Author: Matthew Stokes (Matthew Stokes)

If we are serious about the various freedoms entangled in this discussion, particularly freedom of speech and the right to bear arms, we have to explore creative ways of dealing with these problems.

If bright lights like Roby and Hurd find that serving as a member of the House is a fruitless endeavor, other young leaders are likely to arrive at the same conclusion.

It is tempting to pass off the whole matter as partisan wrangling, but we should push past that inclination. The question that should haunt us is this:  “how would you react if the other party was found to have engaged in this behavior?”

Admittedly there is a disconnect between the intensity of fandom in our state and much of our day to day existence in a state that often ranks near the bottom of many national rankings. 

Generation X and its millennial siblings are no longer responding to political arguments the way voters once did.  The despair and angst that marks much of Republican rhetoric the last two elections is not resonating with young voters. It seems that what young voters want is something markedly more hopeful and optimistic.

This legislation forces our state’s institutions, from the state board of education down to every elementary school, to reckon with the fact that too many children have managed to move up the ladder without achieving the appropriate level of literacy.