Closing Remarks by Senators Huggins, Dyson and Green
4-13-2008
I listened to the floor session in the Alaska Senate this afternoon as Senator Lyda Green and others congratulated themselves on a good, productive session. If you would like to hear the floor session audio, click on here. The remarks by Dyson, Huggins and Green are toward the end at about 57 minutes into the session.
Senator Fred Dyson(R), Eagle River, made remarks and talked about the lessons he learned as a member of the minority. His speech exhibited grace, wisdom and humility. He then talked about HB364, the parental consent for abortion bill. He quoted Justice Carpenetti’s dissent in the opinion handed down by the Alaska Supreme Court last year. He talked about HB301, the partial birth abortion ban. He described the heinous process of killing a partially born baby in this manner. Dyson ended his remarks by noting that these subjects will come up again and he hopes that the other members of the senate will think deeply on these things.
Shortly afterward, Senator Charlie Huggins (R), Wasilla, spoke at length about his values. He commended Senate President Lyda Green(R), Wasilla, on her values. He said he had not voted on a parental consent for abortion bill or on an abortion bill. (This was actually untrue, as his votes this weekend to not move the bills were votes to kill the bills themselves) Huggins spoke at length about his values. He grew up dirt poor and his dad had values, he himself got values at seven years old and passed them down to his children who now have values. He spoke of the military service he, his father and his children have performed. Then he spoke more directly to the point, so I wrote the balance of his remarks down as best I could. They are as follows:
“The insinuation of any vote that I make on that board about abortion or parental consent is false. There’s chivalry that comes with values. I am angry for someone to insinuate that my values in this hall were violated. Anybody wants to talk to me about values or ethics
and I don’t care what you write on a sheet of paper about your ethics, how many Bibles there are. It’s about ethics, it’s about your values and I’m proud of my values and I have not backed away from those and I have not voted in any way to reflect anything other than those values. And I apologize to you for being emotional but I’m sad today because someone insinuates that by implication. That saddens me and for that I apologize for getting emotional.”
The gavel then went down and Senator Lesil McGuire started to speak but was cut off by Senator Lyda Green who then gave her own brief statement. “I have yet to vote against any sanctity of life issue. I will continue to do that.” Then Lesil McGuire made the motion to adjourn the session and so the 25th legislature ended in the Senate without voting on parental consent, partial birth abortion, and the constitutional amendment on gaming as well as many other good bills.
Now, for my remarks:
It was quite obvious that Senator Huggins and Senator Green were disturbed to think that someone might think they had not voted pro-life. They seem to want to be considered pro-life legislators. That is good. I am glad they do want that. However, pro-life voters are politically savvy people. We recognize lip service for what it is and we expect more from pro-life legislators. Having the conviction that abortion is wrong is only part of the puzzle. Former President Bill Clinton even said that abortion should be rare, safe and legal. That was not enough. If our Alaska state legislators want the votes of pro-life voters, they must have not only the conviction but they must follow it up with action. These Senators will try to tell us they did not vote on HB301 and HB364. But they did! They will tell us that if they had rolled the chair and taken the bills from Senate Judiciary Chair Hollis French there would have been chaos. In fact the Masons Rules the legislature operates under provide for that very motion to stop any committee chair from obstructing the will of the body. Senator Green and Senator Huggins may be pro-life to some degree but their pro-life convictions were feeble in comparison to their conviction that Hollis French should have his way as committee chair. In other words, their allegiance was to liberal Senator Hollis French and to the “working majority” and not to the Republican Party Platform and the values it contains. Deny it though they will, actions speak louder than words.
The six “Republicans” who joined with the Democrats to form the “working majority” are Senators Lyda Green, Charlie Huggins, Lesil McGuire, John Cowdery, Gary Stevens and Bert Stedman. Please let them hear what you think of their performance this session.
Senator Lyda Green 877 465 6601 Senator Bert Stedman 877 463 3873
Senator Gary Stevens 800 821 4925 Senator John Cowdery 888 269 3879
Senator Charlie Huggins 800 862 3878 Senator Lesil McGuire 800 365 2995
Here are the five Republicans you can contact to thank:
Senator Con Bunde 800 892 4843 Senator Gene Therriault 800 860 4797
Senator Thomas Wagoner 800 964 5733 Senator Gary Wilken 907 465 3709
This Senator not only VOTED YES TO MOVE THE BILL, he stood up and made the Motion. Please give special thanks to: Senator Fred Dyson 800 342 2199
I know many of you are as disappointed as I am in the outcome of this session. Do we give up? Never! We roll our sleeves up a little higher, and we dig in a little deeper. There is work to be done! Stay tuned.
Working for the family,
Debbie Joslin
President, Eagle Forum Alaska
posted by Eagle Forum Alaska @ 9:24 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Thank you, Debbie, for this post. My husband and I sent Lyda Green an e-mail last week asking her to move one or both pieces of pro-life legislation and received this response, and I do quote from her e-mail to us, "We are doing everything we can to get at least one of these bills from committee. I very much support them and hope the votes are there in the senate for passage." She had the chance to try to move the bills, she chose not to do so. Almost unbelievable, definitely incredibly sad. I wonder if those who did nothing when they could have done something, like Lyda Green - and who keep saying they are "pro-life" - realize that lives will be lost because of their refusal to act for those without a voice (the unborn) and to protect the families of our state. Shame on these politicians who want the pro-life vote but cost the lives of Alaskan citizens. We hope that pro-life voters remember this session. We will certainly do our part in helping by letting our Right to Life ~ Interior Alaska supporters know of what happened.
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