Every year at the end of the sports season, it is common for teams and leagues to hand out awards to recognize exceptional performance.
Today, marks the end of Mississippi’s fiscal year, but somehow there are no awards to commemorate the moment as we pause to consider the work of our Legislature.
Admittedly, it’s been a losing season for our lawmakers. They’ve wrecked the state budget, stripped agencies of funds needed to provide basic services, passed a law that allows folks to discriminate against LGBT people and added yet another ridiculous gun law.
They didn’t get around to fixing our roads and bridges or removing the embarrassing Confederate imagery from our state flag. There just aren’t enough hours in the day, you know.
So, 2016 was pretty much a dumpster fire, in almost every respect.
Prospects for 2017 don’t look much better, either.
Yet even on losing teams there are those whose actions set them apart and it seems entirely appropriate to recognize Mississippi’s “Public Servant of the Year” for 2016.
In a crowded field of contenders, two men rose about the rest — Jeffrey Guice of Ocean Springs and Karl Oliver of Winona.
Back in March, “Care Less” Karl seemed poised to run away with the title after his memorable response to a constituent who was concerned about the Legislature’s plans to cut taxes even as a budget deficit loomed.
“I could care less,” he answered and, noting that the woman was originally from Illinois, added “there are a rather large number of like-minded citizens in Illinois that would love to see you return.”
This is the sort of statesmanship that does not go unnoticed, of course. Even national media outlets paused to consider the majesty of the moment.
Unfortunately, Oliver was unable to maintain that momentum. He sort of slinked back into obscurity after that, perhaps confident that his one shining moment would secure him enduring fame.
It was a strategic mistake, he must realize, for it allowed Guice to make a late run for glory, which he did in the final week of the fiscal year.
A mother of a child with diabetes wrote to all of the state’s legislators asking for their help with a problem that had emerged with Medicaid coverage of her child’s medical supplies, without which her little girl could not survive.
She received just three responses, but Guice’s response was a golden moment in the art of compassion.
When Guice saw the word, “Medicaid,” he didn’t need to know anything else.
“I am sorry for your problem,” he wrote. “Have you thought about buying the supplies with money that you earn?”
As it turns out, the woman’s husband, who also suffers from diabetes, works two jobs to support his family and even then, the costs of medical supplies threatened to bankrupt them without some help in navigating in program that provides the supplies Medicaid covers.
In other words, she was a typical deadbeat Medicaid Moocher.
Guice’s graceful response soon reverberated throughout the state. Initially, he refused to comment, saying that he “doesn’t do interviews,” which is another way of saying “as a public official paid by state tax dollars I see no reason to be accountable to the public for what I say and do.”
Later, finally, he apologized, indirectly, to the woman for his response, calling it a “knee-jerk” reaction. Anatomy aside, he was half-right in that explanation.
It’s not every day you get to call a mom with a sick child a welfare queen, of course. Credit Guice. He didn’t miss that opportunity when it came his way.
With that singular achievement, Guice’s memorable moment of humanity easily wins him the title of Mississippi’s “Public Servant of the Year.”
Karl Oliver, meanwhile, could probably care less.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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