After reading through several articles and getting madder or depressed or being reduced to only thinking of one or two expletives to write about any of them, I had to step back and go have a beer. As Homer says, “Ummmmmm….. Beeeeeeeeeeer” But not just any beer but a fine craft brewed beer from an independent brewer. Much more flavorful and deep than mass market beers out there. Each brewer adds something of themselves to the process.
Back to being disgusted with the legislatures (Yes the federal and state) and thinking that it’s ALL rigged and there is no way to stop bills or move other bills ahead based on public opinion. Then something happens that makes me set back and think, well maybe it’s not ALL rigged. One was an OSHA proposed regulation that would have had an effect on availability of ammunition and reloading supplies. There was a public comment period in which both my husband and I sent in one of those pre-written letters to OSHA. I really did not think that anything would come of it but because of the comments sent in, the regulation was amended. One of the first times in recent memory that something like that had actually worked out the way that I wanted it too.
Now I can chalk up another bill that made it out of committee in the Texas House. This is one that is near and dear to my heart , HB 2094 that would allow small brewers to sell beer on premises. For some small breweries such as Live Oak this means if I wanted to me could go to the brewery directly and purchase some very fine pale ale or HefeWeizen or maybe even Big Bark.
This bill that had been introduced the first time in 2007 died in committee and this year’s version seemed doomed to meet the same fate. However last Thursday things started looking up. The Houston Chronicle ran a story on it last Friday and had been calling around to committee members to see how they would vote. So a bill that had been doomed because of, most likely, back room power brokers had new legs. By shedding the light of day on the bill with people going on record about it, this started this bills own ‘call in’ to let your legislators know how you feel about it. The bill made it out of committee today. I am kind of hopeful it will make it to the floor this session.
It’s not a big deal bill, nothing really earth changing but it reminds me that the system does work. This shows however that if you just set back and grouse about whatever the legislature did or did not do and you did not say anything thing about it to them, you have no room to complain. Also it shows that newspapers still can be powerful and most of all that people can get around a cause and bring it before our elected officials to effect change. But you have to speak up!
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