I am officially reaching the old-man stage. When I turn on pop radio, the new “songs” they play to get kids to buy stuff sound like angry, dirty noise. Back to World Café and The Current….
But, like Bernie Sanders, I’m not so geezerly that I can’t see the potential for mobilizing the youth vote this year around crucial political issues. No, not the pot vote, Larry—the fact that the only submitted initiative petition that failed was the medical marijuana petition reinforces my doubts about the mobilizing power of cannabis—but broader issues affecting human rights and South Dakota’s good name.
As evidence, I turn the dial to Hot 104.7, where I find Ben Kuhns pausing from playing the latest engineered Harrison Bergeron clangings to draw his young audience’s attention to the angry, dirty noise from Pierre:
In the 2016 legislative session there have been several bills introduced that are wastes of time, energy and taxpayer money. And just plain wrong. They are hateful legislation that will lead to lawsuits that the citizens will have to pay for. And for what? To prove how hijacked our political process has become? To continue to demonstrate that South Dakota is not a place for young professionals to move to, or stay in? Bike trails are all well and good, but if the state has a reputation of wasting tax money on fool’s errands, and a reputation for hate, it’s going to drive people away [Ben Kuhns, “4 Ways the South Dakota Government is Planing to Waste our Money and Embarrass our State,” Hot1047.com, 2016.02.09].
Kuhns brilliantly links the Legislature’s bullying of transgender kids (listen to Rep. Fred Deutsch’s latest sleazy Newspeak on that topic on yesterday’s Dakota Midday) to Senator David Novstrup’s youth-dissing minimum wage cut:
South Dakota House Bill 1008, would ban transgender kids from using restrooms that match their gender identity. HB 1112 would prevent transgender students from participating in high school athletics in accordance with their gender identity.
The SD legislature has demonstrated in the past that it’s not a fan of SD’s children. They think they’re worth less, and don’t need a quality education. Now they want to force our already overburdened schools to police their pees and poos.
Do we want to continue the state’s brain drain and drive business away? This is how you do it [Kuhns, 2016.02.09].
Kuhns fries House Bill 1107, another right-wing Newspeak trick disguising discrimination as “religious freedom.” He ridicules Senate Bill 83, Senator Monroe’s latest failed attempt to wedge his religion into science classrooms. He throws in Senate Bill 60, Senator Betty Olson’s mortal battle against Daylight Saving Time, which was laughed to death in the Senate but remains alive, incredibly, in House Bill 1233.
Kuhns finishes with what could be the penultimate paragraph of every good Legislative candidate’s stump speech in 2016:
There are real issues that need the focus of our legislators. We must demand that they handle our business, not try to advance the agenda of outside, and out of state, interests [Kuhns, 2016.02.09].
I can’t tell how much attention Kuhns’s spot-on polemics will get among his station’s target demographic. But a man who makes his living figuring out what young people like to hear evidently thinks they’ll respond to a message about how their state Legislature is failing to serve their interests.
Ben Kuhns, we could use more messages like that. Let us know what you hear back… and get ready to emcee the Bernie rallies!
I love the The Current! I wish MPR would broadcast it in SF like they do for News and Classical stations.
Expect Secretary Clinton to expand her views on legal cannabis, Cory. Democrats have exactly zero to lose by securing personal rights.
Democrats have far more to gain by focusing public attention on the failings of their Legislature enumerated by Kuhns.
MPR and South Dakota would both gain by beaming The Current on a 100,000-watt signal out of Luverne.
FM broadcasting is aimed at old people. You want real radio? Start here:
http://www.publicradiofan.com
I’m not convinced these legislators are “pushing out of state” or “outside” agendas. They really truly believe these twisted horrible things. I know some of these people and they actually think this way all on their own. Don’t blame outsiders for the fact that these people are home grown bigots. The biggest concern should be who the hell elected these monsters and why? Do they reflect the people of our state? Everyone talks about how bad the bigotry is in the South, but it’s just the same in South Dakota.
I listened to Deutsch’s interview on PBS yesterday. He basically tied himself in a knot defending his bill. The host asked about situations such as a recent drama competition held in Sioux Falls for high school students that had required many costume changes in a short period of time and the changing areas were co-ed because of limited space. His take was that it shouldn’t be allowed. Look for a new bill on this next year.
I would guess that the students knew the situation ahead of time and probably had on appropriate attire under the costumes. There is probably more exposure at the swimming pool.
Someone tell Kuhns not to get near a shelterbelt with or without a shotgun for his own sake. We’ll see how petty and vindictive wingnuts can get.
@cah: “But a man who makes his living figuring out what young people like to hear …” Bwahahaha. Good one. Broadcast/terrestrial radio is dead among the millennials or whatever name is being ascribed to them this day. Satellite, WiFi streaming and smart phones/iPods killed the radio star.
Well,
I have to say that a lot of the “oddness” from our legislature is the fact that it only meets for about 3 months.
Imagine, asking your boss, “Can I have three months off so I can serve in the legislature”?
This, I think, is why we end up with the oddballs we do. Normal humans can’t afford three months away from their livelihood, leaving those that “get funded” via obscure methods, are independently wealthy, or can live off of little or nothing, or have seasonal business.
I wouldn’t discredit FM radio… I know my kids don’t have ‘fancy’ cars, and don’t have their phones linked up to the sound system, so they do end up listening to radio. I certainly appreciate the time and effort DJ Kuhn’s took to make his statement – both on the radio and on the station’s website. High School is most definitely hard enough, without our elected officials trying to make things more difficult.
Teresa, did Kuhns make comments on this topic on air, too?
Danno, you’re right: the time obligations of the Legislature make it hard for everyone to serve. Only a few folks with flexible work schedules or retirees have a practical opportunity to serve. How would you feel about a National Guard-type Legislative calendar: one weekend a month, plus two weeks in the summer? Would that help recruit more good people to run and serve?
Corey,
That, or the use of the state DDN network could help too, (using the video feeds that are in most of the schools, they can be used for meetings)…
Status quo eliminates over 95% of the “good” people I know that could do a good job.
On the transgender bills the DJ criticized, I see that the committee sent it out for a full debate and vote. One of the questions that will have to be addressed is how to assure that no non-transgender boy or girl claims to be transgender so they can go in the opposite sex bathroom. The bill might have to be amended to provide for:
(a) Roger Hunt, et al, could stand by bathrooms and inspect the child’s genitalia before permitting entry into a bathroom – this could be done cheaply by using experienced inmates from Sioux Falls on work release, such as Ted Klaudt.
(b) If actual genitalia inspection is deemed too intrusive, then the school could just hire someone to stand by the bathroom door and check the birth certificate of each and every student entering the bathroom.
(c) This too could be problematic for kids who forget to bring their birth certificates, or have lost them, but really, really have to go potty. An alternative might be to require all transgender students to wear the infamous German “yellow badge” so everyone can clearly see which children should be discriminated against and bullied when they have to use a bathroom as well as at whatever other times during the school day that are appropriate for bullying and discrimination based on gender identity.
One of these solutions will be needed to keep the non-trans kids from going into the opposite sex bathrooms. Indeed, even Presidential candidate Ted Cruz would seem to agree in principle given his campaign logo TRUS-TED, since the TRUS apparently stands for “transrectal ultrasound.”
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/TRUS