As a teacher we called it \u201csenior-itis\u201d, the \u201cdisease\u201d that affects the graduating class sometime during their final year of school.\u00a0\u00a0They\u00a0\u00a0are\u201cdone\u201d:\u00a0\u00a0with school, with parents, with being \u201ckids\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0They already moved on: to college, work, the military; whatever was coming next.\u00a0\u00a0As a teacher and a spring sports coach, it was always my challenge \u2013 how to get them through that last assignment, term paper, or test; and how could I keep them motivated on the track?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The one thing you could count on from them was honesty. They just didn\u2019t give a damn. And in my last year as a school district employee, I could completely relate. You think thirteen years of school is long, try thirty-five and a half years in education. I did my job \u2013 but I had little tolerance for bureaucratic nonsense. I\u2019m sure the District Office sighed with relief when I finally handed in my keys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ohio\u2019s Governor Mike DeWine had a long and distinguished career.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s been \u2013 wait for it \u2013 county prosecutor, state Senator, US Congressman, Lieutenant Governor, US Senator, Ohio Attorney General, and, at seventy-two years of age, the Governor of Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s seventy-six now, term-limited into retirement at the end of 2024.\u00a0\u00a0There are no more statewide campaigns for Mike DeWine;\u00a0\u00a0talk about senioritis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike DeWine has always been an old fashioned, Senator Bob Taft of the 1950\u2019s, conservative Republican.\u00a0He\u2019s never been a MAGA guy. But he does represent the conservatives near his rural home in Cedarville, Ohio: the fundamental Christians of Cedarville College, the Roman Catholics of his youth,\u00a0\u00a0and the great mass of Ohio’s farmers\u2019 vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The big test of his first term in office was Covid.\u00a0\u00a0DeWine did what the national Center for Disease Control and his own Ohio Health Department said.\u00a0\u00a0He closed down the state, mandated masks, and did everything he could to stop the spread of the virus.\u00a0\u00a0That worked \u2013 until the more \u201cMAGA\u201d majority of the state legislature threatened to remove his health emergency authority.\u00a0\u00a0DeWine pushed as far as he could, then he let his Health Director, Amy Acton, resign to take the fall.\u00a0\u00a0He re-opened the state, and removed many of the emergency provisions.\u00a0\u00a0But he maintained much of his authority to act in a future emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure DeWine signed off on the First Energy deal, using billions of Ohio tax dollars to back their old nuclear reactors. The Republican Speaker of the House, Larry Householder, is serving twenty years in Federal Prison for taking a sixty million dollar bribe to get the \u201cdeal\u201d done, but the investigation ended with him. And DeWine was willing to fabricate and mis-represent the Issue One Amendment that passed by 57%, allowing abortion rights in the state. DeWine is a true-believer, a religious Right-to-Lifer. Even now he\u2019s trying to find ways to dial the Issue One Amendment \u201cback\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So there was little expectation that DeWine would veto the latest MAGA legislation. House Bill 68, the \u201cSave Adolescents From Experimentation\u201d Act. It would ban medical treatment for trans-gendered minors, including drug and surgical interventions (though surgical interventions aren\u2019t done in Ohio already).\u00a0\u00a0That was also \u201cpaired\u201d with a bill to ban transgendered athletes from competing in school sports.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Governor gave an interview with WCMH news anchor Colleen Marshall last week. Marshall is known for asking tough questions in a nice way, and not allowing politicians to dodge specific answers. So when Marshall asked about whether DeWine would sign the \u201cSAFE\u201d Act, she wouldn\u2019t allow him to bluff through the response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And DeWine seemed very sincere. He said he talked to the parents of transgendered kids, and to those who wanted medication controlled. He also talked to the doctors who treat transgendered issues at Nationwide Children\u2019s Hospital here in Columbus. In fact, DeWine seemed like a man trying to make a reasoned decision based on the needs of those few kids (3300 under eighteen treated in Ohio in the past ten years). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Mike DeWine generally follows the \u201cparty line\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The national line is that LGBTQ is a\u00a0\u201cDemocrat\u201d thing.\u00a0\u00a0Also, there\u2019s a potential super-majority that could override the Governor\u2019s veto.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And there are other issues in Ohio where the Governor and the legislature will conflict.\u00a0\u00a0Is it really possible the DeWine would pick this fight, and veto the \u201cSAFE\u201d Act, because it\u2019s the right thing to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It must be senioritis, \u201cshort time\u201d; that feeling of liberation that comes from not having to run for office anymore. Friday Mike DeWine vetoed the legislature\u2019s attempt to further the MAGA agenda. He rejected the \u201cSAFE\u201d Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The transgendered kids, one of the most vulnerable groups in the state, aren\u2019t out of the woods yet.\u00a0\u00a0The State Legislature may well override his veto, and the transgendered kids might still be faced with having to go out of state to get their care.\u00a0\u00a0But, just like the beginning of Covid; the former prosecutor, Senator, Representative, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General stepped away from politics for a moment.\u00a0\u00a0He did the right thing for kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"