HURON — Children are certainly important, they deserve a good education and they need to feel loved and appreciated, but Rep. Lana Greenfield, R-Doland, said they shouldn’t be pawns used by “spin doctors” in the Legislature.
Efforts to require mandatory vaccinations for meningitis, to test welfare recipients for drugs and to legalize medical marijuana have all come through the use of buzz words like protecting the children, she said.
“The concept itself is a form of propaganda,” Greenfield said at the Beadle County Republican Women luncheon on Monday. “And it’s designed to have you think in a certain manner. They know all of the political buzz words to get people on their side.”
Proponents of medical marijuana told Greenfield and other members of the House Health and Human Services Committee that marijuana was put on Earth by God for people to use.
“We all know that that would have been yet another step in the door,” she said. “Is that what they really wanted? No. Medical marijuana would be a stepping stone for legalized recreational marijuana. That’s what they wanted.
“And so, again, we let the children down by not passing the medical marijuana,” she said.
Committee members also heard testimony while considering a bill requiring mandatory vaccinations for meningitis in the aftermath of the death of a college student  in Mitchell. A former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention representative testified a bill was unnecessary because there had been only three meningitis deaths involving college-age students in South Dakota since 2000.
A child who has suffered from the disease since shortly after birth was brought before the committee by the parents who presented emotional testimony, she said.
A bill to mandate that all children entering middle school must receive vaccinations passed out of committee and was approved on the House floor. Greenfield said legislators received a flood of emails imploring them to protect the children.
She voted no, saying there have been only a few cases and the parents should decide if their children should be immunized.
Health and Human Services Committee members also considered a bill calling for drug testing of people on welfare. The prime sponsor was criticized for taking food out of the mouths of children, Greenfield said. The sponsor amended the bill to call for random testing of 2 percent of the recipients of food stamps.

“The spinners are out there and the people who want things defeated or pushed through, they will get the other people on board,” she said.
“That bill went down in flames for the sake of the children,” she said. “I tried to point out to them the children weren’t getting the food anyway.” Many on welfare will sell the food for drugs, she said.
Grocery store checkout aisles frequently have containers asking for donations for children for various reasons.
“We have to understand what is right and what is good,” Greenfield said. “I’m not advocating never giving anything to anyone. But I’m saying who is the driving force behind some of these issues?”
As a retired teacher who spent 37 years in the classroom, she said the bill to raise the sales tax by half a penny was another emotional one for her.
She said the argument in favor of the bill was that teacher pay needed to be raised or children wouldn’t have anyone to educate them because the teachers would go out of state.
After hours of study, she said she learned that every state in the union was short of teachers in math, science, special education and English, just like South Dakota.
States offering a base salary of $60,000 couldn’t even get teachers, she said.
The tax increase passed, but not all districts qualify for it, Greenfield said. “Our small schools are suffering because they’re not getting the money,” she said.
Farmers are taking a hit by paying the extra half penny sales tax for big machinery, she said.
Greenfield said she was heavily criticized for voting against education.
Serving in the Legislature is a good education in itself, she said.
“We never quit learning. But we have to decipher what’s good and right for the people of this state of South Dakota,” she said. “We have to decide who’s driving that vehicle and who’s riding along and where’s it going?”
She said she fears that some of the smaller schools in the state are going to close.
Legislators must not only do a lot of listening, they have to reason things out, she said.
“I think that the children are important,” Greenfield said. “I think that the children need a good education. The children in some cases need vaccinations. The children do have medical needs.”
But she said they also need to go to church, be prayer for, cared for and feel they are loved and appreciated.
“And maybe we could get a lot farther with using children in that respect to show them God’s love and to show that there is a higher power above and these are the things that we should be looking for,” Greenfield said.
“When we’re talking about the children, rather than having it be a money gimmick for big pharma or the big industry,” she said.    

PHOTO BY ROGER LARSEN/PLAINSMAN
Rep. Lana Greenfield, R-Doland, speaks at the Republican Women luncheon Monday.