Column:

Mo. Senate should allow laptops in chambers

It is the green way to go.

By Nate Kennedy

Published Feb. 5, 2009

@joliejustus: Looks like we are going to debate laptops on the Senate floor. Laptops are currently against the rules. 4:25 PM Feb 2nd from txt

@joliejustus: Now they are trying to ban my iPhone from the Senate floor. They will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. 4:32 PM Feb 2nd from txt

@nateckennedy: @joliejustus, LIVE FREE OR DIE TWEETIN! 4:53 PM Feb 2nd from txt

@joliejustus: iPhones are safe. Back to the great laptop debate. I'm opposed to laptops, but want to keep updating you with my phone. 5:06 PM Feb 2nd from txt

@nateckennedy: @joliejustus, senator, I am surprised and disappointed by your laptop opinion. We need internet access on the floor and in rural missouri! 5:10 PM Feb 2nd from txt

What you've just read is a series of tweets between Sen. Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, and myself from Monday evening. As you can see, she was tweeting on the Senate floor as she was debating the use of laptops in the chamber.

The laptop debate in the Senate has been very contentious over the last few years (the Missouri House has laptops on every desk in its chamber). Opponents of laptops, like Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, seem to think using a laptop in the chamber will break with tradition. I don't think Nodler is the best authority on Senate tradition considering that he signed on to all five of the "previous question" overrides during the 2007 session, which killed other senators' rights to filibuster -- a very rare move that almost never happens, thus a break with tradition.

Another senator, Chuck Purgason, R-Caulfield, said in the debate on cell phones that he is at a disadvantage because other senators use smart phones whereas he is left to "do battle with his witty... wit."

Well, I think it's high time the deliberative body of the General Assembly stop this regressive debate and catch up with modern technology.

While some Missouri state senators are debating the traditional value of banning laptops, Congress is moving way ahead of them by providing the money in the stimulus bill to expand broadband access to every home in the country to bridge the "digital divide gap." Also, I read in The Guardian that India is about to start producing an inexpensive laptop for the same purpose. It is supposed to cost around 500 rupees or $10.25. Every rural citizen in Missouri and millions of Indians may have access to a laptop and high-speed Internet before the Senate chamber.

Now think of how impossible it would be for an MU student not to have access to a laptop or a computer. They couldn't read anything online or access the electronic reserves or Ellis Library. They would inevitably fail their classes.

Right now the best the senators can do is to print off stacks of paper to bring into the chamber for notes, and it is a huge waste. When I interned in the Missouri Senate I was appalled at the amount of paper wasted during a session. Laptops are also the "green" way to go.

Your state senators are failing you by debating bills without access to the Internet: the beautiful, shiny, super-highway of information. It just makes sense to debate legislation with every possible scrap of knowledge at your disposal. It's good policy making -- it's good government. To me, it's also a common sense, Missourah value.

Nate Kennedy is the chairman of the Young Democrats of Missouri College Federation. He can be reached at nkennedy@themaneater.com.