POWERLESS PROCLAMATIONS GET ATTENTION, TOO
By David Abrams, Staff Writer

Annapolis Capital, MD
April 5 2006

Macedonia might be independent, but it’s still Greek. The Lewis and
Clark Trail should be expanded. And Maryland should have a Coretta
Scott King Day.

Such are the proclamations sought by lawmakers in Annapolis. With
just five days remaining in this year’s legislative session, the
General Assembly is considering 26 joint resolutions that weigh in
on all kinds of national and international topics spanning thousands
of miles and several decades.

Del. David Boschert, R-Crownsville, who withdrew a proposed resolution
calling for docking the USS Forrestal CVA-59 World Super Aircraft
Carrier in Dundalk as a museum, said the measures are a show of
support – like writing a letter.

“It kind of says, ‘What we think you’re trying to do is right, and
we’re behind you,'” Mr. Boschert said. He withdrew his measure while
boosters of the carrier project look for a suitable site to keep the
1,000-foot-plus vessel.

Fully loaded, the carrier weighs about 80,000 tons, has a nearly
4-acre flight deck and has three 45-ton rudders. City Dock in Annapolis
would probably be a tight squeeze.

All of these resolutions are a way for lawmakers to show they are in
touch with things their constituents hold dear, said Dan

Nataf, director of Anne Arundel Community College’s Center for the
Study of Local Issues.

“They are kind of amusing,” he said when read some of the
resolutions. “Some things seem to be just pandering to a constituency,
but they seem innocuous.”

House Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Annapolis, said some resolutions
are appropriate, but others are a bit questionable. For instance, he
supports a resolution pending this year calling for federal funding
of Chesapeake Bay cleanup, but remembers one in 2001 commemorating
Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide that got a little bit
out of control.

“It was almost hand-to-hand combat at a hearing over a matter we had
no bearing on,” he said.

“It was conducting foreign policy from the State House,” remembered
House Minority Whip Anthony J. O’Donnell, R-Calvert.

Of course, the General Assembly hasn’t cornered the market on issuing
such edicts. City and county councils have been known to weigh in on
matters of national security and war and peace.

But the legislature does have to deal with very serious issues like
Medicaid, taxes, electricity rates and abortion as well.

“The only question is, would they be doing themselves a favor by
concentrating on other things?” Mr. Nataf said.

Senate Republicans withdrew a resolution calling on Congress to
quickly confirm Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., because
he was confirmed before the resolution made it out of committee.

Lawmakers said the resolutions don’t take up much time.

Del. Ted Sophocleus, D-Linthicum, sponsored the resolution saying that
Macedonians are still Greek. The “Republic of Macedonia” declared
independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, and Greece protested its name
because a word intrinsically Greek shouldn’t be used for a foreign
country.

Unfortunately, the international dispute will have to remain
unresolved in Annapolis. The bill died in the House Rules Committee,
and Mr. Sophocleus, who is of Greek extraction, said he’ll be back
next year with the resolution.

The bill making April 27 Coretta Scott King Day passed the Senate
unanimously, and is in the House. It has to pass by Tuesday to go to
the governor’s desk. It honors the widow of the famous civil rights
leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“In her own right, she’s done a lot,” said Sen. John C. Astle,
D-Annapolis.

The resolution supporting expansion of the Lewis and Clark Trail all
the way to the East Coast has also passed the Senate.

The 3,700-mile trail extends from the West Coast through 11 states,
including Oregon, all the way to Hartford, Ill. There are only four
more states to go for the trail to reach the Atlantic.

There is a faint connection between Maryland and the trail. In 1803,
Lewis started out from Washington, D.C. Clark later joined him
in Indiana.

Mr. Nataf was a little baffled by that resolution.

“I don’t even know where to find it,” he said. “Maybe it’s out in
Oregon somewhere.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress