To the people: initiative roundup

Citizen initiatives, three of which are just about qualified for our fall ballot, are the essence of democracy because they allow regular people to make laws on issues that a legislature wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole (or poll).

A bunch of good stuff has passed by initiative, like requiring campaign finance disclosure, requiring trigger locks on guns, repealing Blue laws, raising the minimun wage, or even, in Oregon, allowing women to vote before the rest of the nation.

Washington is one of 14 states to give people the right to bypass the represenative democracy of the legislature and take it straight to the people.

This year, after a bunch of whining and wrangling, we expect to see three hotly contested ballot measures:

I-985: Chief Initiativist Tim Eyman's latest is a hodge-podge of directives that are supposed to make traffic better but will probably just cause more road rage and may still result in the repossession of the Eyman abode.

I-1000: Death with dignity initiative brings old and young together to argue that the church and the government don't get to tell them what to do or how to die.

I-1029: Union provides better training for the people who come into your home to take care of the old people who haven't yet heard about I-1000.

Why do these issues call for a direct vote of the people? Well, I-1029 actually calls for a vote of the legislature, but we're pretty sure they didn't mean that. For 1029, unions rarely get what they want from legislatures (despite the ongoing negotiations) and people are sympathetic to the people who take care of the people that they don't want to take care of (mom, meet your new caregiver). For 1000, legislatures cannot abide controversy, nor matters of life and death, and their collective heads might explode were they forced to speak rationally about a controversial right to die. For 985, Eyman just needs something to do, being an initiative pusher is his job and nary a year will pass without him propogating some sort of edict (after all, what else would he do with that neverending supply of costumes).

We see from the thousands of valid signatures on each petition that enough of the public finds these issues interesting or important enough to call for a vote.

May the best idea win.