This isn't the Scott Ogan the Valley elected

Spectrum, by T.L. Whitstine Sr.

While reading Sen. Scott Ogan's letter I thought back to when Mr. Ogan first ran for office and told me the things he was running for. He wanted an open and smaller government, term limits, campaign reform; he wanted people to be able to express themselves, to have a chance to vote on issues that affected them, a government that stays out of their personal life in all things not just what he, Mr. Ogan, personally believed. He didn't believe a senator or representative should be able to change an initiative that had been put on the ballot and passed by the people saying "well the people were too stupid to know what they were voting for so I will have to fix it," i.e., the medical marijuana bill, or that "people are too stupid to vote on this bill so I will not let it go out for vote," i.e., the subsistence bill.

He believed that Congress should be held to a higher standard. That people should really live in the district they are running in. He believed in an open primary, which is how all the Valley Republicans got into office -- these people all ran as regular conservatives which was the only way they could win, not the Right Wing bunch they turned out to be.

Sen. Ogan belittles the progressives for doing their thing, maybe he should look into his own past and what he and all his far right buddies ran on when they first ran, or maybe they have and that's why we have a closed primary now and they tried and succeeded to challenge the voter districts even though they thought they had stacked the board that OK'd the new districts.

Most of all Mr. Ogan wanted a little integrity in our state government. I only know of one group that can vote themselves raises and that's yours, also a government employee. Sen. Ogan said he wants to "Leave the lights on." Maybe he can open the doors so we can see what's going on inside our government, see how it really works in the back rooms where the deals are really put together, how if you don't follow the party line bad things happen to your bills.

In my opinion a true conservative is someone who believes that government should stay out of my bedroom, my closet "gun or other," my doctor's office, let me worship my God, "no matter what I choose to call him."

As an Alaskan I believe our state sessions should be two months every year or three months every other year, if you don't finish your work you get called back "on your nickel," per diem should be good only in Juneau. Any bill submitted has to come to the floor in 10 days for an up/down vote. No senator or representative can vote on a bill unless he or she has read and understands it, no bill can be modified or new bill introduced in the last 48 hours of the session. For those who won any election when 40 percent of the eligible voters stayed home, you don't have a mandate to do anything. If you think so put a box marked "none of the above" on the ballot and see who wins.

If we want to cut the budget, let's start right here. Congress didn't finish their job last year so there should be some type of punishment, maybe holding the last month's pay until the work is finished. Do we pay anybody else before their work is finished? Like I have said before, if Congress is really serious about cutting the budget, let's start with the whole budget and all the money that Alaska gets from every source. Then let's lay it on the table and see what we can cut, not cutting some park budgets and then crying and doing things that would get John Q. Public thrown in jail for when your park gets closed.

When I went to work for ARCO some 27 years ago my supervisor told me there was one unwritten rule we always went by and that was "If you can't eat it up, drink it up, or use it up in one day you don't want it." I really believe all senators and representatives should look at this when doing special projects in their off time for companies that have lobbied them.

T.L. Whitstine Sr. is a Butte resident.