Go on, take the money and run

As already noted by Wordbones, 9A delegates Bates and Miller have opted not to give back a portion of their state pay in a show of solidarity with state employees who will go without pay for as many as 10 days this year. However, I don’t blame the delegates one bit for not giving back any portion of their salary.

For as many criticisms as I may have of these two delegates, being fiscally irresponsible is not of those criticisms. Therefore, the budget mess is not of their doing (Miller voted against the budget, not sure about Bates), and they only thing they have an obligation to do is to say “I told you so.” Of course, the state employees who are bearing the brunt of these cut backs had nothing to do with the state budget mess either, but those rank and file workers are viewed as little more than collateral damage by the politicians who created this mess. Whatever Bates and Miller may do with the money that they earned, I am sure it will be much better spent that if they gave it back to the state government.

Bates and Miller will hear some criticism about whether or not they did the right thing. But that criticism is just talk by some random know-it-alls who are not walking in the shoes of Bates and Miller. And yet, Bates and Miller- who are themselves random know-it-alls who are not walking in the shoes of anyone else- have no problem denying the rights of homosexuals to marry or engage in civil unions. So while I do not begrudge Bates or Miller for wanting to keep money that they rightfully earned, it seems strange that they would work to deny others the right to pursue their own brand of doing what is right. Maybe Bates and Miller should mind their own business.

Just my two pesos.