Nobody said life was perfect - not by a long shot
Commentary By PAT MURPHY
Odd, isn’t it, how the Idaho state Legislature again was all thumbs
this year and again nixed a proposal to license contractors.
I say odd because just about everyone else with a trade in Idaho who even
breathes must be licensed by the state—physicians, accountants, architects,
morticians, social workers, hearing aid dealers, barbers and cosmetologists. Even
outfitters and guides have to have a license (for a complete listing, see Occupational
Licenses Bureau on page 80 of the Boise telephone directory).
Even my haircutter, Lisa Eckley of Ketchum, and others in her line are
required to take 2,000 hours of instruction (equivalent to 50 weeks) and pass an all-day
state exam before they hang out their shingles.
And here’s how tough the state is on haircutters: because Lisa
slipped up and forgot to display her license properly, a state inspector closed down her
shop for an entire day.
Maybe there’s some truth in what wags around town say—that
anyone can become a contractor with a tool belt, a pickup truck, a dog and a boom box.
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For sappy excuses, nothing tops the nonsense that professional sports
teams trot out when players are arrested for drugs, a shooting or knifing, beating a
spouse or girlfriend or brawling in after-hours bars.
Pro athletes, so goes the whine, are merely unhappy examples of society as
a whole.
Oh? The society-as-a-whole most of us live in is not made up of overpaid
multi-millionaire celebrities who work at their trade only a few months each year and make
headlines in killings, brawling in bars, beating women, using hard drugs.
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Is this a government solution looking for a problem?
Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and state legislators have created the new post of
"pornography czar"—a prosecutor to track down porn. And this in a state
where more than 70 percent of the population belongs to the Mormon Church, whose members
enforce rigid moral codes in their homes.
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Some of us remember the era when airline passengers behaved themselves,
never over-imbibed on booze and were even encouraged by airlines to wander up to the
flight deck to visit with pilots.
Now airlines are reporting increased attacks on flight crews, more
passengers are intoxicated and pilots are asking for stronger flight deck doors to prevent
intrusion by drunk passengers.
No surprise. Most every air terminal concourse includes a bar where
passengers can tank up, then order more booze once aboard their flights. Airlines rarely
deny passengers booze in-flight because upsetting a passenger with a couple belts is
asking for trouble; and in-flight alcoholic beverages are a major source of revenue for
airlines.
If airlines won’t ban in-flight booze as they’ve banned smoking,
then they should try this: passengers causing dangerous in-flight commotion should be put
on a master airline list and banished from air travel for a year, and made to take buses
or trains—after they’re released from prison.
Pat Murphy is the retired publisher of the
Arizona Republic and a former radio commentator.
