Karen Elias

Lock Haven

Clinton County has made the national news — and for all the wrong reasons.

Several of our major news outlets, as well as media sources from as far away as Alaska, have published articles over the past several days about the incident that occurred on the legislative floor of the PA House this past Wednesday.

Two former police officers were invited to the House to be honored for their defense of the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots. Though special guests are routinely invited by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to be recognized for their accomplishments, Republicans in the room on Wednesday turned this event from what should have been a solemn expression of gratitude into an embarrassing display of childish, mean-spirited hostility.

Our own representative, Stephanie Borowicz, was among the loudest, rudest and most disrespectful of this bunch. In the midst of what has been described as “an appalling cacophony of boos and hisses,” she threw a “complete tantrum.” Several sources describe her as “screaming and yelling,” claiming the riots never happened and hurling insults at the officers, including calling them “traitors” (adn.com)/(msn.com).

People around her tried to intervene and told her to be quiet. “It really upset me pretty hard,” said Tarah Probst, a Representative from Monroe County, who served on a police commission for seven years.

Isn’t it time we begin to wonder how much the ethos of the Republicans, no matter how loudly they scream, is merely empty rhetoric, a knee-jerk reaction to the culture-war issue of the day? It wasn’t so long ago that flags appeared on our porches sporting a thin blue line, designed to signify support “for police officers… in the mission of law and order.”

Now, given the events of Wednesday, we have to wonder whether those flags were meant merely as an in-your-face response to Black Lives Matter’s call to reform the police. And whether the meaning of “law and order” is allowed to shift, for Republicans, with the political winds.

Isn’t it also time we begin to wonder whether Rep. Borowicz is being driven by an ideology that fails to serve her constituents? In spite of the fact that here in Clinton County 13.2% of residents are living below the poverty line, she voted No on a recent bill (HB 851) to make menstrual products available to our students for free. Her justification? That this bill “was just another step by the governor and Democrats to have the government provide everything for you, which leads to communism.”

Clearly, it’s time to wonder how much longer our region cares to tolerate a Representative who throws appalling tantrums on the House floor and votes against the best interests of her constituents.

Clinton County made the national news. For shame. Our collective face should be a thoroughly embarrassed, and angry, red.