Legislature working quietly, but still at work

LINCOLN -- This year's legislative session has been so quiet that if it weren't for the little bit of racket over tens of millions of wasted child welfare dollars, and how to stem the flow, you'd hardly know the gang of 49 had been around.

But they have been working their will -- moreover, the will of others -- in ways big and small.

Some of the small ones traditionally have big downstream consequences that aren't necessarily intended.

Legislators gave timorous, poltroonish final approval to a meaningless proposal that would give Nebraskans the constitutional "right" to hunt, to fish and to harvest wildlife.

The view from here: People, this is trouble looking for a place to happen and if allowed to, it will find it. The fear is that the trouble is going to happen in a stubble field on a Sand Hills back-road, or by a farm pond in southwest Nebraska, or on someone's 20-or-so acres in an urban county.

If the amendment is enacted, countless thousands of people (the kind who think STOP signs are optional) are going to assume, and tell other people, that the constitution gives them "the constitutional right to hunt," period.

They are going to assume trespassing is a thing of the past when it comes to fence-jumpin' and opening gates and just parking on the side of the road and wandering onto someone's property.

The worst case brings Joe, the hunter/beer drinker, into contact with Joe the landowner, each of whom is 1) annoyed and 2) sure that the almighty constitution is on his side. One of them, at least, has a firearm at his side. Bad business.

And all this over some words that are absolutely meaningless. No right is defined. Nothing is clarified.

My photographs of hunting and fishing trips, and those of friends, are prominent in our home, not limited to a man-cave wall. I am a 100 percent pro-hunting, pro-fishing, take mom and the kids, go ahead and fib about the one that got away, kind of guy. And I wish my fellows only the best. May they always cast far, and aim true.

Voter photo-ID dead in Nebraska

You won't need a government-approved ID with your picture on it to vote in Nebraska.

The proposal by Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont died when it fell three votes short of the 33 needed to stop a filibuster.

Opponents say such schemes serve to make it difficult for the poor, the elderly and minorities to vote.

Janssen, a Republican, complained that most of the Legislature's registered Democrats opposed the bill. That's been the situation around the country.