrew Clyde and others who would have us believe the Jan. 6 anarchy in the U.S. Capitol was nothing more than tourists strolling through the People’s House.

With the notable exception of that concentrated knot of holdouts in Arizona who continue to insist on yet another recount of the November election results, these devotees are slowly coming to realization that the election was on the level and will not be overturned. Thus frustrated in their anger and disappointment, they have but one bullet left in their gun: distrust of science in the face of 582,000 pandemic deaths in this country alone.

And so it would be that on May 17, people like Hodges and Rep. Beryl Amedee (R-Houma) would make complete fools of themselves arguing with those who have dedicated their lives and reputations to the study of science that COVID vaccinations constitute a gigantic hoax, a notion perpetrated by a bunch of whackos who have no business trying to tell the rest of us how to think and act – but they do.

The issue was HB 103 by Rep. Danny McCormick (R-Oil City) which would protect businesses from liability for failing to mandate masks for employees or customers. Never mind that an employer just might wish to protect her staff and herself from your coughing and sneezing.

Of course, they were duly elected by their constituents so I suppose it’s true we get the government we deserve. But when their warped views endanger my safety, it is my right to speak up against such ass-clowns.

What gives Valerie Hodges the right to sit up there on the House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure and tell us that she knows a person who knows a doctor who advised patients not to take the COVID vaccine because they could get “very, very sick and possibly die from it”?

Here’s a news flash for you, Valerie: I know a person who knows a doctor who said if you contract COVID, you can get “very, very sick and possibly die from it.” That makes every bit as much sense as your gibberish.

Hodges says she’s afraid the U.S. might require vaccines for certain forms of travel. But, but, but… don’t we already have to have certain vaccinations before we can travel abroad, Valerie? Huh? Huh, Valerie? Isn’t that right?

Travel to Mexico does not legally require vaccinations, but it is highly recommended that travelers to that country obtain shots for chickenpox, diphtheria, flu, measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), polio. The question here is, Valerie, did you have those vaccinations when you served as a missionary in Mexico? We would all be interested in knowing the answer to that. I’m betting you did.

And Rep. Amedee. Now there’s a real piece of work. She’s what Kris Kristofferson would call a “walkin’ contradiction” in his song The Pilgrim. Amedee, an anti-vaxxer to the max, supports the argument of an unidentified woman who testified before the committee on Monday, saying, “It’s my body, my right. And I have the right to say no.”

Don’t believe me? Well, her Facebook page contains a photo of and a “BIG SHOUT OUT” to a billboard in support of HB 579 “which is written to prevent state and local government-managed health procedures. Even the vaccines required for Students to enroll in school come with an opt-out provision for those who may have medical, religious, or philosophical objections. Where there is risk, there MUST be choice!”

The billboard she was alluding to proclaimed, “Who Owns Your Body? Government or You?” That sounds a lot like what the pro-choice advocates have been saying for years now.

But that very same Facebook page also contained a celebratory shot of the House vote tabulation on Amedee’s HB 578, which was passed by a 71-27 vote by the full House. HB 578, the so-called Abortion Pill Reversal Disclosure bill, would require that a disclosure statement by added to the website of the Louisiana Department of Health’s website warning that the mifepristone pill is not always effective in ending pregnancies.

It seems a bit inconsistent that one who so adamantly pro-choice with vaccinations is just as passionately anti- choice when the subject is still control over one’s body.

Amedee, whose educational background has led her to ownership of an ERRAND SERVICE, pitted her vast scientific knowledge gleaned from that glorified delivery service enterprise against the obviously inadequate background of Angelle Bradford, a cardiovascular physiology student from New Orleans who testified as to what science shows in support of vaccines. Amedee told Bradford her education wasn’t giving her the full picture because the official information on vaccines has been “slanted and propagandized.” I wonder if she learned that while house-watching for a vacationing family or as a welcome wagon hostess.

Subscribing to sputterings of Qanon, Donald Trump and outfits like the Proud Boys would doubtless be getting the “full picture.” No bias or propaganda there.

So, go ahead, Louisiana. Keep electing these miscreants.

We deserve the government we get.